Blogs from United States, North America - page 5944

The 29 mile strip of road that crosses from Utah into Nevada is worth a mention here. I was quite unprepared for it. I left St. George expecting to travel across flat desert, but as the pictures show the Arizona strip is certainly not desert. The canyon has been formed over millions of years by the Virgin River and is spectacular. Unfortunately there are no viewing areas so all of my pictures were taken, one-eyed and one-handed through the windshield of my car! Twenty miles later we were indeed traveling through flat desert landscape. ... read more

June 13th On the way out of the Capitol Reef Park I decide to ride the scenic drive before leaving. At the end of the paved road is a fabulous dirt road leading out through narrow river beds and canyons. Instead of making a direct route to Salt Lake City, I detour east along the rest of Hwy 12 and I'm treated to more gorgeous scenary. I make a brief detour to the Natural Bridges Park (I'm really getting great mileage out of my Annual $50 pass for National Parks) to check out the bridges and have a nap on one of the picnic benches. After my nap, I push all the way to Moab where I arrived just before dark and managed to score accomodations in such a busy place. Pleased with my progress ... read more

Distance: Mills Lake - 5.35 miles, Black Lake - 9.8 miles Rating: to Mills Lake - moderate Despite what I’ve said earlier about snow in the high country, I couldn’t resist heading back up to Rocky Mountain National Park again. Since it was still only mid June, I knew there would be snow on the ground. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much snow would still be around. For this hike, my dad and I had planned to make the long trek to Black Lake in the glacial cirque below the jagged peaks of the Continental Divide. Unfortunately, there was so much snow that the trail became obscured past Mills and Jewel Lakes. This route is not used enough for foot traffic to wear a path through the snow. So, while I call this hike ... read more

It hadn't occurred to me until recently that traveling can be a very competitive endeavor. Well, strike that. "Tourist"-ing can be very competitive. Traveling is supposed to be an enriching, relaxing experience, not a cut-throat treasure hunt. And yet I see this behavior in many of our fellow campers and, as much as it shames me to say so, sometimes catch myself acting a little this way myself. The common campfire at which the rangers present nightly talks seem to be the boasting grounds of the days spoils, comparing sightings of osprey, elk and the ever elusive moose. Just for the record, we havn't seen much, if any, of the larger mammalian wildlife in the park; we have been enjoying the simpler things nature has to offer, like the birds singing from the lodgepole pines around ... read more

Untitled Lindsey and I started out our USA road trip at 9 am from Tabor. The drive to New York was beautiful, it's amazing how much you forget about mountains until you see them again. It never ceases to amaze me about how beautiful they really can be. We got to her house in Cobleskill, NY and headed right out to Cooperstown to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. We got to see Todd Helton, Phil Neikro and Tony Gwynn's memorabilia at the museum, which was great for obvious reasons. We ate at a little restaurant called the Doubleday Cafe and got our first meal of the trip! We walked around the town a little bit, making our way to the Doubleday Field where many of the first baseball games were played. Around 7 ... read more