More vacation highlights

After the Grand Canyon we drove through Moab and Arches National Park. We saw too many fantastic rock formations to even begin to show them all to you. But here are a few....

In the distance behind Kurt is Delicate Arch- the most photographed arch in the world...

There are Courthouse Rocks-- so TALL and so THIN...amazing

One of several arches we walked through- this is Turret Arch...

A dream come true- our hike into the Grand Canyon

We took over 300 photos of our hike into the Grand Canyon-- we will just share a few with you :)

We started out before dawn- each of us walking single file and wearing head lamps. The star gazing was spectacular once we dropped off the rim and away from the lights- you'll just have to trust us on that one.

But here is our first glimpse of dawn- light to the east....(through a very dusty lens )

Soon there was sun on the highest edges of the canyon. You can see that we had beautiful weather for our hike.


Then we got glimpses of the sun across the canyon

Then it got lighter.. and we could see the trail below our feet-- as well as the trail far below us. The arrow points at about the mid-way point of the trail at Indian Gardens. Notice the clump of greenery- quite surprising for such arid land.

An hour and a half later we arrived at Indian Gardens- a true oasis with cactus and towering cottonwoods

Another shot in Indian Gardens...with the river canyon still way off in the distance...

After the flat and shady garden part of the trail we descended over another plateau. That is our trail zig-zaging down the rock face.

Here is Sarah negotiating through a rock canyon.

And Kurt doing the same thing..

Still headed downward- everywhere surrounded by gorgeous views

AH HA! The Colorado River dead ahead. 7.8 miles from the rim

Kurt was first to the river- but we were all glad to arrive!

Happy boy with his feet in the water. It was at least 80 degrees at the bottom of the canyon- a perfect day.

/All too soon we had to begin our return trip. There were MUCH FEWER pictures taken on the arduous trip up---until we got closer to the top.

Here is a rather daunting view of the path we needed to take to climb to the rim.

But the more we climbed- the more spectacular the canyon view became.

Sarah gave us a target to aim for as she trooped along without a hitch

One last view

And then we were back at the rim--- hooray!

And soon we were refreshing our bodies back in our hotel room!

A Busman's Holiday for Us

We are on our second annual October Vacation. This year we are traveling by car in the American southwest. We have gotten our fill of the interesting rock formations in Colorado, Arizona and Utah.

We hit our first snow crossing the continental divide on I-90 in Montana.

We also saw beautiful fall color in the Rockies, and elsewhere

We saw numerous herds of antelope in Montana and Wyoming.

We stopped in Denver to pick up our cousin, Sarah, who joined us for our SW leg. Here she is with her feet in the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

And we got plenty of time to bond with our wonderful grandson, Mark. Here is Kurt trying to teach Mark to roll over>>>


and here they are doing Patt-y-cake- which Mark figured out pretty quickly and was smiling with glee when it was time for the "way up in the air!" part

When we left Denver, we crossed the continental divide again in Colorado- over Wolf Creek Pass. This time no snow- in fact we had the convertible top down this day.


Next day we spent at the Mesa Verde National Park. This is the park of the ancient cliff dwellings. They were absolutely amazing. We were able to tour three large sites. This is our first view of the first one- known as the Cliff Palace. Later we were part of a tour that walked through the entire site.


After Cliff Palace we toured Balcony House. Here is Kurt climbing the 32 step ladder that you must take to approach the site. You can get the sense of the site being on the side of a cliff.


We also took a hike along the Mesa to see some petroglyphs. Here is Kurt under an overhang along the trail.


And here are the ancient petroglyphs (on the wall- not the two people in the picture)

Another cliff dwelling site, with Joanie and Sarah in the frame

this is Spruce House- another cliff dwelling that is accessible by walking path- It has been partially restored so you can go into some of the underground rooms

WE DID IT!!!!

Here we are at the Colorado River - at the BOTTOM of the Grand Canyon!!
A long time dream of Kurt's- to hike the Grand Canyon has been realized! It was a 16 mile - 11 and 1/2 hour experience -- Which thankfully won't have to be repeated. It was a joy to reach the bottom.....


And an even greater feeling of accomplishment to return to the rim. Here we are at the top, with our (70 yr old!) cousin Sarah who joined us on the trek and was first to make it back to the rim