severely rainy skies we would have had about an hour in which to get out of
the canyon before drowning became a real possibility. Still, you never know.
We could not believe it had rained in Death Valley (one of the driest
places on Earth don’t forget) the one day we were there - though later this
seemed an inevitable part of our weather pattern. We were very glad that the
rain was short-lived that day, but the rangers in the park were disappointed
because the valley needed rain and would produce stunning spring flowers if
it rained more. Perhaps we should have offered to stay?
After this short outbreak of rain we enjoyed about a week of dry
weather as we visited Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, and Joshua Tree
National Park. However, we then made the mistake of heading back to the
coast.
As we drove into Los Angeles we had a little drizzle, a foretaste of
things to come. On our second day in LA the weather caught up with us with a
vengeance and it poured with rain for the next day or so - Christmas by the
way.
Leaving California after New Year's Eve meant leaving the most severe
weather. In fact, this state definitely has it bad in terms of extremes of weather
and other natural phenomenon. Before we visited the US terrible forest fires
devastated California. While we there this region also suffered from fatal
mudslides, due to torrential rain hitting the hills already saturated by fire
fighters’ efforts to stop the earlier blazes. On top of this there was a fairly bad
earthquake while we were there. Though we did not feel the quake, we did
receive a very panicked phone message from Emma’s parents asking ‘Are