BISHOP

Satellite internet delay in Death Valley so you’re getting 2 entries for the price of one today.

After finding a scorpion in our room last night  there was little sleep to be had at Stovepipe Wells.  The bags under my eyes are now larger than the one holding the dirty washing but there’s no time to nap as we head out of the heat towards the cooler climes of Bishop.

Beautiful sierra mountain view on way to Bishop

First a trip down memory lane at Lone Pine’s Film History Museum where the cowboy heroes of our youthful Saturday matinees still live on.  Roy Rogers and Trigger, the Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy – yes they’re immortalised in this small town in this very interesting museum.

Lone Pine Film History Museum

Hard to believe that many of the western movies of yester-year were filmed in the mountains just outside this town.  The infamous peaks of the Sierra Nevada and Alabama hills can even be seen in films such as Tremors and Iron Man.

Hi Ho Silver

Why did the chicken cross the road?  Obviously to get away from this hairy scary critter.  Almost this size of my fist, this brown tarantula was in no hurry to get to the other side. 

This is the mother of all spiders!

As old as the hills or in this case the trees as we hunt for the Methuselah tree in the Bristlecone Pine Forest growing high in the White Mountains. This tree is over 4,000 years old but it’s location is top secret so it’s anyone’s guess as to which one it might be.   Do you think it’s this one?

Looking for the Methuselah tree

Could it be this one?

What about this one?

Or this one?

Pit stop in Bishop, small city on the US 395 highway that will take us towards Yosemite.  

Bishop - main street

Largest city in these parts

Spending the night in the Vagabond Inn and already you can feel that cooler mountain air.  Keeping the thermals to hand and checking the corners for beasties before bedtime.

The Vagabond Inn

Room 207

DEATH VALLEY

Described as the hottest place on earth, Death Valley is bleak.  I can feel the saliva drying in my mouth as I type, the hot desert air smothering the hotel room in an invisible thermal blanket.  ‘It never rains here’ our waiter said at dinner time.  Really?  You’d never have guessed from looking at the grey, stony and powdery ground that stretches out in every direction.  It’s a miracle that anything manages to grow but somehow it does.

Bare rocky landscape of Death Valley

The landscape around Zabriskie Point reminds me of Georgia O’Keefe’s wonderful painted desert scenes.  All that is missing from the rich, brown earth tones and undulating rock formations are a few bleached skulls. 

Rich brown mountain landscape

Views from Zabriskie Point

Just like a Georgia O'Keefe painting

 

The land is rich in minerals and was once mined for gold, borax and talc.  Fortunes were made and lost, towns prospered then died out like Rhyolite.  All that is left of the once thriving frontier town is a few ruins  baking in the sun.  

Rhyolite ruins

This town is nothing but a ghost town

All that's left of the frontier town of Rhyolite

It’s hard to imagine that this barren, parched plain was a prosperous metropolis with a population of around 8,000 people.

Lowest of the low

Death Valley is the antidote to the excesses and gaudiness of Las Vegas.   The tacky multi coloured neon signs and noisy, smoky casinos are gone.   Only a star lit sky and the soft sounds of a dark desert night remain. 

Mad dogs and English tourists out in the mid-day sun

From the decadent luxury of The Cosmopolitan to the rustic charm of simple desert life.  We’re spending the night in Death Valley at Stovepipe Wells Village. 

Stovepipe Wells Village

Room 12

The countdown to our adventure’s end has now begun with only 5 more days remaining until we go home.  We’ve almost closed our loop, travelling 2,013 miles since we left San Francisco three weeks ago.

LAS VEGAS

Like a phoenix rising from the desert dust, Las Vegas is the Torremolinos of Nevada but with twenty times more neon and taller hotels.  Everything about the place is fake – fake sky in the Parisian village, fake volcanoes, fake boobs on the waitress serving the coffee.  It’s brash, it’s trash but a lot of fun.

Arriving at Las Vegas

The other half generously upgraded our already premium view room to an even more premium view of the Bellagio fountains so we now have a suite on the 21^st floor of the Cosmopoliton larger than my brother’s London flat.  

The Cosmopolitan Hotel

Room 27 on the 21st floor

One of the bathrooms

Open plan lounge and kitchen area

There’s 2 bathrooms, a Jacuzzi, kitchen, separate lounge and enough arty farty coffee table books to prop open the vault door at Fort Knox.  You can feel the swankiness dripping from the understated beige walls.

View from our balcony

But in spite of the executive writing desk that I’m now blogging from, the quilted hotel bathrobe and fluffy slippers I’m wearing  or the view across to Caesars Palace I can see from my keyboard, the one thing lacking in this palacial pearl is a coffee maker.  Yep, we had to nip across the road to the nearest Walgreens to buy one as guests are expected to order room service for anything edible or drinkable.  Ludicrous that Travelodge will give you free coffee but not the Cosmopolitan.  All snacks are sat on a sensor - even sniffing a cookie might cost you twenty bucks!

The Cosmopolitan is located roughly in the centre of the famous Las Vegas ‘Strip’, the main boulevard that runs from one end of casino land to the other, it’s a great base from which to explore everything else.  There’s so much to see but we have a tactical plan to focus our sightseeing, targeting the Southern end of the Strip first. 

The famous fountains of The Bellagio

Walking the Strip is not as tough as I first thought.  The hotels, most the size of provincial airports, are relatively close together so it didn’t take too long to get down as far as the Mandalay Bay, the one furtherest south. 

We’ve seen a shark reef (Mandalay Bay), strolled amongst pharaohs (The Luxor) , walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (New York New York) dined in a Parisian village (Paris) and watched volcanoes exploding from the sidewalk (The Mirage).

Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay

That's a strange looking fish

Inside the Luxor Hotel

New York New York

Paris - yes it has an Eiffel Tower too

Vegas is the perfect vampire city, everyone sleeps in then comes out at night to try their luck at one of the many casinos on the Strip. 

The Strip comes alive at night

You can wander in to any hotel to gawp at the incredible décor or play a few hands of blackjack at any time, night or day.  As you stroll down the Strip, touts offer you cards advertising the services of escorts, girls that can apparently be delivered to your door in 20 minutes.  We collected so many of these cards that we now have a full deck to play titty trumps with. 

Hey big spender

Needless to say, after our gambling exploits  I still can’t afford to give up my day job!

ZION NATIONAL PARK

Putting the zed into Zion as due to lack of sleep, I’m hoping to find a nice shady rock in the national park to nap under.

Here are some traveller tips for any other intrepid pioneers doing the same kind of road trip as we are and visiting Zion National Park:

Book your accommodation in Springdale.  This small town at the south entrance to Zion National park is ideal as a base.  From here, you can catch the free town shuttle bus to the south entrance.  There’s a number of motels/hotels, campgrounds and RV parks lining the main road through town including ours, Pioneer Lodge. 

From the south entrance you can connect with the park’s own free shuttle buses to take you from the visitor centre right to all of the trail heads.  However, if you’re arriving in Zion from tomorrow, the last park shuttles ran today so you’ll have to drive your way through the park.

 

Invest in an Annual Pass.  For the cost of $80 this is valid at any national park in the US and   if            you are visiting as many parks as we have on our road trip, this pass is worth its weight in gold.  Each of the larger national parks will charge $25 per car entry fee so after 3 parks you’ve recovered the cost of the Annual Pass.  It’s really a no brainer to save on those entry fees.  You can buy a pass at any of the national parks pay stations.

We’ve visited quite a few national parks since the start of our road trip but each park has its own distinct identity and atmosphere.  From the grandeur of the Grand Canyon to the stark hoodoos of Bryce, we found Zion possessed a more peaceful kind of natural beauty.

South entrance to Zion National Park

 

Towering peaks of red Navajo sandstone rock are littered with pines and other trees.  I imagine it would look very Christmassy with a bit of snow.

Driving in through the East entrance

 

Snaking through the canyon is the Virgin River.  At every twist and turn of this cascading creek are the loveliest vistas.  Big toe test verdict – mountain spring water is very cold!

Virgin River

 

As with most of the national parks, there are dozens of hiking trails to choose from.  We did a couple of shorter ones starting with a leisurely 1 mile walk along the riverside to the start of what is called The Narrows.  At this point, the trail actually goes into the water so without waterproof footwear and a walking pole you can only go so far. 

Water is clear but cold

Hiking down to the narrows

 

The combined trail (Middle Emerald Pools & Kayenta) gave us a good 2 mile workout.  Breath-taking views from within the forest and we actually got to walk under the waterfall at the Lower Emerald pool (more like a trickle due to lack of rain).

Middle Emerald Pool

View from Kayenta trail

Deer spotted crossing the river

 

Exhausted hikers need a good place to unlace their boots and have a good hot soak after a day walking the Zion trails.  What better place to do this than at Pioneer Lodge, a motel with a bit of that old west about it.

Pioneer Lodge - Springdale

Sunset over Springdale

 

 

BRYCE CANYON

We have crossed the state line once more moving across from Arizona to Utah, famous for Mormons and national parks.  Think Donny Osmond and wide sweeping prairies.

Crossing the state line

The endless road ahead 

Why pay mega bucks to spend the night in a swanky hotel when you can sleep in a glorified shed?  Staying at Bryce Country Cabins in a lovely rustic cabin.  The other half being a shed man is in his element!

Bryce Country Cabins in Tropic

Those little homely touches

It's a very big shed

Our country cabin is only a few miles away from Bryce Canyon where we’ve spent the day ‘hiking the hoodoos.’  

On the way to Bryce Canyon

Yes you might well wonder what on earth a ‘hoodoo’ could be but although it sounds like something straight out of a Doctor Seuss book it’s basically a strange rock formation.

Hoodoos or dollops

I’d go as far as calling it a dollop.  The entire canyon looks like the aftermath of a psycho concrete mixer rampage.  The dollops or hoodoos resemble large pinnacles of ready mix rising from the canyon floor.  No doubt there’s a proper geological explanation as to how they came about but I prefer to go with my theory.

There are hundreds of hoodoos

Definately a martian landscape

Also remind me of Thai temples

Hiking the hoodoos is what everyone does when visiting Bryce.  There’s no shortage of well-marked trails snaking all over the canyon, you’ve just got to pick the right distance and suitability as some are graded ‘difficult’ – trails of more than 4 miles but with steep elevations.

View from the Queens Garden trail

We chose to walk the Queens Garden/Navajo loop one of the moderate trails of 2.9 miles.  If you walk this clockwise, it’s downhill to begin with but then ends with a fairly steep zigzag back to the starting rim. 

Looping the loop from Sunset Point

It took us most of the afternoon to complete but it’s a great way to top up your tan and get really close to the hoodoos.  Another zillion rock photos to add to the ever growing collection.

More hoodoos

Getting closer to the canyon floor

Hoodoos anyone?

A great way to unwind those aching leg muscles is to go prairie dog spotting.  Bryce Canyon is home to some of these cute little critters and if you get lucky, you might spot some in the tall meadow grass.  

Is that Gordon the gopher?

He's a fat little prairie dog

Oh no -  tourists!

They’re like oversized guinea pigs and so sweet.  Please can we take one home?