Days 3-5 report

DAY THREE: GRAND CANYON
Wow! What can I say? Apart from crappy Internet stations, it's as immense and as awesome as they say. We arrived late afternoon and saw the sunset produce some stunning colours, and even managed to eat on the rim itself. Crappy Internet stations couldn't hide my delight at Blues beating Arsenal for the final match of the season - will check the latest footie news after updating this blog...

DAY FOUR: GRAND CANYON-MONUMENT VALLEY
Early morning helicopter ride across the Canyon revealed more of its splendour, but we were soon on our way to our next destination. Monument Valley is more spectacular in my eyes, because the Grand Canyon is so well documented, whereas this place was less well known to me.

DAY FIVE: MONUMENT VALLEY-LAKE POWELL
After an early morning jeep trip into Monument Valley itself, we flew over it in a small plane on our way to Lake Powell - expensive, but well worth it. Had a sudden fear just before take-off, and when the plane was buffeted by high winds a couple of times, but eventually settled into the flight and have some spectacular photos (I hope!) to show for it - the camera battery was in the red from the off, but survived well into the afternoon, post-arrival and during our trip into Slot Canyon, a spectacular and incredibly narrow canyon we walked through that has been formed by water from the floods.

This whole area is beautiful in its own desolate way (shame about the Yanks!), and there's a surprising amount of life here. Spent a small fortune, but have only two t-shirts to show for it so far! Off to Bryce Canyon this afternoon before Zion National Park tonight and tomorrow morning. We reach Vegas tomorrow afternoon and then fly to San Francisco for three nights - highlights will include a tour of Alcatraz and a baseball game!

Hope to report again soon...