Good day, Mr. and Ms. Surfer. This past summer two dear friends, Michael and Julie, embarked on a brief but highly enjoyable and enlightening trip through some of the national parks in the Great American West. While most of our journey is enshrined on videotape, we did take a few pics, which we'd like to share with you now. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to visit these places. Anyone with an adventurous spirit and a curious mind will love them. They are truly national treasures. I'll never complain about any of my tax money going to maintain the parks. They are more than worth it. Enjoy our pics (though several are fuzzy--poor scanning? My bad)...This page will most definitely not self-destruct in five seconds!-- M & J
P.S. You may have to reload the page to get all the pics. Sometimes they don't all show up the first time. Thanks for your patience...Webmaster
And believe it, these pics could never do her justice! A mile deep, 18 miles wide, so vast you feel like a speck of dust. Every time we reached a vista, we had to shake our heads in awe. Wow! Also, while all the hotels and amenities are on the South Rim, near Flagstaff, we stayed on the North Rim, which is VERY rustic and undeveloped! We happened upon a little place with cabins for rent, and that's where we stayed (and had a great time!). We recommend the North Rim--much more natural and less crowded!
We could hear these guys at night. Spooky!
This was an ancient Indian corn storage place we encountered on a hike into a smaller canyon inside the Grand.
ARCHES NAT'L PARK, UTAH
In the middle of the desert, trippy rocks everywhere, and they were so red that they reflected up into the clouds above us, making them appear pink! Notice how some of the rocks just seem to be balancing on top of each other. This is from a zillion years of wind and water erosion (all this used to be covered by oceans, after all). We saw several mule deer with their babies, and lots of squirrels! Not much else in the way of wildlife, though, at least not during the day.
ZION NATIONAL PARK, UTAH
This was one of our favorite places. It's not a really huge park, and you can thoroughly explore it in a couple of days. There were some strenuous hikes possible (we declined--too hot!), but we thought the neatest thing was that you cannot drive past the visitors' center in your vehicle. You have to park there and take electric-powered shuttles on up into the canyon, meaning there is far less pollution and traffic to detract from the amazing scenery. We enjoyed this park immensely. It was unique in that, rather than standing on top of a canyon looking down, you are at the bottom of a canyon looking up. Terrific!
Bad lighting. Sorry! :-(
YELLOWSTONE NAT'L PARK, WYOMING/MONTANA
This is a HUGE park, the biggest in the country. It covers about 4 states! I have no clue why I don't have any stills of Old Faithful, the geyser, but oh well. We saw bison, elk, and mule deer here. It got pretty chilly at night, but the days were pleasantly warm. We lived in fear of the grizzlys (grizzlies?), which we were warned about by everyone and every sign. You have to keep your food tightly packed away, and can't leave even a crumb around! We didn't see any bears of any type, though, alas...but I think we would have been petrified if we had, LOL!
So, there you have it, in brief. We also visited Canyonlands in Utah, and that was our absolute favorite. No people, incredible views! Even saw where a meteor had (supposedly) made a crater in one place. We also spent a couple days in Rocky Mountain park in Colorado--also terrific. We hope to make the trip to Yosemite some day in the not-too-distant future, and perhaps some of the smaller, lesser-known, well-kept-secret parks that most people miss (Canyonlands was one of those). Stay tuned! :-)... M & J
