Although a couple hours drive from Cottonwood it was time to visit Petrified Forest National Park and check another NP off my growing list. After meeting up with some knowledgeable Arizona friends in Holbrook we ventured off to spend the day exploring the park. Petrified Forest was set aside...
Friends, Fence & Sunsets around Tucson
To wrap up my blog posts about Tucson I would be remiss if I didn’t mention two of my favorite things about the area. The first is spending time with a good friend. I have mentioned Annette in previous posts, we first met a year ago (wow time flies)...
Hiking & Biking in and around Sedona
A week and a half is not enough time to do even a small fraction of things around Sedona. Each time I come back to this area I am reminded of my love for this wonderful red rock country. “No matter where in the world I’m coming back from,...
Palm Springs – A Desert Playground
A week in Palm Springs wasn’t nearly enough time to experience this desert playground. With more than 350 days of sunshine and under 5 inches of annual rainfall Palm Springs has been a tourist destination since 1909. Since the 1920s, Palm Springs has been Hollywood’s desert playground for celebrities...
Enjoying Mariposa – Lots to do!
Mariposa County is a county in central California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,251. It is located in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, north of Fresno, east of Merced, and southeast of Stockton. The county’s eastern section is the central portion of Yosemite...
Death Vally NP – Hiking & Off-Roading paradise
Death Valley, although as mentioned in the previous post seemingly muted, can claim a rich and colorful human history going back at least 10,000 years. Native Americans, foolhardy ’49ers, hardscrabble miners, boom towns, 20-mule-teams, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and most recently tourism and the creation of the largest park in...
The other side of Las Vegas
This trip to Vegas I spent very little time on the “strip” and instead visited some great outdoor areas. There were many benefits to this the least of which is saving money staying away from the casinos! Another side of Las Vegas is that there are some great...
Grand Canyon National Park – Musing the future
Time to check another National Park off the list. I have been to the Grand Canyon a number of times but it seems that each time is different. With just a couple of nights here I was lucky enough to catch up with an old friend of the family...
Zion National Park – Loved by millions
285 square miles and over 4 million visitors this year. Zion is certainly one of the “diamonds” of the National Park system. Before I write about my awesome hikes in Zion I wanted to muse a bit about the very real idea of “loving a park to death”. This...
Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument – Cool Place!
In 1996 Grand-Staircase Escalante, established by Presidential Proclamation, became the first National Monument to be administered by the Bureau of Land Management. It is huge – spanning nearly 1.9 million acres and according to the proclamation its “vast and austere landscape embraces a spectacular array of scenic and historic...