Prelude: Janet and I drove down to the Smoky Mountains in late June, which means that I’m about a month behind in posting this. We left my car at her parents’ house and departed the Chicago area on Wednesday night. She was driving and got us into Kentucky where we… Continue reading
We had an evening flight back to Chicago, and most of a day to kill in Denver. It’s possible we could have avoided spending the day in Denver and instead have had an extra day elsewhere, but that was not how things worked out. There were two options to continue… Continue reading
Saturday was largely a travel day, but we routed the trip through Aspen, Colorado to do a bit of hiking on the way. We stopped off at the Maroon Belles and hiked back into the valley a bit. We went in as far as the lake, which I think was… Continue reading
Bryce Canyon is known, at least by Janet, for two things — lots of expansive views of the canyon full of hoodoos and bristle cone pines. We’ll start with the latter item first. Bristle cone pines are a very slow growing tree, which will easily be out competed by other… Continue reading
The Sun-n-Sand Motel was where Janet had stayed during her last visit to the area, and is an interesting enough place that it was kind of the destination in and of itself. The next morning, we got to meet Wayne in person, and the reviews are accurate — he is… Continue reading
We only spent one day at the Grand Canyon, having decided not to spend the two days or so it would have taken to drive around to the South rim. The South is the more tourist laden We stayed in Kenab, AZ which is the closest town to stay in,… Continue reading
Day 8 was The Narrows day 1. The hike almost ended before it began when we parked in the wrong place and walked up to the wrong bus stop. The shuttle driver called my phone, but I had turned it off and left it in the car given the expectation… Continue reading
The drive to Zion was long, especially coming off of a relatively full day at Arches. We got there around 2-3AM and went straight to the visitor center where they assign the Narrows passes on a first come — first served basis. We slept in the car for a bit… Continue reading
We headed back into Arches National Park for a second day. After a brief stop on the drive in at Fiery Furnace, we headed to Landscape Arch, or rather, the trail head near it. Prior to Landscape arch, we stopped at Pine Tree Arch, which as you may guess, is… Continue reading
Edit – I’m adding in this picture, which was made for the subsequent day, here because I think it does more than my descriptions to show where we were, especially to anyone looking to visit.