Liz and John

johnandliz

Liz and John

This Travel Blog is for our family and friends to see where we are and what we are getting up to. I hope this blog will be a great way for us to keep in contact.

We are visiting USA for nine weeks and have hired a campervan for this mammoth road trip. We start in LA and head up Highway 1 stopping for a couple of nights in Big Sur. Next we visit San Fransisco before heading across country to Yosemite and the ghost town of Bodie. We will drive back to the coast to visit the Redwood Forests before driving up through Oregon and Washington State visiting more National Parks along the way.

After going to Seattle, we head north to Olympic National Park and take a ferry over to Vancouver Island and then to Vancouver for a few days. This Canadian part of the trip will take us through Jasper, Lake Louise and Bamff, before heading south into Montana to Glacier National Park with its spectacular scenery. Continuing south we'll visit Yellowstone, Salt Lake City in Utah and many spectacular parks here. We'll finish in Arizona, visiting the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas before heading back to LA for a few days rest before arriving home on 24 October.

That's the plan, I'll keep you posted.



North America » United States » California » Mojave October 11th 2010

Hi Everyone, This entry is going to be a very brief overview of our trip over the last couple of weeks. We have covered a lot of territory since I wrote last, so it will be just a snapshot. We left Grand Canyon after bunkering down there to avoid the severe weather and tornadoes that were causing problems in the area. We waited until the weather cleared and finally took our helicopter trip which we were really keen to do. Our photos of the Grand Canyon have rain clouds hovering over them, but I think it adds to the drama! After leaving the Grand Canyon we drove down to Sedona for a brief visit. We saw the devastation the tornadoes caused along side the highway. We saw RVs picked up and smashed just like matchsticks, so ... read more
Zion National Park
Bryce Canyon
Great Basin National Park


Its been a while since I updated this travelblog because we've been on the move and not near an internet. We love Arches and Canyonland, it was a really unusual place with strange rock formations and sensational mind blowing scenery. Canyonlands just showed the enormity of nature. We had beautiful weather there, quite hot and we stayed at an RV park that had a swimming pool, so it was lovely to cool off at the end of the day after all this site seeing. We were so pleased we stayed to see Canyonlands because the scenery was so incredible. We drove through the northern part of the park called "Island in the Sky", because we were actually on a mesa. We seemed to be making good time in our trip, so we decided to travel to ... read more
Landscape Arch
Canyonlands
Mesa Verde National Park

North America » United States » Utah » Arches National Park September 28th 2010

Yellowstone National Park has to be one of the most remarkable places on earth. The thermal areas are dramatic, the wildlife is plentiful and the scenery to die for. We spent 3 full days there looking at scenery, wildlife and thermal hot spots. Yellowstone has it all and we were so lucky again with the weather. We headed south to Grand Teton National Park where we stayed a night before heading south. The scenery again was spectacular and we woke up to find moose wandering through the camp site. There was a huge male with his harem and babies, it was wonderful to see. We have now seen a variety of bears, wolves, elk, foxes, moose, coyote, chipmunks, squirrels and eagles. Half way through Yellowstone, we passed over the continental divide, quite a special place as ... read more
Old Faithful
Moose at Grand Teton
Grand Teton National Park

North America » United States » Montana » West Glacier September 20th 2010

Well here we are again back in the good old USA. We are in Montana, just outside Glacier National Park. We drove from Lake Louise to Glacier National Park yesterday hoping to find somewhere to stay. When we got to the park gate we were told that the road through the park was closing that night, so we decided to keep driving and have the experience of going from one side to the other. The road is called the "Going to the Sun Road", and is regarded as one of the most picturesque roads in the USA. By the time we got to our motel we had been driving for over 10 hours, but it had to be done. They close the road each winter for repairs, so we got through with only a few hours ... read more
Going over Logan's Pass
Jasper
The Glacier

North America » Canada » British Columbia » Vancouver Island » Victoria September 12th 2010

Hi Gang, I am writing on the boat leaving Vancouver Island as there is Wi Fi and I am taking opportunity to use it. This blog will probably be short as the trip isn't very long. We have been on Vancouver Island for 3 nights and explored the capital city, Victoria and spent a day in the Butchart Gardens. We are continuing to have a great time and have met more interesting people. I'll write a longer blog next time when I have more access to the internet. All our love XX... read more
Campsite on Vancouver Island


Our van, "Tree Hugger" is developing a personality of her own. She has enjoyed being here in the Olympic National Park because it has given her a chance to see huge spruce, a wide variety of pine, a look over sub-alpine meadows and to see mosses and algaes that she hadn't seen before. She enjoyed stopping beside this beautiful Lake and having lunch. Highlights of this place have been both scenery and people. We loved the Hoh Rainforest, the Sol Duc Falls and the scenes overlooking the Olympic Mountain range. ... read more
Hoh Rainforest
Sol Duc Falls
Sol Duc Falls

North America » United States » Washington » Des Moines September 6th 2010

Its been almost a week since I've added to the blog and we've travelled through Oregon to Washington State since then. After we left Lake Tahoe we went to an amazing place called Lassen Volcanic National Park. It's part of the cascade Range of mountains that stretch down the western part of the US and include St Shasta, Mt Hood and Mt St Helens. At Lassen Volcanic National Park we saw a hydrothermal area with mudpools and fumeroles which were fascination. We walked through a lava tube which was so big you could drive a car through. We didn't plan to stay here, but we had a day up our sleeves and we are so pleased we changed our plans. That is the joy of having a campervan and having the freedom "to sleep around." The ... read more
Crater Lake
Diamond Lake Campsite
The end of a great day.


We left Yosemite yesterday to drive to Lake Tahoe, but had a detour via Bodie an old gold mining town. This place is now a ghost town and its like stepping back into the wild west. Only a ranger lives there now, and it must be very dark and very lonely at night, there is no electricity and no-one else there. Unfortunately as we left Yosemite I got out to take some videos and the car door was slammed forward by a really strong gust of wind. It smashed against the front panelling and broke the hinge, we didn't know what to do. John managed to close the door and I climbed in through the driver's side. We couldn't continue on for 8 weeks like this so we decided to stay a few days at Lake ... read more
Leaving Yosemite
Bodie


Left San Fransisco and headed across to Yosemite, a four hour drive through flat hot countryside. It was 106' F and we had the air conditioning on all the way and listened to local country music station. We were told we had no hope of getting a campsite, but when we arrived there the ranger told us to go up to "White Wolf" camp which was further than the popular Yosemite Valley sites. Luckily we got a site and settled in for the night, putting all our food into the heavy duty bear boxes which are located in every camp space. This is serious bear country and they raid your camp and steal food even from inside your car! The scenery here is unbelievable and we decided to hike from Glacier Point to Yosemite Valley because ... read more
Enjoying Upper Pines Camp Site
Giant Sequoia Trees at Wawona
Half Dome

North America August 25th 2010

We arrived in San Fransisco yesterday and after misunderstanding the directions of our GPS, we finally made it to Candlestick Park for RV's. Today we walked over the Golden Gate Bridge, had a lunch of crab at Fisherman's Wharf and took a cable car through the streets of S.F. It was really hot and John and I were both burnt. I was able to stand outside the cable car looking back to the bay and I took some amazing video footage. I'll try to post it up when I can. Tomorrow we head off to Yosemite. ... read more
San Fransisco Cable Cars




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