Bonnetts Abroad Past Trips

USA

After work, travelled by train to Gatwick

Stayed in Premier Inn, had dinner there, a black and blue burger for Steve and a steak for Debbie

Took off from Gatwick, Iclandair

Stopover in Iceland

Flew to Denver

Picked up car, Dodge Journey

Few scratches on car

Drove to hotel

Missed the hotel a few times due to one way system

Checked into Magnolia Hotel, it was valet parking in the hotel so we left the car with them. There was a lot of work going on, the hotel was being revamped, the entrance and foyer were being remodelled.

Walked out in the morning, down the 16th Street Mall,

Breakfast at McDonalds on the corner of 16th and Cleveland

Lots of Homeless

Walked down through the Civic Centre Park, more homeless

Then walked up to have a look around the Capitol building, it was closed so only saw it from the outside.

Then we walked back through the Civic Centre park towards the Art Museum, we were a bit early so walked around a couple of blocks and sat down and waited for the museum to open.

There was a Western themed exhibition, that was quite interesting

Also the rest of the museum was quite interesting

After which we walked back towards 16th street mall

Had lunch at “Natures Garden”– we had a pizza each, very nice

Went back to the hotel to rest for a bit

Walked back out in the afternoon to look at some of the shops on 16th street, bought a backpack from T.J. MAX to keep camera stuff in

In the evening walked to the restaurant opposite the hotel, Panzano? And had a nice pasta meal

Got car from Valet parking and drove out of town

Stopped at the Red Rock Amphitheatre, gave us a chance to get to know the car and its controls, also set up the satnav. After which we walked down Trading Post road a bit, until we spotted a path leading up to the amphitheatre

It was still early in the morning, but it was starting to get quite hot. The amphitheatre is used as a workout place, lots of fit people around.

Followed the path up to the upper car park,

Walking out of that car park we saw this deer wandering around

Drove along Bear Creek road, through Evergreen, and then up onto Squaw Pass Road, scenic drive that took us as far as Echo lake, we stopped briefly here, just to get our bearings, before heading on up Mt Evans Road. Here we managed to buy our American Park pass, $80, we paid cash because that's the lane we were in.

The Mt. Evans road zig–zags its way up the side of the mountain, the road is narrow, with precipitous drops at the side, there is no barrier.

We reached the top of Mt. Evans, it was a lovely clear day, with magnificient views, but at over 14000 ft, the air is thin, we didn't feel able to stay here too long.

On the way down, we stopped briefly at Summit lake

Stopped again at the Mount Goliath natural area, here we did a short walk, a loop to look at Bristlecone pines.

Stopped again at Echo Lake, we thought we'd be able to get some food here, but we found out that we would have to wait over an hour, so decided to carry on down.

Visited Buffalo Bill's grave and visitor centre, we ate at the gift shop here, we had buffalo burger and buffalo burrito, not the best, then we went to look at the grave, we didn't linger because it was starting to rain.

We found a Walmart and went and bought some supplies

Headed back to the hotel for the night.

Left Denver

Drove to Fort Collins to visit the flower trial gardens

had small picnic breakfast

Drove on to Cheyenne to find the Big Boy, took a bit of getting too, we could see it from the road, but didn't know how to get there, managed to park quite close to it in the end.

After Cheyenne, Debbie took over the driving for a while.

Went on to the Wild cat Hills Stopped to take a few photos, the visitor centre was very quite, just one person working in an office, no one else at all.

We drove on to Scotts Bluff, parked down at the visitor centre, where we watched a short film about the Oregon trail, had a look at some mock up wagons outside and then drove up to the top. A couple of short trails at the top took us to different viewpoints around the bluff, we had a sandwich in the car here.

Afterwards we drove to Chimney Rock, wasn't what we expected, there is a visitor centre, but it appears to be privately run. I think that we could have got closer, to the rock, but it was rather hot, so we didn't stay for long.

We continued heading north, over the rail tracks, through Alliance and on to Car Henge. We stopped for a walk around here, but there was a combined harvester in the field next door which was creating a lot of dust, also the clouds were looking particularly dark and threatening, so we drove on, it started to rain quite heavily, but we pressed on until we got to Chadron.

Started to rain, clouds looked very black

Arrived at Chadron and checked in Best Western hotel

Dinner in country kitchen diner, not very good

We left Chadron, heading East and North, our first stop was at Massacre of Wounded Knee, first at the graveyard, and then at the small information sign.

We drove on, leaving Nebraska and entering South Dakota, the Badlands. We took out time travelling through the badlands, stopping at numerous pullovers and trailheads as we went

Saddle pass Trailhead

Fossil Exhibit Trailhead, did a couple of short walks from here, firstly on the over side of the road from the car park and then round the Fossil Exhibit trail itself.

White River Valley Overlook

Bigfoot Pass Overlook, stopped and had our lunch here, magnificent views.

Panorama Point

Burns Basin Overlook

Homestead Overlook

Conata basin Overlook

Yellow Mounds Overlook

At Yellow Mounds

Ancient Hunters Overlook

Pinnacles Overlook, but didn't walk down to the end

We then headed out of the Badlands, turned left at Wall and took the I–90 as far as Rapid City, found a Walmart and bought some supplies.

After which we continued on to the Comfort Inn in Hill City.

We left the hotel relatively early and drove to Mount Rushmore, although it only just after 9 in the morning, it was already quite busy. We had to queue to get in and park. Tried to look in the gift shop, but it too busy for us, so headed back outside to admire the stone faces, a very impressive attraction.

After Rushmore, we drove the Iron Mountain Road, this road twists and turns and doubles back on itself, a pretty drive, we then stopped at the lovely peaceful Lakota Lake.

Continuing with our loop, we drove the Needles Highway, another twisty narrow road, with tunnels only wide enough for one car at a time.

We stopped at the beautiful Sylvan Lake, another short walk.

Next stop was the Crazy Horse Monument, a mammoth carving that was started in the 1940s and is still nowhere near complete, but still extremely impressive. We watched a short film in the visitor centre about the ongoing project.

We had more time than we thought, so we decided to drive the Wildlife loop road

We got quite excited when we saw some Buffalo in the distance and stopped to take photos, but then a car came down the other way and told us that if we wanted to see Buffalo then we should drive round the next bend. Buffalo were in the road, lots of them, very close.

We drove the rest of the Wildlife loop road, saw pronghorn and and a few other animals

We were originally going to go on the train from Hill City to Keystone, but we were up early and the first train didn't leave until 10:00, so we decided to drive instead, we followed the Old Hill City Rd, which more or less follows the route of the train, crossing over the lines several times. When we got to Keystone, it was all a bit artificial, all done for tourists.

After walking around Keystone for a while, we headed up to Deadwood, we parked briefly in the outskirts, to admire some Pronghorn that were wandering around the streets, and then drove towards the centre of town, again we parked briefly, but we weren't sure if it was a customer only car park, so didn't stray far from the car. Same story as Keystone, there just for tourists.

Next on the list was the Homestake Mine in Lead, the visitor centre here was quite interesting as the deep shafts of the mine are used to house Neutrino experiments.

Leaving Lead, we drove the Spearfish Canyon Highway, a few scenic stops on the way, but many of the waterfalls had dried to a trickle, so not as spectacular as it might have been.

Driving back towards the hotel, through custer park, we stopped off at Pactola Reservoir, where we admired the chipmunks playing, before going back to the hotel.

We checked out of the hotel, and headed West out of the Black Hills towards Newcastle, turning North at Newcastle we headed towards our first stop at Sundance. Here they have a nice little statue of the Sundance Kid.

Walking around a little, we came across a sign that pointed down some concrete steps into the basement of the council building, saying that the local museum was down there. It didn't look very inviting, but we gave it a go. Glad we did, a delightful museum awaiting its new premesis to be finished., packed full of interesting bits and bobs, including the courtroom and papers from the time of the Sundance Kid.

We drove on to Devils Tower and parked in the car park at the visitor centre, there's a very nice walk around the base of the tower, so we did that.

Then we headed on to Gillette, we visited the Walmart in Gillette for supplies and then tried to get something to eat, the restaurant near the hotel smelt of smoke, so we left that and ended up at Taco Johns, which wasn't too bad, lot of food anyway.

A longish, but straightforward drive along the I–90, from Gilllette, through Buffalo and onwards up to Sheridan, heading then up into the Big Horn Mountains, some nice scenic stops on the way

Crystal Springs

Steamboat point

Sibley Lake Dam

Antelope Butt

Shell Creek

We Reached Greybull where we stopped at the excellent museum of Aerial Firefighting, we got a bit lost and ended up having to turn round, but we found it ok.

Then on to Lovell and the Western Motel

Motel wasn't too bad, didn't have a coffee machine so we went to the Family Dollar shop and bought a filter machine for $10. We then went to Applebys to buy some more food.

We walked to the restaurant near the hotel, Debbie had what they described as a stroganoff, only better, and I had a rib–eye steak.

Breakfast in the hotel was rudimentary, coffee and cereals. We left straight after breakfast about 07:30, because we thought that traffic would be bad heading into the totality zone. But as it turned out, we needn't have worried, a pleasant traffic free drive

We stopped at Thermopolis, the largest hot spring in the world, and had a pleasant walk around the springs and over the bouncy bridge to the other side of the river.

We had to move the car to find the tepee spring, because that was further down in the park.

Then we continued driving through the Wind river canyon, which was all very pleasant.

Past the Boysen Reservior

Up over the Togwotee Pass and down into Jackson Hole

We arrived at the hotel early afternoon, an easy and pleasant drive.

The day of the eclipse, I'd already worked out that we could watch it from the hotel car park, and which parking space would be best.

But early in the morning, the car park emptied, until there were only 2 of us with cameras and a handful of people just watching it.

The sky was cloudless. Viewing conditions were perfect.

A woman, Deborah from Santa Monica was very keen on showing everyone here K14 spec eclipse glasses!

In the afternoon we tried to go for a drive, but the traffic was horrible, so we ended up not stopping anywhere and just getting back as quickly as we could.

Drove into Teton Park, we initially tried to get to the Jetty area, but it was far too busy, so we drove up around the scenic loop and parked overlooking the lake, we managed a short walk from here, the views were lovely.

We then drove on a little bit and stopped at Jackson Reservoir, walked on both sides of the road, firstly to look at the Dam and the river

and then on the other side to admire the lake

At one end of the path we came across an Osprey perching in a tree.

We then returned to our hotel. In the evening we walked out a little bit

We stopped at the “Gun Barrel Steak and Game House”, where we had Steak and Velvet Elk.

We checked out of the hotel and headed up into Yellowstone, there were roadworks in the park, so we got held up for a little while

First stop was the West Thumb Geyser Basin, this is right on the edge of Yellowstone Lake, these were our first geysers, good quality boardwalks meant you could get quite close to the bubbling pools.

We left Thumb Basin, but soon found that we were heading in the wrong direction, following the shore of the lake, so we had to turn round and head back towards Old Faithful. We stopped for a picnic at the Continental Divide picnic area, elevation 8391 feet.

On the way to Old Faithful, we stopped off at the Kepler Cascades, only a short stop, but very pretty

We made it to Old faithful and parked in the car park, the car park is huge and we weren't sure which way we should be walking, so had to ask. The Geyser had gone off about 15 minutes earlier, so we had a bit of a wait, but there seats and rangers were giving talks, so the time soon passed. The viewing seats became very full, some people were sitting on the edge of the boardwalk. 93 minutes between eruptions.

After Old Faithful had gone off, we walked around some of the rest of the Geysers in that area.

We continued to head for our lodgings in mammoth, stopping of at Gibbon Falls on the way

We didn't stop anywhere else, because the Grand Loop Road had major roadworks, so it was single file for several miles, when we eventually reached Mammoth, there were lots of Elk grazing on the verges.

Checked into our Pioneer cabin in Mammoth

It was our intent to drive the Beartooth highway, this is outside of Yellowstone NP, so we drove East. We passed through the Lamar valley, where we could see several bison grazing, or just lazing around.

We also stopped to look at the Petrified Tree

Leaving Yellowstone we followed the Beartooth Highway which zig zags it's way over the pass, we stopped briefly at the “Top of the World Trading Post”, but didn't buy anything, again there were some roadworks here, so we got held up a bit.

The Beartooth highway is spectacular, climbing well above the tree line, with tremendous views on every side.

We filled up with fuel in Red Lodge and then again just outside red lodge where we had a picnic with panoramic views. We continued on down through Cody, where we stopped at a Walmart to restock. Then it was back into Yellowstone, through the East entrance

Back into Yellowstone, we drove down towards Yellowstone lake

Then we headed north, stopping at the Mud Volcano and Sulphur Spring

We wanted to see the waterfalls in the Canyon area, but the car parks were closed for repair, but we managed to find the Brink of the Canyon and stopped therre for a while.

An interesting drive back through Tower Juntion, with more Bison to be seen.

We had a fairly early start, we wanted to fill in some of the gaps from our first day in Yellowstone, so we drove back up to Sheepeater Cliff, there was still a mist in the air, it was incredibly peaceful, like we had the park to ourselves.

Next stop was Swan Lake, with nice views over the plains to the mountains beyond.

A bit further on were Rustic falls

A car park a little further on gave good views through “Golden Gate”, and the road that clings to the mountain side.

We then parked in the Upper Terrace car park, and walked down to look at the hot springs

And a short drive around the Upper Terrace Loop Drive

We got back to our cabin, but it was still only late morning. We'd spotted a sign near the cabin directing us to the old stagecoach road, so we thought we'd give that a go. About 5 miles on a dirt road, we saw one other car, that we let by, and a cyclist.

The road took us to Gardiner, where stopped for a while and had some food.

Later on we drove back to Gardiner to get some fuel.

Having done one dirt road,we felt emboldened and decided to try another. The Blacktail Plateau Drive is a 7 mile dirt track of the Grand Loop Road. This was a rough road! Busy too, so not as enjoyable as the stagecoach road.

Because of the roadwork on the Grand Loop Road, the road was closed until 08:00, hence we decided to head North, out throught the North Entrance, past Roosevelt Arch.

We travelled 50 miles north into Montana, before looping around the top end of the Gallatin Range and heading back down South and into Idaho, quite a pleasant drive, but we had done nearly 300 miles before we got to our first stop at Rexburgh.

At Rexburg I wanted to pay homage to Bob Hoover, so stopped in at the Legacy of Flight museum, where his plane, Ole Yeller, is kept. The plane was in the maintenance hanger, but they took us over and let us have a good look over it, and even sit in it. A very friendly bunch of people indeed.

We continued driving, on through Idadho Falls, and then heading West across the Sname River Plain, there was a lot of dust in the air, so the views weren't that good. We stopped at the first nuclear power plant, EBR1,

Another artefact at the EBR1 site are the two experimental nuclear aeroplane engines.

Driving on, we tried to find the submarine conning tower in Arco, but missed it, we must have driven right by it, we continued on to the Craters of the Moon National park.

Walked around the volcanic landscape and also drove to some of the viewpoints in the park

We continued on to Twin Falls and our hotel, visiting the side of the Snake River Canyon.

We then had a couple of rather nice burgers at the River Rock Grill

Following the advice of our waiter from the night before, we headed to the Shoshone Falls, there was a small entrance fee, $3, but it was worth it. The falls weren't in full flow, but still spectacular.

Then we settled in for a long drive, leaving Idaho, heading down through Nevada.

We eventually reached Wendover, a gambling town, on the Nevada side. Here the Last Splice joined the East and West coasts by Telephone.

Wendover airfield is also the place where they practiced for the atomic raids on Japan, a little but run down now.

We visited the Bonneville Salt Flats, we weren't allowed out on to the salt, because there was an event on, but it was still an interesting place to visit.

The rest stop by the salt flats has raised platforms for viewing the salt.

We got to our hotel reasonably easily, tried to find somewhere to eat, but it was a Sunday and the only place that was open was a Denny's.

It was extremely hot outside, but we decided to walk to the Temple Square

Had a look in the Mormon Tabernacle

Went up to the top of the Mormon office block, with a personal guide, she was English and quite old.

After the tower we had a guided tour around Brighams house

After the Temple Complex, we went over the road to the Creek Center Mall, looking for somewhere to eat, lots of cafes, etc., but we didn't fancy any of them.

Started to saunter back towards the hotel, and came across Dawgs, seemed popular so we ate there.

Went out in the evening to the “Liqor store”, to get some wine, not a pleasant experience. Then got a McDonalds and took it back to our room.

Drove to Hill AFB to have a look around the musuem there, drove to the main gate of the airbase first and got firmly turned around, but we got to the museum ok.

Again, it was very hot and bright, so didn't spend too long looking around outside.

Having finished with the air museum, we drove to Antelope Island to have a look at the lake. The Island is accessed via a long causeway.

We made a couple of stops on the Island, including Egg Island Overlook

Buffalo Point, overlooking White Rock bay.

And then driving up as far as Fielding Garr historic ranch.

We went back to the hotel to rest for a while and then went out for dinner at R&R BBQ, where we had a mixed platter between us.

We left Salt Lake City, heading East, through quite high mountain passes, we stopped for a break at the Freedom Bridge on Starvation Reservior.

We drove to the McConkie Petroglyphs, they seem to be in the middle of nowhere. They weren't quite as accessible as we'd thought, but we both managed to scramble up the path to have a look at them.

Then on to Dinosaur Monument and the Quarry visitor center, the cliff face is full of dinosaur bones, where they'd been wahsed down in some ancient flood.

After the quarry we drove through the monument, stopping to look at more petroglyphs

and to admire the river canyon at Split Mountain

Along Cub Creek Road

And at turtle rock

We went to find our hotel in Vernal, after which we went out looking for somewhere to eat, not far down the road we found a retro burger bar, so we ate there.

The drive to Fantasy Canyon took us along quite a lot of dirt track

And even more dirt track to get us heading toward Dinosaur monument again. It really did feel like we were in the middle of nowhere., but we did see the occasional truck servicing the nodding donkeys.

We headed up to the Harpers Corner car park, from here there's a one mile walk to the end of the spit. The views along this walk were tremendous.

We met a couple of rangers who were replacing the information signs along the route.

Harpers corner is 30 miles from the main road, so having driven there, we had to drive back again, but we stopped as tome of the other viewpoints on the way back down.

By the time we got to Steamboat Springs it was raining very hard, after checking in, we drove across the road to Rex's Bar and Grill, another burger!

The couple we met at breakfast were going bird watching on the lake, to see the migrating cranes. It was quite foggy in the valley, but we soon drove clear of it as we climbed upwards.

A fuel stop at Kremmling and a bit of time to admire their war memorial.

A pleasant stop by the shores of Lake Granby, a picnic spot, but it was deserted except for us.

We stopped at the Kawuneeche visitors centre, but there wasn't much of interest to us, so we drove on into the Rocky Mountains National Park, stopping at the Holzwarth Historic ranch. It was a short walk across the meadow to the ranch, where we had a ranger guided tour of some of the buildings.

We followed the Trailridge road, zig–zagging up into the rockies.

We got to the Alpine visitors centre at 11000 feet.

We had a few other stops on the way down to admire the view

We arrived at our hotel in Estes. There was a steakhouse attached to the hotel, so we decide to eat there that evening.

This was our last full day of the holiday, we drove along the Falls River road, stopping for souvenirs at the Rocky Mountain Gateway. We managed to get a few bits here.

We continued along the road and entered the park. We hadn't got definitive plan in mind, do headed to Endovalley, we stopped for a walk around the picnic area here.

On the way out of Endovalley we saw something moving so stopped to take pictures.

We had planned on going up to Bear Lake, but the rangers were turning every one around, because there was no parking left up there, so we headed out of the park to have a look at Estes itself. There was a bit of a craft fair going on, we tried a slip burger and fish tacos from a street vendor.

It was still only early afternoon, so we decided to drive to Loveland to have a look at the Benson Sculpture park there.

In the evening we had a steak at the steakhouse by the restaurant.

The flight wasn't until the afternoon, so after checking out, we did one last loop through the Rocky Mountain national park.

Drove down through Boulder, where we stopped for a late breakfast/early lunch at an IHOP, and then continued towards the airport.

We returned the car to AVIS, and got the shuttle bus to the airport.

It was a night flight, the Northern lights from the plane were spectacular, stopover in Iceland before heading on to Gatwick and the train back home.

Back to work