The Grand Canyon, Arizona

Where on earth do I start when writing about the Grand Canyon? I just don’t know where to begin. The drive to the Grand Canyon took longer than we’d anticipated, so we stayed over night in an RV park outside of the canyon. The following morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the park, as we had nowhere booked to sleep, so we didn’t want to arrive late.

The drive into the park was so much more alpine than I’d expected. I really thought the canyon was in the middle of desert land, but it felt more like Canada with all the tall pine trees. At the entrance to the park we were told by the ranger that we had no hope of finding a camp site to sleep in inside the park. That was disappointing, but Dan never gives up and he asked in the visitors centre, where he found out there were 3 spaces in the dry camping park (no hookups). He sprinted back to the RV and we raced to that campsite, to find two RV’s in front of us. We got the last space! The following day Dan went over to the other RV park, that had hookups, and asked for a spot. The ranger there said he had nothing. Dan asked if he wouldn’t mind double checking. So as he rolled his eyes up and checked through the bookings he said ‘Oh, we must have had a cancellation!” and so we had another 2 nights to sleep in the Grand Canyon National Park. Three nights in total. Not bad considering we’d been told we didn’t have a hope of finding a space.

I think the majority of tourists from Britain see the Grand Canyon on a one day tour. I know Dan did that many years ago. The tour bus drops them off and then collects them three hours later. But we had three full days to explore the park, and so we were able to see some of the less touristy parts.

On day one however, we took the free shuttle bus up to Hopi Heights, with many other tourists. The shuttle buses came every six minutes and always had space on board, so it was an easy way to see the park. I remember when the bus doors opened and I caught my first glimpse of the canyon. Wow. It just took my breath away. Photos can not convey how huge it is, how wide and deep. All our photos, although lovely, in no way truly show how vast the place is. There are no words to describe the Grand Canyon adequately. You simply have to go and visit it yourself.

We rode the red bus line up to the top of Hopi Point. Little Barney was quite scared of the sheer height of the cliff edges we were standing on, and every time a gust of wind came he begged to go home. On another of the stops we walked out across a cliff to a huge rock with a memorial plaque on it, with the names of the men who first discovered the canyon. The walk across to it was scary for a mum with three adventurous kids. The cliff walkway was about 6 feet wide, with no rails on either side, and possibly a mile drop off if one fell. The wind was harsh and Barney was clinging onto me begging to go back to the bus. But we made it across to see the view there. Dan proceeded to scare a couple of touring pensioners, by climbing out to an area that looked like a sheer drop from where we were standing. But it was an optical illusion and he only had about a 10ft drop below him. However, the old couple nearly had kittens when they saw him, and started calling him back, telling him the wind would blow him away. I had to explain to them. I read that 600 people have died in the area, many of which are tourists who have ventured too far for the perfect photo, and fallen off the edge. I was completely surprised at how many un-fenced cliff edges there are.

On the second day we drove the RV to Mather point, which is the first place on entry to the park where its possible to view the canyon. Because of this it is packed with tourists. This area was fenced all around. That is how I expected the entire place to be. But it wasn’t at all. After stopping at Hopi point and various stops on the red bus route we walked some of the ‘Rim Trail’. The trail often has no rails at the edges, and I was a nervous wreck trying to keep an eye on all three kids and Dan (he’s the most likely to fall off a cliff!) On my first night sleeping in the Grand Canyon, I spent the entire night dreaming of catching various family members before they would fall to their doom.

During our Rim Walk we spotted a park ranger giving a talk about the California Condors that live in the area. We hiked down to where she was and sat for 40 minutes listening to her, whilst watching the condors flying hundreds of feet below us. The kids learnt a lot from that talk. The condor weights up to 20lbs, has a wingspan of up to 9.5ft, and can live 50 years in the wild or 80 years in captivity. It was great to see them flying below us. They are ugly critters though, I must say.

The Grand Canyon is a mile deep. I didn’t realise that. If you can imagine standing at the edge of a 1 mile drop, you might understand how its possible to feel slightly dizzy. I felt dizzy on more than one occasion. But I just loved staring out at the vastness of the canyons, and the Colorado River below.

On day three we decided to drive Thelma II up to some of the areas that the shuttle bus didn’t run. This is when I really started to feel that I was exploring the area for real. We left most of the tourists behind us and headed eastwards. There were several scenic areas to stop and view the canyon, but the road in between these areas were covered in alpine forests. So different to how I’d imagined. We saw wild elk grazing in the forests.

At the end of our drive we stumbled upon an old watch tower. We had no idea it was there. This watch tower is built right on the cliff edge, and has 360 degree views of the canyon from the top. Inside the watch tower is decorated with Indian Petroglyphs. It is well worth the drive if you’re in the Grand Canyon area with a vehicle to visit this watch tower.

I had really wanted to venture down inside the canyon on one of the trails there, but I was so sick with the cold while we were there that I could barely walk. I still enjoyed the views through my watery eyes, but it was a shame not to be able to climb down into the canyon. We were told that if you climbed down for 30 minutes, you had to allow 2 hours to climb back up again!

Edit - there is an album on facebook called 'the grand canyon' but i can not add the link to it on here yet, as this goverment internet connection Im using doesnt allow connections to facebook. So annoying. I will add the link next time. Meanwhile if you are a friend of mine on facebook you can go see the photos there yourself.

Please also take time to read Jimmies first blog post below this one.

Mesa Verde, Colorado

After re-planning our route many weeks ago, I thought that I wouldn't get to see the Rockies or visit Colorado. One of my dreams for this trip was to see both Colorado and the Rockies. This week my dream came true and we are now happily driving through a very cold Colorado.

Our first stop in Colorado was at the Mesa Verde National Park. Our of all the national parks we have visited, this has been the most expensive. We didn't have to pay the $25 entry charge as we have an 'America The Beautiful' pass that we bought at the start of our trip. At $80 for a year, it has really saved us money on tall the $20 park entries we would have had to pay. However, camping in Mesa Verde was expensive. Camping with hookups was almost $50 a night (which for a national park is phenomenal). Dry camping was $28 a night. We consider $10 a night to be about right for dry camping. Therefore we dry camped in the park for just one night.

The camp site itself was set in the forest and although we were parked on a slope (not good for sleeping without water retention) we were lucky enough to see several Mule Deer wandering around our RV throughout the evening.

The following morning we got up early to spend the day visiting the park. Mesa Verde is famous for its cliff dwellings. 800 years ago the Pueblo Indian people left the brick built cliff dwellings that are dotted across the canyon. There were as many as 600 homes built into the cliffs at the time. They Pueblo Indians lived in the area for 800 years before migrating south into New Mexico and Arizona, where they still reside today. Many of the buildings still stand, in fantastic condition after so many hundreds of years. Some of the dwellings are available to walk around, but to really appreciate the larger dwellings, we had to take a ranger tour (at a cost of $3 each). This was the first park to charge for ranger led activities.

We bought tickets for all five of us to visit the Cliff Palace, and a ticket for just Dan to visit the Balcony House dwelling. Visiting the cliff palace involved a strenuous climb down steps into the canyon, and a scary climb up three ladders fixed onto the cliff walls, in between some narrow canyons. The Indian people did not use ladders, they used toe and hand holds which were chiseled into the rock. Once into the cliff palace area we were virtually hidden from the rest of the world, in a small village with a huge window into the canyon. The ranger talked about the Pueblo people, how the buildings were made, what they were used for and many other things. Amazingly after all these years, we were still allowed to walk around the buildings, to touch things and explore. We sat and thought about what life would have been like to the people who lived there. In the summer they would have coped with extreme heat and dryness, in winter freezing snow and cold. The area would have been noisy with children and turkeys running around the place. There would have been strong smells from all the cooking (typically they ate squirrel, mouse or rabbit stew). It was a real adventure to climb down to the palace and to think about past cultures and ways of life.

After our tour of the cliff palace (which incidentally isn't actually a palace) the kids and I stopped for lunch whilst Dan took one of the scarier tours on his own. The tour into Balcony House comes with warnings about claustrophobia and vertigo. We thought it was best to let Dan go on his own. To get in and out of the dwelling he had to clamber through the tiniest man made corridor through rock (one of the larger men in the group had to lay on his side to wiggle through, and Dan actually thought he was going to get permanently wedged inside!) Then he had to climb up vertical ladders, for many feet up steep cliff edges. It certainly wasn't a tour for anyone with a fear of heights or confined spaces. Dan however, loved the tour and relished the chance to explore without the constant chatter of the kids!

At the end of the day as we drove out of the park, a wild coyote stopped in front of us in the middle of the road! We stopped the RV and stared at the coyote, as he stared back at us. We didn't get a photo, and he slowly slinked off into the woods. We were so excited to see a coyote after hearing them howl at the moon so many nights.

Zion National Park, Utah

Finally, after days and days of no internet connection we are in an RV park that has sporadic connection possibilities. It has taken me no less than 4 hours to upload the photos from the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park onto Facebook. What with getting disconnected every 5 minutes. Ahh, what I wouldn't do for some reliable internet connection right now. Anyway, there are new albums in the sidebar now. One for the Grand Canyon, two for Zion (yes we went a little crazy with the photos there). New photos from Bryce will be loaded into Utah Album 2 at some point. There are a few new photos in the last Arizona album too (which go with the post below this one).

Well, blow me down, I think we went and found paradise! I had been warned about the beauty of Utah, in particular Zion. But the entire family was just blown away as we drove through the east entrance into the park. The scenery here was totally different to anything we'd seen so far. Mountains carved out of ancient sand dunes, the Virgin River coursing through the middle, alpine trees growing out of orange and pink rock. Zion was so beautiful that even the photos I took from the passenger seat of the RV whilst driving look spectacular.

All three kids sat with their noses to the windows as we drove forty minutes into the park. It was like a magical wonderland, like nothing we'd ever seen before. To my horror we discovered we had to drive through a one mile mountain tunnel to get into the centre of the park. A one mile unlit tunnel, that was only just tall enough for our RV. In fact, for RV's to pass through the tunnel, the road has to be closed at either end, so that the RV can drive in the centre of the tunnel without tearing its roof apart. Well, being extremely claustrophobic I don't like tunnels. I particularly don't like one mile long pitch black tunnels where the roof is inches from the top of the vehicle1 We waited at the tunnel entrance for the road to be shut at the other end (we paid $15 for the privilege) and eventually we led the way through. It was at this point that we discovered one of our headlights wasn't working. So the pitch black drive was not easy. Dan was stressed about trying to stay in the middle of the road, so as not to rip the roof off the RV, and I was holding my breath and talking myself out of hysteria. Nevertheless we made it through in one piece (even if I had to lie down for a few hours with an awful headache afterwards).

We couldn't sleep in Zion the first night as it was a Saturday, we'd arrived late and the camp sites were full. But the ranger there told us about a free place to stay just outside the park - land that belongs to the DLM or something. We headed there expecting to find an old car park or wasteland, but instead found a beautiful sandy riverside campsite. At first we got stuck in the sand. Thelma II's wheels got burried deep and I thought we'd never get out. But Dan got us out eventually and we parked up right by the river in a lovely secluded spot. It was great to hear the sound of the rapid river gushing by all night long.

The following morning we headed back to Zion and booked three nights in one of the campgrounds there. The campground itself was surrounded by spectacular orange coloured mountains. Jimmie and Barney spent many happy hours playing outside there. They have a new game where Jimmie digs the tracks of an RV park into the soil and Barney fills it with various cars and trucks. He spends hours playing with those miniature RV parks. The campground had more caterpillars than I ever knew existed on the planet. Every where you stood, you were treading on them. We'd find them crawling up our shoes, up our arms, on our wheels, on our seats. It was quite amazing. Also, because of all the Cottonwood Trees in the campground it seemed as if it was gently snowing all the time. The soft cotton blows in the breeze and you'd swear it looked like snow.

I have to say that one of the most spectacular drives you could ever take is the drive through the east entrance into the park. But many of the visitors to Zion miss that, as they enter through the south entrance and use the park shuttle bus to reach the various hiking areas. Because of the sheer amount of visitors and the congestion caused by their vehicles Zion has started to operate a free shuttle bus service throughout one route of the canyon. Much like the Grand Canyon does. We made a lot of use of the shuttle. The shuttle stops at various points of interesting for views and hiking. As usual the kids completed the parks junior ranger program, so we were always busy at every stop looking up information and answering questions.

Over our four days in Zion we made several stops, had lovely picnics beneath the mountains and went on many hikes. The first hike we took was the trail up to the Emerald Pools, at the Zion Lodge stop. It was an uphill trail, so Barney got tired quickly. I walked with him to the first pool and waterfall, then we headed back to Zion Lodge for an ice cream whilst Dan, Jimmie and Annabelle carried on with the hike up to the upper pools. This is one of the more popular hikes on the shuttle route, but we discovered much nicer hikes later on. The emerald pools weren't that spectacular, but the hike followed the line of the river, up to some small water falls and some amazing rock formations. There is no where in Zion that isn't extremely beautiful, so it's impossible to be disappointed.

We took another hike from The Grotto stop to Zion Lodge. We had intended to take 'The Grotto' trail, but we took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up taking a scenic walk along the river side. We saw lots of evidence of the beavers that lived there. There were trees that the beavers had knocked down, trees that they were in the process of chewing, and beaver dams at the sides of the river banks. The Virgin River is too rough for the beavers to build their dams in, so they build them on the banks instead.

Dan loved Zion so much that he got up early every morning to go on hikes before the rest of us awoke. Some of the hikes are very strenuous and can't be made with a four year old. The third hike we took as a family was up to the Weeping Rock. This was a lovely, paved, easy walk. Uphill on the way there, and down hill on the way back. It was only a half mile walk but the view at the end was worth a ten mile walk! The weeping rock seeps drips of cooling water out, and when you walk under it, it feels like a waterfall. The kids all got drenched by standing with their heads under the drips. I could have sat at the end of that walk for days just looking out at the view.

Perhaps the most memorable hike for the kids was the walk to the 'Temple of Sinawara'. A walk along the river that gets narrower the further you proceed into the canyon. It was strange to be inside a canyon looking up at the extremely tall cliffs and wondering what the view was like up there, when only a few days before we had been at the top of the Grand Canyon, looking down and wondering the same thing. Along our riverside walk we stopped to catch our breath. Dan sat down on a rock there and put the ruck sack on the ground. From out of no where arrived this cheeky little squirrel. He could smell something and was desperate to find it. He ran all over Dan sniffing for food until he discovered our ruck sack. Without hesitation he rummaged right into the ruck sack and helped himself to hand fulls of popcorn! It was such a funny sight that some Japanese tourists started filming the whole thing! But it made a great memory for the kids. This little squirrel wanted popcorn, and took pop corn. It's something the will talk about for years to come.

Later on that same walk we stopped at a little beach side area. The kids and their Dad spent some time throwing stones into the river, while Barney spent some time covering his legs with mud. We all sat around and had a good family chat here about all sorts of things. It was one of the real special family moments on this trip. On our way back to the shuttle, walking past huge rocks, vast canyons and the river, our day was just made perfect as we spotted our first snake! Yes, for three months we have wanted to see a real wild snake, and finally we have seen it! You can see a photo of it by clicking here.

On one of the days we took a trip outside the park to get a few necessities. As we pulled into a gas station a man from the garage next door came over to tell us that one of our wheels was a bit flat. He was a mechanic and as he examined the wheels he was horrified to discover that we needed 6 new wheels. He phoned Cruise America and told them that they'd rented out an RV for two months that had cracked wheels. I thought he might just be touting for business but Dan looked at the tires and they really were cracked. Cruise America agreed for him to replace the wheels, at a cost to them of $1800 ! I was more than a little angry that Cruise America rented us an RV with both a broken headlight and 6 dodgy wheels. I mean, its not as if we are only hiring it for a week, we are here for 5 months!

The highlight of our last night at Zion was having a camp fire and roasting marshmallows. The kids always enjoy that. This morning we said goodbye to paradise and headed eastwards to Bryce National Park. Tonight we are staying just outside that park and will head in there tomorrow. It's much colder here and there are still patches of snow about the place. Tonight we have had rain for the first time since we drove through Houston in Texas.

The Canyonlands National Park, Utah

Our last full day in Moab was spent at the Canyonlands National Park. One of the smaller parks we've visited, but a beautiful place none the less. The weather was still really wet when we got there, but it dried out into a sunny day by the end. We spent about 3 hours driving through the park and stopping at the various lookouts. I am still trying to find a big horn sheep, which apparently live in many of these parks, but they remain a mystery to me, and I'm starting to wonder if they really exist.

Our favourite part of Canyonlands was the stop to see Mesa Arch. The 10 minute walk up steps to see the arch was well worth it. The natural arch exists right at a cliff edge. We couldn't see the cliff as we walked up to it, until we looked through the arch. It was funny to watch every one walk up to the arch and then hear them gasp as they saw the sudden drop they were standing right next to!

We have now left Moab and driven north through Utah. We spent two days relaxing at a KOA RV park in Provo, just south of Salt Lake City. The park seems to be run by three very friendly 15 or 16 year old goth boys, with faces full of piercings and jet black hair! Maybe they work at the weekend. They were lovely helpful lads though, despite their appearance.

Today we are heading north again to Idaho. We plan to take a scenic drive through Idaho and Wyoming, which will last a few days, until we get to Yellowstone National Park. We've been told its a very busy, touristy place (a bit like the Grand Canyon) but we will go and see it while we are here. After Yellowstone we will be on the last leg of our journey westward across Idaho and Oregon, then back down into California.

With regards to the pregnancy, I am now 11 weeks pregnant and Barney is drawing cute pictures of Mummy with a baby in her tummy. I had a two week stint of feeling so tired that I could barely lift my arms let alone get out of bed. I had about one week of morning sickness, where I felt nauseous and just wanted to go home. But that all seems to have passed and I feel like myself again now. I can't tell you how releived I am to feel well again. With all three of my previous pregnancies I suffered almost constant morning sickness for a full nine months. The fact that I'm not this time is a true blessing.

Grand Teton, Wyoming

What an amazing state Wyoming has turned out to be. I think it may possibly be my favourite state so far, despite the cold weather and snow. I didn’t really know anything about Wyoming, other than that we’d be visiting Yellowstone there.

But our first stop was at the Grand Teton national park. The Grand Teton’s have been voted the best national park so far by every member of our family. The scenery is second to none, and we have seen more wildlife here than anywhere else. You just can’t miss it. We could have stayed there for weeks!

In all we spent 4 days at the Teton’s. We drove all over the park and stopped at many places. The first two days were spent driving around and stopping at the various points of interest. We discovered Leigh Lake, a small lake next to the larger Jenny Lake, with the most amazingly clear water, surrounded by mountains. It was just like finding paradise. I lay on the bench there for an hour and just watched the kids playing, whilst Dan took a walk around the lake. Jimmie tried to paddle in the water but it was ice cold, whilst little Barney played with a mound of snow with his bucket and spade.

The highlight for us, apart from the spectacular scenery was the amount of wildlife wandering about the place. On our first night dry camping at one of the campgrounds, Dan and Barney went for a walk, just in the woods behind our RV. Much to their surprise, as they were walking through, they almost trod on a moose! The moose was napping in the woodland, and Dan didn’t see it laying there. The moose saw Dan just in time and sprung up onto his feet and headed into the woods. Dan ran in to get me so that Barney could try to show me the moose. And right enough, there it was grazing in the woodlands, just behind our RV. We were all so excited to discover the moose so accidentally.

We saw moose a few times after that, although they seemed to like hiding in the woodlands. Dan also saw a grizzly bear and her cubs running off into the wetlands, but they were too far away to get a good photo. On our drives through the park we regularly saw deer and antelope grazing in herds. We were fortunate enough to be driving along one road just as a herd of wild bison (or buffalo) were making their way across the road. They wandered across the road, totally oblivious to the cars, taking their time as if they owned land, which they probably do. The kids and I watched them through the RV window whilst Dan was more adventurous and went outside to take some photos. He was very careful as we’d read all the park warnings about how dangerous bison can be, and how fast they can run at a man. But it was amazing to see how many incredibly stupid tourists got so close to them in order to get the perfect photo. There were about 5 or 6 buffalo in this herd, and they looked at us through the RV window as they wandered past. Later we saw more herds grazing in other fields too.

One of the highlights for wee Barney was his discovery of a mother fox and her cubs. We were sitting in the RV sorting out some laundry, whilst Barney was intently staring out of the window for about 10 minutes. Suddenly he yelled “there’s a coyote!” so we all ran over to the window. His discovery wasn’t a coyote, but in fact a fox. She had come out of her burrow and was checking out the area for predators, I think. She ran to various corners of the field, looking out for wild animals (although she didn’t seem to be at all bothered by us humans). As we got outside for a closer look we discovered she had three babies in her burrow. Once she was sure the area was safe, she let the babies out for a play. Barney was just overjoyed at his discovery. The three cubs were a joy to watch. They were so playful, bounding over each other, clawing at each other, just enjoying the fresh air and chance for exercise. Eventually the mother put the cubs back inside while she went off to hunt. By this time quite a crowd of people had formed to see the foxes. Typically some people just can’t respect the space animals need, and tried to climb down the bank for better photos of the cubs. I get so cross when humans invade animal territory like that, all for the best photo. One man was obviously cross as well and called out “there’s always someone who has to take it too far!” Good for him. But our Barney was pleased that he had discovered the foxes, and no one else would have had the joy of seeing them if it wasn’t for him. It made his day.

Another spectacular moment for us was the discovery of an Elk in the woodlands. We were driving along when I spotted what looked just like one of Santa’s reindeer in the hedges. We parked up and Dan went to venture off for a peek at the animal. The Elk was as interested in us as we were in him. He raised his head and antlers as if he was king of the forest and posed for a few photos. He looked so majestic with his new fury antlers. Later in the year the Elk sharpen their antlers against trees, and they become less reindeer looking. But this Elk had huge big furry antlers, and with the sun behind him they shone like an antler halo! What an awesome sight.

The Teton area is truly one of the most beautiful places on the planet. We were there just as the snow was melting. The roads were snow free, but the mountains were still snow capped, and there were mounds of snow about the place. Our campsite still had a lot of snow in it, and the kids had a great time sledging down it on the body board they had bought in Florida. All three of them came in with soaked shoes and feet. It was strange to be able to play in snow, but to be in the sunshine at the star of summer. The area wasn’t at all cold, unless you buried your feet in the snow like my kids. The area had a lot of woodlands, wetlands, lakes, mountains and meadows. Every type of scenery one could wish for really. I think if we ever had to move to America, we would chose Wyoming for a home.

The rest of the Grand Teton photos are here.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is almost joined onto the Grand Teton Park, so it was only a short drive north before we were there. We were shocked at how much snow was still around. The drive into the park was past snow which was often 6 ft deep! We both started getting a little worried at how we would manage to camp in the cold, but thankfully the campsite was at a different elevation and the snow had all melted there. (Although it was still incredibly cold at night.) Most of the roads leading into Yellowstone are closed for a lot of the year due to thick snow coverage. The drive into the park was magical though. To go from deserts to a winter wonderland is quite surreal. We drove past frozen lakes, miles and miles of snow and huge pine tree forests.

We spent about 4 days in Yellowstone, which had almost as much wildlife as Teton did. We had been told Yellowstone was a very touristy park, and so we expected it to be as busy as the Grand Canyon. I think it probably is in the summer, but thankfully while we were there it wasn't too busy really. There are no shuttle buses like there are at the Grand Canyon and Zion, so we were able to drive around freely and stop for as long as we liked at the various lookouts. Yellowstone is a vast park. We could have spent weeks there and still not seen everything. But we got a good feel for the place in our few days. It is full of forest land, and more wild bison than I've seen anywhere else. Dan was hopeful of seeing some bears and so we spent the entire time on the lookout for either black bears or grizzlies. We had heard that Yellowstone was the place to see them, although they remained illusive to us for quite some time.

Obviously, one of the main features of Yellowstone is that its a park inside an active volcano. The volcanic activity there was obvious to see. Naturally we stopped to watch Old Faithful, the geyser, erupt - which to be honest, we all found a bit of an anti-climax. Especially young Barney who said "is that it?" loud enough for most of the gathering crowd to hear. We drove around the park and stopped at many of the volcanic areas. Our first stop was at a set of bubbling volcanic pools, with water so clear, pure and inviting, that we all felt an urge to jump into them. However, doing so would have meant certain death, so we refrained. Jimmie noticed a boiled lizard floating around one of the pools! These pools had no smell to them, they just bubbled, steamed and popped. It looked like the surface of another planet. Later on we found more of these pools that were sulphur based, and they absolutely wreaked of rotten eggs! Disgusting! One of the pools was bright yellow from the sulphur. We also saw some mud volcanoes, which were basically big pools of bubbling, squirting runny mud. The kids enjoyed this part of the park, and learnt about volcanoes on their way around. The Yellowstone Junior Ranger program was the most challenging so far and really required their best effort.

The waterfalls and canyons in the park were beautiful places. As usual the photos really don't do them justice. After three days Dan still wanted to see a bear, and he was beginning to wind me up groaning about bear hunting all the time. We had already seen a lot of wildlife including this coyote, and this strange looking bird.
But Dan wouldn't be satisfied until he saw a real live wild bear. We even saw bald eagles in their nests with their newly hatched babies.

But eventually Dan got his wish and we noticed a crowd of people had pulled over to look down into a meadow. We stopped the RV and discovered three big black bears wandering around below. It was an exciting moment. We both wished we had a camera with a proper zoom lens to get some good photos at this point. We did get a few photos which you can see here, but we just enjoyed watching them for half an hour. Its so much more exciting to see animals in the wild than it is in a zoo.

Dan was happy that he'd seen a bear, and I was happy that he was happy. But on our last night at Yellowstone on the way back to our camp site we were lucky enough to see a mother Grizzly Bear with her cub, quite near our RV. She was huge and impressive, and the cub was playful and gorgeous. They looked so harmless, even though they could rip us apart in seconds! The grizzly was trying to get down to the road with her cub to cross over into the grasslands. She had to wait until night time as a bit of a crowd had gathered, but we saw the next day that she had made it across safely. I can't tell you the excitement we all felt at seeing the grizzly bears in their natural habitat so closely. We also saw a mother black bear with two cubs playing in the trees. So we've truly seen the bears now. We left the park feeling satisfied and now we are on the final leg of our trip. The home run. Across Idaho and Oregon into California.

The rest of the photos from Yellowstone can be seen here. Don't forget to read the post below about Grand Teton, if you have missed it.

Craters of the Moon N.P, by Dan

After an all you can eat pancake breakfast (Dan 6) (Barney 1) (Abigail 2)
(Jimmy 8) (Bree - did not get up in time!), we headed on across Idaho. We stopped at Craters of the Moon National Monument. Poor Bree was not feeling the best and lay down on the sofa in the RV, occasionally popping her head up for a quick look, that’s why I am writing this short blog.

Craters of the Moon is a barren area of lava flows, cinder cones (mini volcanoes), and volcanic tubes. This is an arid region, and the meager rainfall is quickly siphoned away through the loose volcanic soil. Historically uninhabited, and unused except for hunting, and trapping. It was called "Craters of the Moon" because, it was imagined that this is what the moon must look like. (Yes I stole that bit from a web page).

As it was a very small place to visit, the kids finished their junior ranger programs and we headed west towards our next town which was Stanley. We had already done a lot miles so we stopped when we noticed a little ranch in the middle of the mountains, so we stayed there the night. It was beautiful and there were still signs that they had a lot snow there, including the hundreds of snowmobiles that were available for hire during the snow season.

The next morning we made our way to Stanley which was a lovely little town that was recommended to us by lots of people. The drives continue to be an amazing part of our trip. Everywhere seems to has such stunning views, and what’s more, they seem to be different. Many days we travel a lot and it makes such a big difference to stay off the big interstates and pick the longer scenic drives.

We are now in Nampa after filling our boots in an all you can eat restaurant and will be heading into Oregon in the morning.

OK not too good at this blogging! Forgot to post it. We have now been in Oregon for a few days and have made our way over to the coast (Newport). From here its straight down the coast Rd to San Francisco . Our first night in Oregon we stayed in the middle of a national forest. When we got there we were the only ones in the whole area, we thought more would turn up but nobody did. It was kinda scary sleeping in the middle of the forest all by ourselves. After a lovely fire we headed off to bed and it was not until the middle of night that we worked out why we were alone. It was COLD. Summer has not turned up in Oregon yet, instead we woke up to snow.
From what I have seen of Newport is a lovely place and we will be checking it out today.

The rest of the Idaho photos are here.

The Redwoods California.

The Redwood forests of California were the last place on our travels that I'd been dreaming of visiting for the past year. I remember looking at photos of the Californian forests this time last year, before we'd even booked our flights, and showing the photos to Steve, in an attempt to tempt him to take the trip. So I was really excited to finally be walking around the Redwood Forests.

We headed to California sooner than expected, as Oregon (beautiful as it was) was just too cold and windy for an outdoor life. So we got into the RV and headed south, and before we knew it we were in the redwoods, about a week ahead of schedule. The Redwood forests span many miles along the Californian coast. We drove through the national park, as well as countless state parks along the way. The drive was just magical. Winding roads lined with the tallest, biggest trees on the earth. The forest smelled so fresh and pure. Everything was huge there. Not only the trees, but the ferns, and the clover, were all giant sized. The Redwoods only grow in this region because of the amount of water on offer from the rain, river, sea and fog. The forests runs right down to the seashore. Driving through the park when the fog starts to set through the tree tops is a spooky experience!

Little Barney was the first one to set trail into the forest. Dan and I accompanied him on a hike whilst Jimmie and Annabelle chose to stay in the RV. (It's taken 5 months of no TV and no toys, but Jimmie has finally taken up reading as a hobbie! I never thought I'd see the day!) Barney was totally inspired by the forest. The trees seemed huge to us as adults, so I'm sure they seemed even bigger to him. He ran through the trees, leading the way, and stopping every 10 metres or so to point out another huge specimen. Some of the trees had millions of newly hatched caterpillars crawling about them, which Barney found amusing. Every now and then he'd call out "don't tread on that caterpillar" as he ran on ahead.

We took another hike to see 'The Big Tree' (which is the one in the top most photo on this post). This tree is at least a thousand of years old and really is quite some size, as you can see in the photo. We took our junior ranger programs on this hike with us and learnt why it is important not to climb on the fallen logs in the forest. The fallen trees act as nursery logs to new seedlings, and a home to many animals. We studied one of the nursery logs for the kids ranger badge and made sketches of it. This was to be the childrens last junior ranger program of the trip, so we made the most of it. On this walk we discovered a tree that had a little entrance way into it, like a cave. The tree was still growing, but Dan and the kids were able to crawl right inside it and sit within its trunk as if they were in a little hut! The forests really did feel like some sort of jurassic jungle. The kids half expected dinosaurs to come running out at them!

We stayed in a campsite very close to the redwoods so that we could continue exploring the next day. When we finally decided it was time to move on we eventually found ourselves driving along the famous 'Avenue of the Giants', which is basically a scenic road that runs along side the motorway, driving through more Redwood forests. Along this road we found a campsite to stay in. The campsite had only just opened and since we were one of the first customers they gave us a free redwoods mug. That campsite is where the photo was taken, of Annabelle and Barney sitting inside a hollowed out redwood log.

After our few days in the forest we decided it was time to give the children some beach time. We'd been promising them a warm beach for hundreds of miles. So we stayed in a sea side town called Fort Bragg where we found a beautiful secluded beach to lay on for a day. The best thing about the beach was that it had a large pool of warm water that hadn't washed out to sea. It was perfect for the kids to play safely in and they had a great day getting sand into every possible part of their bodies.