The Rockies National Park - wow

Final full day of road trip ended in The Rockies National Park - what a finale!

It is impossible to take a bad photo in this place - here's a few Hubby took

See...

The next day we said farewell to our Jeep and Mildred (the Sat Nav). Grand total of distance travelled was...2659 miles !!

All the Top Tips I've shared with you came into their own today

• Car returned with a full tank of fuel. Garage less than a mile from car rental return was $2.69 a gallon - Hertz would have charged $9.99 a gallon. Now I'm rubbish at maths but even I can see which one is better value.

• Cleared all the rubbish out of the car so avoided the $50 clean up fee

By the way - I'm not a fan of Sat Navs usually - I pride myself on being quite a good navigator and map reader. Total convert since we got to use Mildred. She would find us the quickest / shortest / cheapest route, tell us where the nearest Subway was and got us everywhere we wanted to go via some very interesting sights. The best thing was - we didn't pay for her - she was in the car anyway - bonus!

Absolutely amazing 2 weeks but now we are on to the next part of the adventure over in East USA.

Black Hills, Iron Mountains and buffalo with attitude

I'm on an Amtrak Train, the Lake Shore Limited - No 48 for the next 6 hours (or more depending on delays which apparently are "inevitable".
It has better wi-fi than most of the hotels we have been staying in so I am going to catch you up the last few days of our road trip.

We left the Mount Rushmore area and drove through the Black Hills National Forest, on the Iron Mountain road, on the recommendation of some people we chatted to at breakfast. It was a very non-direct route to our destination for the evening but very worth it.

We'd seen T-shirts with "I survived the drive" on listing all the bridges and curves and tunnels of the Iron Mountain Dr but didn't understand them until we actually drove the route. You have to remember most people round here are driving pick up truck size vehicles and you don't see many minis or Fiat 500s so narrow roads take on a lot more significance than to us Brits who are used to the twisty lanes of Cornwall or the Lake District (or even West Kirby near where I live!).

I don't have any photos of the drive as there was nowhere to pull in and stop for photos or to admire the view - that in itself tells you how unusual a road it is as there are always seem to be pull ins somewhere along the road. I do have a photo which I took on the one occasion we did stop - a stop that was due to buffalo in the road!

At the overlook below you could see Mount Rushmore in the distance

We then came to Custer State park which was a bit like aa cross between a public park and safari park (so for people who live near me Birkenhead Park and Knowsley) with no enclosures and all the animals just roaming around. It had a wildlife drive where they said you had the best chance of seeing  bison but we didn't.....that is until we asked Mildred (that's what I called our sat-nav) to get us to our final destination via the shortest route. She took us across the centre of Custer Park on a dirt track passing a bison farm on the way which is where we saw the baby buffalo -aaaaah!

We spent the night in Wheatland and set off the next day for The Rockies. You access them via Roosevelt National Forest which, as you can see, is beautiful in it's own right.

and all that before you even get to the Rockies!

Top tips.

Today I have one major top tip - learned the hard way!

When you book in to a hotel and get to the room, check if there is a radio / clock alarm on the bedside table. If there is - check the alarm IS NOT SET - if it is - SWITCH IT OFF!

We didn't do this and on the morning we were going to The Rockies the alarm in our room went off at 06:00 - in our sleepy panic we thought we switched it off but oh no - we'd just hit snooze and had to go through the whole thing again 9 minutes later - aaaargh. We were not happy campers that day :-(

Next up The Rockies - you might want to go grab a Coors Light ;-)

and on to Mt Rushmore...

The thing that is constantly surprising me about this trip is that we planned to see all the main sites - the one's we are all familiar with Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, Rocky Mountains etc etc but we weren't prepared for all the other fabulous stuff there is to see along the way.


We left Yellowstone to drive to Mt Rushmore with a stop over at Buffalo to break up the journey. Along the way we saw Buffalo Bill Dam - built 1909

- http://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/buffalo-bill-dam-wyoming

It was pretty impressive and the story of how they built it was incredible - no health and safety rules!

We drove on from here and I realised that we weren't too far from the sight of one of Hubby's fave films - Close Encounters of the Third kind - diversion duly made! On the way - however - we drove through the Bighorn National Forest which looked like this

then we arrived at this..

In the cafe staff told us there was a storm coming - being British we decided the threat of a bit of rain wasn't going to stop us walking round the Tower - #idiots

Mount Rushmore is one of those other places you feel you know so well - it did not disappoint. Hubby took 176 photos - I've just included the two (you're welcome!)

For the next part of our trip we drive through the Black Hills and Custer State Park on our way to The Rocky Mountains National Park.

Let's talk toilets. Rest stops - USA style

For those of you who have ever had to stop at any service station in the UK here's how they do it USA style on the Interstate system

This one was built from an old rail road turnaround junction and had a train in it!

This one had an aircraft museum attached to it

All these rest stops are un-staffed but are spotlessly clean and well stocked with loo roll. Some of them have vending machines in them and they all had local information available. We didn't see any graffiti or vandalism in any of the stops we visited.

C'mon Charnock Richards - get yourself sorted!

And finally......

This last photo was taken at a rest stop in a National Park and I've seen it in a few places...

I get the "No Smoking" but why would they ban firearms from a Ladies toilet when you can take them anywhere else -  including the local Walmart (Asda) ??

Yellowstone National Park

Apologies in advance but there are going to be a lot of photo's - I've tried to keep them to the key images but there is so much about Yellowstone that was amazing I had quite a job.

Here we go...

We've become so used to dramatic scenery we didn't think about wildlife yet Yellowstone has it in abundance - you can literally fall over it. We stopped at least twice because of the bison in the road!

I had to include this photo although it is very hard to make out but that is a grizzly bear just going behind the tree in the middle - I was so excited (or scared) I didn't get a good camera shot.

As well as wildlife Yellowstone is also a geologically interesting place with the famous Geysers and hot pools (which smell of sulphur - not pleasant!)

Although it was 70 degrees there is still snow in June (note the long sleeves and trousers - not for the cold but for protection against the mosquitoes - there were loads of them and they have a vicious bite)

Top tips for Yellowstone

• Spend as long as you can there - it's vast, interesting and awesome. Also wildlife can play havoc with your schedule as evidenced by the 40 minute traffic jam we got stuck in when bison decided to walk along (not just across but along) the road.
• You need to protect against the mosquitoes - they are vicious
• You also need to protect against bears (seriously). There is plenty of advice given throughout the park including the use of bear repellant (holy bear repellant Batman!)
• Make sure your camera battery is charged and you have plenty of digits
• We stayed 30 miles outside Yellowstone which, in hindsight, was not great as it meant we had quite a long drive back after a long day in the park. However, if you want to stay in or nearer the park you'll have to book about a year in advance - or camp!
• We bought an annual National Park pass for $80. To visit all the parks we have been to up to this point would have cost us $130, and we haven't finished yet, so we are quids in!
• We went to Yellowstone on a Saturday and it felt busy so would suggest you avoid that day - if you can. It was just the way our itinerary worked out.

Tomorrow it'll be Bighorn National Forest and some dam interesting photo's!

and on we go.....

09.06.16

Left Brigham City and drove to Jackson, Wyoming through Idaho.
Drove through 3 National Forests Cache, Caribou and Bridger - they all looked spectacular

and yes the middle photo is of toilets - surely the most scenic toilets in the world?

Arrived for the night in Jackson - a town which very much plays on it's wild west/ cowboy connections but I liked it..

Next stop will be Yellowstone National Park.

I thought I'd share some of my road trip tips with you in case you decide to follow our footsteps (tread marks)

• Have a couple of re-fillable water bottles - the wide necked ones. Fill them up with ice each morning (all hotels have ice machines) and you'll have cool water all morning. You can also fill them up throughout the day at various places (Subways, McD and most cafes have free water/ice).
• Pack a sarong. Uses for the sarong on this trip have included - acting as a window blind to keep the sun off me, carrying the washing from the laundry (yes we had to do laundry!), acting as a sheet when the room was too hot, scrunched up as a cushion under the seat belt where it was rubbing on my shoulder, drying my feet after paddling, covering the cases in the boot of the car for security etc etc etc...ironically the only thing I haven't done is wear it!
• Also pack a bandanna then if you've got a fridge in your room (and I'd recommend booking hotels with this facility) then wet the bandanna and put it in the fridge overnight in a seal-able plastic bag; in the morning add some ice (make sure that bag is well sealed!!) and keep in the back of the car. After walking through the heat with the sun on your neck there is nothing better than an ice cold cloth to wipe your face/head/neck/ anything else you fancy with.
• If you've got a car and are stopping in lots of hotels for 1 night only it's useful to have a hold-all with a few days clothes in it. then you only have to take that out of the car each night, and not all the other baggage. You just have to do a clothes swap every few days.

useful hey!

Arches, shopping and sights along the way....

07.06.16

We left Bluff and drove to Price via Arches National Park

08.06.16 

We weren't expecting to see any National Parks today on our drive from Price to Brigham City (just outside Salt Lake City). We decided to bimble along and see what the fates brought - and they brought us .........the US equivilant of B&Q!

Although I haven't seen a B&Q in such a fabulous setting back home.

At a stop at a road side Rest Area (which put our service stations to shame!)

we found local information for attractions in the Utah Valley area. From this we followed directions to Bridal Veil Falls - spectacular - and the perfect opportunity to cool off as it's 90 -100 degrees at the moment!

So road trip tips for the heat:-

In Iceland it was minus 14 degrees - here it's been 114 degrees. Same things apply though....

• It's perfectly acceptable to sight see from a car (either to stay warm or cool)
• Always use the facilities at petrol/ gas stations when you come across them. Fill up your car and empty yourself! We always agree to give the hire car back with a full tank of fuel anyway so that's not a problem. It saves the worry about running out of fuel. As to personal comfort - surely you don't need me to explain that!
• Be flexible - take advice from the locals and you may just come across something spectacular or save yourself from wasting time.

Next update will include some big scenery shots as we leave Utah and head into Wyoming via Idiho