Day Fourteen - return to Joshua Tree

I got up super early as I really just didn't like the Hotel St Michael in Prescott. Apparently it has a ghost that hangs out in the elevator or something. That makes sense, since the elevator seems to be about 100 years old - it's one of those where you have to open the door and then slide back one of those wire grills to get in. When I first pressed the button, I expected the door to open automatically and I stood there like an idiot for about 10 seconds before I realised it wasn't going to do it for me.

Anyway, I drove out of Prescott in the dark, which was a bit sad because it looked like the scenery was magnificent. The sun didn't get up until I dropped down onto the plains below Prescott.



As soon as I got onto I-10, I knew the driving would get annoying, and it did. Since I was ahead of schedule again, I decided to detour through Joshua Tree. I've already been through the park and camped there but I've never really looked around the southern part of the park which is part of the lower Colorado desert, as opposed to the higher Mohave desert in which the eponymous Joshua Tree is found. I was going to do a fairly long walk from the Cottonwood springs but when I started wandering around the springs/oasis area, it was so fascinating that I ended up just hanging out in the area for a couple of hours. In the usual US national park way, there were a couple of cars in the car park and a few people within 100 meters of their cars, but no one further afield.

As well as a whole host of birds (list coming, Suzi!), I saw a tarantula, lizards, antelope squirrels and a whole bunch of really weird cacti and other plants.




I drove north out of the park, passing the cholla garden



and stopping to let a couple of kit foxes cross the road. Once out of the park, I joined the LA rat race on the freeway. Luckily the traffic was pretty good going my way and I got in to Santa Monica in a decent time.

This is my last night in the US and my trip is pretty much over, apart from driving to the airport tomorrow. It's been an awesome experience and a real privilege to see the US from one side to the other. Two weeks ago I was shivering in Boston - now I'm walking round LA in my t-shirt and turning the a/c on in the car to avoid overheating.

It's been a fascinating time to be stuck in a car listening to satellite radio for two weeks. There is no doubt that this is a seriously troubled country. Take a random sample of the ads played on the radio to get a sense of what is going on: "turn your debt into wealth!", "re-finance your mortgage with us!", "start your new career working from home!", "buy my new book that explains the 10 secrets to not getting fired!". The shows telling you how to make a meal to feed your family of 4 for less than $10 are starting to convince me that the great depression really is coming back.

Of all the places I've been on this trip, it's been the south west (New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona) that have been by far the coolest. It's something to do with the lack of hideous over-development that plagues a lot of the rest of the country but also the incredible scenery and the amazing history that still seems very relevant (did you know that the Navajo nation has 250,000 inhabitants?).

Travel stats coming soon when I get my GPS out of the car.

Notes for hotels

Based on 12 hotels in 13 days:

1. Please have your cleaners turn off the radio alarm so that it doesn't awaken the next guest (i.e. me) at 5am.

2. Put real glasses in the room, not plastic cups shrink wrapped in plastic.

3. Check the freaking lights so that your guests don't have to hunt around in the dark swapping light globes.

4. Make sure that your keys only open one room so that guests aren't disturbed by drunken frat boys barging into their room trying to find an extra bed for their drunken friend in the middle of the night.

Day Thirteen - more fun in Monument Valley

I got up early because I really wanted to get down into the valley and walk around by myself. Here's what I saw from my hotel window at about 7am just before I left for my hike:



The two mesas on the left are called the Mittens, for obvious reasons. I think the other one is Castle rock.

It turns out that I needn't have bothered getting up early as there were only about 5 people staying in the hotel and none of them went on the walk anyway. But it was pretty cool being down in the valley as the sun rose and it was incredible being alone as I walked around the Mittens. It feels a bit like being on the moon. There's absolute silence and nothing in view but desert and these giant monuments looming all around you.



The floor of the desert is really fragile - there's a thin crust that is apparently biologically active, the occasional yucca, juniper or sagebrush and lots of sand and rocks. I would have liked to wander off the track and explore the desert a bit, but it is very easy to damage the desert environment even with footprints.



I did see quite a few animal tracks, mostly little rodents but probably some larger things as well - coyotes or even bobcats. I can't recommend this experience - walking by yourself through Monument Valley - highly enough. It's truly one of the most incredible places I've ever been.

But eventually I had to pick my jaw up and get back on the road. If I'd driven along the highway to the south on any other day, I would have been stopping every 5 minutes to take a picture. But after Monument Valley, you get a bit blase. I did stop just outside of Flagstaff to do a short walk up to the base of a cinder cone from a recent volcanic eruption.



Once again, I was the only person in the park and I bumped into the ranger on my way around the trail. He was a bit apologetic about the fact that you can't climb the cone anymore. It's basically just a big pile of ashes and pumice and hikers were seriously eroding it. I wasn't at all sad, as climbing a giant pile of hot sand isn't my idea of fun.

Flagstaff seemed really cool - a pretty laid back and hip town in an amazing setting, but I wanted to get a few more miles on the odometer so I continued on to Prescott. Lonely Planet recommended a historical hotel downtown where I am now. They've steered me pretty right with a bunch of other places, so I forgive them for this recommendation. The Hotel St Michael is on the historic drinking street and it feels a bit like a place you check into when you are too drunk to make it home for the night. Anyway, I'm not going to stay here long. I think I'm going to push on all the way to LA tomorrow so I can relax and not be under any pressure to drive on my last day.

Day Twelve - a day of superlatives

I left Durango early as I knew there would be a lot to see on the road to Monument Valley. Actually, that turned out to be a pretty huge understatement.

My first stop was Mesa Verde. It's an incredible place - a massive mesa with the largest and best preserved Anasazi/Pueblo cave dwellings around. I'm not normally into these highly structured and managed park experiences but the huge advantage of coming here in winter is that there is no one else around. I was entirely on my own as I did the drive through the park. It's an amazingly atmospheric place and I was glad that there weren't any tour buses or crowds to blow the atmosphere.

I even took the guided walk with the ranger, who takes you to the one "house" that is open. The highlight was climbing down into a "Kiva" or underground room. It was quite a relief from the chill outside. I can see why the Anasazi moved off the top of the mesa into the caves. I didn't take many pictures of the ruins themselves - I'm sure they've been photographed into oblivion by now. But here's what it looks like up on top of the mesa - not too hopitable at this time of year. Yucca seem to thrive though.



I didn't think I would top the Mesa Verde experience but I decided to pull over when I saw a trailhead a bit further down the road. This walk, picked at random, turned out to be one of the best hikes I've ever done.



Around every corner was another incredible vista: the ruins of an old cave house



or a bizarre rock formation.



Big lizards ran up vertical sandstone walls, eagles circled overhead and shy little birds hopped around in the sagebrush and yucca. As for people - I saw one other person out for a walk with her dogs. I could have spent a whole day exploring but I had to get back on the road after a couple of hours. I'm definitely going back though.

To one of the best walks I've ever done, Monument Valley added the most incredible scenery I've ever seen in my life and the scariest drive. It's impossible to photograph or explain the overwhelming nature of the valley. It's just one bizarre and incredible vista after another: the "Gooseneck" bends of the San Juan river; a rock balancing on a giant pillar straight out of Roadrunner cartoons; incredible colours and textures everywhere you look.



Everything is out of scale. It's disorienting and overwhelming, particularly when you are driving a little rental car by yourself. I can't imagine why there aren't more people here in winter. Getting the place to yourself is incredible.

The last thing I did today, on the advice of the ranger from Mesa Verde, was drive up out of the valley on the "Moki Dugway". This is a road that somehow ascends one of the cliffs above the San Juan goosenecks. As I drove towards it, I simply couldn't imagine or perceive how the road would get up this near vertical, crumbling mass of sandstone and shale. The answer is: by switchbacking across the cliff face and not being afraid of massive drop offs.



The signposted speed limit is 15mph and I think it's too high. I'm not ashamed to say that I was shitting myself, particularly on the way back down. One false move or a failed brake line and you are toast on this road. There's a nice car wreck sitting on one of the scree slopes to remind you of the consequence of failure.

Tonight I'm staying in a brand new Navajo hotel right in the middle of the valley. To complete a day of superlatives, it has the most outrageous views of any hotel I've ever seen or can imagine.

Day Eleven - A slow and muddy day in Durango

Just a short drive today, about four hours up to Durango. Since I've still got a bit of time to kill, I decided to detour up into Colorado and stay at a historic hotel that is highly recommended in Lonely Planet.

The drive was worth the detour in itself. The first hour I was all by myself on a road west of Taos. That was great until I got to Tres Piedres - a bunch of houses at a junction. The road I wanted to continue on was closed and there was no explanation of a possible detour and no one around in the "town". I flipped a coin and headed north. Luckily, it paid off and I managed to get back onto a road that was open heading west through ranch country.

The road climbed up through a pass (presumably the pass to the South was snowed in and shut for the season).



I got into Durango around mid-day and decided to go for a hike outside town. I found a walk on the internet that was easily accessible from the hotel. It was described as "steep in places" - turned out this was a bit of an understatement. The walk was probably pretty easy in summer. But at this time in winter there was plenty of snow which combined with the bright sun to create a real quagmire. I'd been trudging up through the snow, slush and mud for about half an hour when I turned a corner and saw the ridge to the summit.



The rest of the walk was along a knife edge ridge coated in a greasy mud. The occasional patches of slushy icy snow where a welcome relief. On one side of the ridge was a 45 degree shale slope dropping about 100 meters and on the other side a snow slope of the same dimensions. Being entirely by myself, I was quite keen not to slip off either side.

Here's the view from the top, showing the next peak along the ridge.



and here's the view back to Durango. You can just see my car at the end of one of the streets.



Here are my boots at the end of the walk. The yaktrax were useful but got pretty clogged up with mud and almost more of an impediment than a help.



Back at the hotel, watched the superbowl in the hotel bar being served by waitresses in "authentic" Western outfits (i.e. stockings and garters, the whole outfit). Great game.

(Blog post was delayed due to no internet access in Durango).