Hi I’ve got email so as I don’t know how long it will last I will send lots of photos.

These are especially for my grandchildren and Ill try to name each one.

These ospreys are on a nest in Mono Lake which is a saltwater lake.

We really like the lakes around here in the high Sienna and have seen so many different birds and snow and mountains. The first 3 pics below are an osprey a vulture and a jack rabbit

Then a grebe and an American robin and a waterfall!

Then a waterfall, Canadian geese

We went down a track along a river parallel with the road into Yosemite. The road which is blocked was about 200 feet above us and full of snow.

can you see the little gosling chicks with their mother goose?

above are blackbirds with the yellow and red bits a bush tit and a yellow warbler.

Sorry I couldn’t find how to write the names by each one xxx

We have a favourite Inn to stop for lunch and then we self cater.

We move further North to Redding on Monday, it is a long journey about 7 hours so we are setting off early!

 

love to you all and hopefully I will be able to write each day from monday

 

We left the heat of Death Valley and travelled North. As we went along we crossed through the White Mountains. The road was smooth following valley bottoms but gradually rising to over 7000 feet. We stopped for coffee and could feel a chill in the air. Further North we increasingly came upon more snow on the hills. It started raining and this turned into a snow storm. We were at 7000 feet. The road was clear and the snow did not lay on the roads.The mountains were all creamy and granite outcrops, very unusual. The snow clouds were low and so we could not see the views.
Then we reached Lee Vining to our disappointment there is no entry to Yosemite because of severe snowfalls all Winter. We went to the tourist office and found that there is only one entrance open part way into the park and it takes 9 hours to travel all round the perimeter to reach it. Never mind we will not see Yosemite this year. They don’t think it will be open until August!
There are lots of lakes in this area and volcanic features, many birds and wildlife too so we will have things to do. We have booked in here for 6 nights though.
The weather is forecast to be better up to the weekend so the storms passing over today will be gone.

Our motel room is lovely and we have a microwave and fridge so we can self cater.

Wifi is not good in this area so I will post my blog when I can.
We have the heater on and the sun is now out. Things are looking up.

We are disappointed but will use our initiative and find other places round here to visit instead

Love to you all xxxx from us

Last night we went back to the sand dunes to see them in shadow. It was so windy the sand was being swept up into the air and swirling around. The sun was behind the clouds and so no shadows oops! Never mind! It was like standing with a hot hairdryer pointed at us.

It was cooler today and we went straight to Dantes view. The air was clearer and we got some lovely views. Here were 5000+ feet above the valley, it was a beautiful sight. 

I used the fish eye lens too and liked the effect I got.

On the way down we saw lots of desert flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

blue

yellow

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We weaved our way through a dirt track to see the hills surrounding. It was bumpy and lots of tight bends but no steep drops to worry about.

This is a strange shaped rock thrown out of a volcano. It looks like an alien.

We slowly stopped at all our favourite spots, had our lunch and then said goodbye to the lowest part of the world we are ever likely to be on again.

 

 

We thought it was going to be a cooler day today as we set off, but we were wrong it got very hot.

We walked through the casino to Denny’s at the back ,to order our breakfast. You should have seen the size of it when it came. Grandad said it was the MOAB mother of all breakfasts. We just couldn’t eat it all and left our pancakes.

We set off for Badwater Basin, one of the lowest parts on earth. There were lots of tourists there already.

There was an orange lizard on the salt flats and we began taking pictures of it, thinking it lived there. But then found it was a pet  dragon. The man let me hold it wasn’t I brave!

We walked right along the salt into the valley and then returned thankfully to the car and cooled down with the air conditioning.

As we made our way along the valley by car we stopped at the “golf course” It is crystallised salt and very deep and sharp.

Next we went around the “Artists Palate”

It was good to revisit Death Valley and although we want to explore new parts, it would have been such a shame not to come here again!

We called back for an ice cream and will return this evening when it is cooler as we want to see the sand dunes in shadow.

We had such a lovely Easter Sunday and I know you all will have done too xxxx

We had a good journey from Kingman to Hoover Dam, then past Las Vegas and onto Death valley and up to Beatty where we are staying.

This is the view from the highway towards the Hoover Dam and you can see the Colorado River after it has passed through the dam.

First place we stopped near Death Valley was Zabriskie Point. We walked right up the pavement to see the view down to the Death Valley. Can you see the 2 people on the rocks, it shows how huge the mountains are.

We saw snow on the mountains above Death Valley too, what a contrast in temperature!

It was 80*f today….lovely xxxx

Today we followed the famous Route 66  through the Mojave desert. It was a steep mountain pass over the Black Mountains stopping at Oatman and then on through Fort Mojave indian reservation to Topock where we picked up the motorway back to Kingman. It was an interesting journey.

The desert looked yellow because of all the wild flowers and shrubs in flower.

The road was steep with scary hairpin bends.

When we reached Oatman, it was a weird place with hippy type people in shacks selling teeshirts, jewellery, snake skins and trashy souvenirs. It had a goldmine up to the ww2 and there was a ghost town nearby.

What is granddad up to with the gold???

There were wild donkeys (burros) wandering around and the smell of donkey poo in the heat made me feel sick.

Lily look what this shop was called!

The next part of the journey was not steep and we crossed the Mojave indian reserve.

We are now back in Kingman and tomorrow we have  long journey to Beatty near Death Valley.

Hope you are all having a lovely Easter. We had our Good Friday fish  at cracker barrel Matthew and Blandine! enjoy your break away with the children. Lots of swimming Louis and Alicexxx

Hope Anona  has made Otis  an easter egg hunt , he was telling me all about it.

Have a nice time at the farm Lily

and a good time in Thornbury Alex with Otis and Xavi and Anona ……safe journey back to Sheffield.

love from me xx

 

Do you like my butterfly photo? I’ve entered it in a competition at the Phoenix Botanical gardens!

We left Phoenix following route 60 then 93 until we reached the famous route 66 at Kingman. The road follows alongside the railway track and we saw huge trains pulling hundreds of containers behind them; pleased we didn’t have to stop at the crossings to wait until they went by!

We  loved the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts. The environment is very dusty with orange and red soil/mud. Everywhere it was covered in mostly yellow flowers, also orange and red at times. We saw many huge cacti like organ pipes and lots of prickly paw paw cacti.

Then we passed by miles of Joshua trees in a forest. They aren’t real trees but from the Yukka and Lily family of plants. They only grow in this Mojave desert and nowhere else in the world.

We stopped for our lunch at a place called Wikieup

When we stopped to looks at the views I saw a long lizard.

At Kingman we visited the museum and I stood next to the famous Sante Fe Steam train.

Its VERY windy here and about 78*f

These cars and shops used to travel along route 66.

More news tomorrow. Our hotel room is huge in Kingman pleased we are here for 2 nights.xxxxx

We spent nearly all day in the beautiful botanical gardens. I managed to see a road runner with a lizard in its mouth! Look hard Louis and Otis and you will see it.We saw lots of humming birds. A lady showed us a humming bird nest. It was smaller than a chickens egg. The tiny birds pick up soft bits off the ground and bind them together with spiders webs. Their eggs are as small as a jellybean and when the chicks start to grow the webs allow the nest to expand without it falling to pieces.

It was very hard to photo them as they are so quick and I was very lucky to capture them.

We saw the butterflies again and they live between 1 and 6 days only, once they emerge from their cocoons.

The flowers and cacti are so amazing here and hope you can see them one day

We travel to Kingman tomorrow for 2 nights to visit Death Valley again. Its going to be even hotter there. Its 98*f today. lots of love xxxx

We arrived last night after a 10 1/2 hour flight. Very tired but happy our stay cation has started.

Today we went straight to the Phoenix botanical gardens. The temperature was just right and we saw masses of different types of cacti,many in flower.

There were birds….woodpeckers, American robins, humming birds, quails, finches, starlings, sparrows.

Other animals we saw were ground squirrels, chipmunks, lizards and butterflies. Lily you would have loved the butterflies!

We are back in our motel for a couple of hours as it is so hot and then we will return about 5pm as the gardens are open until 8pm.

We are really pleased with our photos. Grandad nearly left my camera bag on the airport bus but a lady saw it before the bus left, how lucky was that.

Hope Lily Louis and Otis will mark Phoenix on the map 🇱🇷

Love to you allxxx

 

Going home today after a brilliant time. (We have packed our suitcases and booked the room all day so we can leave the cases and have a shower before we leave for the airport this evening) we are going to see the whole of Hong Kong from a high up viewing platform and then to go to the Chinese gardens again at Nan Lian our plane leaves at 23.55 and we arrive in London Heathrow at 04.50 am Thursday. Hopefully the taxi will be there and we should be home about lunch time. Will phone when we arrive home and it will be good to hear your voices xxxx love you all