Hoover Dam & Death Valley

This morning we got up and went for a quick tour of the Dam, and re-learnt many of the facts Tony had told us the night before. It was admittedly a very impressive place, but much more touristy than we've been used to over the last couple of weeks, so we got straight back on the road and headed towards Death Valley in search of some more big empty spaces.

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The road to Death Valley was another seemingly endless stretch of straight road that goes as far as the eye can see until it disappears into the hazy distance without so much as a twist, kink or undulation. In this part of the country, the road maps show vast areas of the desert marked with sinister sounding names such as "China Lake Naval Weapons Testing Centre" and "USAF Air to Ground Range". Driving past Creach Air-Force Base, we saw those weird unmanned drones that look like something out of Terminator doing circuits of the airfield, and F-15s parked up by the runway.

We also passed through a ghost town called Death Valley Junction (it had originally been constructed for workers in the borax mines), which still has one resident - a former ballet dancer who became disillusioned with the New York ballet scene in the 1960s and so decided to occupy the former town hall, build a stage and paint an audience on the walls - which she performs to twice a week to this day, despite now being in her eighties!

Driving down into Death Valley itself revealed a weird, post-apocalyptic landscape which, based upon our experiences of the last couple of weeks in the other national parks, we fully expected to be completely devoid of any people. But when we got down to Furnace Creek, the first two campsites we tried were actually completely full, and so we ended up having to spend the night in an overflow. Turns out that February is high-season for Death Valley, as it gets so hot in summer that the lodges and even certain roads are closed. So there were lots of people visiting for a few days to catch a bit of February sunshine.

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We managed to get away from everyone by going for a hike in an area called the Golden Canyon. It was bloomin' hot, but beautiful in a strange sort of way - and the whole area was full of abandoned mines from the gold rush days, which I had to physically restrain Tracy from exploring, despite the signs warning about unstable explosives, poisonous gases, collapsed shafts etc. We also drove out to the salt flats and to a place called Badwater which is the lowest point in the United States, some 282ft below sea-level.

Hoover Dam

If you follow the main road from the Grand Canyon to Hoover Dam, it's mostly dull interstate but there is the option of turning off and taking Route 66 instead, which we did, hoping to find our kicks. It's a longer road, but a bit more interesting in that you pass through the odd town, all of which look pretty desperate presumably having suffered the loss of their business since the building of the faster interstate. One highlight was spotting possibly the ugliest church in the world, quite literally a white, windowless cement bunker. This was located just outside the delightful little town of 'Chloride' which even in its heyday must have been fairly rough.

Once you get within a mile or so of the Hoover Dam, everyone gets pulled over by Homeland Security for a vehicle search, as the Dam is now considered a high risk potential terrorist target. In fact, construction of a colossal bridge right in front of the Dam is well underway, and when this (along with a new stretch of highway) is completed in 2010, the Dam will be closed to vehicle access altogether. The bridge will be the largest of it's kind in the western hemisphere, and even now looks just as impressive as the Dam itself.

We spent the night in an RV park just on the edge of Lake Mead. The park host, Tony, was a friendly ex-New Yorker who had spent a large part of his life working as a tour-bus guide in various parts of America. I got the impression he hadn't really snapped out of that mind-set yet, as he proceeded to bomabard Tracy and I with multiple facts and statistics for, without a word of a lie, two hours. Did you know that enough concrete was used in the consrtuction of the Hoover Dam to build a four-foot wide walkway around the earth's equator? Or that the first and last men to die during the construction of the Dam were father and son, killed exactly thirteen years apart to the day? I didn't, but I know that and many, many other things now!

A Grand Day(s) Out

We've just spent the last few days in the Grand Canyon, and it was brilliant. The park itself is somewhat more accessible than the other places we've been, and so there were considerably more people around the lodges on the rim. However, by getting up before dawn and waiting outside the ranger office, we managed (on the second attempt) to get one of the very limited back-country permits - they're usually booked up a year in advance - which allow you to hike down into the canyon itself and camp overnight. We rented a tent and a couple of sleeping bags, and hiked down to Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon, right next to the Colorado River.

The walk down wasn't too hard going, and as you get lower down into the canyon, the temperature increases as you pass through several distinct climate zones, from alpine at the top, through temperate and desert at the bottom. Each has its whole own eco-system and wildlife. The layers of different rock change dramatically too; the base rock at the bottom of the valley is amongst the oldest in the world, formed around two billion (two thousand million) years ago.

So although we started off with gloves and crampons, by the time we were at the bottom of the canyon we were in shorts and t-shirts. It was weird to camp out in perfect comfort under the stars, while a mile directly above us our RV was parked in a foot of snow. Actually perfect comfort is probably a bit strong - back-breaking, rocky lumpiness is probably a bit closer to the truth. But it wasn't cold.

Next morning after breakfast we set off back to the top which was, understandably, a considerably harder hike than the journey down. However, we made it back up in five hours including food/water stops, and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves until we got overtaken by a Finnish superwoman we had passed a few hours back while she was on her way down...annoyingly, she'd gone top to bottom and back up again in 5.5 hours and didn't even look particularly out of breath. Still, by any normal human standards we still put in a pretty good time, so tried not to let it bother us too much!

Monument Valley

We're at Monument Valley tonight, on-route to the Grand Canyon. The whole area is controlled and managed by the Navajo tribe, and sits within the Navajo Indian Reservation, which is one of the poorest parts of the United States. It's also strictly no-alcohol on the reservation, so I've had to carefully hide my beers in one of the storage compartments under the Rv. Monument Valley itself is great to see because it's so iconic and instantly recognisable from so many films. The camp site we're in has a cracking view of the valley and a new hotel just up the road also provided some good photo-ops. The area generally feels a bit less regulated than the National Parks, with buildings beginning to spring up, but you can't really hold it against the locals for trying to scratch out a living from their biggest tourist draw.

Canyonlands

Well after Sam's food faux paux we retreated from Moab, waving goodbye to Bill and Marty who had looked after us so well at Portal RV park. Bill's promise that he'd be sending an email out that eve to all his friends about those crazy Brits was still ringing in our ears. After driving a couple of hours we turned off on to the road into Canyonlands National Park and out into the wild. The park really is in the middle of nowhere and other than the visitors center on the park boundary there is no civilisation for miles - fantastic. We did a few short walks the first night, one passing through an old Cowboy camp (basically a rock outcropping near a natural spring) which was used by cowboys from the early 1800's right up until up until 1975. Before that the same site had been used for hundreds of years by indiginous people, and the rocks were covered in their pictographs, thought to be over seven hundred years old. That night we lit a campfire and watched the sun set over the red rocks.

Feeling refreshed we decided to take a longer hike the next morning, which ended up as a fifteen mile expedition through the most wild and rugged terrain I have ever seen. We were scrambling over rocks, navigating deep canyons and cautiously making our way across exposed prarie land. Apparently mountain lions will go for small children so Sam made it quite clear that I was at risk, causing me to run for cover at every rustle in the long grass. We had an amazing view of 'The Needles' huge big spires of red rock jutting up before you, it makes you feel very insignificant! The final few miles back were a killer, at each turn we hoped to see the campsite but with no such luck. With our legs aching and bellys rumbling we eventually got back, just before sunset and in time for a glass of wine and a big plate of lasagne.

Bullocks!!

We spent four nights in Moab, and it's been fantastic (apart from one slight embarassment, which I'll get to in a minute). The town itself has a really laid-back atmosphere, and seems to be populated mostly by outdoor pursuit types, and older hippie folk. Every other shop seems to be a mountain bike shop of a rafting/hiking/off-roading operator. This is because Moab is surrounded by the Colorado River on one side, and amazing 'slick-rock' mountains on two others. Slick-rock is a kind of porous sandstone (feels like pumice), so-named because it didn't provide any grip for horse-shoes or cowboy boots back in the day. However it grips very nicely indeed to rubber tyres, and now the area around Moab is known as one of the mountain-bike capitals of the world, due to the fact that you can cycle for miles up and down undulating plateaus of slick-rock. There are also plenty of off-road ATV enthusiasts who drive up impossible slopes in their modified 4x4s.

The first day (after getting the RV fixed, which we managed fairly easily at a local garage), we hired a couple of bikes and attempted the Slick-Rock trail, which is apparently one of the most famous mountain-bike trails in the world. It was a killer, but provided some incredible views of the Colorado River from ledges high up the mountain. It was a bit scary in places, as some of the descents are more than 45 degress steep, so you have to hang over the back of the bike just to stop yourself from going right over the handlebars.

The next day, we went out on a ride with the guy who runs the RV park, Bill and his mate Thadius. They were much better riders than us, but were really patient and helped us with our technique for negotiating some of the trickier terrain. We went up a route called Amasa Back which was basically a five-mile uphill slog followed by a pause at the top to admire the views, then a full-pelt death-defying ride back to the bottom. Awesome fun. They were both very impressed by Tracy's ability to keep up on the downhill sections; apparently you don't get too many women bikers! That night (it being Valentines and all) we went to a really nice restaurant overlooking the Colorado River. The ranch and surrounding area have been used in countless videos, from Thelma and Louise to Bon Jovi videos.

Our last day in Moab, we went hiking in adjacent Arches National Park which, as the name suggests, is famous for it's natural arches. In fact, it has the highest concentration of them in the world, and some of these things are absolutely massive. You can sit under them looking out over the incredible landscape, and the scale of the place just blows your mind. Also, being out of season meant that there weren't really too many other people around so it felt like you had millions of acres to yourself.

That night we went out for dinner with Thad, Bill and his wife Marty. They're both retired teachers, who sold up their house and 'put it on the road' by buying an enormous caravan and pick-up. They're now doing a much longer version of our little road-trip, gradually working their way around the west. I told them about our meal the previous night at Red Canyon Ranch, and about these delicious but strange deep-fried oysters I'd had for starters. "You don't mean Colorado Mountain Oysters, do you?" Bill asked me, "You know they're sliced bull balls?!!" Anyway, much laughter was had at my expense for the rest of the night.

"Green River"...

Moab was a bit too distant to make in one afternoon, so we had to pit-stop last night in the misleadingly named Green River. It's not green and there's no river - in fact the whole place is pretty run down and seedy, there doesn't really seem to be anything there apart from a few truck stops and motels. It does have a decent RV park though, so we were able to hook everything up for the night. I find it weird that there is literally nothing but desert for hundreds of miles in all directions, and yet someone chose that particualar spot to plonk a town, and then a load more people decided it would be a great place to come to live and run their businesses.

Escalante Canyon

After a good night's sleep (by "good" I mean cold, by "sleep" I mean intermittment dozing broken up by various things failing to work in the campervan such as the heating, batteries, water-pump etc) we went for a hike along Calf Creek, which follows the base of the canyon all the way to a spectacular waterfall at the far end. Again, the rock formations and size of the place is just amazing - each of the canyons are also so different from each other. There was ancient rock-art created by Fremon Indians around 800 years ago, and the waterfall itself with it's crystal clear pool at the bottom looked like something straight off a movie set, or pinched from one of the casinos in Las Vegas.

When we got back to the van, we found that the water had frozen in the grey water tank and cracked some of the piping, which is a bit annoying as there is now a steady trickle of water (thankfully not the 'black' water!) coming out of the van which we'll need to get fixed. Given all the other problems we had the previous night, we decided to press on towards Moab where we can get everything looked at by an RV mechanic. Unfortunately, this means missing out one of the National Parks we had intended to visit but Moab is supposed to be great for mountain-biking, so we might spend a few days there.

Bryce Canyon National Park

The weather at Zion has set in for the next few days, so we decided to abandon our Canyoneering ambitions and get on the road to our next stop, Bryce Canyon. Getting out of Zion National Park was pretty hairy - there's a really narrow tunnel that the rangers have to shut down especially for anyone in a large vehicle (us), fortunately there wasn't much traffic so we didn't annoy too many people. The drive to Bryce Canyon National Park took about three hours in a nasty snowstorm but we eventually got there and, after almost getting stuck in snow at one campsite, we found an RV park called 'Ruby's' which had a hot-tub and pool, and really good steaks.

I read in one of our books that all of the National Parks in this part of the States are 'Mountain Lion' country, but hadn't thought much of it, and assumed that this was just americans making their wildcats sound hard, much like a 'wolverine' is basically an otter, and 'prairie-dogs' are squirrels. Anyway, in the entrance to Ruby's they have a couple of stuffed mountain lions, and it turns out that they actually really are full-sized, proper lions. Apparently they're pretty rare and attacks on people are even rarer, but even so I'm glad we're staying in an RV rather than a tent. There are also rattlesnakes, scorpions, jaguar and bear - it's strange to be in a westernised country with so much stuff that can eat you. No wonder everyone has guns here.

Anyway, this morning we went for a walk around Bryce Canyon, and it is stunning. The rock formations are bizarre - the indiginous people apparently believed that they are the petrified remains of an elder civilisation that were turned to stone for being bad, and you can definitely see faces and figures in the rocks.

After lunch, we set out on towards the Escalante Canyons, about fifty miles east of Bryce. We really had a feeling of being on an American road-trip, with the tarmac stretching out in front of you all the way to the horizon. Escalante is at a lower altitude than Bryce so it's warmer, although being in the desert it's still very cold at night. We've found a really nice little campsite in the canyons, and hopefully should get some exploring done tomorrow.

Leaving Las Vegas

We checked out of the Stratosphere around 11am and got a free shuttle across town to Road Bear RVs to pick up our home for the next 26 nights! The RV is the smallest one on offer (sleeps six), but is still about the biggest thing I’ve driven. We have all mod-cons including shower, toilet and coffee maker!

By the time we had completed all the paperwork and stopped off at WalMart for supplies, it was getting on a bit, and we arrived at Zion National Park in complete darkness after a rushed drive from Vegas. The check-in kiosk was closed, so we found ourselves a spot, hooked up the electricity and water, and enjoyed cooking for ourselves for the first time in a month. It’s amazing how nice it was to eat a chicken salad that contained less than 12000 calories and didn’t come with waffles on the side. This morning we woke up to some amazing scenery; Zion national park is right in the middle of canyon-land and all around the campsite are huge red sandstone monoliths that look like something straight out of a Marlboro advert.

There was a minor crisis when we tried to disconnect the water hook-up from the RV; it had somehow become jammed on (not my fault, honest) and so we had to drive back to the nearest town (ominously called Hurricane) with the hose wrapped around the rear bumper to find an RV servicing yard. A friendly chap fixed it for us in less than a minute so we were able to get back to Zion pretty quickly.

The weather here is a few degrees colder than Vegas (we’re almost halfway back to Aspen) and it looks like it’s going to be overcast for the next few days, but we still went for a drive around Zion National Park, and did a couple of short walks along the river, and to “Weeping Rock” – an overhang in the sandstone cliffs which ‘weeps’ a constant shower of water. Apparently in takes the water 1,000 years to seep through the stone and reach the overhang, so it was pretty cool to go and stand under it and know how old it is.

If the rain holds off, we’re going to try canyoneering in the next day or two – which basically means getting kitted up with water proof gear and walking the course of the river along the canyon.

Photo Galleries

I've put a link on the blog to my Google online web albums - this is where I'm going to put most of my pics, as I only really have space for one or two on the blog itself. The link is on the right hand side of the blog, or you can go to http://picasaweb.google.com/sampemberton ... enjoy, you lucky people!

Eco-warriors...

Just to convey how ridiculously big the pick-ups and SUVs are over here, check out the photo of Tracy below - and that's not even one of the bigger ones we've seen - some of these things are literally the size of trucks!

Las Vegas

Well, what can I say about Las Vegas? Everything that you've seen or read about it is true; it's both glamourous and tacky, impressive and desperate. After Aspen, I was worried that we would find it all a bit garish, and we did - it took a day to switch mind-set and begin to enjoy Vegas on it's own merits. Maybe I've watched Ocean's 11/12/13 and Casino Royale too many times, because I was expecting there to be more evidence of rich playboys gambling $100k hands, and Ferraris parked outside all of the Casinos. Instead, watching all the old dears pumping their pensions into the slot machines a quarter at a time, it felt more like Brighton Pier on steroids. Lots of steroids, admittedly - the Bellagio dancing fountains were absolutely incredible, as were the indoor shopping streets and the half-sized Eiffel Tower.

We saw the 'adult' Cirque do Soleil show, Zumanity at the New York, New York Casino - all very raunchy, also the Shark Aquarium at Mandaly Bay and dolphins and a baby leopard at Sigfreid and Roy's Secret Garden at the Mirage. Apparently Roy doesn't get out much these days since one of his white tigers savaged him on stage a couple of years ago, so now they run a little wildlife preserve. We also had a gondola ride along the replica canals in the Venetian.

Time for a quick game of 'Spot the Forgery'. Below are some pictures of famous landmarks from our previous holdidays, alongside pictures of their replica counterparts in Las Vegas. See if you can pick out the Georgio Armani from the Sergio Georgini...