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. :)

Monument Valley

Today we went to Monument Valley. It is a park run by the Navajo Nation and it spectacular. Since you can either risk your car on a dirt road (that is not flat) or go on a tour, we opted for a tour with a guide. We bumped into another couple as we were trying to figure out which tour group to use and they suggested we go together since it was $20 cheaper if there were 4 people in the jeep instead of 2. Turns out they were from Berlin, so I got to listen to German a lot during the trip. The couple had shipped their camper over from Europe to Baltimore and were spending 6 months driving around the U.S.!

At any rate, our guide Ernie was cool. We meandered along the road where anyone could drive as well as went into the back country to see even more rock formations. It was a 2 1/2 hour drive (at least) and was fabulous. The rock formations - mesas, mittens, etc. were cool and all had names or looked like something. We also got to see more petroglyphs.

After our wonderful afternoon with Ernie we headed to our hotel in Mexican Hat, AZ, called so because there's a rock there that looks like a guy with a mexican hat on his head.

Petrified Forest and Canyon de Chelly

On Thursday we left Flagstaff (and had to clean the snow off of our car) and headed towards the Petrified Forest. We got to see a lot of trees that had turned into stone and some very interesting land formations. It was still cold and windy there so Matthias hung out in the car at the overlooks while I snapped the photos. We did take a little walk through the Crystal Forest which was littered with tons of tree logs. Even the little chips of wood (like you would use in your yard) were stones. I thought they were the coolest. We also got to see some petroglyphs.

After that we were on our way to Chinle, AZ home of the Canyon de Chelly. This was our first stop on the Navajo Nation Reservation. The park is part of the National Parks Service but is run by the Navajo Nation. We took a scenic drive along the south rim of the canyon and got some good photos, some long distance shots of some old ruins, and got our shoes dirty in some good mud. We did find one down side of staying and eating on the reservation there...you pay state tax and Navajo Nation tax for everything. boo.

Sedona Part 2

Today we headed back to Sedona to do some hiking. First we tackled an easy hike up to Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte rock formations. The whole loop was pretty long so we just did half of it but it was still nice and we got up pretty close to the rock.

Next we decided to tackle what was described as a strenuous hike but not too long, about .7 miles each way. This was to Cathedral Butte. This "hike" was more of a climb and rock scramble and definitely very challenging. But the hike led up pretty far and we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the area. The hike down was, of course, much easier though a little rough in some places. While Matthias preferred the walk down method I often employed the butt-slide method.

After our hike we headed into town for lunch and shopping and then headed to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a church built into the side of a mountain. Small but very pretty.

Today was a weird weather day. We were actually lucky we got in as much hiking as we did since the weather forecast called for a lot of rain. It rained on and off in Sedona all day. On our way back to Flagstaff we started to see sleet and finally snow. It seems to still be snowing and our windshield on the car has a nice sheen of snow on it in the parking lot. At this rate I'll be doing laundry fairly soon as I did not bring enough warm clothes to last much longer. While I definitely enjoy the hikes in this cooler weather I think I'm ready for it to be a little bit warmer.

Grand Canyon

Matthias caught my flu bug so we just hung out in the hotel all morning. I finally got bored enough that I ventured out to the Grand Canyon by myself. Matthias had been to the south rim before so he didn't seem to mind. I got there around 3 and hiked along the rim for a bit then towards sunset I took the park shuttle out to some further lookout points.

The view from the south rim is WAY better than the view from the north rim and I really enjoyed it. However, it was absolutely freezing at the canyon yesterday. I think I heard someone say it was 53 degrees but it was also extremely windy so it felt much colder than that. Not what I expected while visiting the Grand Canyon. Sunset was very pretty and soon after that I headed back to Flagstaff. It was a pretty stressful drive since the shuttle bus driver freaked me out about hiking deer or elk. I actually even saw an elk at the side of the road and several deer. Thank goodness they didn't decide to run in front of me!

Sedona Loop

Yesterday we enjoyed the day in Sedona and the surrounding area. Since I still wasn't feeling that great we decided to take it easy and not do any hiking. So, we wandered around town for an hour or two and checked out all of the cool stores in the area. Matthias' travel book suggested a central Arizona round-trip that started in Sedona, went to Cottonwood, Jerome, Prescott, and Montezuma's Castle. It was not a good recommendation. The scenery was alright and the towns were cute but it just wasn't worth all of that time in the car. Oh well, it was still something to do.

When we returned to Flagstaff we went to the Lowell Observatory. They have a nice exhibit about the stars and a great lecture. They had 3 telescopes set up to view the moon and Saturn, which was pretty cool. Unfortunately it was too windy for them to open up the main telescope but still a nice experience.

History Repeats Itself

Well I haven't gone to UrgentCare and dont have pink eye but I did have some kind of stomach episode. I think food poisoning though noone else who ate at the banquet had any issues. Having been up all night did not make for a fun presentation at the conference on Sunday. I made it through the whole session without having to make an emergency trip out of the room so I consider it a success.

At noon Matthias and I hit the road for Flagstaff. I slept almost the entire time. We didn't have any concrete plans for the day but I had assumed we'd do some exploring. Instead, once we got to the hotel I crawled into bed and didn't get up until this morning. Fortunately I seem to be feeling better though probably am dehydrated so I'm going to have to be careful today. Surprisingly it's actually a little bit chilly in Flagstaff, especially compared to the 100 degree heat in Phoenix.

Today we're headed to Sedona.

Dulles Observations

So yesterday I arrived at Dulles almost exactly 2 hours before my flight. I think Matthias thought I was nuts for getting there so early, but I was glad I did since it took an hour and 15 minutes to get from the car to the gate. I had just enough time to use the bathroom and pick up dinner before I had to board the plane. At any rate, in addition to the crazy long line there were two interesting things that I noticed at the airport.

1. The helpers at the security line, who do not appear to be employed by TSA, were wearing what can only be described as a tux. It was ridiculous. Why do I need a person in a weird tux telling me which line to stand it?

2. Sissy Spacek was there. She was flying first class and wandered through the regular security line like the rest of us. She's probably an inch taller than me and has very long hair. She had awesome sandles on that I couldn't figure out how she would get off walking through the metal detector and didn't have a chance to find out. One person in line seemed to recognize her and chatted her up a little bit.

I guess if you have to stand in a security line for that long it should feel like a star-studded gala!

Westward Bound

So, it's been awhile. Other than two trips to Cleveland I haven't been doing much traveling, but that's about to change. Today I leave for Phoenix. I'll spend 4 days there at a work conference. I don't expect that I'll be doing much site-seeing in Phoenix since I was able to see so much last year. But I'm excited about the conference.

After Phoenix Matthias will be joining me and we'll be doing a grand 2000 mile trip in the Four Corners area. More to come...