Big Sequoias (18 – 19 April 2019)

As mentioned in the last post, our first night in California was with Boondockers Welcome hosts. Their assistance extended to directing us to a vendor of LPG (liquified petroleum gas), which we used for cooking and heating. The labelling on the vehicle says “LPG”, but throughout North America it is generally called “propane”. In Canada it is sold by most gas stations, but in the United States they rarely do the same. On this occasion it was a hardware store that had a large propane tank in the yard. The store also had a U-Haul franchise and we had to wait a long time while a couple went through the intricacies of renting a small truck.

Never mind, we were not in a tearing hurry. We aimed to spend the night near the Sequoia National Park and see the big trees the following morning. We scorned Google Maps' quickest route and followed highways 178, 155 and 65 instead.

Some of the mountains were washed with the colour of desert daisies.

A closer view.

A single plant.

The Yuccas looked green from a distance, but they were in full bloom, displaying their cream-coloured flower clusters.

The first section of our route skirting the Sierra Nevada was very hilly, and Gregory's steering wheel began to judder on the downhill stretches. The brakes still slowed us down as effectively as usual, but it was a bit uncomfortable.

There were no shakes as we drove along the flat land through Porterville and Exeter, where we turned right onto highway 198. The countryside was mostly orchards and, although it was not really harvest season there were occasional roadside stalls offering fresh produce. Annoyingly, they seldom gave advance notice of their presence and generally had insufficient space for us to pull off the road. We bought no local delicacies that day.

The last settlement before Sequoia National Park is Three Rivers, where we squashed into a nearly full campground. No cooking for Eve that evening, though. We dined out. Well, it was our 7^thwedding anniversary and we were celebrating.

The next morning we presented our pass to the ranger at the park entrance. She had important news for us. We could access a little of the park, but the road to the biggest trees was not advised for vehicles over 22 feet. As the ranger described the road, we quickly became convinced that we didn't want to drive it even if Gregory wasn't 6 feet beyond the maximum. “But you'll see big sequoias today.” She gave us directions back towards Exeter and around to a more northerly entrance to the park.

Near the Three Rivers entrance, after we had turned around.

If you know what this costume is advertising, please leave a comment. Pity the poor 'actor'. It must be fiendishly hot in that suit.

Although it was very warm at low altitudes, there was plenty of snow still on the ground as we went higher.

The most accessible of the really big trees was the General Grant Grove. There wasn't much parking for RVs, but we found sufficient space and so did the tour bus that arrived a few minutes later. There is a pleasant loop trail that takes the visitor past General Grant and several other huge trees.

You don't have to leave the parking lot to see big trees.

The General Grant tree is estimated to be 1,650 years old.

A sequoia cone.

They all started off as seedlings.

A fallen tree can lie there for hundreds of years as it gradually becomes compost for succeeding generations.

Hard by the General Grant tree itself we saw movement in the undergrowth. A few Black-tailed (or Mule) Deer were looking for food. They must be used to humans because they came close and seemed quite unconcerned. As we watched the deer the tour group advanced noisily. It was a school outing, with a particularly raucous youth marching beside the leading teacher. (There's always one, isn't there?) Eve caught the hooligan's eye, placed one finger against her lips and pointed to the deer with her other hand. The effect was magical. The entire group became silent and watched the wildlife in happy wonder. The teacher beamed.

The nearer deer was only about 10 feet away. You may have to look carefully to see the one in the background.

Further round the loop trail, with the school party nowhere to be seen, we came upon a larger herd, equally casual about our presence.

Probably one of last year's fawns with its mother. Awwww. :-)

We explored what we could of the park before it got too late.

Our campsites app drew us to a free campsite just outside the park, with excellent reviews. It was called, “Behind the Rocks”. Not being an organised, formal campground it was not signposted and was actually quite difficult to locate. Bill got out and walked in when we found the rocks, because it looked a bit tight. It wasn't spacious, but behind the rocks there were level places to park. Between them, mind you, the ground was very uneven. It was out of sight from the road and very quiet. The one RV already there had naturally grabbed the easiest site.

A tight fit for Gregory amongst the bushes.

A manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp) with reddish bark …

... and lots of flowers.

The blossoms on a different kind of bush.

Death Valley (17 April 2019)

Before we got there, all we knew about Death valley was that it is below sea level and gets very hot.

The first fact was confirmed by a roadside sign displaying the elevation with a minus sign. We passed it before we thought to grab a camera and, alas, we forgot the number. So we looked it up on the National Park web site. It is -282 feet (-86 metres).

At the visitor center there was a whiteboard with weather information. The temperature that day was expected to reach “mid 90s”; that's mid 30s Celsius. The forecast for the next day was 100°F (37.8°C). So our background knowledge was confirmed.

The first thing we noticed as we approached the valley was a change in the vegetation. The most eye-catching plant was one that looked like orange candyfloss or, if you are American, cotton candy.

A complete plant.

There are twiggy, green stems amongst the orange threads.

It wasn't described on any of the information boards and, indeed, it seemed to be absent from the park itself.  We asked a ranger what it was.  She didn't know its name, but it is an invasive pest, not found in the area naturally.

More conventional flowering plants included:

A large caterpillar making a meal of a large leaf.

It was warm for walking, but we are very glad we took the time to hike the Salt Creek Interpretive Trail. Well, it's only half a mile.

The creek is not deep where it flows alongside the trail.

This stretch of the creek is supplied with aquatic plants, bacteria, etc.

What was remarkable was that the creek is well populated with small fish called pupfish. They are attractive little fish, but how do they exist in a salty creek that gets very hot and mostly dries up every year? You can read about their difficult lives here.

Two pupfish

A close up of a single pupfish.

And another one.

It was not so surprising to find lizards near the creek.

We are getting used to the idea that American national parks will contain colourful rocks. These are at or near Zabriskie Point:

The area was once the site of borax mining, so we are lucky there are any natural features left.

We're not certain, but this is probably Furnace Creek.

The Devil's Cornfield.

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.

More geology. A canyon beside the road in the North of the park.

The low-growing plants make this hillside seem to be rocks that have been stained green.

Our destination was another Boondockers Welcome site. At this one the hosts invited us to have a drink by the campfire – they called it “Cowboy TV” - and swap travel tales. Eve and Vicki got on well and also swapped cookery ideas. Eve presented Vicki with some sourdough starter and we received some lovely jam in return.

The Aliens of Nevada (April 2019)

Our route from Grand Canyon to Death Valley took us through Utah. Not much of it. That is to come later.

We were in Utah when we stopped for the night in Washington. Not Washington D.C. you understand, but a town called Washington in the state of Utah. There are lots of Washingtons, at least 28 according to Wikipedia, and that's not counting places which incorporate “Washington” in a larger name such as Fort Washington.

No free camping under trees in Washington, UT, but there was free parking at Walmart. The store readily gave permission but warned that the local police may drop by and “ask a few questions”. There were about half a dozen RVs in the parking lot that night and as far as we know none of them were visited by the police.

Gregory was due for another oil change. Many Walmarts have an “Auto Center” that offers that service, including the one in Washington, UT. Alas, they did not have the room to work on such a large vehicle. Nor did the Jiffy Lube nearby. Eventually we got the lube done at Walmart in a different town.

Back in Arizona for an hour or two. An Arizona with different geology. Notice that the layers of rock here are not horizontal as they are in the Grand Canyon.

Friends in New Zealand had recommended that we visit Las Vegas to see for ourselves just how tacky it is. Our route was taking us through showers along interstate highway I-15 into Nevada and towards Las Vegas. We got close enough to see the high-rise silhouette of the big casinos but that was close enough. There wasn't enough time to see all the beautiful places in America, so why devote a day to the tacky?

We turned aside towards Amargosa. The showers became heavy rain.

The attractions of Amagosa were:

1. Proximity to Death Valley; and
2. An inexpensive RV park. Only $25 per night for a hookup.

The scenery was unexciting but, after the rain stopped, the driving was easy. Amargosa was not a big settlement. In fact, it appeared to consist of only two properties, both selling fuel and otherwise catering to the traveller. The RV park was part of the property on the West side of the highway. As well as gasoline, it sold groceries and ran a cafe decorated with an aliens theme.

The campground had a sign, “Office” beside a trailer. As we approached a window slid open and a man's face appeared. “What do you want?” He had an untidy beard, was wearing a white singlet and appeared to have raised himself up from his bed. We explained that we were interested in staying for the night. “$20. Water's undrinkable. Find yourselves a site and put the money in the post.” He indicated a metal pole nearby. “Goodnight” and the window slid closed with a bang. It was about 4pm.

We dutifully selected a site, plugged in and deposited a $20 bill in the pole.

Just because the water is not potable is no reason not to take a shower. We advanced to inspect the ablution block. There was a sign on the Ladies' door. As we were reading it the 'office' window slid back and the head shouted at us, as though addressing a particularly stupid child for the umpteenth time, “Use the glass door. Not that one. The glass door.” The sign on the usual door explained that access was through the laundry. Bill went to walk around the block to the Gents on the other side. “The glass door, I said.” And indeed both sexes accessed their separate facilities through the glass door of the laundry. The signs taped on the regular doors were typed, clear and polite. The bearded face was probably not the author.

The campground comprised rows of parallel sites, as is common, with enough trees to break up the straight lines and provide forage for many small birds.

A House Finch.

A Yellow Warbler shows off its colours.

One of America's many species of sparrow, we think. If you can identify which one please leave a comment.

There was still the odd shower around and we were treated to a fine rainbow.

It was a double rainbow, but the camera has not picked up the second bow as brightly as the human eye did.

The atmospheric conditions also gave us a memorable sunset.

In the morning the man with the bearded face was fully dressed and walking about the campground. We heard him shouting at someone.

Our morning drive would take us into California, which has the highest gasoline taxes in the country. We applaud the state's efforts to reduce emissions, but are pragmatic enough to want to avoid paying more of the tax than was absolutely necessary. So we determined to enter California with a full tank.

Of Amargosa's competing suppliers the one across the road was a couple of cents per gallon cheaper and therefore got our patronage.

The store. Apparently we were near the US Air Force facility known as Area 51. Conspiracy theorists believe that the remains of crashed UFO spacecraft are stored at Area 51.

No mincing of words here. The sign says exactly what business is conducted. We are told that brothels are quite legal in Nevada. There was also an electronic sign with text running across it, as often happens with television news programmes these days. This one described in more detail the services offered.

We now have an explanation for the eccentric behaviour of the man with the bearded face. It's obvious, really. He must be an alien. ;-)

Grand and other Canyons (14-15 April 2019)

It would be ridiculous to visit the West and not go to the Grand Canyon, if only to see what all the fuss is about. It's one of the most famous natural wonders on the planet.

From Holbrook we travelled West on I-40. We generally avoid the interstate highways, but this one was OK. It was fairly busy but did not merge or divide so we could chug along in the 'slow' lane at 50mph and not worry about changing lanes.

If we knew when we took this photograph what enterprise occupies this idiosyncratic building and tipis we have since forgotten it.

I-40 goes to Flagstaff, Arizona's capital city, but our route turned North well before the city centre and we quickly left the built up area behind.

A trio of elk we encountered on our way to the Canyon.

There are campgrounds in the National Park, but only one of them has RV hookups and that is privately run. The national park web site warns that it is booked up months in advance so we didn't even bother to find out how much it charges. That invaluable app, WikiCamps, directed us to a freedom camping site just outside Tusayan, south of the Canyon.

Free camping under the trees.

If we had known better what to expect we would have got up earlier and hurried. Millions of people visit the Grand Canyon every year and there are large parking lots, but they can fill up quickly. Spaces for RVs are very limited, and drivers of regular cars get frustrated searching for regular parking in Parking Lot 1 with the result that RV spaces get filled with all sorts of vehicles. While understanding the frustration we did get a bit ticked off because there was plenty of space for cars in 3 other parking lots, but none for RVs. Luckily we found enough space to park without causing an obstruction.

Walking towards the rim there was a feeling of apprehension. This place is super-famous. Will it live up to its reputation and our expectations? We had the same nerves when we visited the Taj Mahal.

We arrived at the rim and looked. WOW. It is huge. There was no disappointment. It was much better being there than seeing pictures in magazines or on television. Just like the Taj Mahal.

All we can put in this blog are some of our own pictures. They don't convey the full impression, but it's the best we can do. The scenery is somehow much brighter. The Colorado River has scoured out a wildly meandering course with erratically eroded layers of differing rocks. The effect is to drag the eye from jagged promontories to scree slopes to random curves and angles. Maybe it's because we live in a hilly country, but the absolutely horizontal top layer of the canyon rocks seemed unnatural at first.

There is a paved, accessible, path along the South Rim. There are several overlooks with sensible railings, although there are still people that just have to perch on unfenced cliff edges and take a selfie. About a week after we were there, a father set up a camera for a family photo on the edge of the canyon. He set the delayed shutter release and ran to take up a position behind the others. And slipped. And died. We didn't witness anything quite so imbecilic, but there were plenty of folk taking silly risks.

The river is only visible from a few positions on the rim. This angle also includes the only bridge over the Colorado River for many miles.

The National Park Service is to be congratulated on the information provided. Not only in the visitor centres but also on boards along the path. The geology is quite complicated, and we don't claim to have absorbed it all, but the careful student can learn how the various layers of rock were laid down over an estimated 1660 million years and how the Colorado River has dug the canyon.

These boards are from a series that marks the different rock layers on images of the canyon beyond so that the viewer can properly understand where each one begins and ends.

There are samples of many types of rock, particularly from the older, lower layers, to improve understanding of what is down there.

This was the first national park where we encountered a shuttle bus system. The buses are free. They give the visitor the scope to visit distant parts of the rim without driving and without having to walk both ways. We walked part of the rim path, then took the shuttle further along, walked some more and finally took the shuttle back to the parking lot.

This is depressing. Visitors have be told that birds will swallow coins and asked not to throw coins or other litter into the canyon. Just beyond this board was a rock pillar on which many, presumably illiterate, people had thrown coins. They probably could be removed using a vacuum cleaner with a very long pipe, but why should a ranger have to go beyond the safety of the rails to do such a task?

There is definitely a main area around Grand Canyon Village, but there are several interesting places to stop on the road to the East. One of them is the site of a former Puebloan settlement.

The kiva, where religious and other ceremonies took place.

It was a bit easier to see the river from the upstream outlooks.

If you look VERY carefully you can see the fissure of the upstream canyon in the distant plain.

The day was dominated by geology, but of course we noticed some wildflowers.

And birds. This is a common raven. We also spotted a White-breasted Nuthatch near Grand Canyon Village.

It is possible to get to the North Rim, but it's a lot more driving and we strongly suspect that the views are very similar.

We didn't return to our previous campsite. Leaving the park to the East it wasn't a long drive to another forest road with shaded places to pull off. They were much smaller sites, the ground was badly rutted and it was difficult to manoeuvre Gregory, but we managed to get level enough for a comfortable night. For some reason we didn't photograph this location.

The next day we carried along the road and, surprise!, there were places to pull off and enjoy the views of a canyon. The river that excavated this canyon is the Little Colorado, a tributary of the bigger, more famous Colorado River, whose work we had marvelled at the previous day.

The horizontal top layer goes on.

Where did those hills come from?

How did this trickle dig such a big canyon?

Either there were more flowers around this canyon, or we were so overwhelmed by the big pictures at Grand Canyon that we overlooked them. We took many more photographs of plants around the Little Colorado Canyon.

Further up the road there is yet more geology:

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, near Page, AZ. The lake is the result of a dam, not natural.