Monterray Bay - the place I want to live!

Friday, 24th September to Saturday 25th September (Not long enough)

We travelled to Monterray Bay on a whim after Helena sent us a lovely article on Sea Otters.

We parked up at Fishermans Wharf and walked about 25 yard along the pier, when there in the sea at the right of us was a Sea Otter! We were astonished as they are so rare - there are apparently about 2,000 now after they were almost hunted to extinction in the early 1900's.

                                                     Sea Otter with Scallop

After that first sighting, over the next couple of days, we watched 23 Otters, two of which had young.  I watched one mother leave her baby by a buoy while she dived down for Scallops  The baby swam in little circles until Mum returned; Mum swam under the baby, then flipped it onto her chest.  They then both enjoyed her seafood find together.  I dont think we could ever tire of watching these incredible, cute little creatures.

The Bay is also home to Sea Lions, Harbour Seals and Pelicans due to the presence of fishermen who clean off their fish on the piers and feed the rejected parts to the wildlife.

                                                                   Feeding Station!

In the evening, we watched a family group of 13 raccoons on Fishermans Wharf, who were clearly accustomed to being fed by sightseers and were wholly entertaining.

                                                            One of 13 Raccoons!

We went on a 3 hour boat trip to see the Blue Whales and Humpback Whales who frequent the channel, six miles out, which is rich in food.  We were not disappointed, seeing 2 of each type of whale, very clearly. The only downside was the passengers, who had not come prepared for the trip, even though hand outs advised them to take warm clothing, water, sea sickness tablets, sunscreen, sun glasses etc.  The number of people who were sea sick was astonishing, especially as the sea was not that rough!

                                                             Pete on the boat

We also took a drive down the 17 mile Scenic highway to Carmel, where Clint Eastwood was mayor, which was an absolute rip off at $9.95, when Highway 1 has even better coastal views for free!

Monterray is incredible, sophisticated, charming and teeming with wonderful wildlife; personally, I think Otis Redding sang 'Dock of the Bay' for here rather than San Fransisco!

Death Valley and Yosemite

Tuesday 21st September to Thursday 23rd September

From Vegas, we took the north west highway out across the Pauite desert reservation towards Yosemite.  The landscape must be the most boring in the entire world - vast swathes of real nothingness.  We stopped at a gas station by a military base and it was full of Alien stories - why would Aliens want to land there?

A guy from the base advised us to take the scenic route through Death Valley, so we did - it was incredible.  The temperature slowly rose until it reached 109 degrees fahenheit; signs advised us to turn off the air conditioning in case the car overheated, crows sat in the shade with their beaks open.  It was all so surreal!  We passed through a valley of Judas trees, aptly named Judas Tree Valley!  But it was surprising how much life there was in this hot spot.

                                                     Judas Tree Valley

=

 Death Valley

From here we continued our journey to Yosemite and drove through from the North East side. The mountains are made up of the most incredible white rock and look as though they are covered in snow.  The journey through to the valley was an absolute delight. Then we passed through tunnels to the valley, an area we really wanted to see as it was used in the filming of Maverick (Mel Gibson) as the site where the Indians lived.  What a disappointment!  Roads had been cut through everywhere, and tarmaced cycle routes covered the remainder of the valley floor, with free space used for the most unattractive fixed camp sites we have ever seen!  Yosemite is the only national park we have seen that seems to prefer making a profit!  It was hideous.
Next day, after camping outside the park (because it was full) we returned for 2 walks, the first in the Giant Sequoia Grove which was great, and second, to Mirror Lake and beyond, which was not great, as they had forgotten to put up a sign to tell us that the path was blocked by a landslide last year!

                                                          Roots of a giant Sequoia!

                     This tree was cut to accommodate the road, but it killed the tree!



 
  One of the few spots in Yosemite Valley without tarmac and 'white canvas tents!'
          (To the left and right of this photo are 2, two lane highways!)

We left Yosemite feeling sad that such a beautiful location had been virtually turned into an outdoor theme park.

We drove through to Mariposa and booked into a Super 8, then ate the best meal we have had in the States at a restaurant called Savouries (sorry Francesco's, you have been ousted) as compensation.

Las Vegas

Sunday 19th September to Tuesday 21st September

We arrived early to make the most of Vegas time, to the MGM Signature Hotel; definately, in our opinion the best hotel to stay at!  A valet took away the car and parked it, our room was sheer unadulterated luxury, the pool was glorious, and no casinos to walk through each time we wanted to leave the complex!  Worth every penny we paid!

As Carole had a cold, we spent a lot of time resting around the pool complex, but otherwise, we toured the strip, watched the entertainment and generally had a really good time.  Vegas is a good half way house, but also a 'must' for any vacation in the California area!

The show scene has changed dramatically since our last visit - 6 of the main shows are run by the Cirque de Soleil and there is little other choice.  However, the free groups in the Paris and New York pubs are worth watching

Unfortunately, we have no pictures as they are all on Petes internal camera memory and we have no access until we get back to England.......!

Bryce canyon

Friday 17th September

We had to drag ourselves away from our luxurious hotel and head for Bryce, which was another full days drive away. We stopped at northern Zion on the way to get in some scenery and a trail walk, then drove via Cedar Breaks to the Best Western Ruby's inn by the entrance to Bryce. This was another day of fantastic scenery, all very different and quite alpine. Every mile had a photo oportunity so we arrived quite late.

 We walked past this deserted cabin on a trail through Zion. On the way back we past it again and as we had not seen another person for ages (and had a touch too much sun), Carole said 'Hello cabin' to which it replied 'Hello'.... She must have jumped a foot in the air... Neither of us had seen the weary traveller sheltering there.

Ruby's inn was a monstrous development which blighted what should have been a pristine environment. We immediately took a dislike to it, although, as a hotel it was quite adequate. This hotel catered for the many coach loads of tourists which were bused in from Las Vegas, so it was a little raucous....

 
The next day we spent the morning walking one of the trails through some fantastic rock formations and watching the very entertaining Prairie Dogs. Bryce is absolutely unique with its wonderful multi coloured spires and canyons. after lunch we made our way back to Cedar Breaks which we had passed through the previous day. We camped in a beautiful valley and drank 'Jim Bean' by a roaring campfire.

  Not too happy about the fire....in such dry, wooded country. It kept the bears away though.

The next day we were to head for Las Vegas...

Zion National Park

Thursday, 16th September 2010 to Friday 17th September 2010

We travelled down the scenic driveway through the outstandingly beautiful Zion Gorge to Springfield and spent the afternoon and evening wallowing in abject luxury at the Desert Pearl Inn.  Our beautiful room overlooked the river and the mountains, and after relaxing in the beautiful pool and jacuzzi, we travelled up the Kolob road to where Butch Cassidy and his Hole in the Wall Gang had their hidaway in the film.

We spent the following morning walking a canyon trail, which was amazing; the butterflies, birds, lizards, frogs and toads were really fantastic, but the highlight was definately seeing a beautiful marbled whipsnake.

                     Zion National Park

 

Hole in the Wall Gang film location

Whipsnake in Canyon River

Kanab, Utah

Wednesday, 15th September

We had not planned to stay at Kanab but arrived upon it by accident on our way to Zion National Park.

And what a place it is!  An oasis in the midst of rocky desert canyons of differing colours of sandstone.

Kanab has been given the title, deservedly, of 'Little Hollywood'.  Over 100 films have been produced here, mostly Westerns, utilising the beautiful and varied landscape to great effect.  Of course, the biggest stay had to be John Wayne.

                                           Pete outside John Wayne's room at Parry's

                                    Carole outside Dean Martins room (had to be done!)

We stayed at Parry's where all the stars were accommodated in the 50's and 60's.  Their names are still recorded over the rooms they have stayed in.  Perhaps the funniest, is room 134 - Ava Gardner wanted her mother to stay, so Frank Sinatra paid for a pool cupboard to be transformed into a room for her - the sign over the door, reads, Mother in Law.

Apparently, when Sammy Davis Jnr room was cleaned, the number of empty bottles of alcohol filled the bin!

Along the streets are the Halls of Fame -every star who has stayed in Kanab is featured on posters along the side walk.

                                      Maureen O'Hara's post on the sidewalk of Fame

Old sets from films are still contained within Johnsons Canyon and in the museum at Denny's Wigwam.  We saw sets from Clint Eastwood's film 'The outlaw Josie Wales'.  The doors were about 4'6" high to make the actors appear much larger on film.  One of the locals recalled that one night there was a knock on her restaurant door - it was Clint Eastwood.  He asked 'Are you open'.  The owner replied 'We are now!'

                                                         Pete on the set of 'Josie Wales'

Each year, at the end of August, Kanab hosts a week of entertainment to celebrate its movie history - stars from bygone Westerns come along to join in the revelry.  Clint Walker of Cheyenne fame is a local and attends each year.

Guess where we are thinking of going for our 35th wedding anniversary next August.................!

Aztec ruins and Canyon De Chelly

Monday 13th sept.
The Aztec ruins were incorrectly named. Historians thought people from Mexico had travelled north to found a new city but these buildings were created by the anasazi indians.
The state of preservation was excellent with intact buildings with original roofs but only the first of maybe 3 or 4 storeys. An enormous Kiva had been reconstructed.....These people were very sophisticated.

                                                       Aztec ruins

                                              Reconstructed Great Kiva
We then moved on to Canyon de Chelly (4 hours driving) where we intended to camp (free).
The canyon was breathtaking, you would have thought that we would have had enough of ruins but this was even more spectacular than anything we had seen before. The canyon was hundreds of feet deep with sheer walls and lots of different dwellings built on the canyon floor or high on the cliffs. The floor of the canyon was very fertile which is why the navaho indians put up such a fight to stop it being appropriated by settlers. There are some heartbreaking stories about the atrocities which were perpitrated against the navaho here.

                                                                   Canyon De Chelly. Spider rock.
                                                                   McKenna's Gold filmed here

                                                        Canyon dwellings

Durango

Sunday, 12th September 2010

Durango is deserving of its own page.  Its the start of the railway and has a fabulous museum, which surprisingly, for a Railway Museum, is not at all dull, mainly due to all the stills from various films exhibited.  The railway had been used for all kinds of Westerns, but is notable for being held up by Butch Cassidy and was used in the film.


The countryside around is outstanding, especially when you consider that it is surrounded by desert, but this is due to it being about 8,000 feet above sea level.  The only drawback being that this is a hunting area and the hunters are a bit wearing. 

An advert on the television showed a hunter, and bore the slogan 'support your local sportsman, keep Colorado wild.'  The advert didnt mention the fact that the hunters are permitted to hunt deer and elk in season, but 'accidentally' shoot protected moose, lynx and goodness knows what else, so they are issued with an identification book to help them out!  Another noted problem is seen on Trip Advisor for the various motels - the hunters clean off their kills in the rooms and there are accounts of 'blood splattered walls'.

We found a walk 25 miles north called 'the Beaver trail' which sounded interesting.  It was a 5 mile round trip from the forest road, but the road was impassable in a car so we ended up walking about 9 miles.  However, it was worth it.  We came across a Beaver lodge and dam in a small pool, as we progressed up the hill.  Then another one, and so on until we had a series of  Beaver pools and dams with lodges - the impact on the valley was incredibly beautiful - we so need Beavers in Scotland. 

The top of the trail opened out to a large lake where people were picnicking and swimming.  Three dogs must have smelled a Beaver within the Lodge there and tried to dig in - they soon gave up as the Lodge was inpenetrable.  However, the Beaver must have been disturbed and swam out, across the Lake to its other Lodge.  We were thrilled to see it and so closely too. 

San Juan Skyway

Friday 10th Sept to 11th Sept.
We drove to Telleride in the Rocky Mountains. This is a ski resort for the rich and famous. Its in a beautiful location but the accommodation was full (lucky really because it was also very expensive).
We walked round the town and took a free cable car up the mountain for the views. We moved on fairly quickly via Ridgeway (no rooms available), Ouray (no rooms), to Silverton which was a great cowboy town which was the destination for the Durango to Silverton railroad. Steam trains ran down the main street, a great spectacle....

                                                      Durango to Silverton Railroad

We stayed in a cabin but as this was the start of the hunting season we were surrounded by pick up trucks loaded with hunters and their weapons, no wonder we didn't see much wildlife...

                                                                Silverton graveyard

This whole area was well in excess of ten thousand feet above sea level and although spectacularly beautiful we were constantly out of breath and looked forward to moving to a lower altitude. For the western movie fan this was where 'True Grit' was fimed (and parts of Butch Cassidy).

                                                                 True Grit country

Anasazi Culture

We have spent 2 very enjoyable days looking at the Hovenweep and Mesa Verde Cliff dwellings.  These were created by Puebloan Indians in approximately 1200ad and are really, truly awesome.  Whole tribes lived in these 'villages' which were made under the overhangs of cliffs but about 3,000 ft up.  The Indians accessed the dwellings via ladders and footholes which was impressive in itself.  Rather than put lots of blurb describing them, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves!

Monument valley

We had booked 2 nights at Gouldings Lodge. This was where John Ford filmed his westerns (the Searchers, Fort Apache, She wore a yellow ribbon etc).

                                                                  Monument valley

We walked a trail in the valley and spent 2 great days relaxing. This was needed as Pete was having problems with his knee again (old FB injury), so the walking was somewhat restricted.

                                      Gouldings lodge (as seen in She wore a yellow ribbon)

In the evenings we watched John Wayne movies in the Lodge's theatre. We were sad to say goodbye because this was our first bit of luxury (relative) for quite a while.

Moab, Utah

Saturday, 4th September to Sunday 5th September

From Jackson Hole, we travelled down to Moab via the Green River, stopping off on the way at Fort Bridger.  As this weekend was a bank holiday in America, there was an event on, run by the local gun clubs. 
We had Mountain Men, Indians, and ladies dressed in beautiful Settler dresses, walking about, and stalls everywhere selling the usual sort of stuff.  However, there were a lot of  stalls selling animal furs - all the animals we have not seen yet such as Silver Fox, Raccoon, Wolf - all seemed to be hanging up there.

We stayed the night at Green River, then travelled on via Flaming Gorge to Moab.  Moab is a funny place but the surrounding countryside is glorious, being on the Colorado River.

We walked the Negro Bill trail to a 243 foot overspan and watched a group abseilling down. 

Then on to the Arches National Park - there were signs everywhere to stand your ground if a Cougar approached it - dash, we didnt see any!

Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Friday, 3rd September to Saturday, 4th September

We had not planned to stay at Jackson Hole, but when we drove out of Grand Teton, we found it to be such a beautiful and unusual place that we stayed.

Jackson is so remote and only has good weather for 65 days of the year, yet there were flowers everywhere.  All the pavements were wooden sidewalks and stage coaches touted for business.  Arches had been made of all the antlers shed by the Elk from the National Elk refuge, which is

The hills around Jackson are rich with wildlife - the BBC filmed an excellent series here on wolves, and the local photographer, Mandleson, captured fabulous shots of a Cougar and her young denned on the same hills.
In winter, Jackson is a ski resort, but definately a place to return to anyway, when the Elk are back in the valley, with the snow on the ground.....!

Grand Teton

Wednesday 1st Sept.

The weather had deteriorated so it was a good day to travel. The journey from Yellowstone to Grand Teton was spectacular. The scenery changed and the mountains became the focus of attention.

The strange thing was that we saw nearly as much wildlife on the journey than we had seen in the previous 6 days. We had a very close view of a black bear and her cub which were feeding at the side of the road. (the ranger did not mind us getting out of the car to take photos). We also saw our first Moose.

We camped in the south of the park  but were unlucky to get a couple of 'druggies' as neighbours, who played music until 4 am. We decided to move on the following morning.

What a difference a day makes. It was hot and sunny, so we decided to walk one of the trails in bear country. We saw plenty of signs but made enough noise to avoid any confrontations. This turned out to be a great day for seeing wildlife, we also found a bar with one of the best views in the world.

We eventually moved out of the park to Jackson.

Yellowstone National Park - Madison

Sunday August 30th to Monday 31st August 2010

The weather suddenly turned cold, as a Ranger at Canyon had predicted.  To go from temperatures in the mid 90's to the low 60's was a bit of a shock.  At night we went to below freezing and woke up to snow on the mountains in the mornings.

 We spent Sunday visiting all the thermal activities on the way down to Old Faithful; these are so fascinating and plentiful.  We saw mud pools, boiling hot pools, geysers and a cave called 'Dragon Cave' which speyed out steam and growled while it did so!

However, the hightlight of the day was seeing our first grizzly bear in Yellowstone - middle of the afternoon, it decided to walk out in front of the car to cross to the river!

Old Faithful is the only predicable geyser in the area, erupting every 90 minutes to heights of 40 feet; however, there are other unpredictable geysers in the area which are far more spectacular.
The restaurant has the most gorgeous food and we took full advantage of it.

This completed our Yellowstone leg; from here we moved on to Grand Teton.

Yellowstone National Park - Indian Creek to Canyon

Thursday, 26th August to Sunday, 28th August 2010

We drove up a beautiful valley from Livingstone to the Mammoth Gateway in Yellowstone. The entry fee is excellent value - $25 per car for a week!

Mammoth was the original location for the U.S. army station; they were mandated to protect this first national park from Poachers!  The orginal fort buildings now house the Park HQ and a museum. The nearby hot springs were beyond belief - the whole area  is criss-crossed with geysers and hot spring activity.  Due to the high Sodium Carbonate levels, there are interesting patterns from the solidified calcium salts.

We camped the night at Indian Creek which is considered primative as it only has camping loos.  We watched ground squirrels close to the tent and thought it all rather idyllic until a gay couple of women behind us decided to keep us awake until late.

Next morning, we moved up to Canyon, the biggest of the camping sites, and one we had booked.  We were amazed when we went to the allocated site - it was on a hill! We would have spent the next 3 nights rolling down it! Back to reception and they gave us another site - we couldnt spot where we were supposed to put up the tent, so back again to reception. Third time lucky, we were given a pitch we could actually put the tent up on!

Later we realised that you pay the same for a massive RV or a tiny one person tent.  So, if you declare a small tent, you are given a tiny pitch but pay the same as the guy with the 50' Winnabaggo, trailing a 2.5 litre 4WD and a boat, plugged in to electricity, sewarage and water!

Canyon offers a scaled down v ersion of the Grand Canyon; it has amazing waterfalls and Ospreys ride the thermals above. We walked the Wapiti trail twice as it offers spectacular walking over pastureland, through Aspen forest and over thermals. One night we came across a male bison on our path, so we hastily retreated.

One morning, we drove early to the foothills of Mount Washburn and watched 2 wolves and a coyote hanging around the periphery of a herd of Bison.  We saw Pronghorn grazing and accidentally set them off running when we tried to photograph them.

Herds of Elk secreted themselves away in the Forests during the day, but came out at dawn and dusk to ensure maximum disruption on the roads.  The Bison were even worse; they didnt care if they stopped the traffic altogether and were hilarious to watch.  We found ourselves stuck in several 'Bison jams!'

On to Yellowstone

Tuesday 24th August.

A whole day travelling about 300 miles to Spokane (about half way to Yellowstone. The scenery was fantastic, we crossed a mountain range and miles of prarie. We stopped at interesting points along the way and camped at 'wolf creek' where wolves were heard in the night.

                                                      Carole at 'the fossil forest'

The following day we made for Bozeman, Montana, which was well over 300 miles away but only about 100 from Yellowstone. This was well away from Yellowstone but still spectacular scenery.