Southwestern U.S. Trip Notes

I returned from my six-day visit to the southwestern United States. I had so much fun visiting with the family, picking up souvenirs, and enjoying the scenery. Of course I have piles of video and still pictures recording the trip. I hope the stills turn out.

I wanted to visit more of Great Basin National Park, a park which is more remote than most with around 90,000 visitors a year there (compared to 3.5 million for Yosemite, over 4 million for the Grand Canyon, and damned near 10 million a year for the Great Smoky Mountains). I did manage to go on a guided tour to Lehman Caves. It was interesting to learn about its history and the fact parties used to be held there up through the 1920s, with graffiti and stuff written on the walls. The Park Service gave up trying to remove the graffiti and now it is considered part of the caves' history.

Wheeler Peak, the highest peak entirely within the state of Nevada, is gorgeous, but I really wanted to go on the road to some side trails and perhaps see some Bristlecone pine trees, the oldest living things on earth. I am going to try and make it back to the park before summer is out.

Bryce Canyon doesn't have a lot of hiking trails, and it, like the Petrified Forest park, is basically a drive-through national park. There are plenty of turnouts on the road to view and take video/pictures of the "canyon," technically a giant amphitheater. Inspiration Point, the one with seemingly thousands of hoodoos, is one of the highlights. That site is one of the most famous in all of the world. I was surprised to find, however, that Bryce Canyon has only about 900,000 visitors a year when it is only 60 miles from Zion National Park, which has over 2 million visitors a year. I just don't understand why there would be that big a difference, particularly when Bryce Canyon is easier to get to and through (except perhaps in the winter).

Zion of course is just wonderful, but the park has bus tours through the canyon in order to preserve the environment (not to mention the fact the road is fairly narrow anyway). If I didn't have other people with me, I would have hiked some of the side trails.

The first parks we went to were Grand Canyon National Park and Petrified Forest National Park, both of which we visited twice. I can't add much to everything that has been said about the Grand Canyon park, one of the most famous in the world if not THE most famous, except for the fact people need to exercise some caution when they try to get pictures. Some people, and even young kids, were close to the edge where they were NOT supposed to be. If they fall off, they can just forget it as they'd plunge down 5,000 feet to their deaths. I couldn't stand to watch people going on the edge. That was scarier to me than looking down in the canyon itself. We went to the South Rim and hiked quite a ways down the trail. We went in the evening, when the canyon seemed to have a bit of haze, and then the following morning, when it was clearer.

And from there we went to Meteor Crater, but it was very windy and the weather was threatening, so just one of my sisters and my brother went with me on the guided tour up part of the crater. It didn't actually rain, but the wind made it cold. Earlier near Flagstaff, Arizona, we visited Spirit Mountain Ranch with the ultra-rare white buffalo. The owner said they plan to relocate to near the California redwoods when she sells the property. The animals will go with her, of course. Those animals were beautiful, and the miniature goats were very cute and put on a show for us.

Afterwards it was on to Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, Arizona. This is one of my favorite places on the trip, with so many logs of petrified wood on one side of the park and part of the Painted Desert on the other side of the park. Pictures don't do the park justice. We went in just before the park closed one evening, and then we returned shortly after the park opened the following day.

Another highlight was visiting the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park outside of Kanab, Utah, on the way to Zion National Park. Yes, the dunes ARE salmon pink and gorgeous. I do not understand why the area is even open to offroad vehicles. It shouldn't be. The sand is powdery more than grainy. There were some flowers in bloom, and they contrasted nicely with the sand.

That's kind of a brief rundown on my trip. I will try and get some pictures processed before I head out again Monday back east for six days.