Islands — in Utah? Sort of. Surrounded by Colorado Plateau canyonlands instead of ocean waters, Islands in the Sky is one of three sections in Canyonlands National Park divided by the Green and Colorado rivers. From the town of Moab…
The Zing of Arches
Hector had been looking forward to Arches National Park since before Project 100 began, and his enthusiasm grew as the year progressed and we made our way closer to the Southwest. I, on the other hand, thought to myself before…
Capitol Reef’s Basket of Goodies
Exploring Capitol Reef National Park in Utah is like an Easter egg hunt. While it shares the land’s ruddy complexion and arid conditions found in other, more famous national parks in Utah — like Bryce, Zion and Arches — it’s…
Zion National Park Takes the Cake
A veritable layer cake of stunning Colorado Plateau scenery unfolded in front of our eyes as we entered Zion National Park in southern Utah, driving in from the east on Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. The road cut through a layer of…
Bryce Canyon Rocks!
Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah is nature’s sculpture garden, where hiking paths allow visitors easy access to fancifully shaped geologic wonders. Not a canyon in the usual sense of the word, it’s rather a plateau atop 14 amphitheaters of…
Delights in the Great Basin
Sometimes the smaller parks few people have heard of provide the most delightful surprises. That was the case with Great Basin National Park, a 77,000-acre park set in a rather desolate-looking desert near the Utah-Nevada border. The Great Basin region…
Yosemite – A Hiker’s Paradise
With 800 miles of trails in Yosemite National Park, the hiking choices seem daunting. Even the relatively small Yosemite Valley area can keep avid hikers on their feet, with trails ranging from short and sweet to long and strenuous. Our…
Yosemite’s Valley of Waterfalls
We made our way from San Francisco through the orchards and foothills to Yosemite National Park. Sixteen years earlier I had backpacked in the Tuolomne Meadows section of the park, but for the first time my destination was the Yosemite…
Point Reyes – A Birder’s Delight
Some 35 miles north of San Francisco, land and sea meet in a mosaic of biologically rich habitats — ocean, shore, estuary, grassland and upland forest — at Point Reyes National Seashore. This diversity of habitats and the peninsula’s location…
Bubbling Over with Lassen Enthusiasm
Of the four parks we visited within the Cascade Mountain Range — North Cascades, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake and now Lassen Volcanic — we spent the least amount of time at the one closest to home in Arizona. However, our…