BEAUTIFUL BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK IN UTAH

Here we are in this amazing land of hoodoos and magical colours, this is our third trip here over the years and it still never fails to fill me with wonder.

We tried to get on the Park campground but as they have closed about three quarters of it - it was full! So we are in the lap of luxury with electricity, wifi and TV just up the road at Ruby's Inn RV Park paying $40 instead of $7.50 with the generator!
We went to watch the sunset as there is talk of a storm coming over. We may move to the National park site tomorrow or we MAY stay here!

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Golden glow


We stayed in the comfort of Ruby's Inn RV park, the weather forecast was for clouds, 50 m.p.h. winds and rain/snow in the afternoon so we went out for a hike down into the canyon and it was superb. Got back just in time for a few flakes of snow to fall. We are camped at about 8000ft and the temperature today was about 6oC but if the sun shines it's fine!

 

 

 

SOUTH RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA

Bismarck Lake and Humphreys Peak with friends

SCOOTER AND LUCY LOVE TO SHARE!

 
After a lovely afternoon hike and great evening meal with friends from Flagstaff we sadly left so to cheer ourselves up we moved to the Grand Canyon. Wow, what a change since we were here last, they have done lots of work everywhere. We finally managed to get a campsite at Mather Campground actually in the park, half a mile from the rim, we have tried in the past and its been full so I was so pleased despite it taking us about half an hour to get into the site they gave us – tight is not the word! Here for three nights, we did the obligatory sunset walk which was beautiful and were rewarded by seeing elk wandering around.

SUNSET NEAR MATHER POINT - GRAND CANYON

ME AND MY SHADOW IN THE CANYON

We hiked about 7 miles next day along the Hermit's Rest rim trail, we have done it before but its a great walk with endless views. We supposedly saw a 5month old Condor in a cave high up on the cliff face. Well I saw the cave but you had to have a good imagination to see the tail of the young Condor!

In the evening we went to a Ranger talk about Native Americans in the Grand Canyon and how they thrived, he talked about Ethnobotany – how they utilized plants and trees etc. We learnt lots of useful information should we ever be in a survival situation! But also how we use these plants in our daily life now. That vanilla ice cream we ate was probably flavoured by Ponderosa pine bark. The pesto from the pinon pine, the gin flavoured with the juniper berries and apparently the more juniper flavour the cheaper the gin! And something from my childhood – cochineal – my Mum used it to dye our eggs for us to decorate at Easter. Comes from a beetle that lives on the prickly pear cactus and we have often seen the white coating on the pear and not realised it had the beetle under it. A fascinating evening!



TARANTULA ON THE TRAIL

CAN YOU SPOT THE HEART?

THE WAY DOWN TO SOUTH KAIBAB TRAIL - OFF WE GO!

The sun was shining so we decided to stay another day and woke up surrounded by seven Elk.
We hiked another rim trail on our last day, from Mather Point to South Kaibab and back again then on to the Village area - 7 ½ miles – got the shuttle bus back and spotted a bull Elk – stunning.

An emotional leaving as this is probably the last time we will visit the Grand Canyon, we have been here four times and twice at the North Rim. A truly memorable place – one of the seven natural wonders of the world – 277 miles long, a mile deep and 10 miles across!

FOUR STATES IN A SECOND - NEW MEXICO,UTAH,COLORADO AND ARIZONA

We are making our way southwest through Colorado - Alamosa was sunny but cold, we went round Alamosa and Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuges looking for wildlife - saw quite a few Sand hill cranes and not much else. Over Wolf Creek Pass after stopping to chat with Jay who sold us our last trailer - he and Roy spent an hour sorting out world affairs!
We are visiting places we last saw in 2008 and its just as wonderful.
Just under three weeks left so hoping to get some more warm sun before we leave. We are on our way to Flagstaff Arizona for Monday to meet up with friends for a meal.

It's been strange passing all these places we have visited like the hot springs at Pagosa Springs, Durango and Mesa Verde. We talked about re-visiting Mesa Verde but we had such a fantastic time the first time we didn't feel the need to see it again.
 We are now in Cortez for the evening before leaving Colorado tomorrow for Arizona. The sun has shone all day and after a night of minus 8oC the temperature has crept up to 16oC. We really like Colorado - its America's highest state, with a mean average elevation of 6,800ft and dominated by the Rocky Mountains. Colorado has 54 peaks 14,000ft or higher and we just love mountains!

Sandhill cranes with the Canada geese

the view after crossing Wolf Creek Pass at 10850ft

ROY WENT OUT TO LOOK FOR ELK AND CAME BACK WITH THE HUNTER'S MOON PHOTO - HE'S REALLY IMPROVING WITH THE CAMERA



CHIMNEY ROCK NATIONAL MONUMENT - CLOSED!

 We decided to re-visit Four Corners and found it greatly improved from about 5 or 6 years ago. Into Arizona and the scenery has changed, love it!

THE SEDATE WAY TO STAND IN FOUR STATES

BABY ROCKS IN ARIZONA



ARIZONA LANDSCAPE

THE EXTREME WAY TO STAND IN FOUR STATES!



ICE- CREAM TIME

 

HIGHWAY OF LEGENDS - COLORADO

 



EAGLE NEST

 


PALISADES SILL IN CIMARRON CANYON



MY LOVELY PRONGHORN

Au Revoir to Albuquerque and retraced our steps to Eagle Nest then back into Colorado stopping at Trinidad Lake State Park. We then we spent a wonderful day driving Highway 12 - the Highway of Legends, an 82 mile one way leisurely trip, we marveled at stunning geological formations, crystal lakes, awesome vistas and historic settlements. I went in to overdrive with the camera!



LESS SNOW THAN WE THOUGHT!

COKEDALE - WHEN COAL WAS KING

COKEDALE OVENS FOR TRANSFORMING COAL INTO COKE FOR USE IN SMELTING IRON

 

 

THE DAKOTA WALL AT STONEWALL - DAKOTA FORMATION

CUCHARA PASS 9995FT

STONEWALL - DAKOTA WALL

MONUMENT LAKE

DEVIL'S STAIRSTEPS

DEVILS STAIRSTEPS

DEVIL'S STAIRSTEPS

 

GOEMMER'S BUTTE - A VOLCANIC PLUG (A LAVA VENT THAT NEVER SURFACED)

BOY MULE DEER