Underneath the Arches.....

Lots of pictures this time - don't forget to click them if you want to see them in glorious technicolour!!

This little gem of a park has over 25oo sandstone arches, the most anywhere in the world! It's a photographers dream and we've captured quite a few of them. We've been on some great hikes to see them, scrambling over the slickrock and narrow ledges and scaling the sandstone slabs. Elvis has turned into quite the 'Action Girl' and now has no qualms about getting dirty, scuffing the nails and even getting the hair wet!

We left Capitol Reef at about 5:30am to get to Arches early because they only have 24 first come - first served camp sites. We got there early enough to have a pick of sites and we're set up in a lovely little number. Yet again (I know we must be sounding like a broken record) the scenery is amazing - there's a few pics here but that's just a Small sample. Yesterday we went on a guided tour of the 'Fiery Furnace', it's a maze like labyrinth of narrow sandstone canyons (see the pic of Elvis squeezing through a crack in the rocks) which was class - they took us into some of the most secluded parts of the canyons and explained how it all happens - if anybody wants to know anything about rocks then just ask us!

We've just come back from white water rafting which was really good - apart from the rafting we were swimming in the river and having 'water fights' with the other boats - all in good nature of course, not like when my Brother Ron and I used to have water fights in South Shields boating pond and almost drowned all the other boats in our way! We might have a picture of us in the raft - we need to check it out first with the photo company.

Just in case anyone has been to Arches, the pictures of the arches are (from top to bottom): 1 Landscape arch, 2 Pine arch, 3 Double-o-arch, 4 Balanced rock (not really an arch - just testing that you're all with it) and 5 Delicate arch.

Apparently, if you find an undiscovered arch then you get to name it, we've seen surprise arch, pork chop arch and kissing turtles arch! - we're busy looking for "Why ya Bugger Arch"

We're off tomorrow to Colorado National Monument - another big park to camp in for 2 nights, then to the White River National Forest for 2 nights. The more observant of you will notice that we're heading back to Colorado, which can only mean we'll soon be jetting out to Vancouver (2nd August)

Suz & Keef in Capitol Reef

We picked Capitol Reef because it split the journey between Bryce Canyon and Arches National Park - however, it turned out to be a canny little spot. Capitol Reef is less crowded than the other parks and contains much of the 100-mile Waterfold Pocket created 65 million years ago when the earth's surface buckled up and folded! This means there's a git big cross section of colourful rocks like purple, russet, grey, pink. Again some lovely scenery and a bonus, orchards for fruit picking in the summer. Elvis was in her element and zoomed off once told the plums were in season!

There's also a few examples of when it was a village with the old blacksmiths, an old school and the old Gifford Homestead (a little house set up like what you'd find in Beamish). This went down well as there was free samples of bread and homemade jam and we bought some homemade ice cream.

We only had one night there so we didn't have time to do much, the first two pictures are on top of one of the hikes, the next picture I put Elvis to work in the field to earn us some extra shekels for the holiday fund, then I made her wash my smalls using some state of the art gadgets - a woman's work is never done. The last picture is me next to my next car - there's room for Elvis and I but I don't know where the tent is going to fit - I wonder if they do and SUV version......

As I said - only one night in Capitol Reef although we could have spent more time there - however, Arches and Moab were next and I've heard a lot of good things about them. Next Blog from Arches then.

It's Nice in Bryce (Canyon that is) !

Bryce Canyon - Sunday 22nd - 24th July

The 'canyon' is actually an amphitheater eroded from cliffs and is full of the most marvellous pink and orange pinnacles, points, steeples, spires and hoodoos (a pinnacle or odd shaped rock left standing by the forces of erosion)! Now go to that hoo doo that you do so well.......

It's impossible to take a picture of how magnificent this place is - as we walked from our campsite to the edge of the amphitheatre this enormous feast of 'eye candy' smacks you in the face - we couldn't take it in and it does literally take your breath away! What's really good about it is that you're allowed to actually 'get amongst' it all - so you can walk through the spires, tunnels etc

We had a couple of great days here before we moved on to Capitol Reef, which is the subject of the next blog! One more thing to mention, our camping resolve was tested to the limit on the first night when a thunderstorm stuck during the night, after 20 minutes of horrendous pounding the seams of the tent give up and water started to drip in. Luckily this story has a happy ending though - an $8 tin of 'Campers Waterproofing' sorted that out and we've been nice and dry since thank you very much!

Off to do some White Water Rafting now - we'll update you all with that story soon!

Bandanna Schmandanna!!

Some cheeky bugger said that with the way my head was that I should wear a bandanna (are they trying to say I'm short of hair?)

Anyway - what do you think - I look like me Ma going shopping on a British wet weekend.

This bandanna malarkey will never catch on!!

PS - Hello to El Tel - the Bird man of Lamar - Glad you're enjoying the Blog!!

PPS Also some Birthday wishes to James Sorrell - Happy 14th for the 27th July, well done in those exams, good luck with the 'Big Boys Band' and the next rugby season. Also Happy Birthday Simon Hawe who is 51 on the 26th of July!

Indianna Hodgies and the monoliths of Zion!

This is a part of a hike called 'Angels Landing' - look carefully at it - that path is only 28 inches wide and the drop to the right is - well - it's a long way. Our Brother-in-law Bob, who is a keen hiker would be caking his dukes if he was doing this one!

La la "I'm gonna be Iron like a Lion in Zion" (C Bob Marley)..

Here are some pictures from Zion National Park in the state of Utah. The white, pink and red rocks of the park are huge, overpowering and magnificent! We got here on Wednesday 18th July after a long drive from the Grand Tetons in Wyoming - through Idaho and here in Utah. This is our last day in Zion - next stop Bryce Canyon.

A quick explanation of the pictures - the first is the river that runs right behind our tent - this is the best site we've been to yet - spacious, shady and a lovely sandy beached river for when the temperatures hit the 100's.

This pic on the left was from a hike called 'Hidden Canyon' - we finished the hike then decided to investigate further, so we kept walking down the canyon, clambering over rocks, scrambling up dirt walkways and everytime we were stopped, we just climbed over or worked a way around - anyway we ended up in some great places about two miles further than the hike was meant to be. There's something great about 'trail blazing'!!

More adventures in the canyon!

This is me triumphant after reaching the top of Angels Landing, Elvis decided to leave the last half mile to the 'daft lad'!

This is our little afternoon relaxation spot. Just behind the tent and an absolute godsend with temperatures of around 105 degrees, it's even scorching at 7pm! Not that we are complaining mind you when we hear about the rain back home!

There's a free cup of tea for anyone who can tell me what the label of my beer says! However, the free gift will be null and void should anyone make any correlation between the beer and me! (Nana and Auntie advisory warning - the label may contain words of an adult nature!)

He's only gone and done it!

Well done to our gorgeous nephew Samuel who started to crawl last week!

Christopher and Nicola manged to capture it on video and e mailed it to us so we didn't miss out. Isn't technology marvellous?

As you can see he's a real cutie who loves posing for the camera. The latest is that he now has 3 teeth and no surprise here, being an Elves and his father's son, absolutely loves his grub melon, plum, tuna, cabbage! Nicola says 'it's like stuffing an old couch'!!

She's only gone and done it!!

We just had to mention our niece Lindsey, this is her celebrating her graduation at the The Kings Arms - well she was supposed to be just celebrating her degree result but it turned out to be a 'double yucker' because she's got a job teaching at St Anne's too. Luckily for her, when the interviewers raised the 'Catholic' question, Lindsey told them there wouldn't be a problem as she had been in the Brownies when she was younger!!

Well done Lee'day Bok, as we Americans would say - go get em girl already, go figure!

Just to say...

Just a little note to say that we found a library in Zion and we have been able to update the blog - there's quite a few new postings so remember - the latest one is at the top so if you want to read them in order, you'll need to scroll down a bit.

We're off now to cool down in the river, cook some mountain pies over the fire and maybe do some washing of the smalls, which involves dual uses for the wash-up bowl (for washing) and the en-suite bucket (known as Gordon) for the rinsing out! We'll let your imaginations run wild!

Grand Teton (careful how you pronounce it!)

We arrived at Grand Teton National Park very excited about the hikes and wonderful scenery that we had read about. The mountain range consists of 12 jagged, glacier-carved granite spires which rise above 12,000ft, crowned by the singular Grand Teton (13,770ft), most spectacle when you see them. Well we just couldn't wait, until........ the sky grew really dark, there was a clatter of thunder and the heavens opened! As we are campers with an adversion to the rain and cold (the Sorrells will confirm this!) we quickly jumped back into our 'house on wheels' and headed off to warmer climates - Utah, the desert state lay ahead!

Yellowstone Part 2 (The search for Yogi - Nature Log)

One of my friends (Beanz) asked me to get some pictures of a bear - well, one morning around 6am on our way to the hot springs, we turned the corner (no one else was about at that time) and there crossing the road right in front of us was a full grown Grizzly bear! When it saw the car it made for the bank by the side of the road - unfortunately too quick for me to pull up and get the camera out. It was the most amazing animal I've ever seen, it had a massive heed - even bigger than me Fatha's (sorry Bomber).

Anyway - shame I missed the bear, but here are some that didn't escape the camera. The first pic is a Buffalo or Bison (same thing) - just walking down the road like it was off to work or something. It walked right passed our car - I could have touched it and probably would of if it wasn't a wild animal and - most importantly, stinking of shite.

The second picture is a 'Prairie Dog' - they act like mere cats (if you know what they are) this one was watching every move I made and when I got too close it let out a warning cry and disappeared underground. The third picture is two baby deer that we spotted hiking our way to the top of Mount Washburn - the mother deer appeared shortly after, rounded them up and bolted off down the hill.


The fourth picture is of big horn sheep - fairly rare to find, they feed in the 'tundra' (no trees) - so you have to climb really high up to see them. These were nursing some very young ones and didn't want to move.

The next picture is what we in England call a Butter-lowy - sorry that's the best I can do - if anyone knows it's real name then tell me!

The next picture you will need to click on it then zoom right in. After you have done that you should see a fish eagle sitting on its nest - we did see it out hunting for fish later but it wasn't possible to take a picture.


The next picture is a 'Bull Moose' sitting in a stream under the shade trying to get some peace - it was probably wondering why 30 or so humans where lined up on the bank pointing strange flashing boxes at it!!



We think the next picture is 'Mule Deer' but again - not really sure. We saw these while hiking and the mother moved the young ones away when she saw us approaching.

The Raven was hanging around one of the tourist points probably hoping for something to eat. IT GOT NOWT!!

The last picture we think is a Stag Elk? What ever it is it's wearing a lovely hat!

We also went early one morning to stake out an area where wolves had been spotted and were lucky enough to see a Mother wolf and her pups playing about. They were too far away to get a picture and we would have had trouble seeing them if a kind American guy hadn't let us look through his bins. It was amazing to see them in the wild like that.

Adventures in Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park, well what a place! 2.2 million acres of alpine lakes, rivers, creeks, waterfalls, over 300 geysers and home to a variety of free roaming wildlife! The place is just huge with so much to see and do. We stayed there 4 days and got a little taster of the park. Again camping in a lovely little spot under the trees, tucked away in a quiet corner with the obligitory nightly fire!

The second photo is at Mammoth Hot Springs, a hydrothermal area just full of blowing geysers (a bit like Keith really but these are blowing steam!) The water in the pools is bubbling away as most of it is just about at boiling point (a bit like me after all of Keith's blowing!)

The fourth photo is our lunch break overlooking the beaver ponds during a long hike. Even though the park is busy you just don't see anyone on these hikes!

We were very pleased with ourselves once we got to the top of Mt Washburn. It was a little wildlife feast with deer and babies, a variety of birds and marmots on the way up.

Yellowstone River is something special as it meanders through the canyon, the colours are just beautiful with the water glistening like a Mediterranean sea.

Old Faithful is the park's most famous geyser which spews gallons of water 150ft in the air every 90 minutes. It really is a sight to see, everyone sits around on benches waiting for it to do it's party piece, and of course it gets a round of applause!