Mt. Rushmore and Carhenge - the last of the trip :( It had to happen eventually... my road trip had to have a final entry. When I realized what day it was, I knew I had to do only part of what I had in mind. The must-have's were Mt. Rushmore and Carhenge. The nice-to-have's were Devil's Tower and the Badlands. I skipped the nice-to-haves. The first picture here is Mt. Rushmore. Can't miss that right? iF you've seen one picture you've seen them all but I do have to say that it is a nice experience to actually see it [View Full Entry]

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Yellowstone and one Grand Tetons shot. The first shot here is a long range view of the Grand Tetons. I only drove through and stopped briefly for some pictures. I simply did not have time to explore this area well and the scenery was really gorgeous. I literally saw the buffalo (bison) roam :). Off the side of the road. But I just drove through this area and entered Yellowstone through the south entrance. As I've said again and again, I needed much more time in this park. Yellowstone is HUGE. I only had time for such a small portion of [View Full Entry]

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Arches National Park My next day was at Arches park. I have to start off by saying that I arrived late, stayed at what has been my favorite hotel chain for this trip - a Holiday Inn Express - and went to the Center Cafe for dinner. This place specialized in serving as many local foods as possible and it was just a great pick. The food and wine were delicious, the staff friendly and helpful and although it was tucked away on a side street and I passed it twice, it is absolutely worth looking for if you are staying [View Full Entry]

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This was a brief drive through from Bryce and I mapped out the scenic route that took me through the edges of this park. Either there is no actual entrance to this park or I missed it by driving through the "outside edge." I was very glad I did though. I am fascinated by geology in general and getting to see all the differences in the rock of these area's is just fabulous. The first picture here is just of some of the geology. The next area is what made me so very happy I stopped through here. There was [View Full Entry]

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Behind again on the blogs - other than the planned delays in posting, I have passed in to areas with no internet access. Gasp! Imagine that!! It was wonderful :). Ok, left off in Zion National Park... the pictures from there were not as easy. Taking them from the bottom of the rocks and cliffs looking up just didn't do them justice. Most of them did not turn out well so instead I am posting a few examples of the different kinds of rock there. There is both Navajo sandstone (the white with red streaks) and the... I think it's escalante... [View Full Entry]

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I am falling behind on my blogs! I take so many pictures during the day that it takes quite a while to go through them all to decide what to upload. So rather than make it "perfect" I will put in an update now with more to follow later on. I spent the last day in the Sedona area on a hike but started the day at Airport Mesa at a view point. There is a picture here from that viewpoint - I climbed all the way up on this rock but was not quite brave enough to go all the [View Full Entry]

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Sedona, cont’d… A hot day - in the high 90’s- but I did not do what I knew I should which was go hide in shade until later… Next stop: the Palatki Red Cliffs heritage site - the ruins of a cliff dwelling and some cliff art. Driving down a dirt washboard road (my poor car… it still has to go across the country!) The picture is at least one shot of the ruins -very cool, 900 years old. I could walk inside the rooms. The volunteer from the forest service is a retired archaeologist and was just full of information [View Full Entry]

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Grand canyon to Sedona. I drove the Desert View Drive on the way out of the Grand Canyon, based on my best guide book the National Geographic guide to National Parks - this book has some great reviews! Another shameless “product” plug for this book. I stopped at a couple of overlooks and just when I thought I had seen enough of the Grand Canyon, it takes my breath away again. Unfortunately I did not get on the road early enough (took the time to upload my last couple of entries!) and the sun was at that point that seems to [View Full Entry]

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2nd day in Grand Canyon I woke up at 5 am to catch the sunrise over the canyon. I was thinking “come on, is it really worth it?” but I was up so off I went… I missed the first shuttle that would bring me directly where I wanted to go and if I waited for the next one, I would definitely miss it so I hopped on one that went to a different look-out. First thing were several elk having breakfast off the road - pretty cool… Then sunrise- I missed it when it was just below the rim which [View Full Entry]

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Day 4 I have had great luck with finding hotels - was able to book a room inside the Grand Canyon park on the South rim just 4 hours ahead of time! I started the day with that great news and headed out over the Hoover Dam. It was full of people with no good parking so I snapped one picture not worth taking the time to upload right now. It was SLOW going over the dam… a little frustrating. So I was not terribly motivated to park and get out because I have driven over the Hoover dam before when [View Full Entry]

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