Today we drove from Winnemucca to Reno, NV.  If you think the highway across Saskatchewan is straight and boring, you haven't driven US 80 from Salt Lake City to Reno.  This is our first visit to Reno and as they like to say it is "the biggest little city in the world".  We were expecting it to be run down and struggling to be like it's big sister city.  So we were pleasantly surprised how busy and well kept the casinos and hotels seem to be.  We lost our usual $50 in the casinos and had fun doing it.  We watched the hockey game and called it an early night before the 10:00 karaoke got going in the Brew House. Tomorrow we hope to hike in Lake Tahoe before heading to Alameda to see Liz and Jared.

We are in the thriving metropolis of Winnemucca, NV so it is a good time to update the blog with our time in Bryce Canyon.  I ended the last post with us leaving Sante Fe after 4 fantastic days.  We have decided that we will be back in the fall as part of our October to December road trip but this time coming through Denver so we can see Taos, NM.

We arrived at our hotel in Bryce that was first opened in the late 1800's and is now a huge lodge designed to look like a cowboy town of that era.  Bryce is a smaller national park so the shuttle system is not quite as good as Zion.  It didn't stop at all the trailheads but was still quite efficient.  As usual we started at the visitors' centre to watch the movie about how the canyon was formed, caught a ranger talk about the geology of the canyon and then headed out for our first hike,  We learned that Bryce is not really a canyon as it was not formed by a river but rather by erosion caused by thawing and freezing.  They have a monsoon season in August, heavy snowfall in winter and then over 200 days each year where the temperature is below freezing.  The constant freezing and thawing has resulted in the most beautiful panorama of hoodoos rising 1000 feet from the canyon floor. 

We started with a hike along the rim where the panoramic views of the hoodoos are outstanding. Darcy says it must have been a good day because Nancy took 115 pictures of hoodoos. The light was so much better the days we were in Bryce and we think they really show the true colors of the canyon.

Over the next 2 days we did 2 hikes below the rim where we went down 1000 feet and could see the hoodoos from the bottom.  Awesome.  We are proud of ourselves that we could do 2 hikes with that kind of elevation.  The fact that it was about 20 degrees F cooler than Zion or the Grand Canyon probably  made it a little easier.

Now that we have been to Zion, the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, we can't decide which one we like the best.  Each has it own attraction and if you have a chance you should try and see all of them.

We left Bryce today and drove west along the Great Salt Lake.  We have driven US 15 through Salt City many times but have never seen the Great Salt Lake or the Bonneville Saltflats. We had no idea the lake was so big.  West from the Great Salt Lake to the Nevada border it is flat and white as far as the eye can see.

 

Tomorrow we are off to Reno to try our luck and then off to Lake Tahoe and San Francisco.








 

We had 4 wonderful days in Sante Fe, NM.  This is our first visit and we have added it to our list of cities everyone should visit, especially if you love art and history.  We stayed at one of the historic hotels that surrounds the plaza.  The plaza was built in 1610 and that is where we started out walking tour with a docent from the Museum of History.  There must be a least 10 museums in Sante Fe and there was no way we would be able to see everything.  We concentrated on the historic area surrounding the plaza where many of the buildings have been there since the 17th century.  Besides history, we are interested in art.  Darcy says he likes art whereas I LOVE art and Sante Fe is filled with art.  There must be over 100 art galleries just in the historic area ans there is art in the hotels, restaurants, in the streets and parks.  For me a dream come true was visiting the Georgia O'Keefe Museum.  It was wonderful to see her art from her time in New York and then from hills of northern New Mexico.  The hills around Sante Fe are covered with trees and our last day we decided to hike there.  We were able to get high enough to see a panorama view of Sante Fe while being serenaded by cicadas. We had some outstanding dinners in Sante Fe in outdoor restaurants surrounded by trees, lights and more art.  Be will definitely be back to Sante Fe.  Then off to hike in Bryce Canyon, UT.   

The pictures I have attached are a sculpture while walking around the city and the other is the walkway to our hotel room.

I know we are behind with posting on the blog partly because of poor internet service in the Grand Canyon.  We are in Sante Fe now but more about that later.

From Zion we took the north west route around the Grand Canyon to the south rim this time passing through Page and Lake Powell.  We had no idea that Lake Powell was so big which would account for the number of huge boats we saw along the highway.  We got to the Grand Canyon in time to get a lay of the land.  Like Zion, they have a shuttle system which makes it so easy to get to the hiking trails and tourist information.  We stayed just outside the park in an over priced hotel where the internet didn't work but the location was perfect.  We only had one full day of hiking so we decided to make the most of it.  Like Zion, the temperatures were unseasonably high, 95 F.  We started with an easy hike along the rim stopping in the geology museum along the way.  I wish my pictures did justice to the scenery.  We learned that the canyon is 277 miles long, 10 miles wide and 1 mile deep.  This was a real chance for me to meet my fear of heights.  After about 5 miles we came to the start of one of the below the rim hikes.  We decided to try and get to the 1 1/2 miles rest house.  It was still over 95 F.  We had lots of water and the electrolyte tablets thanks to Dean.  The hike ended up with an elevation change of 1,100 feet and took us 3 hours.  We have never done a hike with that kind of elevation and were proud of ourselves that we survived.  Thankfully we had cold beer waiting for us at the hotel. It is hard to describe how awe inspiring the canyon is.  You just have to see it to believe it.  The next day we were off to Sante Fe with a stop along the way to see my dad's old college hockey buddy in Albuquerque.

One of these pictures is from the rim and the other is looking at the trail we have just come up.

I know it has been a long time since I posted anything on the blog. We have had a busy year and have not been home much and haven't been able to keep in touch with friends and family like we should so I thought this would be a way to let everyone what we have been up to.

We decided to take road trip as far south as Sante Fe, NM and as far west as Alameda, CA and left West Kelowna May 24.  After 2 driving days, we arrived in Zion National Park.  We have always wanted to hike this park and we weren't disappointed.  My pictures do not do justice to the beautiful red Navajo sandstone mountains.  We have travelled many times to Arizona and California but Zion is not like anything we have seen before - the mountains, rock formations and colors are so different. We were so lucky to see prickly pears in bloom, something we were never able to see in Arizona.

The national park has a vey efficient shuttle system that will take you from your hotel to the visitors' centre and then from there will drop you off at all the trailheads.  We did 8 hikes the 3 days in unseasonably hot weather with highs of 95 F.  Besides a little sunburn and a few blisters, we felt great and rewarded ourselves every night by going to the sports bar across from our hotel.  They even showed all the hockey games so we didn't miss any of the playoffs.  Many of the patrons were hockey fans, so it was great fun. Then we were off to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. 

 

Happy Holidays from the Walls

Every year we say it was the best holiday ever but this year definitely ranks right up there. It was the first time in two years that all of us were together. To celebrate, we took a family photo (reminiscent of our days at Lake Bonavista every November when I put the kids through the dreaded "Christmas picture ordeal"). I don't regret those days because now we display almost 20 years of Christmas memories with those photos.

The kids started to arrive the 19th and most stayed until the 27th. Darcy and I felt our age This year when we couldn't stay up past 1:30 am. It was non-stop fun with games, beer, food and playing in the pool. Many tears were shed when they left for the airport. It was the best Christmas ever.

I was going to try and make cards this holiday but it just didn't happen. Then I realized that instead of a Christmas letter, anyone who wanted to know what we did this year, could read our blog. We had another great year of travel including stops in New Orleans, San Antonio, San Francisco, Kelowna, the Oregon coast, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama Canal, Columbia, Grand Cayman, Charleston, New York, Phoenix and now Palm Springs.

2011 was a great year for us and we still get itchy feet when we stay in one place too long. We will see what happens in 2012.

Our best wishes for a happy and healthy 2012 to all our family and friends.

We love Arizona

After two driving days through Montana, Idaho and Utah and two days in Las Vegas, where we think we broke even and, for us, that is the best we can expect, we arrived at Dan and Terri's beautiful home in Mesa, AZ. With a south exposure and sun all day, we have been enjoying hot days by the pool. For our anniversary I arranged a private trail ride just north of Phoenix. Barry, our cowboy guide, met us in Cave Creek and, knowing I am a real novice rider, he brought Bubblegum for me to ride. Darcy, having a little more experience than me, rode Durango. For two hours Barry led us through beautiful mountain desert trails. It was fantastic but my butt hurt for 3 days. There are so many Canadian friends here, Darcy is getting lots of rounds of golf. The days he doesn't play, he is hitting balls at the range. Maybe the senior tour is in his future. We try to hike every other day and have found some great mountain hikes in the area. My pictures just don't do the scenery justice. Right now we are getting ready for the kids to come for the holidays and we can't wait to see them.