Bryce Canyon National Park - 11/9/06

For my birthday, I decided to take a couple days off and go see the national parks in south-east Utah.

Driving makes the dog incredibly tired.

A man-made arch on the way into the park.


Mac, Shawn, and Sarah arriving at Bryce.

Bryce Canyon.

Our first night of cold-weather camping. The lack of daylight makes it a lot harder to see as much as you'd like. Then our lantern mantle gave out, so we had to use flashlights to cook dinner. Of course we have the mantles that you can't find at gas stations.

Bryce the next morning - we survived the cold despite having frozen noses.

Capitol Reef National Park - 11/10/06

The Castle above some fall colors.

Chimney Rock. I'm impressed.

Our campground the next morning. Mac and I were herded out of a neighboring campground by an eight-point buck earlier that morning. I thought I was going to end up on the next "When Animals Attack" show, but thankfully he didn't get any closer than 15 yards.

Also the start of our first and only cloudy day. Good for driving, not so good for pictures.

Canyonlands National Park - 11/11/06

This park had many beautiful canyons and mesas, which don't look nearly as cool in pictures when its cloudy. The park has been shaped by the Colorado and Green rivers.

Overlooking the huge canyon where the Green and Colorado rivers meet. The size and structure was unlike anything I've seen.

Sitting above Upheaval Dome. Salt deposits have pushed through the sandstone crust. It may have been caused by a meteor strike - the areal view shows a perfectly round crater.

Shawn trying to tire the dog out.

Arches National Park - 11/11/06

After driving around Canyonlands NP, we made the 20 minute drive to Arches, where we would be camping.

Sarah standing underneath the South Window arch.

2 natural arches - one made of rock and another made of human. We are so cool.

The Delicate Arch, which is the one you see on the Utah license plate - by far the most famous. Unique in how it is perched on a cliff and its size. Note the tiny person standing right next to the arch.

Shawn standing under the arch.

Landscape arch is the longest in the park - it is longer than a football field! It's hard to put it in perspective from the picture, but it looks like it defies gravity in person.

Another view of Landscape Arch - those are full-grown trees directly under it.

Exposed sandstone "fins" along the trail - note the morning sun on the cliffs in the distance.

We found snow on our drive home! The night before it had just sleeted at Arches NP, but in higher elevations it actually snowed so we let the dog out for his first snow experience.

Mac quickly learned how to spell his name in the snowbank!

Petrified Forest National Park - 11/3/06

We stopped by the Petrified Forest NP on our way home. We didn't have much time, but drove in a little ways and purchased some petrified wood to take with us. We plan on going back when we can spend a couple days there.

Death Valley - 1 of 2 - 11/3/06

Happy Travelers - after about a month of sticking close to home, we finally were out on a new adventure.

Arriving at the park - it's about 5 hours from home.

Sarah at the Ashford Mill ruins.

The terraced hillside shows signs of the huge lake that used to be here called Lake Manly.

Shawn at the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere.

Sarah touching the salt crystals which creat the "salt pan." It was a bizarre feeling - the crystals made your skin cold and you could still feel where they had been on your skin an hour later.

Sarah walking out on the salt pan - despite the 85 degree temps, the ground was cold.

Multi-colored hills in Death Valley. The valley is huge and has a wide array of rock formations which are easy to see due to the lack of vegetation. We saw several areas where they could have filmed the moon landing!

Picture problems

I'm really getting sick of this Blogger program...half the time it works, half the time it doesn't, but either way you don't know if it works or not until you're done selecting all the pictures you want to post. Then you have to start the process all over.

Frustrated in PS

Death Valley Trip - 2 of 2 - 11/3/06

Shawn performing the annual auto maintenance.

Sarah setting up camp.

Moonlight over Death Valley.

Hebe crater - caused by a volcanic eruption.

Desert mistletoe above Hebe Crater.

Roadside dining at its finest!

Scotty's castle in Grapevine Canyon - it was never finished after the stock market crashed in 1929 - in front you can see the enourmous pool they had started.

Read the sign.

Sunset on our way home.

sleepy weekend

not much happening in PS this weekend...just enjoying the weather and planning our trips for the next few weekends...we're planning on visiting about 5 national parks in november...should make for some great blog photo ops....election craziness has taken hold here - we average about three mailings a day for or against various propositions/candidates...apparently everyone running for office out here is a bad person...looking forward to nov. 8....

Murray Peak

Mac and I finally made it all the way to Murray Peak! It's about a 2,200 foot climb, which traslates to 5,000 feet in dog travel, because you have to run back and forth along the trail the whole way to make sure you don't miss a weird smell. I used about 4 liters of water keeping the dog hydrated, and had a couple 24 ouncers myself. Anyway, here's a couple shots from the top of Palm Springs...

Who wants to go to Europe?

Having seen a huge portion of North America this summer, we're thinking about about going on a Contiki tour of Europe next summer. Below is a link to the itinerary that seems best suited to what we're hoping to see...

http://www.contiki.com/en-US/Tours/Europe/European.Discovery/Itinerary.htm

Sarah did a Contiki tour when she was in New Zealand and had a blast. They plan out all the entertainment and sightseeing, but also include optional side trips that you can pick from, depending on what you're into. So all we would have to do is get ourselves to London, and they take care of us from there. Kind of like a land cruise.

Of course, guided trips are more fun with friends, so we will be encouraging everyone to join us....

Hiking for Dogs

This past weekend Mac and I took a hike up the Luyken Trail, which is about 2 miles from our front door. As long as your dog doesn't eat people you can have them off the leash when you're in the mountains, so it makes going for a walk much easier. Mac started strong, but after a while couldn't take the uphill climb in the bright sun, so he finally just laid down right in the middle of the trail. We took about a 15 minute break, enjoyed the view, and headed back down the hill, which Mac enjoyed much more.

1st Teacher of the week award from Edward Wenzlaff Elementary goes to.....

SARAH NORTON!!!!

Nothing New...

Not much happening in Palm Springs this week...just enjoying football season and cooler temps. The dog is vaccinated for another year, and this time his face didn't swell up from the shots, which is nice. He's even learned two new tricks in the past couple weeks, which is more than I can say for myself!

More Alaska

I'm finally getting to sorting through the Alaska photos, and I've come across some amazing pictures that haven't made the blog - here's one below...

Sarah standing on the banks of a glacial river at Denali National Park..

Vegas!

To end Mom Tiede and Spencer's trip in style, we spent a night in Vegas before they flew back to Minnesota. The pictures below are of the hotel we stayed at, called Excalibur.

Karen, Sarah, and Spencer

Excalibur Hotel. We stayed in the tower to the right.