Tuesday 22 May 2001 - Thursday 24 May 2001

OK, we admit it, Utah really is as stunning as it's been made out. Our journey here, through Nevada and a corner of Arizona, was fairly ordinary until we crossed the Utah state line at which point the quality of the scenery immediately improved 500%. We stayed in a campground in Zion National Park, which had no piped water on the site or showers in the restrooms; however, this was the view from our door ...

The main part of the park is along the floor of the canyon cut out by the Virgin River (that Richard Branson gets into everything), so while you're out you're continually looking up. The presence of the river means that there is lush vegetation everywhere, which makes a wonderful change from the aridity of almost all the rest of the south-west. We had lunch by the river, and Christine was immediately befriended by this squirrel which showed little of the timidity expected from wild creatures ...

... and ate as much of her tortilla as she did. We later saw notices warning against feeding the wildlife, especially the squirrels which can carry bubonic plague, but so far there are no swellings so we think she's got away with it.

There are so many visitors to Zion that most of the scenic drive is off limits to private vehicles and you have to take one of the free shuttle buses, which is no bad thing. Many of the huge rocks and outcroppings you pass have been given more or less meaningful names, such as Weeping Rock ...

... Three Patriarchs, Angels Landing, The Great White Throne ...

... Hurricane Cliffs, the Temple of Sinawava, and Checkerboard Mesa ...

We also saw pink prickly pear flowers, as opposed to the purely yellow ones spotted to date ...

Altogether a lovely place to be. Bryce Canyon National Park tomorrow.

Friday 25 May 2001 - Sunday 27 May 2001

The whole journey to Bryce was a 120 mile scenic drive, including one interesting part where you go through an unlit 1.1 mile tunnel. This was built in the 1920s, and consequently is not wide or high enough for two RVs to pass so traffic has to be stopped in the other direction while the likes of us take up the whole road.

About 20 miles short of Bryce was Red Canyon, an area of bright red sandstone formations ...

... which would get National Park status anywhere in the east of the USA but around here only just makes it as a State Park.

We tried to stay at the famous Ruby's Ranch, Rodeo, Hotel, Trading Post and RV complex but it was full as this weekend is Memorial Day, the American equivalent of the May Bank Holiday, in honour of service personnel killed in wartime. Instead, we went to the very small town of Tropic (it has one public phone which was out of order) just outside the park and stayed at Bryce Pioneer Village, which comprises a bunch of holiday chalets and a few scruffy RV sites. Within the 'village' is the original log cabin ...

... of Ebenezer Bryce, an early settler after whom the canyon is named. His famous quote about the canyon was that it is 'a hell of a place to lose a cow', and looking at it you can see his point ...

This picture, by the way, was taken at sunrise after getting up at 5.20am on the advice of a park ranger. Unfortunately, it looked very little different from any other time of the day, so if you're ever here don't be tempted into a similar foolish action.

Bryce Canyon is completely different from Zion in that you do most of your viewing from round the rim rather than down in the canyon itself, although you can walk down (and of course up again) if you feel so inclined and the views are worth the effort ...

... especially to see the trees which have grown from the foot of the canyon up towards the light ...

There is an area known as Queen Victoria's Garden containing a rock formation which is meant to look like Her Majesty, although we somehow managed to miss her.

We found this park much more attractive than Zion; the gorges there are impressive but very sheer, whereas there is greater variety and more attractive rock formations in Bryce.

While in the area we also visited Kodachrome State Park, where we did a four mile walk in the searing heat but had the pleasure of seeing such joys as the Angel Palace ...

... the Fred Flintstone Spire (a little imagination required here)...

... and the Sego Lily, the state flower of Utah ...

Not quite so overwhelming as Bryce, but definitely worth the effort.

Monday 28 May 2001 - Wednesday 30 May 2001

... which made us feel really at home.

Capitol Reef comprises the area surrounding the Waterpocket Fold, a 150 mile long ridge which was folded over during the period when the Rockies were formed. The fold was originally 7,000' higher than it currently is, and has since been eroded away to its current more modest proportions which nonetheless expose a huge range of strata now at an angle of around 60° ...

As you drive through it you're passing through about 10,000,000 years of geological time per minute, although you can slow this down to  1,000,000 years per minute by walking. Incidentally, the area gets its name from a white rock dome dubbed the Capitol for obvious reasons ...

... and the fact that many of the original settlers were seafaring men who referred to any rocky obstacle as a reef.

This area was settled by early Mormon pioneers who travelled here from Illinois to escape persecution in the mid-19th century. The one-room school at Fruita ...

... was originally run by a 14 year old daughter of one pioneer, and three of her pupils were also her siblings. Although there were only a few families in the valley, they tended to have lots of children and at times there were up to 26 pupils in the school.

Incidentally, I have this theory that the doctrine of polygamy in the 19th century Mormon church was influenced by the huge phallic rock formations which are prevalent in the state and which I believe must have had some subconscious effect on the church elders ...

I rest my case.

On our second day here we drove out into the park and up to Strike Point via a very rough three-mile canyon which was restricted to 4-wheel drive vehicles only. It took about half an hour to drive each way, and I managed to scrape a large chunk out of one of the running boards of the truck, but the view at the end was superb ...

... reminding us of nothing so much as the gallops near Lambourn but on a vastly greater scale. There is also a great sandstone formation called the mummies ...

... (Egyptian, not maternal).

Went on a couple of walks, but in the south-west it's hard work due to the altitude, heat and aridity; here in particular they were worse due to the sand and/or grit underfoot which made you slip back half of each step. However, we did see a chukar, an Asian bird introduced in the 1950s and which is now the third most popular game bird in the state. We couldn't quite understand this, as it walked up close to us, sat down and cooed gently, which didn't seem to pose much of a challenge to the seasoned hunter.

Thursday 31 May 2001 - Saturday 2 June 2001

A long and at times almost vertical trip to Fossil Valley RV Park in Vernal, north-east Utah, a pleasant town near to Dinosaur National Monument which extends into Colorado.

The quarry at Jensen was discovered by Earl Douglass, a paleontologist who was sent out by the Carnegie Museum in 1908 with instructions to 'find some fossils'. He got very lucky by spotting the tail bones of a brontosaurus exposed at the top  of a sandstone ridge, which he subsequently found was absolutely crammed with top-quality fossils, many complete. The National Monument was created in 1915, and removal of fossils was halted in the 1970s with the remainder of the quarry ridge being enclosed and incorporated into an exhibit ...

This area was home to the prehistoric Fremont people (named after the Fremont River which runs through it) for about twelve centuries up to about 1200AD. They seem to have had a different culture from the Anasazi who occupied most of the south-west during this period; they were just hunter gatherers, not warlike, produced only grey unpainted pottery, and had a distinctive style of petroglyphs which are much more sophisticated than those of the Anasazi. As well as the usual animals and astronomical symbols, they often incorporated human figures with trapezoidal bodies and elaborate headgear and earrings ...

They also had a penchant for figures with big feet and knobbly knees ...

The town of Vernal has a great dinosaur museum, with a garden full of life-size reconstructions ...

Our favourite was the mammoth, which at the time of my picture was being patted by a visitor who looked remarkably and appropriately like a Paleolithic hunter ...

Perhaps he was just seeing how much meat there was on it.

Sunday 3 June 2001 - Thursday 7 June 2001

Part of our difficulty was due to the street naming conventions in this state; we had been led to believe that Mormon-built towns were very logical in this area, but it didn't turn out too well. Each town is generally laid out in a north/south east/west grid and has a notional central street on each axis in relation to which the others are named. So ,the first horizontal street north of the central one is known as 100 North, the next as 200 North and so on; furthermore, the western half of it is known as West 100 North to make things easier. Here's a map ...

The central east/west street is South Temple, and the central north/south one is Main Street. OK so  far? Now, a brief glance will show you that the next street up from South Temple, instead of being called 100 North is in fact called North Temple; similarly, the one east of Main Street is called State Street. This happens randomly over the city, not just in the centre; for example 1700 West is actually known and signed in some places as Redwood. However, addresses, directions and maps may refer either to Redwood or 1700 West, so unless you happen to know that they're the same thing it all becomes very confusing. Great idea, shame about the implementation.

Right in the middle of Salt Lake City is Temple Square, the world centre of Mormonism or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It contains the Temple ...

... the Tabernacle with its remarkable organ and excellent acoustics ...

... the Meeting House ...

... and various other buildings and gardens, all beautiful and immaculately kept. The grounds are patrolled by young 'missionaries' from around the world, all female, who at a moment's notice will give you a guided tour followed by a determined attempt to arrange an appointment for someone to come round to your house and talk to you about becoming a Mormon.

Mormonism is a weird and very recent religion. It is basically standard fundamentalist Protestant Christianity, but with some doctrinal differences and the addition of the Book of Mormon (and a couple of lesser works). The Book was apparently discovered by Joseph Smith, the founder, in New York State in the 1820s, written on gold plates in an unknown language but which he managed to translate with divine assistance; shortly afterwards, however, it was conveniently taken back by an angel. Later he made numerous amendments, presumably also with divine assistance as he no longer had the original. As well as religious teachings the book describes the journey of emigrants from Jerusalem to the Americas in about 600BC, and how Jesus appeared in America shortly after his resurrection, although the total lack of similarity between any of the Native American languages and those of the Middle East has to make this whole idea a bit suspect. There are regular showings of a bizarre film called 'Legacy', a biblical epic blockbuster which must have cost a fortune to make containing  a dramatised account of what seem to be Mayan people maintaining a Judeo-Christian religion and meeting Jesus.

The Mormons made their way to Utah in 1847 after various attempts at settling in Ohio, Missouri and Illinois , in all of which they were persecuted; Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were killed by a mob in Illinois in 1844. Brigham Young (see picture - nice beard), the head of the Twelve Apostles of the church, led the migration and became president and prophet in 1847. Over the early years it shed a multitude of splinter groups, most of which withered away although the main one, the Reorganized Church, now has about 250,000 members. Polygamy was officially renounced in 1890 (although it is still unofficially practiced today); this was for political reasons rather than a fundamental change of heart, and was due to the church's desire for Utah to be granted the status of a state which happened in 1896.

Strange as some aspects of Mormonism are (although no stranger than most religions, I suppose), there must be something attractive about it as there are now several million Mormons worldwide including 70% of the population of Utah, and it's still growing due to its active evangelical activities.

As well as being a pleasant and uncrowded town, Salt Lake City is a great place for doing genealogical research. The Church maintains huge archives of family history records from many countries, primarily because of their desire for everyone who has ever lived to become a Mormon (one of their less appealing activities is to baptise people posthumously into the religion, which in my view shows less tolerance and respect for other religions than they outwardly profess). Christine did a fair amount of research into one branch of her family who emigrated to the USA some time ago.

On the Great Salt Lake itself is Saltaire, which used to be a popular holiday destination but which is now a sad shadow of its former self. This is partly due to the fact that the lake, as well as being ugly and very saline, now has a pervasive unpleasant chemical smell. The only remaining building of any size is a largely empty concrete warehouse with onion-shaped domes reminiscent of Brighton Pavilion ...

... containing a souvenir shop, a cafe (closed) and very little else, although it is sometimes used as a concert venue.

As an aside, while in SLC I finally managed to get some touch-up paint (four colours) for the truck, although they had to be mixed specially. My previous difficulties were due to the fact that its custom colour scheme comprises one GM, one Ford and two Chrysler shades, which explained why I hadn't been able to identify three of them in the Chevrolet shade cards.

Got a download of MSN's latest access software which they implied was essential. After installation I discovered that, while it was slightly easier to use for people in a single location, it was totally unusable by people such as ourselves who are mobile and sometimes need to use phone cards to log in. This took a long phone call to Microsoft support (waiting time to speak to a human being 25 minutes; they must have been deluged with calls from people in a similar position), a full download of the previous version and a complete reinstallation to sort out. Another well thought out 'upgrade'; thanks, Bill.

Friday 8 June 2001

On our way north we stopped off at Bear Lake ...

We stayed at Fay's RV Park, Garden City which has all of nine sites, our smallest so far. It's a pretty spot but at a height of about 8,000' and so pretty chilly for much of the year. Garden City's main product is raspberries, which are advertised relentlessly for miles around; I had a raspberry shake which turned out to be solid ice cream whipped up with raspberries, and thus not drinkable with the straw supplied.

Tomorrow, Idaho.