Monument Valley is part of the Navajo Nation in southeastern Utah.
Beginning in 1925 with the film The Vanishing American, Monument Valley has been the visual representation of the American West. John Ford made Monument Valley famous as the backdrop for most of his Westerns including Stagecoach, Fort Apache, How the West Was Won, My Darling Clementine, and The Searchers. Continue reading
I was looking for different things to do in outside in the winter and came across an Ice Castle at Stratton Mountain in Vermont. Continue reading
We spent four days in the Wahweap Campground overlooking Lake Powell. It was a beautiful and relaxing spot. While we were there I got up early for some solitude and to witness the dramatic sunrises over Lake Powell.
I gave in and went to the gym today. We’ve been staying in eastern New York on the border of Vermont and the nearest gym—we still have our Planet Fitness membership—is more than 30 minutes away. I have not been able to justify driving for nearly the same amount of time I’m going to workout, so for the past two months I’ve braved the wind, snow, and brutally cold temperatures to do my daily five-mile walk outside. Today wasn’t even the coldest day, that was a couple of weeks ago: a -14 air temp, -24 wind chill (nothing like the -110 windchill on the summit of Whiteface in Lake Placid) but this whole week was windy with negative air temps and so this morning when I saw that it was -3 air temp, -23 windchill, suddenly the drive was justifiable.
After getting our permit for The Wave, we stopped for lunch at the Paria Scenic Viewpoint and then drove a dangerous, rutted, unpaved road down toward the Paria Ghost Town. The road got far too steep and treacherous and we were worried we wouldn’t make it back up, so we stopped the car at a pull off and continued down on foot.
We didn’t have much time in Zion–we only allowed ourselves a day there on our way to The Wave. So we drove through Zion, taking in the towering peaks.
Court of the Patriarchs
The town of Rhyolite, Nevada rose and fell in less than a decade. The town started in 1905 with two men working at the Montgomery Shoshone Mine, with the promise of the mine the town grew to more than 2500 people in six months and had saloons, hotels, restaurants, barbers, and a newspaper. Continue reading
Death Valley is the land of extremes, it has the record for the hottest temperature in the world: 134˚F in 1913, and it’s the driest climate and the lowest elevation in North America. The National Park has a page with some interesting facts about why it is so hot and dry.
We continued up the Pacific Coast Highway heading for San Francisco.
We continued north along the increasingly treacherous and amazingly gorgeous Pacific Coast Highway.
