USA Road Trip part 4

14th June. This morning we headed out from the hotel and a couple of blocks away to the Durango & Silverton Railroad. We'd pre-booked seats on the 9.45 train, an inside carriage as previous experience had shown us the open carriages can get cold. mark was a bit agitated that we were late getting there, and while he went to the ticket office to pick up the souvenir tickets, we spoke to a lady in costume who was associated with the railroad museum & she told us the train that was waiting (which Mark was rushing us to get) was the 9.15 not the 9.45! We had 2 seats on the right hand side of the train & one on the left. The tickets included a souvenir thermal mug which you could take to the concession car & get filled with soft drinks or hot drinks as often as you liked. Having gone prepared with sweatshirts, waterproofs etc, it was really hot & sunny all trip - one of the attendants opened the skylights in the carriage to try & get some air and all the windows were open. Mark went up and down through the various carriages & took lots of photos, the mountain gorge scenery and river were spectacular. Kirsty watched the river raft boats and said how cool it would be to do a raft trip. We arrived at Silverton at 1.45, about 20 minutes late due to the previous train being delayed or slow. There wasn't much time to look round as the return train left at 3.15, so Mark went off on his own to take photos, and Kirsty & I looked at the shops & buildings & then had a drink and snack (Kirsty finally got to try a corn dog). The shops are mainly silver jewellery, souvenirs, t-shirts and so on, some of the old buildings are still in place & there was a stagecoach you could pay to ride on. We arrived back in Durango around 6pm, the latter part of the train journey seemed quite long & hot & stuffy. Quite a few people on the return were obviously not that interested in the train itself, some of them fell asleep and one couple read books. Dinner at the diner next to hotel. The following day, after discussion, we decided that Kirsty and Mark would do a river raft trip instead of Mesa Verde park. The trip would be 2hours approximately, and I opted to wander round some shops and have a coffee and wait for them. They really enjoyed it, just the two of them and the guide in the boat, and yes they got wet! Also sunburnt on legs and neck, but they had great fun. .............. June 15th - Moab - Best Western Canyonlands Inn. Moab is a strange place, a stop off for hikers, rafters and mountain bikers. The hotel was clean, although the layout a bit odd as you had to go up in the lift, then along corridor, down some steps and along, down more steps to the room. We had dinner at the Moab Brewery, nice food, pretty average table, grumpy surly waitress. ................... June 16th - Arches National Park. Very hot today, 102 degrees by 10.30 and both Mark and Kirsty sore with sunburn already. Drove to most of the arches viewpoints, K & M walked to Delicate Arch but it was too hot for K and she stayed in car with me while M walked to Landscape Arch viewpoint. We took coolbox full of ice and drinks etc as no facilities in the park at all. Very picturesque red rocks but heat made it too oppressive to do much exploring. Back at hotel around 7pm, we got takeout pizza and ate it with cold beer on the hotel terrace, watching bats fly around. Did some laundry in the hotel laundry in basement. Decided to miss out Canyonlands tomorrow (more red rocks in heat!)Forecast was 104, again no facilities in the park, long drop pit toilets so we decided to leave it & just explore a little around Moab itself. Sharing a room isn't ideal, Kirsty gets too hot, air con is noisy & we all get grumpy. ................. Breakfast in hotel buffet, juice, waffles, bacon etc. Drove out to the Hole in the Rock, a very odd place which was a house carved & cut out of the rock by a couple (now both dead - their graves are alongside the house) - you can pay $6 for a 12 minute tour of the house, and there is apparently some kind of "zoo" which we didn't investigate, it looked very depressing. Saw some hummingbirds on feeders on the porch of the gift shop (overpriced and very odd stuff). walked round Moab, shops mostly mountain bike & outdoor pursuits supplies, a few tshirts and souvenir tat shops. Had a rest at hotel as heat became too much in mid afternoon. On reflection wish we had stayed longer in Durango as there is not much to do here, we are all out of sorts, sunburnt, heat rash, tired and bad tempered. Ate at the Moab Brewery again, which was nicer this time. K wanted to try and see stars without light pollution etc, drove out beyond town limits but there were loads of mozzies so we didn't stay long. ............................ 18th June. Checked out after breakfast, and drove on to Bryce Canyon, Ruby's Inn. Took a bit of finding, we discovered there's a GPS problem which directs you to the wrong town! Took 6.5 hours driving instead of sat Nav's expected 4. Nice adjoining ground floor rooms with microwave, fridge etc. Rubys Inn has big gift shop, grocery store etc and is very popular with bus tours. Having seen the restaurant chagred $32 for chicken caesar salad, we got snacks and drinks and ate in the room. ........................... 19th June. Today we drove into Bryce National Park, exploring the further viewpoints which were nicer and less crowded than the ones in the centre. Hot and sunny but about 95 which seems cooler! Pine forests around further viewpoints had areas which were burned and the trees blackened. We parked and had drinks and food from cool box, and then drove back through the park and round to Mossy Cave trail which Kirsty had spotted in the guide. Too hot for me to walk it, and the pit toilets near the start of the trail were a real stench. Mark and Kirsty walked up to the "Mossy Cave" and the waterfall, and back along (and in) the stream. I felt rather depressed and despondent at not being able to manage what the guidebook said was an easy walk. The ground wasn't too bad underfoot but the heat was too much and I felt so breathless and light headed. I know Mark gets a bit angry when I don't join in but I just couldn't. Had a bit of a quiet cry while they were gone. Drove on another 3 hours to Zion National park. The entrance is through a long narrow dark tunnel which I found a bit off putting. The hotel is probably the nicest we've had, beautiful spacious rooms and western style furniture, even the lamps had cut outs of bears and moose etc. Kirsty had her own room, and a huge king size bed to herself. I sleep much better in a queen size bed on my own and Mark in his own queen size bed. The rooms had little decks outside looking out on to Zion peaks and we had dinner on the hotel restaurant terrace (despite bugs) looking out on to the view. .................... 20th June. We had intended to get up at 6am to get park shuttle into Zion itself and explore, but Mark woke at 4am with bad headache, so we got shuttle about 8.30. No cars are allowed in the scenic drive part of the park in summer. We took the shuttle to the far end of the park and then did an easy walk with paved path up to Sinwara Temple. Even here was crowded and people almost pushing past if you stopped to take photos etc. Got shuttle back to Zion Lodge and had a snack lunch, then Mark and Kirsty walked to Emerald Pools. I moved around trying to find shady areas around Zion Lodge, and they took about 1.5 hours to do the walk. It wasn't in shade as we'd thought & Kirsty was very hot and exhausted when they got back. By the time we got the shuttle back to the hotel around 2pm it was pushing 100 degrees again & so we packed up and headed off towards Las Vegas. ..................