March/April 2017

 

Theresa and Greg’s month vacation in America. We stayed in 18 hotels/motels, visited four States,

California, Nevada, Colorado and Utah covered 3500 miles by car and a further 500 or so by train’s subway and on foot.

 

There are a lot of pictures here and hope you enjoy at least some of them, I can make no apology for the quantity because everywhere

we looked there was a great photograph to be had, I can’t edit them down because they are all my favourites.

 

We had countless amounts of beautiful moments and met some wonderful people but there were some scary times as well

with a blizzard, sandstorm, and a tropical rainstorm that we had to drive 200 miles to get through.

We found that America is a place of great contrast when it comes to its weather.

 

This would have been a “once in a lifetime” holiday if we hadn’t already done it two years ago but there was so

much we missed the first time around that we just had to do it again!

The problem now is that there is so much we missed this time…

 

 

1 Los Angeles Day Griffiths Park Day 1

Day one and starting from our Motel it’s time to find Alamo and pick up our car to go exploring, first Griffiths Park then the city of Los Angeles on foot.

2 Los Angeles Observatory Day 2 

The Griffiths Observatory with its fantastic views of Los Angeles is an astonishing place, featured in the film “La-La Land”.

3 Los Angeles Universal Studios Day 3

As well as some awesome theme park rides we also took the tour of the Hollywood studios to see where all the films are and where made.

4 Travelling Peggy Sues diner Bolder City Park Day 4

We stopped for lunch at the Peggy Sues Diner, a real old 50’s/60’s Diner with great food and “service with attitude”.

5 Travelling Bolder City Hoover Dam Day 5

We did the most wonderful heritage railway train ride out into the Arizona Desert, we actually got to go on the huge diesel locomotive in between journeys while the massive engine was still ticking over.

6 Travelling Route 66 Flagstaff Day 6

Driving old route 66 from Flagstaff and stopping to checkout some heritage diners and old vehicles.

7 Williams Picture Canyon Arizona Snowbowl Day 7

Train to the Grand Canyon fully booked so tomorrow it is. Found the Snowbowl Skiing Centre just eight miles from Flagstaff but 8000 feet up in the mountains.

8 Grand Canyon train from William Day 8

Train journey to the Grand Canyon through mountains forests and lots and lots of prairie, the most wonderful train ride.

9 Monument Valley Day 9

Monument Valley, unfortunately the sun didn’t come out till later but still a remarkable place.

10 Travelling Bluff town Day 10

Travelling day, stopped for a rest in Bluff, interesting old western town with a replica fort built on the original site, very quiet town with all the Diners and Gas Stations closed.

11 Moab Arches National Park Day 11

Great to see Moab, the nearest thing to civilisation since we left Flagstaff (back on day 7). Moab is very busy and the centre of quad bikes, 4x4s and all off road and trail activity.

12 Arches Park second day Day 12

Arches is our first and the smallest of our National Parks. A truly marvellous place, it was 18 miles to the centre of the park by road with lots of stopping off points.

13 Crystal Springs and Thompson Springs ghost town Day 13

Staying at a place called Green River, the Motel manager told us about a couple of places close by we must see, (150 mile round trip). We went off road to find a natural spring, and later a real ghost town, a serious amount of dust out there, Alamo will need to change all the filters when we are finished with this hire car.

14 Travelling highway 12 Panguitch Day 14

We took Highway 12 over the mountains, marvellous views and lots of snow, we had a blizzard, (whiteout) for an hour through the mountains.

15 Bryce Canyon Day 15

Possibly one of the most beautiful places ever with snow on the peaks.

16 Zion National Park Day 16

This place is very high on the awesome list with its mountains made of a single boulder, if it was not for the Grand Canyon it would be “top or awesome”.

17 Valley of Fire Hoover Dam Day 17

We finally we got to go down to see the mighty dynamos, we only saw half of them, there is an identical set on the other side of the River. The outside photos

show a mist in the distance but it was a large sandstorm blowing up, we took shelter in Boulder city for the night.                                                                           

18 Travelling and Pawn Shop Day 18

A really cold, overcast and almost miserable day in Las Vegas, time to make our way to the west coast

19 Travelling Santa Clarita Motel Day 19

Travelling day, sun is out again.

20 Travelling Pismo Beach Day 20

Back to the west coast and the beautiful hot and sunny Pismo Beach.

21 Morro Bay Otters Day 21

Two days rest-up in a gorgeous Motel at the amazing Morro Bay.

22 Morro Bay more Otters Day 22

We fell in love with the Otters and spent hours just watching the mother Otters with their young, sleeping, resting, swimming and playing in the sea.

23 Hearst Park Seals Ragged Point Day 23

We visited the amazing Seals at Ragged Point, miles of beach full of seals. http://www.elephantseal.org/view.htm

24 Big Sur 17 Mile Drive Day 24

We got to see the devastation that the much needed rain did. Massive storms and mudslides which took out a bridge closing Route-1 for many months.

25 Santa Cruz Day Roaring Camp Railway Day 25

Roaring Camp is a heritage railway that uses an old logging line up into the mountains with an original 100 year steam old loco. We also did the adjacent Henry Cowell Redwood Forest.

26 Santa Cruz Day 26

Time to take shelter into Santa after one of the worst and frightening rain storms that we have ever driven through.

27 San Francisco Day 27

The most amazing day in San Francisco, stayed in Oakland and took the train/subway across the bay bridge and walked everywhere and ended up at Fisherman Wharf.

28 San Francisco airport Day 28

Sorry to say its home time.