Our good friends Graeme and Jennifer are travelling in the USA during the southern winter, and have kept us up-to-date with their travels by e-mailing the following episodes. Latest entries at the bottom.
Year 2010
1.
Hi all,
We had a great flight from Sydney to LA and were picked up by Bob who was minding
our motorhome.
The first week was spent insuring the motorhome, transferring it to our names,
doing a few minor jobs, cleaning and polishing it as it had been sitting for
a few months and giving it a $23 (Aussie) drive thru oil change and safety check,
compete with coffee for the humans while watching the proceedings on a TV monitor.
We ventured out solo on Saturday after a few days with Bob driving on the wrong
side of the road. All went well as we continued to remind ourselves “passenger
in the gutter” so that we didn’t cause any mayhem on the roads.
On Tuesday (23rd) we left Bob’s bound for San Clemente on the Pacific Coast
south of LA via Lake Elsimore and the Santa Ana Mountains.
Our first night camping was at Cleveland State Forest at Lower San Jaun Campground,
after which we went to San Diego is a bustling city with beautiful suburbs situated
between the Pacific and the bay with a HUGE navy presence — 40,000 employed
on the base.
We the gamely headed south towards the Mexican border — 4 miles was close
enough.
Cheers for now. More later ...
2.
We travelled north again toward Los Angeles, did a bit more shopping…we are
not normally shoppers but we found it hard to rip ourselves away from these
huge individual shops ie Walmart, Costco etc…so much choice and the prices!
(We bought a 1.75 litre bottle of Bacardi for equav of A$18.00 — this
it not a typo A$18.00) which we are enjoying every evening. We then drove west
over beautiful ranges to a rest stop for the night. This spot had a towering
10,000 foot snow-capped mountain beside us. Unbelievable scenery and less than
100 miles from LA.
Next was a visit to Joshua Tree National Park. We imagined some sort of forest
of trees but it was a mountainous desert. The Joshua Tree is a kind of palm
with arms and pointy green foliage. They were all around us in the campground.
This NP also has huge granite boulders and half the campers were rock climbers
from around the world. Also this was our first introduction to cactus. Fields
of them up to 2m high. We did some great day walks in this park, the peak walks
saw beautiful views and the snow-capped mountains.
From Joshua Tree NP we could see Palm Springs in the distance, so we took off
for a closer look. It has approx 100 golf courses, thousands of palm trees,
beautiful gardens and is a fly-in fly-out tourist destination. This town also
has 8,000 feet snow-capped mountains rising up sharply beside it. There is a
10 mile walk from town to the top, which we took for a few miles to see the
great view over town.
We went to the small town of Tecapa for a hot-spring bathe. The only issue at
the campground was that NO swimmers [togs] were allowed in the gender segregated
pools … not quite our scene, so we said goodbye to the park operator who told
us of a non-nudist hot spring on the side of the road not far out of town —
we stayed there for a few hours and two lovely heated swims chatting with the
locals.
We are paying US$2.95/gal for unleaded, around A$0.71/litre. What a bargain!
We are heading to Death Valley National Park near Las Vegas.
More Soon, we hope...
Jennifer & Graeme
3.
We survived Death Valley … What a spectacular place of diversity with huge 11,000
feet mountains capped in snow looking down on the salt beds which are 282 feet
below sea level, an artist drive with a painted pallette of vibrant rock colours.
The drive in took us from over 3200 feet down to below sea level and 50 mile
valley floor scenic road. We attended some talks on the valley by enthusiastic
volunteer rangers ranging from "seeing" (serious looking and observing) what
is in the park, the early women of the valley and the highlights you can't get
to in a conventional vehicle.
Then on to Las Vegas, Nevada, via Red Rock Canyon ten miles to the west, well
we thought Death Valley was good but this place had a mountainous landscape
of red , creams and browns that you drive right up beside.
Then Las Vegas — fantastic ! On The Strip — the buildings, the luxury,
the opulence, the classic and the modern — it's all here, you just need
enough rubber on your joggers, which was the main foot attire, and enough food
to keep you going — and there is plenty of that.
Erupting volcanoes, lakes that had dancing fountains shooting water 10 storeys
into the sky and more… Caesar's Palace Casino is so opulent and classical it
even has a replica of David made with the same quarried marble as the original.
The newly-opened ARIA casino, is so modern and luxurious. The crowds were huge
at any time other than around early mornings, but extremely well-behaved and
we felt safe everywhere. We saw the hilarious "Menopause, the Musical" which
was done with re-written songs that we all know. This was at the Luxor Casino,
an Egyptian Pyramid with accommodation set into the internal slope of the roof.
We only looked at the good side of Vegas, this could be the real Death Valley
for some people as all the casinos we visited were well patronized by gamblers.
We stayed about 300 metres from The Strip, as most casinos have free RV o/night
parking, you just look it up on the net, pick a suitable location and head on
in.
After the man-made grandeur of Vegas we went to Mother Nature's pallette at
the Valley of Fires to the east. What a feast for the eyes … reds, creams, browns
greys and greens — all on rolling mountain scenes and high points. The
campground at Atlati Rock set among the red outcrops of weathered rock was magnificent
— we decided to push on though, despite it being 3pm as we still had four
hours of light — we were glad we did as the fading light accentuated the
colours and the folded mountains, scenery is amazing and it is everywhere. All
these places are on "Scenic byways" (booklets available) off the major highways
and it is a must to make the effort to turnoff and look.
Jen and Graeme
4.
From the reds of the Valley of Fires we made our way to picturesque, Lake Mead
and the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. Lake Mead had the biggest marinas,
with thousands of cruisers and the biggest houseboats. Many of these huge hire
houseboats had a hot tub, built-in bar and deck chairs on the sun deck and a
slippery dip to the water.
Hoover Dam was packed with tourists and sight seers, from nearby Las Vegas,
and was a mammoth structure – however the new 4 lane highway bridge which will
divert traffic away from the dam wall was even more inspiring as its arc spanned
the gorge, high above the dam wall.
From Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam we proceeded down the Colorado River, checking
out the various dams, power stations along the way. Laughlin, another casino
town, but with a more laid-back atmosphere than Vegas, has the Casinos all along
the river. Laughlin is a fast-growing retirement town in a beautiful valley
overlooked by enormous craggy mountains on either side.
Another river town was the City of Lake Havasu, which purchased the old stone
London Bridge on the Thames in the 1970s as a tourist attraction. It was removed,
transported and re-assembled, each stone with a numbering system, over a man-made
canal in the lake. This lake and island system has made a boating mecca in the
desert. To be “in” at Lake Havasu you need at least a 30 ft motor cruiser with
a head-turning paint job, seating four, with a huge thumping V8, skimpy swim
wear, cold drink in hand and fuel enough to motor up and down the man-made canal
with the quadraphonic stereo blasting so that all and sundry can hear it.
We left these Friday afternoon crowds and headed to a quiet hillside gravel
area, available for camping, overlooking the river and mountains. Still following
the river we stayed at another casino town, Parker, on Indian Preservation land,
and camped within metres of the water where Graeme had a couple of refreshing
swims, and another day watching the flotilla of boats cruise up and down the
crystal water. Just watching these huge boats is interesting as we have nothing
similar in Oz.
We left the Colorado River about 100 miles from Mexico border, as it is starting
to get hot, and headed west to Phoenix, Arizona. This is a city of 1 million
people with great road systems, very modern and well laid out. It had mountains
surrounding and jutting up within its flat valley floor. There are many state
parks and recreation areas and lakes with many walks with great views and varied
scenery in this area. One of the lakes had a 10 lane boat ramp, which on a Sunday
afternoon had us spending another hour or so watching all the pick-ups (utes)
haul big boats out. We did many walks around Phoenix that showed us beautiful
desert landscapes and mountainsides of wild flowers, and magnificent views of
the city. We could walk for a month here easily, or keep visiting more of their
seven local dams, but we must move on.
From Phoenix, we took a scenic road northwest, passing high altitude towns on
our way to Salt River Canyon, which we had read about in a book. Salt River
Canyon is a magnificent gorge with the Salt River weaving it way through walls
of rich reds, browns and grey rock. The road also weaved its way down the mountains
through S-bends, across the river and up the other side. We loved this little-publicized
canyon, and will be in awe of the Grand Canyon that is so much bigger than this
one. Onto Theodore Roosevelt Dam, built in 1911 to stop flooding of Phoenix
valley. This lake also has an impressive new bridge over the dam. We stayed
in two of the massive campgrounds run by the Forestry, good facilities at each
camp site, and great views all for $6 a night.
Onto another scenic road and a town not far up the road that sounded nice, till
we saw a “6-mile, 6% ascent” sign that also said to turn a/c off so you car
does not boil!!
We reached the top, 5,000 feet, a town called Payson. Trees and temp. looked
and felt like you were in the Alps, and the last of the snow on the mountains
surrounding the town. It was a beautiful town with mountain houses and buildings,
with desert gardens! and pine trees. All this just 80 miles from Phoenix. We
have learnt there is nothing flat about American desert country.
Next. the Grand Canyon.
Hope all is well with everyone at home, and enjoying what we have heard has
been lovely autumn weather. We love hearing bits from Australia, sorry if we
reply with blank emails, or no emails, as Bigpond is very temperamental over
here!
Till next time,
Jennifer & Graeme
5.
These 6% ascents & descents for 6 miles are all too familiar now as we head
north through Arizona, our trusty Toyota going well.
En route to the Grand Canyon we took a large loop to take in some scenic and
places of interest. Sedona, a beautiful, newer town, had the most striking red
monument rocks all through its valley and its suburbs. It was a tourist and
hiking paradise where you could walk among pines and then ridges with views
over town to great narrow canyon walks along rivers. There was a sign in the
town that said, “God created The Grand Canyon, but he lives in Sedona”. That
says it all!
Not far away but on higher ground was the Sunset Volcano. The area had 60 volcanic
mountains, with the tops blown off, including 12,000 feet snow-capped mountains.
There were lava flows, black ash, grizzly rocks etc. At 2pm we decided the 10-mile
return walk to the sunset volcano lookout was a bit too long to start at that
late hour — so we waited till 3.30pm and headed off (strong in legs .)
At the top of the lookout mountain there was a fire tower complete with rangers
who gave us the rundown on the view. We could see down inside the Sunset Volcano,
and could see the other volcanoes all around.
We have been crossing parts of the old Route 66, (LA to Chicago) where some
towns look deserted, except for the odd donkey or two. The old buildings, motels
and signs are still there and a lot of the old cars, Studebakers, Cadillacs
and Fords parked up. These towns are usually by-passed by the new big highways.
Onto the Petrified Forest National Park, which was a remarkable park in that
hundreds of enormous conifer trees, now beautiful colored stone, were strewn
over mountainsides of desert. The trees, now est. at 225 million years old were
carried thousands of miles by flood waters and left under water with volcanic
ash which has silica in it, and eventually turned the wood into quartz of purples,
reds, greens, yellows, blues & white. It is still hard to believe the life span
of these trees.
Exiting out of the Petrified Forest, we had viewpoints of the Painted Desert.
These were cliffs of orange, pink and white with green bushes in the valley.
So much scenery!
Canyon de Chelly National Monument. America has National Monuments (which are
established by Presidential Decree, rather than law), which protect mainly historic
features throughout the country. We have been to many National Monuments, which
have Cliff Dwellings, built around 800 years ago by Native Americans. This Canyon
had special buildings, housed very high in cliff walls including a castle tower.
On our first day out to see the canyon the wind got stronger, the dust got thicker
until visibility was poor, a huge tumbleweed flew out in front of us and bounced
off the bonnet, so we crawled back to camp and batten down the hatches. The
next day was still and clear so we could appreciate this huge 50 km long canyon
system, with many side canyons of straight flat red walls.
We took a detour to Gooseneck State Park; named because the San Juan River,
on its way to the Colorado River, cuts deeply through a plateau and the does
3 tight S bends. The drive out to the plateau and the lookout is an unbelievable
sight as the river twists 300 metres sheer below.
Monument Valley looms large ahead now and over the 80-mile drive we took another
100 or so photos of these towering great red monoliths. Mid-May and we are heading
into tourist season. Campgrounds are filling and there are hired motorhomes
everywhere mainly with Germans, French and Dutch.
The Grand Canyon, WOW, is a place where you need more than a few days to let
the scenery sink in. It is just like a painted picture, so beautiful. They have
over 5,000 cars per day visit so they have, and are still building, huge car
parks, back off the rim in the pines. They have a free shuttle bus system to
transport everyone around the park, which creates a peaceful atmosphere with
everyone walking and hoping on and off the shuttles.
We had 4 days here, 2 days walking the rim and 2 days descending into the canyon.
On one of the walks we descended 1000 metres, to a lookout over the Colorado
River another 500 metres below. This was on the main trail that the donkeys
use to carry supplies, and tourists, to the ranch at the bottom, where you can
stay overnight. Many American hikers were doing the North Rim to South Rim,
a 24-mile hike, down across the footbridge and up the other side, which takes
2 days. It is then a 220-mile bus trip back to your car.
The Americans we have met have been very friendly and full of personality. They
are passionate about their country, would like to visit Australia one day and
think it is a long long way away. We have only met one lot of Australians from
Melbourne. They saw our Aussi sticker on the back of our van and were quite
excited.
Heading further north now into Utah.
Jennifer & Graeme
PS Still slurping on the Bacardi!
6.
Hi all, further to our story ...
Our last stop in Arizona, Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell on the Colorado River.
Another spectacular dam wall and another impressive bridge. We had seen photos
of Lake Powell in a brochure and it sure looked good, the blue skies, clear
blue water and towering white and red straight cliffs along the water line,
with houseboats dotted around. It is a beautiful sight and this dam continues
150 miles upstream with canyons and coves. One day, with a week or so to spare
we would love to hire a houseboat and a couple of canoes and spend some time
exploring Lake Powell.
We crossed the border into south Utah to more desert country. This region has
5 National Parks and a few State Parks all within ½ a day's drive of each other.
Zion National Park ran the shuttle service 13 km through the bottom of the canyon,
with huge white and red sandstone walls beside a raging river. We did a couple
of walks to up to viewpoints over the canyon to heights of around 1500ft and
a few nice walks along the rivers. This National Park had rock climbers scaling
the straight red walls. It takes two days to reach the top and the shuttle bus
driver said they secure hammocks into the rock face to sleep the night. We could
see two sets of climbers, like spiders clinging to the rock far above the canyon
floor.
The scenery from Zion NP to Bryce National Park was wonderful, as we climbed
from 3,000 feet to 8,000 feet. Bryce Canyon NP is very hard to describe. It
has viewpoints along the rim over spectacular intricately shaped pinnacles of
rock from deep red to white and peach colours. There are a few walks you can
take down into the valley and walk among the huge pinnacles.
Kodachrome State Park was named after the Kodak film due to its colours and
vibrancy – although a beautiful place with a lovely campground, it did not quite
fit the allusion, possibly because we had been to Bryce Canyon NP which was
richly colored the day before.
Capitol Reef National Park is a lesser visited park. The reef is an uplift in
the earths crust about 150 miles long. From some of the vantage points you could
see the reef stretching into the distance. The National Parks in the US have
good visitors centers with 3 D maps, they all have outdoor amphitheatres and
have talks, slides or DVDs at 9.00pm each night in tourist season. So to be
a Ranger over here you need to be an actor, singer and speaker, to keep everyone
amused till it gets dark and he or she start the film.
Canyonlands National Park was like looking at the Grand Canyon, but you could
not see the other side, the canyons went on forever. They did not have the same
colours or be on the same scale as the Grand Canyon, but it was still very scenic.
Arches National Park was just that, huge arches in the rock. We had one day
here with a 7.00am start as the most popular walk's carpark fills early in the
morning. The arches were lovely as they framed the blue sky or snow-capped mountains
in the distance. There are approx 60 arches in the park and we saw some 20 or
so.
This southern desert area of Utah has been a feast for the eyes. It is getting
warmer, the last 3 days is in the 90sF (35°C) and we are ready for some
cooler temperatures which I’m sure we will get as we head west into Colorado.
The motorbikes, cars, motorhomes, 5th wheelers and caravans (trailers) are amazing
and everywhere. We thought that Americans worked so hard and had little time
for play, however there are plenty of people around most of the time so it seems
that they make the most of the spare time they have even if only a couple of
days and hop a plane, train or automobile and go somewhere.
The number of families traveling in RVs is surprising as this is an oldies'
passion in Australia. Many of the RVs have fold down rear doors which house
canoes, dirt bikes quad bikes etc. If you don’t have a fold down rear door you
simply tow a SUV (we tow with trucks this size, not tow them) whether your RV
is a motorhome or a 5th wheeler in the later case making a three-unit rig (ie
tow vehicle, 5th wheeler and SUV).
Inflation has hit though – the last oil change had gone from around $23 at a
chain type lube shop to $40 at a small garage in a small town – still cheap
and good job done.
The other bad news is that the bacardi has evaporated – damn arid environment!
An amazing place ...
Jennifer & Graeme
PS hope you all are active and well.
7.
Glad you are enjoying travel logs.
We have a new spot for a Tuesday paddle on the Colorado River at Glenwood Springs...
this might be right up Danny's alley...
Cheers G & J (See pic at top)
Say hello to all.
8. (posted 6/7/2010)
Our travels continue..
Heading into Colorado and onto the Interstate 70 highway, running east/west,
the scenery started to change to greener rolling hills, with huge snow-capped
mountains in the distance. We side-tracked off to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison
River National Park which was a grizzly sight as we pulled into the first overlook
— black granite walls up to 2,700 feet, some sheer down to a white river
below. There were many viewpoints and rim walks to look way down onto the river
weaving below, complete with history boards on explorers who tried to negotiate
through the 30 miles of canyon.
Back on the I 70 highway, following the Colorado River, we experienced a great
drive through various canyons and lots of good scenery. A must-see was the historic
resort town of Glenwood (Hot) Springs and a trip to the ski town of Aspen. There
are many large, beautiful homes and gardens in Aspen and on the surrounding
hills. There was no snow around the town and the summer walks over the ski fields
were open, so a walking tour was organised and enjoyed with views of the town
and valley. A short drive uphill (again) out of town were the much photographed
Maroon Bells mountains where there were walks to a few high lakes which sit
under the snow-capped peaks – a very picturesque place and well worth the effort
of the walk.
Back on the highway, we again followed the Colorado River upstream through Glenwood
Canyon. The 15 mile canyon was narrow with tall sides with and a 1930s 4 lane
highway on one side and railway line on the other. America is very good at building
huge roads through impossible places - they blast tunnels through mountains
& build roads up on huge pillars, no matter the cost!
Following the Colorado had become a pilgrimage to us as we had encountered it
many times, and felt that when there was an opportunity to be near it we would
take it. So we turned off the I 70 making our way still alongside the Colorado
River to its headwaters through the town of Hot Sulphur Springs, where there
were 24 different hot pools to swim in, from one-person pools to large covered
pools, stepping down the hillside where the hot water came from. We had a great
day hopping from one pool to another.
Passing through Great Lake was like a postcard -— very picturesque lake
with the snow-capped Rocky Mountains reflected in the lakes. The road from here
was up and over the Rocky Mountains National Park and is labeled ‘Road to the
sky’ the highest point on which was 12,300 feet, from where it descended to
Denver at around 5300 ft on the other side. The road is a National Scenic Byway
and it took us all day stopping at all the lookouts and short walks crunching
over snow to points of interest. We had a beautiful still clear day and the
scenery from up there was just amazing. This road is usually open 4 months of
the year from June onward, and you could see that they had cut and moved much
snow to open the road.
We stayed at the NP campground (8,000 feet) for a few days, as there is so much
walking to mostly gorges, where there are beautiful lakes nestled up under snow-capped
rocky cliff faces. Our favourite was Emerald Lake -— emerald water, snow
meeting the lake and dark green pines dotted around in the rocks.
The Rocky Mountains are the divide between water heading east and west – east
via the Colorado River and on to the Gulf of California, west to the Mississippi
and the Gulf of Mexico.
We left the National Park heading through a mountain town, Estes Park, houses
dotted around the hills with great views, doing our final exit down through
Boulder canyon, with the river rushing beside us for miles.
We had a quick look at Denver then onto Boulder, a lovely town under the Rocky
Mountains. Here we visited our niece (whom we have not seen for 15 years since
she left Australia) her partner and her children. We had a lovely time with
them catching up on news.
We then headed north into Wyoming where they take tourism seriously. Visitor’s
centers on approaches to towns, rest areas so you can pull off and lots of info
and maps. There are a lot of historical sites in Wyoming as the wagon trains
routes from east to west in the 1800s carrying primarily Mormons, fleeing the
east to practise their religious beliefs, and settlers opening up the west.
The south-west corner of South Dakota was our next traverse to see the The Black
Hills Area and the very popular Mt Rushmore, which is a high granite cliff face
that has 4 presidents’ heads carved, completed in 1941. Once again lots of info,
2 theatres, signboards, visitors centre and huge amphitheatre under the sculptures.
We decided to visit later in the day to take in the lighting up of the sculptures
at 9.30pm. We were told to get a seat at 8.30pm, in case you miss out – they
weren’t joking the place was packed with a couple of thousand people in attendance.
Very patriotic with the kids asking a ranger questions on any US president –
only catch was the kids had to know the answer first. Then a film on the carving
of the faces followed by the National Anthem and lowering of the flag.
Also in the Black Mountains we visited the Wind Cave National Park, going underground
via a lift to take in a couple of miles of the 134 miles of caverns mapped in
this cave system. At Custer State Park we drove the wildlife loop where some
wildlife took over the road as donkeys mosied up to your window to check out
the offerings. Huge Bison also stood in the middle of the road looking through
your windscreen, not moving till they were ready.
Also visited the Badlands National Park where erosion has left behind stark
white cliffs and pillars, the scenic drive going through passes to the bottom
and back up a couple of times in the 35mile drive.
Exiting from the Black Mountains was the town of Deadwood, a rich gold mining
town with a colorful history. This picturesque town, in a narrow valley, had
re-enactments of shootings in saloons and street fights — plenty of shooting
in the main street throughout the day. The town now has 30 casinos or more and
is full of tourists.
We are now heading for Yellowstone National Park where we can see some early
mornings coming up to beat the expected crowds!
Jennifer & Graeme
9. (posted 27/7/10) The journey continues ...
As the Black Hills district disappears in the rear vision, we leave South Dakota and drive back into the rolling green hills of Wyoming and onto the Devils Tower National Monument. This is a 1200 foot high volcanic plug with a flat top. A walk around the base offers spectacular close-up views of the tower and rock climbers like little spiders making their way up the vertical walls.
To get from Devils Tower to Yellowstone NP we needed to cross the Bighorn Mountains, looming ahead with a 4,000 foot climb. We checked out the map to see if we could go around them, but alas it was hundreds of miles extra, so over them we went and were rewarded with a beautiful drive and an overnight stop at the highest point on the pass, with snow drifts all around, and a lovely cool night for a change. I think we must have climbed 6,000 foot, overall, to get over them as there were many downhill runs only to go back up again. The final drive down was through a canyon with the cliffs each side reminding us of the Blue Mountains cliffs, with a raging river running below. The exit was through a beef district, where we were caught in town for an hour for their one day early 4th of July celebrations by way of a country parade. Many American flags, Proud-to-be-American signs and everyone in their red white and blue.
On 4th July, we were lucky enough to be in Cody, a large Wyoming town, for their Independence Day Parade. This was a huge event, with an hour and a half parade, many dignitaries, uniforms, horses, bands etc. One band at the end of the parade had 240 members playing which really got the goose bumps up. Celebrations continued throughout the day with live music in the park and BBQs everywhere and 10pm fireworks.
Yellowstone NP was just great! It has many aspects, and our 6 days there seemed a rush. It has a 130 mile loop that takes you through massive lakes, roaming animals (we saw 3 black bears early in the morning as we headed for “first-in best-in” campgrounds), the Yellowstone river cascading down huge waterfalls into an amazing canyon, many beautiful coloured steaming clear ponds, pastel mud pots you could watch for hours, geysers which went off at varying intervals, (Old Faithful geyser goes off every 90 minutes, and draws big crowds) 4 visitors centres, museums, high country wilderness walks in snow, the old army fort area at Mammoth Hot Springs and interesting ranger programs in the day and night. The crowds were good and everyone moves along well except for when a bear is spotted or when a few Bison decide to walk the road instead of the bush, traffic comes to a stop for 20 minutes or so. It was a wonderful experience and we reluctantly left for the Grand Teton National Park.
Reluctance disappeared when we first sighted these spectacular jagged granite snow-capped mountains that rise 6,000 feet straight out of glacier lakes. Holiday-makers had their ski and cruise boats moored in the bay, canoeists were out in force. What a backdrop to a day on the water! There are many canyons that run between the peaks so we did some great day-walks up past small lakes through the canyons where you get a stiff neck looking up at the peaks on either side...
We exited the Tetons following the huge Snake River which had long lakes dammed along its path to Idaho Falls in Idaho. We now had to head a bit north to go east (more mountains in the way) to the Interstate heading into Montana. Butte, an old copper-mining Historic Town set on the side of a hill, was a bit out of place as it had many huge old buildings built in the late 1800s when there were 550 copper mines in the district, and plenty of money around. An interesting walk around the town to read the plaques on the buildings.
Montana has many wilderness ranges, so most of its roads are built along rivers, which make for lovely drives, which avoid the mountains in the area.
We arrived at Missoula, Montana, and sought out a forest service campground in the Bitterroot Mountains, and a day walk part way through a 12 mile canyon with a beautiful stream flowing yet again from snow capped 7000 foot high mountains. We were enjoying the walk till a group on horseback stopped to talk, and we noticed they were carrying pistols. They said they were for the Bears and Mountain Lions (and horses if they were injured). They warned us that we should be carrying Bear Spray, which is like pepper spray. With that we eagerly turned around and headed back to the more populated track.
That night I thought Jennifer may get us evicted from the campground as she played “cat & mouse” with a rather friendly squirrel who decided to trade a leaf, which he put on Jennifer’s shorts, for something a bit more exotic from our plate. We thought these little things were so cute early in our trip, and took many photos. Now we are fighting them off whenever we are eating outdoors. The next day we walked the 12km around Lake Como, a water-skiing and fishing lake and finished off with a swim in the lake’s crystal clear cool waters with view to the snow covered peaks.
That’s all for now folks.
23 August 2010
Hi all,
We leave Montana and start our way south through Idaho toward LA. We travel over Lo Lo Pass and onto a scenic byway which hugs the river for 101 miles. What a drive with high pine forested mountains all the way! There were many walks along subsidiary creeks and foot bridges over the river to connect to the trails. We did a walk along a river to a series of shallow hot springs out in the bush. They fed out of the mountain into very hot pools. We soaked for a short while (too hot) and then found nice pool in the river, with a bit of warm water feeding into it and had a soak with a dozen or so others in other pools in the area.
We then turned onto the Salmon River, a fast-flowing river that cut through dramatic bald mountains. This stretch of road had a 7 mile, 7% grade. We were going downhill and it just kept going down down. We camped on a horseshoe bend in the river opposite tall cliffs, overlooking the river of rapids and waterfalls. Water quite noisy at night for sleeping.
Onto Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. The deepest part of this canyon was a 20 mile drive through the bottom of the canyon with a narrow dam beside you. With rocky cliffs up to 2,000 feet tall on either side. Another place where America has put a road in an impossible place. We stayed in an open camp beside the dam, feeling a bit vulnerable with such tall rocky crumbly cliffs so close. It was very hot in the canyon with no shade and water looked far too deep and black for a swim! So we drove up and out of Hells Canyon heading South West onto Oregon. We noticed on our map that further ahead was a information board for the Oregon trail pioneers – a perfect place for a read and cuppa. As we got closer to the spot where we thought the info board should be we asked ourselves “Is it a rock, is it a house, no it’s an info centre of Texas proportions!” (ie everything is bigger in Texas). On top of a huge hill was a large building with white roof, and white top wagon beside. Up we went through the gates... and there went the rest of the day! The centre was all about what happened in the mid 1800s in America when ordinary families and people, mainly from New York area left their families behind and took the 6 month trek to cross the mountains and take up free land and a new life in the west. America was in a depression — there was little food and no jobs. Approx 400,000 started out and 10% died along the way, mainly children from disease. There were displays, films, entertainers singing songs from that era, story-telling and a man dressed as a fur trapper who told of a life story of a trapper. He was so good!
The next day as we were pondering our thoughts of the previous day we see a sign that says ‘John Day Fossil Beds visitors centre - 2 miles’. Do we want to see fossils? Only 2 miles away... OK lets take a look -there went another day! This place was unbelievable. Around the visitors centre was like a lunar landscape, not a tree in sight huge cliffs and mountains sitting sideways. You walked into the visitors centre to be greeted by ranger who quickly points out major parts of the centre. We went straight to a large glass window to look a two men with dentist type of equipment chiselling away claystone to reveal teeth & bones. The fossil beds, about 8 miles around the visitors centre, was full of mammal bones. The staff go out into the field after rain when they can see parts of bones and put them plaster casts and bring them back for chiselling. They had a display of what they had recovered from the area, many many animal skulls and bones, and ferns, plantlife etc. The whole area had been a lush valley with rivers, trees and plenty of food approx 33 million years ago. Some of their large skeletons are in New York museums and around the world.
We find a nice place high on a pass with mountain views to spend the night and ponder the day's events and the theory of evolution and earth’s formation.
Onto the lovely town of Bend which has a backdrop of 6 snow-covered peaks in the Cascade Ranges behind it. In these mountains is a 160 mile loop, All American Scenic Byway , so off we went. The drive took us up amongst the peaks past many beautiful aqua lakes. Stopping many times for walks to lakes and waterfalls. The rivers and waterfalls were so clear and beautiful, the best we have seen. Overnight in the pines near a lake and up early to walk to more beautiful waterfalls, wind up over the Mackenzie Pass, which was a few mile pass through volcanic rocks heaped high with the Three Sisters Mountains snow-topped in the background.
At this stage we are thinking Oregon is a beautiful state with much to see, we have only done a couple of roads in it, and we are leaving USA in a month? So we rush on!
We are heading down toward Crater Lake Nat Park and stop at the Newbury National Volcanic Monument. This whole area has old volcano remnants. Another area full of volcanic rocks, we were lucky enough to arrive as the rangers program started and had a ranger to ourselves, for commentry on the walk around the volcano.
We arrived at Crater Lake with much anticipation. Our first look just left us speechless for 5 minutes as we took in the scope, beauty of the lake and ruggedness of its shores. It has a 33 mile drive around the lake with 30 vista points. We set off on the only walk to the shore 700 feet down. The water so deep a step or so from the lake shore. The afternoon we walked the highest peak near the lake for a vista over the lake and surrounding area. What a sight! From up here we could see a huge 14,000ft snow-covered mountain, Mount Shasta in northern California.
On leaving Crater Lake we headed into California and a detour around Mt Shasta where we stopped at a vista point at 5,000 feet. We were approx 10 miles from Mt Shasta, and it was just huge in front as it was 9,000 feet higher than we were in front of us, and cone-shaped.
This detour took us through California Agricultural inspection station, with no warning to eat your fruit. So we had to sit and eat a kilo of cherries (not hard to do!), as they could not go into California. All our nectarines, peaches and other fruit was OK as it was grown in Calif. All the fruit in US has been good and very cheap... rock melons that taste like melons used to, etc.
Onto Lassen Volcanic National Park. The remains of Mt Lassen, (27,000 years old) now at 10,457 feet last erupted in 1915 spewing huge boulders onto surrounding area. There were many old photos of this event. The park had a 35 mile drive through with a high point of 8,512 feet. At this high point was a big carpark in the snow where many people took the walk to the top of Mt Lassen, including us. A great view of the remains of old volcanoes. Mud pots and steam vents were also in this Nat Park. We spent the evening around a camp fire with a family in an RV that we bumped into a few times throughout the day. Both their children, aged 8 & 10yrs, had walked the 2,000 foot elevation to the top of Mt Lassen along with many other families & children. They find it interesting & have many questions about Australia & us many of their lives in the US [?], the recession, politics etc. We have met many Americans, swapped stories and information, been given many email addresses, which we will catch up with when we get home.
Onto Lake Tahoe...
Jennifer & Graeme
Hi all, (9 September 2010)
Travelling further south to Lake Tahoe, which is 6,600 feet above sea level,
we encountered yet another pass - peaking at around 7200 feet making for a 3000ft
climb - only to descend back down to the lake. Lake Tahoe is approx the size
of Lake Macquarie in NSW and has a huge snow capped mountain backdrop around
all sides, with only one break on the mountains where the Tahoe river exits
the lake. The area is a summer destination for locals from San Francisco for
boating, fishing, biking & hiking. There are many bike paths, mountain bike
tracks and a hike across the top of the peaks around the lake. We parked the
van in a campground and took to the streets and bike paths on our bikes exploring
the foreshore which was dotted with beautiful homes, many of which were log
construction, and along the Tahoe River which had a bike path running alongside
for 10 miles.
Driving further around the lake we came to beautiful Emerald Bay with huge cliffs
around it and lookouts on the rim. Early in the 1950s the bay froze over completely
as it is shallower than the rest of Lake Tahoe and has a small entrance from
the lake which appeared to also have a sandbar for added protection.
We hiked to beautiful Granite Lake which is perched above Lake Tahoe – granite walls disappear into the crystal clear waters and, with the green pine trees, is just stunning.
Further around the lake were more bike paths so spent a couple of days riding
and a local favourite ride to Fallen Leaf Lake, 6 miles from Tahoe on a nice
sealed pinetree-lined road. This lake is surrounded on its southern shore by
magnificent log houses perched high in the hills overlooking the lake and snow-capped
mountains rising straight up out of the water on the other.
With Lake Tahoe behind us we head further south to Yosemite NP. After much discussion on the best way to access the park, as again you guessed it, there was a huge 5,000 foot climb over a 10,000 foot pass to access the eastern section of the park which was home to Toulumne Meadows high sierra area with many lakes and white granite domed peaks.
We spent 3 days hiking this area. Beautiful alpine lakes suspended in granite
with low heath, wildflowers and pines and to some of the granite domes and peaks
for great views. The evenings were as eventful as the days with beaut Ranger
programmes. One ranger had us engrossed with his talk on the history of climbing
rock faces at Yosemite and leading to him telling us all about his 5 day climb
up the biggest sheer rock face in the valley, with 2 others, the equipment they
used and carried etc. Retiring for the evening had us alarmed at the screaming,
yelling and pots being banged together as a black bear and her cub was on the
prowl for campers' food. The next night was the same, we were safely inside
looking out while campers were yelling and the bear ran straight past the front
of our van.
Then the 55 mile drive down from the high country through the NP to the Yosemite Valley, 6,000 feet below. We were a bit concerned about crowds in the valley as some other campers had said it was very busy as this is where 95% of the 4 million annual visitors go when in Yosemite NP. The drive down was very scenic, we stopped and walked among a grove of 3,000 year old sequoia trees (like huge pines). The final descent was through 3 tunnels in the side of the mountains then we finally reached the valley floor. In the valley there are shuttle bus & bike path systems everywhere and these virtually stop the movement of cars once you either go to a parking lot or a campground. This made for a peaceful environment and a nice time biking to the local waterfalls, lakes etc .
More black bears were roaming the campground in the valley. If the bears don’t
leave with the yelling, the Rangers shoot rubber bullets at the Bears' bottom
which sends them away, and the rangers are patrolling all night. The Black Bears
do not attack humans (unlike the Grizzly Bears, which are at Yellowstone, that
killed a man in a tent and injured 2 other campers a week or so after we left).
In Bear country no food can be left unattended and there is a Bear proof steel
box for all food at each site if you are traveling in a car and tent. When checking
in at a campground you read and sign a card that says that you will be fined
$5,000 for leaving food unattended or not locked properly at night. If the Bears
don’t get a feed after a few visits then they tend not to come back.
The views from the valley floor were amazing looking up to the huge granite
walls surrounding the Merced River. We donned backpacks and boots and started
an 15k return hike to up to Glacier Point lookout climbing 3,200 feet. Once
again the views were magnificent over the valley and the sentinel of Half Dome,
a huge half dome of white granite which at peak times is climbed by 2000 people
per day hanging onto chains !!
Standing at Glacier Point we decided not to retrace our steps but continue on the path past Nevada and Vernal Falls for truly fantastic additional 17ks back to the valley floor.
We exited out of Yosemite in awe along the river with canyon walls each side
for 40 miles or so till we finally met the plains which were irrigated fields
of almonds, pistachios, strawberries, nectarines, peaches and melons. We stopped
at a roadside stall, but with only a week to go we had to hold back a bit but
still walked away with melons and avocados and a bag of the biggest juiciest
nectarines and peaches. We are going to miss their fruit!
We travelled back toward LA and decided to have our last week along the coast.
Heading to north of San Diego with the intention of travelling to the ritzy
beach localities of Laguna Beach, Santa Monica, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Malibu
and others. We had a couple of days south of LA by the beach, riding the bike
paths, and Graeme swam in the Pacific Ocean. The sea mist was incredible with
much of the beach shrouded with an eerie feel that swirled around most of the
day.
As the traffic along the strip of coast south of LA was as thick as the mist we opted to take a freeway and head for the northern beaches. The coastal strip is beautiful, but looks a bit like the desert mountains meeting the sea, most of the exits off the ocean were through canyons. We saw many homes set high on the hills and many homes metres off the highway on absolute beachfront.
The last couple of days we spent at State Park campgrounds & beaches riding
up into canyons on multi-purpose tracks and walking along the beach in lovely
weather.
We are now packing our suitcase and organizing the van for storage as we fly out today, looking forward to coming home, but have maps with us to plan our next US adventure.
See you soon,
Jennifer & Graeme
From
Jennifer and Graeme - kayaking in the Grand Tetons
Kayaking
on the Colorado River
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