Sulphur & Servicing

Days 28–30

We didn't have time to read up on everywhere we were going to on this trip before we left England so we skimmed over the highlights for rough route planning and reckoned we'd read the guidebooks in more detail as we went along. We haven't really done that so Yellowstone, Wyoming came as a complete shock to us – it's amazing! I think we were expecting another National Park similar to Jasper et al, but with a geyser or two, which it's not at all. The amount of thermal activity here is staggering, as is the enormous yellowstone gorge and we could have spent a week exploring it all and revisiting the best bits. We even missed our first opportunity to go to a rodeo in favour of the park!

After an extended couple of days in Yellowstone we left the sulphur smell behind and headed South through Teton National Park. Reminiscent of our drive through Glacier National Park we couldn't see much past the cloud and drizzle, but there were a few hints of some dramatic peaks and glaciers.

Day 31

The day started heating up as we left the lush green mountain valleys and rode into the Wyoming Prairies with some very long straight (and rather boring) roads, seeing our first genuine cowboys on horseback on the way. Gradually we started to see glimpses of the canyons to come in strange rock formations beside the road. We took a route recommended to us into Flaming Gorge canyon with it's beautiful red rocks which was a nice break from the otherwise dull prairie-land, and arrived in Grand Junction, where we are now, after a record-breaking (for us) 420-mile day.

Days 32-34

We're now having a pit stop in Grand Junction while we have the bikes serviced, new tyres put on and a few unexpected fixes made. As a result our stay here is becoming a fair bit longer than we planned, but it's all good because we're camping atop a beautiful canyon in Colorado National Park and Grand Junction actually has an unexpected wealth of good eateries and quirky hang-outs. Ric's been a little under the weather (at quite a convenient time), but hopefully we should be back on the road again tomorrow, heading into canyon country proper with our rejuvenated bikes and selves...

Spanish

Ten days before getting to Mexico Emily decided it was about time she tried to learn some Spanish! A couple of days in and thanks to the wonders of Michel Thomas, she's now able to say quite a few useful things, very slowly. More importantly Ric's been touching up on his Spanish and is all set to be chief interpretor.