We left the smoke of Island in the Sky and said goodbye to Utah as we headed into southwestern Colorado. I started planning things for us to do: with our CO-VID vaccines fully active, we finally felt comfortable enough to be out and about more in groups of people. While Mike worked, I booked us…
Pisgah – 8/26 – 8/28
With no big plan in sight yet, we made a small plan: head a few hours southwest to the Pisgah National Forest. We took the long way around the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Curtis Creek Campground. We were hoping to snag a spot out of the official campground (close spots on a paved circle),…
And We’re Back! 6/16 – 8/25
We drove from Denver to Florida in 3 days and got there in time to see Mike’s brother Tim and tag in on caregiving duties. Mike’s dad was in and out of hospitals and rehab and then home to recover before moving up to Madison. It took a village to make the move happen, but…
Canyonlands – Island in the Sky – 6/9 – 6/10
Disclaimer: The following couple of posts were written well after the adventures actually took place. I’m afraid some details were probably lost in the delay. While the different sections of Canyonlands all abut one another, getting to each of them requires some travel. We headed north through Moab and then west toward Island in the…
Canyonlands – The Needles – 6/5 – 6/9
Into Canyonlands – northeast back into Utah and we took a little detour on our way. Muley Point offered views of the goosenecks of the Colorado, but getting there meant a bunch of switchbacks, so we dropped Scarlet outside of Mexican Hat and headed up. Lots of cool terrain and texture and a nice change…
Paddling the Colorado Again – 6/3 – 6/4
The big reason we came down to Arizona was to spend time on the water. Besides Lake Powell, the stretch of the Colorado River between Page and Lee’s Ferry sounded like it would be perfect for paddle board camping. The Glen Canyon Dam resides in Page, so the river below it is calm, clear, and…
Mouse Watch
On our first night down back in the desert, I went back on mouse watch. We’ve been rodent free since last August, but our luck ran out in Glen Canyon. I heard one trying to get into out garbage (crinkling the plastic bag) which meant that I then had to spotlight it with my phone…
Glen Canyon and Lake Powell – 5/28 – 6/3
We only drove about 3 hours, but went from cool mountain weather to hot desert. Our next area to explore was around the southern end of Lake Powell, near Page Utah. Our goal was to get on the water again. We had the lake above the dam in Page and the Colorado River below. We…
Over the Mountain (Again) – 5/27 – 5/28
We said goodbye to Parowan Gap and headed toward the mountains just east of Cedar City. We had come through this route in the fall in the opposite direction and I remember being stressed out by both the climb up and the descent (the brakes were not working well at that point). Now we had…
Cedar City – 5/16 – 5/26
On our way toward Utah, we passed through the corner of Nevada and waved to Las Vegas as we went by. We spent one night outside of Mesquite, AZ and then moved on when we figured out it wasn’t going to be great for Mike’s word days – too hot, bad signal and just not…