Day 10: Tuesday 22nd June 2010: Dalhart, Texas to Dallas, Texas (Miles to Date: 2743)

Day 10 was simply a travel day, with nothing planned except a long day sitting in a car. Sadly even the countryside was tedious as we crossed the dry grass plains of the northern Texas. Not a hill to be seen, just a few oil derricks. The only real stop for the day was for lunch at a really tatty diner, which had flies swarming over the salad bar. We settled for some salads off the menu for lunch( hoping the kitchen had a fly killer in it), but these turned out to be less than imaginatively served!

Eight hours after setting out we finally arrive in Dallas. Immediately after stepping out of our car we are hit by the fierce heat and sopping humidity. We longed to be back in the temperate, dry atmosphere of the West Coast. Our hotel, the Quality Inn, was having a “Happy Hour”, and on offer were cold (tasteless) beers and nasty wine, which normally we'd not have looked at twice, but after travelling halfway across Texas and the sapping effects of carrying our bags from the car in the “tropical” heat we'd have drunk our own urine if it had been chilled!

Day 9: Monday 21st June 2010: Farmington to Dalhart, Texas (Miles to Date: 2296)

Although we had a long way to travel we decided to have a leisurely start and enjoy our Cave for as long as possible. But sadly we had to move on. With great foresight we had not carried all our bags down the cliff to the Cave so loading up was a relatively painless process.

The road we took carried us from New Mexico north through to Colorado. We climbed up on to the Colorado plateau and crossed towards the majestic Rocky Mountains. Finally we said goodbye to the deserts and a welcome hello to alpine forests and pastures. The scenery was truly splendid as we weaved our way through the mountains and over high passes. Mind you it would be a different story here in the winter months.

Mark had planned to visit another National Park en route, this time a less well known one called Great Dunes National Park. Most of us would assume that sand dunes would be found by a sea, lake or in a desert. Well the tallest dunes in the United States are actually found at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, which reach from Southern Colorado down to Mexico. The dune-field here boasts several dunes that are over 700 feet in height. The formation of these dunes is down to the particular geography of this area. Sand is carried down from the mountains by Medano Creek, which deposits the sand down in the valley below the west facing side of the mountains. When the Creek dries up in the summer months, the sands are picked up by the prevailing westerly winds and formed into the sand dunes we see today. Eventually the sand is blown over to the east side of the dune-field where it is picked up by the Medano Creek, and the process starts all over again.

By the time we reached the National Park it was late in the afternoon so we had to make choices about what to do in the limited time available. Our first priority was for Jack and Emily to do their Junior Rangers badges. This is now a well established tradition and means that they have to truly engage in the history and geography of the sites we visit. Whilst Jack and Emily were working on their booklets the grown-up Hoblets disappeared to watch a fascinating film on the unique ecology of the dunes area, which includes sand dunes, creeks, mountains, lakes and wetlands. As soon as Jack and Emily had completed their books we went to the Ranger on duty, who was very jolly, and got them sworn in as Junior Rangers for the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Immediately after this deed was done we headed out to the dune-fields themselves. From a distance they look impressive, close-up they are stunning! From the parking lot we crossed the Medano Creek, which feeds the dune-field: its cool waters were so refreshing on this hot day! To get to the dunes we then crossed a flat sand basin that was about half a mile across, it was hard work walking as the sand is dry and soft so our feet sank in with every step. Finally we reached the dunes themselves, by which time we were exhausted from crossing the basin, but they had to be climbed! To reach the highest dunes would have been a major trek and we had limited time so we settled for a less ambitious walk to the top of the nearest dunes, which were still about 100 feet in height. As we climbed up these dunes the wind picked up significantly, whipping up the loose sand, and blasting us with fine grains. It was not a lot of fun! We reached our goal and there was nothing more to do than run down the face of the dune, except for Jack who decided to roll down. At the bottom we got some relief from the wind, and this is where the grown-ups decided to stay whilst Jack and Emily climbed back up so they could run down again, although Jack was by now queasy from his previous roll down. Other people had bought various flat bottom items to use as sledges to slide down the dunes which looked great fun! Anyway time was marching on and we still had five hours of driving in front of us so we set off back across the dunes to our car.

From the Great Sand Dunes National Park we headed south and east through Colorado and New Mexico into Texas for our night stop-over in Dalhart.

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Day 8: Sunday 20th June 2010: Grand Canyon to Farmington, New Mexico (Miles to Date: 1818)

We decided to get up and make a return visit to the Grand Canyon early in the morning, for several reasons. Firstly the light for viewing the Canyon is great (long shadows), there are less crowds, the temperature is much cooler and, lastly, we had a long way to travel. All these proved to be a great reasons! Our plan was to park-up at the Canyon Lodge and take the free bus out towards the Hermits Rest, which is some 8 ½ miles away from the Lodge. The bus route follows the Canyon's south rim, and there are several stops along the way. We decided to get off at a couple of stops on the way up and walk between the stops following the Canyon rim. The walk is flat, and the trail is fairly good. Whilst you remain a fair distance, well at least five or six feet from the edge, it does require a reasonably good head for heights – which Mark and Emily don't really have! We manage to walk a good two miles on the way to the Hermits Rest, and are thankful for the early start as the temperature is very comfortable. Finally we arrive at the Hermits Rest, which is a gift shop, café and Ranger's station. It is very handsome, rustic structure built into the side of the Canyon, with great views and, most importantly, a toilet. We decided to catch the bus back towards the Lodge, but get off at a stop about two miles from the end and walk the rest. Again this was an easy hike, following the rim trail, and was mostly downhill. By the time we arrived back at the first bus stop, the queues were very long, and we estimated nearly an hours wait for the bus. It was Father's Day and school vacation time, which probably explained the large crowds. From the Grand Canyon we headed out east, following the southern rim, to the point where the Canyon narrows. This is deep into Navajo Nation land, and the signs of poverty are clear to see, with ramshackle modular homes set amongst a barren, litter-strewn landscape. It is so sad to see, and despite the fact we have seen this desperate scene a number of times it is still shocking. Just before crossing the dried up Little Colorado we stopped at the Cameron Trading Post for some lunch, and it was most surprising. The dining room of the Trading Post is delightful, with fabulous decorations on the walls, but the most amazing feature was the shiny tin ceiling which covered its entirety. The speciality of the restaurant is fried Navajo bread, which is something like Yorkshire Pudding but if anything less healthy as it is fried rather than baked. The huge Navajo bread we chose is filled with chilli, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Very tasty! Now full, we continued on towards New Mexico. We crossed more desert and even more desert. Along the route we passed close to Four Corners and Monument valley, but there was no time for making these detours (and we had already seen them on our previous trip). We did get to see the impressive “Ship Rock”, an impressive formation which rises up sharply out of the flat, desert floor. This rock is sacred to the Navajo and is known to them as “Rocks With Wings”. There is also a city known as Ship Rock, which might easily be renamed “Ship Wreck”, it is not a memorable place. Shortly after we departed Ship Rock we left the Navajo Nation and immediately everything changed, there were green lawns, rust free cars and tidy, neat homes. Finally we reach the home of Lindy Poole, our hostess for the night. Mark had not told the rest of the crew where we were staying, and they were somewhat surprised when we pulled-up outside a average house on a normal street. We were greeted by the bubbly Lindy who gave us the low down on where we staying. What Mark had booked for the night was “Kokopelli's Cave”, one of the most unusual bed and breakfasts in the World. To get there we had to drive out of town, and turn on to a dirt road which we followed a miles or so, climbing up on to a limestone mesa. Eventually we scrambled the car over some rocks and pulled up on the edge of a 150 foot cliff. To get to our accommodation we had to follow a rustic path hewn out of the side of the cliff, down 70 feet to our “apartment's” entry door. The path is rocky and there was a big steel door to negotiate, which is primarily to put off unwanted visitors. The most challenging section is the narrow slot, literally carved through a rock. This is truly an amazing place to stay. Kokopelli's Cave was constructed by a man called Bruce Black, an ex-naval officer and geologist, who literally blasted his way into the limestone cliffs. The Cave is extremely spacious and well appointed, with a large living area, a separate dining room, a kitchen, full bathroom and a large bedroom. The bathroom in particular was fabulous with a waterfall-style shower, which tumbles over a rock wall into a rock bath, complete with jacuzzi jets. Amazing stuff! The walls and ceiling are unashamed, natural rock as they were after the blasting took place. It took us sometime just to take in where we were actually going to spend the night and how marvellous the setting was. Lindy spent a good half an hour to show us around the Cave and how everything worked, she even bought Mark a Father's Day card, some meat to make up some burgers on the grill out on the patio and a bottle of wine. Even after a short few minutes we were feeling totally at home. Off the bedroom was a balcony with westerly views across the desert panorama, which gave us awonderful view of the setting sun. The drama of this was further increased by smoke filling the air from a forest fire way off in Flagstaff. We decided to spend a quiet night in, enjoying our Cave. One nice feature was the replica Kiva ( a room used by ancient Puebloans for religious rituals), which had a small fire place. Although it was warm outside, inside the Cave it was cool, so lighting the fire made it very cosy, especially when we lit some candles around the walls of the kiva. Of course we had to take the opportunity to use the bath.

Day 7: Saturday 20th June 2010: Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon (Miles to Date: 1538)

We'd forgotten how noisy Vegas can be and we all had a very fitful night's sleep. Mark woke up at 2:30am and thought it was morning; it wasn't! The bright lights outside our room's window just made it look that way! Anyway we had planned an early start as we were off to the Grand Canyon. This is another place we had been before but we really wanted to have one more look at this “wonder of the world”, albeit a brief encounter on this occasion. So purposeful was our mission that we did not even stop to admire the marvellous Hoover Dam (we had also visited this a couple of time before). It takes about five hours to reach the Grand Canyon, and almost by chance we reached the frontier town of Williams, the gateway to the south entrance of the National Park. Before travelling we had consulted our trusty guide to eating well and cheaply, the “Road Food” book. It told us of a place in Williams called “Old Smokey's Restaurant” which sounded the ideal place to replenish our energy for a trip to the Canyon. We were not disappointed, although they had stopped doing the speciality breads mentioned in “Road Food”. We stuck to the breakfast special, even though it was lunchtime, which turned out to be both filling and tasty. Fully satisfied we head on for the last 70 mile leg of our trip. We quickly checked into our hotel and headed off to the National Park, and soon as we could we pulled into a parking lot to get a view of the Canyon. However many times you go there the sight of the Grand Canyon takes your breath away. Captivated we stare in awe for several minutes, before deciding to head off to see a Park Ranger talk at the Lodge, which is located in Canyon Village, five miles or so from the Park entrance. This talk was on the Californian Condor which was re-introduced into the Canyon several years back. At one time this magnificent bird colonised the whole of the United States, but in recent times its range had become limited to the lower Western States, and the numbers had fallen to extinction levels. With only 22 birds remaining in the wild the bold step was taken to capture all of these and start a captive breeding program. This was highly successful and many Condors have been released back into the wild. There are now a total of 365 Californian Condors, with 176 living in the wild in Arizona and California. Now these birds are big; they can weigh up to 25 pounds and have wing spans of 9 ½ feet. Big is not not always beautiful and the Condors are prime examples, they are incredibly ugly to look at (it's hard to believe even their mothers would find them beautiful!). Having said that when they are in-flight they are majestic creatures, soaring on thermals for hours on end. Coming back to the talk by the Ranger. She was fantastic and her presentation was both entertaining and informative. The children were fascinated by the facts, especially the one about urinating on their feet, which acts as a sunscreen. After the Ranger programmes finished we decided to head back to the Visitor's Center so Jack and Emily could do their Junior Ranger activities and get their badges. As it was near the end of the day the Ranger in the Center was keen to shut up shop, so he didn't spend any time checking the work Jack and Emily had done and more or less handed over their badges and certificates. Never mind- we were in and out, and on our way quickly.

Day 6: Friday 19th June 2010: Death Valley National Park to Las Vegas (Miles to Date: 1260)

We rose early as we wanted to get to Las Vegas in time to watch England play Algeria in the World Cup in Cape Town, also it gave us a chance to visit some more of the recommended overlooks in the Death Valley National Park during the early morning when the sun casts long shadows and before the heat haze reduces visibility. Our first stop is Zabriske Point which is around 2000 feet above the valley floor, providing stunning views deep into the valley across crenellated mountain slopes. Although it is early in the morning there are a number of other people admiring the views; primarily photography enthusiasts keen to capture the drama of the morning shadows. Not satisfied with this perspective of Death Valley, we climbed back into the car and took a detour up a valley and climbed further up the mountains, to a place known as Dante's View. Here you get some splendid views all the way along Death Valley and across Bad Water Basin, where we had spent last night walking out across the salt flats. It was truly stunning! We had an appointment with a television set and a football game between England and Algeria. Fortunately the journey from Death Valley to Las Vegas only took a two hours, so we arrived with plenty of time to spare at our hotel, the Tropicana. This hotel has traditionally been one of the lower-end establishments on the Las Vegas Strip, but they are in the middle of a re-model, and the room we were given was very well appointed – with a 42 inch plasma TV. Sadly the result of the game, a one-all draw, was less exciting than the TV itself. Our visit to Las Vegas was one of convenience rather than it being a “must-see” place for the Hoblets. We had collectively been here a couple of times before, and Mark had been here a dozen or more times on business. The novelty of wandering around the enormous hotels had long worn off, and this is really a place for adults rather than families. Nonetheless after the disappointment of the game we did decided to brave the hot sun and talk a walk down the Strip. We were surprised, or perhaps not so surprised considering the economic downturn, how quiet Vegas was. The streets were much emptier than we had ever seen them. This made the pedallers of sex-cards and drunken hen (bachelorette) parties more apparent, at least to Jack and Emily who had not really noticed them on previous trips, or perhaps they are just growing up! After an hour or so of walking we reached the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace hotels, by which time the male members of our party were becoming very grumpy due to low blood-sugar levels. The quickest and best tried remedy for this was to cross the road and visit the Flamingo hotel buffet, one of the best we had found in Las Vegas. As usual we all ate too much, and full to bursting we emerged back into the hot afternoon sun to continue our ramblings. During our last trip to Vegas we had gone to see the free “Fall of Atlantis” show in the Forum Shopping area in this vast hotel. This is an automated show, complete with automatons, fire and water. Sadly is was not working last time, so we thought we'd check it out this time around. We watched our way through the show, and whilst there was plenty of drama, the children found the story-line was cheesy. After this we needed something more classy to finish off our afternoon, so we went back outside to the Bellagio Hotel, right next door to Caesar's Palace, but still a 20 minute walk! Our favourite free show (or at least Mark and Karen's) are the fountains of Bellagio. Every half an hour or so there is a fantastic 'fountains-to-music' show on the lake outside the hotel. The music varies from the classics to modern day hits, but whatever the music the show is most definitely worth watching, so much so we spent over an hour watching the fountains go up. Jack and Emily were very insistent we left after an hour of fountain watching, so we ambled back to our hotel for a quiet night in, although the grown-ups did manage to slip out for a quick drink.

Day 5: Death Valley National Park (Miles to Date: 1120)

After our experience with uncomfortable beds and rustic cabins at Sequoia, the rooms and beds at Furnace Creek Ranch Resort were a welcome relief. We had a lovely time in the large, warm spring water pool last night before going to bed. It was the first time we had felt really clean for several days! We had planned to get up really early to try and beat the heat of the day, but fatigue meant we were slow to get ourselves together and get out of our room. As soon as we were ready we headed to the Visitor Centre to find out whether there were any Ranger Programmes planned for the day, which there were not. So we settled for Jack and Emily completing their Junior Ranger books, getting sworn in as Junior Rangers and finding out where we should go for the day.

We watched a brief film, which was more of a montage of cheesy photographs with a boring voice over, covering the history and geology of the Park. The Ranger's advice for us was to spend the day in the pool, which with the temperature expected to reach well into the low 100s, seemed to make sense. We decided to ignore this advice and head out to Stovepipe Wells. According to the Park Service map there was a place called Mosaic Canyon, which sounded a fun place to visit. To get to it we passed through Stove Pipe and headed two miles up a bumpy dirt-track road, which made us think what would happen if we got a puncture out here in the blazing hot desert sun with little passing traffic? To our relief we made it to the end of the track, dismounted our car and headed off down a narrow canyon, watching out for sidewinder snakes and scorpions. This canyon is full of twists and turns, which is fascinating enough, but it also has walls of marble-like rock with spectacular colour banding for the first quarter of a mile or so of its passage. It was quite an easy walk, although we did have to clamber over some slick rock surfaces, and even in the hot midday sun it was well worth the effort.

After this steamy excursion we headed back towards Stove Pipe, passing through to the other side a mile or so to Mesquite Sand Dunes. These dunes are close to the road so are easily accessible, although the largest dunes, including the 140 foot high “Star Dune” are some mile or so from the car park. The proximity of these dunes to Hollywood means they have starred in several films including scenes from Star Wars. It is too hot for us to venture more than a couple of hundred of feet from the car before beating our retreat. As they say “Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun” and having spent seven years here in the USA some of our “Englishness” is rubbing off so we decided to spend the afternoon in the comfort of our air-conditioned room and wait for the heat of the day to dissipate.

We had dinner around 6pm and left to do some more sight-seeing around 7:15pm. By this time the sun was starting to disappear behind the mountains and the fierce daytime temperatures were beginning to abate. We only had an hour or so of good light left so we headed south down the valley to a loop-road to a place called “Artist's Palette”, which we were told was best viewed with the sun setting. It is around 10 miles around the loop and by the time we reached the best view point the sun was hidden behind the mountains and indeed the evening light did made wonderful spectacle of the colours in the sandstone cliffs. The range of colours was truly an artist's palette of reds, yellows, browns and greens. As we admired the rocks of the “Artist's Palette” the sun began to set, and provided us with another dramatic perspective of the desert landscape. The shadows resulting from the late day sunlight brings out the three dimensional perspective of desert, with its gullies, canyons and arroyos, that are “bleached” out by the day time sun.

We still had time to fit in one more place to visit before the light disappeared. So we leapt back into the car and headed down to “Bad Water Basin”, which has the distinction of being the lowest point in the USA. We thought that our next destination Las Vegas was the lowest point, but this is only from a morality perspective, but this is the lowest point relative to sea level. Having spent the previous few days at 7000 feet above sea level coming down to this point made breathing a whole lot easier. Where we were now standing would have been at the floor of a large glacial lake some 10,000 years earlier. With the disappearance of the glaciers the lake began to evaporate under the intense sun, to the point where it completely vanished leaving a dry, arid salt basin.

The temperature was now becoming bearable so we decided to hike out on the salt beds. If you so desire you can walk miles, right across to the other side of the valley. We were less ambitious and walked about half a mile, which seemed more than far enough. By this time the light was very dim and the surrounding mountains were no more than silhouettes. The white of the salt reflected back the remaining light, and with the moon and stars starting to appear, the whole scene was rather surreal. Every other visitor had decided to return to their cars so we were the only ones left out on the salt beds, and this solitude of being out there made us all feel closer to our maker – so we held hands and contemplated for a few moments before heading back.

Day 4: Kings Canyon/ Sequoia National Parks to Death Valley National Park (Miles to Date: 1032)

We had a horrible a nights sleep; a combination of cold temperatures and really uncomfortable beds. It felt that we had hardly slept at all! It was a real effort to get up, pack our belongings into the car and throw some food down our throats. Today was going to be all about travelling. Our next destination, Death Valley National Park, was only about 150 miles in a straight line but the problem was the Sierra Nevada mountains laid in our way. This meant going some 100 plus miles south, travelling east 50 miles, then turning north for 100 miles before turning east for another 100 miles. We made a relentless push for our destination, stopping only at Bakersfield for a quick bite in Costco. The plan had been to leave early to beat the roadwork on the road through the Park that was due to start at 7:00am, unfortunately we didn't make it and had to wait an hour for a construction vehicle to escort us through. Despite having to wait, we enjoyed our final trip through Park's forests and back down into the Central Valley.

As we crossed over from the Central Valley to the other side of the Sierras we noticed a distinct change in the vegetation. The weather for this area predominantly comes from the west, and the Sierras wring most of the moisture from the westerly winds, leaving the areas to their east dry and barren. We were now travelling through the Mojave Desert. It was strange looking back on the same set of mountains we had seen from Kings Canyon, where the surroundings had been lush alpine forests, here was almost no plants except for rugged, low lying shrubs. The wind picked-up as a weather front pushed through and before we knew it we were being buffeted by gale force gusts.

We climbed up through another set of desert mountains before reaching the boundary of Death Canyon National Park. This huge, barren park is the largest National Park in the Continental US, only the Parks of Alaska are larger, and it took us more than an hour to reach the first sign of civilisation, Stovepipe Wells. There is not too much here apart from a Ranger Station, a store, two restaurants, a bar and some accommodation. Still we were in much need of a break so we pulled over by a sign telling us we were now at sea-level. We were almost bowled over by the heat; Death Valley's reputation for being regularly the hottest place in the USA seemed well founded. When we got to the store there were lots of signs telling us that this is a hot place and that you need to take care when travelling through the Park. No kidding! The thermometer on the side of the store confirmed that it was hot, it read a steamy 105 degrees Fahrenheit. This seemed an ideal opportunity for an ice cream! Refreshed, we carried on the 25 miles to Furnace Creek, to the resort we were staying at. This is an oasis in the desert, complete with palm trees, swimming pools, golf courses and cold beer.