This, dear reader, is a small summary of a road trip in the South West United States, a few photos from our driving holiday. Travelling the tourist traps including Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California. A couple of hints for you not found in any tourist book…
- Romantic visions of driving on Route 66 have been completely dismissed by how mind numbingly boring it was to actually drive a part of it. Even the signs on Route 66 urged you not to stop but just carry on.
- Gas stations in America are the greatest source of food and fizzy pop.
- Friendly dogs at gas stations will follow you across 6 lanes of main interstate traffic, mainly because you are the greatest source of food.
- Americans cannot make tea but make up for it with corn dogs.
- It is easy to get particularly sunburned in Monument Valley where there is no shade.
- American customs, immigration and TSA officers obviously think a pasty faced sunburned Englishman looks like a terrorist and should be searched at every opportunity.
- Flagstaff (Lowell Observatory) has great dark skies.
- Las Vegas is over rated.
- Meteor Crater is better than expected.
- The Grand Canyon is big, really big.
- The Hoover Dam is an impressive engineering marvel.
- British Awfulways, formerly known as British Airways, will forget to feed, water and entertain you, either that or they just don’t care. I am not yet sure which it is.
Saying that, the South West United States has a lot to offer and absolutely should be on your travel bucket list.
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- Abandoned car at the Painted Desert at the site of the old route 66 parallel to Interstate 40
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- Black Canyon and narrow river like portion of Lake Mohave
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- Twilight moon by the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
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- A baby Brown bear cub at Bearizona wildlife park.
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- Sam in the mining tunnels of Calico ghost town. A pretty rubbish old time western experience. Can’t believe they charged us for going in. Don’t be sorry to miss it.
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- Controlled burning on the east rim drive of the Grand Canyon. the road is closed off due to the smoke.
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- Not exactly America, but we flew over Greenland on the way. It looks stunning,
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- 200,000 gallon aquarium and pool at the Golden Nugget hotel casino. This could only be bettered by a James Bond baddie style trap that releases sharks into the pool.
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- The many varied colours of the Grand Canyon just before sunset.
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- A 30 second exposure showing The Milky Way and the naked eye visible Andromeda Galaxy (as marked). Taken in Williams, Arizona.
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- Lions at the MGM hotel in Vegas. Don’t like seeing lions in a glass cage even if its for only a couple of hours. No wonder a trainer got attacked in 2010.
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- A wide angle view of Monument Valley from Goulding’s Lodge.
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- Mugshot near Black Canyons
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- Forget any romantic visions of driving on Route 66. It’s pretty boring. Unless you are on a chopper/Harley Davidson. Which we weren’t.
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- The Painted Desert. Comprised of stratified layers of easily erodible siltstone, mud and shale of the Triassic Chinle formation
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- The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. Fine grained rock layers contain abundant iron and manganese compounds which provide the pigments for the various colours of the region.
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- Paris hotel on the strip in Las Vegas.
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- Petrified logs in the Petrified Forest. These fallen logs are from the late Triassic period approx 225 million years ago.
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- A close up of petrified wood in the Petrified Forest National Park.
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- San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm. This is about the only interesting thing on the drive from Phoenix to L.A. It’s also the worlds most straightest and boring road.
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- Downtown Scottsdale where almost every shop is the same and they all know how to charge
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- Stratosphere Hotel in Vegas. there are fairground rides on the top that your sister will bottle out of.
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- Once a tree littered flood plain in the late Triassic period. Sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the Chinle formation.
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- Nearing the way to Monument Valley, Welcome to Utah.
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- Wigwam Motel on Route 66 at Holbrook, Arizona.
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- Hand blown glass flower art work chandelier called the Flori di Como inside the Bellagio hotel
