Blogging Holiday

I am about to leave for Mexico and will be out on the ocean for the next four weeks so I will be taking a blogging holiday, along with a holiday from land, television, cars, and holidaying, as I will be working my butt off. It should be a blast! See you all back here real soon. xx

Viva Las Vegas

Bright lights, towering buildings, cars, fountains, lions, people, the eiffel tower, the statue of liberty, casinos, gambling, shows, food,  nowhere other than Las Vegas.  And as the saying goes,

what happens in Vegas.............

Zion National Park

From Utah to Arizona, and back to Utah, losing an hour and gaining it back at the cross of a state line.  After nearly four weeks of rock, geological wonders and nature at its best it is with some trepidation that we head to another national park - can we really still get excited at more rock?  Well, actually, yes!  It is different rock, it is a different colour, it is a different formation, it is in a different place and it has its very own tale to tell.  The Zion national park has a great set up, due to the large number of visitors and the smaller size of the canyon shuttle buses have been put to use to take you in, around and out of the canyon, stopping at many view points, eating areas and trail heads.  It was great to give the car up for a day, take a shuttle bus and spend the day hiking - emerald pools, hanging gardens, a snake, a tarantula, a river and a very narrow canyon - called the narrows!  Utah rocks!

The Grand Daddy of Rock

From Montana to Arizona, and from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, our road trip takes us to the grand daddy of all things rock.  Our visit took us to the north rim of the grand canyon, where the people are fewer, the rim higher and the landscape more lush and covered in trees, bringing with it many deer, condor and kaibab squirrels.  The views are breath taking, the picnic tables very close to the edge and the sunsets serene.  Again, to repeat myself, beautiful and amazing, truly awesome. 

Bryce Canyon

Oh my! Wow!  So now how do I decide whether Bryce Canyon is better than Yellowstone – I don’t – they are both amazing, very different from one another and both awe inspiring.  The drive takes you along the canyon rim, at an average altitude of 8000ft,  and there are many view points where you can stop and view the hundreds of hoodoos and rock fins that descend from the rim and a view that reaches between 90 and 120 miles into the distance.  The colours sparkle and change with the light and you can just sit and stare and marvel at the view.

Beautiful and Amazing!

It was colder than it looks

Petrified wood

Wood hard!

Heavy feet.

Excuse me for repeating myself but the weather here has been fantastic, amazing blue skies, with temperatures running at up to 15f above average.  Until today!  The temperatures are now running at up to 15f below average – go figure!  Luckily today was a driving day, unluckily we summated a road at 9600ft and were in quite heavy snow – okay, I am British so heavy snow could mean a small fluttering, but this was settling fast and the car was starting to skid – cool!  The drive was an up and over so we drove into it and then back out of it – phew!  Here’s hoping the snow does not drop to lower altitudes tomorrow.  Even though it was a driving day we still managed to stop ad look at a petrified forest – more beautiful and amazing sights, if a little muddy. 

Capitol Reef National Park

Flipping heck the world is beautiful and amazing!  There are so many spectacular sights all created without any touch of human hand.  Capitol Reef is no exception: a nearly 100-mile long warp in the Earth's crust, the Waterpocket Fold.  “The Waterpocket Fold formed between 50 and 70 million years ago when a major mountain building event in western North America, reactivated an ancient buried fault. When the fault moved, the overlying rock layers were draped above the fault and formed a monocline.”   

From Forest to Desert

Big Cottonwood Canyon

Down into Midway

9 Mile Canyon

Our hotels are getting a little shoddy 

Petroglyphs

After a refreshing break in Salt Lake City and a change of scenery to Temples, Tabernacles and concrete jungles it was time to get back to the colours of autumn and the wide open spaces that grace vast areas of America.  Scenic highways abound around here and I do not think I would ever tire of the views that stretch for miles with the mountains and the Aspen trees in all their autumn/fall*  (*delete as appropriate) glory, shimmering and fluttering in the breeze with a beautiful blue sky back drop.   Alas, the Aspen covered mountains cannot go on forever and eventually, further east and south, they give way to ragged, dry, desolate, slightly barren, cliffs and canyons.  This is Indian country and with that comes a greater history and areas of long ago habitation. (It also comes with more dirt roads and lots of dust!).