Jun 30, 2011

We woke up at the reservation campground under this formation. I could tell when we got there that we were below some big mountains though I couldn't see anything. I decided to go up for an early climb.

I climbed as far as I could up the crumbling rocks. It was precarious at times because of the loose rocks so I didn't go that far. The view was pretty nice from up there. I could barely see the tent down below where we camped. The rocks were pretty amazing and it was a nice introduction to Utah.

There was a loud stream that I could hear all night and I expected a big, roaring torrent when I went to find it in the morning. What I found was little more than a trickling stream with a big sound. I dipped my hands in the cold water and washed my face. It felt great after climbing in the already hot sun.

We packed up and got back on the road for the last stretch through Utah before we got to our destination. The views along the way were great at times, but I started thinking I'd prefer the darkness where my imagination could wander and dream up the kind of formations that were out there. We pulled off at a truck stop where we got some amazing burritos. Maybe they tasted so good because our expectations were low, however Truck Stop Burritos were great!

We got to Zion National Park following a lengthy drive in and got our campsite after a little waiting at the park gate. After finding our site and claiming it, we headed off to grab a shuttle and find a hike to do for the day before the sun went down. We went a few stops in and started up the East Rim Trail toward Observation Point.

Once we got up the switchbacks, we got to the more interesting section and encountered our first slot canyon. It was a smaller one that was inaccessible because of the water that had collected several yards in. The formation was still amazing, and we spent some time there admiring it.

We were joined by plenty of lizzies along the way. They would scurry off every few steps; I usually only caught a glimpse of them before they were gone. Sometimes I just heard them rustling in the bushes.

The hike up was pretty strenuous and we eventually reached a plateau of tall grass. We took the trail a little farther through and reached observation point where we were rewarded with this fantastic view. We took a load off and had some water and Clif bars. The photo does not properly encompass the grand vision we were looking at while sitting on the edge of the canyon.

We spent some time chatting with another photographer that was also up there; also enchanted with the natural offerings of the southwest. He gave us some tips on where we should check out next on our travels. Once we were able to tear ourselves away from the view we headed back down somewhat swiftly.

We got back to Watchman Campground eager for real food. I made a sandwich and had some cold Gatorade that tasted fantastic after that hike. We got the tent prepared and I spent some time shooting the stars from our site. Yep, that was our view. I'm still amazed.

Once I finished playing with the long-exposure shooting, I spent some time reading and then retired for the evening, ready to get back out there early.

Jun 29, 2011

We got up and packed our stuff back up into the car and left Steve's place to finally head to Utah. Before we left we stopped at Big Daddy's Bagels and got some of the best food we'd had yet. I got a tuna melt on a bagel packed with veggies. It was deliciously difficult to eat.

We headed off on the highway with the amazing snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the distance. We planned to stop at a local disc golf course but realized we wouldn't have time before going to the other one where we made a reservation.

We arrived at the Ghost Town DGC after some fun back roads. Dark clouds were rolling in fast and it started raining as soon as we got our maps and got onto the first tee so we decided to wait it out in the clubhouse playing pool.

The storm passed quickly and we got onto the first hole. The gimmick at this place is all of the old junk lying around that's supposed to be from an abandoned mining town. The place actually was a mining town, but it's all staged.

There were some cool homemade baskets. I especially liked this six shooter basket. Some of them were not quite as well put together. They were made of tires and they were falling apart.

There were some good holes on the back nine. This one shoots across this gulch to the abandoned buildings, or the "ghost town." There were three of these back and forth across. It was nice to have some of these holes but a bit repetitive.

The second-to-last hole was actually a lot of fun and I almost lost a disc. We finished up and then ate some PBJ with banana at the picnic tables before getting back on the road. Not worth going out of the way for the course so I wouldn't go back.

We had to take a detour because of an accident in the tunnel on I-70 and we ended up taking Loveland Pass, where I went with Nathan a few years ago. It was much warmer this time though I was still chilly up there. It was a nice view and the sun was going down over the mountains.

After we got back on the highway we drove straight to Utah, only stopping a couple times for fuel and bathrooms. The eastern part of Utah is totally empty with no rest stops or service stations for very long stretches.

We got to the point where the gas light was on and I was driving with no gas stations anywhere on the horizon. We figured we'd just drive until the car ran out of gas and then hope to get in touch with someone, even though there was no cell service. After all our planning the car just kept going for over fifty miles after the light came on and we finally came upon a small town with a gas station. Not sure how that worked out but I'm glad it did.

After a few dead ends as far as finding a campsite we drove farther than I had wanted to and came to a nice place that was a while off the highway on a long, dark dirt road. We found a vacant site and set up quickly, ready to finally sleep.

Jun 28, 2011

I wanted something good for breakfast so we went a few miles to the nearest Jamba Juice and got acai granola bowls. So good. We came back and continued in the marathon video game play for the whole day.

Clearly, this takes a lot out of you. That's why we had a hard time leaving the couch area.

We did go around the corner to Santiago's to get burritos for dinner. This is a what a burrito looks like there. They just smother it in sauce and lettuce and tomatoes. It was delicious. We did spend the rest of the night just playing video games for the most part. Mario Party and Mario Kart and Boom Blox. So much to play.

At around 2am I took Jimmy to the airport in Denver. It was a bit of a drive, but it was kinda nice to get out and drive for a while by myself.

I got back late so I got right to sleep in hopes of getting a few hours of sleep before leaving in the morning.

Jun 27, 2011

We woke up around lunch time so we decided to take advantage of the lunch buffet at Taj Mahal. There were plenty of veggie options that were delicious and I got some rice pudding and mango stuff that was great as well. I wish there was an Indian place closer to me.

We spent the day productively, of course. We played video games all the live long day. Between Boom Blox and Rayman, it was hours of staring at the TV. It was good fun though.

For a break we all went to the Thai Kitchen for dinner. I got a delicious peanut curry. It was amazing. It was spicy for sure. Steve got the next level of spice and I'm not sure how he ate that.

We came back and spent the night having beers and playing Mario Party 8 and Mario Kart Wii.

Jun 26, 2011

We got up later than planned since we stayed up late and still wanted to check out something nearby so we headed toward Boulder. This is what a casual drive looks like there.

We headed into Boulder Mountain Park and found no hikes that looked very good until we saw the three Flatirons rising toward the sky and decided we needed to find a trail that would take us to the top of them.

We found the trailhead and began our hike up a steep hill which was made even worse because we were starting at a much higher altitude than we are used to. The trail took us over some rock scrambles and started to zigzag up the mountain.

We came to a climbing section. This was not a bouldering section, but a real climbing area. It was somewhat unfamiliar to us since we can never find this stuff. We got to it and began climbing the quite steep face.

There were plenty of hand and footholds, but when I looked down I was still a little overwhelmed by how steep the section we were climbing on was. I had to step back for a minute and shake it off before I could continue up. There were several technical climbers on the face across from us with proper gear and climbing up an almost vertical section.

When we got closer to the top I climbed up an area that looked promising, where I thought I could get up a chimney to the right and make it to the other side. It ended up being too difficult to get up and then the crack that I climbed up was much more difficult to down climb than I had hoped. I stayed up there for a while, working it out and pysching myself up to finally come down.

We retraced our climb to get down and then took the switchback trail to the top. We got a great view of the late day sun cast on one of the Flatirons. They were beautiful in the sunlight.

I was so exhausted by the time we got to the top. I had run out of water and was just parched and out of breath. We took some time to enjoy the scenery and then headed back down quickly.

We found a Jamba Juice for a delicious refreshment on the way home. We picked up some Greek food at Daphne's Cafe, where the guy working the register was so nice it made me happy and made me want to live there. We brought the food back to Steve's and enjoyed it while spending the night playing a game called Boom Blox. It's addictive.

We stayed up late again having fun playing games. It's really easy to lose track of time.

Jun 25, 2011

We got up just in time to take down the tent as it started raining and then get on the road to grab some Waffle House to go. The weather was weird all day as we drove the rest of the way across Missouri into Kansas. We stopped to try to find another course, but it was a bust and we ended up just getting a pizza at Pizza Hut to eat in the car.

There wasn't much to look at through Kansas except flatness and wind turbines. We passed the time playing crossword puzzles on my iPhone and doing visual puzzles. I wasn't holding the phone. Most of the time.

We got to see an impressive sunset as we drove into it to make it last longer while we entered Colorado. Soon after the mountains started to rise up in the distance of darkness and we were getting close to Denver.

We finally arrived at Steve and Jamie's place after another long day of driving. We got to sit on the couch and have some beers and play with Dexter.

We stayed up pretty late playing Mario Kart 64 mostly. It was a lot of fun, which is why we stayed up all night playing.

Eventually we rolled out the sofa bed, sleeping bags and pillows and got to sleep with no problem at all.

Jun 24, 2011

We got a very early start around 5am and headed west for a long time. The highways were mostly clear once we got outside of Philly. It was a straight drive through Pennsylvania and Ohio, only stopping for gas.

We found a disc golf course in Indiana that seemed like a nice stop so we got off the highway after about twelve straight hours driving and played. It was a really nicely designed, open course at a church.

It was a fun course, but the hills got old toward the end. I played quite well also so that was nice.

We were really hungry after playing so we went down the street to Carmel Burgers and got some overpriced veggie burgers and fries before getting back on the road.

We continue along I-70, straight and mostly empty for another few hundred miles and reached the edge of Missouri.

We stopped downtown in St. Louis to check out the Gateway Arch lit up. There were military helicopters and Hummers in the park for some kind of celebration they had been having during the day.

As we headed back to the car fireworks started going off over the city. We were not in the best spot to watch them, but we watched from behind the building as they seemingly went on forever. We're still not sure what the celebration was for.

At this point we were ready to get off the road and sleep a bit. We had to search a bit and then we found a campsite (sort of) that cost too much for what it was. The signs were wrong and we actually just camped on a site next to an RV instead of the tent sites. Oops. It worked.