Telluride, Colorado Rockies

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and first proper video of the trip entitled "Hi, Andy's Mom" where my American accent lasts for the first two words!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZSywnEdkEM

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Again, never heard of the place, like Moab, but again, one of those places I will definitely come back to! Nestled high up in the Colorado Rockies far away from the well known ski resorts like Aspen, Telluride is a small ski town that sits beneth the largest concentration of 14,000 ft mountains in the States. love it.

We also seem to have arrived at a good time of year, it's the off season, so although there is no snow, the arguably more fun stuff, like Mountain Biking, is big. Never downhilled before, but through forests rich of Autumnal colours today has got to have been one of the most fun days of my life. Flying down from 10,000 feet down trails made for bikes, just absolutely brilliant, and definitely given me the bug for it. Just phenomenal.



Just look at those fall colours on the ski slope!

Also, got up early today, after a night out at a local bar last night (for live music), thought the best way to wake up was to run up to Bear Creek Falls, about an 8 or 9 mile round trip, but that gets up over 10,000 ft, therefore the highest I've ever been... Was totally worth it for this waterfall



and views like this:




But the weather closed in, and as I only had the trail map and not a topo map best thing was to follow the trail back down. Was great to get caught up in a snow storm though, certainly didn't expect to see snow again after Lake Louise in Canada a few weeks ago.



Turn back time - Weather really closed in after about 10,500 ft. The air is noticably thin at this height too, thin enough to make my head ache, it's beyond me what it must be like up 20,000 ft in Alaska, or even more in the Himalayas...

A fantastic curry got the night off to a flyer, credit to Big Gihan our Sri Lankan curry expert. Making full use of the chalet (Americans saw condonimium) which in a word is unbelievable. En Suites, warm! showers, comfy beds, fire - after camping for over 40 nights, the feel of carpet on my feet was almost too much, I cried.



Look at this place! To see more of the chalet check out the You Tube video at the top

That night we ended up at the Million Dollar Saloon, after proving I was in fact over 21, and not 17 as the doorman thought, the hours drifted away to the sounds of Geresh, a strange mix of chilled out stroke heavy metal, sounded alright now I come to think of it. Not usually my thing, but the locals made it. The walk back was sooo cold, ice all over the roads, well below freezing. And we were supposed to camp here!

Here's the band (kinda in the background)



By the way, do you like my new sunglasses? Comments please!!!



Picture of the day? May be this one...



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Moab, Utah (Arches & Canyonlands National Parks)

Moab, Utah. Big Boys playground. This place is awesome!

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Never heard of the place before we arrived, and it took a little while to get my head around it. 4 x 4s with huge tyres, proper off roaders flying down the main street. 4 x 4 trucks loaded to the hilt with mountain bikes or ATVs (quad bikes). Didn't quite get the picture til I called in the local visitors centre.

Then it became all the more clear after a hummer tour in a former US Army Hummer (with all the armour removed though...), pretty cool, loved it when he let air out of the tyres before a steep 40 degree ascent! Then pumped it back in, all at the click of a button!



Although I'd normally find it bad, I love the way it's all about decimating the enviroment in Moab, solely for the purpose of FUN! A huge hummer roaring over miles of slick rock and open desert...all of this leaving it's mark:



We stopped for sunset at the high point of the slick rock, overlooking the Colorado, the colours became more and more vivid - awesome!



Had to miss out on mountain biking Moab's Slickrock Trail (apparently the most famous mountain biking course in the world) - not that I knew this, otherwise it would have been first thing on the list. Found out too late, and as Canyonlands and Arches National Parks took up our final day decided it would still be good to see them, mainly because of views like this:



The sunset over Canyonlands, the road you can see winding into the distance we took a day later, a 31 mile dirt road, so slow I just had to jump out and run ahead of the van, opened up a mile or so at one point. But fantastic because it's so empty, a road only accessible to 4 x 4s, means that I didn't see a sole. Surely one of the world's most empty places.

Also managed to fit in Arches National Park, and that is cool:




The soft sandstone erodes with human touch, so it's no surprise the forces of nature can scuplt spectacular gaps in the rock like this, which form arches like these:



as well as balanced rocks like these, balanced a lot better than me!



I could keep adding pictures for ever to this post, but got to keep it readable. All the ones I want to add are in the album here, and is probably one of the best albums so far - so check it out! All albums have picture captions too...!

http://dur.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2171988&l=8ae48&id=61205739

One last picture though, this describes Moab...it is:




WHAO!!!!

Monument Valley

The Navajo Indians and Monument Valley! The valley is in their reservation, their way of life slllooowwwww, and at times pretty dull. Huge suicide rate, a lot of crime, high unemployment. Shame because they have such an amazing landscape:



One of the most photographed landscapes in America



A monument valley sandwich



And finger



And the monument valley Navajo step keep-fit class.

And here's the picture that sums it all up. It's the place where Tom Hanks (Forest Gump) stops running in the movie. It's the place that is on the front of numerous US guidebooks, the straight road running into the red desert. Lovely.



On it was from there, to Betty and Rusty's. Make as much noise as you like she proclaimed at 10 o clock after her and rusty sang us songs around the camp fire. Legends.



Slept the night in some awesome traditional Navajo mud huts - a lot warmer than camping!



What a place they have, no running water, no toilet other than a portaloo and certainly no showers! But the upside being that it was absolutely in the middle of no where. Got out of the little ranch and on to some sandstone cliffs to watch the sunset. Perfect.

The next day, onto Four Corners and Moab - oh yes, my finger was in 4 states at the same time. Now that's got to make me cool!



Oh one last thing, on the way back from Four Corners, saw this pole that was 4760 feet high. So decided to climb it - all the way to the top. Great views as I held on for my life.

Grand Canyon - Arizona

One of the 7 natural wonders of the world. And on the first of our three days at the canyon we visited the North Rim, the part of the canyon that only 2% of the 4 million visitors a year visit!! Was expecting the 100 degree + heat, clear blue skys etc etc...

But was completely naive to the fact it's over 8000 feet in elevation (1000 ft higher than the touristy south rim) which meant that we were setting up camp in temperatures more like an English winter! Anyway, up went the tent:



and then off on a hike, the South Kaibab trail into the Canyon. 12 miles, managed the first 3 running down, but started late (about 4.30) and by the time I would have made it down it would have meant coming back up in dark. Probably not all that sensible considering I'd never even seen the Canyon before, no matter walked in it. So caught the last 30 minutes of sun and went up to the rim to see the sunset.





Left early the next morning for the 215 mile drive to the South Rim. Seemed crazy, as in the photo above, in a straight line the South Rim is only 10 miles as the crow flies. The North Kaibab train joins up with the South Kaibab trail and over a suspension bridge you cross the Colorado to do the 21 mile hike to the other rim. Recommended 2 day trip with either camping or hostelling at Phantom Ranch down in the Canyon itself. Though outside of June, July and August rekon it's easily doable in a full day. Probably the first place, other than Lake Louise, Banff where I am absolutely sure I'll be back to soon.

So onto the touristy south rim, where all the visitors go, easy access, plenty of lodging, gift shops galore (arrgh!), but some good trails. Stopped at a few view points along the way:



Views from the south rim are definitely better, just it's busier. Hate to think how crowded it must get peak season.



Jumped 6000ft into the canyon. Took a heavy landing, but was OK as I flipped onto my hands, then back onto my legs. Disapated my weight across all 4 limbs. Now that's talent.

Got there late, took a walk with Maddy to the rim for sun set, walked around the village, and back to the camp site.

Mega early morning, sunrise at 5.45am then 12 mile hike:

Not often is sunrise cloudy, although not probably as spectacular it definitely gives it a kinda eeriness.



Now for the unbelievable part. Not 100 degree + temps in the canyon, as is usually the case but rain. And I'm not joking. 6 miles in, and it started, thunder, lightening, huge rain drops. GOt absolutely drenched - it's all about the Lowe Alpine:



Trying to work out how it can rain in one of the hottest places on Earth?

Still managed to see the Colorado though, so that's all good:



Though when the lightning started, that was it, I was out of there! Slightly concerned, being one of only about 6 people on the trail to Plateau Point my mind was put at rest when I saw one Chinese guy with a metallic umbrella:



Idiot! Three guesses on who was going to be first down!

Stormed back up the 950m from Plateau Point, 1 hr 19 minutes, heard it was fairly good going. Great to fly past the old American guys who patronisingly tell you how much they love the English accent, "oh my guard, my grandfarrthher was frum Englaynd". I'd love to whip out a world map and get them to mark England. It would probably look very much like this one I photographed back in Yellowstone! Look at that land bridge between Spain and Morocco! Hilarious.



Anyway, deviating slightly from the Canyon here. In sum, huge, can be way over 20 miles wide in part, 5000 ft + deep and full of so many colours that I'm sure you couldn't even match them on the photoshop colour wheel. I love this place.

Zion & Bryce Canyon National Parks (Utah)

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Vegas to Zion, not that far of a drive, probably 200 miles or so, but that being 200 miles of desolate Mojave Desert. Arrived at a fairly good campground around 4 ish and were told there was probably enough time to tackle Angels Landing, a 600-700m climb to a peak looking down Zion Canyon.

Here it is:



Climb was straight forward, otherwise couldn't really have started it with only 2 hours at the end of the day. Doglegging it up to the top, then out over some chains (no where near Half Domeesque, at Yosemite) and onto the top, which gave great "base jumping views" like this:



Loved it. Ran down with Matt, our Trek Leader, got the shuttle back to Camp (shocker, should be banned, National Parks should only be allow cycling or walking into them if you ask me...!) then off for a run with Matt too, 6 miles of so, Good session, though he wasn't walking to well the next day.

Took a drive to Bryce Canyon (80 miles there, 80 back), didn't camp there, as elevation was nearly 9000 feet so would have frozen. Night time temps below freezing, so just more pleasant to be lower...

Went on a 10k hike through the Canyon, mesmerized by the horseshoe-shaped amphitheaters - gave the whole place a moon like setting. Hardly anyone about, loved it.



Wish I'd ran the train though, temperature was good, could have done an out and back, or got picked up at the other end. But didn't read into it well enough - lesson learnt...

Before leaving, saw this American woman, now I'm not a big one on fashion, but I'm sorry this one has definitely gone wrong somewhere down the line:



Pretended to be on the phone to get a picture near her. Bear her in mind, if you're reading the next post about the Grand Canyon cause she was to materialise a day later, hundreds of miles away....

Photo of the day? Not sure, maybe this one:



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Las Vegas

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Vegas. There's nothing in Nevada, just desert, oh yeh, and Las Vegas. After passing back up past LA we were into it, miles and miles of it. Long, perplexingly 'deserty' straight roads.

Suggested a sweepstake in the van when we saw this one:



I rekoned 5 miles, two others rekoned 2 miles and 7 miles. All completely wrong. Van clocked 10.2 miles. Just straight road into the wilderness. Plenty more of them to come in the Mid West.

This is one hell of a road sign too:



505 miles!!

So into Vegas, and we were told that for $40 a surprise was planned. That turned out to be a party in room 3112 (security not too impressed) a truck limo (bigger than a hummer), and fancy dress.



Half of us. For 20 minutes the truck dropped us off downtown, which meant dancing in the street and lots of random photos which confused tourists



Not sure if anyone will be able to tell who I was....?







The truck itself, although the picture didn't come out that great



After spending 3 hours being told to remove our masks by various casino security squads I made my own way back to the motel, determined to spend a good portion of the next day hurling myself off the edge of this:



4 Gs on this one....



My stomach still hasn't landed yet

Thought this was the worst. Being hurled over the edge then stopped instantly.



Owch.

The worst part of this one was probably being moved out slowly, very slowly over the edge, and then tilted. Fun though, and worth every penny of the $30 unlimited day pass. So much so I spend the night there too...





And as the sun set the casions came to life... Little Venice tried to be Italian:





and night fell. But Vegas never sleeps.



Conclusion? Glad I've seen it, but won't hurry back. Give me a National Park anyday. Highlight, probably the run late this afternoon, 92 F, don't now how many miles. Just ran and ran. Found a big golf course somewhere and out sprinted two vicious dogs. They're everywhere, sure they're following me around America. Felt for the first time that it was possible to escape the vegas strip. Still, the place could really do with a good park...

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