Up to Main Page Eclipse and USA National Park Tour: Journal
17th Aug - 6th Sep, 2017

Thursday, 17 August:     Riniken - Denver - Longmont

After much agonising over how to pack our gear, we eventually decided to take Kathryn's big orange rucksack and our red canoeing rucksack. Because we were not sure about being able to find motel accommodation everywhere, especially for the first weekend of the eclipse, we had decided to take tent and camping gear to have an emergency place to sleep at night. This, coupled with the airline's restriction of only one checked-in bag per person (an extra bag would cost EUR 142), necessitated the canoe bag with its 115 litre capacity.

Kari's bag came to 13 kg, mine to 17.6 kg. We therefore asked Mirjam for a lift to Brugg station. The weather was fine, the train was on time, and we didn't have to change trains in Zurich, so we were at Zurich airport for soon after 11:00 to get checked-in for the Icelandair flight to Denver via Reykjavik at 14:00 feeling quite comfortable.

I had read many negative reports about Icelandair on the Web, so was expecting the worst. As it turned out, the first flight to Reykjavik was quite comfortable, and the soft drinks at least were free. The food was, however, rather expensive, so we had sandwiches with us. The second leg, which took some 8 hours, was not very pleasant. We were packed in like sardines, and it was rather too warm. The in-flight entertainment was also disappointing. None of the available films appealed, and there was no classical music on offer in the audio selection.

Eventually we reached Denver on time at 18:30. The airport was delightfully quiet, and immigration control quite painless. The car rental company, Hertz, was well organised with shuttle bus and efficient office staff. As a result, we were able to set off from the Hertz rental agency just after 20:00, only 90 minutes after touching down. The sun was setting, but it was light enough for us to still be able to read the road signs comfortably. Our goal was the pre-booked Quality Inn in Longmont, some 80 km away to the north of Denver.

We had thoroughly researched the route to the hotel using Google Maps with StreetView, avoiding a toll road and express lanes, which would have generated later debits from our credit card. We managed fantastically, despite heavy, fast flowing traffic, arriving at the hotel for 21:00, or 05:00 body time. We simply had quick showers, took a melatonin tablet each in the hope that they might ease jet-lag problems, and went to bed.

Friday, 18 August:     Longmont - Fort Collins - Laramie - Rawlins

Breakfast was included in the hotel price. We slept until about 03:30, but just dozed after that. Breakfast service fortunately started early at 06:00, so we were amongst the first to go down for it. We spent some time rearranging our packed bags, managed to book a hotel in Rawlins for the night using the hotel's Wifi, and set off.

We took the normal road through the towns of Fort Collins and Laramie, rather than going up Interstate 25 (I-25), so we didn't make fast progress, but the driving was really quite easy. Once we had left Fort Collins behind and got into Wyoming, the scenery became vast. The expanse of the prairies is hard to grasp without having experienced it.

We stopped at a Walmart on the outskirts of Fort Collins for some fuel for our camping stove, stopped again for a coffee, and plodded on. When we reached I-30, just west of Laramie, we stopped for lunch, an omelette with lots of carbohydrate as accompaniment. It was then a case of setting the car's cruise control to 60 mph and waiting for the miles to tick by until we reached Rawlins at about 15:00. We stopped to look around the historic site of Fort Steele along the way to stretch the legs a bit.

I had totally underestimated the interest in the eclipse, and especially its effect on the booking level of the hotels around here. Everything is either full, or the prices have been raised enormously. We had contemplated heading for the centre of the eclipse path in Casper (WY) or Alliance (NE), but we think that we won't even be able to find a camp site there. We've decided to stay in Rawlins and drive up the 200 km to Casper on Monday morning. Even here, so far away, we have been forced to book 3 nights at $72 per night in a run-down looking motel in town. We had to pay cash too. At least tonight's hotel is, just like last night's, palatial and comfortable for only $80.

For evening meal, we bought a six-pack of beer from the nearby liquor store to accompany some leftover toast from lunch. We sat at a picnic table by the motel's pool in the shade from the hot evening sun to consume them.

Saturday, 19 August:     Rawlins

We're essentially in killing time mode at the moment, waiting for the eclipse on Monday. We're still about 200 km from the centre of the eclipse's path in Casper, but there's no sense in going there yet because all the hotels are full, or charging fantasy prices.

Accordingly we took our time enjoying breakfast in the hotel and getting packed up. We first went to the petrol station around the corner to fill up the car. The tank was still almost half full, but the filling stations are so far apart around here, that it seems expedient to always have plenty of petrol in reserve. It only cost $13 to fill the tank after driving nearly 500 km.

The next item on the day's agenda was a visit to the local museum. We were there at about 9:40 to find that it opens at 10:00. Since there were already a few people waiting, we decided to stay and wait as well. We were surprised by how many people joined the queue behind us, most of them local. Eventually we cottoned on. The museum was handing out free eclipse glasses today!

It turned out to be quite a social occasion. The museum was not only free, but they were offering free snacks and soft drinks as well. The museum was quite interesting in its own right with lots of exhibits from the wagon train era of the 19th century.

It was only a couple of blocks from the museum to our run-down motel for the next three nights, so we got ourselves set up there next before going on foot to the other museum in town, a prison museum. It was, as one might expect, somewhat ghoulish.

We were now in pedestrian mode, so went on a stroll through downtown Rawlins looking for somewhere for lunch. There's not much to downtown Rawlins, so we were soon in a pizza restaurant sharing a rather bland, but otherwise quite serviceable, pizza.

It was really hot today. We had decided to try climbing the hill to the north of the town for some exercise, but it was too hot still to try it. So we went shopping for some picnic food for our evening meal and some milk and cereal for breakfast, and followed it with a siesta.

The climb was very enjoyable, but surprisingly strenuous because of the altitude. The town is on the Continental Divide at just over 2000 m. The climb was also very dehydrating. There was a strong dry wind helping to make the heat bearable, but drying one out very much.

Evening meal was a salad in our motel room, followed by a long chat and moan with another lady about the slum like nature and exorbitant price of the motel.

Sunday, 20 August:     Rawlins - Saratoga - Rawlins

When we got up this morning, there were clouds in the sky. They were almost the first that we've seen since our arrival. We're getting a bit concerned that we're going to be unlucky again for the eclipse tomorrow. The more positive aspect of the morning was that the motel's WiFi was working again, so it was possible to catch up on emails and our DuoLingo exercises.

In order to fill the day, we decided to visit the small town of Saratoga, some 30 km to the south-east. According to the map, we saw that there are allegedly hot springs there. This was confirmed by the receptionist at the motel, who was quite enthusiastic about them. She said that they were free.

It was a simple drive back east along I-30 to just past Sinclair, and then south. The cruise control held the speed at 60 mph just about the whole way. The hot springs were easy to find, next to the town's swimming pool, and were very pleasantly landscaped. We had a bathe, but the water was too hot to stay in very long. And the river running past was too cold. However, it was a very pleasant short bathe. We could have also gone into the swimming pool, but decided against it, despite it being free for anyone over 64 years old.

We strolled around the park across the river from the hot springs, and had a small picnic lunch there. We followed this with a stroll around the tiny town before returning to Rawlins. By this time, the clouds were getting quite serious, and it was looking like a thunder storm wasn't far away. In the end, though, the clouds more or less dispersed during the evening.

We had a very enjoyable Thai meal in the evening. There was a queue for tables soon after we got there. Our timing was perfect. Perhaps the restaurant's popularity was partially due to the fact that the town is brimming with tourists for the eclipse. Everyone is saying that the road to Casper will be jammed up in the morning. We're planning to leave at about 05:30, so hopefully we'll be ahead of the crush.

Monday, 21 August:     Eclipse Day

Up for 05:00, granola for breakfast, coffee-to-go from the filling station across the road then off to the north at 05:20 to hopefully find blue skies.

We turned left at Muddy Gap, right at Sweetwater Station, right again into Riverton for a McDonald's breakfast. Then on through Shoshoni to find a good spot to park and wait for the eclipse at 11:39. We found a nice spot in a layby in the wilderness with a host of others at about 09:30. The drive was fast and easy with not much traffic once we had passed Muddy Gap. We mounted the tarp for some shade whilst we were waiting.

There were thin high clouds making the sun rather fuzzy and causing us some concern. But they moved away as 11:39 approached so that we had a superb view of the eclipse complete with diamond ring effect, over 2 minutes of totality with glorious corona, and several stars visible. It was quite an emotional experience.

Since we wanted to visit Independence Rock on the way back to Rawlins, we continued on the road from Soshoni to Casper, again with no traffic problems. However, after stopping for an ice cream in the town which, with its population of over 90,000, had the feel of a big city and didn't appeal to us much, we had real traffic jams most of the way for the last 200 km back to Rawlins.

We had a very nice stop at Independence Rock and took the time to climb to its top to see the scratched-in names of people who had stopped there on their way to California by wagon train in the 19th century. It was 20:30 by the time that we reached our motel having covered 560 km during the day. We just had a sandwich and beer in our room for evening meal. We didn't feel like going out again.

Tuesday, 22 August:     Rawlins - Baggs - Craig - Maybell - Rangely - Grand Junction

Now we can get on with visiting some national parks. We set off this morning en route for Moab and Arches National Park, getting as far as Grand Junction after about 450 km. The scale of the country has to be experienced to be appreciated. Mostly around here it is semi-desert with rolling plains interspersed with sandstone mountains and gorges. We added some 50 km to our route by going via Rangely and going over Douglas Pass at just over 8000 ft. We thought that the extra distance was justified by the more interesting scenery.

We left Rawlins at about 7:30, stopped in Baggs for a breakfast snack, and then again in Rangely for lunch. Rangely is the centre of an oil drilling area with nodding donkeys scattered here and there. We were at our pre-booked hotel in Grand Junction for about 15:30, nicely in time for a swim in the hotel's pool and for washing some clothes.

The day was sunny and hot until lunchtime, when it suddenly became stormy. We even had a few drops of rain, but it didn't develop into anything. Doubtless the sky will be blue again when we get up for breakfast.

Wednesday, 23 August:     Grand Junction - Cisco - Moab

The sky was not completely blue this morning, but it was fine and got hotter and hotter all day. The plan was to drive the relatively short distance to Moab in the morning, and then to go hiking in Arches National Park in the afternoon.

The drive was very beautiful. We started off the easy way by following the I-70 over the state border and into Utah. Soon after the border we took a turn off on a relatively small road to the ghost town of Cisco, and from there down Hwy 128 to Moab. The 128 is a spectacular road which leads to the Colorado River and follows it down its sandstone gorge to Moab.

A few miles before we reached Moab, we saw a sign for the start of the Grandstaff Trail. It turned out to be a hike of just over 3 km up a canyon to Morning Glory Bridge, which is apparently the 5th longest natural arch in the USA. On the spur of the moment we decided to try the hike. It seemed to be about the right length for us.

It started off easily, but quickly became harder due to soft sand underfoot and the extreme heat. At one point we took a wrong turn, which cost us some time and energy. On retracing our steps I inadvertently brushed against a cactus. Its spines were very sharp and barbed. They were very difficult to get out of both my skin and my clothing.

The trail followed a stream, which we had to cross several times. By the time that we reached the "bridge", we were both very red-faced and tired. In addition, there was the worry that we might brush against poison ivy, which we didn't know how to recognise. We were wondering if our red faces might have been caused by some ivy.

After some fruit and some nuts, as much water to drink as we could afford, and a long rest in the shade, we set off back. The return was, of course, much easier. All the same we were very happy when we finally got back to the car having taken about 3 hours for the hike. We had some ice in the cool box in the car, which was very welcome.

On reaching the Quality Inn in Moab, it was nice to find that it had a swimming pool. We spent some time bathing and showering. We found a Chinese restaurant for evening meal.

Thursday, 24 August:     Arches National Park

It was time to visit our first National Park. The visitor centre and park entrance to Arches National Park is just 7 km north of Moab. We had obtained literature at the Moab Visitor Centre on our way into Moab, so had a good idea of what we wanted to do. Our goal was a hike to Delicate Arch.

It was about 09:30 by the time that we got to the park entrance after preparing sandwiches. There was a queue of cars at the gate, but it moved quite quickly. It costs $25 per car for a 7 day pass, or $80 for a year's pass to all national parks. We opted for the year's pass. The park is huge. It was 20 km from the entrance to the car park for our chosen hike. By this time it was about 10:30 and the car park was almost full, but we were lucky and found a space. There were vehicles and people everywhere. It was also scorching hot. We have bought an extra drink bottle to supplement our four 0.5 litre water bottles.

The Delicate Arch trail is 4.8 km round trip with 150 m of elevation gain. It is graded as "difficult". The difficulty is only because of the heat. The trail is well marked and easy going. The arch only comes into view at the end. As with everything around here, it is spectacular - I need to find some new adjectives. The masses of people made it all rather everyday, though. It took us about 45 mins to reach the arch and about 2 hours for the round trip.

Since it was still only 12:30, we looked for a second challenge. Two areas of the park are closed for road works, so that left us the so-called Devil's Garden trails or Tower Arch. The Devil's Garden trails are rather long, so we decided to leave them for our next visit to the park, so we settled for Tower Arch. This involved a 25 km drive to the associated trail head, 13 km of them being on a gravel road.

As it turned out, the gravel road was in good condition, although it did have quite a long stretch of sand. This road helped to keep the crowds at bay. There was just one car in the car park when we got there at about 13:30. According to the park leaflets, the trail to Tower Arch is 5.5 km with insignificant height gain, and is graded as "moderate". I would disagree.

The height gain is certainly a lot less than for Delicate Arch, but towards the end it involves climbing soft sand. The path is also generally rough, route finding from cairn to cairn is not trivial, and the remoteness of the route adds its own spice to the undertaking. With all that said, however, it was still only a 2 hour hike for the round trip.

The only people that we met were the couple from the other car in the car park. A third car turned up as we were setting off. They must have got cold feet since we never met them on the hike, and their car had disappeared before we got back.

On setting off back from the arch, there was a storm threatening to come our way. Fortunately it didn't. A cloud burst could have made the sandy stretch of the road back quite impassable. As it was, it was 55 km back to the park entrance.

We took a quick 50 km trip north from there to the I-70. We were wondering about accommodation for tomorrow night, and hoping for something cheaper than Moab. There was no motel at the junction, just a filling station, which at least had a very welcome soda fountain. We've therefore decided to stay another night in Moab, despite the cost.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in Denny's diner for evening meal, and then in the supermarket to get a picnic for tomorrow. The day was rounded off with a swim and shower. Tomorrow we've decided to go to Arches again and try the Devil's Garden trail. On Saturday we'll visit the Canyonlands National Park and then set off in the direction of Bryce Canyon.

Friday, 25 August:     Arches N.P. and Canyonlands N.P.

We were up at 06:30 to make an early start to the far end of Arches National Park to hike the Devil's Garden trail including its Primitive Trail loop. We were at the start of the trail for 09:00 with perfect weather - blue sky and still relatively cool. Kari was very nervous because of the trail's "serious" grading, so we went around the loop anti-clockwise to do the serious stuff whilst we were fresh and the temperature not too high. We took in Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch and Landscape Arch during the walk-in to Primitive Trail.

The trail started off well enough, if rather heavy going because of the soft sand under foot. But after a couple of miles, after walking easily up a dried river bed (a "wash", I think they are called), we were suddenly presented with a rock step out of a small pool. It was non-trivial due to the smooth nature of the rock. Having surmounted that with heart in mouth, we came to a second rock step, and this was really serious. It was high, steep and smooth with the possibility of quite a fall. A pair of "kletter-finkli" rather than heavy mountain boots would have been really welcome.

Mainly because it was a long way to go back, we attacked the climb and, of course, succeeded in getting up it without mishap. However, we felt that we had now burned our boats and simply had to go on. Fortunately there was nothing more of the same calibre to surmount although there were still a few awkward bits to do. Soon after the hard climb, we met a couple coming the other way. Their report on the trail ahead was encouraging.

At some point there is a branch off to see Private Arch which, as its name implies, is well concealed. After that, we started to meet more people so the tension eased significantly. We met the standard trail by the Double O Arch, a double arch, and trekked on to the end of the trail at a tall column called Dark Angel.

It remained to return to the car park along the standard trail. There are two side arms, one to Partition Arch and the other to Navajo Arch before getting back to the huge Landscape Arch. Partition Arch, in particular, was very beautiful. Even though we were now on the standard trail, it still required concentration. There were quite a few stretches of high elevation walking along tongues of rock. It was also by this time very hot.

Eventually we were back at the car for 13:30, i.e. after 4.5 hours of hiking. We felt very contented.

Since the day was still relatively young, we decided to drive off to the Canyonlands National Park next, rather than simply returning to the hotel. This turned out to be further than expected, and our petrol tank was also suddenly emptier than I had expected, so we could do no more than have a look around the Visitor Centre when we got there. There are splendid canyon views to the east from the Visitor Centre. Really, the views are every bit as good as the Grand Canyon, just not quite as high.

We returned to Moab, did a load of washing in the hotel's launderette, bathed, went out for a meal at the Moab Brewery, and called it a day. We shall head off towards Bryce in the morning, bypassing the long drive into Canyonlands as we go. We shall have a rest day from hiking.

Saturday, 26 August:     Moab - Richfield - Panguitch - Bryce Canyon

I was hoping to start off the day with a short hike to see some dinosaur footprints. There were two possibilities in the tourist info that we have. The first is just over the Colorado River north of Moab but, on studying the description more carefully, it involved a lot of driving. The other, the Mill Canyon Trail, about 25 km north of Moab and on our way, turned out to be a few miles up a very rough dirt road. With a 2-wheel drive car, and believing that it had no spare wheel (we found out later that it did, in fact, have a doughnut spare wheel hidden under the floor in the boot), that was just a bit too risqué for us. So we abandoned the idea and set off on the long drive to the Bryce Canyon area.

We took the fastest way - north 50 km to the I-70, west some 200 km along the I-70 to Exit 23 just past Richfield, then south some 80 km on Hwy 89 to Panguitch. It all went well and fast, even the long desert stretch west of Green River, and we found a reasonable motel in Panguitch very easily.

We filled up with petrol and headed off to the Bryce Canyon Visitor Centre to suss out the hiking possibilities in the Canyon. We decided to do the short down-and-up Navajo Trail right away, and to go back tomorrow to do the Peek-a-Boo Trail. It was an easy trail which took us an hour.

We returned to the motel, buying food for tomorrow's hike on the way, and went out to eat. We had an excellent Chinese meal.

Sunday, 27 August:     Panguitch - Bryce Canyon - Zion N.P. Gate - Kanab

As planned, we returned the 40 km or so to Bryce Canyon Sunset Point and descended the Navajo Trail to join the Peek-a-Boo Loop. The loop is very nice, especially because it is rated as strenuous with all its ups and downs and this keeps the crowds away. However it is also a horse trekking trail so it smells rather strongly of horses, although we never saw any.

Having completed the loop, we continued along the Queen's Garden Trail to get back to the canyon rim at Sunrise Point. We took just under 3.5 hours starting at 09:10 and ending at 12:30. On the whole it wasn't too hard, though the heat was getting quite troublesome towards the end.

We finished off our very unexciting sandwiches at Sunset Point before driving up to the Bryce Point viewpoint to check out the view of the canyon from there. We then said goodbye to Bryce and set off in the direction of Zion National Park, a mere 120 km or so away. On the way we stopped to heat up the left-over sweet and sour chicken from last night. It was rather hard to get it all heated through properly, but it was better than eating it cold. But it still wasn't really up to much.

On reaching the entrance to Zion National Park, we got the free maps, studied them, and decided to go back there tomorrow for a bit of hiking. Zion is organised a bit like Arches. The Visitor Centre and hikes are all a very long way from the park entrance. Since we had already done enough hiking for the day, we simply drove back to the nearest town, Kanab, and ended up in a Quality Inn again. We had asked the price at a couple of motels, but the saving isn't really commensurate to the reduced comfort.

We are quite a bit lower here in Kanab than heretofore, and one notices it in the temperature. When we went out to Wendy's next door for a light evening meal, it was still about 30 degC.

Monday, 28 August:     Kanab - Zion - Kanab - Jacob Lake

We hadn't really any clear idea of what to expect from Zion National Park. It's not a park with a high profile like Arches and Bryce which are forever appearing in tourist magazines. In fact, I wasn't really all that sure whether I wanted to make the effort of driving 50 km north to find out, or whether we wouldn't simply be better off heading south to Grand Canyon, a mere 130 km away. The feeling wasn't helped when, after 20 km, we realised that we had left our water bottles in the fridge back at the hotel. Since we didn't have big hiking plans for the day, we didn't go back for them. We simply bought a litre of water at the next filling station.

We also hadn't studied the Zion National Park literature very carefully. One enters the park from the east, and then has to drive another 20 km to get to the main part of the park. Along the way there is a narrow tunnel to drive through. On coming out at the other end the scenery becomes majestic. One finds oneself in mountainous country with enormous sandstone cliffs. The road descends a long way, eventually reaching a t-junction. The road south leads to the Visitor Centre, and the road north leads to all the trail heads. We expected to turn right in order to get to the northernmost trail head, the Temple of Sinawava, where the Riverside Trail leads to the Narrows Trail. To our surprise, the road north requires a special permit, so one has to park one's car at the junction (not many parking spaces) or at the Visitor Centre a few miles south and take the free shuttle bus north.

As it turns out, they have it all incredibly well organised and the buses are very frequent. We got to the trail head without much loss of time. But we again fell foul of not having prepared ourselves properly. The ranger on the gate yesterday had recommended the Narrows hike without going into any detail. It turns out that one is expected to wade through quite deep water to work one's way along the gorge made by the Virgin River. One needs suitable footware and waterproof bags, neither of which we had. We walked the mile from the shuttle to the end of the concreted Riverside Trail with the rest of the crowd, saw that we would have to take our boots off to go even a metre further, and walked back again to find an alternative trail.

There's no shortage of them. The only problem is to pick the right difficulty. Kari couldn't be persuaded to try the "strenuous" Angels Landing Trail, so we settled for the the "moderate" Upper Emerald Pool Trail. It was very pleasant, but really rather short and very tame. The various "emerald" pools along the way also turned out, as I had predicted, to be more like stagnant ponds. Fortunately it is explicitly forbidden to swim in them!

By the time that we reached the Upper Emerald Pool the day had become really hot and the climb up to the pool quite tiring. There was, however, good shade from the trees for us to eat our lunch. Because of the heat we didn't feel like doing any more hiking. We returned to the car and set off back to Kanab and on towards the Grand Canyon North Rim. We had a hamburger in Kanab on our way through.

We were unsure of how best to organise accommodation for the night. We didn't expect to find any accommodation in our price range near the Canyon because of its remoteness. We stopped in Jacob Lake, about 70 km from the Rim. We contemplated putting up the tent, and then checked out the local inn. They had a simple cabin for $102, so we took it, and have had a very pleasant lazy evening sitting outside the hut without being pestered by insects. It is also quite warm. We cooked up a dehydrated meal left over from Spitzbergen for our evening meal.

By the way, we are now in Arizona and the clocks have gone back an hour.

Tuesday, 29 August:     Jacob Lake - Grand Canyon - Jacob Lake - Page

As we were staying in a cabin there was no breakfast included in the price, so we used the stove to brew some tea and had a bowl of granola sitting on the veranda of the hut.

We set off down the road to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon at about 08:00 and had the road more or less to ourselves for its 70 km. We saw quite a few deer along the way. The road was more undulating than expected with quite a lot of meadow land, especially as we approached the Canyon. There must be quite a lot of accommodation at the Rim because there were already a lot of cars parked there when we arrived.

We wandered out to Bright Angel Point to take in the view which is, of course, enormous. Probably because it was still relatively early in the day the air was very clear giving us good distant views. We wandered back via the Grand Canyon Lodge looking for the Visitor Centre, which we eventually found, and obtained an information leaflet about hiking the N Kaibab Trail, which descends into the Canyon. Given the elevation change to the bottom of the trail, its length, and our age it was clear that we would only be doing part of the trail. We decided that the second landmark along the trail, a short tunnel, involving a descent of 450 m would probably suffice.

It turned out to be just right. We set off at about 09:50 and were back for about 12:30. The trail is very easy going, but the heat is the main problem. We were a little bit lucky in that a heavy cloud gave us some shade for part of the return ascent. It even gave us a single, loud, clap of thunder.

After recovering a bit at the top, we set off back to Jacob Lake (there is no alternative) and then SE towards Page, the next sizeable settlement. The route after Jacob Lake quickly reverted to desert cut by canyons as one left the high plateau north of the Canyon. By about 15:30 we were in Page needing accommodation.

We went into a McDonald's for a coffee and use of their free Wifi and started a search with our current favourite USA hotel chain, Quality Inn. The Quality Inn in Page was rather expensive so we settled for its cheaper sister establishment, the Clarion Hotel. We were soon checked in and had our usual refreshing dip in the pool. It is necessary here. The temperature when we arrived was approaching 40 degC.

Having recovered, we went back along Hwy 89 for 7 km to see the Horseshoe Bend, a very striking meander of the Colorado River. We arrived very shortly before sunset. The crowd of people was amazing. The other famous sight in the vicinity of Page is Antelope Canyon, a very narrow canyon. It is unfortunately on Navajo land and has been exploited by the Navajo. It can only be visited as part of a very expensive guided tour, and our National Park year's pass is not valid.

After the visit to Horseshoe Bend it was time for dinner at Denny's diner. We are getting to know their menu by heart.

Wednesday, 30 August:     Page - Farmington

There's not much to report on today. We simply drove east not too far south of the Arizona/Utah border until we crossed into New Mexico and reached Farmington. It was a two-lane road through semi-desert all the way with occasionally rather bumpy surface.

There was the possibility of making a detour north to see the "Monuments" of Monument Valley. But there are quite enough similar structures to render such a detour superfluous. On the way we went through Shiprock and saw its rock, called Shiprock Pinnacle, too. The rock is a very impressive volcano core towering over the surrounding semi-desert plateau. It is apparently a sacred mountain to the Navajo tribe and therefore closed to climbers.

On the way into Farmington we had an ice cream in a McDonald's and used their Wifi to book into the local Quality Inn. On the reaching the Inn we found that it was not up to the usual quality of the Quality Inn chain. There's no pool and the ice machine is broken. The young lad on reception is also rather apathetic.

We drove over to the local river after checking in and strolled along its banks for an hour. We had a second picnic of the day in our hotel room afterwards. We didn't feel hungry enough to go out to eat.

On crossing into New Mexico we lost the hour that we had gained on entering Arizona. We're 8 hours behind Switzerland again. We've booked the next two nights in the Quality Inn in Santa Fe.

Thursday, 31 August:     Farmington - Los Alamos - Santa Fe

Another fairly straightforward day. After getting through Farmington's urban sprawl in Bloomfield, we turned onto Hwy 550 and followed it for 160 km of semi-desert to the small town of Cuba. It was a smooth, 4-lane highway just about all the way. Cuba had a good supermarket, where we bought some fruit (bananas and plums are delicious in America at the moment), and a nice café serving delicious if expensive cheesecake.

From Cuba to Los Alamos we chose the mountainous Hwy 126. We were a bit dubious of this because it has a stretch of dirt road in the middle. It turned out to be in quite good condition. The road was very beautiful going mainly through pine forest. We had a very pleasant picnic lunch along the way. Whilst parked by the roadside with the boot open, two passing cars stopped to make sure that we hadn't broken down. That's very reassuring in case we should have a breakdown.

We eventually reached Los Alamos, found the Visitor Centre and the Science Museum. We looked around the Science Museum for quite a while. Its main theme is the history of the development of the atom bomb, but I found it to be rather confusingly laid out so that it was hard to know how best to go round it.

I could vaguely remember the geography of the town from my previous visit in 1979. The laboratory and town are build on the elevated "mesas", which are the lava flows from an extinct volcano. In between there are deep canyons. The town centre looked very modern and prosperous; not as I remember it. Security at the laboratory is still written very large.

It's about 65 km from Los Alamos to Santa Fe, and a very busy, unpleasant 65 km they were too. We found the Quality Inn without any trouble. Unfortunately it is 7 km from the centre so sight seeing tomorrow might be a bit of a hassle. We had a delicious Indian meal for supper.

By the way, the coming weekend is apparently Labour Day Weekend. We might be struggling to find accommodation at a reasonable price!

Friday, 1 September:     Santa Fe

We went sightseeing in Santa Fe in the morning. Parking near the old Plaza was, of course, not easy. Eventually we settled for 3 hours on a parking meter for $7, paid for with a credit card. We weren't really in sightseeing mood. The old part of the town is very nice with its adobe architecture, but the town is really just an Indian arts and crafts shopping centre. Although there are many beautiful things on offer, we're not really shoppers. Kari did eventually manage to find herself a new blouse, though.

We spent quite a while in the Visitor Centre looking for nice hikes which don't involve driving tens of miles to the trail head. Eventually the lady on the desk was able to get off the telephone and help us. She gave us a leaflet on some local hikes, but its print quality was so poor and the font so small that it took us a long time to decipher it.

Today is a festival day in Santa Fe. It is the Burning of Zozobra Day. It's a bit like the Burning of the Böörg in Zurich. We wandered up to the park to see what was going on. Zozobra is a really big stuffed doll that they burn at the end of the day. However, we couldn't face the parking chaos that there would certainly be later in the day, and decided not to go.

Instead, we spent the afternoon doing one of the hard-to-decipher hikes. With the help of Google Maps screenshots, Kari was able to navigate us to the Cerro Gordo Trail Head at the end of Upper Canyon Road. It is located in the eastern end of the town, which seems to be where the better-off residents live in their tasteful adobe-style houses. The trail up Picacha Peak (8577 ft/2700 m) was easier to find on the ground than on the map. It turned out that the leaflet had poor copies of the map at the trail head, which was very clear. We climbed the 470 m of elevation gain in 1.25 hours. The sweat and toil on the trails in the National Parks must have done some good.

There were splendid views over Santa Fe towards Los Alamos in the west, and towards the pine forested mountains to the east. On the way down the clouds became more threatening with some distant thunder and we actually got properly rained on on the way back to the hotel in the car.

Despite the stormy skies, we had a quick dip in the hotel pool and picnicked in our hotel room for evening meal.

Saturday, 2 September:     Santa Fe - Alamosa - Fairplay

This was simply a day of driving to get within range of Denver, and to avoid, if possible, accommodation problems because this is Labour Day Weekend and hotels, particularly in the Colorado Mountains, might well be full.

Getting through Santa Fe and onto Hwy 285 heading north went well so that we were relatively soon at the New Mexico border and in the first Colorado town of Antonito. They were having a Labour Day parade so we parked and strolled up the high street rubber-necking. We had been told that CO is a marijuana state, but it was a surprise to see shops advertising it for sale.

The other local delicacy which is now apparently in season is roasted green chillies from New Mexico. The supermarket had boxes piled high with them. One could buy them fresh and have them roasted in a barrel organ like device for a surcharge. They were selling like hot cakes.

Thirty km further up the road at Alamosa we had route finding trouble. Hwy 285 makes a big loop to the west at that point and the map shows Hwy 17 as being a viable short cut. Unfortunately we turned too soon in Alamosa and ended up working our way north on unlabelled roads with no one around anywhere to ask. Eventually the road turned to rough gravel and we had a problem. By this time, Kari had worked out where we must be on our map of Colorado. The gravel road was going to go on for miles and miles. Fortunately we found a lady to ask. She said we had to retrace our steps about 15 km south to get to a tarmac road heading east-west. We could then head east for another 15 km to get to the Hwy 17, which we had originally hoped to follow from Alamosa. Following this north got us back to Hwy 285 at the end of its loop. This is really a big country with lots of empty space between settlements. A wrong turn can have time wasting consequences!

As we followed Hwy 285 north, it got busier and busier. We were clearly getting into holiday weekend traffic heading towards the mountains and Aspen. Fortunately Hwy 285 turns NE near Buena Vista so we had quieter roads again. We had picked Fairplay as a possible stop for the night. The "Olde Worlde" Hand Hotel had a room for us at a very reasonable price, so we've decided to stay 2 nights. Denver is now only about 150 km away.

We had fish and chips at the pub next door, and it rained properly. It is also quite cool here. The elevation here probably doesn't help it to be as warm as we have become used to. We felt very tired afterwards, so are having an early night.

Sunday, 3 September:     Fairplay - Beaver Ridge - Fairplay

This is really a charming hotel and, for the first time this holiday, we had reusable crockery and cutlery for breakfast. The breakfast fare was somewhat typical, e.g. frozen omelettes to thaw in the microwave, but then one can't have everything.

I was getting quite worried last night that I might be sickening. I had a slight headache and felt queasy. We knew that the elevation here was high, but didn't know how high. Kari was surprised after breakfast at how breathless she was climbing up one flight of stairs to our room, so she checked on Google. Apparently Fairplay is just over 3000 m. No wonder I was out of sorts.

We had a leisurely breakfast and considered which of the many hikes we should tackle. Naturally the sky was blue again despite last night's rain, and by 10:00 it had warmed up quite nicely. We chose the Beaver Creek Hike (Tie Hack Trail) up Forest Road 659. It is listed as moderate but looks open ended our tiny hiking map.

There were 5 km or so of gravel road to get to the trail head, where we parked. The hike continued up a wide gravel road, very pleasantly and gentle, but we were amazed at how many SUVs came by. It turned out that there were quite a few families having a camping weekend further up the trail. One even had an RV with generator running!

Beaver Creek was very pleasant and even had a few beaver dams and lots of tree stumps showing that they had been felled by beavers. The trail, as such, wasn't marked. One just followed this dirt road. With time, the trail did get steeper and narrower, but it seemingly didn't deter the SUVs and even some RVs. There was plenty of space for everyone, though. Even enough for a few people panning for gold in the stream. The vegetation changed from forest to meadow and back again a few times.

The big question was, "How far should we go?". The mountains round about looked to be easily climbable, but were far too far away. As we got higher, though, we could see some masts of a power line going over a ridge, Beaver Ridge, to our left. They also looked to be out of reach, given the height difference and thin air but, after a stop for crackers and cream cheese for lunch and some determined slow plodding, we made it. And it was worth it. The view south over the plain opened up as we climbed, and the view to the west opened up when we reached the ridge. As a rough estimate we probably got up to 3200 m. The return was naturally much easier but it took 1 hr 40 min all the same. Altogether we were out for 5 hours.

After quenching our thirst at the hotel, we went to find Fairplay Beach on the lake below the hotel intending to have a swim. Alas swimming was forbidden. It could be that the lake is also a reservoir, which would explain why. We had to settle for a can of beer on the hotel's veranda and a shower.

We went to an Asian restaurant for evening meal. The food was nothing special so, rather than staying for a desert, we returned to the hotel for another beer.

Monday, 4 September:     Fairplay - Denver

It was a cold night. I should have put another blanket on the bed but I was too lazy and suffered for it. The morning was fine and cold with a few clouds. We only had to drive some 150 km to Denver to be ready for tomorrow's flight, so we packed slowly and spent some time looking around the town before setting off. Because today is Labour Day Monday, we were expecting heavy traffic returning to Denver after the long weekend with consequent jams along the way. Hence the unnecessarily early start.

The traffic along Hwy 285 was heavy, and it did indeed jam up whenever there was a junction or village of any kind, but it flowed well on the whole. After a particularly long jam going through Conifer, we turned off down a side road and found a very nice spot for a picnic. Alas there was no hot drink with it since we had given away all our fuel for the camping stove in preparation for the flight.

On continuing the drive, the road became dual carriageway and flowed nicely as a lot of the traffic turned off around the Denver ring road. We went pretty much through the centre of Denver with Kari navigating magnificently with a typically skimpy American-style street map. Our hotel is out near the airport some 30 km to the NE of the city, very much out in the prairies.

Having dumped all our luggage in our room, we headed back into the centre to savour the "Mall" of 16th Street. In British English this would be called a pedestrian zone, if quite a long one. We found a vacant parking meter eventually, and were overjoyed to find that it was free because of the holiday. On our stroll around the centre we saw a few parking lots and multi-story car parks. They were charging unbelievable prices.

There was a free shuttle bus going up and down the Mall, so we took it to the far end and strolled back again having a pizza and beer along the way and finishing off with a piece of cheesecake. Unfortunately the cake was rather too rich and rather too big. We took it back to the hotel to finish off there.

We had a bit of trouble getting out of the centre on the right road for the hotel, but managed it eventually. Now we just have to pack ready for the flight and kill time until late tomorrow afternoon.

Tuesday, 5 September:     Denver - Riniken

There's not much to report regarding the journey home. The drive to the airport was simple, and the Hertz car rental return well organised. The flow of returning cars was incredible. We could check-in right away, even though we were nearly 5 hours too early, so we simply had to find somewhere to sit and kill time.

Our flight left on time and was more comfortable than coming. Having the long flight first at a more favourable body-time of day probably helped. The in-flight entertainment had not changed in the intervening 3 weeks, however, so reading and sleeping were the main occupation. We shall probably not fly Icelandair again.

We landed in Reykjavik as the sun was rising. The airport is rather chaotic with little sitting room for travellers. Fortunately there was only a short wait for our flight to Zurich. We landed in Zurich at 12:35, some 30 minutes early, and our bags were almost the first to appear. We were soon on a train to Brugg and home for 15:00.


End of trip! Total distance driven = ~5000 km
Total Cost: CHF 5900