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Tag: inspiration point

The Sky Islands of the Chihuahuan Desert

Chiricahua National Monument to the Pedregosa Mountains and Dragoon Mountains
Arizona Winter Loop | Monday – Wednesday, January 30 – February 1, 2023

After a brief stopover in Petrified Forest National Park we continued south through Arizona on our way to the Sky Islands of the Chihuahuan Desert in the southeast corner of the state. A Sky Island is a mountain range that is separated from other mountain ranges by distance and by surrounding lowlands of a dramatically different environment. The result is a habitat island- such as a forest surrounded by desert. After leaving Holbrook we would cross the canyon of the Salt River and then follow the Gila Valley until we reached Safford and eventually Willcox later in the evening. Since I knew we would be arriving late I had booked a hotel room in town to stay at before we continued on to Chiricahua National Monument first thing in the morning.

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Under the Pink Cliffs: Trails of the Bryce Amphitheater

Bryce Canyon National Park | Thursday – Sunday, December 1-4, 2022

Of Utah’s ‘Mighty Five’ National Parks, Bryce Canyon National Park is the only one that I have not done any ‘real’ hiking in before. Previously, my only visit to the park was over ten years ago and during that brief visit I only went on short walks to most of the overlooks along the rim. I was hoping to change that this year, so I made it my goal to plan an extended weekend to Bryce to hike all of the trails within and around the Bryce Amphitheater this winter. I figured that early December would be a good time to go to avoid the crowds and maybe catch a little snow on the hoodoos, too.

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Sunrise in Bryce and the Drive Home

Las Vegas Trip 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012

It was the last day of our trip to Las Vegas and Southern Utah and we would finally be heading back home. Of course we would be making some more stops on the way back! After another night in another hotel we were up early again to catch one more sunrise. I was looking forward to photographing Bryce Canyon at sunrise and was hoping for a good one as we drove into the park in the dark.

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An Evening at Bryce Canyon National Park

Las Vegas Trip 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012

Friday had arrived, which means it was time to finally leave Las Vegas. Even though we enjoyed visiting some of the areas outside of the city, we were both looking forward to getting out of the big city. After checking out of our hotel we were back on the road again and pretty soon we were out of Nevada, Arizona and then back in Utah again. Our destination for today was Bryce Canyon National Park, but we decided to get there via the Arizona Strip and through Kanab. We stopped to grab some lunch in Kanab and then carried on until we finally reached Bryce.

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Exploring Shawnee National Forest

Saturday, November 3, 2007

I’ve wanted to get down to Shawnee National Forest for a while to check out some of the trails that are located there. A lot of four-wheelers claim that there are no public lands in Illinois to go wheeling on, but they would be wrong. They just need to get down to Shawnee National Forest and explore some of the forest roads located there sometime.

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