angusmccoll

Please note, I pinched this pic from the web. I can’t access my own from my camera and I didn’t think to use my phone! Sorry!

I had planned to do a hike in the Grand Canyon National Park but unfortunately the walk a had planned just wasn’t accessible without your own car. Much of my planning for the US has overestimated my ability to get around on public transport. It is possible to access the Grand Canyon from Las Vegas on day tours and I find one of those on the Internet. The tour includes a visit to Hoover Dam, one of the seven engineering wonders of the world.

The day starts at 5.30 with hotel pickup where we are delivered to centre to join the million other pickups! No, not again! Another ugly mass tourist experience. We’re herded onto as many huge buses as it takes and then we begin.

Hoover Dam manages the Colorado River near it’s source and the result is Lake Mead. The wall was built in the 1940’s to provide water and electricity mainly for California and to flood-control the river. The wall’s engineering and construction is legendary and the amazing story can be followed in a documentary available on ‘Seven Wonders of the Engineering World’ DVD. The wall is narrow but very deep and cleverly designed to withstand the tremendous forces concentrated on its structure. From memory its design was revolutionary for the times. Embedded is a hydro-electricity scheme.

This Colorado River that feeds Lake Mead is also the one that cuts through the Grand Canyon. The Colorado River has been very busy over the eons. She has persistantly carved her way through a landscape that is constantly lifting and the result, over a billion years in the making, is before my very eyes. This scenario is repeated so many times throughout the world but this geological example is just extraordinary. And the river is still hard at work crafting the canyon even further, visible by the chocolate colour of the water. I’m not alone of course, here with a billion other tourists from my tour and a million others, but if you just sit long enough they buzz around you for a while, then buzz off for some coke and fries. Then I have space to appreciate the enormity of what I am seeing. We are up on a plateau and it is nearly a sheer drop of about two kilometers! If you fell, you would hit a few bumps on the way down but not many. It’s windy and people get way to close to the edge for photo opportunities, some with umbrellas! Can you believe that? Amazingly nobody goes over the edge this time! There is an old guano mine perched at the very edge in one place. What was workplace health and safety like there?

We are on the western edge of the Grand Canyon. The canyon goes for 446 kilometers and is 30 kilometers wide in places. There are various access points to view the canyon. This western side has the glass-bottom bridge that you pay extra to walk out on and see straight down – completely unnecessary to my mind. There are helicopters and planes buzzing the canyon with high-paying sight-seers and you look down on them as they cruise the river. I counted at least sux helicopters and 10 planes back at the main camp, such is the enormity of the tourist business here. Many are in the air at the same time. How they manage all those is a mystery. It is also possible to access the Canyon from the South side and the north side but this western side is the most popular. We are on an Indian Reserve here and they take advantage with gift shops and food outlets. Why not, they should do well out of it.

About 20 minutes from the Canyon is a community out in the middle of nowhere. Apparently you can come out here and stake your multi-acre claim for free as long as you live on your block for seven years, without electricity or water! You have to provide your own. And they did. The community is complete with a school that goes through to highschool, medical centre and even hairdresser. This is in the middle of the desert!

We also pass through a forest of Joshua trees. These are a unique desert tree that only grows at a certain elevation and in few places in the world. They are so named because their branches raise upwards to the sky like arms lifted in some sort of spiritual gesture. I think they were named by the Mormons.

If ever there was a great example of man’s ability to artificially manipulate the environment to suit himself, Vegas would be it! Las Vegas is in the Mojave desert. Average rainfall per year is about three inches and the temperature during the summer is well over 100 degrees farenheight, yet here is this bustling metropolis of about 1.4 million people.

Some Spanish dude stumped his toe on a natural spring along time ago and found it could support life out here in the desert. The town of Las Vegas was eventually born but only since the beginning of the 1900s. Initially it was a church town but the mafia moved in during the 1930s I think, and introduced gambling. From my understanding the mob moved out here to distance themselves from the annoying authorities. Illegal gambling prospered and so did Vegas. The state of Nevada eventually legalised gambling here and the town really took off. Its success has surprised everybody and it is still growing rapidly, despite the financial crisis. There are problems here because of the crisis. Las Vegas has the highest rate of home foreclosures of anywhere in the US. One in four homes have been foreclosed by the banks. Some major new Casino construction has stopped or mothballed. But generally Las Vegas is alive and pumping. There seem to be a lot of tourists here and there is money about in the cars and exclusive shops.

The touristy part of town is mainly the Las Vegas boulevard where the big Casinos sit side-by-side, all with their own theme and attractions to lure prospective punters into their gaming rooms. Caesar’s Palace has Rod Stewart (is he still alive?) and Celion Dion will follow him (is she still alive?). Australia’s boy band ‘Human Nature’ is somewhere and Cirque de Soule is permanently here somewhere. And Michael Jackson is here somewhere too. Very clever! Some offer free shows that can be viewed from the walking paths. Treasure Island Casino has some pirate action happening but of the few I have seen, the water symphony would be the best. It’s a spectacular dancing water fountain synchronised to music and lights. Then there are the clubs, shops and bars interspersed with the casinos. The ‘strip’ is the part of the boulevard where this action is concentrated. Walking the ‘strip’ and beyond at night is visually exhausting. Whether it is the dry heat or all the lights, my eyes sting. You have no doubt seen the photos of Vegas’s nightscape. It’s far more powerful seeing it live as you would expect. The Americans are certainly masters of the instant message and the technology for getting the instant message out there. They use everything here to promote product. Entire buildings become billboards or multi-media screens. Even McDonalds has a bug video screen under the golden arches. Then there are the synchronised light shows of the casinos, each trying to outdo the other. It is truly spectacular.

And then there is the Fremont Experience! A casino-clad section of Fremont Street is converted into a mall that runs for several blocks. Apparently this is the original part of Las Vegas, and then the ‘strip’ came along. To compete with the ‘strip’ at the other end of the boulevard they have done something interesting. The mall is roofed with a conical cover that looks innocent enough during the day but at night it goes off. The ceiling is a multimedia display of some sort with which they use to put on an effective colourful show. It’s very unique and a feature here in Las Vegas.

The huge amount of resources required to make all this happen boggles the mind (my mind anyway). The desert heat is kept at bay by air-conditioners working full-time and it can be uncomfortably cold in places. How many power stations are committed to this place? None-the-less it is happening and for now, it works…surprisingly. Vegas’s success defies the experts, particularly during these tough economic times. Perhaps these times have some people going back to university to retrain while others turn to gambling to change their fortunes. One thing for sure, their fortunes will change!

This is the Riveria Casino and Hote where I am staying for $25 per night!

It’s a tragedy! The fast food chains are killing off the the American diner! Well, that is what it looks like to me. Like weeds these fast food chains are moving in and squeezing the traditional diners out. How sad.

When I chose to stop off at Barstow I saw it as a small dot on the map at the edge of the Mojave desert, thinking it would be an interesting place to look at. I don’t really know what I was expecting. Perhaps cactus trees, rolly polley bushes, giddy-up hitching rails, spittoons, swinging doors but no, none of that. It’s all petrol stations, fast-food chains, hotels and shopping malls! The town does have history but none of the character that comes from a colourful past is visible to me, in this part of town anyway. I did find a bar, Molly’s Bar, but wasn’t impressed. The Guinness tasted unusual. I understand that Barstow used to be a service town for the many silver mines throughout the Mojave Desert. Today the silver is gone (I can confirm that, I kicked a few stones and didn’t find any) and now it seems to be a service town for the cars and travelers passing through. The workforce seems very transient. When ever I asked about the local area the response was usually ‘Oh, I’m not from here, sorry I don’t know’.

I spend the late afternoon looking over the town from a hill. The air is very hot and dry and my camera is warm to hold (what’s that doing to the little pixels?). There are dry thunderstorms about and the setting sun lights up the surrounding hills beautifully. A major busy freeway passes across the dry Mojave River and through town. Las Vegas is only a couple of hours away. A multi-track railway line streams through town and it has been serious with freight the whole time I have been here.

Anyway, despite the towns lack of colour, the surrounding hills are pretty. There is supposed to be an Army base here and a did see some army uniforms walking out of the local Starbucks. Apparently you can do a tour of the base, but not on a Sunday!

Off to Las Vegas tomorrow!

Back on the bus and I’m heading for Las Vegas. I’m going to break the trip by staying two nights at Barstow, a small town on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. I want to experience some small-town desert living and I need to time my arrival in Vegas to get the cheap mid-week hotel deals. I’ve booked into several nights at a casino right on the Las Vegas strip for $25 per night. I thought it was a mistake but that is what has been billed to my credit card. I have heard that accommodation, food and drink is very cheap at these casinos, designed to get you to gamble. Well I hope to resist the temptation and just take advantage of the cheap deals.

The way continues down through California’s mid valley where irrigated agriculture dominates the scenery. This changes though as we head east from industrial Bakersfield (where Hugh lives), through the Sierras and into desert territory. Wind turbines, hundreds of them, top the ridges and hills. It is a dry time of the year, even in the valleys and the hills are brown and treeless. Moving into the desert and only the vegetation changes. The grass is gone and the hills are covered in rock and course shrubs. I had expected to see some cactus but none here! I get to Barstow at 5.30pm.

Visalia’s origins day back to the early 1850’s when it flourished as a service town for all the miners streaming into the goldfields further north. California’s gold fields attracted hopefuls from around the world, including Australia. When the gold ran out here, many went to new finds in Australia, particularly the Palmer River Gold Fields just north-west of Cairns. As the gold fields dried here in California, the Civil War came to town and that was great for business as well. Today Visalia is a service town for the rich agricultural and horticultural surrounds, with a population if about 125,000 people. It is also an important administrative centre for the County of Tulare. It’s a pretty town and you can see the Sierra Nervarda mountains, home of my briends the Giant Sequoias, in the background. There is plenty going on and there are huge cars everywhere. I must get photos of these things because some of the cars are just to ridiculous to believe.

I spend the day here organising the next part of my trip. I’m going to bus to a place called Barstow that sits on the edge of the Mojave Desert. I will stay here for two nights to have a look around before heading for Vegas.

Life is cheaper here in the USA when compared to Australia. Petrol is around 75 cents per litre (and they complain about that), fruit here is beautiful and cheap (eg. a large punnit of sweet organic strawberries for $3), movies are $7.50, I could have bought my camera here for half the price I paid back home.

The National parks, here in California at least, are amazingly set up for visitation. With the volume of people flowing through they have to be. Of the two parks I have visited there is a village life about them with shops and all levels of accommodation available. They even cater for the huge RV vehicles (camper vans) that are popular here. The information centers and interpretive signage in the field are very good and you would have to be completely blind to come away from these places and not learn something about the significance of the surroundings. And going by the huge numbers of people coming through these places, the information must be getting out there.

I leave the Giant Sequoias via bus to Versalia, a town close by. On the bus are a young family from San Diego, on holidays. Tod gets three weeks of annual leave. He has worked up to this privilege, two weeks is the average annual leave in America! They hired an RV van privately on Craigs List (a popular Internet trading website). Some people who buy these huge RV vans at great expense then hire them out privately when they’re not using them. Tod works for a commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning company that has survived the economic down turn. He used to run a charter fishing boat but then the family came along. They despair at where America is right now and are aware of the mess they are in but are thankful they haven’t lost their job. They voted for Obama and still think he is the best there is but believe that no matter who is in the top job, it is the political system that is stuffed. The damage done by previous administrations is overwhelming and unmanageable by the current way the countries administration functions. The whole political ‘system’ is buggered and I think they might be right. Although logic suggests if the ‘system’ got them into this mess, it should be able to get them out? I don’t know. They see their kids education being impacted on by funding cutbacks but the limitless spending on international interests goes on. The summer school holidays lasted for three and a half months (slightly longer than usual) this year as the public schools closed early because they ran out of money. The break will be even longer next year for the same reason. School for them starts on 5 September. Tod and his wife joke about singing ‘the happiest day of the year’ song for then but the kids don’t get the joke! Perhaps they will when they start having children of their own. They admit to being proud Americans but are frustrated by ‘the system’ and concerned for their children’s education. They will do their best to ride this mess out.

Also on the bus is a young American from the east coast who is traveling around the USA after finishing his Psychology degree. He admits to studying psychology to find out more about himself than to make a career out of it, but if a job comes along he might take it. I suspect most of the psychology students at JCU are studying it for the same reason. He too is frustrated by a system that advantages the rich and the poor get poorer. He sees that this is socially unsustainable and he is going to have some fun while he can. For a young guy he seems well aware of what’s happening around him, which is refreshing to see. Hopefully there are plenty more like him and that they bother to vote.

Americans like to talk about themselves. The slightest prompts will bring on life stories, which is fine for me because I am interested in their lives and how they live. I don’t think Australians would be so forthcoming.

There is an elderly retired couple on the bus from Versalia. They have lived here all their lives and can explain to us what we are seeing through the windows.

I will stay in Versalia for two nights to organise the next leg of my trip. I’ve booked three nights in a Las Vegas casino. Can you imagine the culture shock – from the beauty and wonder of giant sequoias and snow capped rugged mountains to the chaos and decadence of casino town. Surely it has to be the most bizarre place America has to offer and that is why I must go there. From sublime beauty to crass ugliness! How far can I push myself!

I wake up feeling fluey today. The signs were there yesterday and it is worse today. I hope it’s very temporary. I have another easy day to speed up my recovery so I spend it walking amongst the sequoias. Another bear experience! This medium sized bear walked across the path from the woods to and open marshy area. It was happy to feed on the swamp grasses and plants within meters of me. They are handsome looking animals. They don’t have much to worry about. They are at the top of the food table with only annoying humans to put up with. They mainly eat plants and insects but will eat carrion, and yet they have the most carnivorous of teeth.

Oh, and I’ve just heard that a bear with two cubs passed by my tent at five o’clock this morning. I seem to be camped on some sort of bear highway!

Today is an easy one, mainly to recover from yesterday’s walk and to get some laundry done. I grab a coffee to get me going. The coffee drinking situation in America (this part anyway) is interesting. Most of the coffee I have come across is filtered coffee, weak filtered coffee. Expresso coffee is rare but I did find some in San Francisco. Here at the Lodgepole store you buy a large paper cup and then go to the coffee thurmus-machine to fill up. I noticed people returning to refill their cups. I went up to the cashier to ask if it was alright to refill my cup thinking I would get the ‘Are you crazy?’ response. He replies ‘Yes but only for today. You can’t reuse the cup tomorrow’. I laughed thinking he was joking. He wasn’t. ‘Ok, just for today is fine’. Three huge cups latter – I tried but I just couldn’t drink any more! Then I think of the missed opportunities from previous days where I thought you paid per cup. Americans must get a shock when they come to Australia and pay $4 for a coffee and ‘where is my refill?’.

Holly crap! While a write this a young bear strolls through my camp! I’m at the very end of a long campground that hugs a rocky river. it’s a great location but I guess I’m exposed more than most to the critter inhabitants of the woods. This teenage-looking bear came out of the wood and ambled past to get to the river. My neighbors and I jumped to attention and starting yelling and carrying on as we have been instructed to do by the rangers. To keep them wild and independent, we are to make them as uncomfortable as possible when they come too close to camps. After we chase it off, we then chase after it to get photos – very comical!

I’m in the Giant Forest area of the Sequoia NP, so named by the great John Muir who describes it far more eloquently than I or most mere mortals. ‘When I entered this sublime wilderness the day was nearly done. The trees with rosy glowing countenances seemed to be hushed and thoughtful, as if waiting in conscious religious dependance on the sun, and one naturally walked softly and awestricken among them.’ – the words are bigger than I would have used but my observations exactly! The Giant Forest is made up of local pines and sequoias. The sequoia is of the pine tree family also but where most pine trees typically thin to a fine point, the sequoias uniquely lose little of their girth to the top and suddenly stop, hence their claim to the most voluminous trees on the planet. They get to an age when the tip dies off and they just grow outwards from then. To be amongst these huge beautiful trees is not just a visual experience but an emotional one as well. It brings tears to my eyes.

I camped overnight at Dorst Creek. It’s a busy spot and I was lucky to get a camp. It’s a bit of a distance from the main site, Lodgepole, which has all of the facilities but also easy access to shuttle services and some interesting hiking trails. I will pack up and try my luck for getting into the Lodgepole camp ground. But while packing I get invited to breakfast by my camp neighbours. They are a large Mexican-American family from Orange County near LA who get together once a year here for a family gathering and there are many generations of them. They force me to eat…and eat…and eat! ‘We like to eat’. Bacon and eggs, home made tortillas and salsa, Mexican cheese, the sweetest watermelon and of course coffee – fantastic.

The animals in these parks are amazing. All around are cute ground squirrels, a pair of mule deer come through while we were breakfasting and while waiting for the bus, a pine martin (weasel like critter) scampers across with a squirrel in it’s mouth. They are natural predators of the cute little squirrels and very cute looking themselves. I got some photos.

I find a quiet trail through the Giant Forest and come across my first black bear! What a buzz! I don’t feel at all threatened. These bears are more naughty than nasty. They will come into camps or cars if there is food around and will destroy anything to get at it. They can wreck your plans but unlikely to physically hurt you – hence the metal food lockers and the constant messages to keep all food locked away. Sure, they can do you some damage if they wanted to but you usually need to instigate the confrontation. Even a kangaroo can be just as dangerous. Initially in the early life of visitation to these national parks, rangers would set up food dumps to deliberately attract the bears to the people for entertainment. This of course led to a welfare dependency developing within the black bears behavior, with all sorts of negative consequences. The bears uncharacteristically brought together would fight and bear cubs would be ripped apart right before spectators eyes. This practiced was stopped in the 1940’s and now the opposite is encouraged. Severe fines can be imposed if you are caught either deliberately or accidentally feeding the bears. All food must be stored in metal cabinets provided.

Grizzly bears are different to black bears. They are much bigger with serious attitude and are unpredictable. You avoid them at at any opportunity. Grizzly bears used to reside throughout California but they were wiped out by early settlers. They are no longer found in this state, despite it being the feature emblem on the state flag.

Those are the bear facts!

Anyway, back to my trail. I also come across a Sierra Nervada red-crested woodpecker (I made that name up but all the adjectives are relevant). The noise alerted me to them. How tough are their beaks and that brain-rattling hammering of the trees. I get a headache just watching.

The trail comes out at Moro Rock. It is a large rocky projection that I suspect has resisted the abrasive intentions of glaciers over the eons. You can walk out onto Moro Rock, and many people do, to get spectacular views both to the east towards the snow capped mountains and to the west towards the polluted coastal regions.

The day ends around a campfire with a Californian Chardonnay from a tetrapak (what a great idea) at my isolated campsite with the sounds of a babbling creek in the background! I have booked three nights but will try to extend to four. I’m located at the very end of this campsite. A mule deer comes within seven meters of me to drink. He (antlers are a gender sign) drinks, then we eyeball each other then he drinks again before moving off for a graze on the local bushes. This day has been a good one. From a generous Mexicali breakfast to a black bear sighting to a campsite deer invasion! For dinner – crudely toasted potato bread and chicken and rice soup from a can!