We were both so glad to be leaving Las Vegas. Especially, after I got lost and we ended up driving through the sad Downtown with its delapidated, cheesy chapels, sleazy sex shops and queues of hopefuls (or hopeless) outside the pawn shops. There's definitely a dark side to the city of lights.

We were lucky enough to snag one of the last remaining campsites at the National Park - it was definitely a full house that night! First things first - go to the Visitor's Centre to get some information on walks and ranger-led tours (which we booked for the following day). Because the park is so popular, they have set up a great shuttle system to ferry the millions of visitors through the small road into the park. If it weren't for this, there'd be a permanent traffic jam and cars would be gridlocked for hours.

We set up our tent in the late afternoon, heated up some soup, put our feet up and watched the towering mountains around us change from pink to orange to red and then a dusky grey. I felt very very small. I had another brilliant idea - sleep without the tent cover in order to see the stars at night and to provide some relief from the relentless heat as the breeze was really warm. Well, the hot desert wind howled all night long and it just meant that I could see the trees swaying above our heads through the mosquito netting and hear them creaking and cracking. Branch-falling-on-tent paranoia last night replaced the usual "bearanoia" I've had in most of the park campsites.