Tag: Scenery

Meteor Crater

We’re properly on the road again now, having covered another 345 miles through Arizona from Flagstaff to Tucson via “Meteor Crater” .

Meteor Crater is about 3/4 mile in diameter and formed 50,000 years ago by a meteor travelling an estimated 26,000 miles per hour. It sticks out like a sore thumb in the surrounding Arizona desert which is flat for hundreds of miles.

I hope the photos convey how big it really looks. I realise it is much, much smaller than the Grand Canyon where we were yesterday (the Grand Canyon is around 260 miles long), but there was something astonishing about standing on the edge of a crater formed by something  from outer space. Not only were we allowed to stand right on the rim, but the attached museum had real fragments of the meteor which you could touch and lift up (it’s much heavier tan normal rock!), along with lots of interactive exhibits and an excellent film about the formation and geology of the crater, as well and how it came to be discovered and preserved.

It was also interesting to hear how the crater was used as a training ground by NASA astronauts because the floor of it is so similar to the moon. Many well known astronauts like Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell trained there and equipment like the moon buggy was also tested there.

This might be controversial, but we were more impressed by the Meteor Crater than the Grand Canyon. Learning about how meteorites have shaped the solar system, killed off the dinosaurs and even created the Moon by smashing up the Earth certainly makes you feel small.

Our trip to the Meteor Crater also took us onto “historic” Route 66 , just for a few miles so we got to see a bit of the craziness associated with one of America’s first highways.

 

 

Grand Canyon Part 2

Having seen the Grand Canyon from a helicopter the other day we were looking forward to returning today to see more of the canyon from the rim.

The Skywalk is a glass floored bridge based on the West Rim, which extends over the canyon so that you can walk out, stand 4000ft above the canyon floor and look directly down.

It sounds impressive and it is, but unfortunately it’s also $150 for two people to spend 10 minutes or so walking out above the canyon. They also have a policy of not allowing any cameras on the Skywalk (enforced by airport style metal detectors) so that they can take photos of you and charge you $30 for each one. This was a massive shame, but I guess it was our fault for not reading the reviews on Tripadvisor first (pretty much all saying it’s a rip-off).

The Skywalk was unnecessary because the Grand Canyon is amazing whatever angle you view it from and I think getting to stand right on the rim and look down was possibly more impressive than the helicopter. There’s no fence at the West Rim, so it’s up to you how close you dare stand to the edge. The closer you get the more rewarding it is though, just such an amazing view.

Just driving though the desert on the way to the canyon and back was a fantastic experience. The landscape is covered in Joshua trees and there’s plenty of wildlife, including the biggest spider I’ve ever seen outside a pet shop (about 5 inches across). We also managed to spot a few mini tornadoes kicking up spirals of dust less than a mile from the road we were on (see the first photo).

Tonight we’re staying in Flagstaff and tomorrow we’re off to see a meteor crater!

 

 

Grand Canyon Helicopter Tour

 

I’m running out of superlatives to describe this trip, but I think today definitely deserves an “awesome”.

The day started at 4:30pm (as all the best days do), with us being picked up at our new hotel by a limo (I didn’t ask for the limo, that’s just what they do around here) which took us to Las Vegas Airport.

After registration and a quick safety briefing we were taken to our helicopter and boarded for our trip out to the Grand Canyon . The trip out of Vegas took about 45 minutes and took us past Lake Las Vegas , Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam . Our pilot was great at flying slowly and making turns over the sights so we could get a good view and some good photos. We flew at about 3000ft so we were never too high to see detail on the ground and when we passed over mountains we couldn’t have been more than 1000ft clear of them.

We flew right down into the Grand Canyon and landed at the bottom with several other helicopters for some photo opportunities, a picnic and a glass of Champagne. The canyon looked amazing from every angle and no matter how much you hear about it and how big you expect it to be, it’s still an incredible sight.

We took off again at sunset and got a great view as we flew back to Vegas (which just happens to be west of the Grand Canyon so you can see the sunset all the way). The trip finished with a low pass over the strip which was fully lit by that point. I had been expecting this to be great fun but even I was surprised just how low and how quickly we flew over the strip. At one point we were flying to the side of the Stratosphere, not above it.

An absolutely mind-blowing experience. I hope the photos and videos do it justice.

 

 

 

 

Muir Woods and Sonoma Wine Tour

We had another jam packed day today. The alarm went off at 6:30am so that we could get into San Francisco for our tour of Muir Woods and the Sonoma Valley wineries .

The tour started with the drive to Muir Woods, a protected area of woodland (technically a national monument, not a national park) containing lots of Coastal Giant Redwood trees . We spent about an hour exploring the woods, which are small but interesting and well presented. The giant redwoods grow to up to 250 ft despite having roots only 6-10 feet down, they grow in ‘family circles’ and link roots to hold each other up. They only grow near the coast because they need the mist to take on water at that height as trees can’t take water from the ground to that height).

We then drove out of the bay area to the Sonoma Valley, Napa Valley’s less well known but equally beautiful and less congested neighbour. We got to visit two wineries, one of them owned by the Jacuzzi family (the same ones whose ancestors invented the hot tub!) and got to enjoy two tasting sessions.

Unfortunately, Jen is still on antibiotics so couldn’t actually drink the wine but she still managed to taste a couple of them and there was more than just wine on the menu. The Jacuzzi Winery also had an olive press and we were able to taste lots of different flavoured olive oils (I’ve now fallen in love with hazelnut oil and ‘blood orange’ olive oil on bread). We then had lunch in Sonoma’s very Mediterranean looking square at the Sonoma Cheese Factory. We got to taste lots of cheeses and had a nice lunch, after which I managed to get another glass of wine in next door before continuing to our second winery and more wine tasting.

As you can see from the photos, Sonoma is absolutely beautiful and completely different from San Francisco considering it’s less than an hour away. They say it get’s a degree warmer for every 3 miles you drive north out of San Francisco, you can be wearing jackets and gloves at one end and shorts and T-shorts at the other.

We’re going to get an early night tonight and leave early tomorrow morning for L.A.

 

Lake Tahoe Photography Tour

We arrived in Lake Tahoe today and spent our first day here on a photographic tour with Tahoe Photographic Tours .

We met our guide, Robin in South Lake Tahoe and got to spend the whole day being driven to the most photogenic sights in Lake Tahoe.

It’s a big place (22 by 12 miles) and we’d have needed a week to hunt these places out ourself so it was great to have a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide who was also an expert photographer. I got a good crop of photos and so did Jen with the little Sony compact, which just goes to prove you don’t need expensive equipment to take great photos (see the dragonfly and butterfly photos below).

It’s no wonder they’re the top rated attraction in Lake Tahoe on TripAdvisor, even if you’re not into photography I can’t think of a better way to see the best parts of the lake and get to know your way around. We’ve now got another 3 days here and lots to pack in.

 

 

 

Pacific Coast Drive

Today’s drive down the Pacific coast was fairly rushed. We didn’t get going until after midday thanks to the huge breakfast we were served at the lighthouse (see my previous post).

There’s a lot to see on on the US 101 which runs north to south down most of the coast from Seattle to California, from huge sand dunes to giant redwood trees to elephant seals sitting on the rocks. We managed to pick up a map from the Oregon tourist office and made several stops along the way to check out the views.

We also got to see a rare but somewhat sad site as we drove towards California, two whales had got themselves stuck in a river estuary by swimming in at high tide and one of them is still stuck. It’s been there for a couple of months and is drawing a large crowd but realistically won’t make it back into the ocean.

Anyway, tonight we’re staying in Eureka (yes, really!) and tomorrow we set off inland towards Lake Tahoe.

 

Heceta Head Lighthouse

If you’ve never spent the night at a lighthouse I can highly recommend it.

Last night we had the pleasure of staying at Heceta Head Lighthouse (pronounced he-see-taa) , a beautiful working lighthouse on the pacific coast in Oregon which has been restored and the lighthouse keepers lodge turned into a Bed and Breakfast.

We arrived at around 6pm and had the chance to explore the beach and take some photos before sunset. After dark we were invited to take a walk up to the lighthouse and guests are provided with a torch for that reason. It was fairly misty and a bit windy last night but walking around Heceta Head at night is amazing. The scenery is straight out of a Stephen King Book or Twin Peaks, kind of spooky but the way the lighthouse lights up the bay is an incredible sight.

As if the scenery wasn’t enough, the B&B is run by chefs who treated us to a 7 course breakfast this morning. There were about 12 guests and before breakfast each one is asked to tell the table where they are from and what they do. It sounds awkward but it really got everyone talking. The manager then rang a bell before each of the 7 courses and gave us an explanation of what we were about to eat.

We were treated to Home grown berries, lemon poppyseed bread, shrimp mousse with english crumpets, a mango and mint lassee, followed by an egg, gruyere, cheddar and broccoli souffle, sausages glazed in maple syrup and finished off with an apple, cinnamon and coffee strusel cake served with fresh cherries, apricots and local cheese.

It was just a shame we only had one night there. They serve a different seven courses each day from their cookbook (which Jen bought) and we’d have liked a bit more time to explore the area but we were looking forward to driving down the coast.

 

 

 

Mount St. Helens

Our drive south began today with a trip to Mount St. Helens .

Mount St. Helens is probably the most famous active volcano in North America, mainly because of it’s large eruption in 1980 . The eruption was caused by an earthquake and the ensuing blast was big enough to blow the whole north side of the mountain off and flatten 230 square miles of trees.

We visited the main visitor centre at Johnston Ridge, named after David Johnston , a geologist killed while manning an outpost 5 miles from the mountain during the 1980 blast. The area had been evacuated but he insisted on staying and his last words on the radio was “Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!” He was never found.

The visitor centre was really interesting with some really cool exhibits, including a real life earthquake sensor which you could set off by jumping up and down on a plate (most people were able to cause the equivalent of about a 0.001 on the richter scale), a great talk by one of the park rangers and a theatre showing movies about the volcano. This led to the biggest “wow” moment we’ve had so far at the end of the movie, when the screen and curtain raised to reveal a huge window and an amazing panoramic view of the north side of the volcano right in-front of us. There was a chorus of ooh’s and aah’s from the audience, none of whom were expecting it.

We’re now in Portland and we’re driving to the coast tomorrow where we should get our first view of the Pacific.

 

 

 

Yellowstone Safari

Yesterday was our third day in Yellowstone Park and we were booked onto a private guided tour with Safari Yellowstone .

Most of the wildlife in the park wakes up at an ungodly hour, which meant that we had to too. Our guide picked us up from our motel at 5:45 and we headed into the north end of the park.

The light at sunrise makes for some great photo opportunities and during the first couple of hours we saw deer, elk, pronghorn, lots of bison and thanks to the supplied binoculars and spotting scopes we were able to watch an osprey nest from afar. We watched for about half an hour as the mother looked after her two chicks and kept lookout while she waited for the male to return.

Our guide said that normally he would take guests up to a mountain lake to watch the otters that were usually around at this time of year but it was a bit of a hike and he hadn’t seen them so far this year so he decided to push on and try to find us a grizzly bear.

We didn’t have to drive far. The traffic jam after a couple of miles gave away the fact that there was an adult grizzly about 150 away from the side of the road. That’s a fair distance but as you can see below I managed to get a few photos. They’re fairly low quality because I was on maximum zoom but I wouldn’t have wanted to get any closer,our guide said the bear could cover that distance in under 10 seconds!

The hardest animals to spot in Yellowstone are the wolves. They were reintroduced into the park in 1995 and there are only around 120 in a park covering over 2 million acres. Add to this the fact that they don’t like humans and tend to stay away from the roads and you’ll understand why sightings are rare. Our guide took us to a few spots where they tend to hang out and managed to speak to one of the foremost wolf biologists in the park but it was looking unlikely. There had been sightings that morning and lots of people were waiting for one in particular to return but we could have spent our whole tour waiting so we decided to push on and see some more of the park.

After a picnic lunch by the river we saw some mountain goats (from over half a mile away so no photos) and ground squirrels, which are kind of a cross between grey squirrels and meerkats.

So, the tour was over and we were on our way back towards our Motel when our guide spotted his boss in a lay-by and pulled over to get some info. It turns out that his boss had been up to the trout lake where the otters hang out and they were back! The guide swung the car round and drove us back to the foot of the trail. We hiked up the short (but steep) trail to the mountain lake and sure enough we found 3 otters swimming and fishing by the side of the lake. We followed them around the lake for half an hour or so and managed to get some nice photos of them playing and eating lunch.

Unfortunately our time was up and after nine hours, which seemed like about one, we headed back to our motel. We won’t be forgetting today in a hurry.

 

Old Faithful

We’re not supposed to be doing our proper Yellowstone safari tour until Tuesday but our drive from Cody to our lodging in Gardiner, Montana (just by the north Yellowstone Park gate) today took us right through the centre of Yellowstone and we took a short detour to see Old Faithful . We’ve got three more days here to explore further but here’s a few photos we took today.

The last few are of our motel and the view from our patio.