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The Dream Road Trip of a Lifetime in the USA
Hollywood's location managers find the most beautiful views in America for the screen, so we decided to follow in their footsteps. The fly-drive holiday took me, my brother and our wives from England to see filming locations in the American West. We traveled a total of 4,300 miles over 14 days, with overnight stops at motels such as Super 6, Super 8 and Travelodge, which were a reasonable price for good services and security.
Visitors to the United States will be amazed at the low prices, especially the petrol. I would certainly recommend the journey for families, but with children allow a little more time. In fact, we were like kids ourselves, astonished at some of the places we saw and visited.
Scene 1: Colorado
Denver, the Mile High City, was the starting point. Colorado is breathtaking, a land of tree-clad mountains and deep ravines cut by angry rivers once panned for gold and silver. We encountered October snowstorms -- the worst in 80 years -- which lent a virgin-white backdrop to the magnificent fall leaves. As winter hadn't officially started, there were no crowds, so driving, hiking, cycling, and white water rafting could still be enjoyed.
Just like the early settlers, we headed westwards, passing through old mining towns and across the Continental Divide. John Wayne filmed The Searchers and True Grit around here. Scary, precipitous mountain roads led to Silverton, the northern end of the steam-powered Durango & Silverton Railroad. We'd have loved the eight-hour trip in 19th-century parlour cars but time wasn't on our side. Ticket To Tomahawk had been filmed here, and the railroad was used for the hilarious safe-dynamiting scene in Butch Cassidy, as well as in the movies Viva Zapata! and Support Your Local Gunfighter. Butch and Sundance did their jump into the raging river at Durango, where both City Slickers and Around The World In 80 Days were filmed. Just west of Durango, Mesa Verde's extraordinary 12th-century Indian cliff dwellings (among the oldest structures in North America) are a worthwhile short detour, even if Hollywood has yet to call.
Scene 2: Arizona
Monument Valley is where you enter the movie's "Wild West." From the desert floor, remarkable, stark, bizarre sandstone mesas stab into the sky. No wonder director John Ford loved the place. An amazing feeling of déjà vu swept over us. After Ford made Stagecoach here, it became the Western's favorite location. 2001 and Back to the Future III's drive were filmed here; the Easy Rider bikers rode through and Forrest Gump ran through.
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