Part 2: Western United States

I know some of you have been questioning whether or not I work. Well some weeks, I even work 5 days, just not the last few! However, I did work a few days while Mom and Joy toured Craters of the Moon, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. But after the food was restocked and the cooler ready to go, we headed out for another weekend of National Parks. This time we headed into the heat wave with our first stop at Bryce Canyon.

Prior to leaving, I had scoped out a campground about 15 miles short of the Park. However, we got a late start and arrived at the campground about midnight. Knowing we wanted to get an early start the next morning, and the amount of time it takes to set-up and tear down camp, I suggested we rough it for a night and sleep under the stars. Although we had come through a downpour a few minutes before, there was a little awning we figured would keep us dry if it rained again. Much to my surprise, my Mom and sister obliged. So we moved the picnic table out from under the awning, put a tarp down to cover the concrete pad and pulled out one easily accessible air mattress for the ladies. I was quickly dreaming, but at one point woke up to the sounds of sprinkles on my sleeping bag and the excess tarp. So I just positioned more of myself under the awning, pulled the excess tarp around me, snuggled deeper into my sleeping bag and went back to sleep.

As soon as the sun was up, we got hot showers and breakfast, and headed out to Bryce. I regret not getting a picture before packing up the sleeping bags, because below is a picture of the awning...
...notice the slats in the roof. In the dark, we had no idea that this little awning would provide no protection from the rain! Fortunately, all we got were a few sprinkles. My Mom and sister claim that some people walked by in the middle of the night, but other then that, it was a good nights sleep.
You may remember that Bryce Canyon is one of my favorite National Parks. So, you get to see a bunch more pictures! This is on the Wall Street trail.
Joy's best attempt at an "I'm trying to push the rock over face."
Looking back towards Sunset Point.
I'm no artist, but taking pictures is easy, and I thought there was some artistic value to this one.
Arches framing the Canyon walls.

I got this picture last time too, but it's still one of my favorites.
A small panoramic of the hoodoo's.

Without anybody in the picture, you lose perspective of the magnitude of the landscape. The two arches in the upper left hand corner are probably 20 - 30 feet in diameter.
Along the Navajo trail.

Can you see why I love Bryce?
An arch along the trail.

Proof that she didn't fall off the edge.
Click on this panoramic to make it bigger. I believe it was taken at Bryce Point.

If you look close, you can see the trails meandering through the maze of hoodoo's.
A natural bridge has formed here. Once again, there's not much perspective showing it's sheer magnitude.

A wildfire swept through a good portion Bryce over the last month. Some spots were still smoking and the smell of burning wood was ever present.
From Bryce, we headed towards Arches National Park, stopping at Goblin Valley State Park. This park is in the middle of nowhere (it would redefine "nowhere" for most of you), but so much fun. I don't know if the pictures can adequately describe the landscape of small hoodoos. You're allowed to meander all through them, jump up on them, climb through those that form caves and just have a great time. This would be the ultimate playground for hide-n-seek or laser tag. The park is appropriately named because the hoodoo's look like goblin's after dark. I'm told that the place is hopping on Halloween and during full moons.

If only you could see what was behind me, errrr, what wasn't behind me. (And yes, my Mom was there, but I'm not sure she was watching.)
Joy climbing on the hoodoos.

Scaling the wall that separated sections of hoodoos.
High-fiving from afar.

Behind the wall was another whole "world" of hoodoos to be explored! So while Mom headed back towards the car, Joy and I kept going, and going, and going...
...the third "world" we went into had caves for climbing through...

...and bunks for loitering.
"Here's the plan - the camera's going to take three pictures. On the first two, smile...

...and on the third one, stick your tongue out." (And try not to make it look like your going to fall off.)
Another "third" picture.

This kid must have gotten dropped on his head as child as he's clearly spent too much time upside down!

After Goblin Valley State Park, we settled in at Arches.
Oh the memories of the Suzuki! If ours was blue, would it still have been a "cardboard box"? If not, it'd still classify as a pregnant roller skate!
After a little hike, here's our first view of Delicate Arch (through another arch).

Joy checks it out and proves that I'm not the only one who doesn't mind living on the edge!
No blue sky, but always a magnificent sight.

The three of us provide a little perspective to its size.

Joy and I acting "delicate". While hanging out at Delicate Arch, I once again heard this familiar statement "Where is his mother?". But this time, they weren't referring to me. However, you may remember that I regrettable did not get a certain picture the last time I was here. While I am not posting that picture at this time, I can assure you that my regrets are long forgotten, and you will see it in the future. (How's that for suspense?)
Landscape Arch (click on it to make it bigger as it's 2 pictures put together.)

One of the two Window Arches, with somebody else's family in it.
The second Window Arch.

Do you see the eagle looking at you between the Window Arches?
Double-O Arch (two arches connected on one side.)

Any bets on how long Balanced Rock stays balanced? His partner to the right fell down a number of years ago.
A view of some of the random walls of rock throughout the park.

After exploring Arches National Park, we headed across the road to Canyonlands National Park. This was a new park for me and once again very exciting.

Mesa Arch at Canyonlands. It's hard to tell, but if you were to step over that ledge under the arch, you would drop straight down many hundreds of feet!
So of course I had to get closer for a picture.

Looking down across the canyons.
The post horse-and-buggy version of driving off into the sunset (with dirty mirrors).
At the Green River Overlook for sunset.

The views were breath-taking.

The setting sun competes with the storm clouds.
A rainbow to remind us that God never changes, and He always keeps His promises!

The Green River Canyon.
Sunset pictures never adequately describe the color as it outlines the clouds above it and set's afire those close to it.

The next morning we headed out to Timpanogos National Monument and Caves near Salt Lake City.

Joy heading up the trail to the caves.
Looking back through the valley with the city in the background.

One last picture on the way down as proof that we all survived two weeks touring the West together!

The next morning I dropped my Mom and sister off at the airport and headed back to work! What a great, jam-packed (Joe-style) couple of weeks, and remember that change is inevitable, except when we speak of God!