usa 2003

USA July 23rd to August 13th 2003

Having flown from Manchester to Denver we picked up our hire car at the airport and toured Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and Cody. We bathed in several hot springs! The sun shone and the chipmunks played....but we didn't see a bear!

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for Journey to Moab

Interstate 70 from Denver to near Moab is a great road. On the way to Moab on our first day we had a 2 hour lunch stop at Glenwood Springs in the Rockies. Moab was approached from the stunning Colorado Canyon. The town has some good cheap places to eat and loads of hotels. The Rough Guide said to expect hoards of people in lycra but there weren't any as it was too hot for cycling!

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Arches National Park near Moab is the sort of place you can get into. We drove the Scenic Drive and the walks to see the wonderful formations caused by the extraordinary effects of erosion on the Entrada Sandstone were rewarding. Nearby, the Colorado Canyon has great picnic and camping places and beautiful Negro Bill's Canyon off the main canyon is peaceful and lush.

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The most strenuous walk was up to Delicate Arch (where we saw Big Horn sheep) over the "slick rock" in 100 degree heat. Here it is....it should be called Landscape Arch but a cartographer in the 1890's got it mixed up with the ridiculously thin arch that is truly delicate.

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for Arches

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for Canyonlands

You look down into Canyonlands unless you are able to lay your hands on a 4X4 so you can drive the dirt roads. Thelma and Louise thought they had arrived at the Grand Canyon...it is the "top end" of the Colorado Canyons so they can be excused. The rocks are just as dramatic and you don't have the crowds. One of the most jaw dropping views is towards Dead Horse Point where the Colorado snakes beneath sheer cliffs and scree. The horses died of thirst because they couldn't get to the river.

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Click on the picture for the Journey to Jackson and Grand Teton Park

On the way to Grand Teton we stopped one night at Manila near Flaming Gorge Resevoir, then went North via Granite Creek Hot Spring to Jackson for 3 nights at Buckrail Lodge.

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Grand Teton National Park is beautiful. A mix of Alpine mountains and warm swimming lakes give it a European feel. However, the amazingly flat valley of Jackson Hole and the wildlife, of course, prove you are on a different Continent.

Yellowstone is every thing we expected and you really get a sense of Vulcanology in Action all around you!. Maybe it doesn't have the mountains of Grand Teton but the Geyser Basins are awesome and the areas around the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Lake are colourful and truly majestic. Rol scared his Mum by telling her that the next big eruption is overdue by about 10,000 years.......well what a way to go!!

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A couple of hour's drive from Yellowstone East entrance, Cody derives its name from "Buffalo Bill Cody" who in the USA is as famous as the Beatles. He was not just a brilliant US Army Scout and later Showman, but a visionary with political influence. He caused the Dam to be built which gave the town its water supply. Cody has no less than five superb museums, not bad for a population of about 9,000. We spent a day there and highly recommend the Buffalo Bill Museum and found the Museum of Natural History to be one of the very best ever!

We stayed 2 nights at the "quaint"
Pawnee Hotel.

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Thermopolis

Click on the pictures or the button to see our journey back to Denver page

Our journey back to Denver was planned to enable us to visit two more Hot Springs. Thermopolis, where we broke our journey on day 1, is a huge complex with 2 commercial pools, but the Hot Spring run by the Local Authority is free. At Saratoga, where we spent the night, the pool is very simple and also free due to the insistence of the Native Americans, who lease the land to the Town authorities.

Saratoga

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