Rocky Mountain

I ended up in Rocky Mountain National Park several times throughout the summer ranging from early may to mid June. So there was a little bit of range in the weather up there. Sometimes it was bone chilling cold and windy, then a month later I was sweating it out in a T-shirt. The wildlife in Rocky Mountain is the thing that I seemed to be able to see the most of.

It seems that no matter where you drive in Rocky Mountain there are just animals springing up all over the road, so I was able to get some pics that I feel were quite nice - most of the animals will come right up to you, so I have some real close-ups despite the warnings not to approach the animals. Its legit if they are the ones approaching you, right?

Here are a few more of the pics that I got that I liked.

Monument (to tourism) Valley

After leaving Antelope Canyon and heading back to Colorado, I decided to hop back up into Utah and visit Monument Valley. The drive was about as uneventful as one might imagine a drive through Northern Arizona into Utah would be. Thousands and thousands of acres of open fields. I was able to snap up this nice little picture near the side of the road right at about the state border into Utah.

Monument Valley is another member of the Grand Circle, one of many attractions located upon the Colorado Plateau, it features many Sandstone buttes some that reach as tall as 1000 feet. The area was featured in many early westerns including The Searchers as well as more recently Back to the Future III.

Today though the area is crawling with families and there are an overabundance of shops offering guided jeep tours of the area. I can see why this was once an attraction but in many ways it has become worse than the visitor centers of even the Grand Canyon.

Antelope Canyon (take two)

After Leaving Las Vegas where I stayed for a stint, I decided to head back to a place that I had been before but left not feeling I had fully experienced it. I drove into the night and finally arrived in Page, Arizona. It was after dark by the time I got there but en route I was able to watch the sunset over Lake Powell. One of those wonderful orange sunsets that I don't have the ability to even begin to transfer into a photo!

By the time I get to Page though, all of the camp ground sign ins have closed, and all the land around the area is pretty much private - but maintained - meaning no camping out off the side of the road. So I found the local Wal-mart (Which is incidentally the only thing in town anyway) and camp out in the Parking lot. Unable to sleep, I wander the Walmart for an hour or so before returning for a continuation of my sleeplessness. Finally 530am rolls around and I awake, the last time I remember being about 330am. Two hours of sleep is better than no hours of sleep. The temperature had not dropped below 95 all night and was only climbing once again in the growing sunlight.

I drive a few miles down the road to the enterence to the Lower Antelope Canyon - which I had not been to yet - the North Rim had been a guided tour the year before, but this was a self guided tour. The enterance was still closed for several hours - until 830am. I parked at the foot of Lake Powell and greeted hikers and skipped rocks into the lake, awaiting opening time.

Finally I drove and parked and began my hike into the Canyon. A man who works for the company guided me while strumming his guitar, to an inconspicuous slice into the rock which starts to rapidly descend to the sand covered bottom of the slot. The Lower Canyon is much narrower than the Upper that I toured last May. Few people are in the Canyon, and I can hear distant sounds of a Native American Flute as well as an acoustic guitar being strummed as the Navajo that own the Canyon send guides in to occasionally show great shots and ensure the saftey of those in the Canyon.

I don't have much else to say about the Canyon - the pictures will be able to do most of the talking of the experience!