Adventures in Utah

Zion NP; Left Fork Trail/SUBWAY hike; long view from top

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Where did all the mountains go?! Yeah, yeah… I know. Glaciated Ohio has never contained the ear-popping elevations of our western states. And “straighten (ing) your shoulders” just won’t pull you from under 1000 feet to an elevation that will support ponderosa pines and aspens. No geologic changes here. It’s just me, making some mental adjustments to my internal panoramic viewfinder.

This past week, I basically braked for trailheads, wildlife, scenic views and the (very) occasional gas station (with bonus points for decent restroom facilities). I kind of liked flying across ranchland, over mountains and through canyons in our rental car as we navigated from park to park. Every mile traveled revealed yet another surprise and spectacular scenery.

Utah was quite the adventure for the kids and me. We climbed enormous boulders, swam through rivers, inched up waterfalls, explored slot canyons and fended off menacing road cows (don’t ask)… We Capitol Reef NP; Sunset at Gooseneck; Matt encountered a park fire, two hail storms and temperatures ranging from 50 -111 degrees F. We scanned cliffs for petroglyphs and pictographs, wandered through hoo doos and, technically, made a couple of wrong turns (although I maintain that if you have a map, it’s just an alignment issue) during our 1500 mile adventure through southern Utah.

And yes, I took a few pictures…

I’ll be sharing photos, hikes and stories from Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef National Parks, Escalante National Memorial, and Boulder Mountain, Brian Head and Cedar Breaks, Utah in the next few weeks.

July 17, 2008 |

Comments

2 Comments so far

stewartallyn, Dads July 17, 2008 1:10 pm
“although I maintain that if you have a map, it’s just an alignment issue”.

Love it.

I’ll add it to my excuse list for getting lost.
ourcrookedtree, Moms July 17, 2008 7:35 pm
Beautiful images. My thought is that you have to care where you’re going to be lost ☺