Yellowstone has no internet

Sorry for the delay, we've been in Yellowstone for 3 days and had no internet access. So we'll try to make up some time here. Since the last post you got was the news of our engagement, I'll start from the beginning of our Tetons visit. The first day was to see Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. It was about 4 miles round trip. These spots are the most popular points to visit in the park.

Here is Sarah standing in front of Hidden Falls.
Here is the view from Inspiration Point overlooking Jenny Lake.

The hike we took to Surprise and Amphitheater Lakes was amazing. It was a difficult hike but the scenery at the top was well worth the effort.

This is a view from the hike up, looking down at Phelps Lake.

Sorry I cant figure out how to make the pics thumbnail images.

After 3100 ft of elevation gain we got to Surprise Lake.

Another 1/4 mile up the mountain and we arrived at Amphitheater Lake.

And the result of all of this hiking......

Surprise!!! (Lake, that is.....)

We woke up early on Saturday morning after getting NO sleep throughout the night. I liken it to the movie My Cousin Vinny, if anyone has seen it. If our campsite neighbors weren't yelling on their way to the bathroom, the squirrels were squeaking or the elk were bugling and we couldn't BUY sleep if we wanted to.

Anyways, it's all good. After all, we are on vacation!

We ate a quick breakfast, changed and drove to the Lupine Meadows trail head to begin our 10 mile round-trip hike. It was BY FAR the toughest hike we've made at 3150 ft. elevation gain! I made Byron stop and rest with me a few times. I wore the bear bell, which rang for hours on end, and Byron carried the trusty UDAP bear spray in case we had a surprise encounter. Lucky for us, we only encountered 2-day old scat. And many chipmunks. Who were incredibly cute. =]

The highlight of the trip came when we reached Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake, which marked the tip-top of our hike:

AND SURPRISE!

(What you can't quite see here is a beautiful diamond ring on my left hand!!!!!)

I said yes.

Were a little behind on the posts, but heres something from the Canyonlands

We figured that if we got up early enough we would be able to see Arches and Canyonlands in one day. It was a long day but we got it done. After lunch in Moab we headed back up the highway to Canyonlands. We took the scenic drive through the park and checked out the neat spots. It was much less crowded than Arches but the views were just as awesome.

Heres one of the coolest spots on the Canyonlands drive. Its called Mesa Arch. t looks like it

belongs in Arches national park. I looked through the arch before we got our picture taken and its a several hundred foot drop off the other side. I didnt tell Sarah that or else she never would have gotten that close for the picture.

The longest hike we took at Canyonlands was to see Upheaval Dome. It looks a lot different in aerial shots in the visitor center but its still really cool. From the air you can see the rings around the canyon but you really cant see them from the ground. We walked a total of about 2 miles around the dome.

By the time we had gone through Canyonlands we had hiked around 12 miles for the day so we were beat. The last stop we made was at Grandview Point. From here you could see the 4 different layers of the Canyon. It was truly a spectacular view point. There are roads in the second layer of the canyon that you can take a 100 mile, 2 day drive but 4 wheel drive is required. That may be a trip for another year. After Canyonlands we started our drive north and stopped for the night near the Green River state park about an hour north of Moab. We camped here and started the long 8 hr drive to the Tetons.

Arches National Park

The morning of the 1st started out a little rough. We were camping pretty close to the highway so it was a bit too loud too sleep. Even with as little sleep as we got it was still a really cool day. We stayed the night in the town of Moab, Utah about 1 mile South of Arches National Park. This would be an awesome place to go to for a vacation just by itself. There's whitewater rafting, atv tours, jeep tours, hiking, climbing, rappelling and all kinds of outdoor stuff to do. We of course didn't have the time (or money) to do that stuff this time around.

We got into Arches around 8 AM. Its just a single road in the park with some pull-offs to sight-see. We did a few short hikes including a 3 mile round trip hike to see Delicate arch, one of the most photographed spots in the world. It was a rough hike, up a steep rock face and up and down boulders but it was worth it. We got some great pictures. (Thats us standing in the middle).

We saw almost everything you can see at Arches without doing any day hikes and overnight camping. Heres another famous Arches feature. This is Balanced Rock, it looks different from all sides and its a very popular spot.

We kept running into the same tour of old folks with a militant environmentalist tour guide who was threatening to beat people up for stepping off the trail. All the while he's driving a 52' diesel tour bus thats smelling up the whole park.

Here is Pine Tree Arch, aptly named for the pine trees growing underneath.

These arches are called North and South Windows. Its a short hike but we took a primitive trail around the back so we could see them from all sides. They are deceivingly big. We didn't realize how big until we were standing underneath.

Heres Sarah Sitting under North Window.

We got a ton of pictures in Arches but too many to post. After Arches we had lunch at the Moab Diner and then onto Canyonlands.

A Little to the South

Today started with a 6:30am wakeup at Monarch Spur Campground in Poncha Springs CO. We ate breakfast and made a new friend while updating the blog at the campground picnic area.

We drove on route 50 for a few hours until reaching Black Canyon of the Gunnison

. The elevation dropped slightly and the temperature rose a bit during the trip. It was a beautiful day all around.

After visiting the visitor's center we made a quick lunch (daily PB&J of course) and decided to hike a 2 mile loop to some overlooks of the Black Canyon.

Byron thought I should add in the visual of what it looks like when I view a scenic overlook: linebacker stance with one foot posted against a ledge and a death grip on the fence while viewing some of the really steep ones.

I was hanging on to a post, stone wall or Byron for many of the views until I just couldn't look at any more. Something creepy about leaning over a 2000 foot drop with nothing but a 3-post fence to support you.

At least, I think so. Byron doesn't.

We then drove a 7-mile scenic route around the park and ended the visit with a trip down a steep, 5-mile switchback road to access the Gunnison River. The drive was mostly a 16% grade so it had to be driven in low gear to save the brakes. We got to feel the ice cold water of the river, snap a few pictures and head back up.

We ran into a slight delay on the way back out of the park.

Then we headed west for 5 more hours to Moab, Utah, mostly along route 50 and I-70W. This drive felt realllly long because I was going on 8 hours of driving for the day. Also, there are many exits into the desert which makes me wonder who really lives at these ghosttown places? But most exits said "no services" so we had to make sure we had enough fuel and snacks to last another 80-some odd miles.

Oh, and by the way I got sunburned on the left side of my body only from driving westward all day. But Byron didn't get any sun in the passenger seat. =]

We had an excellent dinner in celebration of Byron's birthday at the Moab Brewery within walking distance of our campsite. It was wonderful food and great atmosphere. (I got the blackened tilapia sandwich with onion rings and Byron picked the Southwest Chipotle Chicken Wrap with fries. We also had couple of Moab Brewery's finest microbrews- for me the Rocket Bike Wit and for Byron the Derailleur Ale). This was some of the best eating we've done in a while, but sorry I forgot to bring the camera.

We will be up early in the morning to visit Arches National Park and tour the nearby Canyonlands. Afterward it's the beginning of the looooong drive to Salt Lake City.

Time for bed, talk to you all tomorrow when we find some more WiFi.

Ciao, Sarah

More from the Rockies

We only spent a total of a day in Rocky Mnt. Nat. Park but we took over 400 pictures. we got tired of saying "Wow look at that" around every turn because every turn opened up a new view of some spectacular mountains.There are so many mountain streams with waterfalls we just couldn't take enough pictures. This stream ran right by our campground at Aspenglen.

We got up early Monday morning and took

a drive on a one-way road which is closed at least 7 months out of the year. It was a winding dirt road that hugged the side of the mountains.

We stopped about 7

miles into the drive to take a short hike on Chapin Pass. Right as we reached the end of the trail storm clouds moved in with rain and high winds.

We hurried back to the car and finished the drive up to the Alpine Visitors Center. Its the highest elevation visitors center in the whole national park system at over 12000ft. We got some info on a few last minute hikes before we left the park.

The last hike was a short one to see Adams Falls.

We did some exploring of the creek above Adams Falls where Sarah got a little too friendly with the creek.

And We're Off....

This will be a relatively short post until we can find a place with faster internet access. We promise to post more pics later-(We are currently using WiFi from an overcrowed Safeway in Breckenridge, CO ).

So we finally got on the road for our trip around

12:30PM on Saturday Aug 28th. Sarah picked up our ride on Friday. Day one started with a long

drive where we stopped at a Cabela's in Kansas

City to stretch our legs and admire the expansive gun library. After that short break we were back on the road until reaching an unnamed rest stop

in Kansas, where we slept for a few hours in the car.

We reached Estes Park, CO at noon on Sunday the 29th. From there, we headed straight to Rocky Mountain National Park. By that time, we had driven a total of 1200 miles!

We spent the first day doing a few short hikes, driving on some scenic roads for some great pics

and securing a campsite at Aspenglen campground in the north side of the park.

We made turkey burgers and baked beans on the grill for dinner, making sure we cleaned up

well afterward to keep animals away.

We have seen tons of beautiful wildlife so far.

After waking up at 6:30 on Monday morning and packing up the car, we hiked a few more short trails with weather ranging from cool and sunny in the morning to cold, windy and rainy by noon. Amazing what you experience at 12,000 feet elevation!

We are in the process of heading southeast to Gunnison, CO. More Rocky Mountain pics to come when we find reliable internet.