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Rim to River: The Grand Canyon & Phantom RanchRim to River: The Grand Canyon & Phantom Ranch

Rim to River: The Grand Canyon & Phantom Ranch

Grand Canyon National Park | Tuesday – Saturday, January 16-20, 2024

After spending a the first part of the week in Petrified Forest National Park we stayed at a hotel in Flagstaff for one night and then drove over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon on Tuesday morning by way of Williams and Tusayan. Since this was my very first time to the South Rim we headed straight to Mather Point for my first view of the canyon from this side. Then we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon visiting all of the overlooks along Desert View Drive as we made our way out to the Desert View Watchtower and then back again.

CONTINUE READINGRim to River: The Grand Canyon & Phantom Ranch
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The Painted Desert: Land of Light and ShadowThe Painted Desert: Land of Light and Shadow

The Painted Desert: Land of Light and Shadow

Homolovi State Park & Petrified Forest National Park
Saturday – Monday, January 13-15, 2024

For about a year now, Diane and I have been making pretty solid plans to spend most of the upcoming week in Grand Canyon National Park. Since we would be passing right through the Painted Desert on our way there, we were also looking forward to spending a couple of days in the Petrified Forest along the way. We certainly could never have predicted that after our first visit to Petrified Forest National Park in 2020 we would fall in love with exploring this amazing place and have now returned each year for the past five years. With so many places still left to explore in the park, we are hoping to keep the trend going well into the future!

CONTINUE READINGThe Painted Desert: Land of Light and Shadow
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Rainbow Bridge: Circumnavigation of Navajo MountainRainbow Bridge: Circumnavigation of Navajo Mountain

Rainbow Bridge: Circumnavigation of Navajo Mountain

The Canyons of Navajo Mountain & Rainbow Bridge National Monument
Wednesday – Monday, March 15-20, 2023

This year for our annual spring backpacking trip, Jared, Dave and I were planning to spend an easy four days and three nights hiking down Paria Canyon from the White House Trailhead to Lees Ferry. It’s a trip we have all wanted to do for a long time and were looking forward to, but back in December when I reserved the permit we had no idea what the atmospheric river would have in store for us this winter! A couple of days before our trip was set to begin there was a large flash flood in Buckskin Gulch and the Paria River that unfortunately killed two hikers and resulted in the rescue of about a dozen more. With reports of deep cold water crossings and continued precipitation and cold air temperatures in the forecast, we decided that this was probably not the right time for this hike and started considering different options. Since I try to be prepared, I already had a backup plan to hike around Navajo Mountain to Rainbow Bridge ready to go in case the weather did not cooperate with us on this Paria Canyon hike, so we decided to try that one instead.

CONTINUE READINGRainbow Bridge: Circumnavigation of Navajo Mountain
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Beneath Secret Mountain: The Palatki & Honanki RuinsBeneath Secret Mountain: The Palatki & Honanki Ruins

Beneath Secret Mountain: The Palatki & Honanki Ruins

Arizona Winter Loop | Saturday, February 4, 2023

After spending the last seven days in Arizona it was unfortunately time to start heading home. But first, we would be spending this morning visiting a couple ruins and rock art sites in the Red Rock Wilderness near Sedona. This would be our very first time in the Sedona area, and even though we knew it would be a little more popular and crowded than we would like we were a little interested to see what this area was all about. Before we had left home on this trip I had booked the earliest tour at the Palatki Heritage Site for Saturday morning, and even though the site was closed at the time due to muddy roads, I hoped that it would be open by the time we got there, and thankfully it was! Since the tour did not start until 9:30am, we were able to sleep in a little later than usual before leaving our hotel in Camp Verde and making our way to the base of Secret Mountain.

CONTINUE READINGBeneath Secret Mountain: The Palatki & Honanki Ruins
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The Picacho Mountains to the Superstition MountainsThe Picacho Mountains to the Superstition Mountains

The Picacho Mountains to the Superstition Mountains

Arizona Winter Loop | Friday, February 3, 2023

After spending a day walking among the saguaros near Tucson it was time to continue heading north as we started the long drive back since we wanted to make it home late on Saturday evening. We had hotel reservations to spend the night in Camp Verde later today, but there were a couple stops we wanted to make along the way as we left the Sonoran Desert and made our way over the Black Hills to the Verde Valley. We were up well before sunrise on Friday morning, packed up our camp and left in the dark shortly before dawn. On our way towards Phoenix we left the interstate and reached the foot of the Picacho Mountains just after sunrise so we could spend a couple hours searching boulders for petroglyphs, which is one of our favorite things to do. And we found plenty!

CONTINUE READINGThe Picacho Mountains to the Superstition Mountains
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