Life's about experiences. These are mine.
DAY 13 – Grand Canyon North Rim to Page (125 miles driven, 4.33 miles walked)
We left our cabin at the Grand Canyon and travelled back through the beautiful and smouldering Kaibab forest. I have no idea how they control the fires and prevent them decimating the forest but I guess they know what they are doing!… Read the rest
DAY 12 – Bryce to Grand Canyon North Rim (156 miles driven, 4.73 miles walked)
One of the comments that we have made while in Bryce is how much the landscape reminds us of the Thunder Mountain Railroad ride in Magic Kingdom.… Read the rest
DAY 11 – Bryce Canyon (0 miles driven, 7.89 miles walked)
We left our replacement hotel early and caught the shuttle bus from the stop right outside. Like Zion the shuttles run regularly and from outside the gates taking tourists in to the heart of the park.… Read the rest
What’s more American than a night out listening to country and western music and eating a plate full of barbecue food? Not a lot and so tonight, in true American style, we drove the two minutes from our replacement hotel to Ebenezer’s Barn and Grill across the road to sample some of both.… Read the rest
DAY 10 – Springdale (Zion) to Bryce (84 miles driven, 5.34 miles walked)
Today was a real day of ups and downs starting out at the Canyon overlook trail on the way out of Zion. This is a short but uneven walk to, as the name suggests, a viewpoint that has spectacular views of Zion canyon at the end.… Read the rest
DAY 9 – Springdale (Zion) (0 miles driven, 8.89 miles walked)
It was a far more relaxed start to the day today as we weren’t travelling. This allowed us to ‘Facetime’ home (other video calling services are available). I remember the days when we would send home postcards and hope that they arrived home before you did.… Read the rest
DAY 8 – Las Vegas to Springdale (Zion) (167 miles driven, 5.72 miles walked)
We left Vegas early this morning and to be honest I wasn’t sorry. I think that the issue for me this visit was that we simply tried to do too much in a short space of time.… Read the rest
DAY 7 – Barstow to Las Vegas (117 miles driven, 8.32 miles walked)
When we arrived at our emergency hotel last night on the bedside table was a set of ear plugs. When a hotel provides you with complementary ear plugs that has got to be a red flag.… Read the rest
DAY 11 – Yosemite to Death Valley Barstow (351 miles driven, 3.15 miles walked)
Today was due to be the second longest day of the trip in terms of distance covered. A total of 300 miles from Evergreen lodges, Yosemite to Death Valley.… Read the rest
DAY 5 – Yosemite (0 miles driven, 10.97 miles walked)
After the last few days of miserable drizzle and downpours it was nice to wake to dry weather and the prediciton of it being dry all day. It did somewhat remind me of the “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” song:
Wait a minute, it's stopped hailing Guys are swimming, guys are sailing Playing baseball, gee that's bettah Muddah, Faddah kindly disregard this letter
We made the most of it by heading off early in to Yosemite starting at a great little coffee shop where my education of Americans in the art of making tea continued!… Read the rest