Arches and Canyonlands

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update on our trip to Utah the weekend before last.

I was working in Salt Lake City so we took the opportunity to fly down on Friday night and go to the southern part of Utah to visit a couple of national parks there. It's amazing to see the changes in the scenery in the US; one minute your travelling through pine forest and the next it's just desert as far as you can see.

On Friday night we flew into Salt Lake and rented a small jeep 4X4. We drove to a place called Provo about 45 miles south of SLC and spent the night there then on Saturday we went further south to a town called Moab on the Colorado river. It was a very pretty place; lots of green amongst the red cliffs of the desert. There looks to be a million things to do there if you have the time; river rafting, rock climbing, 4X4 trips; mountain biking, parachuting... the list goes on.

From Moab you have easy access to two well known national parks; Arches and Canyonlands. Unfortunately the weather was really hot: +100F which made hiking around the parks a bit of a chore. We did as much as we could but next time I think it would be better to go in early spring or autumn.

Arches is famous for the arches carved in the rock cliffs by the wind and the rain. There is lots of spectacular scenery there and plenty of places to photograph. Some of the more well known spots are The Gossips, Balanced Rock, The Windows and Delicate Arch





Canyonlands is in sight of the Arches national park but is completely different. It is made up of hugh canyons formed by the tributaries that flow into the Colorado and Green Rivers. The Green River starts life up in Wyoming in the Grand Tetons (we've been there) and the Colorado starts up in the Rockies (been there too). The two rivers meet in Canyonlands and the Colorado flows on through the Grand Canyon to the gulf of Mexico.



We managed to do a bit of four wheel driving but we didn't venture too far; at over 100F we didn't want to get lost and there weren't always a lot of people about. Still it was good fun.

This weekend just gone we were in Sheridan playing in the Rio Tinto annual golf tournament; not great scoring but a lot of fun. Highlight of the day was Gae getting to put her name on the women's longest drive. Not bad for someone playing only her second round of golf and it was about the 11th hole so a lot of players had gone through before us. Unfortunately she was knocked off by the end but at least she got her name down.

Next weekend I'm going trout fishing in the Big Horn mountains. I'm off to a place called Lake Angeline which is 10,600 ft above sea level; it even has a small glacier feeding the lake. Sounds great and I'm really looking forward to it but the unfortunate part is that we have to walk from 6000 ft; hopefully i'll survive to write another blog.

Once again click on the photo below for more pictures of arches and canyonlands.

Arches and Canyonlands

The Big Apple

Well we finally made it to the big apple and what a great time we had. Doubley good because we were able to spend the week with Anita and Sam who had already been in the US travelling around.

We all arrived in New York at pretty much the same time which worked well. Anita had organised for us to stay at her cousins unit in Tribeca; that's TRIangle BElow CAnal !!! on Manhattan Island. It was good to have the unit to ourselves in a great position just north of the financial district, about 5 minutes walk from Ground Zero. The weather in New York was about the only downside; I think the temperature hovered around 35C every day and the humidity was about 95%. It was really oppressive and down in the subway it was worse.




Day 1 was spent walking around the financial district, Wall St and everything and visiting where the World Trade Centre used to be. Not a lot to see at ground zero except for a lot of construction going on. They have already built the first replacement building and there is still one damaged one in the process of being torn down.




Day 1 was also the day we managed to catch up with some friends. One of the guys who was on the project here, but has now moved home to New York, and his wife, met us for lunch at Robert Deniro's restaurant. Then that night we caught up with friends from Brisbane who have been living in Salt Lake City who were also in NY for a holiday. We took a ride to the 'Top of the Rock' with them. That's the Rockefeller centre tower.




In between catching up with friends we also took the time to visit the restaurant made famous in the Seinfield series.



On days 2 and 3 we went on an open top bus tour of the sites. It was a hop on hop off thing that worked well as it was too hot to do a lot of walking but went to all the main attractions; Times Square, The Empire State Building, Central Park, Fifth Avenue, Broadway etc etc. Great view from the top of the Empire State Building although there was a fair bit of smog about. In the brochures it's called a haze!

Times Square at night was sensory overload with all the electronic billboards, cars, people and the like. It was also really hard to believe all the rubbish that was about as well; it looks like New York has outgrown some of the infrastructure required to support it.




We also managed to take a bus tour across the Brooklyn bridge to Brooklyn. Everyone we met who comes from there is very passionate about the place and they hate going to the 'evil island' of Manhattan. We had to agree that it looked like a nice place to live if you weren't a rock or movie star and could not afford the penthouses in Manhattan.
A boat tour out to the Statue of Liberty was another trip. Our trip didn't include getting off the boat and Sam had wanted to do another trip but unfortunately since 9/11 you haven't been able to get up into the crown so we didn't bother.




After 5 nights in New York we caught a plane up to Niagara Falls and crossed into Canada for couple of nights.
The falls were spectacular and it was nice to see some greenery and open spaces. The weather was also a lot more bearable up there. We managed to fit in quite a few of the sites; Maid of the Mist, Walk behind the Falls, Cable Car across the Rapids; all of which were good fun.
At night they light up the falls with coloured lights which was also good to see.



After Niagara it was back to New York for a night before we said our goodbyes and Anita and Sam took off back to London and we headed west to Gillette.

I've added another album of photo's to look at so click on the M&M below for more pics.

I have to work in Salt Lake City next week so we'll be using the weekend to vist Moab and The Canyons National Parks. Should be great fun.

NY Blog