Las Vegas

We took a day in Las Vegas to regroup and sleep in preparation for the trip back to Aus.  We had a good look around and it really is Crazy Town full of monster Casinos and Convention Centres like the one we stayed at.

While the streetscape is strange, seeing things like the Eiffel Tower and tthe Brooklyn Bridge in miniature, and fantasy castles -

the interiors were even stranger.  Around the gaming areas in the huge Casinos, entire streets full of shops have been created, in some cases complete with artificial sky.

All Americans firmly believe you have to visit Las Vegas at least once in your lifetime. I found myself wondering what it all said about society if this is Mecca.  The disturbing thing is that we are not so far behind.
Suffice to say I liked the National Parks a whole lot better!!

Route 66

We got to stop off in one of the little towns that was on the original US Route 66 (Chicago to Los Angeles).  Most of the towns have suffered badly as a result of the new highway system but Seligman has moved into the memoribilia market and is doing reasonably well.

I saw a couple of classic cars -

and Claire decided to chat up some of the locals.

Then it was final farewells to our travelling companions in Las Vegas after a fabulous trip.

Grand Canyon

Arriving at the rim of the Grand Canyon it was all that was expected, incomprehensively huge, crowded, majestic, colourful ....etc. Claire was keen to stand on the edge and have her photo taken.

The following morning we took a flight across the Canyon which helped gain a perspective of this massive feature.

No photo could ever reasonably represent the Canyon.

Monument Valley

Today was about checking off one of Claire's Bucket List items.  One of the reasons for the trip was to see Monument Valley and it lived up to expectations.

The strange thing about the tour was that the Navajo guide told us more about the films that had been made there than the native history of the area (room for improvement).  Despite that, it was probably the images of the place in many of the movies that drew us here in the first place.  We are now going to have to see The Lone Ranger when it opens - it was filmed here.

Mesa Verde to Monument Valley

Wow!  Another tick on the Bucket List today.  I had heard about, read about and watched programs on Mesa Verde so it was an essential visit on our tour.  It was wonderful to see it up close and personal and to see how the Pueblo Indians fitted their dwellings into the landscape.

Our first view was from above seeing the huge (sometimes 5 storey) buildings set in natural cliff caves and only accessible with ladders or climbing down steps cut into the rock.

Many rooms were for storage but the living quarters were only accessible by ladder.

It was a real treat to see all this.  Then to the bus and off through an ever changing, desolate landscape to Monument Valley.  This is the view from the balcony of our room.

This evening we had a "cook out" in the desert presented by the Navajo people that own and operate the Tribal Park.

Vale and Moab

We had a great day today.  Our first visit was to Vale, another winter playground for the rich and famous.  While it was interesting to see, to be honest it was like any other ski village but it had higher prices.

The highlight of the day was the visit to The Arches National Park.  A beautiful desert setting with giant stone towers and thousands of stone arches.  Fantastic place!

 In the early evening we went for a jet boat ride on the Colorado River.  The river has cut through the rocky landscape making a mini Grand Canyon.  We were also lucky enough to see beaver swimming in the river.  These ones do not build dams, they burrow into the banks for their nests.

Denver

It was a long day of travel again today as we moved south toward the National Parks in Utah.  On the way we learned about the pioneers that moved west to take up land and the conflicts that arose with the Native Americans. One of the stops was at Fort Laramie which at one stage housed about 700 troops.  Interestingly it was not a fortified installation, just a group of buildings.

The main function appeared to be to keep the peace between people travelling the Oregon Trail and the Native Americans.  The barracks (above) were fairly basic for the troops but the commanding officers were well looked after.

So many settlers passed along the trail that in places the carts packed the dirt so hard that the wheel ruts are still evident.

We stopped in Cheyenne, the capital of Wyoming for a short time on our way through to Denver in Colorado.  Cheyenne is trying to encourage tourism as a major town of the West and there are fancy boots all over the place.

 

We have another long day tomorrow with a lot of travel and an evening river tour that means we will not get back to our hotel until late.  We are up each morning between 5.30 and 6.00 so it is nearly time to go home for a rest.

Black Hills and the Badlands

Today was spent touring the country around Rapid City.  Our first port of call was an open range zoo that let us see the locals at closer range.

Next was the Crazy Horse Memorial which is a sort of Mt Rushmore for the Native Americans.
They are carving a MASSIVE statue of Crazy Horse into a mountain.

The project has been going for many years and is nowhere near finished.  His face is there and the rest is being gradually roughed out with dynamite.
Then it was a daytume visit to see Mt Rushmore

and from there out to the Badlands National Park.  This is the eroded remnants of a very ancient aquatic landscape.  The sedimentary layers are a soft muddy consistency and as they are being eroded, many fossils are being revealed.

In this wide and generally flat landscape, during the Cold War the US government placed 450 Minuteman missile installations that could remotely launch nuclear missiles at the Soviet Union.  Some of these silos have been retained as a memorial to this era.

Rapid City

After a long drive we visited the site of the Battle of Little Big Horn and the so called "Custer's Last Stand".  This is an incredibly sad memorial to man's inhumanity to man.  On a bleak windswept hillside, markers show where people were killed either trying to defend their way of life or trying to destroy another culture.  There was no joy here.

In the evening after a wonderful dinner in a local barn, we visited Mt Rushmore to see it lit up at night and hear the story of the Presidents depicted on the mountain.  There is no doubt they were an extraordinary group of visionary leaders.  But then this country also elected George Bush.  What's going on here?

Yellowstone to Billings

This is the wonderful old wooden hotel on the shores of Lake Yellowstone where we stayed.

We crawled out of bed on Sunday and were amazed to find it was snowing.  Moreover it looked like there was going to be a fair amount.

After breakfast the landscape had been transformed into black and white  It was absolutely beautiful.  It must have been unique as the coach driver and the tour guide were out taking photos with us.  They had not seen it before.

 As we traveled down the mountain toward Cody, we found out that a road alert had been issued for Yellowstone and that large snow drifts and road closures were expected.  We got out just in time!
We spent time at Cody at the Buffalo Bill Museum - far better than the name suggests as it gives a comprehensive history of the development of the American west.

 We had to include a photo of our lunch time salad. Servings here are enormous so this was shared.

On arrival in Billings, dinner and entertainment was provided by one of the local characters.  It was a bit of fun but I don't think we will be seeing him in the Opera House any time soon.