30 USA National Parks by RV in 2010

See Entire Route Map

Travel Itinerary 2010
Travel Costs 2010

1.  L.A. to Las Vegas       See Route Map

We had a good flight over from Australia with Air New Zealand, we had chosen flights which got us in to LA at 11.30am, plenty of time to pick up the motorhome and book in to the RV Park in Anaheim, avoiding the dramas of a hotel stay in between, similarly we have arranged our exit flight which leaves at 9.30 at night on the 24^th May, this will again avoid the need for an overnight stay in LA, unless we choose to be early, but with our schedule there is not much chance of that.

We set off to Long Beach to have a look over the Ship “Queen Mary”  lots of stair climbing but well worth the trip. We had hoped to see the “Spruce Goose” the wooden plane built by and very briefly flown by, Howard Hughes in the 1930s. However not to be, the big dome hanger that they built for it is still there but the plane was moved many years ago to Oregon State (I think). We headed down the coast to San Diego, our memories of the thumpety thump of the concrete freeways coming back as the miles went by. The Beaches were littered with white bodies as Winter has just finished and we are now starting Spring, so a bit of warm weather and they are all out.   Some of the beaches were adorned with all the colours available with their wind surfers flying high above the waves. It was also interesting to note the number of oil pumping stations along the coast and the off shore oil rigs that can be seen between 1 and 3 miles off the coast. It was Saturday and a 4 lane freeway (each way) but still there was a bottleneck and the traffic slowed to a crawl for about 45 minutes. There is always a bit of a learning curve trying to fathom the Tom Tom GPS but it gets you there if you can program the correct details  and we are gradually getting re-accustomed to the system.   We had pre booked into an RV park in San Diego, thought we should spoil ourselves before we hit the deserts and canyons on our trip.        See Photos

San Diego & Tijuana

            Sunday we decided to have a look at Tijuana across the border into Mexico, we drove to the border and parked the RV then walked through the security gates and check points, once over the border we got a cab to the downtown area, markets and eating stalls, touts outside all trying to lure in the customers, and boy, if you show the slightest interest they will hound you. We actually managed to avoid  buying anything other than lunch and a cab ride back to the border gate, where we got on the end of a queue, it  only took 35 minutes before we were through, on week days it can be 1 ½ - 2 hours.  The 5 or 6 lanes of cars that were queued up, wait for at least 2 hours to get across, it was certainly a experience.

We headed up the highway to Coronado, on the opposite side of San Diego Bay to the city, a high bridge spans the bay at an unbelievable height, it would have to be a lot higher than our West Gate bridge, literally quite frightening driving across it, even more so as the side walls are only 4ft high and only 2 lanes.  We went on to do a tour of the Aircraft Carrier “Midway” which has been decommissioned and is set up as a museum at the wharf, right on the edge of the city. The decks and hangers are complete with a whole range of aircraft that were used on the ship, certainly quite a spectacle.

San Diego looks a great city, very clean, well situated by the bay with a lot of modern buildings and good transport services, There are of course the slummy areas, which we always seem to find as we “lose” ourselves in every city we visit.  It is one of the major naval bases in the USA.

Monday we gave the day to Sea World, after a brief stop at an upholsterer to have the foam on a couple of seat cushions upgraded.  Sea World was good, a lot of emphasis on the Killer Whale Show, which certainly was the pick of the shows. Chased up some shorter legs for the table in the RV to make working at it more comfortable, thought we should do it before leaving San Diego. It is wonderful how a mobile phone the internet and a GPS can shortcut the lack of knowledge of an area. With the GPS you just follow the prompts, the odd curse when you can’t get to the right freeway exit, but eventually you get there.  It would be panic trying to navigate the freeway system without it. After about 200 miles for the day we settled in off the road (behind a road metal storage site) we had climbed to well over 4000ft onto a desert plateau, just where they have huge storage area for used planes, most of the worlds airlines apparently send their old planes here when they upgrade. From here they are on sold to other airlines and countries. Just like a huge used car lot. They of course still have their tail insignia intact, so it is easy to recognise them.  The area at Adelanto was selected as the climate here has little adverse effect on the planes.

Continuing up route 395 we found we were traveling through the Mojave Desert we passed a huge site which seemed to be collecting solar energy, row upon row of curved mirrors, each row about ½ mile long, it was at this point whist stopped to take a photo or two that we noticed the dome of our forward skylight/vent had broken and blown off. No way of fixing it on the road, 100miles back to the nearest town where we might get a replacement fitted or go on, we will be in Las Vegas in 2 days, so long as it doesn’t rain we’ll be ok and as our route takes us through Death Valley, renowned as probably the hottest place in USA, we reckoned we were safe to proceed.  See Photos

Death Valley National Park.

Entering the Death Valley NP from the East in the morning was certainly the best for the views and sun position for driving and photos, The road descends from 4000 ft to 1000 ft in 8 miles, there are several stopping points to take advantage of the panoramas, at that lower level it is to Panamint valley, the road climbs again to Towne Pass at 5000 ft then it drops into Death Valley, Stovepipe Wells is at sea level, however the road kept getting lower. The lowest point of the valley is 282 ft (88m) below sea level. The salt pan at the floor of the valley extends 40 miles long and 5 miles wide. (We later see an information board listing most of the “below sea level” spots around the world, Lake Ayre gets a mention at -15m however Egypt, Israel and Lebanon all have low points more than 150 m below sea level  A sandy base seemed to feed a procession of willy willys in the first valley,  then in the second valley, there was an area of sand dunes (Mesquite Dunes), there seemed to be a stationary sand storm hovering over the dune area, quite eerie really, as the wind was blowing a gale, but the sand storm was not moving.

We checked in to a National Park Camp ground at Furnace Creek, next to Death Valley tourist centre, after purchasing a tarp to tie over the top of the motorhome for the night, yep, it had started to rain, it was looking more threatening as we kept going. The wind was blowing a gale but we managed to cover the hole before the rain came. By 8pm all was quiet, the wind had stopped and the rain had amounted to nothing, but we could not risk it.  We woke to a calm clear sky, so set about our sight seeing , by 7.45am we were at Golden Canyon, a mile walk in, then an extra ¼ mile to Red Cathedral, both were well worth it, lots of pics. Back on the road and we turned onto a loop road tagged as “Artists Drive” a one way of about 10 miles winding through the coloured sandstone foot hills on the East Side of the valley floor. Spectacular scenery with such a wide range of colours, the drive topped off with a stopping point marked “Artist’s Pallet”.  A further 12 miles and we were at “Bad Water” which is the actual lowest point of the valley, it was just on lunchtime and a bus load of Asian tourists had stopped and handed out their lunch boxes, they were every where squatting, eating their meal.  A steady stream of tourists were walking out onto the salt pan a path had been well trodden out to about ½ mile, very glarey and the salt started to sting the eyes. The whole scene reminded us of the frozen lakes that we saw last year in Canada & Alaska.

The road was open for us to continue through and out of the valley at Shoshone, then across the state border and on to Pahrump in Nevada. Refueled and made a phone call to Camping World Las Vegas, we were in luck they could fix the roof vent on Friday (Good Friday actually but they do not get the holiday’s over here that we do). We took the opportunity of camping outside their front fence for the night so we wouldn’t have to battle traffic in the morning.  See Photos

Las Vegas

          First impressions of Las Vegas are that they do not have any owner builders here. The housing estates are terrible, the houses all look the same, square boxes all in straight rows.

8.00 am we booked in for the service to the roof vent, had all three covers changed, reckon if one was blown the others wouldn’t be far away. So let it rain now. No, cancel that, we have booked in to the Circus Circus RV Park just on the end of the strip for 2 nights we can see the casinos all around us. We are camped between the Stratosphere, Sahara and Circus Circus.  Incredible drive down Las Vegas Bvd. Past most of the big ones. Managed to catch most of the red lights and took the opportunity to grab the camera and take some photos. Down to the mundane things though, laundry catch-up of course. Called at the local DFO (Las Vegas Outlet Centre) for a bit of shopping, it’s a bugger getting used to after all the haggling and discounts you think you have the price you are going to pay, not so, always plus tax.  Buy a post card for 25c hand over 25c no, they want 27c.

Looking forward to dinner and a show and a walk down the strip

2.  Las Vegas to Winslow        See Route Map

Pets are the go here in the US, people are up walking their 2, 3 or 4 dogs around the caravan park, all on leads, all with their plastic bags on hand, just in case. Not only dogs though, cats get in on the act as well, noticed a couple of cats sitting on the table in the van while the owner is outside with the dog. Talking to a couple in the waiting room of the RV service centre one woman was extolling the virtues of her cat “Tiddles”(or something) “She just lays there in her bed the whole time they are traveling, doesn’t make a sound” The hubby butts in with yeah but the other one squeals the whole time, it wont shut up, he wasn’t complaining, just a matter of fact. Another man in the customer lounge is nursing their dog, as it was a bit scared of a bigger dog outside. One of them made the comment that they replace the kids when they leave home.  Many RV parks have doggie play yards, complete with a red fire hydrant. 

Saturday we were up and on the bus by 8.00am We bought an all day ticket $7 each and by the end of the day we had boarded 9 times, so reckoned it was value, The first bus was a double decker and scoring front seats on top we stayed on for the scenic tour of all that Las Vegas Bvd. had to offer.  The “Strip” is about 3 miles long and with the most incredible theme buildings that the casinos could imagine, amongst them is the Pyramid, Obelisk and Sphinx for one, another had the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, The French themed casino of course had the Eiffel Tower complete with a restaurant, The Greek theme is Caesar’s Palace with lots of marble statues including a huge Roman Warrior out front The Italian theme casino has a canal with bridges and people have gondola rides with all the authentic costumed gondoliers, and so it went on. Obviously no expense spared. The city is still evolving, new buildings still being built, although probably there has been a bit of  a slowdown in the current economic state, one huge building, still a long way from completion had a sign on the hoarding “ Opening Fall 09”. We set the GPS to our first selection of RV parks to be close to the action, when we got there it was a construction site for another casino, so we had to choose another.

Our first walk through Circus Circus Casino turned us off, it stank and was old and run down, there were stalls inside that you would expect to find in a street market, the clientele that it attracted seemed to match the décor.  Others were very impressive.

We had booked in to a show “Mac King” Comedy/Magic at Harrah’s Casino, an afternoon show starting at 3 so we had time to do a circuit on the monorail. A great show, then a bit more pounding of the strip, by now the crowds are well and truly out in force and it’s quite a battle getting past the touts pushing fliers at you as well as the general crowd. We were recommended the Gold Coast Casino for a good Buffet dinner so we made for there. It was good. We made it back to the motorhome by 9pm, a long day but we were satisfied that we had seen all we wanted, never managed to put a coin in the pokies, but their not our scene anyway. Another of the sights from the bus was the “Wedding Chapels” dotted along the Boulevard between the strip and downtown, a lot were cute little wooden churches with all the trimmings. Must do some business, they were so special purpose and so many of them. Most of the casinos seemed to have a chapel for weddings as well.  See Photos

Hoover Dam

Sunday we packed up and headed to Boulder City and Hoover Dam, weren’t sure if we could drive across, there were signs “No Buses or Trucks” we got in the queue anyway they could always get us to turn around, no problem though, there were a lot bigger RVs than ours there. After the mandatory vehicle inspection, inside and out, we were back in the queue. It is certainly an awesome sight, we had visions of the valley being a lot wider than it is.  Crowds of people there, Sunday, so that would account for a lot, they are also building a huge bridge over the valley and duplicating the highway, that accounted for a lot of the delays but it was worth it.  A lot of roadwork is being done on the highways as a part of the “Investing in the Rebuilding of America” program to help work through the recession. See Photos

Route “66”

On to Kingman, we are out of Nevada and now in Arizona, we are headed towards the Grand Canyon.  We decided to take the “Route 66” historic loop. At the halfway point near Peach Springs it has so far been a shabby run down attempt to hang on to the 50s image, it may improve. But we settled down off the side of the road for the night.

The balance of the current “Historic Route 66” was pretty mundane, the only glimmer was the town of Seligman where there was several attempts to recreate the 50s scene, a bit tacky though. Route 66 has actually been absorbed into the new Highway 40, but they have kept the section between Kingman and Ash Fork for posterity.  We found the best representation of the route was in the town of Williams where we refueled, just after the end of the 66 Loop at our turn off to the Grand Canyon. We were advised that the forecast was for storms the following day and as it was currently sunny but blowing a gale, with gusts to 50mph.they expected the forecast to be right.See Photos

The Grand Canyon (South Rim) National park

We reached the Grand Canyon area by 11.30 and caught up with an IMAX screening of the Grand Canyon. Watching it was a good introduction to the actual thing. The Grand Canyon National Park  Visitor area runs for about 40miles along the South Rim and its elevation is 7000 feet, from the visitor centre about 1/3 the way along, there are 3 shuttle bus routes which move the people from point to point along the rim, they are at no cost and you get off at a point, take in the scenery and photographs then catch the next bus to the next stop. With about 10 mins between buses it was very effective. After an exhausting day we had made it to the Eastern exit of the park by 7.00pm, the winds howled and came in chilly gusts, quite dangerous to be too close to the edge, where there was no railing. The weather had caused them to cancel all flights over the canyon for the day. As we were at our last view point it started to snow very lightly, there was still thick patches of snow amongst the trees and on the shaded sides of the canyon walls, but it was obviously old stuff. Given the approaching weather we chose not to hang around, so we completed our viewing for the day and moved on, camping about 30 miles outside the park on the way to Cameron, where the rain started to set in.

The spectacle of the Grand Canyon was fantastic and we managed to get some good snaps in spite of the weather. We both felt that we were colder here than we were in Alaska this time last year.

We had pulled into a scenic view area which turned out to be a Navajo Indian site where they sell their wares to unsuspecting tourists, They were closed when we arrived and weren’t there when we left at 7.30 am, actually the site looked derelict and whether or not it was functioning we will never know, but as a lot of their housing looks in the same condition, who knows.  The wind blew during the night, the van was rocking continually and we must have parked on the wrong angle as the wind was able to use some part of the bus’s anatomy as a bassoon, the non musical sounds were most annoying. The rain continued through the night, however we woke to a clear crisp morning, freezing actually, straight off the snow peaks nearby. We walked to the “view” and found that we were not far from the Little Colorado River running at the bottom of a gorge with 1000 ft walls either side.

We pulled in to the next view site and got the full treatment, from the car park you had to walk the gauntlet through an Indian market place, and of course by this time they have started to set up, we got suckered in. But the view was worth the effort.

We moved on to “Wupatki National Monument”.See Photos

Wupatki National Monument

This is a preserved ruins of the homes (Pueblo) of the Indian tribes that lived in the area 800 years ago. It is amazing how so much of the buildings have remained.  Using large sandstone boulders as the base, they constructed brick dwellings, the natural stone in the area all seems to be flat slabs which they used with a clay based mortar. The dwellings had no windows and only internal door ways, entry was via a ladder through a hole in the roof, this also acted as a vent for the smoke from their fires. We visited several Pueblo ruins, all different, some multi story. At the main site there was a large oval, 100 ft x 30ft  with 5ft high bricked walls where they played ball games, another circular pit was a meeting place, it had a brick seat all around the perimeter and was about 30ft diameter.

Before re-entering the main highway we passed Sunset Crater Volcano, one of the features of this volcano is that being in the dry Arizona desert area the volcanic ash does not fuel regenerated growth, as the sides of the volcano are very straight and of loose grey scoria.See Photos

Meteor Crater

On to Flagstaff  a large very sprawling city, we restocked the larder and fuel before heading East to Winslow, where we visited the Meteor Crater, a 4000ft diameter and 700ft deep crater which was formed 50,000 years ago by a meteor 15 ft across and estimated to have weighed several hundred thousand tons thumped into the ground.

We set up at the RV park close by for a quiet night, although we were warned to disconnect our water hose from the supply over night as they expect freezing temperatures, which is probably why Lorraine has turned on the RVs gas furnace.

We are running a couple of days ahead of tentative schedule, and that is good, it indicates we were a little conservative with our estimates and it is all up for change if the need arises anyway.

We head up into Mesa Verde & Monument valley from tomorrow so we are likely to be in Indian Reservation territory for a while and unsure of our ability to get internet contact. See Photo

3.  Winslow to Cedar City    See Route Map

Must add to our “Pets of America saga” As we were having breakfast in the van park at Winslow we observed a chap walking his dogs, there were three dogs all on leads. Two about poodle size, both white and fluffy, the third dog also white, much larger about the size of a German Shepherd, The man stopped at the side door of his rather large motor home, wife stuck her head out, he stooped down and picked up one small dog and handed it to the wife, he then repeated handing the second small dog to the wife, he then bent down and picked up a 2 meter long x 50cm wide fully carpeted piece of chip board from beside the motorhome, he placed it in the doorway and the other end down on the ground forming a ramp, which the large dog immediately walked up into the motorhome. The ramp was then removed and stored in a rear compartment of the motorhome.

Leaving Winslow, we headed for the Petrified Forest & painted Desert National Park. See Photo

Petrified Forest National Park.

We entered the park at the Southern gateway it turned out to be the preferred direction as we finished the day at the Painted Desert where the late afternoon sun gave the best effect. We thought this park might be a bit of a nothing, but as it wasn’t far out of our way we decided to have a look. It turned out quite the opposite, we spent 6 hours pouring over the vast quantities of petrified logs, there are thousands of them. They claim that it is the largest collection of petrified trees in the world, of course we know bragging is an art form over here, but this lot was fascinating.  It is claimed that during the Jurassic period (200million years ago) this was sub tropical forest which was virtually wiped out by a massive flood, the trees were swept away and floated down stream in the raging flood, gathering at a low point, settling to the bottom then being covered by volcanic ash and mud, the chemicals from the ash leached into the wood and began the process of crystallizing the fibres.  The passage of time and the change in the climate has seen the mud gradually washed away from the now stone logs, as the log becomes exposed and it’s supporting mud is washed out the log , now brittle, cracks across, water in the cracks turns to ice during winter which expands and breaks the piece off.  The result as we see it now is a series of 1, 2, 3 & 4 ft logs, many still lying in the shape of the original tree.  There are no branches or roots, it is felt they were all broken off during the river journey. 

We wondered how long they will last because of the number of shops & factories selling petrified wood before we got to the National Park. They are down on it in the park, with heavy fines, even “Rock Hound Lorraine” had to pull her horns in.         See Photos

Painted Desert National Park

The Painted Desert section of the park was a sight on it’s own, We say section, actually there were probably 15 stops that we made at different view points, some with a short walk and some quite a bit longer. The colours of the landscape were from all shades of grey, greens, tans, biscuit, white and black. Scientists have been able to determine by carbon dating the black layers which they believe were the result of crop stubble being burned, that maize was farmed here, as far back as 1400BC (the era of the Pharos).

We moved on to Gallup for the night before fueling and heading North . In all it was a most enjoyable day, copped a bit of sun burn, even though the wind was still very cold. Gallup is just over the border into New Mexico and we found we had to adjust our clocks, we thought things were a bit active for 7.30, oops it was 8.30.

Cold, it was freezing when we woke, put on extra layers, but by 8.30 back into the shorts. There is still snow on the mountains around here.

Lorraine did some washing in the Laundromat attached to the RV Park and was surprised to find there were 84 automatic washing machines plus rows of driers.

As we drove up the highway we were aware that this is Navajo Indian territory their housing is all very spaced out, one here one there, a few in groups, no visible sign of farming for income, little or no stock, houses very run down, some were probably abandoned , but difficult to tell from the ones that weren’t. We bought a local paper “The Navajo Times”, actually hoping to get some news on the earthquake, but no mention of it. Interesting headline on page 2  “Auditors: Millions in loans to Navajo businesses not repaid”  Sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it.?

We had an interesting exercise trying to purchase a bottle of distilled water to top up the house batteries. The Auto Parts Store” don’t stock it, sent us to Safeway or Wal-Mart.  Wal-Mart is a combination of K-Mart, Coles Supermarket, Target, and Harvey Norman  all rolled into one, plus some, the stores are huge. We went to the Auto section but were then referred to the grocery section. There we found it labeled “Nursery purified Water” purified by steam distillation especially for babies. Hope the batteries like it.

Shortly after going through Shiprock we found we were crossing the border out of New Mexico and into Colorado and on our way to Cortez, the land soon became greener, crop producing , spray irrigation systems and the farms looked productive. From Cortez we were headed to Mesa Verde National Park. See Photos

Mesa Verde National Park

The park was put on the World Heritage Listing in 1978 for it’s preservation of the ruins of the Cliff Dwellings built between 1190 and 1270 AD The Puebloans who lived in the dwellings had deserted the area by 1300.

The dwellings range from one room houses to villages of more than 150 rooms .

There were two 6 mile loops of road which directed the visitors to many of the sites. As the dwellings were built at different levels of the cliff face, the best view of them is from the top of the cliff on the opposite side of the canyon, hence the road loops. In and out of the van as we went around the circuit. We were running late (of course) as the loop roads and museum close at 5pm. But as we drove around we realized that any earlier and the shadows would have obscured much of the detail. We were also 3 days early to have guided tours down to the dwellings and walk amongst them as they don’t begin until the 11^th April each year. We were disappointed at first with this but consoled ourselves with the fact that as old farts it would have been pretty strenuous climbing, so we were happy with our lot and frankly seeing them from a distance will help preserve them as they are.

The entrance to the park is only 9 miles from Cortez but from the entrance it was 23 miles to the dwellings and a steady climb for most of the drive. The dwellings are at 7000 ft above sea level and we actually went to 8500 ft before dropping down to the cliff tops, much of the road was lined with snow. Another cold night coming up!

The 145 ml drive from Cortez to Monument valley took us past 4 Corners monument. This is the junction point between four states and our drive today started in Colorado, briefly into New Mexico, across into Arizona and eventually we finished in Utah. We were hoping to get a photo with Lorraine in Utah, Keith in New Mexico, the camera in Arizona and the background would be Colorado. But alas we were thwarted, the 4 Corners Monument was closed for construction, so we slid on by. A lot of the countryside on this drive was very much like our outback, red sandy desert with patchy tussocks, not as red as Central Australia, more a tan colour.
See Photos 

Monument Valley

Monument Valley is a Navajo Indian Tribal Park and as such is not a national park, if it was there would be a decent road to drive the 17 mile loop in the valley, but there again if there was a decent road the Navajo tour guides would be out of a living with their 12 seater 4WD utes (utes are called Pick-Ups over here). Each major view point along the loop there is a group of tables, offering “Indian Jewelry” several have a coral of horses to tempt the tourists into a trail ride, One had a tired looking horse standing by waiting for someone to take up the offer of “Your photo on a horse $2”

Then of course the horse could walk out onto a cliff edge with you on it for a more dramatic photo, Sure that would have been an extra, but didn’t check as we are not horse prone.

There are about 15 separate Buttes that make up the valley grandeur. Of course there are all different angles and sunlight direction that give infinite options for the camera snapping tourists. We certainly gave it a nudge.

Most of the buttes are about 1000ft high, one, called the Totem Pole, for obvious reasons, is 450 ft high but only a few metres wide and all offer an amazing panorama

We settled in at their campsite overlooking the valley for the night, hopefully we will be up early enough to see the sunrise on the buttes (out of our dining room window) we will of course check out the sunset tonight

After a few snaps just after sunrise we were off again, through a town called Mexican Hat, much of which is perched precariously on the cliff overhanging the San Juan River, as we passed through the town we saw the reason for it’s name, a natural group of rocks balanced on top of each other high up on a hill, they resembled a Mexican Hat. The next town was Bluff, a pretty town, again on the San Juan River, they seem to specialize in river rafting and the like, a busy little town with loads of RV parks, and a lot of history, This was the first town settled in the area by a group of Mormon followers, they were given the task to establish a settlement there. A lot of their history has been preserved and recreated, giving the town a bit of a theme park appearance at first look.      See Photos

Canyonlands National Park

We inquired about the roads into the “Needles Section” of Canyonlands NP and were given the all clear, it was an 80 mile round trip and whilst much of the “Needles” is only accessible by 4WD, the drive in was very much worth while and the scenic drives that were available to us, complimented by the short walks made the sojourn a pleasant one and again added to the list of pics.

Back on Highway 191 and on to Moab, the gateway to The Arches National Park, we tried to park in the campground but alas they only take pre-bookings and the campground was full. Our next option was a series of campgrounds set up by the State along the banks of the Colorado River on route 128 (which is listed as a scenic route and had been recommended by Pauline & Steve). We settled in at an overflow site at Big Bend for the night. The drive in along the river had us snapping at every turn, again the cliffs either side are about 1000 ft high with only the river and the road at the bottom, pity, but we are not going all the way up the 45 mile road. We caught up with camp host and were discussing the Colorado River, it seem to be running pretty fast through the rapids by the camp site. He said that by late May the river would be up another 6 ft and the noise becomes quite deafening. We asked where the river empties, well he replied it used to empty into the Bay of California in Mexico, but nowadays it doesn’t empty anywhere, it all gets used up, much to the disgust of the farmers at the bottom end.  Sounds a bit like the way the Murray is going.  Also sounds a bit hard to believe.

Moab seems to be a centre for outdoor sports, it was Sunday and of course the town was full of Offroad Motorcyclists, All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) Cyclists, Climbers, Hikers, they also do Base Jumping from the cliffs around the area. Scary stuff for us old farts.       See Photos

The Arches National Park

The Arches NP was great, like all of the parks they are special because of their own features.

Entering the park is a climb through a series of hairpin bends virtually going up a cliff face. All the way dodging cyclists, as they pedal up the road.  Once it starts to flatten out you are faced with an amazing array of stone pillars, balancing rocks on top of columns. There are stops along the way with walks to the various stone arches that nature has created, the walks vary fro ½ to 3ml. We gave the extended hiking a miss but we managed to see many of the arches from the Landscape Arch that is 306 ft from base to base to Delicate Arch which when seen from a distance dwarfs the hikers that have braved the 2 ml trek and climb to it’s base and resembles the handle of our kettle in shape. The mass of towering spires and balancing rocks are as much an attraction as the Arches. Certainly a spectacular park.     See Photos

Island in the Sky (Canyonlands National Park)

The Island in the Sky section of the Canyonlands NP was only a 40 mile drive from Arches NP, We took up residence at a camp site for the night.  The Island in the Sky refers to the fact that the whole triangular area is set on a plateau with 2000 ft sheer cliff walls on two sides , The Canyonlands NP is divided into three sections with the Green and Colorado Rivers separating the three sections, prior to the convergence of both rivers they are quite sedate running rivers, after they join is where the fun starts and some of the rapids become fearsome, during one set of rapids the Colorado drops 30ft. The feature of the Island in the Sky is of course, the views that you get from the different view points, and they are awesome.      See Photos

Dead Horse Point State Park.

We moved on to another park “Dead Horse Point” where we were able to get the last remaining campsite, This is a State Park and gets its title from the 1850s when cowboys rounded up wild mustangs (horses) drove them out on to this point of land and erected a fence across the 30 ft neck to keep them in. They cut out the horses they wanted and left the others penned in there, they died of thirst, in sight of the Colorado River 2000 ft below.  The views from the point would have to equal those of the Grand Canyon, unbelievable. The weather has turned sour the winds have stirred up dust, making photography not good, a prediction of snow overnight and or possibly some rain did not eventuate, however we woke to a clear sky and were able to see the view at its best.

After leaving the park we had a long drive around to come back in at  Zion NP an estimated 295 miles to the South West via highways 70 to Cove Fort  the #15 through Cedar City to Toquerville.  The drive took longer than expected, firstly due to the frequent stops at view points along the way.      See Photos

San Rafael Reef.

Incredible canyons, mountains and the San Rafael Reef, a 30 mile long reef pushed up by the adjustments to the earth’s surface way back. The snow did come, we drive through it, wasn’t enough to stay on the ground, although the mountains around still have a coating between the trees. We say trees, don’t think Utah knows what a tree is, an odd 20footer, but mainly 8 to 10 ft is the order around here.  A change in the road noise alerted and worried Lorraine, we eventually found a flat inside rear tyre. So it was sit back and wait for the roadside service. RVs do not carry equipment to change wheels, it is considered too dangerous. Tyre fixed and we headed to Cedar City for a night in a fully equipped RV Park, just gotta have one every now and then.       See Photos

4.  Cedar City to Custer     See Route Map

Cedar City, quite a large town has a backdrop of a range of snow covered mountains, local comments are that they have had 180% of their annual snowfall already and are expecting more over the next two weeks. For us the weather had cleared and a short trip to Zion NP was a pleasant one.

Zion National Park

Zion NP is a  10 mile long canyon, the sides of which are supposedly the highest sandstone peaks in the world, (What else would you expect). We were told that of all the National Parks Zion was one not to miss. It certainly lived up to expectations. We were able to get a campsite within the park, and from there the park is accessed by using the free shuttle bus service which leaves the visitor centre every 7 minutes. There are 8 drop off points along the road in to the end of the canyon and each has it’s own feature, hiking trails of all degrees, we chose a 2 mile easy walk at the last stop, having appreciated the scenery from the shuttle all the way. We had to nominate the fact that we intend to go on to Bryce Canyon NP which meant we had to purchase a pass for the tunnel. The road out goes through the National Park and a 1.1 mile long tunnel has been cut through the mountains in 1930, for larger vehicles such as an RV, the pass allows the rangers to halt all traffic from the opposite direction so the RV can be driven down the centre of the road through the tunnel section, it is the only way it will fit. Immediately after exiting the tunnel there is a trail to an overlook of the approach to the tunnel and the end of the canyon, 1 mile return, moderate difficulty. We tackled the walk much to Lorraine’s fear and trepidation, a lot of white knuckle hanging on around narrow cliff paths, we got there (and back) the view was certainly worth the effort. But you have to watch for the small carpark as soon as you exit the tunnel.

90 miles on we started on State Route 12, it is listed as a scenic route, a sign said “Get your cameras ready) in the first couple of miles we had 4 scenic view overlooks, when the route entered Red Canyon, the name says it all, the red sandstone was just that and with all sorts of eroded shapes, eventually we got to our objective for the day, Bryce Canyon NP       See Photos

Bryce Canyon National Park

We found a camp site amongst the snow, the site was clear but  the picnic table alongside has only it’s top above the snow.

A 40 mile drive to the bottom of the park and back, stopping at all 14 viewpoints gave us an appreciation of Bryce Canyon’s uniqueness. The hundreds of sandstone pinnacles that fill the scene are called Hoodoos, they are continually eroding from the monsoon weather experienced here and melting snow which blankets the park in winter, the end of the park is at 9115ft hence the snow still being here, however today we were in T shirts it was so hot.      See Photos

Kodakchrome Basin State Park

A short distance after leaving Bryce we turned off at Cannonville to the Kodakchrome Basin State Park, didn’t know what to expect, but the name implied that it would be photogenic It was only a small park with great facilities.  The Ranger who took our entrance fee advised “If you see something interesting stop, anybody else will go around you” in the typical droll accent. Well we were pleasantly surprised, the area is as the name suggests a basin ringed by sandstone cliffs of a mixture of colours, the special geological feature, unique to the park is the sandstone chimneys that are dotted around, often with a white top section and a red lower section, again we were fascinated by the variety of the scenery. A plaque on one of the walking trails had a quote from Leonado da Vinci. “ Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous”  It seemed most appropriate. We met a couple of women at the park who warned us of the next part of our trip to Boulder where we will have to cross the “Hells Backbone” a half mile section of the road where there is no side verge either side, no guard railings and the cliffs drop 1000ft on either side of the winding section of the ridge road. You can imagine how excited Lorraine was, with the thought of that approaching, The scenery continued in accordance with the claim that this is one of the top five scenic drives in the USA (Route 12/24 Utah).     See Photos

Capitol Reef National Park.

Our next target on this road was the Capitol Reef NP where a 130 mile stretch of mountain range, thrust upward eons ago has left this awesome sight, We took too many photos, but as Lorraine’s camera has decided to start working again, we had happy faces as well.  Onward on route 24.      See Photos

Goblin Valley State Park.

We turned into the Goblin Valley State Park, where as you could have imagined by now has a unique formation of sandstone really in the shape of mushrooms, but the title Goblins certainly appeals to the kids, they were all over them as excited as you like. There are three valleys and each are littered with these gnome like shapes, hundreds of them, again, nothing like anything we have seen here to date. We moved on and took up a camp site at South Temple Wash, being Friday night there are heaps of others here, it is a haven for the young at heart, there are hundreds of miles of trails that dot the area for the recreational use with motorbikes and 4 wheel ATVs. We were sure we saw Gavin fly past doing a mono on his Kawasaki at one stage. As night fell they quietened down and as we will be out of here by 8 in the morning no problems.

We were back on the Route 70 and off towards Grand Junction.  Fruita, a town 11 miles before Grand Junction reminded us of a suggestion from a fellow RVer while we were at Moab. He strongly recommended us visiting the Colorado National Monument as it was only 10 miles south of the highway and well worth the detour. We took his advice,       See Photos

Colorado National Monument

The park is a 30 mile stretch of mountains that were used in the early days by ranchers to graze their cattle during winter on the high plateau, the same sort of thing that the Cattlemen did on the High Plains in Victoria until a few years ago, until the greenies whinged and got their way. 

The feature of this park is the road that the cattlemen carved into the mountains to get the cattle to and from the plateau. The tracks were expanded during the 1920s depression and formed into serviceable roads. Well I can tell you, I have never driven such a heart pumping drive, as the one to the top. Not only are the roads narrow and full of turns and tunnels, but they have only a row of bricks along the cliff edge instead of a guard rail. Driving an 8ft wide motorhome with the steering wheel on the wrong side did not help. Strangely Lorraine didn’t take any photos for the whole drive up. Her suggestion was that we should turn around and go straight down again, not for the thrill of the drive, but for the fear of the next 20 miles if we went on and down the Eastern end. We continued and it was still quite narrow and windy but there were many lookout points where we could pull in and enjoy the views. After calming down, we both feel it was a must do experience for any tourist going through the area. (It wasn’t even on our list) After adapting to the mountain goat environment, Lorraine was able to keep the camera snapping during the run down. The park is a favourite with cyclists  and we encountered many. We ended the day booked in at Glenwood Canyon Resort RV park on the Colorado River at Glenwood Springs. The park had direct access to the river and river rafting was all the go, several groups were camping, with their clothes strung along the fences, after returning from an exciting day on the river.       See Photos


Snowfields Highway

          On leaving Glenwood Springs along Route 70 we were again thrust into a most exciting drive.  For 30 or 40 miles the highway went along a deep canyon with the Colorado River at the bottom, a railway track alongside and the highway split into two levels on the other side, going East we were on the lower 2 lanes nearest the river, the West flowing traffic had it’s 2 lanes virtually built like a bridge, rising and falling as it coped with the slope of the gorge. At times the West section was 50 or so ft above us, other times running level. There were three tunnels in the section the last and longest being the Johnson Tunnel at about 2 miles long built in 1979. All the time the highway is following the bends of the river and at each bend in the road you would be presented with a new sight. The area we are in here, is the Colorado Ski area, passing through Vail, with turn offs to Aspen and Breckenridge, and Copper Mountain.  As we went over the 10,600ft summit, obviously there was a light dusting of snow the night before. Skiers and Skidoos were still at it, some ski lifts were still working after their long winter.      See Photos


Denver
          We continued on down into Denver the capital of Colorado. 
As it was Sunday, we parked the RV in the city and took the shuttle through the mall. Fixed stone chess boards set in the mall had groups sitting around playing. We found the Blue Bear, a sculpture that we had seen a documentary about the making of it. The doco was quite fascinating so we made a point of seeing it for ourselves, The huge bear is standing looking in through the glass wall of the Colorado Convention Centre. It is about 30ft high, made from fibre glass in sections, it was designed on a computer and each section was made separately. The actual assembly of all sections was done on site, (with a lot of prayers that they would all fit).

“Bearly” satisfied we headed out towards The Rocky Mountain NP, aware that the top road is still closed because of the snow but we can still get in to a bit of it at Estes Park. Along the way we passed a sign giving directions to “Buffalo Bill’s Grave”.  We chose a designated “Scenic Route” “Peak to Peak” It started off very interesting, taking us into Central City and Black Hawk, twin towns that resemble Walhalla in Vic. only much larger.  Set in steep gullies, old houses give the aura of an old mining town, which they were, however we are only 40 miles from Denver and the 2 towns have been transformed into gambling dens, a lot of the old buildings have been converted into Casinos, and of course a huge modern casino has been built to capture the gambling public while the older gambling saloons give the atmosphere to the towns.  We were running short of fuel and the GPS had us winding around a lot of one way streets  that were not built for motorhomes, up and down hills trying to get out of the place, we never saw a service station there, unless it was disguised as a casino. Sunday night and the town was really pumping. We eventually found our way out with the help of the GPS and refueled a few miles out. We camped on a roadside spot at Ward for the night. The rest of the “Scenic Route” was pretty mundane eventually we arrived at Estes Park the gateway to the Rocky Mountains NP.     See Photos

Rocky Mountains National Park.

We fronted up at the entrance to the NP, expecting to be told of the road closure due to the snow, to our surprise we were told they had opened 30 miles of the road and we were welcome to use it. We took the drive to Bear Lake, then back to the other section which went up to 11,000 ft at Rainbow Curve Lookout. So whilst we did not make the full Trail Ridge Road, we did part of it anyway. The road goes to 12,183 ft and is 48 miles long, it gets snow to a depth of 20ft. It takes so long to clear the road that it doesn’t open until nearly June. We were told of an event in the 1970s where a concrete dam built high in the mountains near Rainbow lookout, burst causing a flood, sending boulders as big as cars down the gully, washing away much of the town of Estes Park and the holiday cabins that cluster along the banks of the Fall River..  The drive out of Estes Park was spectacular, like the former Freeway that followed the Colorado River, On a smaller scale, this road wound through the high canyon walls, following the Fall river. Small log cabins  were built against the cliff face, it seemed to go for miles, along the way fishermen were trying their luck for the local trout, all very picturesque.      See Photos

Within an hour and a half we were out of Colorado, into Wyoming through the Capital City, Cheyenne and settled in for the night on the side of a road, not a tree in sight, it’s all farming here, crops, cattle and the obligatory Oil Well to top up the coffers. It seems most farms have a well, and  4 or 5  small storage tanks, now that the price of oil has risen it is economic for them to put in the equipment. A bit like “The Beverly Hillbillies” TV Series.

The oil wells didn’t last long, another 40 miles and there were none to be seen, must have passed over the oil field.  The Eastern Wyoming countryside changes between similarities to the Wimmera and the Western Districts of Victoria.  Many of the towns are very depressing, some get very tacky trying to hold on to images of past eras, others very run down and gives the impression that nobody cares. We left Wyoming and entered South Dakota, headed for the town of Custer, yes named after the General. Custer is central to several sites we had mapped out to see, “Crazy Horse Memorial”, “Mount Rushmore”, Wind Cave NP & Jewel Cave NM.  As we approached Custer the clouds were as black as black, a serious storm brewing. We booked in to the RV park then had a look around, the rain started in earnest so we figured that the caves were a good option, so off to Wind Cave NP in time for a tour.

Wind Cave National Park. &  Custer SP

The cave is not a wet cave, no rivers and dripping water, and as such does not have the traditional stalactites and stalagmites one expects in a cave, but it had features not normally found in other caves, it was not spectacular in comparison to others we have seen, however it boasts some impressive statistics. Within a 1 square mile area on the surface, the cave is a labyrinth or maze covering 4 levels and whilst they have discovered and mapped 135miles of cave within that area, that makes it the 4^th largest cave in the world. However they also claim that they have only mapped 7% of the entire cave. 

By the time we emerged the rain had stopped, so we went off to take some photos of Prairie Dogs, who have just started to appear after their winter hibernation. They were all over the place, like a plague of rabbits.  The forecast is for unsettled weather for the next week so we are going to have to choose our times for visiting Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse.        See Photos

5.  Custer to Salt Lake City     See Route Map

Mount Rushmore National Monument

The weather cleared overnight and we headed to Mount Rushmore while it held. The monument was all it was supposed to be, carved out of the solid granite of Mt Rushmore are these huge 60ft high heads of the 4 Presidents who gave the greatest change in the structuring of the United States. 

1^st is George Washington,  Commander of the Revolutionary Army and First US President , next was the 3^rd President, Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and Mastermind of The Louisiana Purchase, {A negotiated deal in 1803 with Napoleon Bonaparte to purchase for a total of $15m, 828,000 sq miles of territory claimed by the French and Spanish, approx 1/3 of the current USA (down the centre) which had split the US and fears of the French and Spanish having the power to block US trade through the port of New Orleans.}3rd was Abraham Lincoln, whose leadership restored the Union and ended slavery on US soil. The 4^th was the 26^th President, Theodore Roosevelt, who promoted construction of the Panama Canal and ignited progressive causes such as conservation and economic reform. The Sculptor of the Monument, Gutzon Borglum commenced in 1925, it was completed in 1941, supervised by Borglum’s  son only months after his father had passed away.

The carvings are quite spectacular, They have all the glitz of a Light & Sound Show, but that doesn’t start until May, we are sure it would be a real star spangled banner extravaganza, but the mountain is what we came to see, so we were happy. The whole area reminds us of Skagway, in Alaska last year where we were 10 days ahead of the tourists and most shops were shut, and repairs after the snow had cleared were on in earnest, there are so many similarities only Custer is not so isolated, but many shops are still closed and the RV parks are trying to get ready now that the snow has gone.

Patriotism is so strong here, many houses have the stars & stripes flag hanging from a pole on their house, Driving along a country road one might find a shed or barn with “God Bless America” boldly painted on the wall, another that comes to mind is one we photographed the other day in Fort Collins, a well worn shed, the wall facing the street was almost entirely painted as the national flag.

Many, many references to the national spirit of patriotism as you drive around.        See Photos

Crazy Horse Memorial

We also called in on the “Crazy Horse Memorial” which is less than 20 miles from Mt Rushmore, this is a work in progress, started by a sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski  in 1948, and now continued by his widow Ruth and seven of their children, The project is funded by visitor fees and donations, twice the family rejected nearly $10m of Government funding as they strongly believed it should not be built by the taxpayer.

It is a huge operation, we witnessed a blast today which removed 4,000 tons of rock. It is claimed to be the largest carving in the world at 563ft high and 641ft long. The face is complete and has such wonderful detail in it. The visitor centre is one mile from the mountain that is being carved and that in itself is an enormous complex, including 2 auditoriums, which shows a video of the progress along  the way. We are in the off season and we could see how it is geared to cope with the hordes of visitors that come through the summer.

We were recommended to drive the Iron Mountain Road and experience the “Pigtail curves and tunnels of the scenic road”  The Pigtail refers to the way the road is built, it winds up like a corkscrew, going under a bridge then winding around over the bridge, and on it went , quite an experience. The extension to that road is the Needles Highway which was also recommended, and looking at some photographs was highly desirable, so we set our plans that way. We noticed on a map of the area the list of Tunnels in the Black Hills, yes I had forgotten to mention that is where we are, “The Black Hills Of Dakota”, anyway three tunnels on the Needles Highway are 10’6”, 9’0” and 8’4” respectively, given that our RV is 8’6” wide and 10’9” high, we decided to take another route.

The weather held for us for the day we went over Crazy Horse and Mt Rushmore, storms the day before and we woke the morning after with a thick blanket of fog,      See Photos

Jewel Cave National Monument.

We made it to Jewel Cave NM and had the tour there, on surfacing we found the fog had given way to light rain, which dogged us for the next 150 miles as we headed west towards Sheridan, back in Wyoming for a short time before going into Montana which will be the 9^th different State we will have visited out of 10 before we finish back at LA.

Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument

Another wet morning in Sheridan and a delayed departure fitted in well with a visit in the afternoon to the “Little Big Horn Battlefield”  By then, and 60 miles down the road the weather had cleared, or at least stopped raining.

It was fascinating to have the battle details laid out, the area covered about 5 miles from where the battle commenced to “Last Stand Hill” where General George Custer and 41 troops from the 7^th Cavalry perished on 26^th June 1876.

 In total during the battle the 7^th Cavalry lost 263 of it’s troops, 210 under Custer and 53 under Major Reno and Captain Benteen, the Indians had lost 100 of their braves

The countryside is marked where the soldiers died, although all of them were buried in a mass grave on Last Stand Hill, a horse cemetery for the 7^th Cavalry horses that died is also on the hill.

Over recent years the story has softened with the attitude that warriors from both sides were defending their nations rights.   Marker stones have now been placed where many of the Indians died.

In view of the fact that Custer attacked the massed camp of 7,000 Indians from the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, lead by Chief Sitting Bull and supported by Crazy Horse, the tribes included about 2,000 warriors, he must have had rocks in his head.

It has to be acknowledged that it was the last big battle of the “Indian Wars”

The whole issue was caused by the gold strike in the Black Hills in 1874 which drew thousands of eager miners onto the Indian Reservation, violating the Fort Laramie Treaty, The Indians resumed raids on the trespassers and ignored demands from the Commissioner for Indian Affairs to cease, or be treated has hostiles. The army was called in to enforce the order.        See Photos

We moved on to Hardin for the night and a beautiful red sunset it was too.

Hardin through to Billings, a large sprawling city, as it was Saturday morning when we went through, there were all sorts of activities going on, a Rodeo was in full swing on one side of the road and on the other a huge car boot sale was all the go.

We turned off on the 212 to approach the Yellowstone from the North East Gate at Cooke City. Aware that we had to traverse Beartooth Pass, at 10,978ft. We reasoned that if the road was closed there would be notices up and as an alternative we could bypass Beartooth from Red Lodge. Our reasoning had gone astray, there was no access from Red Lodge, both Beartooth Pass and the alternative route were still closed with snow.  We had to come back to the freeway and move on to Livingston and enter Yellowstone from the North Gate at Gardiner. It added about 60 miles to the day’s travel but we were compensated by meeting a very helpful and pleasant couple, Phyllis and her husband, Richard, at the Information Centre at Red Lodge. The drive back to the highway at Columbus gave us the opportunity to see some more of the Montana countryside. We were impressed by the difference in the housing at the ranches along the way, a lot more individuality, less of the transportable houses that seem to be dumped on properties. There was a feeling of pride in the area.

The 60 miles from Livingston to Gardiner are quite picturesque, a range of snow capped mountains on the left and the Yellowstone River alongside the road, we stopped at several spots along the way, one stop had an information board with details of the annual migration of many of the animals from the harsh Yellowstone winter, following the river to the winter pasture areas, then back along the same route in Spring to graze the Yellowstone again.

Yellowstone National Park

We arrived at the Roosevelt Arch, a huge stone gateway built in 1903 and from where President Roosevelt laid the foundation stone and declared Yellowstone their 1st National Park. We booked in to the campground at Mammoth Hot Springs. 5 miles into the park. Soon we were at the Hot Springs area where hot water is oozing from the ground in several places, steaming as it flows over the formations created by the chemicals in the water. The colours of the formations vary from white, grey, sand, yellow, orange, tan and darker browns, quite spectacular.

A gentle rain saw us to sleep but the following morning we woke to a blue sky and found a dusting of snow over everything.

As we had not come in from the North East entrance at Cooke City, we set the day for a trip across the park and back again, this area is renowned for its Bison, Elk, Bear and Wolves so it was a slow trip both ways with eyes peeled and camera at the ready. We saw so many Bison grazing the fields and hill sides, there would be herds of 6 -10 as well as herds of 40-50, there were also 2 Bison calves, that we saw,  must have seen several hundred bison for the day, started to feel like Buffalo Bill.  Deer was also quite plentiful at the start of the day, caught up with some cheeky Ground Squirrels who seemed to demand their photo be taken.

We decided to walk the ¼ mile to a Petrified Tree, it was particularly interesting because it is still standing, about 10ft of the trunk that is. We are sure it was ¾ mile each way and the icy wind made it a brisk walk. The day went on and off with snowing, not heavy, just enough to be a pleasant experience. We got to Cooke City and Silver Gate, on the other side of the park, but as the road was closed from Red Lodge to there the only access is through the park, virtually making them isolated for winter, reminded us of Skagway in Alaska, where they have to make their money in the 4 month tourist season, it must be same here, you really wonder how they survive.

On the return trip to Mammoth Hot Springs, we caught up with some bears, 4 lots of them, a Grizzly, then a Brown Bear was making a meal out of an Elk carcass, which he had dragged out of the lake. A little further along another Grizzly and her cub were wandering through the edge of the forest, they didn’t hang around in a clearing long enough to get a photo, we heard of a Bison carcass near the road that had been attracting wolves and bear, we called in and managed a few snaps, but it was a fair way off and tested the zoom on the cameras. It is a bit like bird watching, some people will sit off such a carcass for hours and watch the goings on, we are not quite that patient, or professional.

We did see a Coyote, it crossed the road in front of us and we were able to follow it’s movements through the saltbush.

Mammoth camping ground is the only one open in the entire park at this stage, so we had to tailor our movements accordingly.

After a cold night, (no snow) we were away at 7.30am, 5 miles out we came to the bear on the bison carcass, yes he was still ripping it apart, and the array of cameras helping him digest every mouthful, it looked like the media frenzy of cameramen around a league game, there were spotting scopes and tele lenses so big, that made us too embarrassed to bring ours out of the car. We pulled up wound down the window took one shot, it was good so we drove on and left them to it.

All around Yellowstone you are likely to find some lone bod with a spotting scope on a tripod, counting bison, or what ever takes their fancy, bison calves are the in thing because they have just started dropping.

We chanced a trip across to Canyon Village we knew the road only went 2 miles passed the village before it was closed to traffic until late May. The village was boarded up baring a souvenir shop so we drove to the end of the road, unannounced it actually lead to the South Rim Drive and the North Rim Drive, both of which were open to the few travelers who either knew or like us took a chance.

We knew we were going to miss some of the best scenery in Yellowstone by not being able to drive down the centre, as luck would have it, that scenery was on these two Rim Drives, so we had a feast, or the cameras did. One of the stops is labeled “The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone” and that says it all.

The views are of the Upper Falls and the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. The colours of the canyon walls, created by the mineral hot springs in the area contribute to the scenery, The falls themselves were in full flight with snow still lining much of the banks of the Yellowstone River.

Old Faithful Geyser

Then it was an appointment with “Old Faithful” the most talked about geyser in Yellowstone and indeed the reason for many to visit. Even The President has an appointment with “Old Faithful” in June and there is quite a buzz about the preparations.  There are many geysers in the park, one we saw was “The Steamboat” it’s eruption schedule is so erratic it can be 4 days or 50 years between, so you just look at it in it’s everyday form, which is still turbulent. There is steam coming out of the ground in all sorts of unlikely places, boiling water spilling across the ground forming streams flowing all over, they insist that visitors stay on the tracks or boardwalks. In places the sulphur (rotten egg) stench is very strong.  We walked in on Old Faithful with 2 -3 minutes to spare, had to run to catch it, or wait another 2 hours for the next one.

The whole area is a hot spot over a molten lava pool 100mls below the surface, they have at least 2000 earth quakes in Yellowstone every year. This year since Jan 15^th the have been 1450 to date. Some of course very minor and some up to level 4.

The colours in the hot pools are like the rainbow, sometimes you have to wait until the wind blows the steam away from you to actually see the pool. In another area there is “Roaring Mountain” with steam  billowing up from the whole face of the mountain.  They claim that 80% of the world geysers are in the area.

We eventually made it out of the park at the West Entrance and headed South stopping overnight at Macks Inn 30 miles down the road, We have now entered Idaho, the 10^th and last state that we will visit, although we will be jumping back to others along the way.        See Photos

The Craters of the Moon National Monument

We traveled west to visit “The Craters of The Moon NM”, the road across was through a high plains desert, filled with Sage Bush, similar to our Salt Bush.  The area eventually opened out into cattle farming and the use of water spray irrigators intensified, they seemed only to be growing hay and baling it, large rectangular bales staked up out in the open everywhere. We measured one of the spray irrigators, the sort that pivots around a water supply and the sprays cover a semi circle, The one we measured had 8 sections and was ½ mile long, so that was the radius that it would cover, others we saw had 10 & 12 sections. We do not know where they were getting their water from as we had not seen any rivers at all let alone ones that could supply the demand.

The Craters of the Moon NM is an area of 750,000 acres and all of the area is covered with lava flow or cinders, yet there is no major volcano there.  The lava welled up from long fissures across the Snake River Plain and is know as the “Great Rift” creating this vast lava field.

The landscape looked similar to a telescopic view of the moon’s surface hence it’s name.  We tackled a ½ mile walk to the top of “Inferno Cone” rising 160 ft above the base level, supposedly one of the largest Cinder Cones around, steep and windy but a great view.  After inspection of a few of the other features, such as Spatter Cones which were in fact mini volcanoes, we were left with a graphic idea of the eruption site, still with deep holes into the earth, currently with a great blob of snow at the bottom.

After we were “lavaed out”, we headed to Idaho Falls on our way to Jackson and the Grand Teton NP.

We noted a sign on a building in Arco which proudly acclaimed Arco as “the world’s first town to be lit with nuclear power”, and a fast food shop advertising “Atomic Burgers”

On our way back across the desert we found the reason for the claims, an information board outlined the program that has seen 50 nuclear reactors, built in this desert region of Idaho since 1945 and indeed a sign pointed to Atomic City, just off the highway, which seemed to be the hub of the industry.

Strong winds confirmed that the RV is as streamlined as a brick and suggested we bed down for the night and a campground by a reservoir filled the bill.          See Photos

Grand Teton National Park.

The drive through to Jackson, just  South of Grand Teton NP was quite spectacular, we were driving through light snow, the road was at first winding along the side of Palisades Reservoir for several mile until the turnoff at Alpine, it was even better after that as we followed the Snake River through the canyons and up into Jackson. The town of Jackson is a very busy hub, the gateway to the Grand Teton NP and a ski resort in it’s own right.  A lot of the buildings were upmarket log cabin type construction.  The ski slopes are right behind the town, at a glance it looked as if you couldn’t stop coming down the slope you would end up in the main street.

Unfortunately, the beauty of the trip in had it’s consequences, because of the low cloud and snow it meant that the mountains in the National Park were not visible, they were blocked out by the clouds. A visit to the information centre and we were told that the forecast showed it was not going to clear for a few days. We got over our sulks and decided to have a drive around the park. There are several lakes, the largest Jackson Lake  is about 30 miles long, it was frozen over and quite a spectacle. The park is known for it’s wild life and in particular there is an elk sanctuary which sees an annual migration of elk to within a couple of miles of Jackson, we were a bit early for that and the best we could see was a lone Coyote which ran across the road in front of us. We hung around for a   while hoping that the clouds would lift, but decided to cut our losses and head towards Salt Lake City. We managed to find a nice quiet campsite well off the road for the night, just past Salt River Pass.    See Photos

The drive south was very scenic, after we turned away from Bear Lake at Garden City, the drive became similar to the drive out of the Rocky Mountains NP. The road went up over Geneva Pass and then hugged the Logan River as it wound through the Montpelier Canyon for several miles.  The beauty of the drive was enhanced by the fact that it was gently snowing all the way. The canyon ended abruptly and we were in Logan City, probably one of the most appealing cities we have gone through, wide clean streets some great buildings, and a bit more of a feeling of affluence and pride from the residents. Being the site of the State University may have contributed to that. We stopped at the Logan Tabernacle, an imposing building. As the headquarters of the Mormon religion we were to see many of their churches. Continuing to Salt Lake City the light snowing changed to a full blown blizzard. You know you have serious snow when the windscreen only allows vision through the wiper path, and on an 8 lane freeway it is no fun.

We arrived in The campground at Salt Lake City in time for lunch on Thursday and to sort out our program, as we are staying for 3 nights

In closing, this we are enjoying the sights of the light snow returning, but now it has turned to hail.

6.      Salt Lake City to L.A.     See Route Map

This is the last chapter in our amazing adventure for 2010. Alaska was exciting last year. This has been very different, but every bit as exciting

We arrived in the campground at Salt Lake City in time for lunch on Thursday and to sort out our program, as we are staying for 3 nights

We found that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has their practice on Thursday evening so we booked into a tour of the city which included the choir performance.  The tour was not bad but when we fronted at the Tabernacle we were advised that the Choir was singing at the Conference Centre at a special genealogy conference and we could not get in. A bit of bad organization, the tour company was not advised and neither were the girls at the Tabernacle, who were there to greet us, (and explain the virtues of the Mormon Religion).  Full of apologies and implored with us to set aside Sunday morning for the TV Broadcast recording at the Tabernacle, This had been our original plan anyway. The other pity is the performance at the conference centre was only ½ filled with people any way and had the tour organizers known, we could have been included.  Salt Lake City was settled by the Mormons, after fleeing persecution in the Eastern States. Initially they came in covered wagons over the 1300mile trek. 10 years later they were still coming some walking and using hand carts to transport the family possessions. The destination was to them Zion, and they came with a passion to establish their church, and boy have they done that. About 80% of the population of Salt Lake City are Mormons and the buildings that they have established are incredible. They run a free shuttle bus from the airport and the RV park on an hourly basis. If you have time between planes they will give you a tour of Temple Square, the hub of the church area. The Conference centre has a huge auditorium that seats 21,000.  The Church Office Building has an observation deck on the 26^th floor, it is huge, the tallest building in Salt Lake City. We spent some time in the Family History Centre where we were able to trace back a couple of extra generations on the Williams family tree, actually found out where our Welsh heritage came from. Could have gone on and on but we had to move on.

It seems amazing what can be achieved on a 10% tithe. Also with a lot of volunteer helpers.

The girls at Temple Square are volunteers, they save their money to support themselves when they accept a “Mission” for 18 months. The boys commit to 2 years when they accept a mission. The location and purpose of the mission offered is determined by the church leaders and may be declined by the person, although we got the feeling that no one did.  It has to be said that we always came away from an encounter with a volunteer, full of admiration for their cheerful attitude, manner and helpfulness. 

Another tour that we arranged, was to the Salt Lake and the Kennecott Copper Mine.  Kennecott is a division of Rio Tinto, they have the largest open pit mine in the world here producing 300,000 tons of copper per year, plus a host of other by-products.  There are 70 gigantic haulage trucks which each transport 250 – 300 tons of ore per trip, their tyres are 12ft diameter.  The pit is 2 3/4 mls wide and ¾ ml deep. Since 1893 they have produced 18.1million tons of copper.

One of the interesting items on the lake part of the tour was a building called ”Saltair” This is actually Saltair 3.  We were shown pictures of the original “Saltair” it was built on pylons over the lake and a railway line took the full sized steam train with passengers right out to the massive building on the pier, it had a dance floor that would hold 5000 patrons, around the outside on the pier was like Luna Park, Imagine St Kilda Pier 100 times larger. Anyway it burned down and so did it’s replacement.  The current one is not a patch on the earlier models and actually looks pretty forlorn. It is used for rock concerts etc as the noise is not a problem as it is 15miles from the city.

The lake itself is huge 80mls long and 40mls wide with 20 islands, there are no rivers that flow from the lake, and it’s salt content varies in different parts and the lake changes in depth according to the feed in from the snow seasons and the evaporation which is the only means of it reducing.

Sunday morning, we were picked up at the RV park and taken to the Tabernacle for the recording of the weekly “Music and the Spoken Word” program. The non denominational program is carried on more than 2000 radio & TV stations word wide and has been uninterrupted since 1929.

The 300 -360 choristers are all volunteers, they must be 25 years or more, a member of the LDS(Church of the Latter Day Saints, which is the Mormon  religion) and they can participate for 20 years or turn 60 whichever comes first.  The 180 women’s outfits, (4 each) are all hand made by a team of 6 volunteer women. The members of the full orchestra which accompanies the choir are also volunteers, as were the dozens of ushers and assistants.  The 30 minute program was a delight and very moving, prior to the actual recorded session there was considerable practicing and getting things right.

A little more about the religion itself. They believe in a living Prophet and his role is for life, he is chosen by the prayers of the 12 disciples of the church. They used to practice polygamy, in fact the Prophet Brigham Young who lead them to the site to establish their city had 23 wives, apart from being a prophet he was either a masochist, a martyr or a fool.  The Territory of Utah was declined in it’s bid for Statehood on several occasions until they banned the practice of polygamy, 10 years later they became a State.

After leaving  Salt Lake City we were on Route 80 which closely follows the original “Oregon Trail” and “California Trail” of the early pioneers when they left Kansas City to open up the west, both trails followed the same route until Battle Mountain, in Nevada, where they split, one trail to the North West to Oregon and the other to the South West to California.  It was probably that same trail that the Mormons took to their Zion.  
See Photos 

Bonneville Salt Flats

Before crossing the border from Utah into Nevada we stopped at the Wendover Salt Flats, the site of the Bonneville Speedway, where Sir Malcolm Campbell had some of his speed record attempts, 622.4 miles/hr was recorded there in 1970.  There is a measured mile on the salt flat and to complete an attempt, the vehicle has to be measured over the mile both ways within 1 hour.     See Photos

After an overnight spot amongst the mountain goats and sage brush we made Reno by lunch, time enough to take the public transport system and have a look at the Casinos. We went through several, they all appeared the same, and had the same smell about them, not at all appealing and no where near the class of their Vegas counterparts.  Reno itself was not an appealing city, we seemed to be confronted with a lot of weirdos in our short time there.

National Automobile Museum. (Reno)

One Shining light in Reno, we happened to pass the National Automobile Museum whilst on our day trip. Looked up the details, it looked promising so we delayed our departure the following day to pay a visit.  There are 220 motor vehicles on display, many previously owned by film stars, such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, John Wayne, Al Jolson, Bette Davis and James Dean. All of the cars were presented in immaculate condition and the settings were appropriate for the era represented. A most enjoyable couple of hours.

Carson City is about 20 miles south of Reno and the gateway to Lake Tahoe. Carson City had a more appealing feel about it, cleaner, newer buildings more compact. It still had casinos but the appearance of Reno was that the newer more up-market casinos were being built on the fringe and indeed Carson City probably is gaining from that shift.        See Photos

Lake Tahoe

The climb up out of Carson City went over Spooner summit at 7164ft and  down to Lake Tahoe. The lake is divided between California which has 2/3 and Nevada which has 1/3, The nearby ski areas of  Squaw Valley and the like make it a popular base for the moneyed set and many of the homes around the coast and on the hills overlooking the lake, attest to that. We did a complete circuit around the lake which was about 75miles, the lake is 1640ft deep in parts and holds enough water to cover the entire area of California to a depth of 14 inches. The lake is so clear that objects on the bottom 65 ft below the surface can be seen. Although the area is known for it’s skiing at the nearby snow fields it is obvious by driving around that the Summer is the peak for them, boating is huge, with marinas at various places around the lake. Most boats are still in storage, some stacked 4 high on special racks in yards by the shore. Many of the lakeside houses have their boats moored, suspended above the lake in a covered “Boat Garage”. Whilst winter is cold and the whole area is deep in snow, the lake does not freeze because of its depth.          See Photos

Yosemite National Park

We moved on towards Yosemite NP and our first target there was Hetch Hetchy, the site of a bitter feud in the early 1900’s when the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley was flooded to provide a guaranteed water supply for San Francisco. The fight still goes on.  As we drove in there were notices “Restore Hetch Hetchy”

We made camp just outside the park at a National Forestry Campsite Diamond “O” to allow a full day to explore its features, we noted a sign that restricts vehicles larger than 25ft x 8ft , we are 24’6 x 8.2, so we are hoping no one runs a tape over us. 

No such luck, as we approached the entrance the Park Ranger greeted us with I’m sorry you are too large, there are only 2 RVs that fit the criteria, Mercedes Sprinter and a Dodge. She shudders every time an RV approaches.  Our appeals were having no effect, but an alternative of a 1ml walk in to Observation Point was an option and park the RV at the entrance gate. The Ranger gave us a map and advice on the track. So off we went., The map indicated that we would follow the trail for 7/8 of the distance then turn right for the last 1/8. We returned after 2 ½ hours of solid going, unable to find the end, we had given up, as had a group of young guys in the same boat. We returned to the Ranger to find that the map was not to scale, the first part of the trail was 1/8 and the second part 7/8 of the trip. (could have been the reason we missed the turn)  They confessed that several people get lost, but it’s easy they say.

We decided to refresh with a cuppa and have another go. Not only do they need a new map maker but they also need someone with a pedometer to measure the distance. We are sure that 1 mile was more like 2.  We made it to the top, so that was an achievement. Unfortunately the view was a disappointment to us and to others who had made the trip. When we returned, the Ranger assured us that they would get to work on proper signage and send a party out to review the trails needs. So we achieved something anyway.

The drive into Yosemite from the Oak Flat Entrance Gate was rather quiet, we were both thinking the same thing, this is just another drive through a pine forest until after 15 miles and we hit the view over Yosemite Valley, Great granite mountains with waterfalls cascading from the top, middle and all over, a river at the bottom of the valley raging, white water that would be a challenge for any raft, but they are not allowed here. We understand now what the people rave about with Yosemite. Managed to get a camp site for 1 night and need to check early tomorrow to see if there is a vacancy for the next night, There are  hundreds of campsites, all full and this is mid week and not school holidays. Wouldn’t like our chances were it the weekend. 

There are also dozens of semi-permanent tents set up where people drive up in their car and have a tent booked for their accommodation.

There is a free shuttle that moves people around between 21 different bus stops.

There was a waiting list for the Friday night campsites we put our name down at 8.15am and were number 9 on the list of about 35 wanting sites, there were 17 available so we were in, but had to go back at 3.00pm for the draw. Used our day doing the Valley Floor Tour and generally checking out the facilities.  A great video of the park was on at the Visitor’s Centre, we have found this feature in most of the National Parks and give a good insight as to what to look for in the park.

The biggest of the granite rock faces “El Capitain” is 3200 ft high and attracts rock climbers from all over the world. Camp site 4 is set aside for climbers and was littered with tiny tents.  We understand there were 35 -40 climbers actually on the rock face on the Friday, we were able to find and photograph 4 of them, It apparently takes 4 -5 days to climb “El Capitain” so the climbers have to sleep on the near vertical face of the mountain, suspended by their ropes, apparently it is quite a sight at dusk from the valley floor where you can see the climbers turn their head lamps on to set up their night gear. We gave it a miss as it is more hassle with a motorhome once you have settled in.

They recently had a record set by professional climbers to scale the 3,200 ft face, it took just 2 ¾ hours. The ranger explained that they do not carry any gear with them on those attempts, it is all set there for them. They virtually run up the rock face using the ropes and gear that has been laid out.

There are many water falls in the valley the most noted being Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, which are just behind the visitors centre. The falls were flowing at full strength, an enormous amount of water spilling out over the top of the cliff 2,000ft up, these falls dry up in August after the snow melt has stopped. Another the Bridal Veil Falls was also in full bloom, this one is often in photos promoting the park. Horse Tail Falls is a lot smaller and usually does not flow for long, it comes off the top of El Capitain, it was also flowing. This one coming from so high up and not the great volume of water actually does not reach the ground as a stream, in its 3.200ft drop the water is dispersed by the breeze.

As we left the park gate on Saturday morning about 8.15 there were 35 cars queued up to enter the park and more were streaming up the road as we drove away.              See Photos

Kings Canyon National Park

We moved on to Kings Canyon NP and had a ranger guided tour of the Grant Grove stand of Sequoia trees, they are huge, many of them are over 2200 years old and have a massive diameter, up to 40 ft. One huge tree named General Grant is the tallest of the Sequoias in the NP, though not the largest, was nominated as the nation’s “Christmas Tree” by President Coolidge in 1926.        See Photos

Sequoia National Park

The following day we went on to Sequoia NP about 35mls along the mountain range. One of the features of the park is the tree named General Sherman, it is reputed to be the largest tree in the world, a girth of 103 ft at the base and a height of  275 ft and weighs an estimated 1385 tons. During the Summer Season there is apparently an endless procession of people lined up going past the giant as if paying homage, we at the Spring Season were able to walk up and photograph without such clutter.

A Giant Tree walk, a half mile round trip was a highlight for us, the snow was banked up and in places 2 to 3 ft deep, when there is no snow it is designed for wheel chair access. We had to put on our Yaktrax (shoe chains) which we bought in Denver for just such an occasion, and use the walking poles to make the walk safely, they were great, would not have attempted it without them. On the walk there are countless giant sequoias, all begging to be photographed.  After having our fill of sequoias in brilliant sunshine, we headed down the mountain and quickly found the clouds closing in, the fog lasted all the way down to the foothills. On through Fresno and the weather turned to rain as we thundered down the Freeway 99.

Well we are definitely on the home stretch now, the expected mileage has blown out to7300 and we have notched up 7050, we have only 250 down the #5 to LA left.         See Photos

We have been through all of our scheduled National Parks and Monuments. We find ourselves with an unexpected 3 days to spend in LA and there are lots to see there.  We might even catch up with “Mickey”

7.      Back at L.A..

We went up to Turlock where we had the RV serviced, washed and waxed last year and had them do it again, we came down the #33 to avoid the hassle of either the #99 or the #5. We were amazed to see the number of oil pumpers around McKittick and Taft, to say hundreds seems to underestimate, they were all over the skyline, paddocks and alongside the road. Then it was the #5 for the last 75 miles up over Tejon Pass into LA.  Boy is that a pressure drive, holding 60-65mph  Semis left and right almost wall to wall,  watching the lane markings so you don’t get thrown off into right turn only lane.  We eventually made it to Anaheim, picked up the keys, filled with petrol and settled in at the RV park. We have booked up a full day tour of LA with Greyline Tours tomorrow and a full day at Disneyland on Thursday. We figure we should sleep on the plane on Friday night.
See Photos 

A summary of our trip costs.

We drove 7500miles, used 797 gallons of petrol, spent $2397 on petrol, and $1043 on camp site costs. We spent 12 nights free camping, 23 nights in RV parks and 15 nights in National or State Parks.