Adventures in the 63 Big Baddies
Hello, Colorado! How much more like home you feel. I’ve missed my granites and pine trees. I do love to explore, but I will always be a mountain girl at heart. … More Laura’s Journal: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
We arrived early but not quite early enough in Utah’s most iconic park. Pulling up at 8:05, we still wound up waiting about 20 minutes to get in through the entry gate. We stopped oh-so-briefly at the visitor’s center before heading all the way to the Devil’s Garden trailhead at the end of the scenic drive. We thought that by doing that first, skipping the more obvious stops at Balanced Rock and Delicate Arch, we might beat the crowds. Haha. We drove around the huge parking lot 6 times before we got lucky and found someone pulling out. … More Laura’s Journal: Arches National Park
What a big, gorgeous park that we barely got to scratch the surface of! We’ve been averaging 8 miles of hiking every day since the 29th when we headed down into the Grand Canyon, an average that includes my “day off” with less than 3 miles, and a chill day at Bryce Canyon with less than 4 miles. We’re tired. (Even Dustin. Maybe. A little.) … More Laura’s Journal: Canyonlands National Park
After the madness of Zion, Capitol Reef felt nearly deserted. We didn’t have to fight anyone for parking and sometimes spent entire minutes on the trails without seeing anyone else. I saw someone call this park Utah’s red-headed step child, but I don’t know why it should be. It’s smaller, yes, but it’s gorgeous (literally! see: Capital Gorge) and offers quite a lot of wonderful hikes. Maybe it’s a question of marketing? Before this trip, I knew Utah had five big, wonderful national parks, but I’d’ve been hard-pressed to name more than Zion and Arches. … More Laura’s Journal: Capitol Reef National Park
Rumors of Zion’s popularity (crowdedness) reached us well before we reached the park. We even watched an informational video about it (“remember: there are hikes other than Angel’s Landing and the Narrows! you should give them a try!”) We rolled into the park at 7:59, just before the entrance gate opened, and snagged one of the very few remaining parking spots in their vast parking lot. It was easy to see, as we drove the winding park road and went through the infinitely long tunnel carved out of solid rock, why this park is so popular. It is stunningly beautiful. … More Laura’s Journal: Zion National Park
Welcome to southern Utah, a place where you cannot throw a rock without hitting a National Park (or a hiker – don’t actually throw any rocks). We’re staying in a lovely little town called Kanab, centrally located between a solid dozen parks and sites. It’s also the location of the lottery to win a permit for hiking to “the Wave” – a famous and stunning formation in Vermillion Cliffs NM. This town was originally intended [for us] as an overnight stop only, on the way to Capitol Reef NP, but having failed to do much research, I’d had no idea how gorgeous this place was, or what great access Kanab gave to all of it. We decided to spend a couple days and see if our lottery luck would hold. … More Laura’s Journal: Day Off (and a bit of Grand Staircase-Escalante NM)
Poor geology museum! My plan for today was to show up on their doorstep at opening time and camp there literally all morning, reading every single display, touching every sample rock, and bothering the staff with questions until I understand how this vast and gorgeous rockscape works. … More Laura’s Journal: Being a normal, nerdy Grand Canyon tourist
It turns out going to bed at 9pm does not come naturally to me, even when I was up a 6am and have hiked 17 miles in the last two days. I’m sure I was just starting to drift off For Real when the alarm went off at 4am, but I got up anyway. We had a disgusting breakfast of freeze-dried biscuits and gravy (my least favorite of the pouch meals, but you don’t start this hike on an empty stomach, and even if I wanted to pay for another $30 breakfast, early service doesn’t start until 5am. That’s what I get for thinking 6:30 as “late” service is funny). … More Laura’s Journal: Hiking out of the Grand Canyon
Standing on the edge of the Colorado River 4,700 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon is not the awesome experience you’d expect it to be – at least, not for the reasons you’d think. All sense of scale is lost. The depth is unfathomable because it is literally extraordinary. … More Laura’s Journal: Bottom of the Grand Canyon
There are cliff dwellings, and then there are entire canyons full of cliff dwellings. Walnut Canyon is stunningly beautiful as a natural phenomenon. It’s very easy to see why people would want to live here, but less easy to imagine fighting the challenges of the cliffs in order to construct a home. Before descending the very gracious stairs to do the walking tour, even tourists are warned: … More Laura’s Journal: Walnut Canyon National Monument
Thither & Yon 