holidays

We went on a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. A shuttle bus collected us from the hotel and took us to the airport, and then we had a 35-minute ride in a helicopter – which was great fun – to the canyon floor via the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. In the [...]

Got up late, and then went for a walk along the strip, looking in some of the hotel casinos. They are very big, and once in it quickly becomes hard to find the way back out. They have different themes – New York, Paris, Burma, the court of King Arthur – but conform [...]

After leaving Furnace Creek we went south to look at what’s called the ‘Devil’s Golf Course’. It’s a section of the valley formed from mounds of encrusted salt. When it rains, salt on the surface dissolves and then as it recrystallises the wind blows it into spiky forms which encrust everything on the [...]

En route to Death Valley we stopped to look at the sandstone rock formations in the Alabama Hills, just outside Lone Pine. The wind has sculpted the rock into strange shapes. The hills were used as a hideout by soldiers in the civil war, and they named them after the battleship the CSS [...]

After a smoked trout bagel (R) and fruity muesli (J) at the Whoa Nellie Deli we went to the southern end of Mono Lake. There’s a car park and a Park Service ranger takes $3 for a week’s entry to the shoreline. We walked down through sagebrush and looked at the tufa stacks.
Water [...]

At beakfast we chatted with Pamela the innkeeper and her partner and another couple from Dallas who were staying at the Big Creek Inn, and then left at around 9.45, after a very pleasant few days.
The drive into and out of Yosemite and up through the Tioga pass was spectacular. The sky was a [...]

Bright sunshine all day. At breakfast our hostess Pamela mentioned that she’d had a notification from Google of a link to her website (Hi Pamela!) from this blog.
Pamela suggested a hike and lent us a book detailing the route. We drove up the Glacier Point road and parked near the Sentinel Dome. [...]

Bright and sunny all day. After beakfast we drove into the park. It’s at least 40 minutes driving from the park entrance to the tunnel, but when you exit the tunnel you get a spectaular view of the valley walls and floor. We stopped to admire it, then carried on to Bridalveil [...]

Walked down a trail from the cabin to see the giant sequoias in Grant Grove. Looked at the General Grant tree and a number of others. Better views of the trees today, the weather being bright and clear.

We set off at about 10.30 for Yosemite – we had three nights booked at the [...]

Got up, drove down the road and had breakfast of a coffee and an orange and cranberry scone at the Buckaroo. They had no bagels. Cake for breakfast is wrong, but we were hungry. We sat outside at a table by the river and watched some golden eagles soaring close by.

We filled [...]