Bryce Canyon - Wave Canyon - Durango - Silverton - Ouray - Telluride - Arches National Park - Monument Valley - Grand Canyon - Las Vegas (21 - 30 Oct 2022)

22 Oct 2022 (Sat) Singapore - SFO - Las Vegas - Hurricane

I was quite lucky, it was totally quiet in the UA flight to SFO, with no wailing babies. I was assigned an aisle seat on the longer segment from SIN - SFO, followed by middle seat on the short stretch from SFO to LAS. Basic Economy ticket does not allow seat selection, but you can request for seat change at the gate if there is availability.

Stewardess gave out pretzels for snacks before lunch. Totally didn't expect to see bananas in the galley in the middle of flight. The turkey sandwich snack was not bad, I helped myself with extra servings. One thing good about UA flights, plenty of movies and TV shows and plenty of food to get by.

We reached SFO earlier than scheduled. Even though SFO to LAS was a domestic flight, I was not supposed to bring water in my bottles into the terminal. The TSA agent escorted me out of the terminal and I needed to re-enter the terminal and redo the security check again.

The flight to LAS was full. I was seated next to a very friendly lady Mel, who was going to LAS with her friends. She flew to India via Singapore many years ago. She was surprised to learn that I planned to go Zion National Park today, as she herself hasn't been to Zion before. I told her I like to take photos, and she was so kind she let me took photos from her window, since I was on the middle seat. There was some turbulence due to the high wind.

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The car rental shuttle bus queue was long in LAS, unsheltered. Once we got on the shuttle bus, the bus took another 15 minutes before we reached the car rental office. There was again a long queue at the Avis counter and the counter staff tried to slip in all insurances if you didn't check the online contract before you signed them.

The rental car was dusty as LAS was in a sandy desert. It was a very windy day and the tumbleweeds were seen uprooted and tumbled across the highway. There were road constructions on the highway, and the diversion signs were bowled over by the strong wind. Some of these road signs and road barriers became hazards themselves on the highways and some cars nearly knocked into them when they got blown to the middle of the lanes.

The rental car front sensor was quite sensitive. It slowed down the car whenever the car travelled across the spikes in the carpark. I was driving out of the car park too fast and didn't look out for incoming traffic of cars, and nearly knocked into an incoming car.

Once I entered Utah, the time zone was earlier than Nevada by 1 hour. When I reached Hurricane, it was already 5pm, and the sky was getting dark and the rain started to fall. I quickly did the check in at the motel I booked, and went to do some shopping at the nearby Walmart Supercentre in Hurricane. Dinner was bought from Wendy's just next to the motel as the Thai Food outlet got queue and the price was quite expensive.

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Video 1: Hurricane


After so many hours of flying and driving, I could finally have a good night sleep.



23 Oct 2022 (Sun) Hurricane - Bryce Canyon - Kanab

There was a mountain in front of the hotel. The mountain was beautiful in the morning sunlight, a shame that I had no chance to take picture of the mountain, as I was driving towards Zion National Park. There was a tunnel linking Zion to Bryce Canyon, and I saw big horn sheep on the slope after the tunnel. It was white everywhere and it was just one night of snow. I stopped a few times to take photos of the scenery en-route.

P3. Bighorn sheep were re-introduced to Zion National Park in the 1970's. There is plenty of evidence that the desert bighorn sheep inhabited this area anciently but for many reasons the species did not survive. Just 12 bighorn sheep were brought into the park and now their numbers range over 150.

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Video 2: Snowy wonderland


I reached Red Canyon at around 11am, before reaching Bryce canyon. The red arches across the road was beautifully adorned with snow. From there, it was a short drive to the visitor's centre in Bryce Canyon.

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From the visitor centre in Bryce Canyon, I took the shuttle bus to the various lookout points. From the bus, I saw a car landed in a snowy ditch and had to be rescued by the ranger's tow vehicle.

The shuttle bus driver told us that 23rd October happened to be the last day the shuttle bus operated. The driver chatted with us asked us where we came from and introduced different points of interests. When I told the driver I was from Singapore, he was in total disbelief.

The strong wind from yesterday persisted through today and the wind chill lowered the temperature further. The icy trails to the lookout points were very slippery and I fell a few times. A very friendly visitor from Ohio, Dennis, helped me by locking arms with me when heading down, which was really helpful. Dennis had been to Singapore before. He was taking part in geocaching activity with his friend in Bryce. According to him, he has to visit different places of interests to fill in the information required online, after visiting the locations. I was quite intrigued by his description of the activity.

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P37. The word “hoodoo” means to bewitch, which is what Bryce Canyon's rock formations surely do. The hoodoos we are talking about are tall skinny shafts of rock that protrude from the bottom of arid basins.

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Video 3: Bryce Canyon


Video 4: Bryce Canyon


The toilet at the visitor's centre was closed for 45 mins for disinfecting (a precaution to prevent spread of covid) and the one at Red Canyon was already closed for the day. On the return way to Kanab, most of the snows I saw in the morning has already gone and the colours of the scenery were now back to green, or yellow.

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Reached Dreamland Safaris (the tour company) in Kanab around 5pm, they were still opened. I managed to book a tour for North Coyote Butte with them for the next day. After that I walked over to the Mexican restaurant and took a look, it was full. McDonalds had a drive-thru, and no dine in. I noticed many coins on the driveway near the window of food collection, must be due to customers dropping their coins when making payment.

Dinner from supermarket was cheap. Many shops and restaurants were not opened as it is Sunday that day. (Utah is Mormon's area).

The sunset colours were amazing, as seen from the motel. The lady receptionist in the motel was very accommodating, she allowed me to change room when I requested for a quieter room.

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24 Oct 2022 (Mon) Kanab - North Coyote Butte (The Wave) - Toads' Nail - Lake Powell - Cortez

Unlike the motel I stayed in Hurricane, breakfasts were provided by Day Inn, and it started at 7am.

Today is the day. I have bid for a permit for North Coyote Butte back in June and got awarded one coveted permit. That was the reason this trip happened.

The permits to North Coyote Butte were by lottery basis and the numbers of advance permits granted each day was limited in number.

Tour guide Robert greeted us in shorts and t shirt, and slippers. He was a Texan geology graduate, worked in oil and gas industry before. He also worked as a guide in Alaska for a few years, he did fly fishing with his clients.

Dave and Beebe were from Philadelphia, and they booked this tour as well. Without the two of them, I would not have been able to engage a guide, as the cost for a single participant was quite expensive.

Robert took the 3 of us to North Coyote Butte on a Chevy. The entrance to Wave Canyon was 70 miles from Kanab (Utah), and approximately the same distance from Page (Arizona). There were tour companies that organised guided tours to North Coyote Butte from Page as well, other than those that based in Kanab.

The unpaved road to the Wirepass trail head was 8.3 miles and it was best traversed using a vehicle with high clearance, as the unpaved road on red clay could be quite slippery, especially after wet weather. The vehicle will also need to cross some parts with stream running across. With my driving skills and also the low clearance of rental car, I highly doubted I could made it to the trail head car park.

Dave and Robert both do climbing so they had good discussion on the climbing scenes in Kanab area.

It was a cooling sunny day to the Wave. According to Robert, it was not unusual to spot hikers who didn't bring enough water to the Wave during the summer months and ended up needed a rescue out of the area. He first checked that we each have at least 1.5 litre of water before we started hiking on the trail.

The trail markers were not that obvious, so a guide was a good idea. There was unpaved road for the rangers to drive in and out of the park. Somehow Beebe had 4 extra unused permits that day, so I could have tagged along with them without a permit on my own. We needed to display one on the car dashboard, and at the back of our backpack.

Not long into the trail, Robert drew a line using his feet and told us that was the boundary between Arizona and Utah. A state where drug is allowed and another where drug consumption is illegal.

The few of us were all fast hikers so we ended up at the Wave ahead of time. It wasn't a difficult to hike on the trail. There was a fencing that protect the area, with a small door that we had to pass through.

Our first stop was Boobie Hills. From there, we could see the teepees, near or far. Not long after, we arrived at the Wave. We took many photos there. There was a puddle of water for the reflection shot.

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Video 5: The Wave


Video 6: The Wave


Lunch was at a point near the Wave. Bebee made very good beef and pork jerky. She was a very good cook. Robert told us that the guides used to make their own sandwiches for clients but now they just ordered from the sandwich shops a day ahead through Dreamland Safaris.

Robert took out the Pringles for us as snacks. I lined the bottles up on the ledge and took photos.

Robert decided to introduce us another way to return to the trailhead. We went down by river way. Robert also demonstrated the technique to survive in quick sand.

On our way out, a volunteer ranger came after us to check our permits. I was quite surprised at the pace he ran down to reach us.

Upon returning to Kanab, Dave asked Robert how was Chevy performing on the roads. Robert told us that Chevy had been giving so much problems that they now have a full-time mechanic on standby just to service the Chevy that they have.

During the drive, Beebe asked Dave to remind her to buy lottery later in town. That's when Robert reminded them that there was no lottery selling in Utah. That was the start of the conversations on Utah, Mormons, LDS, FLDS, differences between LDS and LSD bla bla bla. Too sensitive to write here, so maybe I will tell you more when we meet.

Robert also shared that the land prices in Kanab had gone up in the past 5 years. Dave said that the institutional buyers from California could be the ones that drove up the land price, they bought lands to build motels etc.

I bid the two farewells at Kanab and went on with my drive today. I went to Toadstool Hoodoos on recommendation by Dave and Beebe.

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After the visit to Toadstool Hoodoos, I drove to Cortez Colorado for the night. On the way I passed by the dam near Lake Powell.

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The sky at sunset was pretty vanilla in colour. I was tempted to stop at the scenic lookout of Navajo Mountain but didn't do it in the end cos petrol was running low, so I was eager to look for petrol kiosk. The petrol prices in Page was expensive, I didn't fill up there. My petrol tank was down to less than a quarter when I reached Kayenta.

After reaching Kayenta, I quickly fill up the tank before driving west towards Cortez.

There was a patch of road construction on the way that were so dusty, I found it hard to see ahead.

Finally reached Cortez around 930pm, and most of the restaurants were closed. I drove to a fast food restaurant and started ordering from the menu billboard (just like the McDonald's one in Kanab). After ordering, I inched forward to the window to collect my order. The meal was ready in 5 minutes and the staff were all ready to close shop for that day.

I drove for another 2 minutes to the motel. Stars were seen from the car park, even though the motel was on the main street, that's how pollution free Cortez was. The night was cold.

The receptionist assigned me a room upstairs. There will be breakfasts served as early as 6am the next day.



25 Oct 2022 (Tue) Cortez - Durango - Silverton - Ouray - Ridgway - Telluride - Moab

The car was covered in a layer of thin ice when I put the bags in. Breakfast started at 6am. The drive out of Cortez towards Durango was nice. The sky was in vanilla colour. I drove to Dorango to see the 9am steam train leaving Durango station to Silverton.

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Video 7: Steam Train in station


Video 8: Steam train leaving Durango for Silverton


You can't miss the good vibe in Colorado. When you asked people for directions, they would patiently guide you. When you asked people for recommendations for food, they will not hesitate to tell you a good local joint. Passers-by helped push the car out of parking lot when the car was in difficulty reversing out due to the slippery ice below and the downward slope. It was the typical Midwest hospitality that drew me returning back again. Also, the gas prices here were cheaper. I filled up the car with petrol there.

I saw some very nice neighbourhoods near Durango. The drive through Million Dollar Highway was always pleasant. Silverton was in white, so pretty.

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P96. Molas Overlook

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Video 9: Molas Overlook:


As I was driving out of Molas Overlook towards Silverton, I saw some snow skiers unloading their gear near the peak of the mountain at Silverton.

I bought some stamps from the post office in Ouray. The staff told me he came from Massachusetts, that was far!

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The fall foliage colour mostly gone by now, replaced by snow. I spent some time taking pictures in Ouray with whatever fall foliage colours left.

Drove from Ridgway (note the spelling is without e, not a typo) to Telluride as I didn't visit this town the last time. The lake near the town centre was frozen.

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Video 10: On the way to Telluride


From Telluride, I drove to Moab. There were not many cars in this road. Surprisingly, the fall foliage in here was quite intact and amazing.

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I drove through a town, Norwood, that was high in elevation and saw an antique steam engine put as an outdoor display right in front of a house.

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In Naturita, I saw a house that has pretty autumn foliage. I passed by a shop called Green Room - guess what did they sell??

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There were so few cars on this road and the sky was getting dark. There was vanilla sky behind the snowy mountains in the distant. I couldn't help but stopped to take some pictures.

Finally reached Moab in the dark around 730pm. Motel used remote staff machine for checking in / out. I bought gloves and beanie from an outdoor shop opposite the motel.

Hot food counter in the supermarket was closed. I managed to buy some burgers and a box of chicken in the supermarket as dinner for tonight.



26 Oct 2022 (Wed) Moab - Arches National Park (Delicate Arch and Devil's Garden) - Monument Valley

Drove to Arches National Park. Arches was gloomy in the morning. There were photographers taking picture of reflection. When I was driving towards the Delicate Arch, saw some very awesome fall foliage colour near the creek and couldn't help but stopped to take pictures.

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I could see the La Sai snow mountain from the vantage points and the dramatic sunrise behind the clouds were quite stunning.

While I was at the Delicate Arch, someone's phone dropped in Delicate Arch and the guy was trying to retrieve his girlfriend's phone. We sensed that the path he had in mind was a bit risky, and shown him a longer but safer way to turn in from the hiking path we passed by earlier to retrieve the phone. They managed to get back the phone safely in the end.

After taking pictures at the Delicate Arch, I went to the Devil's Garden. At that point, I thought it will be a short hike that took at most 1 hour or so. How wrong I was.

Without knowing how long the trail entailed, I actually embarked on the Primitive Trail loop in the Devil's Garden, which was the longest trail in Arches National Park (7.8 miles). It all started with some hike along the fins near the Landscape Arch and one small hike led to another. I got sucked deeper and deeper into the trail.

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P164. Landscape Arch

P165. The start of hiking up in Primitive Trail from the Landscape Arch

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P167. This gentleman helped me took a photo here, and also helped me later in the Primitive Trail. He is a God-send.

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P171. Double-O Arch

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Near the Double O arch, I happened to bump into Jaime and Paula, a couple from Canada. Jaime was on his post retirement trip in USA. The two of them were my companion on this trail. We met a German who just completed this trail and he told us he did it in 1.5 hours. He described some sections that we need to take note of due to the difficulties involved.

Jaime told me that he was based in Lombok in 1985, straight after he graduated from Urban Planning in Canada, and he can speak Bahasa Indonesia. What a surprise!!

Few years ago, he brought his children back to Lombok. Villagers still remember Pak Jim that they used to interact with in Lombok.

He shared some very unforgettable experiences while he was moving around in Indonesia:

1. Jaime's ex-wife saw a woman's head floating between the sills outside the window of the bedroom

2. In Mataram Indonesia, Jaime's ex-wife slept extremely well the night and told the guard the next day she had a good sleep. Apparently, the robbers used smokes to made all the occupants in the house slept soundly and looted one part of the house.

3. The guard saw an animal in the house and wanted to hit it with a spear. When he was about to hit it, he saw the animal turned his head, but the animal's face was of an old lady. His hand froze in mid-air, unable to hit the animal. The animal leaped across the fence and escaped.

At one point, we followed the misleading footprints and went astray but managed to retraced our steps to the correct path by listening to the sounds made by fellow hikers. Those hikers were laughing at us and asked if we found any new routes.

There were a few hairy sections that Paula and I had difficulty in descending the steep and slippery slopes. We took longer than expected. Luckily, we had a very helpful hiker who helped me and Paula down. He was also the guy who helped took my photo earlier. There was one section with water pond which we had difficulty crossing. A lady from Oregon who brought her hiking poles lent us her pole so that we can cross the pond. I still dipped one foot in and got my foot wet despite the pole.

Some of the hairier sections.

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Jaime knew that my water has finished, and passed me some mandarin oranges. He is always so kind.

We gave each other a hug after the whole trail was over. By the time we finished, it was blue sky and sunny, very different from the gloomy outlook in the morning. I took a few photos of La Sai Mountain and the fall foliage before heading to the Visitor Centre for stamp, but I was 5 mins too late. The Visitor Centre was closed for the day.

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P183. La Sai Mountain near Moab

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I drove pretty fast to Monument Valley to meet my night photography guide in Monument Valley, after getting boxed dinner at Moab. 102.9FM repeatedly played all the nice pop songs while I was driving. The sky and La Sai snow mountain were brilliant in dusk as I was driving along the highway. I managed to reach around 810pm and the guide has been waiting since 730pm. Apparently Milky Way was out earlier in October and he pushed the meeting time forward by 30 minutes but I didn't manage to check my email. I quickly hopped into his car with my tripod and gear, never mind about the box dinner. We drove in the dark and took amazing pictures. I was a bit too late for the Milky Way and only managed to snap the tail of it. We saw shooting stars and planes. The guide also taught me some tricks in taking night starry sky pictures.

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The View Hotel was the only hotel in the Monument Valley. I booked the cheapest room available, and it was still nicer than most of the motels I stayed in. The receptionist was waiting for me to check in before she headed home. When I told her I couldn't find a parking lot at the tenant's carpark area and parked at the employees' car park area, she went out to the parking lot and helped me look for an empty lot and guided me there. She explained that the security guard would help looking after the cars in the tenants' parking lot so it was safer. She waved me good bye and headed home as I reversed my car into the empty lot.

I was watching Friends episodes on tv almost every night while busy charging my devices.



27 Oct 2022 (Thu) Monument Valley - Grand Canyon Village - Lipan Point

The photography guide that accompanied me last night could not do sunrise photo tour with me today and arranged for me to join a group of 2 Aussies guided by his friend. His friend is a photography guide and a Canon user. He taught me many tips about Canon gear. He used to work in the powerplant at Page, and had been one of few photography guides around this area. He showed us some of the photos he took, all amazing. We overran our schedule but we had fun.

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I quickly gobbled down breakfasts provided by the hotel before the service ended at 11am. This was followed by checking out of the room. The checking out process was really troublesome as my room card has expired even before the check-out hours and the front desk could not get the cards reactivated. I ended up asking the room service personnel to help me opened the door.

Video 11: Monument Valley


Afternoon drive to Grand Canyon was a real drowsy drive under the glaring sun. I was dozing off from time to time. The time zone was back to Las Vegas time. I was staying in Bright Angel Lodge, in the village. There was a Grand Canyon train stopped at the station opposite the lodge, ready to depart at 4pm.

The lodge I booked was just next to the reception area. There was no attached bath but there was a washing sink in the lodge.

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At Lipan Point.
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SpaceX rocket launch.

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I went to Lipan Point to take pictures of the sunset. I saw a "plane" rose from the sky and turned to the left. I didn't know that the video I captured was actually the video of a rocket launched by SpaceX. Most people already left the viewing point at that time but actually the light show put up after the sunset was even better. On my drive back to the lodge, I saw a coyote trying to cross the road but quickly moved back to the site of the road when my car drove closer.

Video 12: Sunset at Lipan Point


Video 13: Rocket launch by SpaceX


I managed to capture Milky Way this time as I was at Lipan Point early.

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28 Oct 2022 (Fri) Hopi point - South Kaibab trail head - Cedar Ridge - Las Vegas

I had a very vivid dream of getting prize from lottery and I remembered the 4 digits that won me the Prize. That combination was the 3rd price the week after I came back to Singapore, with the order of the digits scrambled.

Sunrise was viewed just outside the lodge, at Hopi Point. I happened to pick up a room card belonged to a tenant at a nearby lodge who dropped his/her room card by accident. I went to Yaki Point and passed by South Kanab trail starting point while on the shuttle bus. Apparently, that was the starting point of the trail to Ooh-Aah Point, Cedar Ridge and the further points of interests like the suspension bridges. The hike down to the suspension bridge will probably require earlier departure, and not in the day-hike time range. I managed to reach Cedar Ridge that day.

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P252. The hike down to Cedar Ridge.

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Video 14: Sunrise


Video 15: Cedar Ridge


The drive from Grand Canyon to Las Vegas was another afternoon drive. On route 66, I saw a coyote crossing the road and a raven feasting on a dead snake on the road. I lost my way somewhat while watching the long freight train running across the empty expanse. Luckily the guys at a bar guided me back to the correct route.

I reached the Airbnb location around 5pm. After waiting for 10 minutes, thinking that the host might be out to fetch her partner, the host opened the door and let me in. The place was very nice and reasonably priced. Dinner was at an Asian buffet place and the food was so so. There were decorations done to celebrate the Halloween which will take place a few days later.

Gas price in Las Vegas was even higher than the prices I saw in Page. Prices in Durango was probably the lowest I have seen in this trip.



29 Oct 2022 (Fri) Las Vegas - SFO - Singapore

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The return flight was overbooked and the airline offered airline voucher USD 1k + accommodation in San Francisco + meal voucher so that they have 18 volunteers to offload themselves. After about 1 hour of offloading luggage, they decided to board everyone and left the luggage behind instead.

I had no luck in getting an aisle seat on the flight to Singapore. Not helping that there were two screaming babies on board just 2 rows ahead that constantly made high pitch screaming sounds / crying throughout the entire journey. The arrival used to be scheduled one hour ahead of schedule but due to the weight issue, the pilot had to repark the plane at the gate to offload some luggage. We departed about an hour late so we reached Singapore about scheduled time (instead of 1 hour ahead), back to square one.

Travel articles on this travel, published on Singapore chinese newspapers:

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Notes:

1. While I was listening to radio in USA, I noticed they pronounced IKEA as AI-KEA, whereas in Singapore, our DJ pronounced the name as EE-KEA.

2. The details of the permit lottery system by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was shared on this website, and many others.

https://wanderingwheatleys.com/the-wave-permit-process/

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