Park Hopping

As I write this, we are sat in the queue for a campsite in Zion National Park. It’s first come first served so hopefully we are near enough to the front to get a spot. But Zion is for another time as I am getting ahead of myself, so it’s back a few days to Ouray……

Leaving Ouray without having had our American breakfast – Hoff is desperate for an eggs benedict – we wound our way up into the valley and onto what is colloquially known as the million dollar highway. It’s easy to see why – not only is it obvious that it must have cost them a fair few millions to build, but the views are also spectacular. We hit the first plateau around 10,000 feet up and were greeted by a beautiful alpine scene of mountains towering over crystal clear lakes, reflecting the yellow, browns and greens of the autumn leaves. We’d heard that ‘fall’ in this part of the Country is beautiful but as with many vistas in the US, words just can’t describe them and the views were quite spectacular.

We climbed our way all the way up to 12000 feet and crossed into the next county, heading down towards Silverton and then across to Durango, where we were aiming for Walmart – not only for a resupply but also for free WiFi, which has been harder to come across than we were expecting. It’s sad that we’ve had to spend some of the trip chasing internet connections but things have been busier than expected (hence the reason we are sat in a queue right now) so we’ve had to try and book ahead where possible. We’ve also needed WiFi to stay in touch with family and friends, and plan other parts of our trip in the coming months.

Hoff also took the opportunity to get her nails done! Whilst she was doing that I stayed in the RV, had a coffee and read my book. It was the first time we’d spent time apart since arriving here in early September and actually we both enjoyed the hour of silence. We had been advised by numerous seasoned travellers that an important part of keeping a healthy relationship whilst on a long trip is spending time apart and doing your own thing. We hadn’t really thought much about it until then as it sounds a bit weird, but having done it I think we will add some more breaks into our plans in the coming eight months.

Fuelled up, with extra stores (and freshly painted nails) we left Durango and headed towards Mesa Verde. We’d hoped to see a bit of Durango itself but parking was a nightmare so we pressed on. After booking a tour at the visitors centre outside MV park, we found a spot to camp nesr the park and settled in for the night, ready for an early morning exit.

Morning came and after a quick workout (using the children’s play area as a gym setup) we drove to Mesa Verde. MV is a plateau on top of a high mountainous area where in the 1300s, Native American tribes built homes underneath the rocks in a number of valleys. The homes, made of rock, are all still there, and many in original condition, which makes for a very interesting hike. Our tour took us close to the remaining village and we also did a quick loop of the nearby canyon to get our steps up.

Later that afternoon we said goodbye to Mesa Verde and drove on towards the Monument Valley. Having been there before I was keen for Hoff to see the place. The roads took us across what can only be described as cowboy country mixed with the surface of Mars. It was pretty spectacular. Taking a right off the main highway we ventured into the unknown as Hoff had found a random campsite on her map. Pulling in we were met with a beautiful bend in the nearby river and views that were spectacular in the end of day light. We spent a very windy night in the RV – windy outside I hasten to add – and then turned in for the night as we were planning to get up early to get to Monument Valley first thing.

After a hasty breakfast and cup of tea we were on the road towards MV. We were treated to a beautiful sunrise before we stopped off to take in the famous backdrop as featured in Forrest Gump (and many other films). Dodging traffic we got our obligatory shot then headed on into the park proper. At this point I will confess to being very disappointed. We had to pay $20 just to get into the park – our park card didn’t work here – and then got told our RV wasn’t allowed any further. Tours were ridiculously priced – the locals had a monopoly – so we mooched around the museum before calling it quits and getting on the road again towards the Grand Canyon.

The drive to the GC was the toughest yet. Despite the roads being smooth as silk, the wind really picked up and it made driving Ronda like flying a kite. Three hours of buffeting later and we thankfully entered the park, only to be told that the campgrounds were all full. We took a gamble and chanced our luck at one of the Park Service campgrounds and managed to bag a spot where someone had cancelled last minute, so after a walk around the visitors centre, where Hoff got her first view of the canyon, we turned in early ready for our big hike the next day.

Rising bright and early – both because we were off on a hike and because we had to leave our camping spot – we started our trek down into the canyon proper. After a good coup,e of hours of switch backs we made it to the plateau where we were rewarded with views over the Colorado river below. After hearing another fellow walker say they’d almost fallen off into the ridiculously big drop below – despite walking down almost 1km the river was still a fair way below us – we decided to take our lunch with us and start the hike back up. It was a fair old slog – the old saying of what goes up, must come down, was reversed in our case and we had to get all the way back up to the canyon rim, but we made it in time to grab a well deserved pizza before settling in to an evening of beer, wine, kindle and the West Wing to recoup our strength.

Our next few stops are going to be exciting – aiming for Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon and then Zion Nation Park, but that’s another tale that I’ll leave Hoff to tell.

Ps – no sign of Mr Mouse recently so we think he’s moved on to easier targets!