Sojourn in America
We started in Los Angeles, picked up a
car at the airport, and a GPS (Tomtom) which had been previously
ordered, at a branch of Walmart, the legendary retailer whose stores
remind one of the third world. While there we bought a US cell-phone
for less than ten dollars, and a coolbox! By the time we got to bed,
it was 07:00 (the next day) back in Dublin, which we left earlier in
the day.
Las Vegas was next. We drove through
uninhabited semi-desert for hours on end. Las Vegas is just plain
awful. But, it's on the way to interesting places, and has plenty of
accommodation at reasonable prices. There is no other good reason to
ever visit Las Vegas. The hotel we stayed in, the Excalibur, had
4,000 rooms! The lobby had literally hundreds of gambling machines,
being played at all hours by people of all ages, including little old
ladies in Zimmer frames. Eighteen of the 25 biggest hotels in the
world are on one street in Las Vegas. Stay away from Las Vegas.
That's the Excalibur Hotel!
From there we drove, through more
semi-desert, to Zion and Bryce canyons, where we spent two nights in
Ruby's Inn Best Western Motel, right beside the entrance to Bryce
Canyon National Park. The following morning, I got up before dawn
(05:30) to see the sun rise over Bryce Canyon and take some
photographs. This was a cold experience, must have been about -5C.
But, it was worth it, and nice to get back indoors for breakfast.
Bryce is famous for “hoodoos”, pieces that stick up like
stalagmites, and come in many shapes and colours. There are many
viewpoints along the edge, each with a different scene to ogle or
photograph. Getting out of bed for dawn, one of the coldest
experiences of my life, was worth it for the view, and the colours.
Bryce Canyon at dawn
The next stop was the “city” of
Moab, Utah. A “city” in America is anywhere with a postal code.
Some have as few as 50 residents. Moab is situated between two parks,
Arches and Canyonlands. Arches park contains interesting sandstone
features projected upwards, many of them (hundreds) in the form of
arches. Canyonlands is quite different, although one of its
best-known features is the Mesa Arch. It contains various canyons and
rifts in the ground, some of which you can drive down into, if you
have the nerve and a 4-wheel drive vehicle. I had neither. It also
features a big hole in the ground called Upheaval Dome. There is a
long-running debate about its origin, with some claiming that a
meteorite caused it, while others attribute its existence to natural
geological events. One thing is agreed, and that is that its
existence preceded that of the Rockies mountain range.
Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park
We then moved on to Mesa Verde. You
never heard of it? Neither did I. It's a valley surrounded by cliffs
where Puebloan (indians) lived for 600 years. During their last 50
years there, they built a lot of living accommodation, much of which
still survives. (Why shouldn't it; there are older houses in the
centre of Bergerac!) But, there is a mystery attached to it. Around
1300, about 50 years after the building “project” began, the
entire population (maybe 11,000 people) disappeared. It seems that
they moved to New Mexico and other places, but nobody knows why.
Answers on a postcard? Drought is the chief suspect. Mesa Verde is
not worth seeing, unless you're an archaeologist. There are 4,000
archaeological sites in Mesa Verde.
The Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde where
several hundreds lived
Next town was Kayenta, which is close
to Monument Valley. This is Navajo indian territory, and a visit to
the only supermarket in Kayenta will quickly remind you of this fact.
Remember the old indian women portrayed in western films, with no
teeth and smoking a clay pipe? Kayenta is full of them, with matching
men. But, Monument Valley is spectacular. We saw it first in bright
sunshine and clear blue skies, but with a strong breeze blowing sand
everywhere. We returned later to catch the setting sun. It is
completely desert territory. And, the Navajo own 16 million acres of
it, almost the size of Ireland. The downside of this is that, unlike
the National Parks, they haven't bothered to build a road through the
giant monuments. The reason for this is clear. The road is so bad
that most people won't risk their car on it, and instead hire the
indians to drive them in open trucks, at considerable expense, and
profit to the indians. Luckily, the most famous sandstone structures
can be seen, and photographed, from the visitor centre. They look
spectacular in the setting sun, with the long shadows, but capturing
it with a camera is not so easy. In the restaurant, there is no
alcohol available. This is not because it is in the “dry” state
of Utah; it's because that's the way the Navajo want it!
The “Mittens” East and West at
Monument Valley
Having survived the Navajo indians, we
headed for Lake Powell. This is not a natural lake, but arises from
the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1966. It took 17 years to
fill up, and the resulting lake stretches through some spectacular
scenery, featuring the sandstone gorges along the Colorado river. The
Lake Powell Resort is close to the town of Page, Arizona, which is
close to two notable attractions. The first is Horseshoe Bend on the
Colorado river, and the other is Antelope Canyon. Horseshoe Bend is
open to everyone, but Antelope Canyon is controlled by the dreaded
Navajos who charge $26 per person for entry. But, it is quite
spectacular despite its small size, and the cramped apertures that
visitors have to squeeze through during the visit. Page is not a big
town (think Ballybofey), but, on one street there I counted at least
ten churches, all of different “christian” sects. Small but
religious! We had breakfast is a diner there, and were entertained by
three old-timers a few tables away trying to figure out who fought in
the Hundred Years War, and who won.
Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado at
sunset
Antelope Canyon – a sample of the
rock formation and colour
After all that, the Grand Canyon, the
main object of the tour, was still to come. That was the next stop.
Two nights in the Yavapai Lodge, named after an obscure indian tribe.
And, breakfast and dinner in the Bright Angel Lodge, named after one
of the layers in the canyon sides. We entered the park from the
Eastern side, so we had 20 miles along the rim before reaching
Yavapai. Of course, from the road, you can see nothing as it's
heavily wooded, but there are many “overlooks”, points where you
can stop and view the canyon. This is the South Rim of the canyon,
and of the 277 miles, only about 30 are developed for visitors.
Beyond the village where the accommodation was situated, private
vehicles are not allowed along the rim, but a fleet of shuttle buses,
driven by retired people, ferry visitors to the rest of the viewing
points. This service runs like clockwork, every 10 or 15 minutes from
04:30 in the morning until after sunset. It was interesting to see
the canyon firstly in the mid-day sun, then in the fading light at
sunset. And, the following morning, I got to see the sun rise over
the Grand Canyon, a wonderful experience.
The Grand Canyon in the light of the
setting sun
Apart from Las Vegas, the
least-anticipated point on the “tour” was Bakersfield,
California, where we were to stay overnight on the way to Yosemite.
It was over 500 miles from the Grand Canyon, through the Mojave
desert, a long way to travel in a day. When we arrived there, we
were met by a sandstorm which, among other things, was blowing
tumbleweeds across the streets. Like a scene from “The Last Picture
Show”. It's not a place I would rush back to, but it has a
significant number of Basque people living there, strangely enough.
As a result, there are Basque restaurants, one of which we patronised
with some success. The French influence brings some sense of
civilisation to the place.
One of the down-sides of travelling on
American motorways (highways – or interstates) is the difficulty of
finding edible food at rest stops. Ninety five percent of rest stops
have fast food outlets only, from the big chains – McDonalds, Pizza
Hut, Dunkin Donuts etc. - all serving very fast poison. If you're
lucky, sometimes there is a traditional diner, not cordon bleu, but
edible. And there's a table and a plate and a proper knife and fork!
But this experience is all too seldom. The only way to be sure of
something edible is to bring your own, which is why we had a coolbox.
We filled it every morning in some supermarket or other food
emporium, and survived hunger as a result.
After the wonderful city of
Bakersfield, we came at last, via Fresno, to Yosemite. We hadn't seen
rain since the tour began, but we saw it in spades in the two days of
Yosemite, as well as mist, clouds and hailstones. Only a small part
of it is accessible by car, and we explored all of that through the
rain. The giant sequoia trees were, for me, the most impressive
sight. It is difficult not to be impressed by trees that are hundreds
of feet tall and thousands of years old.
Giant sequoia – scale apparent with
normal-sized (out-of-focus) woman in foreground!
After Yosemite, the “tour”
descended into a series of visits to friends and relations, including
many small children, one of them just born. But, the real “tour”
was over. The “highlight” of the latter part was being robbed of
my wallet by a black pick-pocket in Baltimore's Thurgood-Marshall
airport. I didn't even notice it until the following day, by which
time he'd managed to spend $1500 on my debit card! I should have
realised that the noisy diversion which he created in the lift wasn't
for the good of anybody's health. We live and learn!
