here are more train photos Louis love Grandma xxx 

     Who is climbing on the train? Xxxxx love you

hi so far in our holiday we have seen so many beautiful things and done so much each day ,but I have to say that Death Valley is an absolute favourite location that I will never forget. 

 We started out today from Beatty and went to a ghost town Rhyolite 6 miles away. They were mining for gold but it was uneconomical and there was no money left to continue and so everything is left as it was. It only lasted 11 years and 11000’people lived there in its peak. 

 We are following a book about photographing in the Death Valley and so we headed to a volcano UBEHEBE which only emerged 2 thousand years ago so is very young as volcanoes go. The whole area was so wonderful, beautiful and yet lonely. It was blowing a really hot gale up there, a force 6 to 7 I guess, it was blowing so strongly it was hard to keep the camera still.

  We saw a castle Scottie Castle which was built for a man who pretended he had found gold in that area and got people to invest in his mine which didn’t exist. 

We then travelled along the Death Valley for many miles up to the visitors centre, which was very interesting. I hope my pictures give you some idea of the beauty and the landscape. Again it was very hot 104f. We bought an ice cream which melted quicker than I could eat 

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Tomorrow we are going to the lowest part in the whole of America.. Very excited….

hi we travelled a long way today! At first there was a huge plain of cacti and desert, with Yukka trees and a few Joshua trees here and there. It was totally flat except for small hills either side of this wide expanse….

Then we turned a corner in the road and couldn’t believe the change! There were deep canyons and different coloured rocks as we travelled down to Hoover Dam. This was towards the end of the Grand Canyon which is over a hundred miles long. and there was the Colorado River again.

Hundreds of people were visiting the Hoover dam. There was a loud speaker system and Uncle Sam was proclaiming the great American achievements…

   

  

  

 Again it was HOT and we were keeping to the shady parts where possible. The view over Lake Mead were pretty.

On leaving Hoover dam we still had 150 miles to go….

We were in another desert area and the land was arid and no one lived there. We passed a huge prison on the left followed by an airforce base. We were now in Nevada. This was the edge of a vast many square miles of land the airforce and government use to test nuclear weapons. we saw 2 drones land as we travelled past.

Now we were near the Death Valley and at Beatty where we are staying for 6 nights. We couldn’t resist it we had to see Death Valley!

We were at 3500 feet and eventually we got down to minus 235 below sea level! The land is spectacular… More descriptions in the next few days. Very hot and surprisingly there are green parts and bushes growing in parts.

Back in our hotel Hotel 6 it is basic but clean and a comfy bed… But no wifi or hairdryer or fridge or microwave or coffee maker. thank goodness for Denny’s  next door.

Denny’s is a diner within a casino. You have to walk through the casino to get to it. It’s a first for me, never been in a casino! New experience…

Will add photos later as it’s more difficult to download them in Denny’s!! Love to you all xxxx

“What’s the weather like?” I asked this morning.”Well the outside door is hot and I just burnt myself on the handle” was the reply…… 

The journey started off slowly  for 20 miles, stopping at regular spaced traffic lights, then it got much better. 

The sat nav said 91 miles then turn right! This is the only road going across this part of the desert. Again loads of cacti and Yukka trees all in flower with huge white flowers. We stopped for a lunch break at Wikeopi ( we renamed it wakeyuppy) and all in this area were Joshua Trees. They are not wood but made of thick black fibres and have long spikes of dark green all over them at the ends of their fibres…very unusual. It was a beautiful road full of small canyons and mostly yellow rocks.  

 When we got to Kingman, there was suddenly masses of cars,people and shops which was a shock as it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. It is built on a train rail junction and on the famous Route 66!

It is not quite so hot here 89f and really windy. So a little bit better for us.We visited the Route 66 museum which was outdated and disappointing as it could have been so much better as it has interesting things in it. 

We saw another huge steam train Louis. The  Sante Fe “Kingman 3795” Grandad took some photos of it for you. 

 We visited an American diner and I had an Oreo vanilla milkshake mmmmmm! Lily and Otis would have loved it too. Grandad had iced root beer in an iced glass. It’s non alcoholic Anona. Loved looking at all the photos and posters in there. Betty Boo and Elvis featured strongly. Everywhere features the Route 66 logos.  

  We took a 9 mile trip up into the mountains as we were a bit too early to check into the hotel. Lots of fir trees up there and very green, not like the desert area surrounding it.

The hotel is lovely …shame we’re only here 1 night. There’s a swimming pool and in our room a settee and chairs and a desk.A very big room.

We’re treating ourselves to a steak tonight, before we venture to Death Valley tomorrow.

Happy June 1st to all of you ….we’ve been away 5 weeks now and so much more to see. 

   

An American man said to us early on in our time here.

 “Every day is a good day and the ones that aren’t are great”

Well today was a great day and we still have more to do! 

We got up early and went to the desert botanical garden as it opened at 7am. The light and the shadows were so much better for taking photos and we took hundreds…. I was inspired by Vinces  black and white ones last Sunday. 

     After 3 hours it began to really hot up. We headed out of Phoenix enjoying our cars air conditioning . We followed the Apache Trail.

First it led us to the lost Dutchmans gold field. The Dutchman found loads of gold in the Superstition mountains but kept the location secret to his death. No one has managed to find it yet. We had a lovely lunch ( got the terminology right Oxford) in a cool wooden restaurant. 

 We went to a ghost town where you can go down the mines, but it was 106 degrees by then and I was melting so we just wandered around the town keeping in the shade.  

   Next the road took us up into the mountains up to the lakes. The colours were amazing, lime greens and whites. We saw 6 condors swooping over our heads as we ate an ice cream. The lake was deep blue. There were many huge cacti everywhere on the hillsides. 

   Now we are back in our hotel for a rest before we go back to the botanical gardens to see the “desert at night time”. More later.

Again the plants looked so different in the twilight and we got some good sunset pictures.

   
 Lilyana we saw tarantulas and snakes, lizards and geckos. Anona we had a tour of the night sky which was interesting. We saw Venus and Jupiter clearly. Louis we saw a frog and bugs and scorpions and Otis we were in the night garden!

Will post the photos later, love you all. We are in the hot hot desert heat from now on till we fly to Vancouver on June 13th

we travelled through a section of the Sonaran Desert today. It was very a different landscape, full of gravel and large cacti Eagles and other birds like road runners. We also saw acres of irrigated land growing corn and maize. At one ranch there were (no exaggeration ) thousands of Frisian cows all standing in dirt in the blazing sunshine with hay to eat.There were cows as far as your eyes could see and all close together. It looked so cruel.

Here are some of the pictures I took, the black and white ones are Vinces. 

          

I hope your revision is going ok Anona and we’re both thinking of you xxxx 

We travelled to Phoenix this morning. we have a lovely room in the shade at the back of the hotel away from the noisy traffic.

This morning we visited the Phoenix Art Gallery, the temperature is 104*fahrenheit and we were pleased to be in there with their air conditioning. Hope the children like my photo of the dinosaur in a cage ( and Grandad too).  

  

 The photographic exhibition was not as good as we expected but nevertheless, we looked around the other art exhibits, mainly Andy Warhole and 2 picassos and 1 Monet but again not too impressed , seen much better modern art galleries in Paris and Houston. we have free drinks between 5 and 6.30 pm here in their social hour in the bar. Can’t be bad 😝🍺🍻

We stayed in Prescott today and explored the granite dells and the lakes. To go on the trails around the granite dells, you have to rock climb at times and so I had to give that idea up! Still we got nice photos.

We went down to Watson Lake and sat on the granite rocks in the warm air. People were rock climbing and in the reservoir there were kayakers….lots to see. I saw eagles and a heron. 

   We had our lunch in the oldest hotel in town. It was like a saloon and very traditional cowboy type. We did the shops not buying anything lol.

In the afternoon we went to Lynx Lake and had such a good time. We spotted a bald headed eagle! We watched it for ages and showed other people who passed by where to look. 

Vince got perfect pictures of a heron eating a lizard we think. We saw 12 maybe more humming bee birds on feeders outside of a RTV and a large goose looking after a duck with 3 ducklings. he kept with her wherever she swam. A fisherman told us the goose always does that protecting the ducklings he thought. 

               We leave Prescott for Phoenix tomorrow.We’re in Phoenix for 4 nights.

we travelled up the black mountains over Cleopatra mountain and down through Jerome to Cottonwood. 

The old town has interesting shops and we wandered around the Main Street. We stopped off for coffee in a small courtyard, protected from the sun. Yes the weather is now much hotter.🌞🌞🌞 There was a very large jet black bee flying around and then it disappeared into a small hole in the woodwork,very scary.

We explored the beautiful red rocks again and visited the church of the cross again to take more photos, then we made our way back to Prescott on a quick lower level road. It’s a shame I’ll never see Sedona again but I have all those beautiful pics and memories too. There is so much more of Arizona California and Nevada to discover. 

Looking down the black mountains to Jerome on Cleopatra mountain

   Sedona red hills in the distance on a beautiful hot day 

     

prescott was raining this morning, so we headed for Phoenix and it was very hot. We spent most of the day looking at fabulous cacti in the desert botanical garden. 

   We saw many different kinds of cacti and lizards quails humming birds, beautiful butterflies,desert squirrels and many flowers on different cactus types. 

I love cacti 🌵🌵🌵

These are all Vinces photos, we have hundreds more in our cameras. The temperature. Was 95 degrees I think that’s about 30*c or higher?

Back in cooler Prescott now and doing our washing😀☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️