When I was first planning this trip I had only planned to stay one day in Salt Lake City, primarily to see Temple Square, then I saw how big The Great Salt Lake is and decided that I should stay the extra day so that I could take it in also. The Great Salt Lake is an inland sea stretching 75 miles long by 28 miles wide, it is the remnants of the pre- historic lake which covered 20,000 square miles during the Ice Age. The lake has no outlet; water leaves only through evaporation. Water flows into the lake [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Salt Lake City, a 300 mile drive from St. George, at about 2 p.m. I still get pretty “strung-up” the day I am traveling so just took it easy, finished my Zion blog etc. The scenery on the journey up here changed from the craggy canyons and red cliffs to big wide valleys bustling with all kinds of agriculture. I am staying in a KOA (Kampgrounds of America) park. This park is huge, 174 short term spaces, at least 20 tent sites and a further 100+ spaces for folks who chose to stay for an extended period. [View Full Entry]

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Life at St. George or Hurricane The Western Horizons park here is located close to Hurricane, Utah and is very comfortable. A nice club-house, with pool and a variety of other game tables, an outdoor pool, hot-tub and exercise room. It is also located about ¾ of a mile from Quail Creek State Park, which is really lovely. The lake isn’t very big but is well used, lots of fishing and water sports. I walked around there a couple of times in cool of the early morning. When I arrived on June 11th the temperature was about 90 degrees. The [View Full Entry]

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Beverley came back from Las Vegas to spend the weekend with me, so we planned a visit to Zion National Park, which is just 45 miles from here. I don’t want to start to sound redundant but….the scenery around here is wonderful and I have never ceased to be awe struck. The power of wind and water just leaves me flabbergasted. There are no private vehicles allowed in the park but the National Parks Service offer a fleet of shuttle buses that go throughout the park from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily. This service cuts down on traffic noise [View Full Entry]

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The 29 mile strip of road that crosses from Utah into Nevada is worth a mention here. I was quite unprepared for it. I left St. George expecting to travel across flat desert, but as the pictures show the Arizona strip is certainly not desert. The canyon has been formed over millions of years by the Virgin River and is spectacular. Unfortunately there are no viewing areas so all of my pictures were taken, one-eyed and one-handed through the windshield of my car! Twenty miles later we were indeed traveling through flat desert landscape. [View Full Entry]

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Viva Las Vegas Las Vegas is currently one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. and the roads are extremely busy, mostly four and five lanes all clogged with traffic. I had to fill up with gas/petrol and was amazed to find slot machines in every available space in the gas station. We had made reservations at Circus Circus because that is where my friends Carole and Brian were going to be staying. (Carole and I have been friends since we were about 9 years old, she and Brian have visited us in Bellville, and were great support for [View Full Entry]

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THE VIEW THROUGH MY WINDSHIELD (Day 1 - 267 miles) I have called this segment “The view through my windshield“ because the majority of the photos were taken with one hand on the wheel and one taking wild aim -- as evidenced by the fly that hitched a ride just after I left Gunnison. I don’t have any photos of the first hour’s drive because I was descending into a canyon and needed both hands on the wheel. Once that was behind me it was a really lovely drive. My first stop was in the little town of Montrose which [View Full Entry]

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What a great decision I made on Tuesday!! This morning I awoke to pristine blue skies and ready to go for my boat trip down the Black Canyon of the Gunnison which is run by the National Park Service. I had registered for the first trip of the day at 10 a.m. but was told to be at the trail-head by 9 a.m. as there are 232 steps and then a half-mile walk along an old narrow gage railway line to the boat dock. (I can’t imagine how they got those steps installed into the face of the canyon.) There [View Full Entry]

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I have enjoyed my twelve days here at Blue Mesa, there is no doubt that reacquainting my 60 year old body to living at 7000+ did not go unnoticed. I have participated in early morning exercise with several other campers and have taken advantage of the indoor pool every morning. Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch is about 10 miles west of Gunnison and the trip to and fro takes you through the Gunnison River Canyon, which has a beauty of it’s own. This is a fisherman’s paradise, a lot of the RVer’s tow a boat--some even tow a boat and a [View Full Entry]

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I awoke to a beautiful bright day, clear blue skies and an awesome view of Monarch Mountain through my windshield, but I had snow flakes all along the fused-out windshield wipers. It was the chilliest morning I had experienced since I left the U.K. in February. But I packed up and made ready: today was a new day. I didn’t know that that beautiful mountain up there was to be my challenge for the day. Monarch Mountain is just short of 14000’, and I was about to climb to 11312’ in the next nine miles to get to Monarch Pass. [View Full Entry]

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