Thursday 7 July - did little other than sit in the garden and read all day - so to make up for it I'll tell you a little more about Bryce Canyon from yesterday, now that I've managed to publish a small selection of our photos. As you'll see from the pictures Bryce is an amazing sight, a huge amphitheatre of natural stone structures about 8-9000 feet above sea level. To give you a sense of scale the rim walk above the escarpment is about three miles and the Hoo...

Big day out to Bryce Canyon. Apparently not a canyon at all but the most incredible of sites. Hard to even start to describe what we spent six hours marvelling at so see pictures (when Neil's sorted through the 600+ we took). Drove through some poor communities where 'dead' cars lay around in abundance. Saw some bison, elk, prairie dogs, chipmunks and antelope but to our disappointment no black bears. Even saw a cowboy on his horse. All very different from Essex ...

Tuesday 5 June - despite the best efforts of the unseasonal weather to block our plans the clouds lifted late afternoon and allowed us a great walk up from Zion Lodge to the three Emerald Pools - one of which was closed, one dry and the third almost inaccessible! However the evening light highlighted the weird shapes and fabulous colours of the mountains all around us. Still struggling with the American attitude to tipping - tonight's bill from Wildcat Willy's ...

Well, after spending a fun day in LA airport we eventually, with an upgrade to 1st class, got to Las Vegas at 8.15pm. Slight hiccup delayed us but eventually got to the Desert Pearl Inn in Utah at, after moving forward another hour with time zone, 2am. Woke this morning to see some of what last nights drive would have been like if we had travelled at our anticipated time. Wow!