I am at wits end with the blogsite these days. I've tried every day for a week to load up the next Utah day's worth of pics to no avail. I harbour some suspicion that there may be some sort of maximum capacity for photos that I have reached without realizing it. I don't know how long it will take to figure my way around this problem. Just imagine another hundred photos of scenic rocks. In chronological order of the trip you would next imagine really bumpy rocks (Goblin Valley), then really smooth rocks (Moab), then a really deep chasm in the otherwise very flat rocks (Island in the Sky), then really red rocks (Moab again), then a really famous rocks (Arches and Monument Valley) and finally a village made of rocks hidden under the side of a high rock ridge (Mesa Verde)!
I'll keep working on those photos - but you've got a rough sense now!
Sunday, 29 June 2014
Monday, 23 June 2014
Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Photos of Bryce Canyon National Park
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| Our one and only great family shot of the entire trip. Hey, you only need one! |
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| My gem collector at a rock shop surrounded by geodes, obsidian and quartz to buy by the pound. What more could a boy ask for? |
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| Bryce Canyon National Park |
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| A prairie dog. Meditating. |
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| A spectacular hike that I did on my own at sunset. Coming up was significantly slower than going down... |
Utah was so beautiful it was surreal. We kept expecting to get used to views like this one. We never did.
Tuesday, 10 June 2014
Home At Last
We finally rolled in at 8 oclock last night after 26 (19 for Brendan and I) glorious day of road tripping. The final photo count is an absolutely shocking 3,500. Oi. If I edit and put them into a photobook at the rate of 10 a day, I should have all my photos archived and presentable in... a year. Sweet heaven above.
So my plan for tonight was to cull out the one best photo from each day to post up here. I couldn't do it. So I at least made it through the first four days - the first phase of our trip together - Zion National Park in Springdale Utah, in the south west of the state. An awe inspiring place with red and orange sheer, jagged mountains rising all around you, and an oasis of a river running through the bottom of the canyon. We did a few hikes here, and also spent one day doing a day trip to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. If i keep talking I'll never get these photos up, so here goes...
The next installment - hitting the road for Bryce Canyon National Park, Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef National Park, Goblin Valley State Park and Little Wild Horse Canyon - and that's just two days. You can see why I took 3,500 photos!
So my plan for tonight was to cull out the one best photo from each day to post up here. I couldn't do it. So I at least made it through the first four days - the first phase of our trip together - Zion National Park in Springdale Utah, in the south west of the state. An awe inspiring place with red and orange sheer, jagged mountains rising all around you, and an oasis of a river running through the bottom of the canyon. We did a few hikes here, and also spent one day doing a day trip to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. If i keep talking I'll never get these photos up, so here goes...
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| Flying over the Rockies |
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| Cruising The Strip in Las Vegas |
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| Valley of Fire State Park - a hike and picnic lunch on our drive from Nevada to the campground in Utah |
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| The drive through Valley of Fire |
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| The paved bike trail through Zion National Park |
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| The view from the top of a the Canyon Overlook hike Rob did on his own - he is standing on top of a stone arch you'll see in another picture shortly - the road in the distance is an amazing set of switchbacks coming out of the Zion Mt. Carmel tunnel - one of Rob's favourite drives of the trip |
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| Our home away from home, and the campsite with the best view on the whole trip |
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| Another spectacular hike in Zion National Park, alongside the river in the ever narrowing carnyon. The trail eventually became JUST the river, and advised people continuing on the "wet hike" that there was a flash flood warning of MODERATE on for that day. Thank you, no. We thought that was a good place to turn around. |
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| One of the breath taking view points along the Grand Canyon (the small peninsula in the distance is where we hiked out to) |
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| The Grand Canyon. Wow. |
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| The drive back from the Grand Canyon through Zion to our campground - this is the arch Rob hiked to the top of! |
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| Our second day in Zion we hiked up to a waterfall and spotted lots of lizards |
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| Roasting weenies! |
The next installment - hitting the road for Bryce Canyon National Park, Escalante National Monument, Capitol Reef National Park, Goblin Valley State Park and Little Wild Horse Canyon - and that's just two days. You can see why I took 3,500 photos!
Friday, 6 June 2014
Photos
Suddenly I hit a WiFi connection that allows me to post photos, except I haven't really taken any - they're all on the cameras - I can show off my long suffering road companions and our home away from home...
Missouri
Great day! Drove across the rollling hills of the Ozarks, toured the famous Meramec Caverns, saw Bigfoot (the monster truck) at his home shop in st Louis and rode the elevator tram to the top of the St Louis Arch. An epic day, probably the kids favourite of the whole trip - Brendan loved the cave, Harrison died and went to heaven at the monster truck shop and Heidi got to sit in the truck and colour for 3 straight hours (she draws tiny circles in her tiny notebook and declares every 10 minutes "I write my name!"). We even capped the night off by getting lost in the sketchy neighbourhoods of St. Louis after dark (thanks for nothing, GPS) - never a dull moment!
Nancy
Thursday, 5 June 2014
Missouri
Still not being allowed to upload photos - so annoying. Anyways, a couple of great route 66 days, with a lot more sightseeing than I had expected considering we're still having to pack away 500 km away each day. The babies have run and squealed their way through a great museum in Clinton Oklahoma, a giant cement blue whale in Catoosa Oklahoma and upended Cadillacs in a field In Amarillo Texas, all at top volume. Each day Brendan says his highlight is the campground pool or playground. Oh well, nobody ever said family road trips were non stop fun. Not until you look back at them at least, and have forgotten the parts where your mother yelled at you from the front seat to "stop getting distracted and finish your G.D. spelling dictation homework so she can put the movie back on and make your siblings stop crying". Ahhh, good times. Harrison may have some fond memories however, thanks to his love of Cars the movie. We've met Mater, Mr. Mater (the actual pickup that inspired the movie character - we told Harrison it was Maters father) and Grand Mater (a beautiful old pickup outside the building that inspired Ramones paint shop). Harrison had long conversations with all 3 trucks!
Onto Meramec Caverns and St Louis tomorrow, a train museum on Saturday in Illinois and then into Ontario to crash at my mom and dad's by Sunday. Monday well arrive home and try to beat a path through the waist high grass to the door!
Monday, 2 June 2014
Eastward Bound
We saw monument valley yesterday, and the four corners, where you can put a hand and foot (or a child if you have enough) each in a different state. Then we turned our wheels eastward and headed out of Utah, saying goodbye to desert heat ( probably only briefly ). We're into Colorado now, and the lush greens of mountain meadows are such a contrast from the last 11 days it's quite disconcerting. We saw the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde this morning. The children were mildly interested. Thank goodness I'm taking pictures so they remember they were here. As we speak, I'm fighting with Brendan to finish writing his journal entry for monument valley - it reads "today i saw a goat".
Nancy
Ps photos are sadly flatly refusing to upload - I've taken 1200 so far - consider yourself lucky I can't upload them all!
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