Jon & Donna continue to explore the West! Great pictures, guys!Hi Everybody,
We are leaving Moab today and heading for Denver! We have seen towering mountains, bottomless canyons, ice cold lakes, and an infinite variety of rocks and plants.
We started this leg of our travels by stopping in Las Vegas for a few days.
Not to visit casinos, but to catch up with our friends Dennis and Helen.
Dennis and I sailed together on Lake Michigan when we were both Racine residents.
Our favorite challenge on that great lake was something called "double-handed" sailing where a race consisted of a fleet of sailboats each with only 2 people on board (most of these were good sized boats in excess of 30+ feet).
The course lengths ranged from 66 to 200 miles.!! We have now outgrown those toys and enjoyed his new ones - lengths of approximately 30 inches.
The challenge was to "dock" these small radio controlled devils without running them into the piers. This physically exhausting exercise was performed in the pool in his backyard while taking adequate precautions due to the Las Vegas weather .
Thanks to Dennis and Helen, we ate our way through some wonderful meals out there and saw a great show called the "Hitsville - the Show", which delivered 90 minutes of Motown hits.
Leaving Sin City, we headed to the western edge of Utah,
Leaving Sin City, we headed to the western edge of Utah,
staying in Mount Carmel which provided convenient access to
Zion National Park,
Bryce National Park
and the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. 
We hiked, we scrambled,
we clung to cliffs by our fingertips (not really) and learned about the geologic history of this area dating back hundreds of millions of years. The effects of wind, water, erosion and something called tectonic plate activity joined to create wonderlands of awesome formations.
we clung to cliffs by our fingertips (not really) and learned about the geologic history of this area dating back hundreds of millions of years. The effects of wind, water, erosion and something called tectonic plate activity joined to create wonderlands of awesome formations. Pictures do not do this justice, but we did take lots and lots and lots of them anyway.
From there we headed to the eastern edge of Utah and landed in the Moab area, where we explored still more National Parks - Canyonlands and Arches. Again, more spectacular rock creations! Hikes that took us hundreds of feet down into the canyons, miles of walking through their shadowy depths, and then the long arduous climbs back up to the top using seemingly endless switchbacks and stairs.
From there we headed to the eastern edge of Utah and landed in the Moab area, where we explored still more National Parks - Canyonlands and Arches. Again, more spectacular rock creations! Hikes that took us hundreds of feet down into the canyons, miles of walking through their shadowy depths, and then the long arduous climbs back up to the top using seemingly endless switchbacks and stairs.
(Donna, climbing, ever climbing!)
Temperatures had cooled and the winds were blowing 20 to 30 mph, with gusts of up to 50 that threatened to blow me off of some of the more exposed rock faces.
Simply awesome! Also drove extensively along the Colorado River and though we didn't do any rafting, I included a picture of some folks that did. 
We will be visiting more friends in Denver and exploring the area
We will be visiting more friends in Denver and exploring the area (neither of us have spent any time there before).
Hugs,
Jon and Donna
Hugs,
Jon and Donna
1 comment:
Jon, be sure to tour the Capitol in Denver and observe the uniquely colored marble paneling on the walls. That shade of marble is found only around Denver, and maybe one other place in the world... I forget the numbers, but it's some really rare stuff. Beautiful, too!
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