Bryce Canyon

Eeeeek - where did that week go? Time for some updates. I've spent today in bed; Mum spent yesterday in bed. IN VEGAS!!! Such a waste, but head colds don't really care where you are :(

After Monument Valley we had two nights at the delightful Ruby's Inn in Bryce Canyon. We drove from our room to the restaurant ... about 200 metres. Yes, it was COLD. I'd read somewhere on the net that the besdt way to see Bryce is to drive straight to the end of the no exit road up the mountain, and then stop off at all the turnouts on the right on the way back down. This was superb advice, as it meant every single stop was more breath-taking that the previous one. It never ceases to amze me how each national park in the US is so unique to itself. Simply stunning.

First up, here are a few shots from the morning we left Moument Valley:

Sitting outside our casita

John Wayne's cabin - Captain Nathan Brittles. Totally watched my first John Wayne movie shot in Monument Valley actually in Monument Valley. Very cool!

Glen Canyon Dam

Glen Canyon Dam

And now, onto Bryce Canyon itself ...

Told you it was cold ... ice crystals on Snowdrop's windscreen

This is the natural colour of Bryce

This is with a filter, than many photos you see of the canyon use

Yes, it was as harrowing as it looks!

Ooooooo - I never knew I had a sepia filter!

Yes, I'm holding on for grim death ...

I'd just walked to the end of this path and back, which is not so bad when there's  fence, but quite daunting when there isn't one. It's a LONG way down, and if you tripped ...

Filtered

Unfiltered

Filtered

Another Mother Earth theme park

Today was another breath-takingly stunning day courtesy of Mother Earth. We did a Guided Tour of Monument Valley with Bennett, a local Navajo who lives 8 miles away with no running water, no electricity, and one hell of a kick-arse cell-phone! Once again we received the benefit of travelling the USA in the off-season of late-fall: we were the only two on the tour. We opted for a tour rather than self-drive for two reasons: 1) Snowdrop would not have been covered on a dirt road by insurance and 2) Bennett was able to take us into areas not open to the general public, and what a stunning bonus that was.

For Mum the highlight was seeing the petroglyphs carved by the Anasazi over 1500 years ago. For me it was standing in Big Hogan, a natural amphitheatre, and being able to clearly hear Mum chatting with another tourist we came across who were standing about fifty feet away.

This morning we went through the Museum at Gouldings Lodge, and learnt about Harry and Mike Goulding (“Mike” being the nickname of Harry’s wife Leone) who founded the Lodge in the good old days. Fascinating stuff. We were also able to look through their home, which is now part of the Museum, and watched a video on a couple of cowboys who were caught stealing silver from a Navajo mine. They were let off with a warning never to steal again, and were allowed to take the silver they’d stolen with them! But true to white man’s form, they drank and gambled all their silver away, returned to the mine, and were never heard from again. They were killed, scalped, and had arrows inserted into their ears so they would, hopefully, learn to hear in the next life. The Navajo said the Utes killed them; the Utes said the Navajo killed them. Either way, they got what they deserved, silly greedy fools.

There was also a display of memorabilia from all the films that have used Monument Valley as a location over the years, from John Wayne, to Back to the Future III, and Thelma and Louise. About a hundred in total. Tonight we’re off to the theatre to see a John Wayne movie.

Nature's Unexpected Theme Park

Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE the theme parks in Orlando. I had no idea that yesterday every theme park I have ever been to would be completely blown away and blitzed by an unplanned visit to Arches National Park ... Nature's Theme Park.

Driving down from the Rockies to Moab the night before, we did the last hour or so of the journey in the dark, so had no idea of the landscape around us. It had, however, been break-taking on the way down, and just north of Moab we had seen a signpost for Arches, so yesterday morning we thought, why not? It's so close, we might as well check it out for ten bucks.

It was a worth a thousand dollar entry fee! The photos do NOTHING to convey what it was like; it's the sort of thing you have top experience yourself to comprehend it, but here are a few anyway.