When I returned from USA in March 2002 I had the feeling that the parks of the Colorado Plateau that I had visited they contained only a part of the natural beauties and not the most greater of the whole West of the United States. This way I matured the intention to return down there and to also visit” the other halves the sky ” of that enormous continent. Today that the second part of my dream I have realized I feel to be able to say that it was worth of it. Who has seen Lie with the Wolves you/he/she can have only a partial idea of the beauty and the vastness of the territories of the Wyoming, of Montana and of the South Dakota where the first part of our trip is developed. Going down then to S we have revisited the area of the Utah and the Arizona to finally direct us toward Nevada and the California, with Yosemite and as last inevitable destination, San Francisco.

The trip in synthesis

Departure on May 04 2004 Milan Linate - London Heathrow-Denver

I return on May 26 2004 San Francisco-London Heathrow-Milan Linate

From Denver in San Francisco we have used a pulmino from 8 places preventively rented from Italy through Saragozza Viaggi , the agency in Bologna (info@saragozza.it) that you/he/she has also furnished us the aerial passages with the British Airwais and the global sanitary insurance for the permanence in USA. Only the first pernottamento in Denver has been reserved before departing: for all the others there are suitable day for day without any problem. Of preference we have slept in the Super motels 8.

The companions of trip

Together with me, Titian, Giovanni, Orfeo and Romeo, they were legionaries from the first trip. Dark, instead Renzo and Fabrizio have participated for the first time. The last two are alternated to the guide of the vehicle for all the 5200 miles it crossed from Denver to S. Francisco. To their the worth goes to have succeeded in seeing so many things in only 21 days of trip respecting the chart of march of a program from many judged unattainable.

The preparations and the organization

With the experience acquired in the 2002 first trip (you see ours Far West ) we have tried to eliminate from our baggage all the superfluous things to start from the attire, that we have reduced to the main point; we are brought behind a modular clothing there, from mountaineering to intend us. Besides through some sites internet (listed in mortar) we have tried to know the percorribilità of the roads with superior footsteps to the 2500 ms. of quota in the territories to be crossed; is kept in mind, for example, that the opening of the roads inside Yelloswstone is anticipated only beginning from halves May and that the unpredictabilty of the time plays a conclusive role on the circulation. This year, our fortune, to west it is snowed little and the dates of opening of the footsteps of the Wyoming, of Montana, and of the Colorado, I/you/they have always been respected, if not you anticipate of 15/20 days. For this we have abdicated the expensive rental chains.

www.cotrip.org : percorribilità stade of the Colorado

www.Wyoroad.info: percorribilità roads of the Wyoming

www.mdt.state.mt.us: percorribilità roads of Montana

www.sddot.com. percorribilità roads of the South Dakota

The controls in the airports

As it is intuibile the controls they have been of the maximum scrupulousness, both as it regards the personal searches (metal detector, to remove etc the shoes..) both on the baggages. And' in action also an embitterment of the sanitary controls on the foods in entry for the emergencies type SARS, Crazy Cow, etc. Á. me, for example, to Denver a small mortadella has been seized under empty that a “terrible” little dog beagle has smelled to 30 meters distance: apart the personal embarrassment I have considered the episode as a good propaganda to the Italian delicatessen.

In the trip from Denver in San Francisco we have crossed in sequence the followings states:

Colorado-Wyoming-South Dakota - Wyoming-Montana - Wyoming-Utah - Colorado - Utah-Arizona-

Utah - Arizona - Nevada - California

These are, in chronological order , the National Parks and the points of interest visited:

Rocky Mountains N.P. -Fort Laramie N.H.S. - Mount Rushmore N.M. -Devil's Tower N.M. - Little Big Horn Battlefield N.M. - Yellowstone N.P. - Grand Teton N.P. -Flaming Gorge N.R.A. -Dinosaur N.M. -Colorado N.M. -Arches N.P. -Canyonlands N.P. - Dead Horse Point S.P. -Natural Bridges N.M. -Monument Valley Tribal Park-Goose Neck S.P. -Muley Point - Glen Canyon N.R.A. - Antelope Canyon - Grand Canyon N.P. (North Rim)-Bryce Canyon N.P. -Kodachrome Basin N.M. -Zion N.P. - Redwood N.P. -Yosemite N.P. - Golden Gate N.M.

Scenic Byways

On the road papers there are roads that for the particular spettacolarità of the run Scenic Byways is defined and they are identified by a parallel punctuation to the layout: I remember particularly 3 of them

- the 14/16/20 from Cody to the East Entrance of Yellowstone

•  the 128 from Cisco to Moab

•  the 163 from Mexican Hat to Kayenta, (that of the Monument Valley)

THE DIARY OF TRIP

4 May 04 Tuesdays

A friend with a pulmino Dukedom brings us to Linate from Bologna to avoid the possible incidents of the strike F.S. and we arrive to the airport in largely useful time for the Cheek-in. Nothing to be signalled around two flights Linate-London and London-Denver except the uneasiness created by the Jet lag: we arrive to Denver that I/you/they are 18 local time while our biological clock marks at night the 2. We resolve some problems to the rental auto(Alamo) with the change vehicle and finally when it is for dusk we are to the Confort Inn Motel 15 miles away from the mega airport in Denver. (For us they are the 5 of the morning)

5 May 04 Wednesdays

Fast visit to the center city of Denver; they say that who visits Denver it realizes as it will be the future of the metropolises and in this sense I feel me serene because in spite of the futuristic architecture of the city seems that life flows within you with calm, without the neurosis in Manhattan, for example. We visit the Capitol, on whose 13° step is engraved the quota of 1 mile (1608 ms.) on the level of the sea, and we assist to the concert of a choir of Mexican children that they sing Cielito Lindo and it is touching all of this. The squirrels quietly race inside the regardless parks of the city center of the pedestrians that pass to few meters In the first afternoon we forward there on her The 36 that in few more than a hour of trip it conducts to Estes Park, hands of entry of the Rocky Mountains N.P. where we purchase the National Park Pass that to the price of 50 dollars it allows the entry all the national parks for one whole year. As foreseen we find closed for snow the ring of the Trial Ridge Road, the road that climbing up to the Milner Pass (3700 ms.) it allows together a panoramic vision of on the stately mountainous chain that overhangs Estes Park, so we decide to exploit the remaining hours of sun to approach us to the Wyoming. Old Loveland through the spectacular valley of the Big Thompson River, let's take her/it The 25 that in two hours around it brings us to Cheyenne. Nobody would say that this is the capital of one of the 50 states of the union if it were for is him/it Capitol that dignifies this low town: it towers you before the statue in bronze of Esther Hobart Morris that in 1869, first in the world, it proposed the law of total equality between men and women. ” Equality State and Cowboy been. ” This way it recites the witticism of the Wyoming.

Pernottiamo to the Ranger very economic Inn Motel but also very cheap.

6 May 04 Thursdays

Our destination of today is the Mount Rushmore N.M. in the South Dakota but a brief deviation of the run it brings us to visit Fort Laramie, then one of the most important outposts of control on the territory here indiano.Dis also passed the direct pioneers to W and next to Guernsey we visit a line of Oregon Trial the famous path that conducted toward the Pacific: here the furrows produced by the wheels of the wagons have engraved the sandstone leaving a sort of testimony platform of the run of thousand of citizens that, before the advent of the transcontinental railroads, they tried to move more and more himself/herself/themselves with the wagons to west.

Before continuing the trip toward N on the endless The 85 we make lunch in the paesino of Lingle to the Corner Bitch Cafe (cafe of the puttana of the angle!!) a local sympathetic nervous system where essays we are as in family and where you/they are also given us precious news on the roads of Yellowstone. To Newcastle, later around 120 miles loss grassland of eye we divert to dx and we enter South Dakota. In the Black Hills National Forest we see in distance the building Crazy Horse Monument with the profile of the Indian warrior drawn in the roccia:l'accesso to the Visitor's Center, that constitutes a point of reference of the Indian history it is also motive to stretch him the bones. We reach Keystone in evening after 329 miles trip. Pernottamento to the Super 8 very comforting Motel.

7 May 04 Fridays

The Mount Rushmore with the sculptures of the faces of the 4 presidents has done the fortune of Keystone with the enormous tourist flow that annually recalls. We have reached in less than 2 miles the parking lot to payment and the visit it requires correct the time to go off some photos and to purchase the objects memory to the Gift Shop: he treats in every case of a suggestive monument for the grandeur of the realization. We take back the direction N in the middle of the Black Hills and we overcome Deadwood the town where Wild Bill Hichok was killed while it was playing to poker his last “hand of the corpse”: a monument in the center of the city remembers this famous episode immortalized in many films western. Few over we always take back the endless The 90 in direction N, we reenter in the Wyoming but shortly after Sundance to the exit 185 divert dx to reach after 21 miles the Devil's Tower N.M. The solitary rocky cone is already visible from notable distance because it detaches in the surrounding grassland, but it is alone crossing the path of around 3 Kms that surrounds him/it that the exact knowledge of its dimensions and its geologic structure is had; besides we also see mountain climber intents to climb these enormous reeds d' organ. We dedicate around 2 hours to the visit, then we return on her/it The 90 to Moorcroft having as destination of the day the town of Hardin in Montana that we reach in evening after 3 hours of highway and a brief standstill to Buffalo. We have crossed 390 miles from Keystone to Hardin. We sleep to the usual Super 8 beautiful but dear. We taste there in remuneration a beautiful sunset Western.

8 May 04 Saturday

We reach the entry of the Little Big Horn Battlefield N.M. to 24 kms from Hardin, just opened the gates: the scenery of the undulations of the grassland is fantastic under the first sun of the morning. And this was probably the same show that Custer and his/her men they saw in that 25 June 1876, before the battle in which all lost the life: all less one, because Giovanni Martini, garibaldino emigrated in America and enlisted in the 7° Cavalry, sent by Custer to ask reinforcements just before the encirclement, it was the only survivor. Its name had Americanized in John Martin, it died in 1922 to New York: its grave is found in the Cypress Hill National Cemetery of Brooklyn.Tutta this documentation it is available near the Visitor's Center where you/he/she is also prepared a plastic that illustrates the moments of the bloody scontro.A few distance the battleground you/he/she can be visited with her/it” Last Stand Hill ” the hill of the last resistenza,ed the memorial of the 7° Cavalry; on the ground the cippis of the fallen soldiers are set in the same point where they was recovered, and that is recognizable of Custer because of white marble.” Rattlesnake Area” the poster admonish sets along the pedestrian run that crosses the whole hill. Finished the visit of three hours around, we always take back our walk in direction of Billings on her The 90, that we surrender to Laurel to introduce us on the 212. We arrive so to Red Lodge, to his/her time important mining center, where in to make gasoline we learn from two different sources that the entry of Yellowstone from Cody it is closed. This news, that then he will reveal wrong, forces us to change program: we return therefore for the 78 to Columbus and of here, always by The 90, we reach Livingstone from where we take toward S the 89 that it follows the whole valley of the river Yellowstone in a scenery of tall mountains up to Gardiner that is the entry N of the Park. A nice ranger confirms us smiling that all the entrances of the Park are active and we don't make a play of this unexpected deviation that has allowed us to see uproarious landscapes. Pernottiamo to Gardiner to the usual Super 8 Motel after having made a first rapids aimed up to Tower Jct inside Yellowstone. Today we have crossed 335 miles.

9 May 04 Sunday

The country of Gardiner has to be congenial to the bucks that quietly walk for the streets of the center of first morning, regardless of the autos and of the human presence. Our day is devoted to the visit of Yellowstone, departing from the area of the Mammohots Hot Springs (2 hours) that it is some the capital of this park, to the Roarings Mountains (1 now) to the Norris Geyser (1 now) to Canyon Village. We dedicate 3 hours to the visit of the Upper and Lower Falls: above all the Lower Fall has something imposing for the colors of the canyon that stay in the memory of whoever. In to cross a part of the circuit to 8 we detain there to the mysterious Sulphur Caldron: the deaf grumbling that sends forth seems the breath of the earth. The road coasts along then for a lot of miles the lake of Yellowstone how strange but true it is the center of all her “caldera” of the Park: the activity of volcanism is in practice assembled under this enormous lake that is found to the height of 2400 ms. around. We go out of the East Entrance to sleep to Cody as foreseen in departure in our program. We sleep to the usual Super 8 motel in the country of Buffalo Bill after run 141 miles. He/she dines to the Pizza Hut, really of side to the motel.

10 May 04 Mondays

We leave again from Cody after having visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Center with the mighty equestrian statue of this curious hero whose myth is based on the massacre of the bisons: 80 years are taken it later for imploring the extinction of this animal symbol of the American West. Ripercorriamo in inverse sense the road toward the Sylvan Pass (2605 ms.) and the entry to the Park of Yellowstone: the Scenic Byway 14/16/20 are one of the wonder that have mostly impressed me for the configuration of the impending walls the road. Overcome in more points the Continental Divide we have the inevitable visit of the Old Faithfull that with extreme punctuality it cheers a crowd of tourists with his/her throw of water and vapor. In the general evaluation on Yellowstone it has a conclusive weight the huge disaster of fire that has destroyed over ¾ of his/her forests. The beauty of this whole enormous area is too darkened by the grey one of the ash even if the power of the phenomenons geotermici, with the noises and the sharp odor of sulphur, they make still almost the idea of a world in “construction.” We direct there to S toward Madison in direction of the Grand Teton N.P. among tall two banks of snow a meter. This park is in practice connected to its greater brother even if it has different characteristics. And' a chain of tall mountains similar to our Alps, the peaks overcome the 4000 ms. , they are totally covered with snow but there are no glaciers. Under summer conditions they are probably easy destinations for the mountain climber, but to beginning of season you/they can be observed only for the amazing scenery. The road that crosses the Park follows the course of the Snake River and door to Jackson, an elegant tourist station of ski. In evening we visit a fornitissimo I center visitors with attached museum of the trapperses. Been accustomed to Super Motel 8 for the pernottamento with the temperature in strong diminution and threat of snow.

11 May 04 Tuesdays

We wake up there with one sprinkled of snow that has bleached the high ground around Jackson; we are to more than 2000 ms. of quota but we don't have problems to return toward the Grand Teton for the visit of the inside area to the park through the Teton Park Road, the road ring that unites the two Visitor'ses Center of Moose and Jenny Lake in which we stop for the purchase of the postcards memory. We return toward Jackson and we dedicate a brief standstill to the city park in which an arc towers made of horns of buck: the photo of group is obvious under this curiosity scaramantica. Our next destination is Rock Springs with the throat of the Flaming Gorge N.R.A.

We follow therefore her The 191 toward Bondurant, Pinedale and Farson in an endless galloped on a road seeds desert totally accompanied only by the vision of the mountainous chain of the Bridger Teton innevata with the tallest peak in the Wyoming, the Gannet Peak (4300 ms.). Old Rock Springs we coast along on the Sx the valley of the Green River that blocked by a dike, you/he/she has formed this enormous artificial lake. Overcoming the dike we greet the Wyoming and raggiugiamo Vernal in the state of the Utah. Pernottiamo to the Motel 6 of Vernal and we spend the remaining time for the expense in the super adjoining market supplying us of provisions for the days to come. Today we have crossed 373 miles.

12 May 04 Wednesdays

We take back our march verse If visiting not too far Vernal the Dinosaur National Monument. In this environment of red rock, someone casually discovered that a slope of the mountain was a cemetery of dinosaurs to open sky. We dedicate around 2 hours to the visit of the area of study that is an important call for the researchers of this science. Few miles over, to Dinosaur, we enter in the Colorado and to Rangely we take the 139 that it conducts to Enjoyed through the Douglas Pass (2600 ms.). We feared that this footstep was closed for snow but the consultation of the site on the government roads of the Colorado you/he/she has given us the certainty of the transit. The road is very panoramic with characteristic tornanti similar to our alpine footsteps; when we come to Enjoyed we have lunch from Wendy's and we still have the enough time to climb to the Colorado N. M. that is crossed by the Rim Rock Drive, a road to horseshoe that offers a vision mozzafiato on this whole Canyon. We have besides the fortune to see the rainbow sprout on the horizon after a downpour: we stay without words. We return to the dusk to Enjoyed, pernottiamo to the Super place 8. Today we have crossed “only” 275 miles.