Walking Zion Canyon

Looking across the Virgin River, which appears benign but, according to geologists, is mainly responsible for creating Zion Canyon

Morning sunlight plays on the higher peaks

Looking back along the river

Nearly all the walk, if done in the morning, is in shade,  but there are short sunny stretches

The sky was a beautiful blue but there was a strong headwind, meaning many cyclists - I did not meet another walker until reaching the end of the free-shuttle route - were wrapped up

Sacred datura (Datura wrightii) is a poisonous member of the nightshade family that has been used by American Indians as a hallucinogen

A small landslide occurred as I was walking on the other side of the road

The sun has to be high in the sky before it reaches the lower parts of the canyon

Overhanging rock

Wild turkeys

It was not all blue sky

Trees and plants establish a roothold wherever they can

The canyon is formed of Navajo sandstone, varying from white to light pink, with discolouring caused by rain and snow-melt

Spectacular cleft

Prickly-pear cactus

Zion Canyon becomes greener as its walls close in

Eventually you can only progress with easily hired wading equipment or, like most of these people, if you do not mind getting your feet wet

Back to civilisation in Springdale, a town just outside the main entrance to Zion National Park

My father asked me to photograph a mustang - I fear this is the closest I will get

Death Valley To Zion

Sunrise over Death Valley

Harvest Moon

Badwater salt flats

Badwater is 282ft (86m) below sea level, as indicated by a white sign up the cliff face directly above the trailer

We lunched on the outskirts of Las Vegas before speeding past Caesars Palace and the rest of The Strip

Arriving in Zion National Park, Utah, after 300 miles

Not much time to explore tonight, but managed to spot these mule deer feeding beside a trail

Yosemite To Death Valley

THIS is a 277-mile journey that starts by exiting Yosemite via the 9,945ft (3,031m) Tioga Pass.

Olmsted Point

Lake Tanaya

Lording it on Tanaya beach

Tuolumne Meadows

Shortly after this photo was taken we were approached by a park ranger, with whom we had been talking earlier, who warned that Tioga Pass would be closed in 15 minutes as a stormfront was coming in from Alaska.

There followed a mad dash in the minibus, the point being that if we were turned back it would mean an eight-hour detour.

Ours was one of the last vehicles - possibly the last - allowed over the pass before the road was closed for an expected two days (traffic in the opposite direction had already been turned back)

Death Valley's Mesquite Flat sand dunes at sunset

Inside Yosemite (part two)

Yosemite Community Church, built in 1879 and moved to its present location in 1901

Half Dome mountain - used by The North Face outdoors company as its logo 

Timber! ... actually the tree is, relatively, stable, but looks doomed to fall before long

Deer in Yosemite Village

El Capitan is reckoned to be the largest granite monolith (single piece of stone) in the world

Inside Yosemite

Fire-blackened pine

The park has eight species of pine, including one that sheds its bark

In the background is a tree known as Big Red, one of the Giant Sequoias for which Yosemite is famous

Close-up of Big Red, thought to be 800 years old, showing how much thicker the trunk is when compared with pines

Standing inside a Giant Sequoia called Dead Giant

A seasonal beach beside the Merced River - every spring the beach disappears under snow-melt

San Francisco To Yosemite

Driverless robot taxis in San Francisco are popular with tourists and locals 

A row of houses known as Painted Ladies is apparently a popular backdrop with Hollywood directors

The mile-long Golden Gate Bridge, opened in 1937, connects San Francisco to Sausalito and the rest of Marin County

Another robot taxi

Sausalito became famous in the 1960s for downmarket bohemian houseboat communities, although houseboats now change hands for millions of dollars

Much of the landscape alongside the highway to Yosemite is parched in the summer, and often windy

The scenery becomes greener the nearer one approaches the national park

220 miles later, and I was there