LA to Lake Powell

Exhausted and relieved to disembark a very turbulent plane journey from Tokyo (O slept all the way!) we head off to collect our motor home. The speedy briefing over (not that our jetlagged minds took any of it in!) we head off in this rattly vehicle to the closest campsite to sleeeeeep! Zzzz! As it happened the nearest was on the coast South of LA near Newport beach. An overnight at the oddest 'RV' site, situated smack bang on a typical Californian beach with its legendary lifeguard huts, yet backed by highway 1. We were informed by our neighbour that we were 'mighty' lucky to get a site 'just like that' as this sought after location was normally booked up months in advance - WHY???Leaving our 'car park' the next day, all the Gs agree that they feel crap and for the first time on the whole trip, massively jetlagged (we had that odd time-travel experience where a 10 hour flight actually landed us in the US before the time we left Japan). A day of grocery shopping etc etc and an overnight on another California beach, this time with a railway line behind us as well. Lovely!As one can probably tell, we were not too enamored with California, however we realize that our judgments were a little jaded by a cold climate (not what we expected) and jet-lag. The coastline around Newport beach was indeed lovely - crashing waves and some steep cliffs, filled to the brim with very expensive housing.

Feeling better on day 3, we head in land to start our journey. First place on the map, Joshua Tree Desert via Palm Springs. In fact we ended up spending two days in Palm Springs - one to just 'mooch' around and camp out in a classic US diner which, much to Owens delight had an automatic train track cruising around the ceiling, the next for J and O to head to a waterslide park where they had a fab time (H to waste money on a disastrous hair dying session). Palm Springs was beautifully hot and dry so the Gs were very happy. O also had his first pony ride ever here and now waits patiently to be old enough for Granny to teach him - hint hint G!

Joshua Tree desert is full of - Joshua Trees!!! Odd looking trees that look like a cross between a cactus and a tree with branches stretching 'up to heaven '(hence Joshua - the heaven bit was not our idea!!!) . We had read that campsites booked up way in advance for weekends but took little notice of it. Our plan for the trip was to stay alternate nights in private and national service sites, the latter being in general far more atmospheric, but with no facilities. Having been laughed at by the park ranger on query of availability in the national park sites, we ended up in what we felt was the most depressing trailer trash park possible, sat alongside a military base. We later downgraded our understanding of trailer-trash, whilst driving past some truly depressing establishments later in the trip! The next days visit of Joshua tree was odd as the temperature dropped from 35 to -2 overnight and it snowed!! We were doing part of Owens Junior Ranger programme and the ranger was stunned. That night was our most beautiful campsite to date (having learnt our lesson by now to book national park sites!), set in the middle of Joshua Trees crazy boulders. It was very solitary and wonderful. The next day we drove through the Mojave desert, through cactus strewn, arid landscapes and then up steep mountain passes into pine forests. The whole drive was like a scene from Cars - sad towns, clearly vibrant places on the map at one time, now dying on their knees dotted the drive. It was a joy to finally arrive in Prescott and find a thriving town, bar the sign as we entered for a gun shop 'Guns - keeping America free'(????) We wanted to take a pic but thought anyone who owned a gun shop with these sentiments may not appreciate us taking the @!?=!!!

Via another mountain and an interesting town at the top called Jerome with possibly the best views of any town anywhere, we arrived at Sedona. Surrounded by vibrant red rock cliffs, mesas and butes this place was used as the set for tens of Westerns. It was a breathtakingly beautiful place. We stayed in a campsite in a wooded valley, by a river, which was gorgeous, but for a neighbor who seemed to forget that there were no walls between them and their neighbors and played filthy US comedy full volume on their stereo for all to hear. Why anyone would camp in a serene place and do this was a mystery!

John took himself off for an astronomy class - where better to do this than in the middle of a starry desert. (H and O played dens in the van so as not to spill light onto the astronomers' location! J returned blown away by the info and sightings seen through a massive telescope - Saturns rings and moons, shooting stars and galaxies millions of light years away that you never see with a normal telescope! Nights out in future campsites under starry skies were now more interesting owing to Js lesson.

A trip into Broken Arrow canyon with a charming guide was fab - being in the midst of towering red walls was superb- and to add to it, to Owens joy as the jeep clambered up and down some rather steep cliffs! Roller Coaster boy was rather impressed!

A stop at supposedly one of the worlds largest meteorite craters was fun - ish -well - it was for O anyway who is now rather keen on demonstrating with Playdoh a meteorite falling and comparing this to the Hiroshima bomb - (hmmm - not sure visit to the museum in Hiroshima was such a good idea)

On to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest - a vast national park featuring startling bumpy rock formations, all hewn with striped colours and often surrounded by chunks of petrified forest. Owen completed Junior Ranger badge no 2 here so is rather proud of himself.

Next stop Canyon de Chelly in the Navajo nation. The drive in between all these places is almost as spectacular as the places themselves as the vast open spaces are incredible, although still not as remote as Western Oz. We took a jeep ride into the canyon and met the first of our rather jaded Navajos. Oh well, at least the canyon itself wasgreat, filled with ancient houses (900-1300AD), some sat high up on cliff ledges, all set in gorgeous red cliffs, many of which still housed classic rock art.A reminder that Europeans scoffing at US 'culture' is a little misguided!

The next few days were still in the Navajo nation and we were really quite shocked how poor the whole area was - a good percentage of the housing bordered on shanty - you did not really feel like you were in the States at all and, maybe we were just unlucky, but we would probably say that on the whole we did not feel too welcome. Nothing particular happened, it was just a general feeling.

Next stop Monument Valley - how many times since we left the California Coast did we use the word 'breathtaking'. It became a bit of a joke. To be in a place so instantly recognizable from movies and still be bowled over by it….We arrived close to sunset so the sun setting against the rust red rocks was stunning. Our campsite offered views out over the valley - it was pretty perfect.

Deciding that O may by now be a bit fed up with deserts, canyons and national parks we opted to spend 3/4days at Lake Powell, a 170+ mile lake which is in fact a reservoir for LA,Salt Lake City and many other places. Its odd being here as it so beautiful with red rock formations all around you, but the fact that an ancient canyon was flooded for people to live somewhere not really made for humans sits on your mind - ish !! We hired a boat for the day , (to add to the whole environmental damage) which was fun and now O adds 'driven a speedboat' to his vehicle list! A sticky throttle made the whole trip rather bumpy, much to H and Js dislike, but Os delight! Roller coaster boy was very happy again! Our campsite overlooked the lake, and with a pit fire for roasting marshmallows, it was a good spot. Junior Ranger badge number 3 collected at Lake Powell.

H has been surprised how much of this area she remembers from a family holiday when she was 9. (Note to G and Unks - I did look up from pacman once in a while!)

We've avoided the Grand Canyon on some advice we were given to leave the best to last - we shall see. It's quite funny how everyone we have met has compared the place we are at to the Grand Canyon -it's better, redder etc etc.

So far we have been bowled over by Arizona and the littler steps we have taken into Utah. This is by far the most constantly visually stunning part of our whole 6 months. Our photos really do not do this area justice at all. There have been a few scoffs amongst the 'travelling' fraternity we have bumped into on our trip when we have told of the US being our final destination. A sort of travel snobbery hangs over the US- not intrepid enough, not different enough. We would challenge anyone to come here and not be gobsmacked. We are.