Denver: Day One and Two

Denver has basically been a vacation away from vacation.
After a while camping gets a little tiring, so staying at Cashel's place has been amazing!
Today we made breakfast, hung out, got ice cream, then went on a cave tour, so all around it was a nice day.

Elementary school turned brewery

Cool mural at brewery

Pre-cave tour

Lantern tour

Cave stuff

Tomorrow we will have another full day to do whatever we want, as well as get ready to head off to Mt. Rushmore the following day.
I will be sad to leave this place after the comfort of staying at a friend's house, but I know the second half of the trip is going to go by fast!
After Mt. Rushmore we will be staying at Big Horn for one night, then the Grand Tetons for one night, and then after that it will be all Yellowstone for three nights, including the 4th of July, which might be interesting in a National Park (even though I don't really like 4th of July).
After tonight (Tuesday) we will have 16 nights until we're home, which kinda seems like a lot, but I know the second half of the trip will fly by!
I'm very excited to visit Yellowstone, again, for the third time in my life; I've visited it two times before for my Grandpa's artist rendezvous, but this time I won't be fed fancy food the entire time or have a scheduled set of events, so we will see how this trip will be different!
So, the question is: where should we go? I basically have to memory of distinct places to see other than Old Faithful area, so suggestions are welcome!

Zion: Day 2 and Arches: Day 1

Camping comes with its casualties to internet presence: dead batteries, no connection, etc., so I have been unable to post the past couple of days!

Here's the quick version of what happened:

Canyons, river, rocks, more rocks, arches. 

Here's the longer version:

Day two of Zion we took a shuttle from one end of the park to the other. We went to the weeping rock, and checked out the beginning of the narrows. 

After that we relaxed in the Virgin River and decided to skip Santa Fe this Monday and go straight to Denver! 

So today was our first whole day in Arches, but last night we went to a ranger talk and I got to do nighttime photography! 

Today we went to landscape arch, north arch?, the sand dune arch, and my favorite which was the double arch!

 

Right now we're in a cafe staying cool, but we're going to see balanced rock and more of the sand dune arch afterwards and go to another talk!

Tomorrow we are driving to Denver to spend three nights in Colorado and I couldn't be more excited!  

Zion: Day One

Yikes! 

I do not like the hot, humid heat. 

I do not like it here. I do not like it there. I do not like it in a box with a fox. 

You get it. 

We've barely been here since we arrived around 4 pacific/ 5 mountain time and it's a 104 degrees. 

Hopefully tomorrow we can avoid the heat as much as possible by going to the narrows and lower emerald pool trail. 

We spent most of the day going to some last minute driving spots as recommended by a friendly gas station attendant, like imperial point(?)...

And cape something?...

I think I'm going to miss north Grand Canyon a lot! If anyone is interested in traveling in this area, I highly recommend it! 

I keep counting down the days in my head until Colorado (which is five), where Syd and I are meeting up with my friend Cashel! At that point it will mean no more dry heat and we'll be moving up north to Mt. Rushmore! 

I think the heat is making me cranky, so the sooner we're out of here the better! 

Until then, the river will treat me well...

Grand Canyon: Day 2

I was in a little bit of a funk this morning when I woke up, but going back to the lodge and rim certainly perked me up!

I got to see this amazing view of the north rim! 

After hiking around for a bit, Sydney and I spent most of the day in the lodge listening to talks varying from geology, the reintegration of condors, and the history of water sources. We also sat, read, and I filled out more of my sketchbook with water colors. 

Overall it was a super relaxing day, way more relaxing than the hotel room of Las Vegas, and I will love to come here agin someday. 

Tonight Syd and I will go check out the sunset and then rest up before we head out to Zion tomorrow morning! 

Grand Canyon: Day One

You know the stereotypes between North and South: North is cold, green, and full of life, South is red, hot, and sparse. 

Well, these stereotypes 100% apply to the Grand Canyon. 

When I was in middle school I visited the south rim and all I can remember is hot, red heat. But here at the north rim it's almost like being back at the PNW! 

It's definitely not what I expected, which is great in this case since I've been a little tired of the heat.

So when we arrived this afternoon we had a great welcoming party: a pack of bison! I had no idea that they were native to here, so it was very exciting to see them from about 500 feet away! During the drive it also started to cool down and rain a bit, which lifted my spirits for sure. 

We haven't done any hiking yet, but once we arrived at our campsite we found a short trail to this view...

I'm excited to see what we do tomorrow! I think we'll get some laundry done and probably go to a trail that my guy guy recommend! 

I have to admit, I'm getting a little homesick after my first week gone, and I still have three weeks left till I'm home. But, I know that this trip is going to continue to be amazing and being gone for a whole will make the homecoming that much sweeter. I think the busier I stay, the less I think about it! 

*** here's a photo of a plaster dinosaur that they have at these gas stations all over Utah, they make me happy! 

Las Vegas: Day One

Las Vegas is nothing like I imagined it would be.
And, yet, exactly what I expected it to be?

So there are lots of lights and everything is close together!

It was kinda nice just being able to walk around, but when Syd and I got dinner it was $10 for a slice of cheese pizza and a bottle of water. Not the best idea, but pizza soothes all wounds. 

We also got to see the Bellagio fountains which were way more amazing than I though they would be! As seen below...

The rest of the day/night has been spent indoors, trying to avoid the heat, and plan for the next week or so.

We'll be here for the next two days and after that we are heading over to Grand Canyon! 

Our campsite there will be on the North Rim end, so we will be missing out on the South Rim adventures, but are there any recommendations of things that are close by? We might go to horseshoe bend, though it is about 2 hours away. We might also do a scenic drive! We'll see! 

Now, for the rest of the night we'll relax!

Death Valley

Whatever news source said that Death Valley would only reach around 102 is a liar. 

It was 114 degrees. It was blazing hot but we managed to survive. 

We also accidentally took a backroad to the national park which was bumpy as hell and set us back two hours, but that's a whole other story. 

Despite its atrocious weather conditions, Death Valley was actually beautiful. There are multicolored canyons everywhere and the camping spot we're staying at is literally an oasis. 

Sydney and I checked out a couple of hiking/driving spots as the sun went down, like the artists palette...

And the canyons that you can walk in, I forgot the name of it. 

We barely slept last night though despite using a fan to try and keep us cool (thanks gma!) so I lie awake here at 6:45am ready to leave before it gets too hot again! 

Now we're going to drive over to Las Vegas! We'll leave around 11am and hopefully manage to get there without turning into soup! 

Yosemite: Day 2

Apparently President Obama was visiting Yosemite today and it created quite the crowd! There was security detail everywhere and lots of news crews all around! 

Unfortunately Sydney and I did not see our dear president. But we did visit some other cool places!

First we went to the "museum" and "gallery" and I put these in quotation marks because they lacked pizzazz. They were basically gift shops. 

But after that we headed to mirror lake...

And then to the lower Yosemite falls...

Both were pretty spectacular!

Unfortunately we didn't go to bridal veil falls or El Capitan but maybe I'll go bad again someday. 

Also, did you know that half dome wasn't ever a full dome? It was eroded into a sharp edge that looked like it split in two! 

So tomorrow we head over to Death Valley (cue the horror music). 

It's going to be around 114 degree Fahrenheit! 

Hopefully we'll survive! 

Yosemite Day 1

So we made it to Yosemite today! 

We basically drove all day from tunnel view point to glacier point! We got to see half dome and are planning on seeing more of the falls tomorrow! 

On our way from Yosemite to Oh Ridge campground we almost ran out of gas but luckily hit civilization again as we were on our last 1/4-1/8 of a tank! 

After tomorrow is done we will be heading to Death Valley! We'll only stay one night in a campground and then head over to Vegas! 

Any recommendations of where we should go? Places to see?