Fall Hike in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Silver Lake, Big Cottonwood Canyon

 View from Guardsman Pass (road from Big Cottonwood Canyon to Park City)

Christmas Meadows Camping

Tim and I spent the weekend camping in this beautiful place--Christmas Meadows in the High Uintas.  It was a challenge to get to and we both froze the first night when the temperatures dropped into the 30s, but the scenery was spectacular and we both had a great time.  The stars were amazing the first night, but I had camera problems so wasn't able to get any pictures.  It was actually kind of nice to just enjoy the stars rather than trying to get the perfect shot!

Columbia River Gorge, Olympia National Park, and Portland Rose Garden

Nate, Tim, and I took a weekend trip to Oregon and Washington earlier this month. Here are a few of my favorite pictures.

The beautiful Columbia River Gorge on a cold and rainy June day.

Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

The bottom half of Multnomah Falls.

Old growth forest in Olympia National Park.

A moss-draped maple tree in the Hoh Rainforest in Olympia National Park.

The Hoh Rainforest receives between 140 and 170 inches of rain each year.

Ferns in the rainforest.

A beautiful road in Olympia National Park.

We also stopped by the Portland International Rose Test Garden.

More roses.

There were roses as far as the eye could see and they were all in bloom!

I loved the raindrops on the petals.

Not roses!

Nepal-Everest Base Camp Hike

The most extreme airport in the world due to the short runway:

Porters carrying random items:

Very large backpacks!

The scenery:

The altitude:

Supposed to be Everest:

Arches National Park

To celebrate the warmer temperatures, a friend and I decided to spend a Saturday in Arches National Park near Moab. I've long since decided that you can't really see a national park from a car, so we decided to make the most of our time by taking the 7 mile "Devil's Garden" (inviting name, huh?) hike. We decided to do the full loop, which meant spending about half the hike on so-called "primitive trail." As it turns out, trudging through sand for two hours isn't as fun as it sounds.

It took a long time (4 1/2 hours) and was really strenuous - but we saw saw some great sights that we definitely couldn't have seen from a car.

I loved the distant snow-covered mountains that you could see from several vistas in the park.

Landscape Arch - the longest natural arch in the world.

More of the Landscape Arch

Part of the "trail"

This was the scariest part of the hike - you can't really see it in this picture, but there's quite a drop off on both sides of this rock fin.

The aptly named "Double O" Arch

The awesomely named "Dark Angel."

"The Windows" (these weren't part of the hike.)

More of the Arches landscape.

Joshua Tree National Park

Tim and I spent the day after Christmas at Joshua Tree National Park.  The landscape was very beautiful, with giant rock formations and twisted joshua trees.  The late afternoon and evening sun provided great picture-taking conditions.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get any good star shots because there was a full moon and it was really windy.

Petroglyphs at Barker Dam.

 

 Desert Big Horn Sheep