Day 80 - Yellowstone Canyon and Tower

Our day began with a long easterly drive through Yellowstone park, past a herd of Bison in the river, past the geyser basins and to Canyon. We had an evening reservation for a stagecoach ride through the sagebrush and a cowboy cookout with all the fixins but no camping reservations, so we drove to a first come first serve campsite in Tower, near the stagecoach ride, while calling for a reservation at a campsite south near Yellowstone lake. Yellowstone has 2000 campsites but we ended up with one of only three left, calming our homeless fears.

We then toured the Canyon area, site of the immensely colorful Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and her two waterfalls. The view from Artist Point was almost spiritual-- your soul was lifted by the calm coloring and elegant 300 foot waterfall beyond. Just lovely. Lanny, Landon and I then hiked down Uncle Toms trail to a powerful view of the large falls, then the full group hiked to the rainbow-filled brink at the top of the smaller falls. A final stop at Inspiration point ended our fun tour of this small but great canyon, a bonus to any Yellowstone trip.

Steve had talked about the stagecoach ride through the sagebrush and cowboy cookout with all the fixins so much that my expectations were frankly low, since I'm not one for touristy things. But the ride and cookout were fantastic. The setting of the Lamar Valley, the powerful horses charging through Bison herds on the wagon trail, the great western singer setting the cowboy mood and the juicy steaks made for the most enjoyable evening. Afterwards, as the sun was setting, we drove south to our campsite, set up our tents and went to sleep, satisfied.

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Day 43 - Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef, a national park centered around a 90 mile ancient seabed reef was next on my list. A sensationally scenic three hour drive from Bryce, back through Escalante, and then through a national forest led me to the park. A stop by the visitor center to get the lay of the land and insider info on local free BLM campsites complete, I set out on Chimney Rock trail up the the top of the first reef to get a view. Yes sir!! The weather was ideal for hiking and the views completely blissful, but I was frankly tired today. I set out along the scenic road down the west side of the reef and remember wanting to take a nap-- but still having a sense of urgency to complete the desert portion of my trip-- I pushed on and set out to hike down the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash canyons. The Capitol Gorge had a "Pioneer Wall" with inscriptions from the early 1900s and the Grand Wash had a nice narrow section with towering canyon cliffs all around. I took a photo of the surrounding reef...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

Day 67 - Badlands

Badlands means very difficult and dangerous to travel through-- Badlands lived up to this name. I began my eight mile loop hike by climbing up a steep canyon side to the mesa wall on top. From here I travelled east towards the popular window, door and notch trails via a wet, muddy and slippery Medicine Root trail that left me covered in mud up to my knees. Of the popular trails the notch was my favorite because it involved a wooden ladder climb and then a hill scramble past crumbling rock up to a six foot "notch" step that required a almost-rock climbing move to ascend. The views up at the top cliff were sensational. Even more fun, two girls from New York-driving to Portland and a young couple saw me up there and followed the path up-- with a bit of my help at the notch. I love helping people get a bit beyond their comfort zone. We all enjoyed the view then descended safely to find that this notch was not actually the trail but a side canyon-- haha. I then hiked ...

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