Sunday we hit Bryce canyon. This one blew us away. I think this may be my favorite of all the national parks we’ve been to so far. Even more impressive than the grand canyon. The rock formations here were really amazing. I took a ton of pictures and tried to ween them down but they were so awesome I could only narrow it down to 36. Jamie packed some snacks and an adult beverage for us to have while we…
Friday we left for southwestern Utah staying at a koa in St. George, Utah. As it turned out they were hosting an annual seniors men’s sporting event called Huntsman senior games so it was hard to find a campground but we lucked out. Saturday it was off to the parks again starting with Zion national park. You can only drive through certain areas of Zion so they offer a bus that takes you through the main park. We got a…
Thursday we upped our game on the trails and went for some medium difficulty talks. Not quite ready for difficult yet especially being out alone with no winch. But as you can see from the video the medium trail definitely gives you a challenge. Jamie did get best to video while being more than just a little nervous. After the trails we went to a house that was built into a rock many years ago that is now a museum….
Wednesday was our first experience off roading with the jeep. Moab is full of trails for all types of vehicles and all skill and experience levels. Of course, we started slow with easy trails but even so had allot of fun with it and, again, saw spectacular rock formations. We brought lunch with us and found a great spot on top of a rock formation that had a rock bridge carved out on top. There was a plaque up there…
The next month was consumed with work and family. Along with work I went to NH to stay with my mom while Sue and Dan took a much needed vacation. Jamie also combined with with going to Michigan to help Brent and Ashley start on wedding plans. We also went to Myrtle Beach for our annual home owner’s meeting. We finally returned to Salt Lake on 10/7. Then we left for Moab on the 9th. We didn’t waste any of…
Wednesday we took a ride to an Island outside of Salt Lake called Antelope Island. Wasn’t anything real special but we did see a bunch of bison as they have a herd of over 500 of them. Besides that there was a ranch we visited that was established in 1848 that we checked out along with walking down the beach to the Salt Lake. So basically just kind of a nature day. After that we took a ride to the…
We got back from our trek east and decided to check out Salt Lake City. We got a late start after Jamie slept till noon, big surprise, and went straight to the Mormon Temple. After taking a tour through the churches and facilities we found out they have the largest genealogy library in the world so we thought it might be fun to check it out. It turned out to be a 4 story building with each floor devoted to…
Wednesday we drove to the ski resort and took the gondola to the top of the mountain for some great views. We hiked about a half hour then, as luck would have it, the little cafe happened to be open and, as luck would have it, they served beer! Then we caught the gondola back down, walked around the rest of the resort and headed out to the park. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed our visits to our national…
Jamie found a ranch that does horseback riding so that was Tuesday’s agenda. The ride we took was about 2 hours long through the woods and up something like a 2000′ climb. I felt bad for the horses but they seemed fine. After the ride there was a steak dinner that was outstanding. They had a barn set up with a full bar and all kinds of family memorabilia. It’s a family owned ranch that’s been in the family for…
We left for Jackson, Wy on Monday and ended up at a place called Fireside resort. It was another fairly tight campground but it was fine for a short stay. We stayed there 3 nights and on the first night there we went to Jackson to check the town out. It will come as no surprise to anyone that knows us that we spent our time there shopping until I I got thirsty and then we found the coolest bar…
We left Seattle on the 31st and took 2 days to get to Yellowstone with a brief overnight at a Walmart in Coeur de lane, Id. We stayed at the Yellowstone Koa Mountainside and were pretty happy with it. Probably a little open for some but we like the ability to use our satellite tv. We really enjoyed Yellowstone since it was a little unique compared to other national parks in that it has all those geysers and bubbling…
Saturday I dropped Jamie off for work and I drove the rv to Seattle so we could park her for a couple weeks while we went to work to pay for all our fun. What a horrible ride I had to Seattle. The line at border patrol was almost 3 hours long. When I finally got to the booth I asked the inspector what was going on and according to him it was due to people heading south to watch…
Thursday was a down day spent doing laundry, giving the rv a bath inside and out, and just relaxing. Of course, that can only last one day in my world so Friday we went on a hop on hop off city tour of Vancouver. I heard alot about Vancouver being a beautiful city and although it was very nice I felt there was alot of homeless and it wasn’t anything special. But we did have a good time. Even though…
Monday we left for Vancouver making one stop halfway in a town called McBride just south of Prince George, BC. Our decisions these two days of travel were largely driven by the fires taking place in BC. Ironically, these were the same fires that limited our visibility when we were in Denali national park. We couldn’t take the normal route to Vancouver instead having to take a more easterly route that was a couple hours longer. Prince George was about…
Saturday the town had their annual bear festival. It was very lame. Just some tables set up with vendors and a tent that evening with beer and a dj. We shopped among the vendors, go figure, had lunch then wandered around the very small town. The only things of note was the movie insomnia was filmed there. Otherwise it’s just a mining town. That evening we went across the border, if you want to call it that, to Hyder Alaska,…
We left Valdez on Wednesday and spent one night in Tok, Alaska and one night in Whitehorse, British Columbia before arriving Friday in Stewart, BC and meeting up with Gail and Rick. On the way there was an interesting looking jade store. Apparently something like 90 percent of the world’s jade comes from this area in British Columbia. I guess someone found the mining story here interesting enough to make series about it. We’re gonna have to check it out….
We finally and happily picked up the rv on Monday and left straight away for Valdez. Got there late afternoon, after a drive on not so smooth roads and navigating some construction. We set up camp then walked around town. Didn’t take very long since it’s a pretty tiny town. But Jamie found some friends along the way as you’ll see from the pictures. For whatever reason rabbits run rampant in Valdez. We ended up at a local bar when…
We arrived back in anchorage on Aug 6 but since it was Sunday we couldn’t pick up the rv till Monday so based on a recommendation we took a ride to Alyeska mountain resort for an overnight. Prior to going we made a reservation at their mountaintop restaurant but had not made a hotel reservation because the prices seemed a bit high. We figured if they had availability and could give us a better price than what we saw online…
Today we scheduled a flight around mount Denali with a landing on a glacier. We caught a bus from Denali to Talkeetna, the town Jamie and I visited a couple weeks ago and checked in at the little airport. Our flight wasn’t for a couple hours so we went downtown and had lunch (and shopped, of course) then it was off to the airport for our flight. We picked out our glacier landing boots then boarded a single engine ten…
Tuesday we boarded our bus for a tour through Denali. You have to use their bus because they only allow limited traffic through the park. It was mostly clear day which is unusual there. They say only 30 percent of the visitors get to see the mountain. Hence, the 30 percent club. Which we are now members of. Forgot to get the shirt. Unfortunately even thought it wasn’t cloudy there were some fires in Canada that caused smoke in this…