As mentioned yesterday, we spent Sunday roaming around Bryce Canyon National Park. Though this is usually grouped into the same sentence as Zion, the two parks are very different. Bryce Canyon is at a higher elevation than Zion, so cooler temperatures. Also Zion seems many more tourists than Bryce Canyon does, though you still need to try to avoid the massive tour buses. And while Zion actually is a canyon, Bryce really isn’t a canyon and is actually considered a natural amphitheater created by erosion of the land plateau.

I’ve heard that sunrise is an amazing sight to see at Bryce, and though we tried our hardest to get there early, we didn’t make it until 8:30 or so. Still the light was pretty low, and we immediately headed for a couple of the overlooks to take in the sights and get some pictures. Soon enough, we started encountering larger crowds, and decided that it was time to get away from most others with a hike down into the amphitheater and surrounding areas.

We started at the very crowded Sunset Point and quickly moved through the switchbacks and down into the hoodoos. This trail is called the Navajo loop and it leads down through Wall Street, a very narrow slot canyon. Once we reached the much less crowded floor, we headed further out on the Peek-A-Boo trail, with excellent views of the Wall of Windows along the way.

Once we completed the Peek-A-Boo loop we opted to skip the remaining Navajo loop that we had not done yet, and instead started the Queens Garden trail. This trail leads to one very famous hoodoo named after Queen Victoria, which it supposedly resembles. Once we arrived at the sign marking Queen Victoria, I must admit that I didn’t see it. I saw the rock in question, but didn’t see how it could look like the Queen. The sign does say that the formation is continually changing, so perhaps it is not as defined as it once was?

After seeing the Queen, we finished off the hike by continuing up the trail to Sunrise Point. From there it was a quick half mile or less hike back to the car at Sunset Point. All things considered this trail was an awesome way to see the park, though if I did it again I would likely skip the Queens Garden section. The highlight of the entire trip is definitely the Peek-A-Boo loop. And even though this park is amazingly beautiful, I may have been a bit spoiled at Zion the previous day.

Early Saturday morning Kim and I headed for the airport to catch a flight to Salt Lake City, where I am currently sitting in a hotel room doing some work. Kim has been working the past few days in and around SLC. But before all of the work, we took the weekend to head down to southern Utah and check out Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. You may recall our trip last year to both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, which are also in southern Utah but on the eastern side. Our trip this time took us into the western side of southern Utah.

After our arrival, we quickly got down to Zion as fast as we could. Once on the shuttle system, we immediately headed for the far end of the park and to the Riverside Walk. This is a simple paved trail that runs along the Virgin River. This wasn’t our goal of the hike though, as at the end of this trail is the Zion Narrows. Hiking the narrows requires you to actually wade through the river, which is surrounded by a narrow canyon on both sides. There is a full or multiple day, sixteen mile hike that you can do in the narrows, but we opted to just see a mile or so of the end. Since it was so hot out in the middle of the afternoon, walking through the chilly water was quite nice even though it was thigh deep at times.

After the Narrows, we headed for the trail that would lead us to Angels Landing, which is regarded as one of the best hikes in any national park. I wanted to wait until later in this day to avoid any potential crowds and the extreme heat, which worked pretty well. The hike starts off flat and paved, but soon enough enters switchback after switchback as you start climbing the near 1500 feet in elevation gain. After two miles you reach Scout Lookout, which seems to be an excellent place to view the canyon, but just wait until you ascend the last half mile out to Angels Landing.

This last section of the trail can be seen from Scout Lookout, and at first it scared the crap out of me. You can tell that parts of the trail are just a couple feet wide in parts, with steep cliffs on either side. Also some of the climb up the ridge is very steep and the park system has installed many chains along the route to assist with the climb. Being slightly afraid of heights, I wasn’t sure I could go on from the landing, so we sat there for a bit. Eventually a large butterfly flew past us, right along the ridge and up toward the landing. After my brother passed away, butterflies have held a special meaning to my family, so this was a sign to me that I should get off my butt and finish the hike. And I’m so glad that we did. The view from the top of Angels Landing is absolutely breathtaking, and words cannot describe it.

I hope that some of my pictures turned out well, and I will be sure to sort through them as soon as I get back to Denver. I would have to say that the Angels Landing hike was one of the coolest things I have ever done, if not the best. And overall, Zion is such an amazing place to visit. Even though I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, I’ve been told that Zion is the better of the two.

I think I’ve become addicted to the library. Though I haven’t been to one since college, I decided to get a library card so I could check out the book Into the Wild after watching the movie. I’m nearly finished reading the book, and though I feel it’s a good read, I think I partially ruined it by watching the movie first.

However, I’ve now discovered that I can get travel guides from the library as well. Yesterday I went to two different libraries to put together quite a large stack of books detailing European or Mediterranean cruises, as well as some books about hikes in some southern Utah parks that Kim and I hope to visit this coming weekend. It’s a good thing I’m riding the train back and forth from work for most of the remaining week, so that I can start reading through these new books.

If you have to become addicted to something, it might as well be something good for you.

It’s nice to be back in Denver and out of the humidity of Kansas City. I can take 90+ degrees anyday, but not when it’s mixed with 100% humidity! Before leaving KC, I managed to have a nice weekend there. Kim flew in on Saturday morning, taking a quick layover on her return from Cincinnati. I picked her up at the airport and then we headed for a company picnic with many of the folks I work with in KC. We did our best to fight the humidity, but the gathering only lasted for a few hours. From there we pretty much relaxed the rest of the day, with dinner thrown in at Jose Pepper’s.

Sunday we awoke too late to get the free hotel breakfast, but it was so nice to sleep in. From there we headed down to our old stomping grounds near the Country Club Plaza. We drove past the old house, though it doesn’t look like too much has changed over in that neighborhood. From there we met up with our old friends Mike and Christie down on the Plaza at Baja 600, another Mexican place. Yeah, I had my fair share of Mexican food while in town. We then walked around the plaza for awhile before it was time for our flights back to Denver. I’m well rested now and ready for the week ahead.

I traveled back to Cincinnati once again this weekend, but this time it was for a bachelor party weekend. I arrived late Friday evening in Dayton where my brother picked me up and we headed down to his pad. We were both fairly tired and had to get an early start the next day, so decided to head for bed after watching a bit of TV.

Saturday, after running some errands for a good chunk of the morning, we met up with my dad and some others to take a canoeing trip down the Little Miami River. Though the authorities have been trying to crack down on drinking while floating down the river, we didn’t run into any problems doing so. It was a great six mile trip that ate up most of the afternoon and into the evening hours. Since we ended up with an odd number of people, I opted to take out a kayak for myself, which I thoroughly enjoyed and would love to do again.

After that we went back to my brother’s, cleaned up, and started up the grill. Lots of others who didn’t go on the canoe trip came over and we had a great little party out on his back deck. Eventually the party moved indoors as the weather got a little questionable. We had lots of games of Rock Band, a beer pong tournament, and lots of good times. A big thanks goes out to my brother, dad, and all else who attended. Oh yeah, thanks to my mom too for dropping of all kinds of good sides and appetizers!

After our exciting rafting trip, we decided to explore the area a bit on Sunday. We were camping very close to the Royal Gorge, so after some breakfast we decided to go see the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. Built in 1929, the bridge is highest suspension bridge in the world, standing 1053 feet above the Arkansas River. The first thing we did upon entering the park was to walk across the bridge, which is made of wooden planks stretched across the steel supports. Because of this, there are many small cracks along the way where you can actually see all the way down to the canyon floor below. It’s a bit scary, to say the least.

Besides the bridge there are a number of other attractions in the park, including the worlds steepest incline train to the canyon floor, the worlds longest single span aerial tram, displays of elk, bison, and bighorn sheep, among other presentations, thrill rides, and shops. We did nearly everything available, though I was even more afraid of the aerial tram than the bridge, so we skipped that one. We were able to see most of it in a few hours, though I’m sure it’s possible to spend even more time inside the park. Though pictures likely don’t do it justice, I really wish I had my camera with me, but as I mentioned earlier I forgot to bring it along.

This is going to be a busy week. My boss is on vacation and I’ll be covering many of his tasks for the week. I’m hoping that it won’t be as bad as it has been before when he took extended vacation, since there is another individual in the office who will be doing some tasks, but I guess only time will tell. So far it’s been a really busy day.

Our Memorial Day labor day weekend (I always mix the two up) was good though. We were back in Cincinnati for the wedding of one of Kim’s cousins. Kim was a bridesmaid in the wedding and we’ve known her cousins husband for awhile as well, so it was nice to attend their big day. And since a good number of her extended family was there it gave us a little taste of what our wedding will be like. Everyone better get their dancing shoes out and be ready to swing all the way into party mode! I took some pictures throughout the day and I hope to get them online sometime soon. I’ll be sure to post a link.

I just read that my beloved Frontier Airlines is going to start charging for the second piece of checked luggage, just as United has already done. Personally, I think it’s a dumb move as the free luggage could be viewed by some as a reason to fly Frontier over United. It won’t matter to either Kim or me as we are both ascent level members, which will retain the second piece for free, but overall I don’t really agree with this decision.

At least we don’t have to use American, which is now charging for any checked luggage. And I guess we better get used to these additional charges, as this is likely just the beginning. If gas continues to rise the airlines are forced into finding new ways to make additional money. There will be no more free food, though a bag of peanuts hardly counts as food. I heard one analyst say that it could go so far as to start charging people for their seat based on their weight!

As you may already know, I love flying on Frontier Airlines. Kim loves it as well, and we both flew with them so much last year that we both are Ascent Level members. Well, nearly two weeks ago Frontier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. At first this was a huge concern as a few airlines that also recently filed for Chapter 11 have completely shut down, including ATA, Aloha, and Skybus. And I am still very concerned, but it seems that things are still going as planned for Frontier. Though it appears that they have canceled at least one of the flights between Denver and Indianapolis, and prices seem to be incredibly steep.

Coincidently or not, Southwest just announced that they will now be operating a couple of daily nonstop flights between Denver and Indy. On top of that they’ve started introductory pricing for these flights at $140+ round trip. Given their wonderful rescheduling policies (no fees ever), we’ve already booked a couple of flights for this summer. I don’t think we are going to beat the prices we got, but if we do there is always the option to reschedule the flights for a later time. I haven’t flown with Southwest in a long time, so I’m actually curious to see how their newish boarding procedures are. So if any of you in the Cincinnati/Indianapolis area are planning a summer trip to visit us in lovely Denver, be sure to check out Southwest for your flights.

I’m in Cincinnati and the weather officially sucks! While Denver is a nice sixty degrees outside, I’m sitting near a window watching the mix of snow, rain, ice, etc. falling from the sky. We arrived in Dayton last night and immediately traded in the Ford mustang the rental car company gave to us for an Equinox which is nearly identical to the one Kim has in Denver. No way were we going to drive in a rear wheel drive car with the weather forecast for the next few days being as dreary as it is. If it is going to snow a ton, at least we could get some accumulation on the ground, but that isn’t the case so far. It’s just a wet sloppy mix.