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For a long time I've wanted to visit Zion National Park in southwest Utah, possibly more than any other park. Perhaps that makes it appropriate that it was the last park I visit on my Southwest road trip before heading back up to Carson City for Thanksgiving. How do I describe Zion? I feel like I've overused the cool's, awesome's and amazing's, plus those words do not do it justice. Yosemite meets Grand Canyon, or as a ranger put it, Yosemite in color, that is probably a more accurate description.

As I drove into Zion, the marbled stone cliffs rose up on both sides, in some places as high as 1,200 feet. The colors of the stone were red, yellow, black, gray, white, all twisted together in seemingly random patterns. There was snow capping most of the mountains and a bit in the valley as well. The leaves on the trees had turned yellow which was great because I sort of felt like I missed out on fall this year (dumb San Diego trees just stay green all year). Needless to say there was technicolor overload going on in Zion.


I parked at the Emerald pools and readied for a day of hiking. Like my other visits, the park was largely deserted due to the season. I started my hike toward Upper Emerald Pool and was rewarded with a closeup of a winter-time waterfall. I was surrounded on three sides by sheer walls and a 300-400 foot waterfall, icing up as it fell and landing in a giant snow pile. The trees around it had all become icicles as a result of the spray. Though I tried, the cliff walls were just too big to capture in a photo.

After taking a few moments in the Upper Emerald Pools I headed toward the Lower pool and then on to the Grotto. Nothing too spectacular to report about this place, just being in the park itself is stunning, I actually ended up laughing out loud a few times because it's sort of unreal. The Grotto trail breaks off and heads up to Angel's Landing. I'd heard about the landing but wasn't sure what to expect so I trudged up there next.

The steep three hour hike to the summit was quite an experience. The trail, if you can call it a trail, was really a series of switchbacks cut into the cliff itself. Every corner had a drop off view, and each view became more and more intense. Finally the trail cut through the mountain and turned into what is known as Walter's Wiggles. These are very steep, very short switchbacks that take you quickly to the first landing. These puppies were very icy and it took some careful footing (plus the use of my poles) to make it to the top.


This first landing is where I shot this video (below). While, in the video, I said I was going back down, I did in fact climb part of the way up the chain toward the top. However a quarter of a mile into it there is a vertical drop off on both sides of an approximately 5 foot wide path. Though two other hikers had blazed on ahead of me (most hikers by the way were turning around at the base of the Wiggles), I decided it would take a high amount of courage to do this in the summer let alone doing it covered in snow and ice. So I turned back.

I turn a few more turn offs on the way back to do some more exploring. Overall I estimate I covered 10-12 miles. This park deserves 3-4 days to properly explore. It was getting dark out by the time I got back to my car. I got a surprise treat by spotting a doe and two fawns feeding not too far from where I was standing. Leaving the park behind, I drove out to St George where I had another Hilton points stay reserved. Tomorrow I have a 9 hour drive ahead of me, across the Extraterrestrial Highway, back to Carson City. Looking forward to being back home, relaxing at my mom's house and hanging out with my friends. It's been a fantastic trip, I'm coming back, there's so much more to be explored!

~Scott

Left the Grand Canyon area today for the sights surrounding Page, AZ. My route took me back up through the GC Park and along the East Rim Road where I got a final peek at the Grand Canyon freshly dusted.



The snow, ice and clouds broke not too long after and the remainder of the drive was sunny. Great drive, most of it edged by plateaus, remnants of millions of years of water flow. The drive wasn't too long a little under 4 hours. A few miles shy of Page is the famous Horse Shoe Bend, a giant 180 of the Colorado. The curve itself was majestic but what really amazed me was the solid stone cliffs that, one person later told me, rose up 800 feet. It's one of those vertigo inducing experiences. That plus a sudden gust of wind really scared the shit out of me right at the last minute.



The main reason for visiting Page is the sandstone canyons. The most famous of these being Antelope Canyon. A quick Google search of Antelope Canyon will return thousands of photos with the famous pillar of light shining through. The sun, unfortunately, is only in the right position in early summer, so I didn't get the famous light shaft. This didn't take away from the beauty of these twisted canyons. From the photos below you can see they're absolutely amazing.




The canyons reside in Navajo country and Navajo law mandates all canyon visits be with a guide. The plus side of visiting in November is that I was the only one on the tour and had the guide's full attention. As a life-long tour guide, he was able to point out the best spots for photos, share some old lore and answer any questions I had. I visited two canyons, Upper Antelope and Rattlesnake. Photos below.

I ended the day with a visit to Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam.




Tomorrow off to Zion!

Umm... The Grand Canyon is AMAZING! I mean I thought it would be big and cool to see and all that, but it blew my mind. Living in a world of bigger, faster, better caused my first thought after seeing the Eiffel Tower to be, "I thought it would be bigger." But the Grand Canyon did not disappoint. It is enormous. Words just cannot describe it adequately. Those of you who've seen it already know what I mean.

I beat a snowstorm over the pass from Flagstaff to find sunny skies over the GC. While it was very cold, upper 30's, the cold was invigorating and, believe it or not, a nice break from the boringly nice weather of San Diego. The park itself is very nicely built and maintained. There were several lodges, help centers and both indoor and outdoor viewing platforms. A bus line ran between them all making the park visit very pleasant. In addition, the cold weather and general time of year kept most of the tourists away, making my visit very crowd free.



I decided I definitely need to spend more time here when the weather is warmer. There are trails leading down to the bottom that are begging to be hiked. There's also the lesser visited North Rim which may hold it's own fascinations. I'd like to plan an April visit when the weather is warmer but school has not yet let out for the summer.



That snowstorm that I had beat finally caught up to me around 4 pm and the Grand Canyon began to receive it's first dusting of the year. Cold but imagination-fed, I headed back to the car and back to Flagstaff where I had a room booked for the night.

At least that was the plan. As it turned out the winter weather was taking its tolls on the roads and even the park's asphault was making for some hairy driving. A few miles outside of the park is a little town called Tusayan which I stopped at and ended up getting a room in so as to avoid the pass back to Flagstaff which I was sure would be even worse by then.

As it turns out that was better plan as tomorrow leads me up to Page, AZ (which means I'd have to double back through Tusayan anyway) and Antelope Valley. Stay tuned for amazing pictures of the sandstone canyons!

Day 1 on the Southwest National Park Road Trip Expedition. Left Encinitas about 9 am en route to Joshua Tree National Park. The drive itself Was pretty scenic. The bouldery hills through Temecula were awesome. I am continually amazed at the diversity of landscape throughout Southern California. The mountain drive ended with a steep descent into Palm Desert. This was my first visit to the Palm Springs area. I now get why old people like it here. It's rediculously nice , everyone drives a Mercedes and the place is immaculate. Finally arriving at joshua tree, I purchased a National Park annual pass (as I will be hitting several of them and this gives me unlimited access for a year) and set off for a hike up the Palm Oasis Trail.



Upon my return I set off for a drive through the rest of the park. The Joshua Trees for whom the park was named, were much farther north in the park. The park is vast, taking me almost an hour to drive though, and was largely deserted. About half way through my drive I was accosted by a grove of yellow-white cacti. These cacti looked like a smaller but much more prickly relative of the saguaro cactus. A sign pointed to a 1/4 mile walk though this Cholla Cactus Garden. It was like walking on another planet. These cacti absolutely overwhelmed the earth. And they only existed in this small stretch of the park.



Finally made my way to the Joshua Tree section of the park. The trees themselves weren't that impressive. It was amazing, however, that these trees are 300-600 years old! There were some cool rock formations including Skull Rock.

Headed back down to the entrance and on to Phoenix for the night where I used some of my HHonors points (that I've been racking up staying in LA every week for the past 6 months) for a free night in the Hilton Garden Inn.

Tomorrow, off to the Grand Canyon!

So when I landed Tuesday night in LAX (in from Minnesota) and made my way to the hotel I stay at in El Segundo every week, the manager informs me that my reserved room had a water line break and they'll very sorry, sold out, will put me up in the Double tree, blah blah, no big deal. I come back the next day to get my room and the same manager is on duty, she apologizes again, checks me in and gives me my room key to room 265. So I walk ALL the way down to the end of the hotel to room 258, but no room 265. But there are these double doors at the end of the hall, I assume to a conference room. Well I can't find my room so I go through the double doors and there's this grand staircase and all these fancy doors; a secret wing of the hotel! And I find my room 265, not your ordinary room. The carpet is gone and replaced by a wood floor, fancy furniture not found in my previous hotel rooms, and the bathroom has a TV and a giant glass shower. They've upgraded me to a super sweet room! But what's up with the secret section? Well a Google search revealed that this El Segundo hotel is Hilton's experimental hotel where they build the rooms of the future. This section of the building is for experimentation of new room ideas. Pretty cool huh? Here's the link to the article and some photos attached:

Had a great week in Atlanta (Alpharetta to be specific). My first day I got hooked up with a team working on a very tight time frame install. Can't say too much more but my focus will be in the EDI implementation area. The team is great, everyone thinks along the same lines, very dynamic, very focused and they all have a sense of humor, whew! We spent the week requirements gathering and brainstorming solution ideas. It was great.

I said it once and I'll say it again, life move pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while you might just miss it.
~Ferris Bueller

So I found a place in Encinitas. Here's what I like about it:

Today was a good day. I got quite a bit of work done this morning before I headed out. I spent the afternoon checking out "North County" San Diego, aka Oceanside, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Del Mar, etc. Oceanside, my first stop, and where I've vacationed before, wasn't as nice as I believed. I guess when your timeshare always faces the ocean you always think the town is great. After a non-impressive drive-thru I stopped in a local Starbucks to look through Craigslist. I chatted a bit with the Sbux lady and she told me Oceanside wasn't the nicest place to stay and had a gang problem. She recommended I head south toward Carlsbad and Encinitas. For those who don't know, Carlsbad has the highest median home selling price in the California... Long story short I couldn't afford a bathroom there. So on to Encinitas, and let me tell you once I rolled into town everything started clicking. The town was laid back, clean and friendly. I did a run on the beach, there's quite a bit of beach to run on. I looked at a few places and several were both nice and within my price range. (I have two add'l appointments tomorrow as well.) This may sound cheesy but what topped it off was after my run I realized that I was parked right next to a Pho place and across the street was a Bekrim Yoga studio, two things I LOVE! Now that I write that it does sound kind of cheesy but after PB being a bust and Oceanside not being what I thought it would be, Encinitas seems to have everything I want.

Well Pacific Beach is beautiful but the stuff for rent in my price range AND near the beach are crap holes. There are some beautiful places, right on the beach too. I either need to increase my rental budget by about 60% or look elsewhere. Tomorrow I checkout Oceanside/Carlsbad. It's out of town by about 30 miles but maybe I can find a place more in the realm of what I'm looking for.

Well I have arrived in San Diego. I am staying at the Plaza Suites in Mission Bay. Thanks to Stacey for the suggestion of Priceline.com, the first time I've used it. I got a room for $40/nite and they upgraded me to a Jr. Suite. Nizzze!

Hi friends. This is my first post of my new blog. I will be blogging during my transition to and new life in San Diego. I've titled this blog, "Recreating the Dream". More on that title later. Rather than write my own blogging system (like I did with my Europe blog in 2006) I've decided to use Blogger.com and integrate it into my site using RSS. The reason for this was ease of use and rapid deployment. Blogger already has all the tools I need. Why recreate the wheel?