More of the vacation meander

We had a great time in Moab, Merewyn and Josh's climbing sparked a theme for Liam and Charles which continued most of the trip. Arches National Park was spectacular and Junior Ranger badges were completed. While the weather was clear there was dfineately ice in the wind when we went for a short walk to view some of the arches. Mostly we looked from the warmth of the car.
We visited one of the areas of Canyonlands NP and viewed the canyon created by the Green River the climbing the day before was on the Colorado River, I've found this on the web which is of geological interest.
Many National Parks have campgounds and they are mostly in very scenic locations, Canyonlands one was nice, we had lunch there, in the snow.

Our initial plan was to camp in Valley of the Gods, but we revised this plan and found a motel in Bluff (mentioned in a book by Tony Hilleman I discovered in when I read that far in Tucson on the way home.) We used their hot tub and noticed that when the water splashed on the ground, as it does with small boys in a full hot tub, it froze.

We drove though Valley of the Gods the next day awand also saw Goosenecks state park and Monument Valley, another lunch picnic in snow provided the boys with a sledding oportunity on a found mirror. It was funny picnicing in snow in the campground which we had needed our mats because the ground was so hot.

Big drive to Williams foor Grand Canyon, we decided to walk down one of the paths into the Canyon, Cedar Ridge,which was excellent, and gave quite a different perspective. Liam walked all the way there and back, doing math squences with Aunty Mere on the way up.

Spent another night in Williams and went driving around back roads before managing our firsts night camping. We had a campfire and enormous steaks for dinner,then Josh managed two enthisiastic boys and prickly pear roasting, Madeline was very keen on eating the results, hard to describe really, kinda slimey not much flavour.

Next morning involved dropping Merewyn and Josh off for their return trip to the north. Madeline was not impressed about loosing her travelling companions, but slept most of the way to Las Vegas, waking at the Hoover dam.


We stayed on 'the strip' in Las Vegas and had two nights in the city before heading for Beatty on our way into Death Valley. our first stop in Death Valley was Scotty's Castle where the boys played in the spring and Liam managed to fall in!