A Week in Scotland

Smoked salmon and cream cheese for lunch

I don't think Scotland should ever be allowed to leave the UK, I enjoy visiting it too much! If you ever feel that there are too many people in London and you need to get away from it, just visit Scotland. The mountains, the wild camping, the wilderness, the no people. It is really such a great place to visit. True the weather kind of sucks, and it's cold and wet a lot of the time, and when it isn't, there are thousands of midges. But the times when the clouds lift just enough to see the tops of the peaks is really something special. And being able to stand on the top of a mountain and not see any signs of humans; no roads, no villages, no paths, that is so good after Bank underground station. I'm not sure where else in the UK something like that is possible.

Heading for the base of those mountains - I love these glacial valleys

We spent 2 days camping in the Cairngorms, I love the Cairngorms, the wide, glacial valleys, the complete isolation, the mountains. It's really great having this so close to us. Flights leave Aberdeen from City airport and then it's about 90 minutes drive to the entry point to the park. I definitely have to get back there more. There are way too many places to visit in just this country, let alone Europe! Our first day was a pretty long one, along a path for most of the way. Then right at the end we headed up this valley, with an elevation gain of a couple hundred metres. Which was a bit tough coming at the end of an 18km walk. We camped by the shores of a mountain tarn. A beautiful spot, it was just a bit of a shame it was so incredibly windy that night. I've never had it so windy, at some points I was a little worried the tent was going to be torn apart. But everything held together nicely. 

Slowly approaching, we turn left at the base of the peak

It was our first trip in our new tent, and I have to say, after this one, bring on the camping. We spent way too much on it, it's Swedish, and it's just so well designed. After many trips in slightly crappy tents, I don't think I'm going to need another one. It's big, it has this massive vestibule, so even if it's pouring with rain, you can make dinner and not get wet. And then there's heaps of space for your bags and boots and everything. So the actual tent just has you and your clothes. It's so luxurious, but still light. I think there are going to be some fun times had with this. 

Our beautiful campsite on the second night

After a rather sleepless night we decided we had to get lower for the next evening, preferably with some trees, always a bit of an ask in the Cairngorms. We had to ford the river Dee, which was actually quite wide. I got a bit worried about wet boots, but really, it wasn't that cold. Then we had the best campsite I have ever walked to, it was amazing. In amongst a little pine forest, flat, grassy patch of ground, with no stones. Right next to a flowing river and views out over snow capped mountains. So good. That really was a perfect campsite. I hope I visit that one again.

I wasn't expecting so much snow on the peaks, it was the last weekend in May, which I thought would have been late enough in spring that everything would have melted. But as the ranger told me, the Cairngorms are the only sub-arctic region in the UK, and they were really arcticing it up. I'm not so experienced in snow, especially when it's on really steep slopes, and since the avalanche forecasts only stopped being issued a fortnight before we visited. With one of the last forecast being for a high likelihood of avalanche, that freaked me out a bit. Aaah poor Scotland, such a short window to visit, it's either covered in snow, or when it's warm enough that it melts, it's covered in midge. Perhaps autumn is the time to pay another visit. 

Walking the Grand Canyon - Part 2

On the way out of Monument creek, view of the Colorado, it's the brown river

After the really long first day, I think it was something like 17kms with the heaviest packs of the day, it was a nice short day for the second. Just a stroll really, down to the Colorado River, though we did get to slide through some canyons. That was pretty fun, especially since we were already hot at 9am.

I think camping on the shores of the river was the best night. The river was not what I expected at all. For some reason I thought the Colorado river would actually be quite shallow and narrow. I think because we had been spotting glimpses of it for so long. But these were from so far away that it looked pretty calm and not that big. And then you got down there, and it was pretty scary. It sounded like a jet engine, it was roaring, and bubbling, a real chocolate milkshake - but a scary one. It was also freezing cold, I can't think of a less inviting place to swim, and given it was so hot otherwise, with not a cloud in the sky, it really felt a little unfair. We had to camp a little away from the water, just because there was no way you could sleep through the noise, and I have never thought that of flowing water before, normally it is quite peaceful. Wowsers.

The chocolate milkshake of the Colorado

These gullies were serious, you wouldn't want to go wrong.

That was a bit of a lazy day, with a paddle in some pools, away from the river, and a relax in the sun. Really quite pleasant, with yet more delicious food cooked by our awesome guide.

The next day we were off to hermit camp, this was again on the banks of a creek, and yet another great camp spot. The national park has really done a great job at choosing these camp spots. I wish the national parks in England and Wales had these as well, campsites that you had to walk to. Scotland has the wild camping, which is great, but England and Wales don't have anything like that. It's a real shame, since it also has great open spaces, but you are not meant to sleep out there. Perhaps people do anyway, so long as they are away from paths and not really visible, perhaps they don't care. Because Wales has some great beaches, and I'm really dreaming of finding an overnight walk to some beach that you can only access on foot. How great would that be?

Last view of the monument

The lovely sunset colours in the canyon

Apparently there used to be a hermit, Louis Boucher, who lived in the area for 20 years or so, though I'm not sure how much of a hermit he really was. This region of the park has all these trails and campsites named after this guy. This part of the park also used to be in private hands, and the trail down was built to service a luxury campsite. In fact there used to be a tramway from the rim, as well as a car for transportation and a chef. It must have been some campsite. This was all back in 1910 or so. And there is not much remaining at all. The trail has seen some serious rock falls, nothing major, but you couldn't even get a horse along there now. At the time they really wanted to capitalise on the canyon, luckily tourism has moved away from that style of enjoying the wilderness.

You have to visit this place, it's amazing

Not a cloud in the sky at sunset. The top cliff is 1000m above.

This was our last night in the canyon, and the next morning we were getting up at 4:30am to try and beat the heat when we slog our way back up the 1000 metres to the rim. Again this is when the guide is so good. You didn't need to worry about having the will power to get up that early, since it was up to him to rouse us all. I am such a fan of guided walks, at least where I don't know the flora, fauna or terrain.

We had to pick our guide's brain too, since this had been so amazing. Everywhere you looked there were fantastic views, just the scale and the colours, everything about it. So we ask him which is his favourite national park, and he doesn't even say the grand canyon! He likes Glacier and Olympic national parks more, so guess where we are off to this summer. If they are better than the grand canyon, then I have high hopes!

Sunrise at the canyon

The cathedral steps go through the pass - fantastic sunrise.

It was quite fun leaving before dawn, we had our head torches on and it was so still and quiet. And then the sun started to come up. I really should have got up earlier during the trip, the colours at sunrise were amazing. We had breakfast at the top of the Cathedral steps. I don't really remember going down these on the way in, but they were super steep, a lot of switchbacks. It did mean though that most of the ascent was done before breakfast, which is a nice way to climb out of the canyon

One last shot on the way out

Then it was just the slog back up to the truck, and since we were going up the way we were going down, you knew how far everything was away. It was still nice to finally reach the top. You start to pass other people the closer you get to the carpark. I always find that slightly strange after a few days away from people, where I am all smelly, in the same clothes I was wearing 4 days ago, and they are all nice and clean, and in jeans and stuff. Thankfully it wasn't that hot, and our packs were light, and we were enthused for more back country adventures in the US. Before we left the canyon for good we stopped at one of the lookouts for some photos. We could see the whole route we had taken, even the paths that we were walking on, that was pretty cool. And actually having been down there, amongst it, that's not something you forget.

View from the lookout, you can vaguely see the trail if you look closely

Walking the Grand Canyon - Part 1

A very small part of the canyon

Driving up to the Grand Canyon was an interesting experience in itself. You are quite high ~2000m, and the land rises a little up to the Canyon. Basically though you are driving for about 2 hours through very flat desert with no trees or anything. Then just before the Canyon the land rises very gently and you drive through a scrubby forest. This means that you can't see the Canyon at all until you are right on top of it. You could be a kilometre away and have absolutely no idea that there is this wonderful natural phenomenon so close by. It must have been annoying for people trying to expand south (or north) as it's about 450kms wide and 1000m deep. And it's not like a gentle slope down to the Colorado River, it's cliffs and then the Colorado River is this raging torrent. I can't imagine you getting an expansionary force across this without some serious effort.

Great views around every corner

The canyon must be amazing for geologists to visit, I feel like I was missing a dimension because the timescales we were talking about as you descend into the canyon are crazy.  The 1.5km from rim to river extends back something like 2 billion years. Everything about this place is indescribable. The other great thing is that each layer seems so distinctive from the next, you can really feel that you are walking back through time as you descend.

The features were so deep and so massive

Our guide was so good, they really do make these trips, he was a real bushman this guy. I don't think he officially rented a house any place, he spent all his time in the back country, as they call it, so on the few nights where he wasn't out on a tour, he would sleep in the company's warehouse, or with friends. He also worked with this other company that would do month long hikes with teenagers. That must be something else, they would be out there so long they would need food drops. So anyway, guiding with 4 adults must be a total holiday for this guy. He was just so totally relaxed too, I think you would have to be, to deal with people all the time. And he was a really good cook too, no dehydrated meals for us! Real luxury camping.

I can never get sick of that view

Our first day was long, and hot, we started a bit late, after having to drive out there, and we really did drive to the end of the road. Then it was straight down from there. There was only one spot to get more water along the way, and that was really close to the start. And it was hoooooot. I can't imagine what this place is like in summer, since we were there in October, and even then the temperatures were high. It was nice not having to worry about where we would need to get water and how much to get, the guide knew exactly what to do, ah such a pleasure.

It's so hard to capture the scale

Our first campsite was Monument creek campsite, all the camp spots were great, they even had toilets too. I was thinking it was going to be more like Scotland, with the true wild experience. And they were all really quiet too, for one of them we were all by ourselves, right on the banks of the Colorado river.

The first night we were camping on the shores of Monument creek, which wasn't much of a creek. There was just a little trickle, really not even enough to submerge ourselves. And yet these creeks can be dangerous when it rains. Just a week prior to us visiting there had been heaps of rain, and lots of flash flooding. One of the guides from the same company had refused to take a group up one of the creeks, even though they were really pushing for it. A couple of hours later and the whole place was totally inundated, with massive boulders coming down. They would have been in real trouble if they had made the guide go up.

And yet another one

It is an odd relationship, that of guide and guidee, because you are relying on them to get you the places you want, safely. But then you have paid them money to take you there. You can start to understand how the whole Everest thing can be so fraught, since those people are paying a loooooot of money to get up there. I'm pretty cool with the guide telling me what is safe and not, that's why I get a guide, to outsource that worry about things. So why wouldn't you listen to them, if that's what you are paying for. If you are so sure you know what is safe, in a place you've never been before, then why bother getting a guide.

The monument off to the bottom right

Anyway, there were no problems like that on our trip. I think we were all pretty happy to go with what the guide was telling us to do, and nobody had to be a hero, though I doubt you could have out-heroed our guide. Seriously you feel like this guy could have gotten you out of any scrape. About the only thing of danger out there were scorpions, and the thing is they are really small. Not the big scorpions you see in movies. But some of them are pretty poisonous, they would require a helicopter lift if you did get stung. Another guide one trip got stung on the neck, I'm guessing not by the super dangerous one, because the next day, she hiked out by herself! Holy cow, now that is some hard-core human. So yeah, don't mess with guides.

The monument of monument creek.

We get to Monument creek pretty late, the sun is already setting just as we arrive. And we were all really buggered. We didn't really spend the time we should have admiring why it was called Monument creek. The next morning was a bit better. There are all these freaky columns around the place. And by now we are past the really red zone, and are into more of a sandstone layer. Quite a different colour.

The scale was unimaginable