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Our next destination was Fantasy Canyon in the north eastern corner of Utah. We had driven here once before but rain had made the unpaved roads completely impassable for Winnie. In the meantime, there was a new, paved road and only the last 4.5 miles were a dirt track. We arrived just before sunset and parked up on what is now a proper parking area with a toilet. We wandered around these odd sandstone formations and enjoyed quite a beautiful sunset as background. There is a well marked path along with a map that gives the names of each formation making them easy to find.
The famous Tea Pot is no longer there as some tourists (according to the local tourist office they were Germans!) had knocked it over getting too close for photos. But there were plenty of other formations to see. Kirsten wasn't too happy though, because it was very windy which made it difficult to take photos.
We had a very peaceful night as we were quite literally out in the sticks and Kirsten set the alarm clock so that she could get up for sunrise the next morning to take more photos.
Afterwards we drove to Salt Lake City and went to hear the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performing on Father's Day. It is recorded for radio and is one of the longest-running continuous radio network broadcasts in the world. The choir was founded in August 1847 and is made up of 360 men and women. The broadcast we heard back in 2006 was better but here is the video for Father's Day.
Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performing on Father's Day.
We went to see the Tabernacle Hall which we couldn't see last time as it was being renovated and wandered around Temple Square. We left and drove to a library to see Germany beat Denmark and to watch the favourites, Holland, being sent home without winning a match!
The next few days were taken up with driving, more football (the internet connection to watch England win and get through to the Quarter Finals was so bad we could hardly see anything), and Helen booking her Africa trip.
We stopped at Shoshone Falls which is near Twin Falls, Idaho and is called the "Niagara of the West" because, at 212 feet, it is 45 feet higher that Niagara Falls. The Shoshone Falls flow over a rim that is 1,000 feet wide, into the Snake River.
Shoshone Falls.
The entrance fee is only $3 and we walked 4 miles to go up to Snake River Canyon rim to see the Evil Knievel site. In 1974 Knievel tried to jump across the 1,200 feet wide canyon on a steam powered Skycycle. The attempt failed due to some kind of malfunction so it was a good job he was wearing a parachute for the 1,500 foot descent into the river! He still ended up with a broken nose though!
All that is left at the site is an overgrown ramp but we enjoyed the walk up there and it was a beautiful sunny day. Afterwards, we drove into Boise where Helen stocked up on new clothes and other items for Kilimanjaro and we also went to Camping World to buy a new valve for our toilet tank which had developed a drip!
Changing the valve turned into a royal pain in the proverbial! We drove out to a dump station to empty the tanks and to get the old valve off. Three of the four screws were so rusty that they broke off without too much effort. But the fourth one wouldn't come off and was really difficult to get to.
So we drove back into civilisation and went to a hardware store to get a better spanner for the job. It was getting late and in our haste we left the mat we had used to lie on to get underneath the back of Winnie, on our bike rack and drove off. It flew off along the way!
We finally got the fourth screw off, only to find that one of the rubber seals was missing. So we had to drive back to Camping World but the parts shop had closed! Fortunately we managed to find someone who went and got us another seal. Then we drove back to the dump station and stopped to pick up our missing mat that we saw on the road!
We finally got the valve on after two attempts. It was now 9pm and we'd had a bit of a sh-- day! We drove a few miles in the dark and found a new Fred Meyers supermarket where we could park up for the night. They had literally just opened and had lots of special offers and numerous free samples of hot and cold food so all was not lost!
We took Scenic Highway 55 north but got stuck in a traffic jam for over an hour. There had been an accident - a motorcycle had misjudged a corner and hit a barrier. We pulled off into a shady spot but it was obviously quite serious as there were two ambulances, two police vehicles and a medivac helicopter that caused a big dust storm when it landed.
Driving along the Snake River - 360° Panorama (move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We drove into the State of Washington and stopped at Palouse Falls State Park to see the 200 feet waterfalls. The entrance fee was $10 but for $2 extra we could park overnight. We walked to the viewpoints for both the upper and lower falls.
Palouse Falls.
We had heavy rainfall overnight and it didn't stop raining the whole day. The temperature dropped from 34°C to 16°C so we spent the day doing laundry and shopping. The next day it was sunny again so we continued driving towards the Canadian border and stopped at Steamboat Rock State Park for a welcome hot shower for $1.
We stopped along the scenic route to see Grand Coulee Dam which was built between 1933 and 1942 to provide hydroelectric power. It is one of the largest concrete structures in the world - 550 ft high and 5,223 ft long (168m and 1,592m respectively).
Reservoir full to the brim at Grand Coulee Dam - 360° Panorama(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
The roar of the water coming over the dam was quite impressive and we were told at the visitor centre that they had had to open up the flood gates to their fullest extent as there had been floods in Canada. The Columbia River was so swollen that we wondered whether the dam could hold the pressure!
Grand Coulee Dam.
