The results of my friend’s project, A Minute In The Life, are pretty much complete and I must say that I am enjoying all of the pictures he received. As I mentioned earlier, I submitted a picture from Arapahoe Basin’s last weekend, which was the last ski resort in the area to close. The picture can be viewed here. I also saw that my mom submitted a picture of my dad and some friends of theirs out on the golf course. Did anyone else submit anything? Be sure to check out all of the photo galleries at aminuteinthelife.com. Thanks to Ronda’s comment for reminding me about this.

I hope you aren’t sick of our pictures yet; I’ve added more! The first group comes from our drive out to Utah last week, which became my first time in Wyoming. The drive was very windy, cold, and we ran into a little storm too. It didn’t make for the best driving conditions, but it led to a few good pictures. Check them out in this gallery.

The second gallery comes from our brief stay at the Zermatt Resort. It was a very nice place, but a little secluded. Fortunately they had enough activities to keep us entertained for a little while, including some shuffleboard.

I’ve also posted pictures from our super busy Saturday after leaving the resort. After making a long drive, our first stop was at the Hovenweep National Monument, which is actually a series of various Native American Puebloan-era villages. The building remains date back to 800 years ago, or more. Had I known how much there was to see, I would have planned to spend more time here, but unfortunately we were only there for less than an hour.

From there we made another quick stop at the Four Corners. I’m sure most people know what I am referring to, but if not this is where four states all meet at one point. What I didn’t know prior to visiting is that the site actually sites on Native American lands, and the Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation Department actually run the site, charing $3 admission per person. There isn’t much to see there, but it’s cool to say that you once stood in four different states at the same time.

Continuing on, we drove through parts of New Mexico and Arizona to get out to Monument Valley. This area near the Arizona and Utah border is a sandy desert filled with many bright red buttes and mesas. It has been filmed many times for movies, especially westerns, TV commercials, etc, so it may look familiar. We didn’t make too many stops, as it was already getting late, but did manage to take a number of pictures. The best of what we have can be found here, along with other pictures of Hovenweep and the Four Corners.

Midway on Dwellable

After spending so much time at Arches on Saturday Sunday, we were left with only a few hours to explore Canyonlands National Park. This is a large park that is divided into four different districts by the Colorado River and Green River. The district that we explored is called the Island in the Sky. Once inside we found multiple amazing overlooks of the surrounding canyons from up on the 1,000 foot sandstone mesa.

If we had more time I would have loved to explore the off road vehicle trails, but since we were limited on time we mostly drove to the various overlooks and took in the incredible scenery. We did take a two mile round trip hike at the southern tip of the region, from the Grand View Point Overlook. Although there was no real goal we were trying to reach at the end, the hike provided nonstop views of the canyons and surrounding landscape. Kim called it the coolest hike that we took of the day, and I would have to agree. It wasn’t as cool as seeing the arches earlier in the day, but this hike was better than the hikes to the arches.

I’ve added another photo gallery for pictures from Canyonlands that can be found here. We didn’t take quite as many pictures as we did in Arches, but I still think there are some really good ones.

Eastern Utah on Dwellable

I’ve started sorting through the over 500 pictures we took while in Utah and the other surrounding states. The first batch of pictures that are ready for viewing come from Arches National Park. I knew going into this weekend that this was going to be my favorite place we saw, and I was not disappointed. It truly is an amazing place, and I’m not sure that the pictures will even do it justice, although there are some pretty good ones.

We started the day by driving toward Balanced Rock, which is a sandstone boulder the size of three school buses that sits atop a pedestal of mudstone. The mudstone weathers away more quickly than sandstone, and this will eventually lead to it’s collapse. There is a short hike around the rock but we opted to save our energy for later hikes and try to avoid the big crowds.

Our first hike came in the Devils Garden section as we decided to head up and see Landscape Arch. Landscape Arch is the largest known natural rock arch in the world. It spans 290 feet and at it’s thinnest is only 6 feet thick. At one time you could hike all the way up to the arch, but since some larger pieces fell from the arch in both 1991 and 1995, it is no longer allowed. This arch really could fall at any time.

From there we headed toward Delicate Arch, the most famous thing in the park. We opted to take the longer hike all the way up to the arch instead of a much shorter hike to a viewpoint one mile away from the arch. The hike is 1.5 miles each way and it ascends 480 feet in elevation. But doing this hike is so worth it once you finally come face to face with this massive arch. The longer hike also helps avoid the crowds. When we finally arrived at Delicate Arch there were only a few other people there. It was very easy to get as many pictures as you wanted. In fact, I found it hard to stop taking pictures. It definitely was the highlight of the park, and made the tiring hike well worth it.

All of our pictures from Arches can be found in this photo gallery. There are 45 of them there, weeded down from the 140ish I started with. I hope I didn’t leave anything out. Enjoy!

Moab on Dwellable

Along with all of the amazing sights we saw this past weekend in southern Utah, we also did a little camping. I reserved a spot for us in the Buckboard campground before we left so that we wouldn’t have to worry about it when we got down there. It cost $9 extra to do this, and even though the campground was likely only 25% full, it seemed worth it.

We didn’t get up to our site until sometime around 9PM on Saturday night. I quickly made a fire while Kim prepared a couple of drinks for us to enjoy with our Chex Mix dinner. Once everything was all setup we sat down and enjoyed the fire for a couple of hours. After some time I heard a grunt from over my right shoulder. Immediately I started thinking of the sign I read when coming in. “You are now entering bear country.” And from the look on Kim’s face, she must have been thinking the same thing.

We both quickly got out of our chairs and headed for the safety of the car. I turned the headlights on in an attempt to see what was out there, but we saw nothing. We waiting for ten or fifteen minutes, kind of hoping to see something, but we saw nothing at all. We went back to the fire and only minutes later heard the same exact sound. We were thinking that maybe the fire or something else had made the sound before, but after hearing it twice we weren’t willing to take any chances.

I cleaned up the campsite quickly and we both retreated to the car. We watched for awhile longer but never saw a thing. It was safe to say that we were both a little freaked out from the experience and we’re feeling pretty safe inside the car. And that’s where we spent the night, sleeping inside the car. So much for being one with the outdoors. More stories from our weekend to come later this week.

I guess my weekend started a day early! I still was working today, but doing so from a resort is a little tough. I’ll be sure to make my updates next week worth it. Lots of pictures to come. Back to playing shuffleboard…

Hello from Salt Lake City. I’m working from a Hampton Inn while Kim is out doing her own work things. Later today we will head back up into the mountains for a couple of days and then over the weekend we will explore southern Utah. We drove out here last night cutting across the southern part of Wyoming, thus adding another state to my visited list. The drive was very scenic and fairly easy, minus the high winds for most of the trip. We took some pictures along the way, but I don’t have any way of getting them off the camera right now, so it will have to wait until we’re back in Denver.

While searching for things to do in Utah, I stumbled upon 43 Places, which I have been addicted to ever since. It is pretty easy to find the most popular destinations not only in each state, but also in different areas like cities, national parks, etc. Many of the things we have planned for this weekend came from this site. They also have cool maps you can add to your site, like this one below. Check it out…

Over the weekend we did something that we haven’t done in a long time, watched a movie. Kim had been wanting to see Music and Lyrics since it was in the theaters. Fortunately we didn’t even have to leave the house to watch it as it was available on Comcast On Demand. Typically I cringe at the thought of watching Hugh Grant in a movie, and this was no exception. However, this movie was actually better than I was expecting. I guess it helps going into it with a bad taste in my mouth, but it was actually pretty funny in parts. I’m not going to recommend seeing it, as that would drive up expectations, but if you happen to watch it go into it with low expectations. You might actually be amused.

O.A.R.‘s latest release is out in stores today. It is titled Live From Madison Square Garden and was recorded at the famous arena in January of this year. It is their third live release and probably the best sounding yet. As I wrote on oarsa.org, “the set captures the growth of the band and recreates the O.A.R. concert experience like never before.” I would highly recommend picking this up if you haven’t already.

In addition to the double CD set there is also a double DVD that I am even more excited about. I haven’t seen it yet, but tonight I am going to a theatrical premiere for Behind The Backline at a theater here in Denver. They are also showing the film in various other cities across the country. Definitely check this out if you are in one of the featured cities. If not, this feature film is part of the double DVD package along with the full concert, so be sure to get a copy of this as well.

Snowboarding in June? Yes it is possible, and that’s what Kim and some friends did on Saturday afternoon. Arapahoe Basin is by far the longest open ski area around. In fact they just closed for the season yesterday. Since I was having some ankle problems, I sat this one out and spent most of my time hanging out at the base taking pictures. Kim also got some shots from up on the mountain where people were attempting to skim across a small pond on their skis and snowboards. It was a gorgeous day in the mountains.

Taking full advantage of the weather, later in the day we headed to the Green Mountain Reservoir to camp with a group of twenty or thirty others. We spent the afternoon and evening cooking up food, hanging around campfires, playing glow in the dark bocce, and having a great time with lots of new friends. As it gets very cold at night, I think Kim and I are going to have to invest in some better camping equipment soon. Otherwise, we all had a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Pictures from our weekend can be found in this photo gallery.