Back in the desert...

Just came across these pictures. In Virgin, Utah we were driving down miles of dusty roads, nothing to see - then we arrived at a petting zoo full of llamas in a fake Western Town. At least we think thats what they were. We paid our dollar, petted the animals and got out in about 15 minutes as it was stinking hot. A random pitstop.

Santa Cruz

Was recommended by a couple of people. It is on the coast, a little south of San Francisco. We decided a stop for a few days was in order before a visit to San Francisco to stay with a friend of Charlie's. Let me just say - California is freezing. I have heard of the fog in San Francisco, and experienced it a couple of times myself, but it is cold! Maybe it is because of the plus-100 degrees we have been experiencing in Utah and Nevada we have wimped out a bit. We had to go shopping for more layers.

Santa Cruz is a college town, with lots of old hippies, and a cool board walk. I would call the board walk a 'fair', rides and candy floss etc. A first for Isla, and she was a fan. We got there for dollar Tuesday, staying in the harbour so having a nice couple of miles walk on the beach (in the chilly wind) to the boardwalk.

Each day got a slow start as it took til almost lunchtime for the fog to burn off, we filled the morning with park visits and Peppa Pig. Great people watching on the beach, in one afternoon we saw a ukelele band practicing, a great standard of beach volleyball games and a boat race - plus it heated up a bit. Awesome.

The Pepsi train

Surf (too cold for us!)

Racing cars

First Merry-go-Round

Lighthouse in Santa Cruz

Yosemite National Park

Happy Fathers Day! We started with blueberry pancakes in Bishop, California - then on to Yosemite. A great day, the road only opened yesterday due to lots of hard packed snow and many campgrounds are still closed. We drove in from the East on the Tioga pass, over 10,000 feet so lots of melting snow, frozen lakes and rushing waterfalls. Hiked up Olmstead Point, very odd being 25 degrees and surrounded by snow.

Zion National Park

We almost skipped it but so glad we didn't, we drove in from the East, the scenery just got more and more spectacular. Then we saw the sign, anyone over 11” 4’ must stop for an escort through the tunnel to enter the park. We are 12”. Fair enough, it is a really narrow tunnel carved through the cliff into the park, anyone in a tall vehicle needs to have the traffic stopped and an escort to drive right in the middle of the tunnel to avoid hitting the sides. When we arrived at the entrance the ranger told us just to pull in our mirrors and we would be fine. Yikes – the sign definitely said 11” 4’ clearance as we drove in. It was very tight, with holes cut in the wall – to push the rubble out when they were boring the hole - which now produce stunning vistas as you drive through. After the tunnel the road just dropped with lots of switchbacks and towering red cliffs all around.

We took the shuttle bus and did a couple of hikes to the Emerald Pools and the Narrows – stunning! A very nice lady approached us in the car park and asked if we would like a camping spot as her husband had left early – result – usually you have to reserve six months in advance. Isla discovered her new favourite food, then we swam in the river and went to sleep surrounded by the red rock – lovely.

Grand Canyon = AMAZING

We had an amazing time at the Grand Canyon, woke up early and stopped at the National Geographic Visitor Centre for the IMAX movie to prepare ourselves, Isla sat and watched the whole 34 minutes on my knee, without moving, completely enthralled - a record! We drove in and dropped the RV at our campsite then took the shuttle bus to the visitor centre, we started at the Mather Lookout and walked almost all the way to Hermits Rest at the Western end of the trails.

It took all afternoon and was breathtaking. We did not hike into the Canyon, just to the lookout points. It is pretty steep so would be tough going with a wiggly kid on your back.

Looking down at Hermits trail it was so easy to imagine people arriving by carriage from Flagstaff before the railroad arrived, a 12 hour bone jarring journey, to be transported by mule to the bottom of the Canyon. There they would stay in tents with windows, a phone service - 5 star service!

Petrified Forest National Park

This National Park is a 28 mile drive, with spots you can hop out and take pictures, hike or check out the freaky petrified wood. The wood is, like, really old and turned to stone (that's the scientific explanation). It was an amazing drive, from bright red to smokey grey canyons of rocks. And obviously the cool rock/wood stuff.

Petrified Wood

Sunset in Arizona

Nice View!

Petroglyphs - they are REALLY old

Petrified Wood

Whats wrong with this picture?

Just the two of us for once - Arizona