January 25, 2012 – Salt Lake Valley from Snowbird
25 Jan 2012 | no comments »
Vacation week is here for me. The 4 feet of powder we got in the mountains has been mostly tracked out now. It was a great day to ski the groomers and find some small patches of 12 inch deep powder. It was blue skies all morning, until around 1:00 PM when the clouds started to roll in. The valley looked great though from Snowbird as the clouds were coming in. Stephanie and Neil will be visiting later in the week and hopefully we get some more snow by this weekend.
January 22, 2012 – Middle Provo River
25 Jan 2012 | no comments »
Winter is finally here. We’ve had 6-10 inches of snow at our house over the last couple of days, with 48 inches in the mountains. I had planned to go skiing after the biggest wave of storms on Sunday, but the storm was too big. Little Cottonwood Canyon was closed due to avalanche until 12:30. The lifts didn’t start running until after 1:00 PM. We decided to scrap the skiing plans and go fly fishing. It was a beautiful sunny day and felt a lot warmer than below freezing. No one caught anything (except a sunburn), but we did have fun breaking the ice off of our eyelets.
January 9, 2012 – Profile of baby at 20 weeks
22 Jan 2012 | 1 comment »
As everyone already knows, there’s a baby on the way. It should be here with 1 month left of my residency. I’ll be on light rotations that last month, which will be good. Then we get to pack everything up and move out to Bend. I’ll try to be better at updating the blog, but we’ll see. It has finally snowed here in SLC. Has been going all day. Possibly 30 inches of powder overnight at Snowbird. I’ll have to see it for myself.
04 Jun 2011 | 1 comment »
Somewhere in the course of my storytelling, the events that occurred in Sedona have been mixed up. That’s why I don’t tell stories. So the order may be incorrect, but the events are still accurate.
Our last day in Sedona we awoke to some sunshine. We hopped in the car, not wanting to tear down camp yet and drove into town. We ate breakfast at the Coffeepot Restaurant. It’s a dive, but is famous for their 101 omelets. None of us got an omelet. Apparently the restaurant used to be owned by Jane Russell and celebrity photos were on the wall. Breakfast was pretty good and we took off back to the campground to tear things down.
We headed south from the campground hoping to get some good views of the area surrounding Sedona, but the clouds had rolled in again. We got back onto the freeway and drove north towards Zion. Our last stop of the trip. Along the way we stopped in at Colorado City, AZ. It is a Fundamentalist Mormon town known for its polygamy and its women wearing traditional handmade clothes. It was creepy. Megan went into the coop grocery store there to get a better look. It was even creepier inside. We got out of town as quickly as we could and made our way back into Utah and soon we were in Zion National Park. We only had one night reserved at the campground because it was packed, despite the record-breaking rainfall. We waited in the car for awhile until the rain stopped and then hastily set up camp (here) and a tarp to keep the picnic table dry.
The rain came back, but we had a pretty good fire by that point. We ate a dinner of tuna helper and hot chocolate and went to bed. The next morning, the rain had let up a little and we tore down camp. We had expected to stay another night in Zion, but the two campgrounds were completely full. Pretty amazing, since it was so wet. We parked at a nearly full visitor center parking lot and rode the shuttle bus to the Angel’s Landing trailhead. Some guy named it that because he thought that an angel could reach the top of it. So we booked it to the top, beating most of the crowd and the rain. With 1/2 mile left, the trail gets more technical and a large chain has been installed to help people get to the top without falling. We made it to the top without incident and enjoyed the sun until the crowds and the rain came. Here are some photos from the top.
We made our way back down, which was made a little more difficult by the rain. We got back on the shuttle bus and stopped at a few more stops to check things out, eventually ending at the riverside walk at the end of the park. At the end of the riverside walk is the Narrows, a world famous creek walk up the canyon. We had already heard that the Narrows were closed, but we wanted to see the mouth of the canyon anyway. The river was flowing pretty good, so we snapped a photo and headed back to the shuttle. We stopped at one more stop to check out the Emerald pools, which were brown with all the rain and then got back to the car. We left the park and drove the 4 hours back to Salt Lake. It was a pretty awesome trip. More photos will probably be posted in the next couple weeks when I find time.
Cathedral Rock from Red Rock Crossing – Sedona, AZ. May 18, 2011
Matthew and Megan at Red Rock Crossing, Sedona, AZ. May 18, 2011
Storm over Sedona, AZ. May 18, 2011
Megan on Devil’s Bridge, Sedona, AZ. May 18, 2011
02 Jun 2011 | 2 comments »
We awoke after a stormy night and climbed out of our soaking tents to find everything even more wet than the night before. We drove the 20 minutes to Sedona and stopped to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross; a catholic church built into the side of a cliff. We took in the view and then continued on stopping at a hardware store so I could fix a piece of Blanche (Megan’s car) that I broke 4x4ing back at Capitol Reef. We also picked up another tarp to help shield us from the rains that were forecast for the next 36 hours. Outside the store, we took this classic picture.
We continued on with our adventures driving south of Sedona to see the Montezuma Castle National Monument and Tuzigoot National Monument. Both were old ruins, but the Montezuma Castle was built into a cliff… so it was kind of cool. We stopped in at a Dairy Queen for a dilly bar and continued back to Sedona, hoping that the rain had let up. It hadn’t. We stopped in at Red Rock Crossing Park so we could see Cathedral Rock. The clouds parted for about 10 seconds so I could get a picture of it. Matthew and Megan sat on the rocks and laughed at a dog playing with a big log while I was trying to get the perfect shot. Then it started raining again…
We next decided to hike to Devil’s Bridge, north of Sedona. It was labeled as the best hike to see the most of the valley. We drove to the trailhead, which was actually a dirt 4×4 road for just over a mile. So we decided to do some more 4x4ing… in the pouring rain… with warning signs stating to not attempt the road due to flash floods. We did make it to the ‘real’ trailhead without much trouble, though.
No one else was on the hike and it was pretty good weather for awhile. Devil’s Bridge was pretty neat because you could walk out on it without realizing you were standing on a rock bridge. So I had Megan walk out on it for some pictures. We tooled around there for awhile and climbed up the hillside for a better view of the valley. Then the storms began as you can see to the left. We sheltered under a big rock, seen here with Matthew standing next to it. The rains let up a little and we finished our hike, and returned to a wet camp.
View near Kolb Studio, Bright Angel Trail below. May 17, 2011
Megan at Lookout Studio. South Rim. May 17, 2011
29 May 2011 | 1 comment »
We started day 5 by sleeping in until 0800. Megan got up around 0700 and said there were snow flurries at that time. I started a fire and burnt off the rest of our wood to stay warm. Matthew eventually climbed out of his tent as the fire was dying. We tore down camp and drove to the market parking lot and caught the bus back to the rim. We walked around snapping photos and checking out the art shops. We thought about taking the shuttle to Hermit’s Rest, but decided the line was too long. We’ll see it next time. We left the canyon around 1 PM and took off towards our next destination, Sedona.
We took a slight detour to see the Wupatki National Monument ruins. We stopped to see most of the ruins and then continued down the road passing Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. We stopped in Flagstaff to check out the Beaver Street Brewery as recommended by a friend. It was pretty tasty. We then drove the 30 minutes south through Oak Creek Canyon to our next campsite at Manzanita campground. I had secured reservations a couple of weeks before, which turned out to be a good thing, since it was the only spot left. We bought some wood from the camphost, which turned out to be cedar and smelled great. We ate chicken Tikka Masala in corn tortillas and slept through a rain storm that soaked everything.
28 May 2011 | no comments »
Today was the most epic day of the trip. I awoke before my alarm at 0530, but struggled to get out of the tent with temperatures in the mid-30s. The day before we had crossed the stateline and also a time-zone. So 0530 was more like 0630 for us. We quickly got ready and drove a couple of miles to the Bright Angel Trailhead, near the Bright Angel Lodge. We took one of the last parking spots available and started to put our daypacks together. We walked to the trailhead catching our first good glimpse of the canyon. We filled our water bottles at the ‘spring’, passed a large group preparing for their mule ride to the bottom, and started out on our 16.3 mile hike.
Starting down into the canyon, we were immediately met by a group of deer that were enjoying breakfast just off the trail. We snapped a few photos and then continued down. We were pretty bundled up for the sub-40 degree temperature. We were making pretty good time, taking a minute to strip some layers off at both the 1.5 and 3-mile rest houses. At mile 3, I was already in shorts and a thin t-shirt. Matthew was still wearing pants, fleece sweatshirt, gloves, and a beanie. Megan was somewhere in between. We kept on with the descent making it to Indian Gardens by 0930. We stopped for a snack, Matthew took off some of his sweat soaked layers, and we continued on towards the river. 4.5 miles done.
The hike to the river was pretty pleasant from this point on. There were a number of water crossings over the spring creeks, which I don’t remember from our first trip to the river 16 years ago or so. We eventually made it to the river and continued on down the riverside trail. The Silver Bridge was crossed and we headed up the opposite side of the canyon past the Bright Angel campground and took a break at Phantom Ranch. We refilled some water bottles, Matthew made an art project out of his feet with mole skin, we sent off a couple postcards, and then we took off towards the South Kaibab trail. 9.5 miles done. We left the ranch around 1245.
On the way towards the South Kaibab trail we passed by the old Anasazi ruins, passed over the Black Bridge, and headed up South Kaibab trail. 6.3 miles and 4740 feet of elevation to go. The weather was quite mild on the way up with temperatures in the low 70s. It was pretty windy with some huge gusts that threatened to blow my hat off. Megan and I stopped every 1.5 miles for a snack and drink, while Matthew continued on without stopping. We took our last break at Cedar Ridge and then continued to the top of the canyon. There were lots of tourists at Cedar Ridge. We could tell that many people wanted us to take their pictures, but I think they could tell by our faces that it was not going to happen. Megan and I reached the top around 5:30 PM, stopping for a classic picture of the warning sign cautioning people to not attempt a rim-to-river-to-rim hike in one day. We found Matthew who had apparently been at the top for about an hour. We got a group photo at the top and took off towards the shuttle for our ride back to camp.
Matthew was looking pretty haggard on the bus, feeling quite nauseous. We pulled into the visitor center and he told us he had to get off the bus. At that point, the bus driver slowed to about 5 MPH and slowly made his way around the bus stop. Matthew got off without incident, made his way away from others and Megan and I continued on the bus to the car. We drove back and picked up Matthew and then got back to camp. Matthew took a nap while Megan and I hit the showers. We returned to camp and woke Matthew up. The fire was started, the beers were drunk and we ate some amazing steaks (if I do say so myself) and sweet potatoes. Sleep came easy that night.
Matthew in Antelope Canyon. May 15, 2011
Matthew and Megan looking down at Horseshoe Bend. May 15, 2011
27 May 2011 | no comments »
This was probably the fullest day of our trip. It started by waking up early for the sunrise at Bryce Canyon. We got up at 6-something and drove to Bryce point, only to find 50 other like-minded people already there. So, we decided to head back to Panorama point a couple miles down the road. One person was there, but he did not climb to the top of the point. So we had it all to ourselves. We took some morning light photos and then headed back to the campsite to eat breakfast and tear down camp. Megan made us a concoction of scrambled eggs mixed with hashbrowns. It had the consistency of mashed potatoes, but was good with ketchup.
We then took off to hike through Bryce Canyon. Starting at Sunrise point we headed down the Queen’s Garden trail ending at Sunset point. It was 3-4 miles and a good warm-up to the events to come. The weather was a little cold, but the sun was out most of the time. After returning to the car we took off towards Arizona. We passed by Lake Powell and crossed the Colorado River over the bridge at Glen Canyon Dam. About 20 minutes past this we found Antelope Canyon. This was one of my life-listers and was well worth the $26 entry fee (per person). The canyon is split into two entrances, with the upper one being less steep. We chose the lower one by chance, because we didn’t know our options. It turned out to be the better choice. We missed the classic sun rays that are commonly found on the internet by a couple of hours, but it didn’t take away from the experience. If you end up there, a tripod is a must if you’re planning on photos.
After leaving Antelope Canyon, we continued down the road and stopped at Horseshoe Bend. It was a .75 mile hike to a very high and steep overlook. The wind didn’t help with the confidence to step up to the edge. After a brief look around we continued on to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was Megan’s first view of the Canyon, and my first one in a number of years and it was still quite impressive. We found our campsite at the Mather Campground. We had our fire then went to bed to the howls of coyotes off in the near distance.
Megan at Panorama Point, Bryce Canyon Nat’l Park, Utah. May 14, 2011
25 May 2011 | 1 comment »
We awoke to a sunny morning with storm clouds off in the distance. Megan made us some oatmeal with dried fruit then we took off down the road through Capitol Reef from East to West. We took Blanche (the car) on a 4×4 road to a viewpoint, all the while getting dirty looks from the Jeeps coming the other way. We stopped in Boulder, UT for some burritos and gas (not in that order). Eventually, we arrived at Bryce Canyon Nat’l Park and took one of the last available spots. It drizzled sporadically that afternoon, but in between we had some good views of the canyon. We also went back after dark as the moon was nearly full, and tried some night shots. Some may be posted in the coming weeks.
Castilleja, “Indian Paintbrush” – Capitol Reef National Park – May 14, 2011
22 May 2011 | 2 comments »
Day 1 of our trip started well enough as I was able to have the afternoon off from clinic. We didn’t quite have the car packed when Matthew arrived at the airport, so I picked him up and we quickly packed the car up. We took off down I-15 hitting the usual brunt of traffic and retarded drivers heading into Provo. Eventually, we reached the northern portion of Capitol Reef with expectations of staying in a free primitive campsite in Cathedral Valley. Unfortunately, the road was impassable due to snow. It was already dark by that time, so we headed over to the campground at Fruita. FULL. We had one last shot 40 minutes down a gravel road at the Cedar Mesa primitive campground. We rolled in around 11 PM and took the 5th and last spot. It was probably in the upper 40s that night, which turned out to be the nicest and warmest night of the trip…
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