Week 2 (almost)

Hard to believe that another week has gone by.  We have done so much. Everyone wanted to swim in the Great Salt Lake.  It is the body of water with the second highest concentration of salt in the world.  You can sit down in it like it was an easy chair and float effortlessly.  It is very fun.  The problem is that the only creatures who can live in this water are Brine Shrimp and flies love them.  So there are literally clouds of flies at the edge that you must run through to get to the water.

From the Great Salt Lake, we drove to Arches National Park.  We drove around the park and hiked to a few of the different formations.  The size of some of these are truly amazing.  Almost like walking underneath a huge bridge, the arch sometimes 70 feet over your head.  As with many of the beautiful parks in the Southwest, you could spend a week there and still not quite see it all.

Just driving from place to place is an amazing experience.  None of those boring Interstate type views you see in the Midwest.  There are times when the road is just a straight line as far as you can see, but it usually runs into some mountain range or the plateau ends and you have a winding, turning set of switchbacks to navigate.  It would be a bit more fun to drive a sports car on some of these roads, but I would rather sleep in a double bed in the back of an RV as opposed to the back seat of a roadster.  Besides, as we drive through the canyons, we have the kids wave at the train engineers who are driving parallel to us.  Encouraged by the toot of the RV horn, they will toot back
[ video - large file]  Somehow I don't think he would toot at a roadster.

From Arches we went to the Four Corners and then drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  We arrived in the evening and saw the sunset.  Then we got up early to see the view during the early hours.  Then we drove to the South Rim to see the sunset, and then woke before sunrise to see the early light on the South as well.  This is truly an amazing sight that you must see in person.  No pictures or video can show the true size of this place.  We really want to come for longer in order to do some hiking.

Oh well, there's always next year...

Today we drove a bit South and East (yes, we are headed East now) for a visit to Meteor Crater.  Another huge hole in the ground, but this time in the middle of a high plateau.  Makes you wonder what would happen to our present day world if a rock from space hit the Earth at 40,000 MPH.  Somehow I don't think I would like to be in the neighborhood.

Tomorrow it is off to Hopi Land.  Sorry, but the Indians don't allow pictures.

Did you See Week 1?