This was our second trip to the US Westcoast and with our past experience we knew what to go for: lots of National Parks for unrivaled scenery and hiking, plus a taste of the incredible vastness of Nevada and Utah. This holiday was to leave an everlasting impression in our memories. PAGE ONE | PAGE TWO

So much space... Compared to our densily populated country (The Netherlands) and the crowdedness of most of Europe, these long, empty roads never tired us and felt relaxing in one way and exciting (we had to check road conditions ahead due to chances of flooding) in a different way. We heard about a campervan being held up and robbed: we had arrived in the Wild West ! While our holidays had started in San Francisco, we felt these parts were our real start of the trip, so let's take it from here.... Heading east through Nevada This was for many years (decades!) one of the main attractions for us: WIDE OPEN SPACES! You could see thunderstorms approaching or clearing.. While I took photographs, Ada shot film.

The countryside never ceased to amaze us. AUSTIN, NV Going for refreshments in an actual saloon! I have always been interested in the history of "the Old West" in the United States: the pioneers, early settlers, explorations and travels done by the Mountain Men trapping for beaver pelts (over the years I managed to collect a nice selection of diaries of early trappers), the truth behind "cowboys & indians", gold rushes, pioneers, et cetera. Isolated communities such as here in Austin, Nevada (on US 50 between Reno and Ely) made me feel in touch with that history. We took the diversion from Highway 80 on purpose and enjoyed the solitude and our first visit to a ghost town (at the Ruth Copper Mining Pit); we were to repeat visits to ghost towns for many years. Newspapers reported "Deadly storms hit California, Nevada again" and we checked road conditions with the ranger stations; but we were able to continue our itinerary (though part of the road ahead had only been repaired since a few days, after flooding had washed away part of the road). The 'Ruth Copper Mine' was one of the largest in the world in the 1980s. 'Staff' have better accommodation now ☺ The weather was fickle, some rain every now and then.

Driving further east we saw these products of an imaginitive mind ! We have driven Beatles at home, never thinking they could be used in this way, as art... In 2007 I came across another such 'Work of Art' in Northwest Ontario. We also visited the Lehman Caves, east of Ely; the subterranean wonderlands were indeed wonderful and we spent almost 2 hours admiring the stalactites and stalagmites in their amazing forms and shapes. LEHMAN CAVES Shortly before crossing the border into Utah we visited these caves. It was one of the reasons why we drove the longer route from California to Salt Lake City. "The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time." -Henry D. Thoreau, 'A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers', 1849 Lehman Caves is the longest cave system in the state of Nevada. Tours have been entering the cave since 1885, and you can become another visitor in a long tradition of explorers. www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/lehman-caves-tours The road had been flooded and damaged but had been repaired less than a week before our passing.

UTAH Although there little time in our schedule (it had been a long day in the saddle) we decided nevertheless for a small detour for Little Sahara Recreation Area (27020 W Sand Mountain Rd, Nephi,UT). It was a long climb to the top! We had to walk, others used their dune buggies! Ada enjoying the view To give you an idea of the height we were on, the arrow pointing to our car. All other visitors had left. We spent the night in Provo, the sun had set and we didn't want to continue in darkness to Salt Lake City. Roads being flooded (above: driving in the area of Fisher's Rock) , we actually saw thunderstorms approaching and pass... it all meant we were in touch with nature and its ability to complicate our travels or even endanger our safety. While driving through parks and isolated places like these, we took the scoalled 'flash flood warnings' seriously. The luxury sedan (Chrysler E-class 1983) we had rented was of much better quality than the cars we could afford at home and enabled us to drive the distances we were not accustomed to in Europe; driving never tired us and relaxed us after a serious hike (which we were not used to either !). The car even had cruise control and we enjoyed this novelty! Our favourite hamburger meal: The Whopper. Our file on where to go and what to visit, compiled after writing letters for information to Chambers of Commerce and Nat'l Parks in the USA, and checking some travel sources in our country. Again our daily diet revolved mostly around junkfood... This type of food hadn't arrived yet in the Netherlands, not to an extend as it had in the US. Burger King's "whopper" was new to us and we had a fair share of those! Hamburgers were varied with pizzas, fortunately we had plenty of exercise to walk off some of that fat. The liquor licenses, however, were a mystery to us: while you could buy beer at some gasstations, a restaurant around the corner couldn't serve wine with dinner... A glass of wine prohibited, for Pete's sake!! In later years we learned that this had to do with liquor licenses being issued and/or sometimes with young staff under the age of 18. SALT LAKE CITY Eagle Gate. Erected in 1859. Temple Square Tabernacle Storm approaching over Salt Lake Hail and rain hit us, the light turning a weird colour.. The Great Salt Lake is both the largest body of water between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean and the largest salt lake in the western hemisphere. The Great Salt Lake is the major remnant of prehistoric Lake Bonneville, a large freshwater lake of the Pleistocene era (75,000-7,250 B.C.) that once covered 20.000 square miles (51.800 square kilometers). Great Salt Lake explained. After rain comes sunshine! Areas still showed previous flooding here in the Nevada / Utah area

CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK This must be one of the prettiest photos I made during this trip; this is what I mean with "connecting with history", people living off the land in the same way as they did for many generations ago (that tractor gives it away though, if you want to read 19th century in this photo...). Its location was just outside the park. I came across the very same place in 1990, it hadn't changed much though I didn't see any horses then. Time to go out on another trail Again a hike that lasted several hours Ada in the Grand Wash. An uninteresting trail, sandy, leading to nowhere. Capitol Reef National Park was our first park after having visited Salt Lake City (again, that city was nice but by no means as impressive as Mother Nature in these parts and choices had to be made while selecting the photos for this webpage) and it did not disappoint us. The rock formations were impressive and warnings for "flash floods" in places such as here, in the "Grand Wash", added to the excitement. Splendid views. At that time I stopped for every dead tree and make a photo! The park was virtually deserted except for us... We hiked for about 2 hours to Cassidy's Arch, under hot and dry conditions. It is good advise to carry water with you in these parts. Famous outlaw Butch Cassisy and his gang had their hideout in these parts, hiding away from the law. We never got to see Cassidy's Arch, though.. That grey/black of rock just above the Moenkopi is a greenish-gray scale that was once volcanic ash..! It's one part of the Chinle, a complex 700-feet-thick formation, rich in petrified wood. We stopped for the night somewhere at an isolated motel, the 'Poor Boy'; fortunately across the road there was a restauant and bar, which took good care of our food and a cold beer.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK The most impressive National Park of our vacation: ARCHES NP ! Here: 'Skyline Arch'. One can see the strangest formations in this park and the hikes are very pleasant; the difference between the amount of cars driving around and people taking to the trails was noticable, most Americans don't like to get out of their car much... At one point I thought to take a short cut and moved away from the trail, not a good idea ! I lost my way and had to climb a rock formation to find the trail again. Arches National Park preserves over 2.000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, and other unique rock formations. I was more than pleased upon my Revisit to Arches NP in 2017! PARK AVENUE QUEEN NEFERTITI ROCK + SAUSAGE ROCK We stayed in Moab and visited this park for 2 days, taking to the trails and shooting plenty of film. This is an experimental photo, shooting against the sun with a red filter. It translates the heat during noon-time quite well ! Oh, and watch out for those snakes.... The Spectacles ('north'- and 'south window') Compare the size of that arch with a person's height! Turret Arch. Again Ada has to perform the function of creating perspective and scale here.. Double Arch. That little speck is little ol' me; this time it was me to create scale. This rock wall probably was an arch too, a zillion-or-so years ago Me in front of Pine Tree Arch After a visit to Sand Dune Arch. Hand at the hat for the warm desert wind was blowing fiercely! Ada climbing Sand Dune Arch (I think). Ada out on the trail TAPESTRY ARCH The sunset made it my worth while to wait, but I tried to make up for time and lost the trail.. NOT GOOD! I wasn't at all pleased about Ada playing dare devil here, looking for a better vantage shot. My vertigo was playing up! I probably used a long lens for this shot of Delicate Arch. John Wesley Wolfe ranch. The Wolfe Ranch, also known as Turnbow Cabin, is located in Arches National Park near Moab. John Wesley Wolfe settled in the location in 1898 with his oldest son Fred. A nagging leg injury from the Civil War prompted Wolfe to move west from Ohio, looking for a drier climate. He chose this tract of more than 100 acres (0.40 km2) along Salt Wash for its water and grassland - enough for a few cattle. The Wolfes built a one-room cabin, a corral, and a small dam across Salt Wash. For more than a decade they lived alone on the remote ranch. In 1906, John Wolfe's daughter Flora Stanley, her husband, and their children moved to the ranch. Shocked at the primitive conditions, Stanley convinced her father to build a new cabin with a wood floor. The ranch on Salt Wash was established about that time under the Bar DX brand. With the arrival of Wolfe's daughter and son-in-law in 1906, the newer, surviving structures were built. However, the Stanley family moved to Moab in 1908. [¬Wikipedia 2024] PAGE ONE | PAGE TWO

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