This posting shows some more of the highlights in Utah, Arizona, Nevada and the start of our California experience. Of course it is hard to choose the photos that best show how it is, as I can’t show the sounds, the smells and the general feeling of a place. These will have to suffice in the meantime.
Finally we've seen a black bear - this one at Bearizona near Williams in Arizona. The bears in this enclosure were sick of being gawked at by people in cars and were ready to hibernate, unlike the cubs in another enclosure who seemed full of energy.
An antelope squirrel at Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada, spread-eagled next to our picnic table. Not sure if it was cooling itself on the shaded concrete or marking or what?!
Observation Point, Zion National Park. This was an amazing climb up from the valley floor through about four different landscapes; cliff, canyon, valley walls and finally mesa top - fantastic! We started at about 7.30am and were the fourth group to arrive but the way down was a very busy experience.
Just downstream from The Narrows, Zion National Park Utah.
Eddie on petrified sand dunes at Snow Canyon State Park, Utah. The canyon was named after a person, I can't imagine that it ever gets snow.
Looking down on Badwater Basin, Death Valley National Park, California. We couldn't drive through the basin as the road had been damaged by flooding - you can see water in the basin which is usually a dry salt flat.
Coyote in Panamint Valley, Death Valley National Park. We've been enchanted by our few glimpses of these wily animals and we've often heard them at night. They are amazing survivors and despite the fact that more than 100,000 of them a year are killed (shot, poisoned etc) they are holding their own.
Manzanar National Historic site, California, remembers the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese (both US citizens and those born in Japan) after the bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese in 1942. Manzanar, in Eastern California, was one of 10 camps built to house families uprooted with short notice (most had only two weeks to sell their property and pack what they could carry). The interpretation centre and replica barracks are very good and the experience was moving, sobering and occasionally harrowing and was a reminder of the fragility of human rights in the face of hysteria.
Interpretation panel in the toilets (or should I say restrooms) at Manzanar National Historic Site - brilliant!
And on a lighter note, Eddie and the 'stang at Red Rock Canyon State Park, California.
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