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It's a while since I had the opportunity to write to the journal. Since NZ we have visited California and Nevada. It was fascinating see the acres of fruit and nuts growing in the valleys and the mountains were majestic. The desert was more interesting than I had expected, but little vegetation and colder than I thought it would be. Las Vegas is Las Vegas but was a good base to visit Hoover Dam (for Robert in particular) which was a tremendous feat of engineering for the time. We also flew over and into the Grand Canyon which is unique and absolutely enormous. 1 mile wide and 570 miles long.
We flew up to Vancouver and had a few days visiting the city before we set off on the Rocky Mountaineer. Travelling through the Rockies in a luxury train is a wonderful experience. Nothing can prepare you for the staggering grandeur of the Rocky Mountains, they are so in your face as you travel. We detrained at Banff, where we stayed for a few days, pretending that we could ski!! and then took a rental car along the Icefiled Parkway. We stopped to seeing the glacier (above) which was covered in snow so a bit hidden, but still very awesome. We managed to get to Jasper OK as the road had been cleared, but it was interesting seeing the piles of snow at the side. The mountains are grey limestone and quite severe, and the layers of strata are very clear. It was some earth movement which threw them up all those millions of years ago.
We've had 2 interesting days in Jasper, finding the air very dry and thin. We visiting Maligne Lake (the other photo) but it too was iced over, but staggeringly beautiful all the same.
Now on our way to Toronto over the plains of Canada. A chance to catch up with some reading and my diary (and perhaps a bit of French as well!)
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