San Francisco

The last full day of our holiday in the USA and we had a look round the big city of San Francisco. This is Union Square, right in the centre of the city, and surrounded by all the posh shops.

Alcatraz Inmates

Some of the current "inmates" of Alcatraz. The tourists waiting for a boat home.

Photographer

One of the tourists has time to take photos of San Francisco whilst escaping from Alcatraz.

Tourists

Two of the tourists escaping from Alcatraz.

ALCATRAZ

Alcatraz Island with the US Prison on top. The prison closed in 1963 and it is now a major tourist attraction.

The Big Trees

This is what you see when you look upwards in Muir Woods

Muir Woods

The last Monday of our holiday and we went for a walk through the Redwood forrest of Muir Woods, north of San Francisco. A popular place with lots of impressive trees.

From the helicopter.

A view from the helicopter as we came in to land alongside the Colorado River. If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it you will see another helicopter taking off by the edge of the river.

Tourist

Here's a typical tourist in the Grand Canyon.

More Grand Canyon

Here's another picture from our Grand Canyon boat trip. Notice how muddy the river water looks. It moves 80,000 tonnes of soil out of the canyon every day.

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW

Alcatraz Escapees

Two escapees from Alcatraz Island (seen in the distance slightly right of centre), having just swam or wind surfed ashore.

Golden Gate

Another picture of the Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco at last.

The travellers reach the most westerly point of their travels at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. And at last the air temperature is more like back home in the UK.

Chopper

Getting ready for our helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. This is our transport just being refuelled ready for us to use it.

Grand Canyon

Typical holiday maker on a boat trip down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon

Hoover Dam

The Hoover Dam from the air. Holds up the Colorado River for flood control and hydroelectric power. Behind it is Lake Mead.

MGM Grand

The MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas. Claims to be the biggest in the world with over 5,000 rooms.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas Boulevard at night. No need for street lights here, the hotels and casinos provide enough light so you would hardly know it was dark.

The View Hotel

This is the View Hotel in Monument Valley

The long straight roads of Arizona. This is the view towards Monument Valley.

Wildlife

We haven't seen any bison, elk or mountain lions as yet but we have seen lots of chipmunks like this litte one. Also seen a few lizards in the desert but no rattlesnakes... yet.

John Ford Point

This is John Ford Point. The place where the director of all those old westerns used to sit and plan his movies. At the right is a Navajo Indian sitting on his horse.

Monument Valley 2

Monument Valley is the place where many of the old John Wayne westerns were filmed and scenery like this really reminds us, (Karen especially) of films like Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and The Searchers.

Monument Valley

Sunday to Monday 10/11 July we stayed at The View hotel owned by the Navajo Indian Nation. This was the picture from our balcony in the morning. The reason the hotel is called The View should be obvious from this.