Hi we are at the quality inn Panguitch US Highway 89 . It is past Panguitch and near the Red Canyon which leads on to Bryce Canyon.  So pleased that Lilyana is following us on Google Earth 😀👍🏾🇺🇸🌎

We love it here. We are in a cowboy wooden ranch type room with a veranda. We are here for 5 nights. 

   
 The journey here was quite fast and we passed by the” big rock candy mountain”, Trevor  will know this song. We also travelled along a huge salt marsh where the most dinosaurs in the world have been dug up.

We saw mule eared deer with long ears and another chipmunk that we nearly ran over in a car park! Geese flying over and ordinary buck deer.

    We have already peeped into the first view point at Bryce Canyon as we arrived too early to go to our hotel

The road first leads through Red Canyon which seems to be full of red rock hoodoos. Bryce Canyon has more orangey rocks. 

    

We got to Dead Horse Point first and it was so impressive. It was like looking at the Grand Canyon. You can see the River Colorado doing horse bends and the Green River has just joined it . It is soooo far down to look and then goes down further. The rock forms are amazing

If you love horses don’t read this next bit…(Lily and Anona).. It’s called Dead Horse Point because Cowboys herded up loads of wild horses onto this headland as it made a natural corral, the sides all round drop 2000 feet! They selected the best horses to keep and sell but didn’t let the other horses free and left them to die of thirst looking down on the huge Colorado river which they couldn’t reach. 

Next we went further along the road to Canyonlands. This is a huge area of plateau covering 114 square miles with huge canyons down deep inside it. The 2 rivers, the Green River and the Colorado have eroded it over millions of years. You can only visit 3 main areas by tarmaced roads. The rest is by very scary dirt tracks which need 4 wheel drive cars and we could see several cars doing this half way down before the deep fall to the river. I don’t know how they dare to do this! 

    So just when we thought we had seen the most wonderful sights ever we have found more today.

Tomorrow we travel to Panguitch  which is a good place  for visiting Bryce Canyon, Zion NP in Utah and other places, so we have booked in there for 5 nights. More travel news soon ☀️☀️😎😎👀👀😜😜

Love to you all will be skyping you Saturday after 3pm your time as we get up xxx if we don’t manage this we’ll try on Sunday at same time onwards xxx

We went back to the Arches NP today and walked along some of the tracks to find the arches. Vince took many many photos. we must have walked a long way as I’m whacked out this evening😝. There is not so much wildlife to spot in Utah as it is mostly desert and the animals come out at night and early morning to avoid the heat. But we see birds and lizards oh and a chipmunk.

We went to Moab and sat in the shade eating pizza and drinking coffee and diet coke.

Tomorrow we are visiting dead horse canyon in the Canyonlands National Park it’s supposed to be lovely

Hope everyone is ok 

Currently following the election results via BBC online.

Hope you like my pictures.      Love to my grandchildren et al xxxx 

     

Today we headed for Canyonlands National Park, but didn’t get there😎😎😎

The road marked on our map didn’t exist or we didn’t find it, perhaps it was one of the dirt tracks we are not allowed to take our hire car on.

We noticed a road sign posted Goblin Canyon and went there instead. To reach it we crossed the San Rafael Desert. With the recent rain there were lots of different coloured wild flowers. We had plenty of water with us Matthew! ☀️☀️☀️

As we got into the canyon it was full of sandstone shapes which did look like men,goblins and Et like shapes.

We could walk right up to them and around them .At first it was cool and then the sun shone really fiercely but we didn’t notice as we were so intrigued with the sandstone goblins. So now we have both caught the sun on our faces arms and necks 

On the way back as in the past 2 days the whole area darkened and terrific thunderstorms happened. I love thunder and lightening!

We sat by the Green  River river between bouts of torrential rain and then visited the museum in the town

Another lovely day

Lots of love from Green River Utah

  
     

it rained all the way to the Arches national park, but then stopped and the sun came out. We were tired after travelling but what we saw was mind blowing. You have to walk to some of the arches and as we had not much energy we will go back again another day. Here is just a taste of what we saw 

   

We are in a hotel at Green River. We are here until Saturday and a bit disappointed with the hotel but never mind the countryside around more than compensates for it.xxxxx

yesterday we headed up to the Mesa Verde   

 
 

  We climbed up via horse shoe bends and saw right across the plains to the Rockies in the distance. we could see about 35 miles all around 360degrees.  There was a storm in the distance and it didn’t reach us for about 4 hours but we watched it close in.

We saw the ancient pueblo remains high up in the cliffs and we were able to walk up to one  community.

When we got to the  Temple of the Sun, the thunder started and loads of fork lightening. Hail and thunder and lightening….. I loved it   WE STOPPED AT THE NEXT information centre and drank coffee while it passed over. back in Durango it was dry but over night it has rained continuously and now we are on the way to our next hotel passed Moab and visiting arches national park. More pictures of the day at Mesa Verde soon  

   

     

 

hi we’re back after a brilliant train ride. It was scary at times when we went along the gorge with a sheer drop to the river. 

Louis and Otis the train was very big and noisy and the whistle was very loud that warned people we were approaching.

Lily we saw 

prairie dogs like squirrels that pop up from the ground

A mountain goat

Elk

Deer………..AND

A bear…..well grandad and most of the people on our carrige but not me😪

Anona I expect you’re interested in the above too! Hope you are not working too hard and enjoying life too.

When we got to Silverton we had travelled from 6520 ft to 9305ft. It was sunny when we got off the train and there were little children selling jewellery along the track.

We were there for 11/2 hours. The weather drastically changed , it got colder and then rain followed by hail and snow. It was an out post mining town like you see in the westerns and so people sheltered under wooden verandas and in the shops. Then just as we left the sky changed to bright blue with fluffy white clouds.

Hope you like my photos… 

       

175 miles the quick way,210 miles the slow way via Lake City. we took the picturesque slow way !,

Lily I wish you’d been there I saw a marmoset climbing up a small cliff. It was all furry and as big as a cat x

We saw the start of the river the Rio Grande, (Trevor Chris and Mike you’ll remember the old song we sang at school “and we’re bound for the Rio Grande”) We crossed over it a few times as it became a river. It eventually flows to Mexico.

We reached 11,500 feet the highest yet. Loads of snow but roads clear. We stopped at an old mining town called Creede. We were made to feel very special being from England. An old lady also wanted to talk to me but then told me she had left her hearing aids and her teeth behind…so I had to really shout at her.Lol. The man owning the cafe said Thankyou so much for coming to our town… Got some amazing photos…

Now at Durango and going on our train ride soon. Love you all xxxx 

Crystal lake   the source it the Rio Grande

today we went to the Black Canyon near Montrose Colorado. Got fabulous photos and saw the river from a great scary height.

We saw deer up there and lizards, it is very hot today. On the way back we saw 2 humming birds on a feeder outside a cafe. They really buzzed. Saw lots of eagles too, different kinds which I will have to look up. Xxxx

So tomorrow we move on to Durango for 3 nights ,looking forward to our train ride on Sunday Otis and Louis!!