Dying to get to DEATH VALLEY ...... yawn in Yosemite..

A drive down the main road of Death Valley took us to this predator. Mr. Coyote was actually trolling the CENTER YELLOW LINE of the highway for FOOD (hand outs!) It is a real problem in the parks, so much so that the caretakers of Scotty's Castle has a rodent problem - they claim- because the coyotes have gotten lazy and instead of hunting rats, just beg off tourists! This particular guy actually circled our car over a DOZEN TIMES, a mere 2 feet away AND, when we started to drive away, RAN AFTER OUR CAR!!! He must have smelled the beef jerky we had with us!!


Within the Death Valley park, this is SCOTTY'S CASTLE, which is a top attraction. Seems this guy, Scotty, scammed some people in the early 1900's to think he discovered a secret gold mine in Death Valley - they invested in it even though no one ever saw it.... one of the investors became good friends with Scotty, and built this place as a vacation home.


View from bottom of Death Valley.....


View from the bottom of Death Valley - notice the thick SALT on the ground.....


One thing to emphasize about Death Valley : IT IS HUGE!!!! This is a view from way above, looking down 2000 ft.

The day before we drove to Death Valley, there was a rare rain storm which left numerous stretches of flooded roadways. This area was not quite knee deep - 24 hours after the rains! We made it through alright.....



Yosemite is yet another spectacular national park ..... we have seen SO MANY that it is now more difficult to 'wow us'..... we spent most of our day there riding our bikes down around Yosemite Valley, gazing up at El Capitan, Half Dome and other well known landmarks. Our next destination is the San Diego area to visit daughter Jessica and future son-in-law Gary....

Can U say C O P P E R F I E L D ????

As I post this blog, it is still difficult to believe FOR OURSELVES what I am about to share...... A few years back, while I was doing my star show
( www.bigdipperbill.com ) at Little Palm Island in the Florida Keys, one of the guests - David Copperfield ( http://www.dcopperfield.com/ ), watched my performance. Several days ago, while we were in the peaceful tranquility of Zion National Park, I recieved a phone call from David's agent requesting to purchase several of the green laser astronomy pointers that I use in my show in addition to complete sets of the special constellation prints that I produce. The incredible TIMING of this ( we were planning to BE IN LAS VEGAS in several days - which is where David is currently performing) led ME to suggest a 'barter', that is a trade of 2 of my $100 lasers for 2 tickets to his show. Copperfield 'one upped' the barter, instead saying we could have tickets to his show FOR 'FREE" in equal exchange for INSTEAD, A PERSONAL STAR SHOWING by me while we're in town! I agreed on one condition - that he NOT MAKE ANY OF MY CONSTELLATIONS IN THE SKY DISAPPEAR! Soooo, we went to great lengths to accomodate his request (long story - ask us sometime!), and after seeing his AWESOME SHOW last night, he and 6 of his 'associates' met us in the desert at 1 AM for my show! All went very well - details too much to list here... (incidentally - I don't see any stars in the sky in our picture!!!)

Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks

Within the campground at Zion Nat Park, we were completely surrounded by cliffs towering 1000 ft + high..... probably one of the best places we've camped at during our trip!


At Zion Nat Park, 'Weeping Rock' is a short trek up a hill to a 300 ft overhang rock formation that 'weeps' , that is- constantly has dripping water over its edge. As usual, pix does not capture magnitude of moment.


After spending so much time in the wild west, we finally let loose!

Unfortunately, Ilea got a little too carried away when she wrestled a rifle away from the local sheriff ..... she was incarcerated. We did need some 'alone time' as it does get a bit cramped living in an RV full time - guess I'll bail her out in a couple days..........



Looking up from down BELOW in Bryce Canyon - you get an idea of the 'Fin' formations, which are a couple hundred feet high.


Viewing Bryce Canyon from ABOVE, Ilea psyches herself up for the 3 mile hike down into the canyon below.....


At the Cafe Diablo, as usual - Ilea could not separate her own attractiveness from the surrounding flowers.... the camera was overwelmed, and needed repair after this shot!


One of the many fantastic views along the roads in Utah.


Pausing to absorb the magnitude of the natural beauty surrounding us during a hike at Capitol Reef, we hope to be discovered by a modeling company so that we may be able to further finance our adventures.....


Not able to contain his excitement, Bill sets off to see some REAL HISTORY.


Canyonlands was awesome! You can see HUGE canyons way down below which were inside of yet further HUMONGOUS canyons that spanned for miles in front of you.... for perspective, this view is from a cliff, looking down a couple thousand feet. To celebrate these unusual hikes, Bill indulged in a dinner of RATTLESNAKE at Cafe Diablo (Devil's Cafe)....


At Arches Nat Park, we went on a ranger led walk thru 'Fiery Furnace'... Ilea negotiates a tight spot- there were many where you could barely fit! As we hiked thru , there were cliffs hundreds of feet high on both sides of the 2 foot wide path!

Blown away by Balloons...... then off to Utah!

In Colorado Springs, we stayed with our wonderful Aunt Helen, and had some incredible times during three visits to their annual Balloon festival.
There were over 80 up in the air, and we actually saw one LAND in the middle of a 4 lane HIGHWAY!!!! As you can see, they launch near a lake, then they skim on the top of the lake, and finally go up. One evening, we went to see the "Balloon Glow" where the balloons are filled with hot air, and, without actually launching, flare their flames- causing them to glow. Sadly, it was too windy and they canceled that... many people were leaving due to the high winds and recent lightning (oh-FYI, nearby a hiker had been killed by a lightning strike! ....anyway) what they DID DO instead was set up the balloons without the balloons - that is, just the baskets with their propane flares. THAT WAS AWESOME! About 25 of these powerful flamethrowers going off at once .... it felt like we had landed in some ancient ceremony ( or were having a thrilling date with the devil !!!!!) Note the cool picture with the MOON.... notice how the sun lights up a side of the moon AND amazingly, also lights up the same side of the balloon........

Uhhh...do we really need to say anything about this store in Colorado?




Took a day trip to the far NW corner of Colorado to the Dinosaur National Monument , where we were supposed to be able to see an actual active quarry of dinosaur bones (one of the worlds largest).....sadly, the building built over this quarry has structural damage and has been closed for over a year!! Did not know - DUH... We at least got to walk a path to see a few bones embedded in the rock. Pic shows a dino femur.

On to UTAH!! This is the scene after a significant hike uphill to the "Delicate Arch" in the Arches National Park. The view here is phenomenal!!

Throw me a bone - Last of South Dakota.... on to Colorado....

Toured thru the Denver vicinity... downtown, they seem to have a really HUGE BEAR peeping-tom problem. Did a day trip up to the Rocky Mountain National Park (2 hr N. of Denver).... encountered a large herd of elk - 50 cows to ONLY ONE BUCK!! Got to love those numbers...... very scenic ride thru park on what is said to be the highest altitude paved road in the US. Also visited by Columbine High School (just down the street from where our car was getting an oil change).... this was, of course the site of that terrible shooting back in 1999. Quite eerie, but place appears to be back to normal. At our campsite, south of Denver, saw hot air balloons every morning rise in front of the Rockies.....

A stop over in Denver brought us to some of our favorite relatives. Aunt Helen, cuz Lee and Mary with hubby Roy took us out for a chicken dinner we will always cherish. Also treated them to some of our secret Halibut stash we had from Alaska & a BBQ back at the RV.

In South Dakota, we visited the 'Mammoth Site' which is an actual paleontoligist dig sight! 26,000 years ago, a sink hole formed and filled with water from an underground artisian spring..... this became a trap for animals of the time- especially huge Mammoths. They slipped and fell into the water and were unable to get out.... so they died and became buried / entombed insilt and mud. This site was only discovered in the mid 70's which is when they built an enclosure over the 100 ft diameter area. Since then they have discovered well over a million bones! The bones are buried thru a 60 foot thick vicinity - so they literally only have scratched the surface of their discovery. Again- this is an actual real and ACTIVE dig site..... A + EXCEPTIONALLY COOL!

The snack bar at the Mammoth Site had a wonderful BBQ ... hmmmmmmm.

At the Mammoth Site museum, we stumbled upon one of Ilea's relatives homes! The Ukranian peoples of yesteryear made their homes out of real Mammoth bones and hides!