Catching Up

So I haven't maintained the blog or posted in 4 years.  Here's the quick update on our adventures:

2011

• E went to Maine with friends for a week and explored the coast along with Bar Harbor and Acadia.
• We went to Germany and Austria with E's parents.  Our stops included Vienna, Salzburg, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Luebeck, and northern Germany.
• We did some local travel to Luray Caverns, the Newseum in downtown DC, as well as a weekend trip to Philadelphia.

2012
Two big trips this year.

• We went to Alaska!  We flew into Anchorage, drove up to Denali and did a tour, also stopped to visit E's friend.  We then took a cruise to Vancouver, stopping in Juneau, Ketchikan, Seward, and Skagway and enjoyed an extra day in Vancouver.  We then took the train to Seattle to catch the flight home.
• We also went to Germany and Switzerland.  We started in Frankfurt, took a 1-day river cruise, did a tour of the Ritter Sport chocolate factory visitor's center, and Stuttgart.  In Switzerland we went to Basel, Bern, Interlaken, Zermatt, Lucerne, and Zurich.   Lots of hiking and great views!

2013

• In 2013 we went to Yellowstone and took a one-day side trip to the Grand Tetons.
• We also welcomed our biggest adventure to the family, a boy!  A has been a great addition to our adventures!

2014

While our adventures primarily focused on baby-related things.  We did take on the daunting task of traveling with a nearly 1-year old in the fall.    We went to Germany via Denmark with a stop in Iceland on the way.   We toured Iceland for several days and enjoyed the sites and waterfalls.  We flew to Denmark and took a train to Germany.  In Germany we spent our time visiting family, for the most part.

2015

This year we've been a little less adventurous but we did enjoy a vacation in the Great Smokey Mountains along with a stop at the Biltmore in North Carolina on the way and Roanoke on the return trip.

Bienvenido a Miami (Beach)

The first week of August I got to travel to Miami Beach for a work conference. This time I went on my own and had a relaxing week. The conference talks were great, the food was good, and despite the heat (who goes to Miami in August?!) I spent some time at the hotel pool and the beach. I was surprised that I enjoyed Miami, I didn't expect to at all. While I didn't do much tourist things, other than the beach and some nice restaurants along the water front, it was still nice. I caught a glimpse of some regal homes on the ride to and from the airport and I wouldn't mind going back some day, just maybe not in August!

Questions Lingering

I'm sure I had many questions while on the trip that were answered by the National Parks signs or rangers. But I still had a few lingering when I returned like:

What's the difference between an arch and a natural bridge?
What's the difference between a national monument and a national park?
How did lava rocks get to Capitol Reef?
What's the difference between a national park, a recreation area, and the Bureau of Land Management areas?


I'll leave you to study and google on your own, but I thought I'd ask. :)

Catching Up

I just realized I failed to blog the last 4 days of our trip!!!

So, we did end up going back to Arches in the morning and hiked to Broken Arch and then re-visited Sand Dunes Arch. Both were pretty cool. It wasn't raining but was a little chilly. After our slow morning and a hike we drove to Capitol Reef. Unlike many other National Parks, a highway bisects Capitol Reef so you just drive right through it without paying (or showing your pass). So, on the way to the hotel we drove through the park and stopped at the Visitors Center and watched a video and got maps. The next day we enjoyed a hike to Hickman Bridge (a natural bridge) and took a scenic drive and then another hike along a dried river bed. That evening we watched the sun set against the rocks. A day and a half was plenty of time for us in Capitol Reef.

The next day we were off for a long drive to southwest Colorado. First we stopped at Hovenweep Nstional Monument to see some Ancient Pueblo people ruins. The park ranger at the visitors center was so proud of his monument. He made us all watch the park video (the best park video he's seen, very well made!), then gave us all a 5 minute orientation speech, and even talked up the gifts in the gift shop (you can't get these everywhere!). He was a little over the top but still fun to see someone so excited about his job and the monument. We did a quick tour around the monument to see a lot of ancient ruins that were definitely very cool. We were on a schedule though so we hiked quickly, took a bunch of pictures, and then were off.

Our next stop was to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. Little did we know that we would ascend to 8500 ft in the park. A huge portion of the park has been destroyed by wild fires (all of them caused by lightning) but it was still beautiful. We stayed at a hotel in the park, where wild horses roamed around and we had beautiful views of the mountain top. We made good time getting to the park so we were able to join two ranger-led tours through two of the ruins, Cliff Dwelling and Balcony House. Both tours involved climbing up ladders to get into the dwellings and back up to the mesa top. Balcony House also required crawling through tunnels. The dwellings were amazing and well preserved. After that we had a wonderful dinner in the park and headed off to bed. The next morning, we got up bright and early and toured the mesa top to see more ruins and then went on to another cliff dwelling before heading out of the park. It was definitely an amazing experience.

After Mesa Verde we stopped at Four Corners to stand in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado all at the same time. Though many people say the spot is not accurate, all of the states have agreed that's where it is so we'll go with it. It was a quick spot for a few photos and then on to Page, Arizona.

We gained an hour in Page which was nice and were able to relax in the hotel before heading out for a 5pm tour of the Antelope Slot Canyon. The sun was a little lower than I had hoped and my photos are mostly blurry due to lack of light, but it was still a fun hike through a narrow canyon on Navajo Tribal land.

The next morning we got up bright and early for a 1/2 day rafting/float trip down the Colorado river. We were met at the river company site by 2 bus loads of visitors, including a large tour group from Germany (of course). The trip started off driving through a 2-mile pitch black tunnel to the base of the Glen Canyon Dam. The Dam was built in the 50s to dam up the Colorado River and form Lake Powell. The U.S. government had to trade land from the Navajo Nation to house it's workers to build the dam. We rafted down the river (very flat) and enjoyed the canyon and the water. We had a stop 1/2 way to see some Petroglyphs and then landed at Lee's Ferry. It was such a perfect way to end our vacation.

After that we headed to Phoenix, went for a quick swim, and grabbed dinner before our flight the next morning.

It was a fantastic trip!!

Arches

Yesterday we hit up Arches National Park. I was hoping to see some Big Horn Sheep in the park (there were signs up about watching for them cross the roadway) but I didn't get to see any. I did see a deer though.

Anyway, we got to see a bunch of arches. Apparently there are over 2000 of them in the park, I think we saw less than 20. We did a few small hikes to the windows section, to the overlook of Delicate Arch, and to Skyline arch. My favorite arch was the Sand Dunes Arches which was hidden among some rock formations called fins. We also wandered around balanced rock, which is a huge rock that looks like it's teetering on top of another rock. At some point during our visit it started to rain so we scrambled back to the car. The sky looked awesome during the storm though and fortunately the rain passed quickly and the sun came back out.

After we hit up all of the arches we wanted to see (and didn't require a 3 hour hike) we headed back to the hotel and relaxed in the hot tub and played cards in the room for awhile.

Today it is raining again. We are supposed to leave for Capitol Reef today but because of the rain we're taking our time and may head back into Arches for one more hike before we go to Capitol Reef. We're scheduled to be there all day tomorrow as well so we have plenty of time to explore the area.

Canyonlands: Island in the Sky

So, we checked the weather and it looks okay for tomorrow so we stuck with the original plan and went to Canyonlands today. Today we went to the northern part of the park called "island in the sky" because there are a series of islands/large mesas and large stairstep drop-offs down to the river. We did a lot of hiking today. First we did a 1.8 mile hike to Upheaval Dome. It looks like a crater and is filled with salt mounds. They're not sure exactly how it was formed...salt pushing up from below, a meteorite hit, a very old volcano. It was a somewhat challenging hike but nice.

After that we went to the Grand View overlook and then enjoyed a 2 mile hike along the rim. The view didn't change much but it was still pretty. We followed that up with a .5 mile hike to Mesa Arch, which is one of 60 arches in the park. The ranger said you could also see another arch in the distance through the mesa arch.

That took up most of our day but we still wanted to go to Dead Horse State Park, so we did. :) We didn't stay too long but got to see an awesome view of the Colorado River as it winds back on itself around a point. This is one of the places they filmed the movie 'Thelma and Louise.'

Canyonlands: Needle District

We got a slow start this morning but headed to Canyonlands National Park on our way to Moab. This park is split into three pieces, divided by the Canyon. We went to the Needles District today which on the south-east part of the park. We enjoyed a 2 hour hike when we arrived which gave us beautiful views of the park. After that we headed to see the Pothole Pools, which are indentations in the rock that collect water and are home to some small shrimp, etc. That was a quick 20 min. hike. We then drove a dirt road (this one flat and fairly easy to drive with a regular car) and went on another hike. By this point in the day I think the sun had started to get to me (though it wasn't terribly sunny or warm today, perfect hiking temperature) so we just did a 1 hour hike and returned to the car.

Near the park we also got to see more petroglyphs. Unfortunately this rock had some graffiti on it which was not nice to see, but otherwise nice.

Tomorrow we are scheduled to go to the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands (we won't go to the Maze district which is very remote and where Aron Ralston went hiking when he had to amputate him arm). It looks like it might rain on Monday though so we might switch our schedule and go to Arches tomorrow instead...stay tuned for our decision. :)