16th October 2013

Arrived back safely to the UK after our "not quite" the National Parks of America tour. Better luck next year !

15th October 2013

We finished the holiday with visits to more Las Vegas hotels including New York, New York and the
Luxor followed by photographs at the Las Vegas sign.

We then returned to the Stratosphere for the all you can eat buffet as if we need more food !

It was then onto the airport for the flight back home. 

14th October 2013

This is the last full day of the holiday and we are visiting Zion National Park. This is quite different to Bryce and the Grand Canyon but very good in its own way.

It was then onto the bright lights of Las Vegas, our third trip to this mad, mad city.

After a quick wash, we rushed off to try to get tickets to see Cirque du Soleil's production of "Love" ,featuring the songs of the Beatles, at the Mirage. We were in luck, tickets were still available but at a price, 125 dollars each ! However, this proved money well spent as the show was great from beginning to end. 

13th October 2013

Today we hit Bryce Canyon and did a 2 mile walk around the rim from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point.

Bryce is quite different to the Grand Canyon , lots of "sticky up rocks" called Hoodoos. In many ways the views are more spectacular.

The weather here is forever changing.Our walk started with howling winds, followed by bright sunshine and then would you believe snow !We completed the walk with 45 minutes to spare.

When we returned to our hotel we found the queue for the restaurant was so long that we decided to buy two microwave meals from the store to eat in our room with cake and beer. At least we saved 50 dollars ! We also discovered two great shows on American TV, Pawn Stars ( note the spelling ! ) and Tattoo Ink. Have a look on Sky, I'm sure they show them.

11th October 2013

We set off today for a new hotel and a four wheel drive through Monument Valley. The road we took has been used in many films particularly Forest Gump and a sign has been erected to that effect.

This journey was through Navajo Indian territory and they were our guides for the day.

The ride was very bumpy but again we saw some stunning scenery and the weather was definitely getting warming.

10th October 2013

We set out in driving rain under dark skies to visit the four corners monument, the only place in America where you can touch four states at the same time i.e

Utah, Colorado , Arizona and New Mexico.

Lots of photos of people in strange positions !

We then travelled through Navajo Indian country to see more canyons and breath taking views whilst dodging rain, sun and snow all within a few minutes of each other !

9th October2013

Today we visited Dead Horse Point in Utah, a State not National park and saw our first Canyon of this trip.The views were stunning and we got to walk one and a half miles around the rim.

We recreated the scene from 127 hours were the climber traps his arm between two rocks and has to cut his arm off with a knife ( we didn't do that bit but the photos looked scary !)

In the evening we went to Shiloh's restaurant where we had a delicious meal of Elk steak. Yummy !