bonneville

Bonneville salt flat speedway
Me at Bonneville
View across the salt flats

Sunday 16th March

Today we had a long trip planned from Salt Lake City to Reno, Nevada. It was going to be about 830 ks but the entire road was 2 lane highway with no stops or towns to slow down for at all. The road speed limit was 75 mph so we managed the trip in a little over 7 hours with stops for lunch and petrol. It's so good to travel on a continuous road only stopping after taking an exit into a town and not having to slow down for anything. If you didn't need petrol stops you could drive without slowing down. Anyway we did stop for food, petrol and sight seeing. The one sight seeing spot was Bonneville salt flats. The Bonneville speedway if famous for land speed records, and if you have watched "The worlds fastest Indian" you will know what I am talking about. Anyhow the trip went well and we arrived at Reno and found cheap accommodation at Harrahs Casino in the middle of town. Once settled in we went to Ihop again for dinner, yum! After dinner we went back to the motel and watched TV and planned our day for Monday.

salt lake city

Temple Square in Salt Lake City
Lookout on Antelope Island

Salt Lake

Salt Lake

Bison on Antelope Island (look closely)

Saturday 15th March

Today we got up and went in to the city area . We thought we would catch the tram in but the closest tram stop was half way to the city so we walked all the way, it really was not that far. After trying to find the shopping mall or shopping area we went in to Temple Square, which is the square in the very center of town where the Mormons have their church, hall and other buildings. After speaking to a girl at Temple Square who told us there was no shopping in the city area like Australia we then thought we would have a quick look around the square. Once we looked around we went to the tourist info building and got some info on Salt Lake. Once we had the map and recommendation to visit Antelope Island we drove the 40 miles to the National Park and paid to go in. We went to the visitor centre and then drove around and looked at the view of the salt lakes from Antelope Island. They also have Bison roaming free which they farm and sell to make money for the up keep of the island. The salt lake also produces salt and sea monkeys (brine shrimp) for fish food. After we finished at the island we went to Ihop for dinner, the food at Ihop was really good and we both really enjoyed it. It snowed so much while we were in Salt Lake City, it really did not stop. It was very nice with everything covered in snow.

denver & jackson

Main Street in Jackson
Side Street showing snow on the footpath

Town Square

Snow on car Friday morning

Town Square in Jackson

Friday 14th March.

Had a bit of a sleep in today to rest from our big drive. The car was covered in about 10 cms of snow and so were all the roads. We went for a look around the town and took some photos and bought some souvenirs. Jackson was a really nice place if you wanted to ski, but alas we had not come prepared for snow. Toady we were heading for Salt Lake City, it was only around 450 ks away. Once we worked out the roads we set off. The first way we wanted to go was shut for cars without chains or 4wd, so I asked for other directions from a local who told us what roads were open. We headed off again and this time with success. Today we had about 40 ks of snow driving where you could not see bitumen and the car slipped and slid a bit but it was not too bad. In Australia you can not even drive any roads in the snow anything like what we did without chains. It was a bit scary and Bronte did panic a bit but we made it with no hiccups to the cars. The entire drive today was through snow covered mountains and a thin layer of snow over most of the road. The temp almost never got above 0, most of the journey was -2 until we hit the city where it was a balmy 7 degrees. Went out for dinner tonight to the local pub and the meals were good. We have just come back from Walmart shopping and we are in love with Walmart, they have so much stuff and it's so much cheaper than home. Can they come to Australia?

Ice build-up from driving on icy roads

Some of the better driving conditions

When the roads got bad

Scene heading to Yellow Stone

Thursday 13th March.

Lesson 1, when you decide to go to a place check and make sure you have all the details. Today we got up early and decided to head to Salt Lake City. On the way I started to read the Lonely Planet guide and realised Yellow Stone National Park was not far out of our way and it would be nice to visit. It was however about 600 ks and around 9 hour drive. I plotted the directions into the Tom Tom and away we went. We stopped for lunch and had Subway with around 300 ks from our destination. The temp outside was -2 and there was a little snow falling. After lunch we continued to Lander where we stopped for petrol and changed drivers. The further we got the colder it was, the more snow was falling and the greater the snow on the side of the road. We drove through a place called Dubois and the snow was even more pretty on the trees. At this point in time I made the comment of "Yellow Stone National Park is going to be cold if we have this much snow here." We kept driving and the road started to get very slushy and wet, then the road got worse and we were still around 60 ks from our destination. The temp had dropped to -5 and the road was just ice, I was only travelling at about 40kph and just taking it easy. The road got steeper and more windey and I slowed even further, at this point in time I sad to Bronte I can't keep going it's too slippery. I pulled the car over and got out, the ground was very slippery to stand on. I got back in and tried to drive off and the wheels spun and we started to move, I put on the brakes and the car slid to a stop. After a couple minutes of debating and only about 40ks from the end we kept going. The road started to get better again after about 10ks. I could actually see parts of the yellow line on the road and in some places it was black with visible bitumen. We made it to the next turn off and now only had 15 ks to go. This road we entered went through the ranger station and to Colter Bay Village, our destination. The road got bad again, all you could see was snow and marker posts to follow the track! We arrived at Colter Bay Village and it was deserted!! no one there at all. I turned the car around and it slipped and slid about a bit. We now thought we would head to a place called Jackson Hole which was another 50 ks and it was a larger town. The road was bad for the 15 ks again till we got back to the turn off. We travelled about half an hour and we were now in Jackson. It was real pretty, we found a motel and checked in. As I was checking in I asked the lady about Yellow Stone Park. She replied "The park closes for Winter and does not open till April." Back to lesson 1, check the details before you drive into a ski resort with a front wheel drive car without chains and winter tyres. We had travelled all that way for no reason, however Jackson was an amazing place, beautiful would be the best way to describe it. We went for a bit of a walk around to check out the town. I was not a bad size and had lots of shops and fast food chains etc. Later that night I checked the road weather maps of the area to get info on us getting back out. The road we had entered was closed to vehicles without chains or 4wd, but the roads out to Salt Lake City were not to bad.

Road on the way to Denver

Wednesday 12th March.
Started our morning from Grand Junction and headed for Denver. The highway was surprising as we went through some very pretty scenery, the mountains were all snow covered and we had snow to the edges of the road. Once we arrived we found our cheap motel that we booked on wotif.com and checked in. Walked down the road a bit and had KFC for lunch. After lunch we went for a drive in to the city to a shopping centre called Cherry Gardens. We had checked out the internet and found a Croc shop. Bronte wanted a new pair of Crocs which are not available in Australia. We managed to find the Crocs and Bronte was excited with his new Crocs! We went back to our motel and had a bit of a rest as we both still have our colds.

monument valley & arches national park

Arches National Park visitor centre
South Window Arch

A rock just balancing on top!

Us at one of the lookouts

Delicate Arch

Me in front of Delicate Arch

Landscape Arch

Bronte in front of Landscape Arch

Tuesday 11th March

Today on the agenda was Arches National Park, just out of Moab, Utah. This national park is full of sand stone arches that have been created over 1000's of years from wind, rain and water. We looked around the visitor centre first and watched a short movie on how these arches are created. Once done at the visitor centre we hit the park armed with the map. All I can say OMG there are so many arches and so much to see. It took us all day to get around the park and do a few of the walks required to see some of the arches. One of the arches, Delicate arch was a 2.4 km walk one way. This arch is the "unofficial" emblem of Utah, they even have it on their number plates on their cars. Another one of note is called Landscape arch which has the largest span and is the thinnest on the top portion. It is only 6 feet thick at the smallest spot on the top and has a span of 306 feet. Back in 1991 a large portion of sand stone fell from the top of this while people were there. They have now blocked it off so you can't go underneath, it is going to eventually fall down. Once we were all arched out we hit the road again. This time we are heading for Denver, Colorado at the moment we are stopped at Grand Junction, Colorado as we have about 400ks to drive in the morning. Need to get some rest now as we have more to do and lots of places to go, we have travelled about 2500 miles so far. The PT Cruiser is not new any more!

Us in front of the Monuments

Tall and skinny

More Monuments

Monuments in the distance

Monday 10th March

Today we decided to get up early and head to Monument Valley which was 200ks away from Page, Arizona. We arrived at Monument Valley and paid our $10 to enter the national park. The entry included a 14 mile sandy track that you could drive around and do a lap of all the different monuments. If you think the scenery is familiar then maybe it's because like me, you like Back to the future 3 with Michael J Fox as some of the movie was filmed here. The filming of the Delorian driving through the desert when Marty went back to the wild west to rescue the Doc. If you remember the scene with the cowboys and Indians chasing the Delorian then that's where it was filmed. Once you are there in real life it is exactly how it looked in the movie. The monuments are amazing some of them are over 1000 feet tall. It is hard to believe some of them do not fall over. Any way we took a few hours to look around and then hit the road again and headed for Moab, Utah for the night. We managed to get really cheap accommodation and it was a nice place.

grand canyon

Grand Canyon
Us at one of the lookouts

Bridge at Page, Arizona

Dam under the bridge above

Sunday 9th March

Today we got up early and went back to the canyon to check out some more of the different vantage points. We drove into the park and went to the visitor centre. We then decided to park the car and catch the bus to the many different lookout points. We spent around 3 hours walking around taking in the spectacular scenery and taking lots of photos. You had to catch the free buses around the park as you were not able to drive on all the roads. Once we had seen enough of the canyon we went back to the car and then headed east towards Cameron AZ. From Cameron we went north to a place called Tuba City. Had lunch at Tuba City and then headed further north to Page. Once we arrived in Page we found some cheap accommodation and then went for a drive around the town. We went to Walmart and I found a hairdresser inside the complex and I got a hair cut as I was overdue for one. Bought some stuff at Walmart and then went back to our room. Tomorrow we are heading for Monument Valley, it's around 200ks from hear. Monument Valley has all the red sandstone structures standing straight up 100's of feet from the flat desert surrounding them, kind of like from the road runner cartoons. Can't wait to see them as they look so cool in photos.

route 66/grand canyon

Snow at the Grand Canyon
One of the many lookouts at the Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

A Cafe on Route 66.

Saturday 8th March

Today we left Kingsman and followed the longest remaining section of the original Route 66. The section we travelled was a little over 100 miles, it gave us a look at some of the old towns along the route that are now almost ghost towns. Some of the towns have set up old 50's style cars like corvettes as a display, I guess it's a way to capturing the tourists. The drive was good however the complete 2000 miles of the Route 66 would have been fantastic but now impossible, what a shame. After lunch we hit the Grand Canyon National Park and paid our park pass to enter. We decided to go to a lookout called Desert Point which is the highest point on the southern side of the canyon. The view was fabulous, it is breath taking to look at the canyon and too hard to describe the feeling of actually looking at it. Photos are great but being there in person is so cool. While heading back to the visotor centre the weather was changing quickly, black sky was approaching and lightning in the distance. About 10 minutes later it started to snow. We stopped the car at a look out and took some photos of us standing in the snow. Tomorow we are going to spend the day in the natioinal park and do some of the walks and the other look outs. You could spend a couple of weeks here with the amount of stuff to do. By the way if you are wondering it was about 4 or 5 degrees today while it was snowing. There is also snow on the sides of the road as you drive around the area.

on the road

Our Car after driving to the sky walk

Some Scenery on the way, where's the roadrunner??

The Digital Sirius network, yes they have Elvis 24/7

Friday 7th

Today we decided to drive to the Grand Canyon, we wanted to go to the skywalk that hangs over the Canyon, we were'nt really sure where abouts it was as our "TomTom" didn't know it, but we decided to drive in the general direction, as we were on the road to Kingman we saw a sign that said "to the sky walk, only 49 Miles". We then realised that we didn't have enough petrol to do the 49 miles twice and still be 30 miles from the nearest town, so we drove to Kingman to get some fuel and some lunch, we then return towards the skywalk thinking it would be a good drive, um no one told us the road was mostly unsealed with an average speed of 30mph, it took us two hours to get there, when we arrived at the gate the man told us that the park closed in 45 minutes and it was still a 15 minute bus ride to the skywalk until we were told the price... $20 to park the car, $30 each for the bus to the skywalk and $30 each to then walk on the skywalk.... mmm $180 for about 20 minutes, we turned around and to find some accommodation nearby so we could possibly return the next day, we had seen a ranch on the way but after asking the price there ($179.00... each) we decided to return to Kingman and not worry about the skywalk.

Tomorrow we will head to the southern part of the Grand Canyon.