Big Rock Sculptures

South Dakota has exceeded my expectations. The area south of Rapid City is filled with things to see and do. This has caused it to become a bit cheesy in places but it's not hard to sift through to get to the good stuff.

The major attraction is of course the 4 fellows on the hill. They being 60 foot faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. So now I can tick the Mt Rushmore box of places been, things seen. One funny story, the sculpture's secretary was fired for writing a memo where she misspelled the word winch with an 'e'. She wrote One wench is to be available for use by the sculpture at any time he may choose to use it.

Just down the road from Rushmore, is a half finished mountain sculpture called Crazy Horse. It is a depiction of an Indian warrior atop his horse pointing to the distance as he says My lands are where my dead lie buried. It is not yet finished and to give some perspective, the 4 president's heads will fit into the size of Crazy Horse's face and hair. So you could say it will be fairly big!

From above ground to underground, my next stop was Windy Cave which is, as caves go, not super exciting. The interesting thing about the caves is that 135miles of tunnels have been mapped and it is believed this is only about 5% of the total length but it is all within 1 square mile. For all this only one natural entrance has been found and it is about 1 foot in diameter.

Also underground, I visited a mammoth archaeological dig which was pretty cool. There have been several specimens found and they are still digging. It is thought that the area was once a hot spring and the mammoths liked to bathe in it but it had steep sides and they couldn't climb out so died of exhaustion and sank.

Back up on the surface, I enjoyed hiking through the grasslands in Custer Park and while the scenery is not spectacular like the Rockies, it is very pretty and somehow soothing on the soul. I came face to face with a bison bull and after flaring our nostrils at each other, watched a pronghorn antelope prance off into the sunset as the prairie dogs cheered him on with their barking. For the first time in a very long time I felt content and in tune with the universe.

South Dakota

Well, Obama seems to be solving the great depression with roadworks. On my drive from Wyoming east towards South Dakota I spent somewhere in the vicinity of 4 hours waiting and smelling the sweet scent of liquid asphalt.

Despite this it was a beautiful drive. From the Rockies, I briefly popped into Montana then back to Wyoming which starts to flatten out into rolling grasslands. Just think Dances With Wolves without the bison and with barns and hay bales. After crossing the border I headed to Badlands National Park. I've seen badlands in Death Valley and Petrified Forest NPs but these ones are much bigger and being surrounded by green prairies makes them pretty unique.

Yellowstone

Yellowstone was possibly my REASON for coming to North America. It is what I expected and yet it is not. The landscape is a world away from the Grand Tetons, yet it in reality it is but a few miles.

Yellowstone is unlike any of the other NPs I've been to as it covers such a vast area and has within it, several different exhibits. I realise as I write that I'm not explaining myself in the words that Yellowstone deserves but words seem inadequate. Like the Grand Canyon it has to be seen to be believed.

The park encompasses a very large caldera which scientists schedule to erupt every 600 000 years or so. We are currently past the 600 000 year mark. Yellowstone lake has receded on one side and risen on the other indicating a bulge in the earth's surface, a precursor to a volcanic eruption.

Yellowstone has unequalled wildlife - bison, elk, moose, bears, wolves, to name a few. Then it has all the habitats required for these creatures - forests, lakes, rivers, grasslands, mountains. It has it's own Grand Canyon, complete with its version of Niagra Falls. The crowning glory of Yellowstone is of course it's thermal activity - Old Faithful Geyser, mud volcanoes, fumaroles, hot springs, calcified terraces...

I feel like a robot regurgitating recitations (say that 10 times fast!) and this place does not deserve that. I AM IN AWE and you should see it for yourself before it erupts and is gone forever.

By the way - when it erupts we are all gone forever! Food for thought.

Grand Tetons

I'm having some difficulty with the little letters on my mini keyboard as my hands look like they are blown-up balloons. I'm not sure if this is from altitude or frostbite - all will be explained shortly...

But first... I have removed myself from Salt Lake City (missed Jenny and Co by 2 days) and headed north through 15 minutes of Idaho and then, via hill and dale, to Wyoming. Hill and dale is a little unfair, it's more gargantuan peaks and vast canyons - incredibly, incredibly beautiful. I am now in Grand Teton National Park. The Tetons were named by French chaps and tetons means 'tits' in English. Look at the photo below and pretend you are a virile male who has not seen a woman for many months ie. use imagination... then just think it's lucky the French didn't discover the Grand Canyon first!

In seriousness this mountain range is spectacular. The valley below is wide and gently undulating then suddenly these jagged peaks shoot skyward and beckon to be climbed.

Today I answered the challenge but in true Alec Harslett fashion, was underprepared for such a venture. Starting at dawn, I circuited Jenny Lake, an easy 5 mile walk and climbed up into Cascade Canyon, a further 6 miles. All was well and it was only 9am. Then I reached the snow line, and here was me in sneakers, shorts and a T-shirt. But of course I plugged on and as the going was a steep uphill was keeping myself warm enough until I met a fellow hiker, equipped with thermals, goretex and an ice-pick. Lucky for me he was up to the challenge so became my pathmaker. We climbed over a 10700 foot pass, carved steps for ourselves down a near vertical ice slope and trudged through 10 foot snow down the adjoining canyon. 22.3 miles later I returned to my vehicle.

I cannot put any weight on my right leg without excruciating pain and have elephantitis hands but what an AWESOME hike!!!!!!!!!!!

For Bob

This morning I received a phone call from home to say, sadly, that my Grandfather, Bob, has passed away. Wherever you are now, Pop, I hope you are at peace.

I visited two of the places that make this area famous. The first was Antelope Island, which is in the Great Salt Lake. It is a fairly barren island but is home to quite a large herd of bison which I was lucky to see. They are imposing-looking beasts but looked pretty harmless as they grazed on the edge of the lake.

The second stop was Park City where the downhill events of the 2002 Winter Olympics were held. Needless to say the area looks a bit different at this time of the year to what it did during the games! There is a good museum and our Alisa Camplin is featured a few times (first Aussie woman to win a gold medal at a winter olympics - now does toothpaste ads).

God Bless America

On a whim I decided to do a spot of white water rafting today. It was the Sevier River, central Utah and was two hours well spent.

I then meandered my way up to Salt Lake City which reminds me of Toowoomba during the Carnival of Flowers. I'm sure it is a very different scene in the winter time! It's a pretty place and very clean and conservative - at least the town centre which is based around a large area of squares belonging to the Mormon Church and their huge Temple. Tourists are made very welcome in the area and I spent the afternoon catching up on my general knowledge of the Bible with all the Missionary Sisters hanging out around the temple. As it turns out, I'm familiar with most of the chaps; Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, etc because they are the names of the mountains in Zion Canyon.

As the sun sank low on the horizon a blue-grass band began to play, starting with some praising of Jesus and ending with some prasing of America. This is to be expected as the 4th of July long weekend has now officially begun.

Zion - Nature's Temple

Entering Zion National Park from the east is via a tunnel through a mountain of rock and then down, down, down to the base of the canyon.

The area from Bryce to Zion and on the the Grand Canyon is known as the Grand Staircase. The bottom of Bryce is the same level as the top of Zion and the bottom of Zion is the same level as the top of the GC. After that you fall off the edge of the Colorado Plateau.

Zion Canyon has monolithic sandstone walls on both sides of the Virgin River. Due to the prodigious number of tourists that visit, you can no longer drive your own vehicle up the canyon. There are shuttle buses which do the trick very nicely and you can get off at one stop and hike up or down until you get tired, then jump back on the bus.

I did 2 hikes worthy of note. First was the Narrows: after the road ends a path continues for a mile upstream then the canyon narrows and to continue one has to wade through the river. This continues until either you get tired, the water becomes too deep or you reach the top of the canyon. After about a mile going against the current I suffered from the first. Then early this morning was Angels Landing: a steep climb to the top of one of the monoliths. The first half is simply an uphill slog, then the fun starts. The cliffs drop away on both sides of a narrow ridge for a sheer 1000-odd feet. All that is left to steady the hiker is a very flimsy looking chain. So with wobbling knees and a mantra of don't look down I made it to the top. That was the easy part - then I had to come back down!!!!