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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Impressions of the American Southwest

As we near the time to leave the SW, it seems appropriate to list a few impressions of our time here. So here goes:

Big. Mostly dry. Canyons, mesas, buttes, towers, mountains. Altitude. Deserts - harsh and beautiful. Red rocks, white rocks, snow on red rocks. Vertical canyons, rounded canyons with Puebloan ruins.
Old Caddies and Lincolns - still on the road. Giant pickups. Gas - pay by credit card at the pump or pre pay. Roads - mostly wide, some really wide, a few hairy. Thank God for Sheila. 4 way stop signs at intersections - scary.

People - very polite and friendly, don't get Oz sense of humour. Say "thanks" and you get "You're welcome", every time, without fail. Our great mates Pam and Howdy. Howdy - relaxation on skis. Pam - cool, confident, always in control. Love to be as good.

Sagebrush, pinion pines - puebloans used them for everything, joshua trees.
National Parks and Monuments - fabulous. Navajos can't cook.

Small towns are better - great live music, great food and lots of it, and giant pickups. Food - favourites bbq pork ribs, pot roast, giant choc brownie desserts. Taking home the leftovers in doggie box is norm.


Fauna: Eagles, hawks, bluebirds, antelope, elk, bighorn sheep, moose, squirrels.

Nevada - Gambling. Slot machines in supermarkets. Las Vegas - good shows, forget the rest. Well maybe Bellagio was pretty nice.
Arizona - Antelope, Grand, Glen Canyons. Canyons, canyons.
Utah - Mormons (except for Pam and Howdy), no drinkies, clean, big families, Canyonlands, skiing.
Colorado - Cowboy towns, music, mountains.
California - Trendy, organic, wine, green, rain! Napa Valley. Cabernet is king, but overpriced.
Wyoming - Cowboy country, Jackson Hole.
Idaho - Sun Valley skiing and my mate Nat.

Canyons:
Canyonlands - very cold at night. Black Canyon of the Gunnison - deep and black. Ouray - ice climbing. Antelope - photographer's wet dream. Oak Creek - Snowstorm and switchbacks, white knuckles. Grand - 5 hrs down, Phantom ranch, 7 hrs up. Bryce - Icecream on red candy. Zion - precipices, Angels Landing. Red Rock - rock climbers mecca.

And now for some comic relief......


 

Friday, March 25, 2011

Las Vegas, Thank God for Sheila, and Sunny California

We left the soaring walls of Zion NP for soaring walls of a different kind - the totally over-the-top, concrete, glass and neon glam/kitsch walls of Las Vegas.

After arriving early afternoon and checking into our hotel we headed for The Strip. Maybe it was that we were coming from the beauty and serenity of the many National Parks we had visited, or maybe that it was St Patrick's Day and everyone, young & old, seemed to be on a mission to get as smashed as possible, but we just didn't feel comfortable in the midst of all the noise, partying & alcohol. Kinda like Ma and Pa Kettle in the middle of Schoolies' Week! The gaming areas also smelled of stale cigarettes & alcohol, which turned us off a bit, so we wondered if we had done the right thing booking 3 nights here.


But it wasn't all bad....
We saw a couple of great shows, Jersey Boys, and The Rat Pack is Back. The guy who played Frankie Valli, and the 2 guys who played Frank & Dean were so damm good they could have been the real McCoy. After the Rat Pack show we wandered into Freemont St (which is part of the "old Strip" ) and enjoyed the vibe here much more than the new strip. The feeling was more relaxed and not as alcohol driven and there were some great live bands playing in the street. We grabbed a margarita (or maybe 2) and wandered along soaking it all up. There was also an overhead light show happening every half hour complete with music.



As neither of us are attracted to the gaming tables we needed to find daytime activities, so... naturally, we went to a national park! This time it was Red Rock Canyon NP which is 40 mins out of Vegas and is a rock climbers mecca. As soon as I put my hands on the hard red sandstone, with its little edges, nubs & pockets the old rock climber in me started salivating. I think I then managed to bore Susie rigid, pointing out groups of climbers and critiqueing their technique. Leaving the climbing area, we finished the 13km scenic drive around the Canyon, which is really a wide valley surrounded by high sandstone ramparts, cut by narrow tributary canyons.




Next day, we returned to Red Rock to do a side canyon walk. It was a bleak day with a bitter wind, so after a quick lunch in a sheltered hollow we beat it back to the car. That night we wandered down to the Strip again to check out the much vaunted Bellagio. Honestly, this place should not be missed. The sheer oppulence, marble everything, incredible flower displays, and water & light show are just something else. We wandered aimlessly around with our mouths open.




Now, about Sheila.
Before we left home, Susie's daughter Luisa told us that the things she was most thankful to have taken OS were her Canon G10 camera & Iphone. We agree with her completely, having brought a Cannon G12 (successor to G10) and our MacBook, but we would add one more .....and that's Sheila. Sheila is the very polite, totally unflappable lady who speaks to us from our GPS. She has unerringly guided us around the USA and if it weren't for her, we would probably still be lost...or dead... in the maze of freeways, flyovers, clover leaves, and one way back streets of Vegas. Sheila has really taken the stress out of navigation in heavy traffic, especially on and off 7 lane highways in pouring rain!...and we still speak to each other at the end of the day!

And speaking of rain.....

Bright & early the next day, Sheila navigated us out of Vegas for our planned 4 days at Yosemite NP. Our route took us through Death Valley, one of the hottest, lowest, and driest places in the USA, and guess what?? It rained..probably for the 1st time in years. As we climbed over the 5,000ft pass to the west, the rain got heavier, turned to sleet and then snow. Susie got lucky again, and was driving through it and having more kittens, but she managed well, again. On a whim, we stopped at a visitors centre at Lone Pine just outside Death Valley NP and were told by 2 nice ladies that "There is NO WAY you'll get over the mountains to Yosemite. All the roads are closed" Sheila, it seemed, for once in her life had screwed up, planning us a route which is always closed in winter. So we then embarked on a 300 mile detour to skirt the Sierra Nevada mountains. When we reached Fresno (about 2 hrs from Yosemite) Susie phoned the Lodge to advise them we would be late and ask if there was somewhere we could eat? Only to be told all roads into Yosemite were closed due to snow & fallen trees. So that night we experienced the delights of downtown Fresno....nah, forget it. There are none!



Next day conditions were unchanged and the forecast was worsening, so we thought "Let's go to Napa Valley and drink some wine!" So while I drove, Susie with the help of the Lonely Planet, Macbook and phone, went in search of accommodation. At 5pm that night we rolled into the little town of Calistoga, at the northern end of Napa Valley. For the next 4 days, we monitored the weather situation up in the mountains while sipping our way around the Napa. It rained continuously, every day, in the valley - Welcome to Sunny California! But, if you have to be trapped somewhere by the weather this was a great place to be. They don't do things by halves in the Napa - some of the wineries were absolutely stunning. Castello di Amorosa is a replica of a medieval Italian castle, right down to imported Italian stone from ruined real ones, working drawbridge, torture chamber with a rack, and iron maiden. While it sounds kitschy, it was absolutely the real deal and is a fully functioning winery complete with multiple levels of underground caves for wine storage. Another good winery was Sterling vineyards. The winery being built on top of a Napa hill, with visitor access by cable car. But, we mainly enjoyed the smaller wineries and were fortunate to meet a local wine maker and his wife at one of the tastings. We met them later for dinner, had a fun night and sampled too much of his very nice wine.







Also while in the Napa, and looking for diversions from wine drinking we decided on a heated mineral pool, mud bath & massage at the famous Indian Springs. The place is riddled with mineral hot springs and the mud is made from ash from a nearby extinct volcano - very black & heavy. It was very indulgent, relaxing and we came out feeling, if not looking, 10 years younger!!

Yesterday morning the mountain Highway over to Reno was still closed due to heavy snow & avalanche danger so needing to return to SLC, and unable to drink any more wine, we embarked on another lengthy drive, via southern California to skirt the mountains.
After an 8 hour drive yesterday, and 10 hours today, a good deal of it in pouring rain, we're safely back with Pam and Howdy in Huntsville.
The good news? The snow is great, with more expected - let's go skiing!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Canyons, Rocks, Snow and Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Moving right along.....
From Monument Valley we motored on to Page, Arizona, which is outside Navajo land, so we could once more get a DRINK.

While based in Page, we checked out Antelope Canyon, Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, and Susie did a boat trip on the Colorado R while I got my very sore neck checked out at the local hospital, which cost a bomb. $1800 for a doc to check me out and an MRI, but my Travel insurer came to the party. Yaay!!
Antelope Canyon is another photographer's delight. The most visually stunning slot canyon I have ever seen. Unlike the slot canyons up in our own Blueys, which are mostly wet, this is super dry (except for the odd flash flood a couple of times a year), with a sand floor. Once again we took a gazillion pics.
I can't comment on Susie's trip on the Colorado, other than she enjoyed it immensely and said it was REALLY GREAT!!!!
Next day we did a one hour tour of the Glen Canyon Dam. This thing was completed in 1963, and contains something like 4 million tons of concrete. Pretty spectacular, and it holds back a HUGE amount of water in Lake Powell.


















After Page, we did a little side trip south a few hours to Sedona, visually stunning, being surrounded by red and orange rock towers, buttes and mesas, with lots of green pines to offset the blaze of bright rock. The Lonely Planet describes Sedona as kinda New Age Trendy, and when we first drove in we thought it was just too trendy for words. As Susie described it, Byron Bay on steroids. But it grew on us, and we had a great time there, communing with the vortexes.
Susie didn't enjoy the drive down there that much, though. With my neck in a support brace courtesy of the doc at Page, Susie got to drive, and had a fun time negotiating the steep switchbacks of Oak Creek Canyon on a slippery road in a full on snow storm. But she managed really well, and came out of the canyon and the weather into brilliant sunshine. We relaxed a bit in Sedona - did some walks, ate well, and spent some time in the spa pool with a glass of red in the arvos.



From Sedona it was back north to the Big Daddy....   THE GRAND CANYON.
What can I say? The place just leaves you gobsmacked. Just the dimensions of the place are hard to get into your head. A mile deep, on average 10 miles wide, and 277 miles long.  The south Rim is at 7000' and the north rim is at 8000', and the Colorado is at about 2200'. We stayed 4 nights at the canyon, mainly because we got lucky, and were able to get a night at Phantom Ranch which is right at the bottom of the Canyon. It is almost impossible to book (we tried months before!), but you can get lucky, as we did, by going on a wait list to fill in for "no shows". So at 7am on our 3rd morning, we got the go ahead.
After that it was a 5 hour walk down the Sth Kaibab Trail to the Colorado and the Ranch. We were lucky that our no shows had booked a cabin with it's own toilet, which was a bit upmarket from the dorm accom some had. Meals were at 2 sittings in the Lodge. Very cowboy rustic and lots of fun.
Next day we had to get our slightly weary bodies up for the walk out - a bit over 7 hours up the Bright Angel Trail. We topped out at 3pm, tired but otherwise fine, and headed straight to the Bright Angel Bar for a celebratory beer.




From the GC we headed for the vastly different, but equally stunning Bryce Canyon NP. After arriving at the park around 5, we stashed our stuff and headed out to the canyon rim for some sunset shots. Next day we did the same for sunrise, back to our digs for brekkie, then out to the canyon again for a walk down into the bowels. The place had had heaps of snow, which against the stunning red rock towers, minarets, spires, creates the most amazing scenes. Highlight of the day was "Wall St", where the walls are very close together and there are a couple of huge pines which claw their way towards the sunlight. The track at this point was closed, but the Ranger almost told us "If you go under the chain a bit further, you can get some stunning shots", so we did, and did.








We thought GC and Bryce were the icing on the cake, but Zion NP, a couple of hours away, blew us away again. We entered the Park, and Zion Canyon, through a mile long tunnel completed in 1932 straight through the rock of one of the towering sandstone mountains which line this stunning valley. Driving around the park was a real trial as I was constantly wanting to look up at the towering walls all around us. We got in a walk that afternoon before finding our accomodation in the happening little town of Springdale, just out of the park. And whaddaya know, they had great hot tub next to the pool. More relaxation with a glass of red - just what we needed!

Next day we headed back into the park to do one of the "must do" walks of the park. It's called the Angel's Landing, for reasons which become obvious not long after the start. The trail climbs 1500' above the valley floor in 2.5 miles, the first 2 miles steep, but well made track switchbacking up the side of the mountain to Scouts Lookout. Big dropoffs, and not for anyone phased by heights, but otherwise fine. The last 1/2 mile then turns out onto the spine of a rock "fin" with Omigod drops on both sides, mostly just rock hopping assisted by chains in the hard bits. Nothing any reasonably fit person couldn't do, but nice and airy. Absolutely stupendous views from the top, and we were treated to a group of young Dutch guys who tried to fly a cheap model aeroplane off the top. It refused to fly away from the tower, turning back and crashing into the rocks repeatedly. After one of the young guys had dangerously "rescued' it a couple of times from just below the top, they christened it The Non-Flying Dutchman, and gave up!  After that spectacular walk, we figured we'd "done" Zion, and headed back to the spa!















From Zion, we headed for the lights of Las Vegas, and that's another story.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Phantom Ranch, Bottom of Grand Canyon, Beef Stew

Phantom Ranch, Beef Stew

Here is the converted recipe for normal folks ie 4-6 servings:
TURN BURNER TO MEDIUM HEAT. HEAT A HOT DUTCH OVEN UNTIL HOT. ADD THREE (3) POUNDS OF CUBED STEW BEEF AND SIMMER UNTIL LIQUID BOILS OFF AND A DARM SCUM FORMS.
ADD:
1 COARSE CHOPPED ONION
¼
COARSE CHOPPED CELERY STALK
2 tablespoons OF BURGUNDY WINE
2 tablespoons OF RED WINE VINEGAR
2 tablespoons OF BEEF BASE
2.5 cups OF WATER
1 Teaspoon FRESH GROUND PEPPER
½
Tablespoon GARLIC POWDER
½
Tablespoon THYME
½
Tablespoon WHOLE OREGANO
½
Teaspoon GROUND CLOVES
1
Teaspoon FRESH BAY LEAVES (or 1 leaf)
SIMMER FIVE HOURS.
THEN ADD THE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS.
2 16oz CANS OF GREEN BEANS
1 16oz CAN OF CARROTS
3 lbs IRISH POTATOES (or 3 cans)
1 16oz CAN OF WHOLE CORN
BRING TO A BOIL. TURN BURNER TO SIMMER AND ALLOW TO COOL.
THICKEN WITH CORN STARCH. STIR INTO STEW. KEEP ON LOW UNTIL SERVING TIME. 
Enjoy

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Ice climbing and all that.

After our little sleep-out in Canyonlands we were looking forward to a nice quiet few days, and we got them, sort of. At least we were in our own warm bed each night.

After a "rest" day in Moab, we headed off to our next stop - the old mining town of Ouray, in the San Juan Mtns of Colorado. This town sits at an altitude of around 8000', and is surrounded by mountains that go up to over 13,000'. Just a 10 min walk from our accommodation there was a very narrow, vertical walled canyon around 90 to 120' deep, which is one of the ice climbing meccas of the US. A famous alpinist named Jeff Lowe had the bright idea of diverting creek water through pipes over the edge of the canyon in winter to create an ice wall nearly a mile long. Susie and I checked it out the afternoon we got there, and next morning there I was at the bottom of the canyon with my guide, decked out with crampons and ice axes. What a blast! I did 3 routes bottom to top (top roped) with no falls, but that was it. By then my arms and legs, especially calves from standing on front points, were trashed, and i called it a morning. Yet another sport I wish I'd tried when I was 21!

That afternoon we loaded up the car and set off over a couple 10,600' passes, in continuous snowfall, for our next destination - the mining and cowboy town of Durango. They call this road The Million Dollar Highway, not sure whether that's it's cost to push through the mountains, or a reference to the amount of ore that came out of these mountains, but there were some big dropoffs and no guardrails. We were very glad of the 4WD under our bums.

Whil Durango we stayed at the beautiful old Strater Hotel, a real institution in the town, and reeking with old world charm. We loved Durango, and Ouray as well. They're beautiful old towns which cherish their history, but at the same time have a vibrant life about them. The food is great, and plentiful, and not too pricey, the wine is good, and just about every pub and bar has a live band playing. Good music, too, from blues to bluegrass, country, soul, and good old rock. And the people? Well, they're just downright friendly. And I just LOVE that 4 out of 5 vehicles are BIG pickups, most with stonking V8s in them. They love em out here, cowboy hats, spurs an' all.

As a day trip from Durango we visited Mesa Verde, the ancient site of a settlement of Puebloan Indians, which was just fantastic. To see these stone communities built against the rock of gigantic canyon overhangs almost defies belief, most of then dating from the 13th century.

After 3 nights in Durango we moved on to the Valley of the Gods, and Monument Valley. The Valley of the Gods is kinda like a prelude to, or mini Monument Valley. Beautiful desert country full of towering buttes and mesas, and our bonus was that we got to stay in the only B&B in the valley. In fact it's the only building in the whole valley, and I mean for miles and miles. Gary and Claire, our hosts, have turned what was once a shell into an eco friendly, delightful B&B. There is no electricity or town water to their property. They use the sun for all their electricity and heating, and supplement the rain water tanks by trucking in town water in the back of Gary's giant pickup. The whole place is built out foot+  thick stone walls, with the roof timbers giant beams salvaged from an old oil derrick. Great place.

On Claire's advice, next day instead of going straight on to Monument Valley we did a loop to the north before turning back toward MV. The first part of this loop involved driving up the Moki Dugway, a gravel series of switchbacks going up the mesa wall immediately behind the B&B, where the last scene of Thelma & Louise the movie was shot. A great drive which led us to Natural Bridges Natl Monument. These are some of the largest natural stone bridges in the world, scoured out by the action of rivers over eons, leaving only the hardest rock remaining. There were also more puebloan ruins to ooh and aah at, and we wandered around a very informative museum on the same subject. A very full day before we tooled off towards Monument Valley and our next visual feast.

Aaaah, Monument Valley. A visual feast indeed. In fact much more of a feast than the food we got there, but that's another story. Suffice to say, the Navajos can't cook.
MV being part of the Navajo Nation Tribal Park, the whole thing is controlled by the Navajos. Bit like Uluru, I guess. You can drive yourself around a 17 mile loop, which gives you super views, or you can sign up for a backcountry tour with a Navajo guide, which we did, and well worth the cost. What a stunning place. Words are useless trying to describe this place, and many others we've seen for that matter.



After leaving MV we stopped at Navajo NM, checking more ancient pueblo ruins, then motored on to Page, AZ, home of Lake Powell and the stunning Antelope Canyon. More on that next blog...