Day 97 - 30 Sept '23 - Yellowstone National Park, day 2. We were woken up at 7:10am, by the elephant upstairs walking across our ceiling. By 7:30am I'd had enough, so I got out of bed, got dressed, went upstairs, and knocked on their door.
"Excuse me, we're in the room directly below you, and we thought, perhaps, you might like to take your daily exercise outside in nature, rather than walk back and forth over our ceiling for the last 20 minutes?"
Well, that's the line I rehearsed in my head, while I stayed in bed and silently seethed. It was a good line, I thought, even if it was incredibly passive-aggressive!
The benefit of getting up that early meant we were in the car for 8:30am, and enjoying an even chiller 5°C. Alex kept going on about seeing snow, despite Dan and I repeatedly informing him we wouldn't see any as it was a) too hot, and b) the skies were clear.
"But there was frost on the car!"
"Yes, but that makes it too cold for snow."
It would seem his science education on the finer details of snow was somewhat lacking, but we assured him he'd be seeing plenty of snow soon enough, so not to worry about it.
Today we were doing the upper loop road of Yellowstone. This was more of a scenic drive, as we had moved away from the geyser basins, and were climbing higher through the ranges. As the passenger on the right-hand side of the road, the precipitous drops without guard rails were rather disconcerting!
We pulled over at a few stops where others had gathered, but couldn't see what they were looking at. Of course, they were all using binoculars or spotting scopes, and had telephoto lenses that were the size of a small child! (I'd love to have one, but Dan assured me that even if I had the money to buy one (which I definitely don't), I wouldn't be able to fit it in my rucksack, so I'll just have to make do with my standard zoom lens and hope the animals come close!).
We were hoping to spot a bear or an elk or some wolves (there's around 300 wolves in the park), but alas, all we saw were bison. Go back a couple of days, and this would have been incredible enough, but Custer State Park 'ruined' them for us!
One of our quick stops this morning was a petrified tree - it is quite rare to see them standing, and it was beautifully coloured. There used to be three of them all standing together, but by 1907, tourists had slowly stolen chunks of the other two until nothing was left. Now, the remaining one, is behind an iron fence.
Our major stop today was Mammoth Spring Terraces, a fantastic formation created by thermophiles (bacteria that like hot water). This would have been what the Rotorua Pink and White Terraces would have looked like, so it was pretty awesome to see.
We went on quite a long walk up, over, and around them, climbing quite high in the process, and saw all the different pools that had been created. It was a rather expansive geothermal area, and it would have been lovely to see in summer when there was more water in the pools.
We had made some good time on the upper loop, so decided to go back to the Midway Geyser Basin to go to the Grand Prismatic Spring's upper viewing area.
It was a 1.3km flat walk with only a short climb at the end, and it was definitely worth it. We got to see all the beautiful colours we had seen in the brochures, and there wasn't too much steam today either.
Everywhere was much busier today than yesterday, with more cars on the roads and in the parking lots, and more people on the paths and at the viewing platforms. It's a Saturday, and the last weekend before they close half the roads and most of the accommodations for the season. You can still visit portions of Yellowstone in winter, and it must be beautiful to see it all blanketed in snow - some of the trees were already a striking yellow and orange, so they looked like they were on fire with their autumnal colours.
We left Yellowstone and headed to Idaho for the night, skirting through the smallest portion possible of Montana. This was one state I'd wanted to see more of (mountains, forests, fields, and rivers) but it wasn't to be - can't see everywhere!
Day 98 - 1 Oct '23 - Idaho to Utah. Boy, did we need that sleep! Dan and I are both getting tired, Dan even more so, as he has to concentrate on driving. We need to stay somewhere for a couple of nights and just relax, but we don't have the time yet. Hopefully soon!
We were heading to Salt Lake City today, and watched the scenery change once again, this time with trees on the hillsides a glorious red, so they looked like streams of lava snaking their way down the slopes.
We got to Salt Lake City with every intention of visiting Temple Square, where the world headquarters of the Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) is based. Unfortunately, they had their biannual general conference happening this weekend, so all the streets were blocked off, and we watched hundreds of church-goers in their Sunday best walking towards the conference centre for the 2pm sermon.
We wouldn't have been able to go into the temple anyway, as it's been closed since 2020 for seismic renovations, but the rest of the religious square buildings (including the Tabernacle with its 11,000 pipe organ) would have been nice to see.
After stopping at a nearby playground for some lunch, we got to our motel for the night, which luckily had an indoor pool that was open. (Recent motels with outdoor pools, have all been closed for the winter). I took the kids to the pool so Dan could get a break; I got a bit of relaxing done too, lying on the pool lounger, 'supervising' my more-than-capable swimmers.
We grabbed some Domino's pizza for dinner - they have the most divine little morsels of Parmesan garlic bread. Seriously, they're like mouthfuls of heaven! Sooo yummy...we bought three boxes of them and didn't even get to the pizza!
Day 99 - 2 Oct '23 - Bonneville Salt Flats. Today we drove almost 200km in a straight line, out to the Bonneville Salt Flats. This is where they hold the world land speed records, for one week every August, as well as the national archery flight competition.
It had been raining overnight where we were staying, and it was raining on the way out there.
"I sure hope we're not driving 200km to find it's raining there as well?" Dan asked, as the rain got steadily heavier, and we hit a few patches of standing water, while driving at 75mph.
"Nope," I replied, while gripping the door handle, "I checked the weather before we left, and it said 'cloudy', nothing about rain."
Thankfully, as we got closer, the rain cleared, and we could enjoy more of the scenery. I don't think I've seen anywhere that was so entirely flat! Other places we've driven through that were flat, still had low plants or bushes. This place was just...flat! I guess they don't call it the Great Salt Lake for nothing!
In the Ice Age, the Bonneville Slat Flats was a salt lake that covered more that 30,000 acres, and through the eons, the water had evaporated, leaving a crust of salt that is five feet thick in the middle to less than an inch at the edges.
Because it had also been raining here, and there was a thin layer of water on the surface, there was no way we could drive on it, as there was a very high chance we would get stuck in the mud at the edges. We did get out and stand on it, though! The water meant we also saw some pretty cool reflections in the puddles (my camera struggled to capture any image, as the white balance was off the chart, and things to focus on were really far away).
There wasn't anything else to do out there, so after we'd taken a few photos and put a bit of petrol in the tank (a very Kiwi "just stick $20 in", as the price was exorbitant), we turned around and drove the 200km back to the city.
It rained, and rained, and got heavier and heavier. Driving on a motorway in the rain isn't fun; driving on a six-lane motorway is even less enjoyable. And I was the passenger! By the time we arrived at our motel for the night, my palms were clammy. Dan may have outwardly appeared unfazed, but I'd seen him unclench his hands from the steering wheel a few times, to stretch his cramped fingers!
This motel also had an indoor pool, so the kids and I once again hung out there while Dan got some work done in our room.
Day 100 - 3 Oct '23 - Salt Lake City to Moab. Yay! No rain! We had an early start today, with the alarm set for 7:30am so we could enjoy our free breakfast before our three-hour drive to the Arches National Park.
"ANOTHER national park?" Alex complained.
"Yes, another one," I replied. "When you go to a different country, you're either seeing the scenery or going to museums, what else did you think we'd be doing?"
One thing we have discovered while travelling across America, is the access into the national parks are all completely different. Some you can just drive on through (once you've paid a park fee), some you have to book a specific time slot, some you have to book a certain day, and some you can only see in a tour. Not only this, but they release the tickets at different times in advance. For example, Washington Monument was at 6pm the night before you wanted to visit, and so was Arches National Park.
We booked the 12-1pm arrival slot, and got there at 12:45pm! We then spent the next five hours driving through the park, and seeing the arches and columns for which this park is famed.
They had some fantastic names: Three Gossips, Parade of Elephants, Garden of Eden, Park Avenue, and Dark Angel being a few!
The first arch we stopped at was the Double Arch.
Dan and the kids climbed to the top of the underside of the arch (you're not allowed on the top), while I stayed slightly lower down (ostensibly to take photos of them, but I didn't much like the idea of trying to climb back down!).
Across the road from the Double Arch, were the North and South Windows, and the Turret Arch.
The arches in the park are not necessarily stable features; other than the constant weathering and erosion, there have periodically been massive slabs fall off the underside of them.
Some of the columns and sheets were also pretty amazing to see. Balanced Rock, which speaks for itself, seems like it's only a matter of time before it's name will need changed!
There were lots of trails of varying lengths throughout the park, to get to the arches and columns. We did a couple of the shorter ones, around 0.5-1.5km each, as we were limited on time. It would have been great to see the Delicate Arch up close, as it is on the top of a cliff, but we did get to see it from a bit further away.
There were so many places to see, it would have been amazing to get to them all, but you'd need at least an entire day to really do it justice.
We were staying in a small camp park on the outskirts of Moab, in a perfectly adequate (albeit very small) cabin.
"It's got everything we need. Beds, a bathroom, a fridge, a microwave, a TV, air-con, wifi, and a two-burrer cooktop with pans and utensils," I enthusiastically stated.
"There's no sheets or pillows," Dan commented.
"Okay, almost everything we need. But it was the cheapest place I could find in the middle of nowhere!"
Accommodations in the middle of nowhere can charge what they like, and some of the motels were charging like a wounded bull, with some prices exceeding $300NZD for a room with two double beds and not even a microwave.
Our route for the next couple of days was to visit Mesa Verde, a city carved into a cliff about two hours southeast, followed by Monument Valley, and then on to the Grand Canyon.
Mesa Verde was a National Park, so I hopped online to see what their access requirements were.
"Got some bad news, Dan," I lamented. "You can only access the buildings by going on a tour, and all three tours to the different sights are booked. They release their tickets two weeks in advance!"
"Bugger!"
"I guess we could still drive through the park and look at them? We don't need to walk through them."
"Yeah, okay."
"Oh, wait, it's an hour drive through the park to get to them."
"An hour?!"
"Yep - it's only 34km, but it's a narrow, winding, mountain road."
"Well, maybe if the road exits at the other end..."
"Nope. It's a one-way in-and-out road. Oh well, no Mesa Verde. Bugger!"
"Okay, Monument Valley was next?"
"Yep. It's not a National park, it's $8USD per person to visit, it's open 8am to 5pm, and it's a 17km loop road."
"Okay!"
"Oh, wait, it's a gravel road, so no-can-do. BUGGER!"
(Our car insurance said we couldn't drive on gravel roads, and while we may have pushed it a little on the occasional gravel driveways, 17km was a bit too long).
So now, with no Mesa Verde, and no Monument Valley, that just left the Grand Canyon. And thus, Dan and I were up until after midnight trying to find ANY accommodation on the route to the Grand Canyon, that wasn't a ridiculous price.
There was none. No campgrounds with cabins. No motels. No hotels. No bed and breakfasts. No Air BnBs. The cheapest place we found was $347NZD for a king bed and a couch. And it wasn't a pullout couch.
In the end, because we were tired and had no other viable option, we booked a glamping tent at a Grand Canyon campground for three nights. We'd just have to drive seven hours to get there.
Day 101 - 4 Oct '23 - Moab to Williams. The best time of the day to start a seven hour drive, is as early as possible. So, accordingly, we left at 10am!
To be fair, we all slept in until 8:15am (even the kids, who normally wake up at 6:30am or 7am), so we clearly needed the sleep.
I was determined to redeem the not-so-interesting-anymore day somehow, and our first stop was the Four Corners Monument - this is where four states meet at a single point.
"What?!" Dan exclaimed, "we have to pay?! That's ridiculous!"
Sure enough, there was a toll booth and a sign saying $8USD per person.
"PER PERSON?!" I joined in. "That IS ridiculous, it's just a mark on the ground!"
Dan turned the car around. I sulked. Dan stopped the car.
"Did you want to go?" he asked.
"No, it's okay." (I was still sulking).
"You DO want to go, don't you?"
"Well, yes, yes I do! I didn't get to go to Mesa Verde, and I didn't get to go to Monument Valley, so YES, I want to go here. I want to do ONE thing on my list!"
So, we paid our $32USD (still ridiculous, Crazy Horse was cheaper, and it was an actual mountain monument), and parked the car.
Then we joined the queue to take the obligatory photos of us standing in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico at the same time. Incidentally, this is the only place in the United States where four states meet.
(I'm glad we did it, even though it was a ridiculous price, especially as it's now super heavily commercialised, with 56 (yes, 56!) stalls selling native arts and crafts, and tshirts).
We tried to have lunch at the picnic benches, but as Alex and I walked to them (while Dan drove the car closer), we gagged on the god-awful stench of the long drops, that was being blown in our direction.
"Nope, nope, don't get out!" I frantically gestured. "Keep the door closed!"
Our lunch stop ended up being a carpark at a health centre, literally in the middle of nowhere. Alex dropped his rolls on the ground, and after he'd picked them up, the wind blew the lettuce back onto the ground. Then Dan spilled coke on his rolls!
"Just what I need, to make my rolls even sweeter! Lucky I had my plate!"
The next location on my list was Mexican Hat, a pile of weathered rocks that looked like a man wearing a sombrero.
After that was Forrest Gump Point! Yes, it was actually called that, and even had GPS coordinates to it! This was the scene in the movie where he stopped running, and turned around to go home. Since then, it has become such a popular tourist stop, that there are now sign posts and numerous pull off bays. I was very fortunate to be able to take a shot from the middle of the road, as there were no cars for miles.
At the end of the road in the distance, we could see Monument Valley, and even though we couldn't drive through it, the view from the side of the road ended up being spectacular enough for us. In fact, the view for most of our drive was incredible - rocks barely clinging on to hillsides, giant sections of the ground jutting upright at phenomenal angles, and colours spanning every possible shade of brown, orange, and red.
We didn't stay long, as we still had a three hour drive to the campground at Williams, about 50 minutes away from the Grand Canyon. By the time we arrived it was dark, and we'd even gained an hour back crossing a time zone. Our glamping tent was pretty cool, both in the figurative and literal sense! It was a large canvas tent, and we had beds with linen, a fridge, carpet, upholstered chairs, lights, and an outdoor seating area complete with barbecue! It was forecast to get to 6°C tonight, but I'm sure we'll be cosy warm under all our blankets!
Day 102 - 5 Oct '23 - Grand Canyon. At 12:30am Dan and I were abruptly woken up by a 'thump thump ow'.
"Jesus!" I said as I tried to find the light switch in the total darkness. "What was..."
Dan found his lightswitch first, and then we found Alex, who had found the floor.
"Are you alright? What happened? Do you need the toilet? Why didn't you go down the ladder?"
He was fine, just a bit stunned, as he had just fallen out the top bunk.
"Wha-?" he stuttered as he blinked bewilderingly.
"You rolled out the bunk, Alex!"
Abi was now also awake, and since everyone was up, we went on a family trip to the toilet. Outside didn't feel too cold at all, and the stars were lovely to see.
The highway that went past the campground was still busy at this time of night, and seemed noisier now than it did at 9:30pm last night when we went to bed.
"It seems a bit harder to get to sleep now," I whispered to Dan, who agreed.
When we woke up at 7am, it was 7°C, and I was snuggly in my bed. A cold nose but warm toes! The kids said they were cold, but I reassured them it was the air that was cold and that they weren't cold in their flannelette pyjamas under a fleece blanket and their sleeping bag! But just to pre-empt any further issues, I suggested they sleep in their sleeping bags under the blanket.
We were off to the south rim of the Grand Canyon today, and got there just after 9:30am. It was a gorgeous day with no clouds, but a bitingly cold wind. But it wasn't just the wind taking our breath away, as we got to the first viewpoint.
Wow. What a sight! Once again, distance and depth perception make photos impossible to accurately display what it looks like.
There was a fantastic path along the top, with an even more fantastic guard rail! Despite this, there were a phenomenal amount of idiots walking out onto spits of rock, just to get a 'better' photo. One utter f*ckwit of a guy even walked out wearing socks and slides!! We watched and felt sick, just waiting for these people to fall off.
"Why on earth would you do that?" I asked Dan, in complete disbelief. "The view will not be any different at all! They're all of a few metres further into the canyon!! I can take the same photo from here (behind the guardrail) just by moving my camera!"
I will concede that even on the rocks that you could 'safely' get to, I was still very uncomfortable, and did NOT like the kids going on them, envisioning seeing them disappear to their deaths.
"STAY AWAY FROM THE EDGE! THAT'S FAR ENOUGH!", I would shriek, to glares of contempt from both my offspring.
Dan was supportive though, and would get them to come back (and also told them off for not listening to me).
We walked about 3.5km in one direction along the rim, admiring the view from every point. Dan pointed out a trail he did when he was 20.
"Look down there, see that path? That's the trail I did!"
"There's the trail I did when I was last here!"
"Can you see those people down there? They're on the trail I did when I was 20!"
"That point over there is where I decided not to go any further down, and make my way back."
"I did a 20km trail, and it was 1km down!"
"Hey look, there's the trail!"
"Ooh, Dan, is that the trail you did when you were 20, that was 20km long and 1km down before you changed your mind? Would you like a photo next to the trail you did? That IS the trail you did, isn't it? Do you see it, the trail down there?"
Ha ha ha ha!!! (Dan has just told me I'm being mean, so would like me to say I have exaggerated his numerous trail comments!)
We caught the free shuttle back to our car, then had lunch, and watched an elk munch on some trees just past us. I couldn't get a good photo through the branches, but as we walked to the toilet, we were amazed to see a mummy elk and her baby, just sauntering down the road in the carpark.
Back at the campground, we had a few fun games of GaGa ball before dinner, then played minigolf in the dark! It was so much fun; solar-powered lights lit up the holes and the edges of the courses, and we had balls that glowed in different colours. It was pretty challenging not being able to see the hills and dips, but this actually made it funnier, as our balls would roll in random directions, and what was looking to be a par two suddenly became a par six!
Tonight, to stop any complaints about cold (even though it was warmer), the kids slept IN their sleeping bags, under the blanket. They even wore socks! If they're still cold after this, I'm not sure they'll survive Iceland!
Day 103 - 6 Oct '23 - chilling at the campground. We decided just to have a fun, relaxing day, where Alex and Abi could run around the campground and take part in the numerous activities put on. It was nice to feel like we were on summer holiday, with clear blue skies and a gentle breeze to keep the temperature pleasant.
We stayed in bed until almost 9am, and first stop after breakfast was the pool, where we played Marco Polo, and relaxed in the hot tubs.
After a quick trip to the supermarket for supplies, then eating leftover dinner for lunch, Alex and Abi went to the jumping pillow while Dan and I looked for our next accommodation. Aah, silence!
At 2:45pm, we joined in the campground Bingo game. SO MUCH FUN! We played 10 different games, and the host was amazing. Alex won a prize for three-in-a-row, and I won a quiz question (of course!).
(Here's the question...answer at the end of the blog. See how you do!)
Q. There are 165 of these cities across the world, that are part of an international registry. Flagstaff, Arizona, was the first city to be registered. What is the registry?
After that, the kids went on a barrel train ride around the campground, which was super cute.
We then went on go-karts, that were conveniently located right beside the campground. Alex was my driver, and let me just say, I'm not so confident in him having a driver's licence!
"SLOW into the corners, Alex, SLOW! Fast OUT! NOT SO WIDE!"
I started the ride with my hands on my lap, then it progressed to one hand holding a leg and the other holding the side, and finished with both hands gripping on to the side for dear life!
Mind you, when Dan and Abi were desperately trying to lap us, I told him not to slow down!!
The kids went on a hayride at 5pm around the campground, then we grabbed an easy dinner of burgers from the on-site cafe, before Alex and Abi left us in peace again to watch Despicable Me 2. At 6:45pm they did a lollipop hunt in the dark, then carried on watching the movie, while Dan and I sat on our deck watching the various examples of camp life.
There were a lot more people who had checked in today, and most of them seemed to have these dune-buggy style of vehicles, that they felt the need to drive every 10 minutes or so, to wherever they went. Once, and I'm not kidding, they drove to the toilet.
Now, here's the part you've been waiting for, the answer to the quiz: Dark Sky.
How did you do?
Comments