50 years after Sequoia National Park was established (1890), King's Canyon National Park was formed and ever since the World War II they have been jointly administerd. Quite honestly, with the signs down being repaired, you can't tell when you leave one park and enter the other. So I'm not going to bore you with more "big tree" facts. King's Canyon does have a beautiful canyon formed by glaciers. I have backpacked this canyon many years ago and can heartily endorse it as

I dropped my husband off at the Las Vegas airport early in the morning and made my way to Death Valley National Park. Another apology for the the pictures is in order. It was supposed to be 78 degrees and sunny the day I was in Death Valley...supposed to be. It was in the 50's, overcast, and rainy. The Ice Age Queen strikes again. Meeting me in Death Valley was Nickcki Guzman (a childhood friend of my husband's) and her husband, Tony. The weather wasn't great, but their h

Zion is such a beautiful canyon! I apologize for the quality of the pictures, the light was just not good. A small herd of Bighorn sheep met us on the road just inside the park. Checkerboard Mesa...not hard to see how it got it's name, is it? Remember the drawing of the Grand Staircase? On the southwest side of the GSENM is Zion Canyon. The rainwater that flows off that side of the plateau is what carved Zion Canyon. Zion's rock is relatively soft, and concentrated flows

The Grand Staircase is so called because it stair steps down from Bryce Canyon all the way down to the Grand Canyon. The top of the Grand Staircase starts with Bryce Canyon and it's pink cliffs and steps progressively down to the Gray Cliffs , the White Cliffs (Zion Canyon), the Vermilion Cliffs, the Chocolate Cliffs, the Paria Plateau, the Kaibab Plateau, and finally the Grand Canyon. This section of the road is on a the top of a thin ridge. It drops off significantly on ei

Being back in Bryce Canyon after 17 years was bittersweet. The bitter part is that I'm here again without my angel girl and remembering 9/11. The sweet part is the memory of Anna's delight looking at the whimsical rock formations. As a 5 year old she was entranced with all the hoodoos and the beautiful canyon that they filled, and that she was too young to know what a horrible tragedy that day in September was to our country. Yes, we were in Bryce Canyon on the morning of t

We arrived at Capital Reef on Monday afternoon and decided to take a hike up a ridge to Hickman Bridge (2 miles) before going to the campground. I didn't know it was going to be so impressive. Can you spot the heart in the wall just below the arc? I was taking a picture from the high side of the arch and saw something that made me do a double-take. There in the side of the wall was a heart. She's always sending me little signs that she loves us. Next stop was the Petroglyp