After leaving Las Vegas we headed west to Death Valley for a couple of nights. Was really warm there and that evening we watched the sunset at Badwater - a pool of salty water in the salt flats at the base of Death Valley which is over 200 feet (~45m) below sea level. By this time we had a full moon so was really neat lighting. Later that evening we joined up with one of the ranger-lead programmes offered at the park and looking at the stars over the valley. Was a little difficult because of the full moon but you [View Full Entry]

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We started heading west again towards Grand Canyon and stopped for a brief look at Meteor Crater and the museum there. Meteor Crater was the first crater ever identified as such on earth and is still the best preserved. Also saw some pueblo ruins out on the plains here, just scattered around the place but not open to the public. Made a short stop in Winslow for the obligatory “standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona” and was actually quite neat because there were heaps of shops for Eagles stuff and also the famous Route 66, which makes its way through [View Full Entry]

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We woke up the morning in Page to a bitterly cold wind and all the leaves on the trees in the campground had fallen overnight. Page marked our entrance into the Navajo Nation - the largest Native American reservation in the US covering an area stretching from the Grand Canyon to over the border in New Mexico and Glen Canyon to Petrified Forest National Park. We set out on an Antelope Canyon Tour that morning with a Navajo guide and just the two of us. The trip took about 1.5 hours as we slowly made our way through the canyon with [View Full Entry]

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We arrived at Zion National Park fairly late in the day after stopping to do some shopping just outside of Bryce. Was a beautiful evening so we decided to head up the valley to see the sights. There were heaps of deer everywhere - as the valley floor in Zion is fairly low in elevation the mule deer population stay there for the winter. Was also supposed to be quite a few mountain lions around because of this, but we didn’t see any! Got up early again to head out to Kanab to see if we could get walk in permits [View Full Entry]

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On the way to Capitol Reef we also visited Goblin Valley State Park - an unusual collection of sandstone hoodoos that look a lot like mushrooms. Some of them are quite large and it was quite a maze to walk amongst them. We had a slight detour getting out of the park though and back on to the main road. I had a map that said there was another road back out but this actually turned out to be a 4wd drive road down a wash. It was rather late in the afternoon before we got back out again! The next [View Full Entry]

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The drive from Crane, Oregon to Salt Lake City, Utah was our longest day and travelled through the deserts of northern Nevada. Fortunately most of this journey was on the interstate which actually made it easier. For ages we thought that there were no trees in this part of Nevada and then we realised that what we thought were rocks up in the snow on the mountain ridges were actually pines - this seems to be the only place they can grow! Just after the border with Utah we stopped at the Bonneville Speedway on the salt flats and saw a [View Full Entry]

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Howie and Judi very kindly let us use their bach for a night which was situated on the Little Deschutes River, south of Bend. Driving over the Cascades to get there was an interesting experience as it was pouring rain and we were a bit worried about the amount of snow over the pass. Fortunately, although there was quite a lot of snow on the ground, is was quite warm and only raining. The road was really busy though so it was still a slow drive and we arrived in Bend well after dark. Morning revealed clearing weather so we headed [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Lake Tahoe we headed north again up to Lava Beds National Monument near the Oregon/California border. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon and just had time to visit the visitor centre and set up camp before watching the sun set over the cinder cones, lava flows and sagebrush. After dinner we set off in the dark to one of the many lava tubes in the park - this one was lit up by sensor lights and had information about all the different formations you can see in the lava tunnels. The next morning after a frosty night we [View Full Entry]

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After arriving in San Francisco at 11 am we picked up the rental car and headed straight out of San Francisco for the town of Tracy. Driving on the other side of the road was a really strange experience at first and took a lot of concentration! We bought supplies and food in Tracy and stayed the night at a motel before heading out the next morning for Yosemite National Park. We came in on the north road (120) and got our first glimpse of Half Dome from a little roadside stop at the end of the valley. We also went [View Full Entry]

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