Full Circle

We escaped Winnemucca and Nevada in general - happy to say goodbye. The scenery for 80% of the day's drive was "high desert" - sage and sand at an altitude of around 4000 feet. Hundreds of miles of it. I love the subtle colours but we were thrilled to come across a marshland with Sandhill Cranes strolling amongst Canada Geese. Such unexpected long-legged birds. We also saw five pronghorn antelope which have been reintroduced in National Parks and preserves - another thrill.

We're now back in Portland where we started this holiday and it is pouring rain and apparently will for the two days we are staying here. See February blog entries for pictures!

Fish out of water

The forecast for today was for storms over the passes we had to negotiate to get across Nevada. We stopped in Wendover, Utah to ask about the roads. No one could help except to answer Bill's other question: "What do you do in Wendover?" The answer: "Gamble or drink!" Wendover straddles the Nevada/Utah border. It is clear which state you are standing in when you walk down Main Street. Six huge casinos on the Nevada end of the street advertise rooms for 1500 people. Looking down the street on the Utah side, you see no casinos, just little stores. The most obvious one is a pawn shop with big signs offering cash for gold, diamonds or guns!

We carried on working our way through the storms, passed up the town of Elco and all its casinos and headed for Winnemucca - right in the middle of Nevada and the last relatively inhabited place on the map. Because we weren't sure how far we were going to get, we had no room booked so when we phoned from Elco we got the last non-smoking room (there are probably only three in the whole town!). When we pulled up in front of it we realized that adding a hotel was an obvious afterthought. The casino is what you must be there for. We fought our way through the cloud of smoke, past semi-conscious people at slot machines (their fingers are awake, the rest of them left long ago) to the main desk. We used the back entrance from then on but only to slip in quickly after Bill bent over to pick up 22 casings on the sidewalk by the door! Shades of Elliot in Australia with the only option at this point being the car. We bolted up to our room which is amazingly okay, and will be slipping out early in the am heading for the Nevada/Oregon border as fast as possible. Talk about a fish out of water, I'm a goldfish whose bowl was dumped in the everglades...

From Beaver to Winnemucca... nostalgia and wind blasts

We spent the night in Beaver (I kid you not) and set off this morning to cover as much territory as we could. We stopped off in Provo, Utah, home of BYU, for a nostalgic trip around the campus Bill attended. It included walking through the door of the admin building minus the shaking knees he had after driving all the way down from Medicine Hat to write entrance exams forty-six years ago. We even found a few of the streets and apartments he lived in.

Then off into the gathering storm clouds. The weather forecast was dismal and we were afraid we would be stopped by snow in some of the passes. We did encounter blowing snow but the worst was the wind which rattled the car and threatened to push us into neighboring transport trucks - especially as we crossed eighty miles of salt flats outside Salt Lake City. The storms hung like curtains over the hills but we'd push through one, see bright sky, then push through another. We made it to Winnemucca, mid-way through Nevada - but that is for another chapter...

More colourful canyons

Between and after the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park we drove through or visited even more colourful canyons - all part of the giant staircase, a huge stepped plateau that covers part of four states. We understand (sort of) the reason for the formations but will soon forget those details. In the meantime, we'll never forget the exquisite colours and/or shapes of Navajo sandstone, Bryce Canyon, the Colorado Plateau or Red Canyon.

Zion - words fail us

We spent most of the day in Zion National Park and much of it trying to find words to describe it. We couldn't get past overused words such as magnificent, awesome, spiritual, ... All apply in this case. This is one of the most beautiful natural places we've ever seen.

Ain't it though?

The Grand Canyon is just that, snow or not. It is carefully managed for the full Wow! factor. You drive for miles through relatively flat, uninteresting desert (with a light covering of snow in this case) and come to the parking lots and tourist information building with no sign of any canyon. After wandering around looking at models, displays, reasons for formation of said canyon and most frequently asked questions, I just wanted to see it!! We followed the pathway along with a family from Belgium who asked us mostly in French if we knew where the canyon was?? We said we hoped we were heading in the right direction and soon spotted a fence. Then the group gasp told it all. The path leads to the edge which drops off 300 feet and there in front of us is the canyon - six miles across in places and a mile deep. The day was overcast and a slight haze made itfeel like we were looking through a window at times. But breath-taking it is. The weather had improved from the weekend when the snow was falling and a cold wind blowing. Icicles and a dusting of snow remains.

From bouganvillea to icicles

After a six-hour meandering drive along the beautiful Colorado River, we arrived in the town of Williams at the junction to the Grand Canyon and found it deep in snow. There are huge icicles hanging from buildings and we've been warned to look out for black ice. It warms up in the day and freezes at night. There were three serious accidents on the highway we came in on but by the time we got here, our side was cleared although the other side was still backed up for miles. We had no idea Williams was so high. It has an altitude of over 6500 feet! No wonder we've found winter after leaving the warmth of the desert. We're heading out for the Grand Canyon in the morning once we know the roads are clear. I expect to see it decorated with white....