As we returned to our room, we admired a row of Colorado spruce planted along the driveway. They are the same variety as the tree planted in Vienna to mark the birth of Tim's mother in 1909.
We checked out of the hotel and went to have a look around Cedar City before beginning the long drive home to Malibu.
Cedar City is well-known for its annual Utah Shakespeare Festival, held in the summer and autumn. It is also home to Southern Utah University. On our way to look at the historic town centre around Main Street, we drove past the Southern Utah Museum of Art and one of the Shakespeare Festival venues, The Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre, which is a replica of an open-air Elizabethan theatre.
Visitors looking at the statue of Fred C. Adams, founder of the festival.
We walked around and admired the beautifully planted gardens and the Elizabethan music being played.
Cedar City is a very pleasant university town and we were pleased to have a brief opportunity to visit it.
About 20 miles further south, we turned into the Kolob Canyons Visitor Centre, which is part of Zion National Park.
We drove through the area closest to the main road, where we admired the impressive red rock formations.
After leaving the park, we passed this huge Walmart distribution centre.
We continued on our way, crossing into the northwest corner of Arizona, where we drove through the Virgin River Gorge.
The Virgin River Gorge.
It was a spectacular road with glimpses of the river from time to time. Soon we crossed into Nevada and drove towards Las Vegas, where we stayed on route 15 passing close to the Strip and all the major hotels and casinos.
It's quite amazing to see such a large thriving city in the middle of the desert.
Near the border with California, we could see the impressively bright lights of the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Plant, the largest of its kind in the world. It has 3 towers compared with Crescent Dunes' single one, but Ivanpah doesn't use molten salt to store energy when the sun isn't shining, whereas Crescent Dunes does.
We were pleased to be back in California, although there was still a long way to go! We heard from Samantha and David that they had indeed driven all the way back to Malibu from Twin Falls and were now enjoying the chance to relax at the house.
We stopped for a break at a large rest area in the Mojave Desert.
There were a lot of informative panels, maps and animal sculptures, but it was so hot, we couldn't wait to get back into the car!
It was between 105 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit and we were so grateful for the air conditioning.
We drove through Baker and Barstow, then decided to leave the main road at Victorville. We thought the traffic might be a little lighter if we came off Route 15. We encountered a Star Waggons vehicle, which we followed for many miles. The company is run by the Waggoner family and supplies trailers to film studios for use on location.
One of the many Joshua trees along the Pearblossom Highway.
Our route on the Pearblossom Highway, made famous by David Hockney's 1986 photo collage, was an unexpectedly pleasant drive after the busy main roads we had been on. We finally turned off on Route 14 and drove home via Simi Valley, the 101 and Kanan.
After driving over 500 miles that day, we felt a great sense of achievement when at last we arrived in Paseo Canyon Drive, where Samantha and family were waiting for us. Daniel and family came home not long afterwards.
Ed and Kate had driven straight back to their house.
A great adventure had come to an end. Everyone agreed that the long days of driving to see the eclipse in Idaho had been worth it and, much to our surprise, even the grandchildren said they would like to repeat the experience when the next 'Great American Eclipse' occurs in just under seven years' time, on April 8th 2024. Then, the path of totality goes from Mexico to Newfoundland, crossing this year's path in Carbondale, Illinois. This has been such a wonderful family trip and we have felt very fortunate to be able to spend so much time with our children, their partners, the grandchildren and the dogs and we would love to repeat it in 2024.