Wyoming, Las Vegas, and Utah (oh my!)

Two weeks ago, I flew up to Casper, Wyoming to meet up with Mom.  She'd been up there directing a show for the last six weeks, and we had decided that myself and Arlie would join her for the return trip to Phoenix and make a fun vacation out of the drive.  I arrived in Casper early enough to see the play Saturday night, then on Sunday we drove to Jackson Hole to pick up Arlie from the airport and begin our very loosely-planned road trip.

Let's just say... three adults, one 100+-pound dog, and a floor-to-ceiling packed Honda Element makes for very cramped quarters on a seven-day road trip.  We made our way through five different states, sampling National Parks and fun little towns and interesting sites along the way while "camping" in KOA cabins in various places.  We managed not to kill each other... although at times I think the temptation might have been strong.  

Here's the roughly 2200-mile route.

To attempt to recap the trip would take a long time, but suffice it to say that we visited some amazing places and I really enjoyed getting to see some new parts of the country and revisiting some favorites.  (I'd never been to Wyoming before this trip, which turned out to be vast and beautiful; and I would never turn down a trip to southern Utah.)  I am also happy to report that I've added a number of nice shots to my album of foot shots.  The quickest summary I can provide goes something like this:  

Casper - Jackson - Grand Teton - Yellowstone - Salt Lake - Provo - Las Vegas - Zion - Kanab - Lake Powell - Sedona - Phoenix

A very small sample of photos from the excursion...

(I don't like the way that this photo formatting works, and I can't figure out how to get them non-centered and not only one per line... sorry.)

The Snake River; Grand Tetons NP, WY

Grand Tetons NP, WY

Bison outside of Jackson Hole, WY

Old Faithful; Yellowstone NP, WY

Hot springs at Yellowstone 

Grand Prismatic Spring; Yellowstone NP

Mammoth Hot Springs, WY (Yellowstone NP)

Otis as co-pilot

Jackson's famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar

Granite Hot Springs, WY 

Granite Creek, WY

Temple Square; Salt Lake City, UT

Parawan Gap petroglyph panel!! (Utah)

New York New York; Las Vegas Strip, NV

Bellagio; Las Vegas

Yes, they are still at it, apparently.

Zion NP, UT.  One of my favorites places ever.

Lake Powell, UT/AZ

Sedona, AZ

Mt. Graham

This past weekend we had made plans to kayak and camp along the Gila River for a few days, but our plans were sadly thwarted when it turned out that the river was too low.  A backup plan was created: camping up on Mt Graham, in the Pinaleno Mountains.

We camped with a few of my new coworkers, and found a great little campspot along Grant Creek, about five miles from the top of the mountain range.  I'd never been up into this mountain range before, and it's incredibly beautiful.  Luckily, we brought a few good tarps along, because we got rained on all night.  Poured on.  Hailed on!  Despite the rain, we managed to cook a tasty dinner, enjoy some wine, and have a great time.

(Click on pictures to enlarge)

I'm back in Gallup for a few day this week, and then I'm headed up to Wyoming for a little road trip action with Mom and Arlie.  And then Josh and I are going to backpack down to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon!  Should be a pretty awesome couple of weeks, and there are guaranteed to be many pretty photos.

Some field photos

I've not been very good about taking photos in the field lately. Mostly because any photos I take of the sites all seem to look the same- big holes dug into the sand. Not too exciting to look at. I expect more exciting things from future sessions. So, here are a few photos from the most recent stint of work along Highway 491. 

Creepy, eh?  This is a Jerusalem Cricket (also known as a Potato Bug, or a 'Child of the Earth').  This one is small... they are usually about the size of my thumb.  And they like to jump out of the ground while you're digging.  Not cool.

Happy rez dog!

Can you make out the funky figure-eight shape of this?  Two abutting circular, subterranean structures.  Very odd.

This structure was burnt, and the entire floor is covered with carbonized roof beams.   It's about 1.5 meters deep.  Pretty awesome.

Not a bad view for a softball field.  The Raptors from Zuni kicked our butts.