San Francisco California - Day 1

We set off on a dull grey San Francisco morning and make our way to Pier 33 for our trip to Alcatraz. On route the cabbie gives us a little tour and explains what we are seeing, including going up and then down one of the massive hills, called California, that make up San Francisco. A good taxi ride.

We board the boat, for our 10:30 crossing, put on all the layers of clothes with us and set off on the one and a quarter mile trip to "the Rock". Upon landing the ranger is there explaining the do's and don'ts  and what Alcatraz has to offer. We decide to go to the top of the island and go through the cell block. Wow, this was very interesting, depressing, and claustrophobic all at the same time. The 336 cells for general prisoners and the unruly who broke the prison rules were in D block a further 42 cells. The windowless cells were 5 foot wide by 9 foot deep and 7 foot high. The prisoners were not allowed to speak and unless had work privileges they were in the cells up to 22 hours per day. Cells were bars only at the front so you could see the opposite man and vice versa all the time. The tour told of famous prisoners, including Al Capone and "the Birdman" as well as riots, escape attempts and the general way of life including the constant sound of cells opening and closing. A tough existence, no more than you would expect and had in the UK at around the same time.

Alcatraz closed due to costs as a prison in 1963. 1969/70 Indians from all tribes took the island over as a protest and to get better rights, they indicated some success as a result. It was the era of protest in the U.S.!

We walk around a little more, see a video on the islands history and get back on the boat, surprisingly this was now 2:30pm

A quick bite to eat, hot dog! and onto the bus tour. We get on the one to see the Golden Gate, interesting trip, crossing the gate and stopping the far side for pictures etc.... Very impressive, certainly marks the entrance to the massive bay in style. The trip takes us around the wealthy village of Sausalito as well. We make our way back into San Fransisco, seeing the palace of fine arts, and much of the locals streets.

We decide to have a earlier evening meal in the large Italian restaurant near the bus stop / Fishermans Wharf, enjoyable pasta for a change. Then back to the bus tour for the evening tour around Downtown San Francisco. On route we see China Town, Nob Hill area, including Grace Cathedral, Financial District, numerous sky scrapers and making our way back to the water front to Fishermans Wharf. Very good tour, amusing commentary from our guide, although very cold! Pictures in the group above.

The trip to Alcatraz, was very interesting and showed a harsh approach, not uncommon in the UK in some areas. Perhaps we have moved too far away from this now? Good tour well worth going on. San Francisco is just as I imagined lots of hills, trams, cars, Golden Gate Bridge and the much longer bay bridge plus of course Alcatraz! Looking forward to seeing more of this city tomorrow.

San Francisco has not provided us with much sunshine, as we awake and set off under grey skies. We take the hotel shuttle to Fishermans Wharf. We get off and set off at a pace to the cable cars about a mile along the front. The hope is we get there good time and beat the 2 1/2 hour queue. Made it, hardly anyone in the area, so we buy our one way tickets to Union Square, get on these famous trams and set off. We sit on the outside seats, what an experience, up and down the hills all on this old tram, great fun! After about 20 minutes we arrive.

We stroll around this area, which is the 4th largest shopping area, after NY, LA and Chicago. Soon we find the hop on / off bus and take a trip to the Pacific Ocean, via the enormous man made Golden Gate Park, enjoying the Victorian buildings on route and Science And Art buildings. An interesting coach trip, good views although very cold, even put the waterproofs on, on top of our other jackets, on top of our jumpers, to keep out the wind!

Arrive back in Union Square, about 2:30, time for lunch. So it's into Macys and up to the 7th floor and onto the roof terrace to the Cheesecake Factory. We order two cheesesteak sandwiches and two cheese cakes, very nice, enjoyable and relaxing luncheon, along with a glass of red!

We enjoyed our tram ride so thought we would try our luck with the queues again. Yes it's a good day, 5 minutes we are back on a tram, heading for the coast.... Great fun and different. After this we decide to do the one last bus trip, which goes around the downtown area.... So off we go, around a lot of the places seen before, plus North beach, which is now not a beach, see the magnificent city hall, numerous skyscrapers and make our way back to the coast. We get off at Pier 39, went then to see the Sea Lions, purchased a few souvenirs and caught a cab back to the hotel, this took us on Jones, a much steeper street than any we had been on before, a real roller coaster ride in a yellow cab!

San Francisco lives up to its reputation. We have had two really great days looking around, enjoying the sights and culture of this very large city. The highlights must be Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge, Trams and just riding up and down on the roller coaster hills. 

Sacramento and the Cornish gold mining town of Grass Valley

We leave San Francisco, driving down Franklin Street to Route 101 and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Before and after the bridge we stop to take pictures and enjoy the view. Once on the far side we find the coastal hillside route and take this for the views, although the highest point was in the cloud so we had white mist!!

Off we go back on Route 101, then Interstate 80 heading for the capital of California, Sacramento. The roads are very busy, although we make good time and go into Sacramento, which is surprisingly quiet. We go over the river, longest in the U.S., on this yellow strangely constructed bridge, into the city and straight away see the State Capital building. So very quickly and easily achieved what we intended to see in the city. The state building is very impressive, although so similar to others we have seen, and I am sure we will see a bigger version in Washington!!

Back out via the Route 80 business route, which is like an inner ring road and stop, start all the way, eventually getting onto route 80 to Grass Valley.

The scenery has been very interesting and varied, with the hills around San Francisco, woods at Muir Woods! And then the flat plains, often flooded, to Sacramento. After the city we go through a large pine wood forest to Grass Valley.

Grass Valley is where the Cornish settled in the Gold rush, and is mentioned in the town a little, plus there are 3 Cousin Jack Pasty Shops. (Cousin Jack is Cornishmen in American!!!). We have not as yet had one of their pasties!!! We walk around this little town, some old buildings and interesting.

We are staying in the Holbrooke Hotel, oldest in town and certainly nothing is straight, floors, walls etc. We have our evening meal in the bar, a traditional Saloon in the hotel which has been there since the 1860's. The evening is added to by two  guys singing and playing guitars, mainly 60s / 70s songs, with the Beatles quite popular. Good evening and good food.

Grass Valley, California to Battle Mountain

We leave the hotel and head 2 miles outside of town to the Empire Mine, the Gold Mine where in the 1930s half the miners were Cornish. We have a good look around, much seems familiar, stamps, blacksmith shop and other kit. This mine has an incline shaft to get underground. The miners sat on a trolley for 10 men and went nearly a mile underground at quite fast speeds, certainly did not look to be a great way to get to work! 

Having looked around we make our way to Nevada City, a small city of old shops and houses, again from the Gold rush times. From here we head to Lake Tahoe. The drive is lovely, up through the mountains and forest. At one stage it seemed like we were driving along a Mountain ridge, wide and covered by a forest. We are certainly up in the clouds.

Turning off the interstate I stop to allow traffic through, pull forward and stop again for more traffic, then bang, this truck hits us right up the boot. Neither of us are hurt, just very annoying. The man who hit us, shows ID etc and we swop info, and on our way. I can just about close the boot but it's not secure. 

We decide as we are so close to Lake Tahoe to continue and look at the North end of the lake, which is beautiful although with the number of houses built around it, access is limited, however a good drive around the top part of the Lake. 

We head for Reno and start to climb up into the mountain again, eventually reaching 8700 feet, again up in the clouds, loads of snow on the ground and really beautiful countryside. We start the quite long descent to Reno, stopping at the Forest information centre, who also kindly Google Dollar Car Rentals. Success and off we go to Reno Airport to sort out the car. The rental ladies were brilliant and after a while sorted us out with a different rental car, no fuss and off we go.

The next leg is a long one, Reno to Battle Mountain is 219 miles. We sit on Interstate 80 and off we go.... The scenery is ever changing, initially through rocky hills, then out onto plains which are quite wet and look salty. We continue and it gets darker and the heavens open, wipers on fast to see where we are going. After about 60 minutes we drive out of this into dry and clear Sierra  Nevada high lands Desert. Massive plains between two large mountain ranges, with the plains at around 4000 feet and the mountains 7000 feet. Finally we get to Battle Mountain

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We leave this rather "rough and ready" town in the middle of no-where and head straight on the Interstate 80 to Salt Lake City, some 300 miles away.   

When planning this trip I thought the Sierra  Nevada Desert would be very flat, roads very straight and extremely hot. How wrong can you be. The interstate road wound its way along a massive plain, between two mountain ranges the Independence Mountains and the Ruby Mountains, very undulating and the land was covered in scrub. The scrub lands had a slight green colour to it, probably enhanced by the rain the night before. 

After about 30 mins the heavens opened again and for the next 100 miles or so we drove in some of the worst conditions I have ever encountered and the road was covered in water, too much to drain off. The area we are in is around 4500 feet above sea level and during the time we climb to 6968 feet as we cross the Pequop Pass. After this we start our descent back down to 4500 feet and to West Wendover to photograph a giant Cowboy and buy fuel.

Next stage of the journey is very different as we go over the Great Salt Lake Desert. The rain has stopped and driving is much easier. The salt plains all have water on them where the rain has not yet sunk in, makes for very different scenery. This road is dead straight for about 70 miles and an easy drive! 

Following this and before the actual Salt Lake the area is green and undulating. We then cross the bottom of the salt lake, which is quite white with no water hardly.

As its early afternoon we decide not to go into Salt Lake City yet, rather explore and look to see the Salt Lake. We try a number of roads on spec to get to the lake, not overly successful, then bingo. We follow the signs for Antelope Island, across a 7 mile causeway out into the lake. This 14 Mile long Island is great, very green and has a ridge of hills running down the middle of it. We stop in places and get fabulous views of the Salt Lake and looking back on the mountains behind. By this time the clouds have lifted and it is warm sunshine, which greatly adds to the visit.

We also see Antelope and Buffalo on the island, which run wild in this area. We spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening exploring and enjoying this island.

The water levels seem to us as being very low and we chat to the lady in the information centre who confirms the water level is worryingly low as they have had very little rain and no appreciable amounts of snow to melt into the lake. Currently water levels are only 1 foot higher than the record lows of 1962 and with evaporation, in July they expect to go below this. Antelope Island may no longer then be an island! Lots of pictures to see of this area.

Time to get the sat nav out  and find our hotel, which surprisingly is 40 miles away. Off we go and quite easily find the hotel which is in downtown Salt Lake City. An ideal location for exploring Salt Lake City tomorrow!

Salt Lake City Utah

We left the hotel not 100% sure of what we were going to do and what we would see. We went to the info centre opposite the hotel, and there was the opportunity for a tour bus, 19 miles around the key parts of Salt Lake City.

The tour was superb and Salt Lake City really was great, most unexpected and so clean. The Later Day Saints buildings are huge, the temples very ornate and so impressive. The main temple in Salt Lake really stands out and next to this is Tabernacle Hall, where the world famous choir are based. The whole Temple Square is quite something with the traditional buildings and skyscrapers side by side. Interesting however when viewing the temple building from front to back, no skyscrapers are in sight and nothing higher...planned I am sure.

The rest of the city we saw was notable for its cleanness, very large houses and well kept parks, everything tidy. The state capital building, again a copy of the White House, is up on a hill and really stands out. 

Following the tour we walked around the Temple area and the large LDS concert hall.

In the afternoon the sun came out and we really had a good walk around the downtown area of Salt Lake City. 

What a lovely city to visit and explore. We look forward to returning.

Salt Lake City Utah to Aspen Colorado.

Today was our long drive which ended up being 390 miles. The drive was really good and not strenuous with ever changing scenery.

So we start off from Salt Lake City and head out on the Interstate 80, with the road cutting through the mountains which was quite dramatic. We make a quick detour to look at the Olympic ski area we can see by car and the Ski jumps, which blend into the hillside, very different from Innsbruck. 

Back onto the Interstate 80 and then onto Highway 40 to Dinosaur, which is just in Colorado. The countryside was certainly changing, as we travelled through green undulating plains surrounded by various mountain ranges, and past several reservoirs. As we go further south the landscape becomes more craggy, barren and gradually less green.

Upon entering Colorado we take Highway 64 to Meeker and Highway 13 to Rifle through the Rio Blanco. The area continues to change as we follow the valleys with rivers flowing down them. The valley beds are green and much like ours at home, however above this its sandy, craggy and barren.

All these changes make for an interesting journey down to Interstate 70 which cuts through the mountains, for us as far as Glenwood Springs. We get Highway 82 to Aspen, again through the mountains and hills. The high Mountains have snow on the ground. We arrive at Aspen and check in. We walk into the "city centre" for our evening meal.

Aspen is at 7900 feet and most of the journey today we have been between 4500 and 6000 feet. A most interesting trip, great scenery which was ever changing and some of it into Colorado was real Wild West Country, John Wayne could have been there on his horse!!!

Tomorrow we look around Aspen and area, if the cloud cover is high we will be able to drive up into the mountains and snow line, sounds like fun.

Aspen and Area Colorado.

We had a relaxing day looking around the small City of Aspen. The shops clearly are aiming for a clientele with lots of money in the Ski season. The city itself is quite pretty with a mix of old and new buildings. The pedestrian precinct areas are tree lined and as we are so high the cherry trees are later and still in blossom.

After a good walk around we drive heading for the mountains. We go up to Maroon Bells, where most of the mountains are around 14000 feet and plenty of snow about. It comes in wet when we are there, wait 1/2 hour or so and the sun comes out giving a great landscape.

We then go down the mountain only to go up again heading for Ashcroft. Again the mountains at the top were stunning.

On both journeys the scenery was really good, lots of trees, green Valleys, and streams. The tree trunks look like silver birch, come to haunt us! However the trees are called Aspen Trees, silver bark with green/ yellow coloured leaves.

Our final trip of the day was through a valley back to Aspen, again very pretty as described with good more distant views of the snow capped mountains.

Aspen to Manitou Springs Colorado

We leave Aspen on a bright morning, set for Independence Pass, which only opened a week ago due to the terrain and weather conditions. The pass starts easy and then we start to climb through woods with stunning views of the area and mountains. The amount of snow roadside, above and below significantly increases as we climb. All the verges then become snow lined and we go through untold number of snow cuttings. Passed 10000 feet and climbing, the whole vista is snow, a very white world, and again the views across the ranges are incredible. 

We make the summit, 12095 feet above sea level. We put on many extra layers of clothing and go and walk in the snow, in sunshine. The summit is also the continental divide point. The air is even thinner than in Aspen and that was bad enough, so not much walking or energetic activity undertaken!!

We start our descent, which was generally more steep than the Aspen side. As we go down the views again are absolutely stunning, luckily it's quite clear and we can see the tops of the mountains and for miles.

We stop at Twin Lakes and enjoy the Lakeland and Mountain scenery. This is in a valley which is 10000 feet above sea level!

Off we go now heading for Buena Vista this time through rocky small canyons following the river and railway. It then opens out to wide open green plains, with views across the Collegiate Peaks, all over 14000 feet.

We take the next turning heading for Trout Creek Pass at 9346 ft and onto the Wilkerson Pass which reached

9507 ft. The big difference was there was no snow about in these passes.

From this pass on Pikes Peak dominates the landscape, at 14110 feet, imposing as it is a single Peak rather than part of a Mountain Range.

We get to Manitou Springs and book in. We then explore the town, finding the cog railway for our trip tomorrow and then out into the Garden of the Gods.

This is really stunning in the early evening sunlight, with large formations of sandstone defining the landscape. We drive around this area, thoroughly enjoying what we are seeing and the colours of the sandstone in the evening sun. We find the trading post, more souvenirs and back to Manitou Springs.

We have tea in a local cafe, huge portions of pulled Pork and brisket, all very tender and nice.

 We left our hotel on a warm, sunny morning and made the short journey up to the departure point of the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. When collecting our tickets we were informed that due to snow on the tracks the train was only able to go up to just over 13000 feet and not quite to the summit of 14115, and that if we were still happy to do this we would get a refund of $6 per ticket. Naturally we continued!

The first part of the track took us up through a wooded area with a fast flowing mountain stream, and massive red granite rocks. There was also signs of previous buildings from the late nineteenth century, and a hotel area, all of which have now disappeared barring a few wooden log walls/ruins! After about half an hour the track opened up with gorgeous views of the mountain range as well as a very snowy Pikes Peak.

We could see out towards the Collegiate Mountains that we passed yesterday. Upon reaching approximately 13300 feet the train stopped, and could go no further. We had passed through an area where the snow had literally been cut away from the track and was higher than the train in places as we passed through! We then started our slow descent eventually stopping at about 10000 feet for  quite a while, where we could get off the train, although we were back in the wooded area by now, so the views were somewhat limited.

This was situated at a loop in the track and we had to wait for the next train to pass. We then continued our descent back to Manitou Springs. On the way down the skies darkened, so we were very glad we took the 9:20 train.

We then made our way to Interstate 25 and followed this all the way to Cheyenne, passing through the city of Denver. During this trip we went from quite a narrow valley, which started to widen and after Denver became very agricultural with wide open plains, bordered on our left hand side by the Rocky Mountains and on the right hand side vast, endless plains as far as we could see. We crossed the border into Wyoming, cowboy country, and booked into our hotel on the outskirts of Cheyenne, still at an altitude of 6129 feet.

Cheyenne, Wyoming to Kearney, Nebraska

We left our hotel on a slightly grey, but dry and windy morning, and made our way into Cheyenne. We found the Depot building, now the Visitor Centre, and bought our tickets for the Trolley Tour. With half an hour or so to wait we wandered around the downtown Square, admiring, and taking photos of course.

At ten o'clock we boarded the Trolley bus for a very interesting and informative hour and a half tour of Cheyenne, including yet another State Capitol building as a White House replica, and lots of information on the Annual 10 Day Rodeo. We also learnt about some of the City's more seedier past as a Cowboy location!!

Having completed the Tour, we make our way to Interstate 80 and followed this all the way to Kearney in Nebraska. The scenery changed from wide open prairies in Wyoming, which were exceedingly flat, to undulating prairies/plains of Nebraska, which in the main were quite green, and in some places wet! Yet again we drove through about 100 miles of torrential rain and very strong winds in Nebraska.

We reached our destination at Kearney after some 320 miles and settled into our hotel, and a good dinner in a local restaurant, bar stools were saddles!

Kearney, Nebraska to Des Moines, Iowa

We woke to a much better day - sunshine and blue skies! After a quick drive through Kearney - there didn't seem to be much to see, we found The Archway - a very interesting museum spanning the Interstate and showing the various ways people have travelled East to West through the last couple of hundred years, from the first Pioneers to modern times. This was a really well done museum and we spent about an hour and a half there all told.

We then got back on Interstate 80, passing through quite flat, agricultural land, mainly crops but also quite a lot of cows. We were also following roughly the Platte river which was very full and flooded in places. Once we left the Platte at Grand Island, the countryside changed to a bit more undulating, but still very green. We popped off the Interstate to drive downtown in Lincoln, the State capital, and saw the very impressive Capitol building, this time not a replica of the White House.

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Upon leaving Iowa City we head for Ottawa, Illinois. On route, as we near the border with Illinois, we come off the Interstate for a Visitor centre marked, as we hadn't yet got a Iowa magnet. The visitor centre turned out to be in a truck museum, with a range of old vehicles which was interesting. We then crossed the Mississippi River, which is enormous!

We were now back in Illinois, where we started out over 4 weeks ago! We get to our hotel and have a good Sunday meal in a local bar.

Ottawa to Chicago Illinois 

We leave Ottawa on a warm and sunny morning and head for Chicago O'Hare Airport to return our car rental. The roads got busier and the number of large trucks increased, all very impatient and knowing where they were going! However we find the right place - with the help of the Sat Nav - and return the car and take a slow taxi ride into Chicago and out to the lakeside to our hotel.

All booked in and fine, after gathering our thoughts and bearings  we go for lunch, always a good start! Initially we thought about walking alongside the lake, however we changed our mind and caught the Metro into Downtown Chicago. Wow aren't those skyscrapers tall, what a sight and the city certainly lives up to its reputation of tall buildings and being windy. More clothes on tomorrow!

We walk toward the river, change our mind, walk down by the raised train loop, more later, and head for Willis tower, that small building of 103 floors and until a few years ago the tallest in the world. We strike it lucky, fantastic, no queues, so off we go, first going down two levels and then up the 103 floors to the viewing area, the Sky Deck.

What a view, lovely clear late afternoon and we could see for miles over the city and Lake Michigan. The skyscrapers looked small in most cases and the cars and people smaller than Dinky toys / Lego men.

We go out onto "the ledge", which is a glass ledge sticking out the side, so you can see above, below and side to side, great fun and we have our pictures taken by other visitors for us, as we did for others!

We walk around some more, take in the views and then go down. It takes less than a minute to go up or down, and the breaks on the lift were working well!

Time now to play trains, above the main streets, so we get onto "the Loop". This is a raised oblong set of tracks about the Main Street of Chicago. By going on the Orange route and changing onto the Pink route you can do the full trip. The tickets only cost $6. So we did this one and half times getting off near Millennium Square railway station and catching our train back to the hotel area

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This time we use the Big Bus company and head off for our tour of downtown Chicago, with a very gregarious guide. Along with seeing the many skyscrapers we headed out to the lake, both by the aquarium and Navy Pier which gave us a fantastic view of the skyline with the lake in front. The water was an incredible turquoise colour both in the lake and the river, which has had its direction of flow changed,and is the only river to run the wrong way, all done due to pollution!

We stayed on the bus for a short while more than the circuit, getting off by Millennium Park, which opened in 2004! After a coffee and cake, we stroll through the Park, admiring the wall of water and The Bean. We then stroll up Michigan Avenue, across the river to the Tribune Tower which has bits of stone from every State and also many famous buildings and landmarks around the world embedded in the walls.

We stroll down beside the river and have an early dinner in the Riverwalk cafe - very nice and with an excellent view. We make our way back to the Palmer building to pick up the shuttle back to our hotel.