WHERE IN THE WORLD... Okay, it really is in the middle of nowhere, about 4-6 hours' drive from places you might otherwise be (Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Albuquerque...) And near other great national parks including Bryce and Zion.
The town of Moab is absolutely adorable. A main street which is, by default, also a major truck route with huge rigs steaming through. Studded with small businesses and anchored (for us) by a food truck park and a stellar bakery and coffee cafes and rock (the hard kind) stores. A massive business is one part pharmacy, one part hardware store, and one part anything else you might conceivable need to buy on your travels. With parking.
Here's the one OFF note, a chain restaurant in downtown. A Wendy's. But it seemed to be closed and look at the sign it's got out front... Sour grapes??
And then there are the parks, spectacular red rock landscapes. Here's the lineup of cars to get into Arches... you have to have signed up for "timed entry" if you want to drive through during daytime hours.
Here's one of the arches that the park is named after. Massive. And at night (we went for a "night sky walk) resembles a hulking gorilla silhoueetted against the night sky (with the BIG DIPPER framed in the center opening).
We also took a Jeep tour of Canyonlands which is just up the road about 20 minutes. Easy peasy.
One of my favorite spots is this flat stretch where they filmed Thelma and Louise driving off that cliff at the end of the movie. I think they had to airlift the wrecked car out of there after. Nearby one of the scenes of Tom Cruise rapelling in a Mission Impossible movie was filmed. He apparently did his own stunts.
There was also plenty to see close up. Ravens. Magpies. The occasional waterfall. And lovely little weedy things that look for all the world like baby birds stretching to be fed.
And that just scratches the surface. IF YOU GO! My advice, stay IN the town of Moab. The hotels are very basic (as opposed to the fancier ones just outside town) but you'd step out onto the street and be able to walk in any direction... and you're reminded of how it once was before Burger King and Wendys took over a streetscape.
Please, share your memories of a great national park...
What amazing sights! Thanks for sharing them with us . . . .
ReplyDeleteWhat a fabulous trip, Hallie! Great photos, and excellent travel tips. Before we left on this trip I noticed that same, inscrutably weird sign on our local Wendy's. It's a headscratcher.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite national park is the Everglades, especially down at the southern tip, near and in Flamingo. Mrazek Pond is teeming with birdlife, and my favorite ever birdwatching moment happened there. It was a clear, beautiful day with deep blue skies, and a flock of outrageously pink roseate spoonbills flew overhead. I still haven't caught my breath.
Anhinga Trail alone is worth the long drive. There are other boardwalk trails in Florida--Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is one of the best--but Anhinga Trail, despite being only half a mile long, has an astonishing variety of wildlife, all so used to people that you have no trouble at all spotting them up close. And the visitor's center has our local wildlife artist Charley Harper's colorful abstract murals.
Thank you all for the lovely notes yesterday. I am feeling much better, and many tests, including a scary angiogram, have shown no heart disease or blood clots that might have caused the MI. Having the angiogram, though, means I can't fly for several days, so our bestlaid plans have gang awry. Luckily, we have travel insurance, but my daughter and her husband took off work to travel with us.
Man plans and God laughs, right?
Thank you for sharing the good news, Karen. Strange, but happy you don’t need additional procedures while traveling. And I bet your daughter is happy to have the time off to be with you.
DeleteThanks, Lisa. I am beyond grateful for her. My husband was absolutely panic-stricken, and totally out of his depth, particularly because we are not in the States. She is well-traveled, and has spent a lot of time in the UK, plus was the calm in the eye of the storm. She had the hotel manager there in minutes, who was on the phone with 999 and ordering an ambulance. Best of all, she got my nurse daughter on FaceTime to direct us while we waited an hour for paramedics.
DeleteKaren, what good reports from such a scary time. Continue to heal and to be surrounded by the love and care of your family. Elisabeth
DeleteKaren, what a relief to see your message this morning. Sending healthy vibes to you and many wishes for your recovery and enjoyment of the remainder of your time abroad.
DeleteDid your daughter in Greece fly to England to be with you?
So glad you are okay, Karen! Blessings for your family. I visited the Everglades in 1980 when my birder sister and her partner were living down there. I became a birder - those gorgeous marsh birds (including the anhinga!) just stand around so you can see them. I bought my first field guide in the park gift shop.
DeleteKaren SO glad to hear you have things under control … traveling is a huge leap of faith and family is golden. On parks, I’m right there with you on the magnificence of that park And we saw roseate spoonbills there, too. It’s right up there with the glory that was Sanibel Island’s Ding Darling reserve
DeleteThat was me hallie…
DeleteGlad that you are doing better Karen! Take care
DeleteSo happy to hear from you and that things are going well. How wonderful that your daughter was able to be of so much help! Continuing to send healing thoughts your way.
DeleteKAREN: So glad to hear you are doing better!
DeleteKaren, I am so glad you are better! You had to wait an hour for paramedics?! Ay!
DeleteMe tooing in too what all the above have said. I will be in touch good friend. Thrilled the internet is being put to good use by you sharing with us so quickly.
DeleteFrom Karen: accidentally replied lower down.
DeleteDang those plans anyhow! Greece will be worth the wait whenever you can make it. So glad you're doing better. Karen!
DeleteSo glad you are feeling better, Karen!
DeleteSo happy to hear this good news, Karen . . . .
DeleteKaren, I’m so sorry about the heart attack. I was off-line for most of yesterday so I didn’t find out about it until just a few minutes ago. You are in my thoughts and prayers. Sounds like you’re in good hands. And you’re getting to see a part of Great Britain that most visitors don’t! (You know, trying to find the positive here!)
DeleteThank goodness for travel insurance.
DebRo
It was only a National Lakeshore when I lived there, but I loved growing up with the Indiana Dunes in my backyard. Beachcombing and finding the most interesting “rocks,” which were slag from the nearby steel mills.
ReplyDeleteA college friend is working her way through the national parks so I occasionally get a text like, “What do you think about Pinnacles in September?” After looking up its Central Valley location, I said, “It’s going to be hotter than he!!” But it was actually just warm, and beautiful and we had fun looking for condors (but only saw vultures).
A morning walk through a lovely flat field in Yellowstone in the summer of 1970. Very quite, very easy walking, and ahead of us a coyote which, as if it were the “family dog” liberated from a leash, bounding ahead, pausing to sure we were still following, and moving on. The experience was rather comforting, a nice touch of home, as we were in the midst of a cross country move. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteLove that coyote! They can be quite menacing… reminds me of when we were walking on a trail in the Yucatán and a litter of four or five puppies started following us, gamboling about it at our feet And I was terrified that they were gonna try to follow us back to our hotel and lose their mommy. They didn’t.
DeleteThank you, dear friends.
DeleteJudy, we had planned to be here in Oxford for three days, then fly back to Greece with them for the rest of our trip. They had picked us up at the train station, taken us out for a nice pub lunch, then to the hotel.
Edith, I became a birder in southern Florida, too, on my first trip there with Steve.
Hallie, we have only been to Ding Darling once, years ago and for a very short visit, but it was magical.
That's wonderful, Hallie. Did you go on a tour or with a friend/family member?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child, every summer my family of six would (tent) camp for two weeks in Sequoia National Park. We would hike, go on ranger walks, swim in the snow-melt dammed stream, make up treasure hunts, and gaze at the majestic tall trees. We learned how the indigenous people ground acorns and about John Muir and how meadows come from woods and return to them. Some nights we'd take sleeping bags to the big open parking lot at the little store, lie on our backs, and my mom would teach us about the stars.
It was idyllic, healthy, low-budget, and the best kind of vacation.
Wow. Totally idyllic … honestly, I can’t remember a single Vacation I took with my parents. Jerry and I took our kids everywhere on the other hand. Once on the way into Joshua tree, My daughter said “you’ve taken us nowhere before, but we’re really nowhere now”
DeleteEdith, perfect ! "Idyllic, healthy and low-budget" is a great description of tent camping. We tent camped every summer with our kids when they were young and I adored it. Our son has just purchased camping equipment and this past summer, he took our 8 year old grandson tent camping in Acadia, one of the places where we camped with him so long ago.
DeleteI went with friends and we booked day tours… Us and a driver in a Jeep so we could go off-road. My friends are great planners.
DeleteThat sounds perfect, Hallie. Judy, we tent camped with our boys when they were younger, too. And I took them to Sequoia for a few days one time we were in California (but we rented a rustic cabin) - I wanted them to experience my special place.
DeleteWhen we were in British Columbia a few years ago, we went for a walk in Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. It is a walking park through the Douglas Fir forest of century old trees. The forest includes trees over 800 years old, and some are 30 ft in circumference. The trees are left where they fall, allowing nature to take its course as they decompose in place offering habitat for plants, fungi and animals. It is incredibly quiet – sound just seems to be sucked up and swallowed by the forest. You could not even hear any birds. It is comforting like a cathedral.
DeleteI always wanted to see the Sequoias in California – maybe someday. By the way, the area was under threat of wild fire this summer, but thankfully it was spared. It would be a huge loss in so many ways.
The summer after my freshman year in college, I flew out to visit my aunt and uncle in California and was met there by my cousin, Ellen, who'd just finished her sophomore year in New Mexico. My aunt and uncle took us and their two kids who were 6 and 8 at the time to Sequoia and Yosemite. I loved it! We all stayed in tent cabins. It was magical. The night sky was full of shooting stars and I'd never seen scenery like we saw. We rode mules up a steep trail to one of the amazing overlooks.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years later, I returned with 2 girlfriends. Black bears were all over the place that year and I remember seeing one as I was heading to the "head." I turned and scurried back to my tent cabin until the coast was clear.
A few years ago, Irwin and I visited Yosemite with an excellent guide. It was irwin's first visit to that Park and it definitely isn't his favorite but it remains mine.
We took our two youngest to Yosemite about 25 years ago, and stayed in a tent cabin. It was wonderful, although all night long car alarms went off from the bears trying to get into them.
DeleteYosemite is its own kind of magnificent… the sheer scale and wildlife… oh my.
ReplyDeleteI went to the Muir Woods in San Francisco and it was naturally beautiful being among the redwoods. Went to Yosemite and saw the geyser spout and that was cool.
ReplyDeleteYes, those redwoods in Muir Woods are impressive.
DeleteSo many gorgeous National Parks to reflect on! I have fond memories of Grand Teton and Yellowstone, Zion and Bryce Canyon. As I've said before, I love mountains, so Rocky Mountain and Great Smoky Mountains are high on my list. But a more off-beat choice where my family had a wonderful time was Mammoth Cave. It is probably not a place I would have chosen to explore on my own, but at the time I had a son who was about 10 years old and it fascinated him, so we spent several days there. It was surprising to me how varied the different caves and tours were. I remember doing a nightime tour by lantern light only. Once we reached a big cave way inside, the lanterns were extinguished and we experienced a level of darkness I have never seen before or since. (Hubby and I did draw the line at tours that involved actual crawling through narrow openings. We told him he'd have to wait until he was old enough to go on Scouting treks like that, which he did, though never at Mammoth Cave.)
ReplyDeleteI remember cave tours as a kid, learning about stalactites and stalacmites.
DeleteI have been to plenty of mountainous places but Rocky Mountains National Park in early October was memorable. It was the first time I saw bull elk guarding their harems (females) and heard that eerie elk bugling sound.
ReplyDeleteI did one incredible roadtrip with a friend. I flew into Ontario CA (near LA) and she picked me up. We spent a couple of nights in Phoenix with another friend and then went up to Page, AZ, where we could access Antelope Canyon. It's on sovereign Navajo land and you have to sign up for a tour to get in. That slot canyon was just amazing. We managed to get to Zion, Bryce, Arches, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone as we made our way back to Oregon. It was an unforgettable trip! I also have to give a shout-out to Crater Lake, Oregon's only NP. You can drive around the lake and stop for short hikes. It's beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI visited Crater Lake in college, Gillian. It's stunning!
DeleteFavourite park, so far – Gros Morne in Newfoundland. We went there in 1977, when it was a designated provincial park, which meant it had camping (closed after Sept 1 – guess when we were there, so all free!). The camp sites had parking areas, barbecue areas and hot showers (the best bit). We were travelling in a 1976 Ford Econoline Van – red with yellow plush carpeting on the floor – that was left over from a home improvement done by my father, so not professionally installed. Interesting to be sure. It rained for 3 days. We did climb the mountain, which was more like a pimple, but anyway. The boardwalk across the tundra-like soil winded through the short stunted spruce trees. While approaching the swamp area, we met another traveler going the other way. He said “hello, where are you from in full Newfoundlanese (unintelligible to Jack from Quebec!). Would you like a picnic?” Now an ordinary person would shrug and high-tail it to the hills, but we were hungry, legs were tired, it was raining, and we still had the mountain to climb, so… “Yes please”. We sat together, and he opened his back pack and pulled out a can of Vienna sausages. Neither of us had ever eaten them before. He pulled the tab, and we all munched on cold little-bitty hotdogs and chatted. After a while and all the sausages, we thanked him, and both went our separate ways. I have never looked at a Vienna sausage without remembering that day ever since.
ReplyDeleteFollow-up. It never stopped raining so we went back home. This was our third ‘date’ (we had been together for 9 days at this point from May to Sept. Back at home he proposed – well he said” do you want to move to Montreal with me, and I said no, so I said do you want to move to Halifax, and he said no, so he said we might as well get married, so we did. I am sure it was only the van, my colour tv (it was 1977), and my cat (Cutest Cat in the Whole Wide World) that he wanted. Saw him again for 2 days at home while we told my parents and then he came back in November for the wedding – short and sweet. Cat is gone, tv is gone, and van had a big bimp, thanks to his father. Counting my days…
Gros Morne has been updated, and is now considered a World Heritage Site. I recommend it. Doubt that you will get any Vienna sausages, so best to bring your own!
Margo, your storytelling was just what I needed this morning. Thank you! My mom, a child of the Depression, loved Vienna sausages. For her they were a real treat.
DeleteThat's a grand story, Margo!! Red van with self-installed, luridly colored carpet was just the thing back then! And man, that was one romantic proposal. LOL!
DeleteVienna sausages remind me of my dad, who loved them with canned baked beans.
Hallie, you photos are beautiful. We've visited the areas you've visited a few times over the years, but never got to Sedona which I'd like to do someday. Did you get to see the Grand Canyon?
ReplyDeleteSedona is quaint and beautiful but very citified. I've been to the Grand Canyon many times... I think right now it's very much scarred by the fires.
DeleteAccording to Gemini AI, the plant in the bottom photo is Harriman's yucca. (I suspect you knew that). My heart belongs to Mount Rainier National Park. I could see The Mountain from my backyard growing up. Even when I couldn't see it, just knowing it was there comforted me. My parents honeymooned at the park. As a child, we took day trips frequently. Back then, it would take too long to circumvent the boundaries, so I didn't see the "back side" of the mountain until years later. My favorite folk tales during my childhood were the Paul Bunyan stories set in Washington State—I kept looking for side-hill gougers; I never spotted one.
ReplyDeleteSide-hill gougers? GOing to look it up...
DeleteThe Wendy’s sign about misfortune has to do with its tie-in with the Netflix series “Wednesday” as in Wednesday Addams of the Addams family. They have. Wednesday Addams meal.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtube.com/shorts/heNBEra-Xws?si=KKv4lEvMjXslM0um
Aha!! Thank you, Brenda. Mystery solved!
DeleteAHSO! Thanks for explaining, Brenda. And here I thought it was put up by some disgruntled employee after the outlet was shut down.
DeleteThis is so fabulous, Hallie! Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous.. I have very fond memories of Glacier National Park in Montana, so bleak and gorgeous that it seemed like the entire place was black-and-white. Loved it. Massive massive sky and the feeling that a dinosaur might come around any corner .
ReplyDeleteLiving in the city/suburb I forget what it's like to actually SEE to the horizon.
DeleteMy most absolutely favorite trip was Denali in Alaska. Viewing that scene at 11 p.m. and the sun shining brightly - what an experience.
ReplyDeleteI'd add our experience whale watching on Alaska's inland passage. Breathtaking.
DeleteGorgeous pictures, Hallie! Thank you for sharing your trip with us.
ReplyDeleteI relish my memories of Yosemite in particular. I'm currently needlepointing an ornament featuring Half Dome. I don't think anyone should be allowed to run for president who hasn't been to one of our spectacular national parks. It should be a requirement!
ReplyDeleteI so agree.
DeleteThe Grand Canyon. My first view of it was walking through the gift shop and exiting to see the expanse of the canyon in front of me. Having only seen pictures, I wasn’t prepared for the actual sight of it. For me it defied description. Although I didn’t descend into it, I did go around various areas of the south rim to see it from different perspectives which included a view of the Colorado River. I had wanted to take a float raft trip on the river but it was too early in the season and there weren’t enough people signed up for it. I watched people as they ventured out on their mules into the canyon, not something I was adventurous enough to do. I couldn’t help thinking of The Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe.
ReplyDeleteMy trip to Denali Park included seeing a mother bear with her cubs walking by the side of the road.
I was on a shuttle bus and the passengers weren’t allowed off until the bear family moved away.
Then, at the observation viewpoint I saw another bear browsing through the grass. There was a fox lying beneath the deck watching the bear.
In the Canadian Rockies I saw several of the glacial lakes with their unique turquoise color and their reflective mountains, Moraine, Peyto and Lake Louise. Whenever you see pictures of some of the most beautiful lakes in the world, these are usually featured.
Those turquoise lakes, opalescent and gorgeous.
DeletePlitvice Lakes a national park in Croatia. A group of upper lakes cascade into the lower ones through a series of waterfalls. Another place where words cannot give an adequate description of what younsee. There is a wooden walkway people can use to go across part of the lower lakes. It is a UNESCO world heritage site.
ReplyDeleteI use a picture of it as the wallpaper for my computers both at home and work.
The pictures and video I’ve seen are stunning!
DeleteI was there a few years ago! Gorgeous place.
DeleteI've been lucky enough to visit several national parks and can't pick a favorite. But I visited Mount Rushmore this summer and was truly awed. Despite all of the chaos going on now in this country, I couldn't help but feel wonder and pride, both for the ingenuity and immense undertaking it took to create the carvings but also of the accomplishments of the presidents depicted. If you go, I recommend staying to see the ceremony when they light the monument up at night. Spectacular. - Karen R
ReplyDeleteKaren, so interesting that you'd pick Mount Rushmore. I've ever been there and always dismissed it as kind of kitschy. Time to reassess.
DeleteWhen I was in high school, I attended Girl Scout Roundup in Idaho one summer. We traveled from hot, flat Houston where the flowers were fading from the heat. Before arriving at Coeur d'Alene we stopped at Glacier N.P. Bright beautiful flowers, green green green everywhere. It was magical. I've been to other beautiful parks before and since, but Glacier entranced me at the time.
ReplyDeleteGlacier is on my to-do list... sounds fantastic. We'd better all hurry up and go there before it all disappears.
DeleteMy parents were very good about taking us to National Parks. I was young (and now am not) so I don’t know if I remember all of them, but I know we visited Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and Yosemite. When we were in Yellowstone, we had an up-close-and-personal experience with a bear. The bears were very accustomed to the humans so they came close. We were in our station wagon parked at the side of the road and my mom was trying to take a picture of a bear when suddenly he noticed her. He ambled our way and my mom started panicking, trying to crawl into my dad’s lap while he was yelling at her to “roll up the window!” As soon as the window was closed, the bear put his nose against the window, looking in at us. This was in the days of full service gas stations so as we drove cross country back to California, my mom had to tell each attendant NOT to wash her window. She had her show-and-tell moment when we got home and she was able to show the neighbors the bear nose print!
ReplyDeleteI also was fortunate to spend a week in Yosemite my senior year of high school attending the Yosemite Institute. (It still exists today, but has a different name.) This was such a great experience learning about edible plants (who remembers Euell Gibbons on commercials saying, “many parts are edible“?), Native American stories about the stars, seeing my first shooting star, hiking everywhere, taking ice cold showers. For a kid who never went to sleep away camp, this was my first experience in that kind of environment. And what a gorgeous environment! — Pat S
Pat those experiences are priceless...
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