WestwardGo!

California should be cooler, right?  WRONG! After a looooooong drive the last thing we needed was for California to be 47°c, but it was anyway and there was laundry to be done. In the search for relief from the heat we headed towards California Hot Springs where gaining elevation rewarded us with a drop in temperature to a tolerable 24°c. We fell asleep to the lullaby of frogs and crickets and the next morning hid from the heat in a rather magnificent stream.  As we were already up in the hills we took the back road towards Sequoia national park, through Sequoia national monument and the Trail of 100 Giants. Giant sequoias are REALLY big and awe-inspiring, we had great fun marvelling at the sheer size of these giants, some over 2000 years old and even Snapper got in on the action!  After a stop at Dome Rock to take in the panoramic views we headed towards the town of Three Rivers where we hoped it would be high enough altitude to a...

The previously mentioned unknown time zone change meant that our early start was even earlier than planned. Happily this would lead to us beating the majority of the crowds to the Grand Canyon. First though was a long and scenic drive through the Vermillion Cliffs area. The low lying cloud only enhancing the stark contrasts of this landscape. As we crossed over the Colorado River at Marble Canyon we got a quick glimpse of the canyons yet to come. The lack of queues at the Grand Canyon was when we figured out that we were an hour earlier than we thought, for Mike the ease of parking didn't quite make up for the 4am start though.  The grand canyon is indeed grand. Almost too big to take in.  We were surprised though at its lack of Canyon-y-Ness, being up to 18 miles wide it just looks like a huge valley rather than the steep sided canyon we had been (perhaps naively) expecting! We also found it amusing reading about on...

Historic hikes continued to be the theme of the week as our route to Utah took us through the Canyon of the ancients where there were yet more cliff dwellings and Kivas. Over the border in Utah in Hovenweep National Monument we braved the heat (34°c) and took the short hike around the canyon rim to observe some interesting original stone towers from the 13th century.  The ravens were behaving oddly here, turns out they get themselves drunk on the local skunk berries! The temperature rose as our journey progressed and soon we reached 99°f (37°c, a new high for us!). The barren and arid landscape seemed endless, dead horses along the roadside did little to improve our mood or our first impressions. After successfully dodging dust devils we made it to the reservoir we planned to camp at. A dip in the water left us much cooler (and significantly more gritty) so we settled in to watch yet another storm roll in. The next day we headed North into Moab, ...

A relatively cool night did much to refresh us which as we had a big day planned worked out very well. First up was natural Bridges, via awesome landscapes and many more ruins. It was relatively cool so we did several of the hikes, including to Packhorse Cliff House and Owachomo Bridge.    As the temperature rose we began our long drive along highway 95 through he Glen Canyon Recreation area. Stunning views of large canyons and buttes (teehee) led to a scenic lunch spot.  The next stop on our route was Capitol Reef state park. The canyon scenery, briefly punctuated with yet more petrolgyphs, was joyously interrupted by the area of "Fruita". This area, occupied until the late 60's by Mormon farmers, was FULL of fruit orchards! All open orchards were free to wander around and sample the fruit.  A happy (and sticky) half hour or so with a long pole contraption had us both eating fresh apricots, warm due to the ambient tem...