May 19th - Denver, CO

Raining today on our way to Denver. We stopped a few times to take happy snaps up in the freezing cold snow. It is quite a high pass to get to Denver from Edwards – about 10, 500 feet or so. A quick stop at a Loaf’n’Jug servo and we nearly left Will behind (intentionally of course hehe). We went through the Eisenhower tunnel and then came out in almost completely different weather – blinding sunshine! After dropping Jacki’s friend off at the airport, we checked into a hotel for the first time in weeks! Poor Betsey was left behind in Edwards – bet she loved the break! Jacki helped us use a website called ‘Priceline’ (not the awesome shop in Oz!) where you bid on hotel rooms or flights. You name a price for a hotel and they either sell it to you or tell you put in a higher bid. So we got the Courtyard Marriot for $50! Bargain! Jacki, sneakily, even got us a window room. That damn claustrophobia again. A legendary tactic which I will have to remember! 

One of the cold stops on the way to Denver!

We had lunch at an AWESOME all you can eat Peruvian restaurant. $9 each, but less with the $25 voucher Jacki paid $10 for online J Amazing food and I don’t even know what half of it was! So so full. There were salads, meat dishes, rice dishes and quinoa. We rolled out of there after absolutely stuffing ourselves!

Then we walked (or waddled) through town, up through the mall, looked at shops, admired all kinds of amazing items, but were good and resisted buying! It was so so cold, so it was nice to take refuge in some warm shops!

Nap at the hotel, then time to go try the Vanilla Porter I had been reading about from Breckenridge Brewery, just near the Coors Field stadium thing (Baseball). There we proceeded to sample most of the list of beers. At $3 a pint, Will and I really didn’t care! A basket of sweet potato fries and a plate of chicken tenders later and suddenly we were caught up in a fierce game of trivia. Our confidence was up after answering the first three questions correctly, but it was all downhill from there! (The first question related to Ancient Egypt and what was their drink of choice – so I did learn something from teaching this subject for two years – beer!). Mainly baseball and American ‘craft’ (boutique) beer questions, so naturally Will and I couldn’t answer any of them. The only baseball player I’ve heard of is Joe DiMaggio and that’s only because he married Marilyn Monroe! Jacki was our saving grace, but it just wasn’t enough in a competition full of cheating, iPhone tapping Americans. Nevertheless the trivia man gave us all free hugs at the end and told us we came third last of a pack of about twenty. Bearing in mind that some groups just left!! Another highlight at this brewery were the free samples of beer in brandy glasses and the Breckinridge bottle-opener key rings!! A fun night. J

May 16th-18th - Edwards, Colorado

Monday 16^th

Actually the road through Utah! 

Continued on to Edwards, Colorado where Will’s friend from summer camp in Pennsylvania, lives. We drove through an amazing canyon where the Interstate follows the river along the bottom of the actual canyon. It was great! Steep cliffs on both sides and a road winding along a very full river. 

We accidentally passed Jacki’s place, so stopped at Starbuck’s for the first time ever, mainly to use their free wi-fi while waiting for her to finish work, as we were super early. Ten minutes later she was finished with work and we followed her directions and drove to her apartment. Then we hung out with her and the cutest little kitty cat – Benedict. He thinks he’s a bit of a dog and likes to fetch twist-ties and also those rings that are under the lid on milk bottles and large plastic jars. Although he is a couple of years old, he acts like a kitten! So entertaining. And funny when he skids along the floor in hot pursuit of a milk bottle ring! Especially when he hits the side of the bathtub in his haste! Then he will drop whatever it is at your feet and wait for you to notice him and throw it again – then the fun begins all over again!!

The snow that is left at Vail!

Edwards is at 7200 feet. It is about 10 miles from Vail, a popular ski town, which is at 8120 feet. That afternoon, Jacki took us for a drive up to Beaver Creek, a really nice ski hill. Because it is the off season, it was really quiet and not all the shops were open. We had a look around and admired the huge hotels and chalets around. There was still a bit of snow around which made it quite chilly. Another visit to Walmart and then we enjoyed a nice quiet day and cookout (barbecue) with Jacki and her housemate Aja. We admired the hummgbirds as they hovered around the feeder Aja has hanging from a post on the balcony. The feeder is red with fake red flowers – apparently that is the most attractive colour to them. Some people use red Kool-aid to attract them, but they just like sweet liquids. They have a heartbeat of something crazy like 1260 beats per minute! And they are one of, if not the only, bird that can fly backwards. Watching them hover back and forth at these little feeders, I can believe that! 

Tuesday 17^th

Hung out enjoying being in an actual apartment and not in Betsey! We had bagels that were actually toasted in a real toaster and cream cheese. Delish!

For lunch we caught up with another of Will’s friends from camp, Steph and her sister, Jess, for lunch. I had my first Philly Cheesesteak! It was delicious! I also tried Blue Cheese dressing for the first time – Will told me it was different from actual blue cheese, as I don’t really like it. Too mouldy looking and strong tasting. The dressing wasn’t really an exception – for all you blue cheese lovers, you should try it! It wasn’t as strong as actual blue cheese, mature and veiny, but it definitely had that distinct flavour. 

After lunch we went for a quick walk down at the river – admiring the local squirrels as we did so (well, I did anyway). Then we drove up to Vail. Again, a very quiet area, but we did manage to do a little shopping. I found a nice Vail t-shirt and Jacki bought me the cutest little moose key ring! We’d just gone into a different shop to have a look at what they had and they had these adorable pjs that were all about mooses! (or is that moose? Like one sheep, two sheep??) They had moose ‘text-moosaging’, ‘just moosing around’ and so on and it was great! Loving the little moose keyring though! We took lots of silly photos around the village, as there were random statues of the Ski troopers 10^th division (or something like that) and little clouds with wind chimes and a moose of course! 

Another visit to Walmart for supplies, then off to Village Market for Tim Tams! Jess and Steph told us we could get some from there. The license was bought by the Pepperidge Farm and now they are sold in the USA. They love Tim-Tam slams – and I definitely can’t resist them either! 

That evening we had a cookout at Steph’s place (well, her parents’ place) and introduced Jacki to Tim-Tam slams. The Tim-Tams come in a white packet, ‘Australia’s favourite sandwich cookie’ – with caramel. So not as good as the original!! Still, with hot chocolate, they were amazing. Steph does the slam in two bites, but I told her all Aussies smash it down in one big gooey, melted bite! YUM! It was a really fun evening, just hanging out and chatting. Steph’s place backs on to a golf course and we even saw a fox running across it! The view from there is pretty nice of the mountains and snow on the other side of the valley. They have the cutest dogs – Cooper and Oliver. Oliver was a bit shy and didn’t want to get too close, but he was funny when Jess made him spin round and round in circles! When we left, Jacki took a wrong turn and we ended up in a little cul-de-sac. Will saw a statue-thing of a skier up on the hill and asked if it was a real person and I said yes, cos I thought he was talking about whether or not the deer were real! There were three or four gorgeous deer walking across the road and generally being adorable, looking at us with big, brown eyes. We took quite a few photos! There was also a beautiful big moon, and I tried to take some photos of it, but they didn’t quite work out. 

Will, Steph, Chris and Jacki slam those Tim Tams!

Wednesday 18^th

A pretty uneventful day of doing laundry, reading and interneting. Aja introduced us to ‘The Oatmeal’ website, which had me in absolute fits of laughter. It is a blog site which has all kinds of funny quizzes, cartoons and stories. We all had a go at ‘How many Justin Biebers could you take out in a fight?’ and ‘Is your cat trying to kill you?’ and ‘How long would you survive if you were chained to a bed in the same room as a velociraptor?’ Too, too funny. Some funny cat stories and cartoons about bobcats = hours of entertainment! We also looked at ‘hyperbole and a half’ which talked about all kinds of incorrect English usage which drives me INSANE. Good too know I am not alone! I especially liked the ‘Alot’ story (even my laptop just corrected me on that one – why can’t the students do the same?!) – Alot, when spelt like that, has become a monster which cuddles alot of things hehe. Awesome.

The deer we saw on the way back from Steph's.

More teasing poor Benedict! He enjoys having our suitcase under the dining table as it gives him something to hide behind before he launches himself at a milk top ring, or piece of string, or fake mouse, or anything really. He does that cute butt wiggle that cats do before they go in for the kill – I swear he repeated the same attack process at least twenty times this evening! Then he would run behind the suitcase and get ready again! So cute. 

15th May - On the road to Colorado

Red Canyon - where we stayed the previous night.

We continued on our drive to Vail, Colorado. We drove through Capitol Reef National Park, which had some beautiful scenery. Lots of high white and red hills and mountains – not the best for poor Betsey though. We drove through a valley filled with fruit trees – at the visitor centre it said that in summer anyone is free to eat the fruit. They are preserving the trees as ‘historical’ as they were planted there by Mormons a couple of centuries ago. We followed the river along this canyon/valley until we came out in the plains.

Driving through Capitol Reef NP.

Now, Will and I are in firm disagreement about this, but the dates correlate with his story. As we drove along we could see lots of ash grey hills, which finally gave way to flat plains with hills and mountains in the distance. We saw something that looked like an aeroplane zipping across the sky – I thought it was a comet, about to end our lives (we hadn’t heard of Rapture yet!). He said it can’t be a plane, as it was curving up rather than heading across the sky. Since then we’ve checked the dates, and NASA said the launch was on the 16^th. Will now believes he saw the shuttle as we drove into Colorado – how I don’t know, considering the canyon was steep on both sides and we were only driving for about an hour. But then…what did we see that day?? Maybe I’ve been reading too many romance-murder mystery stories and have been speculating a little too much…! I wish I’d taken a photo for proof!

Hollow Mountain gas station - in the mountain!
See the cute dinosaurs??!

Will wasn’t feeling too well and suggested it might have been altitude sickness. I did actually laugh at him… and then thought maybe he is right!

We stopped to get fuel at some cute, random place after the scenic drive through Capitol Reef National Park. The gas station was in the side of a rock! It was like a cave inside, but of course with all the goodies a gas station has to offer. Very cool! 

We sat outside Subway at Green River and had lunch then bought a road atlas. And a little magnet of Utah to go with Will’s Arizona one. The collection has begun! 

Next we stopped in Fruita, Colorado where a little old lady and her companions proceeded to give us several trees worth of shiny brochures on Colorado. Will and I should’ve gone through the ‘night entrance’ as all we wanted to do was use the bathroom!! But the ladies were nice enough and explained to us some of the sights of Colorado. We may have been the most exciting tourists to visit their Visitor Information Centre.

Scenery on the way to Colorado.

We continued driving on to Rifle and spent the afternoon in the rest area there. The free wi-fi there was pretty amazing and random!! I looked up altitude sickness on Wikipedia and made Will suitably paranoid. But he did show classic signs such as a headache, loss of appetite and flu-like or hangover-like symptoms! Apparently it only really happens above 8000 feet and can happen to anyone regardless of fitness. I think he was a little scared when I asked him if he had ‘wet lungs’ as this is the next stage and can be fatal (I would’ve taken him to hospital if I thought he were that bad!!). Just teasing!

A quiet night with The Goodwife and the ambient background noise of trucks idling. 

14th May - Bryce Canyon

A short drive from Red Canyon to Bryce Canyon. Just like the ranger at Grand Canyon complained about, we saw two SUVs stopped in the middle of the road. So we had to stop behind them and like them, try to take photos of a petrified pronghorn antelope/deer thing. I tried to take some photos of it, but they were mainly of the poor animal’s white butt as it sprinted across the road in front of traffic going both ways. It was a gorgeous looking animal though. But I may never be very good at taking paparazzi shots, so I better keep practising!!

We went to the visitor information centre to try and work out how to make the most out of our time at Bryce. And check our email using the free wi-fi there J. We spent a few hours taking the free shuttle bus to various look-outs and taking photos. At the first and furthest spot on the normal shuttle bus trail (there is a really far away spot which is supposed to be nice for sunsets/rises) we stopped to take in the spectacular view. Again, it was so different from Zion, Monument Valley and Grand Canyon. A few squirrel photos later, we were admiring how the rock formations were so tall and narrow and looked like apple crumble or apple cobbler topping – yumm! Will took lots of photos of a cute deer which was minding its own business near one of the carparks. We walked part of rim, but when thunder and lightning started, decided to call it a day. The scenery was just stunning, with the crumbly peaks heading down the sides of the canyon. We saw lots of people hiking in the bottom of the canyon, but the thunder, lightning and on-and-off rain stopped us from going down the sides. 

After that, we accidentally took Betsey on a drive of pain and heat. We didn’t realise the pass was actually over 9600 feet. This was scenic route 12. It was definitely scenic – and we should know as we had to keep stopping to let her cool down! Honestly, it was incredibly high and we didn’t realise it was going to be like that! On the drive I counted at least 40 deer – some a little too close to the sides of the road we were speeding along! As it started to get dark we found a camping ground that was actually open (e.g not still partly snowed in) and spent our last $10 in cash. 

13th May - Zion National Park

We left the RV Park early and spent the day in Zion, using the free shuttle service to go up and down the canyon (lucky we had a National Parks pass as we had been through Zion the previous day and were glad we didn’t have to pay again!). Our first stop was the end of the line at the Temple of Shinawava. We did the short walk there, seeing lots of gorgeous, photogenic squirrels. Little posers. So darn cute though – lots of squirrel photos. Will kept saying no more! And he’d take another one. Too cute. We also saw lots of maiden hair ferns, thriving in the wet sides of the canyon (reminded me of my mum, as she used to grow these ferns when I was a kid!). Unfortunately we didn’t see the Zion snail which is only found here and is the size of a little finger nail. Just as well, cos it would’ve been hard to resist squishing it like the true gardener I am hehe. 

As we were going up the canyon, the electronic tour guide on the bus told us about the various mountains in the park. There were lots of towering mountains of rock with religious names thanks to the Mormons who first founded the canyon and farmed it 200 hundred years ago. E.g Court of Partriarchs (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), Angels Landing. Temple, Altar of Sacrifice – you get the idea! South-west Utah is predominantly Mormon.

On the trail at Big Bend. 

Next stop was Big Bend, and we walked along the trackless track to Weeping Rock. We took photos of waterfalls and the high sides of the canyon – started to get sore necks! We caught the bus back down and had lunch near Betsey in the visitor centre car park where we had left her. We watched crazy squirrels running from a dog, running up trees, running out from under cars and digging holes. We generously shared our table with ladies from New Jersey who weren’t scared of us, as we had a good table in the shade (completely accidental choice on my part – and then I had goosebumps!). Another couple were too scared to ask and suffered in the sun. They were friendly and told us about New York and the ‘far east.’ One of the ladies is over 60, so with her Golden Age National Parks pass, she is able to go in and out of all National Parks (with her friends) for free!

 

After lunch we caught the bus up to Zion Lodge and walked to Emerald Pools. We saw the waterfall cascading out over the path, but Will was too scared to walk underneath because the water was going everywhere and we were afraid for Niki the Nikon. 

Then we went to the Zion Human History Museum to watch the introductory movie - 22 minutes of sometimes interesting info (I know, probably should have watched this before we started our tour of the park, but oh well!). Mainly promotional, how-amazing-is-this-park comments. We bought postcards and a nice drink bottle for Illiam. Loving all the water refill stations at the national parks – this one included! We asked ranger at desk about the weird animal we saw in holes outside the visitor centre. She consulted her bible (animal and plant book) and told us it was some kind of gopher! So cute! We saw it yesterday and another today, poking its head out of a hole and pulling sticks and things around. Then the holes were covered and no sign of Mr Gopher. 

Mr Gopher.

Our last stop of the day was to walk up to a (crap) archaeological site up a little hill from the car park. No exciting ruins, just a couple of largeish rocks and a sign saying how things might have looked when there was an actual dwelling up there. A nice view though and we took some lovely last photos of Zion.

The environmentally friendly, two-part buses. 

We drove to Panguitch to look for Will’s imaginary free camping spot. No luck. So we decided to head towards Bryce Canyon.  Stopped for camping at Red Canyon which had an awesome sunset on blood-red and orange rocks.

Freaking spicy chicken burgers for dinner (‘oh no, they can’t be that hot’ – well they were!!) 

12th May - To Zion National Park

A quick walk in the morning to see more Puebloan ruins not far from the campground. Then we drove to Page – Walmart stop for supplies! Macca’s stop for internet to work out how to get to Zion.

View from the RV park.

We drove out to Zion, admiring the buffalo in a paddock as we went. We arrived about 3pm only to find all the campgrounds were full. We had driven down a crazy windy road with awesome views. We even saw some Desert Bighorn Sheep hanging out on the side of road – but called them mountain goats because much easier to say haha. About five, eyeing us up. Must’ve known we had mac cheese dinner on board and bagels. 

We went through a teeny tiny tunnel. We were a little concerned as vehicles more than 11’4”  high and a certain width (7’8”?) needed to pay an extra $15 and have an escort. That way they could block off the tunnel and the tall or wide vehicle could drive down the middle. The tunnel was built from 1927 – 1930. Obviously they didn’t have huge high tour buses or massive RVs in those days. As it was, we had to wait a few minutes for a huge bus to drive through the tunnel.

As we went along we saw awesome cliffs and towering mountains – the scenery was stunning, so different from anywhere else we’d been. We saw similar colours to Grand Canyon, but with less purple and more red and white. The mountains were a lot smoother and round on top. 

We ended up driving all the way through the part of Zion people can drive through, to Springdale. We went to the closet RV park to Zion out the other side of the National Park, second last spot at $40 a night, but with full hook-ups. Damn the flute festival which happened to be in town that weekend. We enjoyed the sunshine at the park, using the free wi-fi and cooking burgers for tea on the firestand thingy. We were able to skype our parents and my brother and managed to catch up on emails. As we were cooking dinner, we saw some people walking their cat. On a lead. Obviously it lives and travels with them in their RV. Interesting what people do… Will, can we get a cat?? Betsey won’t mind!! 

11th May - Canyon de Chelley and Monument Valley

Today we drove around the north rim of Canyon de Chelley. We saw more ruins and I bought a necklace from a native American which is made of silver and turquoise with a dream-catcher at the bottom. Our standard reason for not buying feathers/leather/juniper berry jewellery or stone carvings or horsehair vases being that we can’t take them home! It was a rainy morning – the cold front from Grand Canyon is still following us! The man who sold us the necklace was very nice, but all his jewellery got a little wet because of the rain! 

We walked down to the lookout, wondering why the man had said we’d hear music. Then we heard it – kind of creepy as it suited the place but we didn’t know where it was coming from! Then we saw a guy playing a flute who is from the area and is a musician and motivational speaker in regard to the Navajo tribe. He told us about how young people need to embrace their culture as well as the future and the technology of today. He said that he writes his music right there on the side of the canyon, as well as in the canyon. We walked a little further and took more photos and when we came back a few moments later, he was gone. Maybe he turned into an eagle or songbird like in the movies??!

We then continued on to Monument Valley. Another Maccas stop at Kayenta for email and facebook etc. We drove out to Monument Valley and took some pictures while it was still sunny. We bought some postcards from the awesome gift shop – I could have spent a lot of money there! They had awesome horse hair vases and handmade rugs. The former were really cool, but again, don’t think Australian Customs would approve! 

We had to pay $5 each to enter the ‘Valley’ as it is not part of the NPS. We were asked if we wanted to camp to which we said no. We knew there was free camping 50 miles up the road and the $10 would only have got us a spot in the carpark – no proper toilets or even tables. Lonely Planet claimed it was worth it for the sunset and sunrise views, but it was starting to get overcast so we didn’t know what kind of sunset there would be! A bit expensive for no amenities at all.

Instead we decided to defy death and tackle the 17-mile drive around the monuments. We made it 4 miles. It was suicidal – steep slopes, five-inch deep potholes and big rocks in the actual road. And then it started to rain. So with our windscreen sounding like it was about to pop out, we turned back. I didn’t relax at all during the drive, except when we stopped so I could take photos! Poor Betsey was incredibly shaken! I think they deliberately keep the road really horrible so that people are forced to go on tours of the monuments rather than risk their pretty SUVs and RVs. Plenty of people risked it like us and some drivers had horrified expressions as they bounced and clattered along that horrible road! Makes my parents’ driveway seem like a freeway J. Apart from the, the actual monuments themselves were pretty spectacular. Definitely the stuff of Westerns! They were so red with strange narrow spires coming out of the sides of some of them. Stunning, but it would have been nicer if it hadn’t been raining, windy and cold!! Oh yeah and if the road had been better… definitely something which would’ve improved our experience! 

Me trying not to get blown away!

Accommodation at the Lodge at Monument Valley started at about $170 a night according to Lonely Planet, so we skipped that and the muddy carpark ‘camping for the free camping up the road at Navajo Monument. Much better, with actual flushing toilets, running water and a washing up sink!