Utah rocks

The first stop on our tour of canyon country was Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. And what do you suppose might be the main attraction of Arches NP? You guessed it – arches! Over 2000 natural sandstone arches have been documented in the compact area of the park's 116 square miles. Though all of the arches we saw seemed improbably precarious, our favourite, the appropriately named Delicate Arch, took the biscuit, standing 150 feet tall and teetering on a ledge between two canyons.

Our second favourite was flimsy-looking Landscape Arch, standing 200 feet tall and 300 feet wide. It has been heard groaning recently and large chunks have fallen from the underside in the last few years. Somehow, I don't think it will be here if we return when we're old and grey (I guess I should say “greyer” in Andy's case!).

Indeed, the arches don't last forever - the space at the top of this photo had been spanned by Wall Arch until a couple of weeks before our visit!

Just a few miles up the road from Arches lies the entrance to the less-frequently visited Canyonlands National Park. Known as “Island in the Sky”, the section of the park we drove to is a remote and parched high mesa. Standing as close as you dare to the mesa rim, you can gaze down a 1500 foot vertical drop to a shelf of hard rock called the White Rim, which surrounds the mesa (on which you can actually drive the 100 mile circumference of the mesa, if you have a 4x4). The White Rim is then penetrated by canyons of even greater depth, carved by the mighty Colorado and Green Rivers. The rivers are so far beneath, you will struggle to see them from the mesa top even with binoculars. The hellish and impenetrable maze that lies below is of a magnitude difficult to comprehend, especially for a couple of hicks from the Fens!

While we were in Canyonlands, we undertook what I can, without reservation, say was the hardest hike of my life. Although the trail was only 8 miles in length, to say that no two adjacent footsteps were on an even level would be an understatement! The circular route, which descended all the way to the White Rim, and then climbed back up to the mesa-top, required us to scramble up and down precipitous piles of boulders for a good proportion of the hike. And by gum, was it hot! The photo captures my “we are not amused” repose, about half way around the trail, having only just made it in one piece down the rock pile in the background! As with all hard hikes though, we crossed the finishing line with a warm feeling of triumph. However, this time, when we finally finished the trail, we still had 7 miles to cycle uphill to get back to the campsite. And to top it all off, when we got back to the campsite, we agreed to share our pitch with a Mormon couple (because they had driven 50 miles from Moab, only to find the campsite full), and they turned out to be the most dim-witted and irritating people in the world ever!

From Canyonlands, we headed south and east, to dip into Colorado again. A stunning 200-mile scenic drive took us from Cortez, through the much beautified former gold-mining towns of Durango and Silverton, over to the world-class ski resort of Telluride, before looping back to Cortez. We got to see the famous narrow gauge Durango to Silverton steam railway at both ends, but unfortunately our plans did not permit us to actually take the ride.

The highlight of the loop was a hike near Silverton, which took us up to Ice Lake, which lies at around 12,400 feet above sea level. Although strenuous, it was so cool, clear and simply beautiful up there, I don't think I have ever enjoyed a walk more.

From Cortez, at the end of our loop, we entered Mesa Verde National Park, where the Ancestral Pueblo Indians built many of their now iconic cliff dwellings in the 13th century AD. Having lived in the area for many centuries, the Ancestral Puebloans mysteriously left and moved south just 80 years after completion of the cliff dwellings. Building pueblos in rock crevices provided the Indians with a degree of shelter from the summer heat and winter snows, as well as protection from rival tribes. The crevices are formed by seep springs, so there was also a supply of that most scarce of resources – water.

Due to their archaeological importance, entry to the major cliff dwellings was by ranger-led tour only. Gaining access to Balcony House, one of the the largest pueblos was no trivial matter – it was built for defence. It involved climbing a 30 foot ladder, crawling through tunnels and scaling a cliff wall with hand and foot-holes dug out.

After Mesa Verde, we headed back into Utah, to drive across some of the most awesome scenery in the world, around Monument Valley and Glen Canyon (but unfortunately our photographic skills are not equally awesome!). Although it fails to do justice to the splendour of the place, this photo shows the immense Lake Powell, which was controversially created in the 1950s by the Glen Canyon Dam of the Colorado River.

One of our favourite spots within the geological masterpiece that is southern Utah was this wavy-walled slot canyon in the remote and inaccessible Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It's just as well it didn't rain – tourists are washed away in flash floods in such slots with alarmingly frequency!

Many more slot canyons were to be found and explored at our next port-of-call, the popular and relatively tiny Bryce Canyon National Park. Reminiscent of the Badlands, which we visited way back in South Dakota, Bryce is basically the product of erosion on drugs. Just mental – 'nuff said!

Next on the whistlestop tour of the craziest rocks on Earth will be Zion and Grand Canyon National Parks.

We have more wheels

After our jaunt into the mountains of central Idaho, we hit Interstate 84, heading for Salt Lake City, Utah. On entering Utah through the desert and salt flats in the north west corner of the state, we paid a visit to Golden Spike National Monument where, in 1869, the Union Pacific Railroad from the east coast joined up with the Central Pacific Railroad from the west coast, forming the world's first transcontinental railway. The railroads were joined with two ceremonial golden spikes, marking an event that changed the face of the American West forever. The railroad brought floods of European settlers and ultimately spelt the end of the traditional way of life for Native Americans. We arrived just in time to see Jupiter, the first engine to traverse the continent chug up and down on the short stretch of now defunct railway that remains.

The state of Utah and particularly its capital, Salt Lake City, are inextricably linked to the Mormon Church (or more properly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints). For the benefit of the Brits reading this, who like us, were ignorant of all things Mormon, there follows a potted history. Mormonism began in the 1820s, when New York farmer Joseph Smith experienced a series of visitations from an angel named Moroni, who imparted to him the word of god written in an ancient language upon golden tablets. Using the “stone spectacles” provided my Moroni, Smith translated the tablets, after which the angel and the tablets disappeared, never to be seen again.

Published in 1830 as the Book of Mormon, Smith's translation recounts the supposed arrival of the first Americans from the Old World some 4000 years ago, and the teachings of Jesus Christ in America. Harassed and persecuted, followers of the new Mormon sect left New York in search of their “Zion”. After 16 years of being pushed from place to place, the band arrived at the remote and unwanted Great Salt Lake. Joseph Smith, having been murdered en route in Illinois, had been succeeded as leader of the church by Brigham Young, who founded Salt Lake City as the centre of the Mormon Faith. At the centre of the city lies Temple Square, where the most important Mormon buildings stand. The photo shows Assembly Hall, where services were held until the congregation grew too large and the main temple was built. Incidentally, "gentiles" (i.e. non-mormons) are not allowed inside Mormon temples.

Voluntary missionary work is an important aspect of the church, with young male missionaries (“elders”) and young female missionaries (“sisters”) being sent all over the world to recruit converts. Indeed, the strategy has been highly successful, the church having doubled in size in the past 20 years to over 11 million members (with 1.5 million resident in Utah). While the Mormons run missions globally, they do not neglect the heathens on their doorstep, i.e. tourists like us in Salt Lake City! We were shown around the conspicuously opulent buildings of Temple Square by two friendly sisters, who while giving an engaging historic tour, needed only the least prompt to extol the superiority of the Mormon theology. The highlight of the visit was the daily organ recital in the Tabernacle, which is famous for its awesome acoustics (as well as the Mormon Tabernacle choir, which unfortunately did not perform on the day we visited).

Overall, Mormonism struck me as a very American religion. Not satisfied with the stuffy, distant religions of the Old World, the Mormons have constructed a theology with special relevance to the people of the New World. Impatient with the arduous time-scales of the old religion, Mormonism has modern day apostles and a prophet, through whom God communicates with the masses twice a year. As saving souls is big business in the US, the Mormons are also savvy salesmen: the excellent (and free) visitor facilities allowed us a glimpse into the squeaky-clean world of Mormon family values and charitability, without being pushy or preachy (had I thought my soul needed saving, I might have considered the Mormons more than capable!). In fact, as I walked away I realised that given the distance of the New World from the Old (both geographical and social), it would be surprising if the birth of America hadn't spawned a new religion.

Although the Mormons did not get our souls, they did get our admiration. They chose a beautiful part of the world in which to build an impressive empire. As we headed south and east to begin our tour of the parks of southern Utah, we were awed by canyons, mesas and mountains at each turn.

Although we had intended to head for Arches National Park first, when we arrived at nearby Green River, we saw some bicycles advertised in the local paper, across the state line in Grand Junction, Colorado. As we'd been hoping to pick up some cheap mountain bikes, and southern Utah where we are headed is premium biking territory, we decided to check out the Grand Junction bikes. Though we didn't actually buy the bikes we'd seen advertised, we managed to pick out two from a yard sale - $30 for the pair (with some spanners thrown in too)!! As you might imagine, given the price, they were pretty much a pair of munters, in need of some renovation.

They are almost identical to each other, and are actually the same models (though a little older) as our bikes at home – Specialized Rockhoppers, so Andy knew exactly what was needed. We converted a campsite in the nearby Colorado State Monument into a workshop with a view, and with a few parts from Walmart (is there anything they don't sell?), and some elbow grease, the two red devils were gradually made roadworthy.

Using PVC plumbing pipes, Andy even constructed a roof rack to carry the red devils on the top of the van!

After a couple of days graft on the bikes, we eventually got time to tour the monument! It basically consists of a high mesa (plateau) above the Colorado river that has eroded to form a variety of weird and wonderful rock sculptures.

Our next stops will be Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, back in Utah, where we expect to see a load more weird rocks!

Titties and tatties

One can only assume that the French explorers who named the mountain “Grand Teton” were without the company of females for some time, as its resemblance to a “big breast” (ie. the English translation of "Grand Teton") was pretty much lost on us. Nonetheless, the splendid anatomy of Grand Teton and her neighbours provided happy hiking and sight-seeing for us for four days.

The Teton range rises abruptly from the floor of the glacier-scoured valley known as Jackson Hole. The peaks themselves are accessible only to experienced rock-climbers, which of course we are not, so we instead satisfied ourselves with walks on the lower slopes around Jackson Lake and Jenny Lake. The most pleasing walk took us into the secluded Cascade Canyon, giving us a peek at Grand Teton herself, who is mostly hidden behind lesser peaks from the main Jackson Hole valley.

On a tip-off from a ranger, just before sunset on our last night in the Tetons, we drove a couple of miles along a dirt road to the Snake River, with the intention of ogling some beaver. However, while we were walking down to the beaver lodge we met a very amiable local man with a film camera. It turns out this guy has spent his whole life filming wildlife in the Tetons, and he actually shot the beaver sequences with David Attenborough in the BBC's “The Life of Mammals”, at this very spot. He was such an interesting chap that by the time we finished talking to him it was almost too dark to see the beavers! Nevertheless, we did get down to the beaver pond with enough light to make out the furry little torpedoes zooming around, knawing at trees and tending to the dam (unfortunately it was too dark for photos!).

The following day we indulged in some retail therapy in the town of Jackson, at the southern end of the Tetons. Jen got some new walking boots, and our bed got an extra thick blanket – the nights are beginning to get mighty chilly at this elevation! The lovely town of Jackson is a year-round sportsman's and naturalist's Mecca; the four antler arches in the town square attesting to the huge number of elk in the vicinity.

From Jackson we took something of a detour from our intended route south into Utah, instead heading west into Idaho. We had been persuaded of the charms of Idaho by Mike and Jason, some friendly fellows we'd met in Yellowstone. There are two facts that I think well reflect the character of Idaho. Firstly, that the name “Idaho” is completely made up. An early settler fabricated the word, took a liking to it and told everyone that it was the Shoshone Indian name for the region. The second fact, of which you should apparently already be aware, is that Idaho is famous for potatoes.

Accordingly, an attraction we found on our second day in the state was the Idaho Potato Museum. Although some of the data presented were perhaps a little dodgy (like the statistic in the above photo!), the museum was unexpectedly fascinating, with such marvels as the world's largest potato crisp on display. We also got a free box of dehydrated hash brown mix each - hoorah for free stuff!

The second and even more fascinating stop on our Idahoan Odyssey was the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-1) laboratory, now turned museum, where usable electricity was first generated from nuclear fission in the early 1950s. The lab is appropriately sited many miles from civilisation in the vast desert plains of Southern Idaho. As the name suggests, EBR-1 was also the first breeder reactor, which means that in the course of the fission of Uranium fuel, it actually produced additional Plutonium fuel for use in future reactions. Andy was particularly handy with the remote manipulation tools they developed for handling radioactive waste.

One of the lab's less successful (and costly – over $1 billion in the 1960s) exploits was an attempt to build nuclear-powered jet planes. The rotting carcasses of these giant beasts now languish in the museum car park.

Nearby, on the edge of the desert plain is the weird landscape of Craters of the Moon National Monument. Here, dried lava flows encase the ground in a barren, black crust whose tortuous formations give the place an eerie other-worldly ambience.

The flows stretch for several hundred square miles and encompass hundreds of tubular caves, through which the lava once flowed. Roof collapses into the lava-tube caves provide easy access for exploration. The lava is such a good insulator that ice is found in the caves year-round, despite temperatures sometimes rising to 140 Fahrenheit outside (though thankfully not while we were there!).

After Craters of the Moon, we headed up into the mountains to drive the Custer Motorway – a 50 mile stretch of unsealed road that was formerly a toll road to the 1880s gold-rush towns of Custer and Bonanza. Once home to more than 600 gold-rush hopefuls each, Custer and Bonanza are now ghost-towns.

It is not difficult to discover gold on the motorway – the stream-beds sparkle with tiny specks of the stuff. However, despite out best efforts panning with our dinner-plates, we just couldn't get the goodies out!

It seems that we are not alone in our inability to get at the stuff – the mining operations in this area and many others besides were never profitable. A prime example of one such operation was to be found rusting along the road in the ditch where it was left in the 1950s. This immense dredger, floating in a self-made pond, operated by chewing up the gravelly ground in front of it, shaking the debris to settle out the gold, and spitting the waste out of the back. It used 12,000 gallons of diesel per day and left a massive scarred trail of dredgings through the forest. And after 15 years of operations, it was abandoned, having made a net loss of $40,000.

With great relief, we made it off the bone-shaking Custer motorway, back to tarmac roads, turning south to the Sawtooth Mountains. We spent a couple of days here, walking and swimming in the lakes (you can just see Andy's head in the water in this pic, as well as the jagged profile of the mountains, which gives them their name), before heading south across the plains again to Utah.

Next, we will be visiting the centre of the Mormon world, Salt Lake City.