TrekAmerica Tours Across USA Reviews | The Trailblazer by Louise

Louise Fegan, Northern Ireland

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Hi, I'm not long back from doing the Trailblazer tour around the States. I had an absolute amazing time. I would love to go back and do more tours with TrekAmerica and maybe trek Australia next time.

Before I started the trek I really didn't know what to expect. I was worried about the camping and meeting new people, wondering if the group would mix well. But after the first few hours I was completely at ease and happy that I had chosen to do this adventure.

Our trek leader J (Joseph) Gryniewicz was amazing. He brought so much energy and enthusiasm to the group and made the trip so much fun. There was never a dull moment with J. Even on those long drive days when everyone was exhausted and grouchy, J would always do something to lift the spirit of the group. For example, in Panama Beach he got us to make our own t-shirts and we had our own olympics, we went go karting and played mini-golf etc. On a long drive day in Utah, J stopped the van at Goblin Valley and decided to play hide and seek with the group. There was one place that he took us to which I never heard of. Its called Dead Horse Point in Utah. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen, we had dinner there while watching the sunset, was amazing. The trip would not have been as fun and memorable without him! You guys should give him a big pay rise! ;)

I have a few favourite places of the trip, Vegas was incredible, Monument Valley, stunning!, New Orleans, what a great city! The Florida Keys was brilliant, parasailing, sunset cruise and Sloppy Joes on one amazing day. My favourite day of the trip. Our campsite in Key West was so stunning, the nicest campsite I saw on the tour. Our tour leader also took us to Pensecola, Florida where we went jet skiing and stayed at his friends house and had a house party, this was also one of my favourite days, was excellent! We also had another random stop at a place called Luckenbach in Texas. It was a small village in the middle of nowhere, we stayed at the Armadillo Farm and went to Waylon Jennings' birthday party in this barn. We got to meet the country singer Chris Rock at the honkytonk. It was such a great stop and I definitely didn't expect to have such a great time there, but it was one of the highlights of the trip.

Colorado was so beautiful, we even saw a bear at our campsite in Telluride and got it all on camera! Unfortunately I had an accident while mountain biking in the Rockies and broke a bone in my foot, although I didn't let it spoil my trip, I just had to miss out on all the hiking which I really didn't mind. I threw the crutches away after a few days and got on with it.

It was unfortunate that this trip was split into two parts as I would of liked to have the same group and same tour leader for the whole 9 weeks. However only 5 of us were doing the Trailblazer and we had to join a new group in LA. The second half of the trip was good, but I think it would of been better if we didn't have to change. I do have some highlights however. White water rafting in Golden, Canada was unbelievable, I will definitely have to do that again. Lake Moraine, Lake Louise and Banff were absolutely stunning. I would love to do a Canadian trip! Glacier and Yellowstone were really nice to see, I didn't expect them to be so beautiful. We also got to see Sturgis biker rally in Deadwood, South Dakota, was pretty cool seeing all the streets streaming with bikers!

Overall, I had an amazing trip. I'm already trying to talk other people into doing a trip with TrekAmerica. I will definitely be doing a few more!

Thanks for the best summer ever.

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