Our Route - starting and ending in Las Vegas, Nevada

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We flew from RDU to Las Vegas on the red eye, departing at 7:45 pm.  We encountered quite a bit of turbulence apparently due to storms in the central US, so the flight was scary in parts for we flying wimps.  We did get to see a good in-flight movie, however, Fun with Dick and Jane.  I'm a huge Jim Carrey fan, so that was a nice treat, and for the first time, we remembered to bring headphones so we could listen for free. 

Gaining three hours of time as we crossed the country, we arrived at the Las Vegas airport at 9:30 pm Pacific time, which, of course, was 12:30 am Eastern time, later than we ever stay up (old fogeys that we are).  Before landing, it was a thrill to see the lights of Las Vegas suddenly come into view from up above.  After seeing the scattered lights of small towns prior, Las Vegas lights were a completely different experience.  This was sure to be the first of several "WOW" experiences on this trip.

The Las Vegas airport was huge, and I got to see my first ever slot machines.  It reminded me of my first visit to New York City; the small-town girl peering up at the huge buildings syndrome.  Pretty cool. 

Picking up our rental car proved to be quite an adventure.  After retrieving our luggage, it was 10 o'clock, and we were just a couple of minutes too late to check in at the National car rental counter at the airport.  We had to pile onto a packed shuttle bus with many other travelers to get to the main National lot, where we checked in.  The clerk told us we could have our choice of any intermediate-sized car, which had us pretty stoked, but when we headed out to the lot, there was not a single car in the intermediate section!  We spoke to another couple waiting there, and they informed us that more cars were coming.  After waiting around for awhile with the line of people waiting for cars behind us continued to grow, we were finally presented with a cute PT Cruiser; however, we were disappointed to find that the car was a lot smaller than what we'd assumed a "mid-sized" car to be (much smaller than my Honda Element), and some of our bags would have to go in the back seat; not the most secure situation.  But, it was too late to wait for the "perfect" car to arrive, so we forged onward until we discovered the straw that broke the camel's back:  no car key! 

The lack of a key proved to be a blessing in disguise, as when we finally got the attention of the National representative who was working the lot and trying to appease the growing line of couples waiting for an intermediate-sized car, he put us into a full size Chevy Impala (white, and with California tags) that had just come into the lot.  The gas mileage wouldn't be quite as good as the PT Cruiser, probably, but the trunk was cavernous and would hold our two huge rolling duffles and our other smaller bags, so we were very pleased and took off.

Checking out of the lot, Barry had to hand our rental agreement and his driver's license to a National representative for one last check.  He hastily got out his wallet, took out his license, and handed it over.  When the clerk gave everything back to him, Barry threw it all into a pile on my lap to deal with later.  Because I was trying to locate our Holiday Inn Express on our GPS, I let everything sit in my lap.  At this point, the local time was close to 11 pm, 2 am eastern time, so we weren't thinking all that clearly, and being in a strange town, were probably both a bit disoriented.  After dealing with the GPS and instructing Barry on the first few turns, I went to clean up the mess in my lap, but Barry's driver's license was not to be found.  In a panic, I went through all the papers in my lap over and over, but no license.  We stopped in a parking lot and looked everywhere in the car but couldn't find the license anywhere.  It was starting to dawn on us how serious a situation this was.  Without his license, Barry couldn't drive for the two weeks of our trip, but the worst of it was that he would need the license to get through security at the Vegas airport on our way home.  I was getting pretty anxious at this point, and I am sure he was as well.

We turned around to head back to the National lot to see if by some chance the license had dropped on the road or the clerk had inadvertently kept it.  We took a couple of wrong turns so had to loop back around but finally made it back to the lot.  We were there for at least 30 minutes, while Barry spoke to the National clerk who had taken his license, the rental agent, and a manager, and checked the road where he had handed his license over.  In the meantime, I searched all over the car and through the papers again and again, but I was quickly losing hope and devising alternate plans of ordering a replacement license from the NC DMV web site and having it mailed to Barry's friend Chris in Vegas in time for our flight home (if they would even do such a thing).  At last, I saw Barry and a National employee coming towards the car.  No license, but she was going to help us look.  She started on the driver's side with a small flashlight, and Barry came over to the passenger side with his flashlight.  All of a sudden, he saw a reflection in a small slot under the passenger seat (where I had looked numerous times, but without a flashlight), and there it was!  Whewwwwww!  Thinking back, we had hit a rather large dip in the road early on our trip away from the National lot, and I suspect it bounced right off my lap to the side by the door and slid down in the crevice there at that time.  Why we didn't find it before was a mystery, but thank goodness it was finally located!  We both breathed a huge sigh of relief and thanked the National employee profusely, even though she really hadn't done anything specific to help; but just her presence was great for our very low morale.

After this misadventure, we finally pulled into the Holiday Inn Express in Henderson at the stroke of midnight (3 am Eastern time), completely spent.  By the time we got to the room, unpacked a few things, had a snack and got to bed, it was close to 1 am Pacific, 4 am Eastern, the latest we have stayed up for years.  The one advantage of this miserable night was that it helped us adjust to Pacific time in just one day, since we slept much later than we had expected to that next morning (7:30 am Pacific, very close to our normal wake-up time when home), and from that point forward, stuck with the Pacific time schedule with no serious signs of jet lag

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We had a neat experience this morning upon awakening.  Since we'd arrived in Vegas after dark, everything appeared absolutely flat (and the roads we took to get to the motel were indeed flat).  However, upon first peering out our window in the morning, Barry said "Wow."  And then, "The things we couldn't see last night."  That got me out of bed.  I ran over to see what he was talking about.  Opening the curtains, I also let out an inadvertent "Wow."  There were gorgeous red-rock mountains, completely development-free, right in view from our motel room!  We were later to see that the entire area is surrounded by these mountains, a few of which even had snow on the highest peaks, despite the hot, sunny climate in the valley.  They were so beautiful and exotic to us; we could hardly imagine having this view every day.

Today was a busy but fun day hanging out with Barry's friend Chris, who lives in Henderson (very close to our Holiday Inn Express) and works on software for slot machines for Bally.  After a filling brunch at the motel, we called Chris and arranged to go to his house soon thereafter.  After a quick drive over, we pulled into his subdivision and found it interesting that all the houses looked exactly the same; and these were large homes with three-car garages, not starter homes. But such is the housing around Vegas, as we discovered.  Subdivisions are all very matchy-matchy, with postage-stamp lots and houses in the beiges, tans, and reds of the desert.  In some ways, even though it's a bit bland and boring, it does make the many seas of roofs of all the houses in these very open subdivisions (no huge trees as in the east) blend in more and not assault the eye quite as badly.

It was great to see Chris, his wife Patricia, and their kids Eric, Paige, Hailey, and Ashley again after so long; they had moved away from North Carolina three years prior.  They gave us a tour of their large house (and their tiny lot!), and we caught up for a short time before heading out with Chris as our tour guide for Red Rock Canyon.  Patricia and the kids stayed behind to shop and do other things.

Red Rock Canyon, about 30 minutes from Chris's house, was absolutely gorgeous.  It was unlike anything I've ever seen before; in fact, my mouth was open for most of the drive over, just taking in the interesting rock formations and earthy desert colors.  It was all so incredibly different from the green and forested east I'd been accustomed to my entire life.

At the canyon, we did a scenic drive and stopped at several scenic areas for short hikes, but we didn't go far.  Chris is undergoing cancer treatment, and although he seemed full of energy, we didn't want to wear him out.  We just appreciated him taking the time to tell us about the canyon and show us its beauty. 

One thing that I had read about but noticed for the first time at the canyon was the astonishingly blue skies, even without the darkening power of sunglasses.  The sky against the red rocks was absolutely brilliant turquoise, yet another "Wow" moment on this trip.  I couldn't take my eyes off it.  Sure, we have pretty "Carolina blue" skies back home, but these desert skies have them beat hands down!

After returning from the canyon and changing clothes, we met Chris and Patricia for a "Vegas buffet" dinner at a huge hotel and casino within walking distance of our Holiday Inn Express.  It was quite good and definitely encouraged gluttony!  After eating, we visited the casino and Chris helped us sign up for a gambling card there.  As newcomers, our cards were preloaded with a "surprise" amount of money (up to $500, but we figured we'd get more like $5).  Chris and Patricia explained the fancy video slot machines to us, and we inserted our cards to see how much surprise loot we had.  Barry only had $3, but I had $25!  Patricia said she'd never seen anyone get that much, so my luck was starting out pretty good.  We had fun playing, and finally cashed out after many games. Barry ended up losing all of his $3, while I ended up with $17.65, though given that I started with $25, I actually lost money, but at least it wasn't my own!

Chris then drove us all to "The Strip" in Vegas for a tour of the place so often seen on TV, but never by us.  He made a great guide as his job with Bally requires visiting casinos, so he was familiar with most of the casinos downtown.  We saw many huge and fancy hotels like the Luxor, the Bellagio; New York, New York, and others, and all the casinos.  We didn't gamble any more other than a couple quick slot games for me; I invested a piddling $1 and ended up doubling my investment.  We took a monorail tram part of the way from hotel to hotel, but mostly walked, and walked, and walked.  We got to see a spectacular (and free) fountain light show at the Bellagio, did some people watching, and Barry and I each got a fancy (and very good) frozen drink at a bar to quench our thirst.  The dry desert air really does increase the need to hydrate.

We didn't quite make it all the way down the strip as it was getting late, and I in particular was getting sleepy after our crazy night and not quite enough sleep the night before (and perhaps a little jet lag; 10 pm probably felt a bit later to me still), so I was the party-pooper who asked to turn around before we got down to Caesar's Palace and a couple of other fancy hotels, but when we finally got back to the Holiday Inn at 11 pm, Barry seemed glad we hadn't gone farther as it would have been midnight then.  We certainly enjoyed our whirlwind tour of Vegas; however!   We'll be returning to Henderson for one night at the end of our trip (May 13), and plan on seeing Chris and Patricia again.



After another filling breakfast buffet at the HIX, we checked out and began our drive to the Grand Canyon.  The drive included many points of interest, most notably the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead.  Seeing the bright blue water and expansiveness of Lake Mead appear suddenly after rounding a curve was another one of the "wow" moments on this trip.  I'm finding that everything here in the west seems so big - the views, the rocks, the sky, and now this glorious lake.  We haven't had a chance to look at our pictures yet, but I suspect they won't do it justice.

We stopped at a parking area near the Hoover dam and took a few photos before heading on.  As we got into Arizona, we finally started seeing more green along the road, and we encountered our first 75-mph speed limit on I-40.  Never see that in the east!  We also saw two fully-loaded touring cyclists riding on the shoulder.  In the west, cyclists are allowed to ride the interstates as there are so few routes available.

We went through a little light rain as we approached Grand Canyon Village, and, after paying $3.25 per gallon for regular gas (yikes!) just before reaching the Entrance Rd., we finally arrived at the Grand Canyon.  My first view of the South Rim from the car brought a tear to my eye; this was indeed one of the world's seven wonders!  No photographs can do justice to the vastness, the colors, the spectacular geology of the Grand Canyon up close and personal.

We checked into our room at the Yavapai Lodge, which was quite comfortable and quiet, since it was removed from the hustle and bustle of the main village, and headed out on a walk on the Rim Trail to see the canyon and check out a few birds along the way.  We are adding to our birding life lists daily with all the different birds out west.

At some point along the trail while I marveled at the magnificence of the canyon and snapped photos, Barry realized that his glasses were not in his pocket.  He'd been using them off and on to check out birds or peer into our bird book, and the shallow pockets of his fleece jacket apparently allowed them to slip out at some point.  I'm beginning to wonder if losing things is to be a theme of this trip (let's hope not!)

We were starving as we had only had a Powerbar for lunch after our large breakfast, and had planned on an early dinner at the Arizona Room overlooking the South Rim, but now we had to head back, retracing our steps, and hope that we might find the glasses.  This added several additional miles to our walking total for the night, which we hoped to keep pretty low mileage since we had our long canyon hike the following day.  We ended up with 5.6 miles of walking, fortunately on mostly flat trail and roads, but more than we'd planned on, and didn't find the glasses.  Fortunately Barry has an eye appointment in June and needed a new prescription anyway, but it was still disappointing to lose them as it meant that he would need to do without reading glasses until we could find a place to buy an inexpensive pair (the ones he lost were expensive progressives).

By the time we got back to the Arizona Room, there was a 30 minute wait for dinner, and we were definitely ready to eat!  The food was very nice, with a Tex-Mex flair.  Barry had roasted red pepper soup and vegetarian enchiladas, and I had Arizona Caesar salad and pan-seared salmon with fruit salsa.  Delicious!  For dessert, we split a piece of peach/blackberry streusel pie.  Mmmmm....

After dinner and walking back to our room (still looking for the glasses, though it was getting quite dark), we did our many preparations for our next-day's hike: getting food ready, filling our hydration system bladders with water and putting them into the refrigerator to chill, and laying out our clothes and gear, then we hit the hay around 10 pm, knowing we had an early morning the next day.




Today's the day!  We had planned, trained for, and dreamed about this hike for months, and Barry woke up bright and early at 5:30 am.  We'd planned to sleep until 6, but it was just as well, as with all the preparation and eating we had to do before leaving the room we still caught the shuttle fifteen minutes later than we'd planned (7 am instead of 6:45 am).  Actually, the slight delay ended up being serendipitous as on the walk over to the shuttle stop, we met a couple around our ages from Phoenix who had done the hike we'd planned (S. Kaibab Trail down to the Colorado River and back up the Bright Angel Trail) ten times!  He had an artificial hip (and a noticeable limp) and asthma, so I felt better about my chances of completing the hike.  They were able to answer some of our questions and let us know more about what the hike was like, so running into them was great.  We also met a young couple from Michigan on the bus who were planning the same hike today.  We would run into them many times along the way, though we never saw the first couple, Dave and Debbie, who were probably very fast, not stopping for pictures along the way, having done it so many times (once a year, they said).  They said they normally did it in around eight hours, which is the fastest we've ever heard anyone doing it.  We were shooting for ten hours, ourselves.

After the shuttle ride, we got going on the long trek down the S. Kaibab trail at 7:15 am.  Despite the Weather Channel reporting a temperature of 34, it felt much warmer in the sunshine, and we soon realized we'd worn more layers than we needed.  Before too long, we had to peel or zip off everything but shorts and a Coolmax top apiece and carry our extra layers in our daypacks. 

Early on we were greeted with the spectacular sight of a California Condor flying very nearby.  Another "wow" moment!  We had hoped to see one of these magnificent birds, and actually got to see two on the way down this trail. We were also treated to incredible vistas at every turn. Although we took numerous pictures, they won't do justice to the beauty we saw this day.

The temperature continued to climb as we hiked downward.  The S. Kaibab Trail descends 4620' in just six miles, so is quite steep.  Our trekking poles helped, but I still felt my left knee starting to get sore, and my left shoulder ailing a bit from carrying a heavy pack with all the water and food, plus peeled-off clothing.  Wish I'd started in shorts and my t-shirt and just toughed it out.  I also felt the distant early warning signs of blisters on both pinky toes, which I hadn't had a problem with before.  I had recently added inserts in my boots to protect my feet moving forward in the boots, since I already have one black toenail (not caused by hiking but by some fast walking in new running shoes that were too tight in the toebox), so I suspect the slight change in the position of my feet and toes in the boots resulted in the blisters. 

Along the trail at a point known as Skeleton Point, we finally saw it:  the Colorado River in all her aqua-blue, magestic glory.  Wow!  Yes, another one of those moments.  We would continue to see the river off and on for the rest of our trek down the canyon wall.  She was a real beaut, and as hot as it was getting, a dip into her icy-cold waters seemed like it would feel really good; but with the fast current, swimming is not allowed.  We could see white-water kayaks and various pontoon boats loading up with people preparing to go on river runs.

Arriving at the river at last, we crossed the first suspension bridge, which was beautiful and provided amazing views of the river and canyon walls in all directions.  We crossed to the other side of the river and considered an additional mile of hiking to and from Phantom Ranch, but ended up deciding against it, and were glad we did as we'd had plenty of hiking by day's end, and an extra mile would have felt nearly impossible.

We found a nice spot to take a break on some rocks under trees.  I took off my boots and put blister bandages on my two pinky toes.  We ate some gorp and energy bars, and drank more water before taking off again to begin the trek upwards.  We would cross a second suspension bridge and hike on the River Trail before hitting the Bright Angel Trail to ascend steeply to the top of the canyon. 

They say to allow twice as long to climb the canyon as to descend, but fortunately it did not take us quite that long.  We reached the bottom of the S. Kaibab trail at 3.5 hours and left the river area at 4 hours and five minutes.  If it had taken us the suggested time to reach the top, we would have been looking at seven additional hours and a total time of 11 hours or more.  Thankfully, we did better than that.

As we started ascending, the temperature continued to rise for awhile.  The highest we saw on Barry's temperature gauge was 96 degrees, but being a dry heat, it felt about ten degrees less to us; however, it was still hot, with full sun beating down on us and soaking into the rocky faces around us.  We saw on The Weather Channel that there is a heat wave going on this week in the southwest as it normally would not have been quite as hot this early in May. 

The climb up was long and hot until the last few miles.  Finally, the temperature dipped into the 70s and then into the 60s as we reached the rim, which was more like it. 

At one point on the way up, I am fairly sure that I heard a rattlesnake rattle its tail very close to the trail, in some tall grass.  I hightailed it away from there quickly, and we shouted down to the Michigan couple, a bit behind us on the trail, to warn them to be careful.  I now wonder if the "rattle" may just have been a lizard rustling in some brush, but it sure sounded like a rattler, and I didn't want to stick around to make sure!

The hike upward went on and on, up many switchbacks, but we did pretty well.  Barry could have almost jogged up the way he was going, but I required a few more rest stops to let my heart rate go down a bit so that I could continue.  Still, even though I sometimes lagged, we passed quite a few other hikers on the way up and were only passed by one young guy hiking very fast by himself.  We are definitely stronger climbers than we are descenders, as we were passed by quite a few fit (and younger) hikers on the way down. 

On the trail up there are 3 rest areas - one at 4.5 miles from the top, one at 3 miles and the last one at 1.5 miles. We had read that they would have water at these stops, however it turned out that only the one at 4.5 miles had water. Water is normally turned on May 1st, so maybe they were a little slow getting around to turning them all on. As a result we ran out of water with about one mile to go.

Finally, we could see a house at the top of the canyon and realized that we had ascended nearly the full 4620' feet back up to the top.  The trail became clogged with tourists in the last mile or two, all of whom looked very fresh compared to us, as most were doing a short day hike to the first rest stop (1.5 miles) and back up, while we were going on over 16 miles at that point.  When we finally reached the top, elated, we had completed the hike in 9 hours, 15 minutes, and were very pleased with that time.  Excluding the .6 mile walk to the shuttle stop, we had hiked 17.6 miles! 

We didn't want to take the time to shuttle back to our room to change clothes, so we just ducked into the Arizona Room again for another wonderful meal, though I must confess I wasn't very hungry.  A physical feat like this one tends to kill the appetite for awhile afterwards, even though we knew we needed the calories. As we were quite parched by this time, we downed two pitchers of water and margaritas with plenty of salt. We also had an appetizer of smoked chicken and cheese quesadillas. For our entrees, Barry had the salmon, while I had the beef tenderloin (with a full complement of side dishes). After all that, we were too full for dessert. After dinner we caught the shuttle back to our room (no more walking for us) and limped to the shower.  We were both pretty stiff and sore, and I was a little sunburned as well, but we felt great about what we had accomplished.  We did it!



We woke up this morning after our big Grand Canyon hike with aches and pains all over, blistered toes, but in good spirits.  We were able to do a little "recovery walking" down to the Yavapai cafeteria for a big breakfast, then to the gift shop nearby, where we bought the requisite Grand Canyon magnet.  We then decided to walk up to the Visitor Information Center to check lost and found for Barry's glasses. 

Unfortunately, his glasses had not been turned in, but we were able to fill out a form so that if they are found, we can be contacted, and they will mail them to us.  [Update: two months later and no call, so it looks like the glasses are gone forever.  Fortunately Barry has his new glasses now!]  We decided we should walk the part of the South Rim Trail where he had lost his glasses one last time, so we hopped on the shuttle to the village and got off at the El Tovar hotel.  I wanted to see the lobby, so we went inside and checked it out, plus a gift shop.  I found a cute Grand Canyon hiking t-shirt so bought that as my remembrance of our hike, and we started our South Rim walk.  No glasses.  Who knows if they will ever turn up, but at least we got to see a lot of new birds.  One of the most exciting ones we've seen on this trip is the gorgeous male Western Bluebird.  So beautiful!

We got back to our room, finished our last-minute packing, and loaded up the car.  After checking out at 10:45 am, we were on the road to Sedona.  It was another gorgeous drive, during which we ascended to 8000' feet and saw mountains over 12,000' feet high, a first for this east-coast gal.  Majestic!

We stopped at the Wal-Mart in Flagstaff (an attractive town but with quite a bit of traffic) for some new reading glasses for Barry before heading to Sedona, on a gorgeous, curvy mountain road, surrounded by cliffs and evergreens on both sides.  All of a sudden, the red rocks appeared, and that was another "wow" moment on this trip for me.  Barry had been to Sedona before, many years ago, but he was excited for me to see its glory, and glorious it was!

Our Best Western was right in the heart of uptown Sedona and allowed us easy walking to many shops, galleries, and restaurants.  We had views of huge red rocks right out our balcony and across the road as well.  What a stunning place this was; I can see why so many are attracted to this town.  There was indeed something magical about it.

After a quick bite of lunch, we spent the afternoon doing a little sight-seeing.  We first went to Tlaquepaque arts and crafts center.  From our research, this shopping village of adobe and cobblestones, adorned with fountains and artwork, is internationally renowned and the most distinctive shopping in the southwest.  It is patterned after an authentic Mexican village, and is quite impressive. I had been needing a new belt so found a nice one at a leather shop there, and we enjoyed walking around, looking at the graceful fountains and many sculptures of animals.  One gallery had a fun outdoor area with stone chairs made by an artist (amazingly comfortable), along with beautiful ironwork windcatchers. 

Next, we headed over to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a famous modern church set high in the red rocks, designed by a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired female architect.  It was stunning and attracting quite a large group of tourists.


For dinner we ate at the Oaxaca Restaurant (Mexican) across the road from our hotel.  It had been recommended to us by a friend and was wonderful, with fresh, healthy food and huge portions.  We also enjoyed their delicious margaritas and shared a huge, decadent dessert (Chocolate Binge!)  I think we've more than made up for yesterday's hike now, so hopefully we can hold our eating down to a dull roar from here on out!



Another beautiful day dawned in Sedona, and we woke up as the sun peeked over the red rocks behind our hotel.  What a view!  After having Belgian waffles for breakfast at the hotel's continental buffet, we quickly headed out to start the day's adventures.  We were actually on the road before 8:30 am, a rarity for us.  We have been getting to bed about an hour before we do at home, so that helps with getting up early.

We had hoped to hike and see Cathedral Rock, Boynton Canyon, and Red Rock State Park today, which were just a smattering of the hundreds of hiking trails in and around Sedona (we are already talking about a longer trip here in the future).  Our first stop was Cathedral Rock, one of the stunning red rock formations just outside of Sedona city limits.  When we arrived at the parking area, we discovered that we needed a Red Rock Pass to park there, and the machine that dispensed them was out of order, so we had to turn around and head back into town to find out where to buy one.  A Red Rock Pass will allow you to park at all the various hiking trails, state parks, and recreation areas around the Sedona area, and is $5 for a single day.  We finally found a visitor's center and inquired, and it turned out that we could purchase the pass at the Circle K gas station up the road, so we did that and got back on our way to Cathedral Rock.

There were already a few hikers making their way up ahead of us on this short (1.2 mile round trip) but very steep trail to the "saddle" area between two huge red-rock formations.  Cathedral Rock is the most photographed red rock formation in the Sedona area, and has "starred" in many TV commercials over the years.  We had no idea how steep it would be, but it definitely challenged us.  We were holding onto rocks and scrambling up like mountain climbers, but it was kinda fun.  We saw several people turn around part-way up, but we persevered and made it to the top, and the views were well worth it.  After ascending approximately 600' from the parking area, we had many-mile views in all directions.  I had read that there was a vortex (an area where electromagnetic energy collects, creating energy "whirlpools") near the top of the saddle area on a conical area of black rocks, which Barry finally spotted.  We were able to take a small trail to the vortex area and climb up it.  Barry actually sat on the very top for some time, so hopefully he received all the power of the energy!  I didn't make it quite to the top, but close.  I don't know that I felt anything different, but it was certainly a beautiful and peaceful place to be. 

On the way down the main Cathedral Rock trail, we ran into a twenty-something guy hiking up.  He asked if we would mind taking his picture, and of course we were happy to oblige.  He then noticed my Cleveland Indians ballcap and asked if we were from Cleveland.  We explained that Barry was originally from Ohio and is a big Indians fan, and he said he was from Cleveland, Shaker Heights!  He was in Sedona for a seminar.  We mentioned doing our rim to river and back Grand Canyon hike, which he knew the significance of (he seemed to know the trails there so had obviously been there before).  When he heard about our hike, he said "You guys rock."  Kinda cool to hear for a couple of old geezers!   

On the way down the road out of the Cathedral Rock area, we had seen a couple of real estate for sale signs for building lots, so we decided to stop and pick up information sheets just for a little shock to the system, and shock they did.  We knew that the lots would have a million-dollar view of Cathedral Rock, but the first one was even richer:  $1.25 million!  It was a nice large lot of 3.57 acres, but still; can you imagine the house someone will build on it?  The second lot was slightly smaller, closer to the main road, but still had fabulous Cathedral Rock views, and was offered at a mere $699K.  Think we should put in an offer?  (Haha!)

Since we had gotten a later start than planned and had spent more time at the top as well, we were both starting to get a little hungry, so we decided to head back into town for a small lunch (a granola bar from our stash and a great fruit smoothie from the take-out "food court" area we'd found yesterday right down from our hotel).  Afterwards, we headed to Boynton Canyon, which was supposed to be gorgeous (and was), for a longer afternoon hike.  According to the Forest Service newspaper we had, the Boynton Canyon Trail was 2.4 miles, and we did the side spur Vista Trail (about 1/2 mile) to take in some additional views, so we planned on no more than three miles to the end of the trail (it was an out and back), and yet it went on and on.  It was absolutely gorgeous, encompassing several types of ecosystems; in fact, I realized it had all of NC in a short hike:  mountains/rock as in the NC mountains (though red instead of gray); sandy, flat areas with scrubby shrubs, like the NC coastal plain, and rolling mixed deciduous/pine forests like the NC piedmont.  Kinda interesting!

When we got to the lookout and turnaround point, after a brief, steep climb at the end of the trail, our GPS reported 3.77 miles, so we realized that the trail was indeed longer than the Forest Service listing said; in fact, we chatted with another couple at the end who said that their book indicated the Boynton Canyon Trail itself was 3.25 miles.  That matched up exactly with our GPS reading (including our estimate for the Vista Trail), but meant that we had 3.25 miles more to go to get back to the trailhead - not normally a problem for us, but Barry was out of water, and I needed a rest room (there were enough hikers on this trail that nature breaks were pretty much impossible).  So, we had to make pretty good time back, and did.  We ended up with a total of just under 7 miles for this hike, but our feet were definitely speaking to us by the second half of it, having still not completely recovered from the Grand Canyon hike.  I guess it's like the saddle area on a bike; whatever body part takes the brunt of your body weight suffers the most pain during and after a long event. 

On the way back to the trailhead, we ran into a friendly couple from Tennessee, and it was kinda nice to hear a southern accent for the first time in awhile.  The woman mentioned having a daughter named Emily.  Then, we ran into a group of three people, and the woman said that I looked familiar.  Now that was quite a hoot since we were so far from home, so I assumed she must have been mistaken, but she finally placed me:  they had seen us on the shuttle bus at the Grand Canyon two days prior!  She remembered me because we had seen a couple of elk out the windows of the bus, and I had never seen one before so was excited about that.  I didn't remember seeing her, but it was kinda neat to run into someone we'd encountered before on this trip.

By the time we finished the hike, it had gotten too late to get to Red Rock State Park and still eat dinner early as we have been doing on this trip.  Since the 8 pm TV shows at home come on at 7 pm here in Arizona, we like to get home in time for those (mostly me, but Barry has Prison Break and 24 on Mondays), plus we are eating large breakfasts but light lunches, so are really needing dinner earlier than normal.  So, we just headed right to El Rincon Restaurant back at Tlaquepaque village.  Thankfully, it is a very casual place, so our hiking clothes were fine. We were able to secure a table outdoors on the patio, and had margaritas and a good Mexican meal.  I had a combination plate with a tamale, cheese enchilida, rice, and beans; and Barry had a huge chicken burrito, rice, and beans.  It was delicious, but I must say that we would give a higher rating overall to Oaxaca Restaurant, where we'd eaten the night before.  In fact, Barry suggested that we head over to Oaxaca on the way back to the hotel, to split another Chocolate Binge for dessert.  Even though I am sure I really didn't need dessert, it sounded like a pretty good idea to me, and it was an amazing dessert, so we did that.  I got a fancy dessert coffee to accompany the "Binge", and let Barry eat at least 2/3 of the dessert.  Barry came up with an idea for making an ice-cream pie to mimic it, using cinnamon graham crackers to make a crust.  Here's how the dessert is described on the Oaxaca web site:  Coffee ice cream inside a crispy cinnamon coated flour tortilla, topped with a chocolate, peanut butter, and honey sauce, garnished with pecans. Barry proclaimed this dessert the best he's ever had!

It was another wonderful day in Sedona, and I am in love with this charming and gorgeous town and area.  The weather has been lovely (today's high was in the low to mid 80s but felt much cooler because of the lack of humidity, and lows were in the 50s), and we wish we could stay longer, but tomorrow we are off to Albuquerque, stopping to see the Petrified Forest National Park on the way.  New Mexico, here we come!




We had a little harder time getting out of bed today as I guess our busy days had finally caught up to us, but we still managed to get up around 7 am as we had a lot of driving ahead and wanted to check out by 9 am.  We didn't quite meet that goal as we got involved in some bird-watching from our balcony, and Barry was enjoying taking photos of the many birds attracted to the trees, flowers, and birdbath behind the hotel.  It was a lovely haven for them, with the red rocks in the background.  We saw a hummingbird numerous times and think it was a Black-Chinned, along with House Finches, Western Scrub Jays, and what we later identified as Lesser Goldfinches, among others.  Barry got lucky enough to spot a stunning male Western Tanager in a tree when he went out into the courtyard and grassy area to take a few more photos.  Unfortunately we've seen at least twice as many birds as we have been able to identify, even with the help of our new Western Birds book, on this trip.  The funniest sighting today was a male mallard who landed in the hotel pool for a brief dip; Barry caught a photo of him swimming about.

After checking out of the hotel and getting on the road around 9:30, we had a two-hour drive to the Petrified Forest National Park.  This park is in the Painted Desert, which was fascinating and beautiful in an other-worldly way.  The entire park looked like it must be on another planet.  To see most of it, we drove the lightly traveled 30-mile road through the park (we only went a little over 20 miles before turning back), stopping to take in several scenic overlook points for photos as well as three short trails, all of which were completely different. 

The first was the Puerto Pueblo Trail, only a third of a mile, and wound its way through the remains of a hundred-room pueblo inhabited between the years 1250-1400 A.D.  Very interesting for the history buffs.  The second trail we walked, Crystal Forest, was a fascinating 3/4 mile loop through a "forest" of petrified logs with various colored crystals in them.  Really neat and otherworldly.  While in this area, we saw an interesting pair of birds we were later able to identify as Horned Larks from our photos, and a cool bright green largish lizard that we believe was a Collared Lizard. We enjoyed the wildlife as well as the interesting petrified wood.


The final trail we took was the Painted Desert Rim Trail, a 1-mile loop overlooking the Painted Desert.  In addition to amazing views of the desert, we saw numerous birds in this area and only wish we could identify them all.   

We were a bit later in leaving the park than anticipated since it was so interesting, and then lost another hour springing forward as we crossed the New Mexico border (Arizona does not participate in Daylight Savings Time), so this day seemed to fly by.  New Mexico brought interesting landscapes with mountains and rocks in all directions off of the flat plain of I-40.  We also saw numerous trains traveling the rails paralleling the interstate, some of them nearly a mile long. The drive to Albuquerque from the park was around 2 hours, 45 minutes.

Arriving in Albuquerque brought us our latest snafu of the trip.  I had booked a reservation at the Clubhouse Inn and Suites in January on the recommendations I read on one of my favorite websites, tripadvisor.com.  When I went to check in, they had no record of my reservation!  I had my confirmation number and everything, and was able to show the front desk clerk the email I had received thanking me for my reservation with all the information, but she had no explanation for what had happened.  They were completely booked, but she honored my reservation saying that hopefully not everyone who made reservations would show up since they were now overbooked.  She never apologized for the mix-up, which I thought was kinda rude, so I grabbed the hotel manager's business card so that I could let him know what happened; obviously there is a glitch in their booking system that needs to be attended to.

We then went to "our" room with the key the clerk issued us, and someone was in the room!  Fortunately, they had the door partially open, so we didn't walk in on anyone, but still, that was the last straw.  I decided then and there I was not staying there.  I called the Holiday Inn reservation number from my cell phone in the parking lot and was able to book a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Albuquerque for the next two nights, thank goodness.  I then went back to the front desk and told Ms. Clueless that the room she'd given us was already occupied.  She just looked at me blankly and said "Someone was in the room?"  I told her yes and that I just wanted to have my credit card refunded and we would be staying elsewhere.  She never once apologized, just kept staring at the computer with a vacant look.  When we arrived home, I emailed the manager and received a sincere apology from him and a promise to look into the online booking system.

We then had a heck of a time getting to the Holiday Inn Express as there was construction on I-40, our GPS got confused, and we made a couple of mistakes too, and ended up going around our elbow to get to our armpit a couple of times, but finally found the HIX.  We were very tired and hungry by this time as we had only had snacks for lunch.  We were also quite thirsty as the desert air parches your throat and lips (but the dry air sure feels good in contrast to NC's humidity!)

We finally found the HIX and checked in.  We had a couple of restaurants on our list to try, but didn't want to drive any farther than we had to, since it was late (7:45 pm) and we were tired, so we ate in a Mexican restaurant recommended by the front desk that was right around the corner.  We didn't realize how close the restaurant actually was -- we could have walked if we'd known, and wished we had, since the traffic and contstruction made getting there a slow process. However, the restaurant was great and the waitress very friendly.  It was quite authentic, with an all-Mexican staff, including a roaming guitar player/singer.  The margaritas were large and thirst-quenching, and the dinner portions were astonishingly huge.  I had the chicken fajitas and Barry had a pork burrito with rice and beans.  I could have kicked myself for not taking the suite at the HIX that the reservation clerk offered as an option instead of the regular room.  For only $10 more per night, we could have had a fridge and a microwave and taken half of our bountiful dinner back for lunch the next day. 


We had a great day in Albuquerque today with no further snafus!  We started the morning pigging out, as usual, at the HIX breakfast buffet.  I think we're going to have to go on diets after this trip, even with the hiking.  Soon thereafter, we drove over to the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park, where we planned to do some birding for a couple of hours.  We had read in a travel book from the libary that the birding was very good there, and it vastly exceeded our expectations!  We ended up staying for five hours and ended up adding approximately 20 new birds to our life lists.  Wow!

There was a garden area with bird feeders that attracted woodpeckers, hummingbirds (black-chinned), black-headed grosbeaks, white-crowned sparrows, and others; and a large pond teaming with geese, beautiful wood ducks, mallards, and a few new ones for us, Northern Shovelers, Ring-Necked Ducks, and Pied-Billed Grebes.  We saw several Roadrunners running around the park, very close up.  Neat birds!  Back along forested walking paths and near the Rio Grande River, we spotted various warblers, flycatchers, a beautiful Western Tanager, wrens, and Green-Tailed Towhees.  All in all, it was a delightful and educational time, and the weather was again lovely - mid-upper 70s and a nice breeze.  We couldn't ask for any better weather.

We finally tore ourselves away from the park, ate our lunchtime snacks, then drove to Albuquerque Old Town to see the little shops and restaurants.  I am shopping very little on this trip since my luggage is already very full, so we didn't stay long, but it was charming.  Afterwards, we stopped in at a Walgreen's so I could buy some more band-aids for my pinky toes, which are still ailing me with blisters from the Grand Canyon hike.  I am hoping that these don't continue to bother me throughout the rest of the trip as we have so much hiking ahead that I don't want to miss out on.  Other than my pinky toes, we do seem to have recovered fully from that epic hike!  Barry had one toe blister that was bothering him as well but now seems to be healed.

We then headed northwest of town to the Petroglyphs National Monument.  We didn't spend a lot of time there, just took three short trails to look at various petroglyphs and take a few photos.  The view of Albuquerque in the valley from the top of the mesa one trail climbed up was fabulous, as were the views of the Sandia Mountains to the east of the city.  The long-range views out west are something this Carolina girl has never experienced and is endlessly fascinating.  And I find the traditional-style adobe homes quite charming as well!

We decided to go ahead and head to the restaurant we'd chosen for an early dinner since it was north of town and would be out of our way to go back to the hotel (not to mention all the construction right around where we're staying we'd prefer to drive through as little as possible).  We went to the Casa de Benevidez, a lovely place we'd read about online.  We got a great table outdoors and had margaritas (in honor of Cinqo de Mayo, of course!) and another great dinner.  I ordered from the a la carte menu to keep the portions smaller, getting a beef enchilada with rice and beans, but it still ended up being a lot of food. Barry had chicken and cheese chili rellenos with rice and beans and sopapillas. The food was excellent!  We ended up talking to a nice couple at the next table who also love to travel and have been all over the Carribbean (but not to the British Virgin Islands, so we recommended they check them out), and they really like living in the southwest and the low humidity.  I can see why - we are already thinking about a return trip as we regret not getting to see Sante Fe this time, wish we'd had more time in Sedona, and so forth.  Albuquerque is a big city but pretty nice overall, has great bike lanes and paths in many places, but a lot of traffic and road construction.

Tomorrow we head north to Cortez, Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park.  Predicted high is 71 degrees with mostly sunny skies.  Sounds nice!

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Once again, we got going pretty early in the morning after the HIX breakfast buffet.  I reined in my appetite and managed to resist their incredibly tempting cinnamon rolls (first time I have been able to do this at an HIX on this trip!)  We were actually on the road just a bit after 8 am, great for us.  We had a fairly long drive time today (nearly 5 hours) so wanted to get started early.  We had a nice drive from Albuquerque into Colorado, and I was able to work on processing photos on the laptop in between checks of the scenery.  I haven't mentioned before that Barry has done all the driving on this trip, which has been great since I've been able to plug my computer into DC power and work on photos when we've been on interstates and other straight stretches of highway (no carsickness). 

The temperature today was the coolest we've had.  Our rental car (Chevy Impala) has a digital thermometer on the dash, and it registered in the high 50s for most of the drive, but with full sun it felt just fine when we stopped.  It was quite nice to have a day where we could wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts so we didn't run out of warmer-weather clothing!

The views as we neared Colorado were amazing.  Snow-capped 12,000'-13,000'+ peaks of the San Juan mountains dazzled us to the north, and we noticed that the landscape getting much greener as the miles passed.  We also started seeing cattle on either side of the highway.  We snapped a photo of the "Welcome to Colorado" sign as we crossed from New Mexico into the next state on our tour, and we were both excited as this was another new state for me, and a lovely one indeed!

Our first stop was at Mesa Verde National Park, where we spent the entire afternoon.  I'd never heard of this park, and it is apparently not very well known, because even on this lovely Saturday in May, there were not many people there, much to our delight.  At our first stop, we literally had the trail to ourselves.  We hiked the Point Lookout Trail (2.4 miles round trip) near the park entrance, and were the only car in the large parking lot the entire time.  This trail involved a steep climb (586') with many switchbacks to the top of a lookout point with amazing views of the San Juans and valley below.  The maximum elevation was 8441', and we were definitely huffing and puffing a bit in the thinner air, but multiple stops to check out birds helped us catch our breath.  We added a few more birds to our life lists today, including the Black-Throated Gray Warbler we watched for a long time on this trail, the Virginia's Warbler (pay no attention to the name, this is a western bird!), and a most dramatic Black-Billed Magpie we saw on a fencepost as we drove along a Colorado highway.

After taking photos at Point Lookout and descending the trail much quicker than we ascended it, we decided to take in a ranger-guided cliff-dwelling tour.  The tour we took into the Pueblo-built Cliff Palace involved climbing five ladders and numerous narrow staircases.  It was fascinating to view this mini-city in a huge cave up close and imagine over 100 Puebloans living and thriving there in the 1200s AD. 

Our last stop at Mesa Verde was the Soda Canyon Overlook Trail, an easy 1.5 mile trail to several overlook points, from where we were able to view another ancient cliff dwelling known as Balcony House.  I wish we'd had more time to take in the many other trails and cliff dwellings at this lovely park, but perhaps we'll be able to return someday, and we did get a good flavor for what this area and its history are all about in our afternoon here.

Upon leaving the park, we made the short drive to the nearby city of Cortez and checked in at the Holiday Inn Express.  This was one of the very nicest HIX's we have ever stayed in, with granite countertops in the bathroom, granite shower, upscale furnishings, and (judging from sitting on it and typing this out now), a very comfortable king-sized bed.  The breakfast buffet supposedly has cheese omelets as well as the usual fare, so I'm looking forward to checking that out in the morning.  The only down side is that there is a kids' soccer tournament going on this weekend in Cortez, so the place is teaming with kids, but the top floor, which we are on, is very quiet, and the view out the back of the surrounding hills is lovely!

We drove a short distance down the road to the Main Street Brewery & Restaurant to eat, as I had read good reviews online.  The beer and food was indeed wonderful, but it was also packed with kids (at a brewery!?) as well as adults, and we had to wait nearly an hour for our food!  We were getting quite irate when Barry finally went and spoke to the guys in the kitchen (over a partial-wall barrier), and immediately thereafter, our food appeared.  It was worth the wait, though we felt that our waitress was definitely more interested in keeping bar patrons beer steins filled than in getting our food to us. Barry had a margarita and a three-cheese and veggie pizza (10" single size). I had a delicious spinach salad with beef strips, eggs, and hot bacon dressing to accompany the delicious beer brewed there.  For dessert we split a mud pie (coffee ice cream with oreo cookie crust)...mmmmm....!  Fortunately our hiking mileage is going to start picking up again from here on out, and my pinky toes were much, much better today, so hopefully we'll burn off as many calories as we've consumed in the next few days.  I am sure we haven't achieved that goal in the past few!

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And just like that, we leave Colorado behind; our visit there was far too quick, and we definitely want to return one day and see more of the state and hike some mountains.  Before leaving, we had a great breakfast at the Cortez Holiday Inn Express.  The standard HIX breakfast buffet was supplemented by cheese omelets, additional fruit, and other choices.  All in all, our stay at this HIX, which happened to be our first free "reward" night for us with our Priority Club membership, was the best HIX experience we have ever had.  The staff was exceptionally friendly, the room was excellent in every way (brand new pillows, even!), and the breakfast was delicious. 

We got on the road to Moab, Utah fairly early and had less than a three-hour drive, so we knew we'd have time to kill in town before we could check in to our room at the Cali Cochitta (Aztec meaning: House of Dreams) Bed & Breakfast inn at 4 pm.  Since we were taking our time on this drive, we spent 45 minutes bird watching at a beautiful rest area we happened upon soon after entering Utah.  Amongst rocky cliffs, the rest area was an oasis of green grass and large deciduous trees and postively teaming with many species of birds.  Barry spotted a bright golden Bullock's Oriole singing away, and we saw numerous other finches, warblers, and flycatchers.  We spotted a bird nest in one of the trees, as well as several tree cavities with birds going in and out; nesting season is obviously in full force here.

We finally tore ourselves away from the excellent bird-watching and drove the rest of the way to Moab, a charming town with a walkable downtown and plenty of shops and sights to see along the way.  Like Sedona, there are dramatic rock formations behind the main roads on both sides of town; but unlike Sedona, there are also views of higher, snow-capped peaks in one direction that are breathtaking.  I envy people who have the privilege of viewing these beautiful sights every day!

After parking our car off Main Street and beginning to walk around, we noticed that every fourth vehicle or so had mountain bikes on top or in the truck bed; we'd never seen so many mountain bikes.  In a mile or so of Main Street, we also spotted about six bike shops.  This is slickrock mountain biking country and is a mecca for off-road riders from all over the country, and we saw plenty of them.  I'm sure weekends are the busiest time here for that.  The mountain bikers give Moab the look and feel of a traditional college town since most are in their 20s.  Yes, I felt a little old in this town, but at least I was wearing hiking capris and Teva sandals like just about every other female I saw in town, so in that respect, I fit right in - as did Barry in hiking shorts.

We found a lunch place on Main Street, Zax, where we could eat outdoors and watch the town go by.  We enjoyed a nice lunch (probably the first "real" lunch we have had on this trip, since we've been eating snack bars while hiking and sight-seeing).  I got a turkey/veggie wrap, and Barry had a veggie calzone, and we both washed it down with some delicious raspberry iced tea.

After lunch, we took a long walk up and down Main Street to take a photo at the Moab sign and to visit the Visitor Information Center, where we picked up Arches and Canyonlands National Parks magnets.  We also visited several shops carrying Moab paraphernalia and each found a Moab hiking t-shirt, along with a Moab fridge magnet and stickers for our cars.

After all that, we still hadn't killed quite enough time until we could check in at the B&B, so we headed up to Arches National Park, just a few miles north of town, for a short hike.  Our all-day Arches visit is tomorrow, so we hadn't really planned on going today, but with our National Parks pass, it doesn't cost us anything additional, so why not?  And it was well worth even the quick visit.  It is a gorgeous park with magestic, vast red rock formations.  We hiked the Park Avenue Trail (2 miles round trip) and looked up at the rocky "buildings" as a first-time visitor to New York City strolling down Park Avenue would look up at the skyscrapers in awe; we are assuming that this is where the trail got its name.

We ran ino a few French tourists on the trail (though it was very lightly traveled overall, happily).  A couple greeted us in English, but one said "Bon jour" (good day), and the last woman who passed us in the opposite direction spoke a few words in French as well.  I missed the first few, but I did catch the last:  "C'est bien?" (Is it nice?) she asked as she pointed to the direction from which we'd come.  "Oui!"  I replied and smiled, and realized that the last few vestiges of my high school French were still with me.  I honestly don't know if she'd thought we were French, but it was a nice little exchange, and Barry was impressed that I was able to answer her question, even though it was very elementary as French goes! 

We have noticed on this trip that there are as many foreign tourists as Americans at the national parks; We noticed many Asians as well as Europeans at the Grand Canyon, Barry chatted with a hiker from Germany on one of our Sedona hikes, and we have heard French spoken several times along the trails and at lookout points in recent days.  Yesterday while waiting to begin our tour of the Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde NP, an entire busload of French tourists came to the overlook to take photos and exclaim "Ooh la la!" and "C'est magnifique".  I noticed that even though most were middle-aged, very few of them were overweight; what a contrast they were to what I am sure a busload of typical middle-aged American tourists would look like!

After our hike, we headed back to town and checked in at Cali Cochitta, which exceeded our every expectation.  The owners are gracious and friendly, the house, cottages, and grounds are as charming as any child's storybook cottage, there are stunning, picture-perfect flowers growing everywhere, including the most beautiful and fragrant roses I have ever seen, each bush more beautiful than the last, in every color.  The back yard is full of nooks and crannies to sit and watch the many birds at the feeders or sip a beverage.  And our cottage is small but beautifully appointed, with a charming iron bed, beautiful quilt, a multitude of pillows and plush white robes for us to wear while lounging around.  We are here for three nights and will get a home-cooked meal every morning outside on the patio; what could be nicer!?  The inn is within walking distance of many restaurants in Moab, which is great for us as we love to walk to and from dinner.

After unloading the car and cleaning up a bit, we sat in the back yard and watched birds and relaxed for a few minutes before dinner, then we walked to the Slick Rock Cafe for dinner.  Their food had some Carribbean influences, so we each tried one of their special tropical drinks (seeking a change from margaritas), which were great and large.  I had a delicious dinner salad, the "Mango-Tango", with sesame-crusted chicken breast strips on greens with hearts of palm, topped with chunks of mango and a Carribbean dressing.  It was yummy!  Barry had the Mango/Ginger-sauced mahi with veggies and a salad.  Since we'd eaten pretty healthily, we both got a dessert.  I had peanut butter chocolate cake, and Barry had Mississippi mud pie.  I am glad we're going to be picking up the hiking mileage again tomorrow after several low-mileage days, because otherwise my clothes will not be fitting at the end of this vacation!

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What a wonderful day of hiking we had!  Finally, we justified all the food we have been eating by having our longest hiking day since the Grand Canyon (which we hiked one week ago today).  I guess it took us a full week to really recover from that hike, because today we finally kicked it into gear once again. 

Before we went to Arches National Park, however, we had a stunning breakfast here at the inn, at a long table with all the inn guests (about 12 of us total).  Kim, one of the innkeepers, served us a lovely plate consisting of scrambled eggs on top of toasted English muffins with avocado and cheese sauce over the top, a fresh fruit salad with granola, and a fresh-baked peaches and cream muffin, plus oj and coffee.  This is the kind of breakfast that keeps a hiker going until well past a normal lunchtime!  In fact, we didn't even eat feel the need for our lunch snacks (gorp and Powerbars) until around 1:30 pm after our 8 am breakfast. 

Right after breakfast we gathered up our hiking gear and headed to Arches (just a few miles outside of Moab) for the day.  It was cloudy in the morning with a few drops of light rain, so I started the hike with my lightweight jacket, but soon the sun came out, and the jacket went into my pack.  There was plenty of sun for most of the day, with a high around 80.  With a nice breeze blowing all day, it only felt hot on a couple of climbs, and most of the day was in the 70s so very nice hiking weather.

We started with the longest and most strenuous hike first, while we had fresh legs and feet. This was the Devils Garden Trail.  I was more than a bit taken aback when I read a sign at the trailhead that said "This is lion country" and told how to handle an encounter with a mountain lion (unlike with bears, don't play dead, fight back!)  Scary!  For the first half of the hike I kept looking for mountain lions around every bend and on top of every cliff, but finally relaxed when we got to portions of the trail with more visitors.  There is some comfort and strength in numbers. 

This trail began as an easy trail to Landscape Arch, where most tourists turn around; but we then took a primitive trail the long-way round to the Double O Arch, and then an out-and-back trail to the Dark Angel formation.  The primitive trail, as well as the main trail we took on the way back from Double O, involved some major climbing on slickrock and walking along precipices, but it was actually a lot of fun.  The views were unbelievable, and since we were willing to hike these crazy trails, we were rewarded with sights that only a small percentage of visitors to this breathtaking park get to see.  There were short side trails to several other arches on the way back, and each one was amazing in its own way.  I am sure our photos will not do them justice.  We ended up with 7.75 miles for this hike.

We had our lunch snack after a quick drive down to Fiery Furnace overlook, where we sat on rocks and took in the scenery.  This is a portion of the park that hikers must either register, pay a fee, and watch a video in order to enter, or (and recommended) go on a ranger-led tour, as there are no marked trails.  We didn't bother with it this time, but if we ever return, perhaps we will pay the fee and check it out on our own.  It was fascinating, but printed park service literature gives dire warnings about hikers getting lost in it, so we decided to stick to marked trails this time!

Our next hike was to Delicate Arch, probably the most famous arch in the park.  This is a 3-mile strenuous-rated hike, mostly up slickrock and then on ledges to Delicate Arch.  The hike to the arch provides a much closer view of it than the view from an overlook that can be driven to.  While hiking this trail, we ran into a large group of middle-school students, whom we found out were from Texas and were doing a 10-day field trip to several national parks.  We sure never had field trips like that when I was in school!  The kids were so nice and well behaved, with many saying hello to us, walking single-file so we could pass, and were not loud and boisterous at all.  It was such a pleasant experience to be around such well-behaved children and seems all too rare in today's society!  We praised their politeness to one of the group leaders, who thanked us and said she'd pass along the compliment.

Our final "cool down" hike of the day was an easy jaunt in the Windows section of the park to see the North and South Window arches and Turret Arch, giving us a total hiking mileage of 11.75 miles and 2147' of climbing for the day.  After taking a couple of quick photos of Balanced Rock, an amazing formation consisting of a huge boulder on a tall spire that looks as if it would fall at any moment, we made the nine-mile drive out of the park.  The drive out is breathtaking, with massive formations on either side with names like "Parade of Elephants", "Tower of Babel", "Courthouse Towers", and "Three Gossips".  There are also beautiful views of the snow-capped La Sal mountains to the east.

We cleaned up a bit at the inn and changed out of our dusty hiking boots into sandals (that felt good!) for the quick walk into town for dinner.  We ended up eating at Pasta Jay's on Main Street, recommended by another inn guest at breakfast this morning, and had a wonderful meal.  I splurged on fettucini alfredo with chicken and broccoli, and Barry had a jalepeno chili ravioli with tomato-cream sauce that he loved.  We also had delicious dinner salads and garlic bread.  We got to sit outside on the patio, which we always enjoy.  We decided to head down the street to a smoothie place for dessert instead of having dessert at the restaurant.  I had one scoop of mint-chocolate chip ice cream, and Barry had a great smoothie filled with fresh fruit (including his favorite blueberries).  A great way to top off a wonderful day! 

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Today was our day to head to Canyonlands National Park, about 90 minutes southwest of Moab, for some more hiking.  Despite the Weather Channel's insistance that it was "fair" in Moab at 8 am, it looked distinctly overcast to our eyes.  After a wonderful breakfast of baked French toast with pecans and blueberries, cantelope, and red grapefruit here at the inn, we left Moab a little apprehensive about what the weather held for today.

As we drove to the park, it began to rain, lightly, and we watched the car's outdoor temperature reading drop from 60 in Moab to a minimum of 41 on the road to the park.  Yikes!  We were both wearing shorts and had rain ponchos with us, and I was lucky enough to have my light rain/wind jacket on, and a warmer fleece jacket in the trunk if needed, but Barry had only a long-sleeve, light-weight trekking shirt over his Coolmax t-shirt.  We were a bit worried that today's hike might be kinda miserable, as it continued to rain lightly most of the way to the park as well. 

Fortunately, by the time we reached the park, it had stopped raining, and the temperature had gone up to 55!  It was still overcast, but this we could work with.  It felt fine when we started our hike in these temperatures, and after a couple of miles, we were able to peel off our long-sleeved layers and continue on in only t-shirts.  The temperature finally rose to the 60s and a high of 72, and by lunchtime, the sun came out, illuminating the beautiful rock formations all around us. 

Canyonlands is absolutely gorgeous!  It is a large park with three "districts" many miles apart, so it is impossible to "do" this park in a day or even two, so we took the advice of Backpacker magazine, which stated:  "Stick to one district instead of all three.  If you're a hiker, the Needles is really for you."  So, we headed to the Needles area and did only one hike, the Elephant Canyon/Druid Arch trail.  It was glorious.  The rock formations (vertical "needles", from whence the district gets its name) were very impressive, and there were many neat rock climbs.  Much of the hike was along a narrow canyon bottom, through deep sand and beautiful desert rock.  I was especially impressed by the rainbow of colors in the rock in this area - from rose to peach to mauve to grays to tans to aquas, I now realize that deserts are NOT brown, as I assumed, but a rainbow of soft, worn hues, as gentle as an old, well-washed quilt.  I couldn't stop looking at the rocks below my feet and took several photos of them, even though the real "show" was way up high on the canyon walls. 

The end of the trail involved a steep ascent scrambling up rocks, in addition to a short ladder.   When we finally reached the top, the view of the massive Druid arch was breathtaking, and we realized that we were likely the first hikers to the end of the trail that day, since we had passed no hikers heading out, and we had it to ourselves for a short while before another pair of hikers joined us.  We had our little lunch stop here (peanut butter and granola bars), took some photos, and sat for awhile to rest. 

Heading back, the sky was completely blue, the sun was out, and everything looked different than on the way in with overcast skies.  We took many more pictures going in this direction as the vistas and views were even more impressive.  We finished the 10.7-mile round trip in late afternoon, with sore feet once again, but euphoric from the amazing views and the small number of people we encountered along the way.  One hiker we met told us that Canyonlands is the least-visited national park, which explains the lack of crowds, but made it all the more desirable to us, as the quiet and feeling of being all alone in such a beautiful place is what we crave most.

Because the hike and drive both took longer than we anticipated, it was getting late, so we ordered a Hawaiian pizza to go at Zax Pizza here in Moab and brought it back to our room.  I was able to catch the end of American Idol while chowing down on the delicious pizza in the room.

Tomorrow we have a busy day, with quick stops at Capitol Reef National Park and the Escalante Staircase, where we hope to do short hikes, on our way to Bryce Canyon National Park, where we'll spend two nights at Ruby's Inn.  We hope to catch the sunset at Bryce tomorrow night.  I just wish we had more time!  In less than a week now, we'll be on our way home, and I am not in any way ready!  This really has been the trip of a lifetime, and there is still more to come.

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We packed a lot in today!  After another wonderful breakfast at the Cali Cochitta B&B, consisting of vegetable frittata, mixed fruit, and scones, we checked out and got on our way.  Today we drove west across Utah to Bryce Canyon National Park, but our hikes in Bryce were to wait until tomorrow as we had other places to visit on the way today. 

Our first stop, after a couple of hours of driving through stunning scenery with massive, rocky cliffs on either side of the road in beautiful desert hues, was Capital Reef National Park.  We stopped in at the park's visitor center, where I bought a Capital Reef refrigerator magnet as well as one for the Lower Calf Creek Falls, which we'd be visiting later in the day. 

We only had time for one trail in Capital Reef, a national park which interestingly charges no entry fee, so we didn't even have to show our national parks pass.  We chose the Fremont River Trail, which started out easy along the shore of the Fremont River and beside historical orchards from an abandoned farming community (now managed as a historical site by the National Park Service).  After the easy warm-up section, the trail climbed steeply up to an overlook of the valley - another amazing view to add to so many on this trip.  Going down quickly was a breeze, so we made good time on this trail and logged 2.8 miles with 605' of climbing.  It was another beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the upper 60s at this point in the day. 

We then stopped at a picnic area nearby to have our lunch snack (the usual granola bars with peanut butter) and watched a few birds before hitting the road again.  Today we added a Chukar (a type of partridge) that was hanging around the picnic area to our life lists.  Another interesting bird!

We traveled scenic highway 12 through the Escalante Staircase National Monument area and again were awed by the desert, rock, and mountain views.  We gained elevation quickly into a conifer forest which then became a mixed conifer-silver birch (I'm guessing) forest, with patches of snow on the north slopes!  The birch trees did not have any leaves yet as it was still very, very early spring at over 9000' of elevation.  Our GPS told us that we reached a maximum elevation of 9520', the second highest I have ever experienced (the highest being Haleakala Volcano in Hawaii at around 10000').  The temperature at the highest point was just 50 degrees, despite full sun, as contrasted with 70s in the valley below.  Some of the driving today was a little scary as we were up very high, with steep dropoffs to one side or the other, and often no guard rails!  One brief section of the drive had drop-offs on both sides simultaneously; we were literally driving on top of a narrow ledge, and even Barry's palms were sweating a bit!

Our chosen stopping point in the Escalante Staircase area was Lower Calf Creek Falls, which we'd found online and thought sounded absolutely beautiful.  Interestingly, Kathy, a woman who was helping with the cooking at the inn in Moab recommended this very hike to us this morning as we checked out!  Lower Calf Creek Falls is a breathtaking waterfall with a 130' drop over a sandstone cliff; the water is as clear as glass, and swimming in the pool below is allowed, but it was a bit too chilly for that today (in the water, anyway!)  During the hike, it got fairly warm, with a high temperature of around 78, but when we got to the falls, that fell to 68 as the cooling water made such a huge difference.  The falls really did take our breath away; they were such a surprise to see in a desert area where water is so rare and precious a commodity.

We took a picture of the two of us in front of the falls using the self-timer on our camera, and a guy saw us and asked if we'd like our picture taken together vertically to fit the entire waterfall in, so we said sure.  He asked where we were from and told us he was from outside Salt Lake City. I noticed that he bore a striking resemblance to my old childhood idol, Donny Osmond (but a bit younger) and wondered if he might be related to the Osmond clan, as they are indeed from Ogden, Utah!  He took the picture and wished us well, and we moved on.  We had to keep up a very brisk pace on this hike in order to check in at our hotel in Bryce, unload the car, eat dinner, and make it to Bryce Canyon to see the sunset, so we did a lot of "race hiking" (our trekking poles really helped with this), and finished the slightly over 6 mile hike in just under 2 hours.  The trail was moderate terrain (lots of deep sand was slow-going), rolling to flat rather than steep, but the pace we were going definitely made this an aerobic hike!

In the last mile or so of our return hike, we ran into a woman hiking alone taking lots of pictures. She was going from park to park to hike out here as well, but in a much more spontaneous fashion than us, checking in at motels whenever she found a good place to stop (without advance reservations).  Interestingly, her last few days would be here at Bryce, then Zion, then visiting a friend in Vegas on Saturday, just like us.  She was from Snohomish, Washington, and had driven down in a van all by herself.  Brave gal!  We guessed she was an artist or photographer (or retired) without a formal job to get back to as she seemed to have no specific deadline to get home, other than wanting to take in a Blues Festival back home on the 18th.  She was impressed with our fast hiking and was especially amazed to hear of our Grand Canyon hike.

After leaving Calf Creek and continuing our drive through Escalante Staircase, we finally approached Bryce Canyon National Park and our destination for tonight and tomorrow night, Best Western Ruby's Inn.  Ruby's is almost an entire village of services and stores, all a bit busy and touristy for us, but it can't be beat for closeness to the park, and our room on the top floor of the main lodge is roomy and quiet.  It seems that mostly the older folks are staying here, making for a quiet hall, which we always appreciate.  We weren't sure they'd have internet access, but sure enough, there is wi-fi in the rooms, and a high-speed internet kiosk area in the lobby, which was packed after dinner - with as many "oldsters" as "youngsters", I was pleased to see!

We had a big dinner (the buffet) at the restaurant here at Ruby's.  It was nothing gourmet, but we were starved, and it definitely provided the calories we needed, if not a lot of ambiance.  They had my new favorite type of microbrew, discovered on this trip, Hefeweizen, so I was happy.  As an aside, I had assumed that because of the Mormon population here in Utah, it might be mostly or completely dry, but at least in the places we've stayed, that has not been the case at all.  You can get a drink on Sunday, and Ruby's Inn even has its own small liquor store!  So, my impression of Utah was a little off-base.  There may be some dry counties, but we haven't hit one yet - a good thing since we are on vacation!

After dinner we zipped over to the park, just a couple of miles down the road.  At this hour (7:45 pm), the park is open and free for anyone to enter without a fee or permit.  We stopped at Sunset Point and, along with quite a few other folks bearing cameras, marveled at the lovely Bryce Canyon scenery and took a few sunset photos.  It wasn't an exceptional sunset, but any sunset here is still beautiful, and the pinks, whites, and corals of Bryce Canyon are astonishing.  I bet it will look even prettier in the sunshine tomorrow!

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We had a great day today at this pretty-in-pink park.  After a quick breakfast of an egg, cheese, and ham on a bagel sandwich from Ruby's Inn's fast-food restaurant (the line for the main restaurant buffet was too long as a busload of foreign tourists beat us to it by five minutes!), we drove the few miles to the park.  The morning started with a chilly low of 27 degrees but warmed up very quickly.  Our morning hike included three trails that inter-connected: the Navajo Loop, Queen's Garden, and Peekaboo Loop.  These three trails are in the "Bryce Amphitheater" area, which is the most visited and apparently the most stunning area of the park.  Unfortunately, this area near the park entrance attracts the largest crowds, and today was no exception.  The parking lot was already quite full when we got there (before 9 am), including tour buses.  On our first steep descent with many switchbacks on the Navajo Loop was full of Italian tourists talking and laughing loudly.  It seemed an affront to this beautiful work of nature (as well as rude to those who preferred to appreciate her beauty quietly) to act this way, and we were relieved when we got a bit out of range and could no longer hear them.  We figured, as is true in all of these parks, that once we got a mile or so away from the popular trailheads, we would leave the vast majority of tourists behind.  Generally, past this point, the people we've encountered have been more serious hikers, quiet, and polite.  And we don't encounter many people at all when we do the longer trails; yet another reason to do them - besides the amazing scenery that most tourists never see, of course!

While the Queen's Garden trail is fairly easy, as it travels near the bottom of the canyon among Ponderosa Pine and junipers, the other two trails are rated strenuous as they consist of numerous short steep climbs and descents, with beautiful vistas and views of the colorful, lacy, and very unusual "hoodoos" in the park around every turn.  We quickly peeled off our outer layers and were quite comfortable for the rest of the day; the temperatures were mostly in the 60s with an occasonal portion of the trail in the low 70s (depending on elevation, orientation, and sun).  We felt very lucky as down at lower elevations very nearby in Utah, today's high was 93!  The southwest has just begun experiencing a heat wave, which we will be dealing with tomorrow at the lower-elevation Zion National Park, but today we were very happy to be at Bryce.

On the Peekaboo loop, we ran into the large group of middle-school children from Austin, TX we had chatted with on the Delicate Arch trail in Arches National Park a couple of days ago.  Many of them seemed to remember us from then (we were the hikers with trekking poles) and said hello.  They were such a nice, well-behaved bunch of kids and meeting them gives me some hope for the future of this country!  I was surprised they were doing such a long and strenuous hike, though.  We also ran into a nice couple from Green Bay, Wisconsin that Barry recognized from Arches a couple of days ago, so we had a nice chat with them on the trail.  They are into hiking as well, around our ages, and enjoy staying in less busy, less touristy places.  They recommended the bed & breakfast where they are staying in the nearby town of Tropic, should we ever come here again, and also a couple of good hikes in Zion, since they had already been there.  We are finding that many people have a similar trip plan as us and are visiting all the national parks in Utah on the same trip, some also adding the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and other areas, as we did.  Between our many stops for pictures, and this rather long chat, we ended up on these trails for a little over 4 hours, logging 7.22 miles and 1825' of climbing.  

After returning to the Sunset Point area where we began our hike, we had our little granola-bar-and-peanut-butter picnic (just think of all the money we are saving not eating lunch out every day!) and talked about what hike we might do in the afternoon. I finally located a trail in one of the "backcountry" (i.e., non-touristy) parts of the park, the Swamp Canyon Loop, at 4.3 miles, so we headed up to the trailhead and took off, not realizing that we'd misinterpreted a sign at the very beginning of the loop and gone down the south side of the loop rather than the north side.  After a one-mile descent from the canyon rim, the Swamp Canyon loop intersected the Under-the-Rim trail, a 23-mile backpacking trail, and since we started on the wrong side of the loop, we turned exactly the wrong way on the Under-the-Rim trail to return up the other side of the Swamp Canyon loop.  We kept walking and walking (uphill) until I finally started realizing that we must have gone too far.  But we decided to plug on just a bit longer just in case, knowing that we could always backtrack if we'd made a wrong turn, as the canyon wall was always to our right, so we were not lost, just a little misplaced!  After a long, gentle climb, the incline suddenly steepened, and we found ourselves climbing switchbacks up the pink canyon rocks.  High on a scenic overlook, we got a good look at a beautiful golden eagle soaring, which made all the climbing worth it.  I should also mention that we never saw another hiker on this trail; it was incredibly secluded and peaceful, and mostly passed through conifer forests.

We trekked on a little farther on a narrow ledge of pink gravel that was pretty washed out so a little scary (it was a long way down if we slipped!), and finally, after another switchback, we saw the campsite that was supposed to mark our right turn back up Swamp Canyon loop.  But oops!  The sign indicated that this was the Whiteman Connector trail, the next trail south, which confirmed that we'd made a mistake early on in our hike and gone farther than planned. 

No problem; we knew we could descend quickly and go back the way we came, and that we did.  The mile climb up Swamp Canyon Trail was a bit strenuous, but the end was in sight at this point.  When we got nearly to the top of the trail, we saw the turn we should have taken to begin with, in order to do a 4.3-mile hike.  Because of our mistake, we ended up with 5.8 miles and close to double the climbing (around 950' total) since we climbed up the canyon most of the way again, prior to coming to the Whiteman trail.  We were both hungry and tired at this point but very pleased with a 13-mile day (our longest hiking day and with the most climbing since our Grand Canyon hike ten days ago).  We also knew that we could go pretty crazy at Ruby's buffet tonight!
 
On our way back to Ruby's, we saw some cars stopped along the side of the park road and a few folks snapping photos out in the grassy area away from the road, so we knew there must be some wildlife to see.  We stopped to check it out, and I jumped out and took a few photos.  We didn't even know what the three beautiful creatures were until we read some park literature about wildlife seen here, and then realized they were pronghorn antelope!  Very cool.

Next, on our drive back, we stopped at the Bryce Lodge gift shop and picked up a couple of souvenirs. This was a very nice shop (not tacky nor as overpriced as we'd found Ruby's gift shop), so I had to pull myself away from it!  I did find a couple of pieces of jewelry I liked that were not too expensive, so I went ahead and got them, but told Barry they could be my anniversary present from him.  He found a cap he liked so said that that could be his anniversary gift from me.  We had already planned a very low-key 21st anniversary (on May 25), since this trip was such a biggie.

After cleaning up a bit back at the hotel, we headed down to dinner plenty early and really got our money's worth.  We thought it was interesting that Ruby's buffet was exactly the same as last night, and normally I would have ordered from the menu because of that, but we were so starved that we didn't mind a repeat of last night's dinner.  So, we ate salad, soup, pork ribs, and chicken, veggies, and cornbread once again.  I was so full after all that that I could only manage a small bowl of soft-serve vanilla ice cream and caramel syrup for dessert, and Barry had butterscotch pudding and spice cake. 

Tomorrow we head to Springdale, Utah and Zion National Park; back to Vegas Saturday afternoon, then fly home on Sunday, arriving at our house just in time to catch the end of the "Survivor" finale, if I am lucky.  I can hardly believe I'll be back at work on Monday.  I wish this vacation never had to end, but it has been a wonderful one.  Getting back to "reality" at home is going to take awhile!

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Unfortunately, today our dream vacation took a turn for the worse as Barry seems to have contracted a stomach bug (or food poisoning), for the second time in just a couple of months.  He seems to be having a lot of the same symptoms that he had before.  He thinks there's a good chance it's from something he ate on the Ruby's Inn buffet either last night (or the night before) or for breakfast this morning, as the symptoms started around noon today.  We mostly ate the same things, and I am fine so far, but he did have a couple of things I didn't have (like the pudding on the second night).  We'll never know the exact cause, but we do know that the result made for a difficult day and took away from enjoying the beauty of this magestic park.

After our breakfast buffet at Ruby's (not as good as Shoney's, I thought, nor even the Holiday Inn Express!), we got on the road around 9 am and made the drive over to Zion National Park.  Along the way we saw a herd of buffalo grazing in a field and stopped to take a few shots; that was my first buffalo sighting and very cool!  You never forget you're in the west out here.

We parked in the Best Western Zion Park parking lot in the charming town of Springdale just outside the park.  Springdale looks the way I thought Moab would, but we found Moab a bit busier and not as charming overall (though our inn there certainly was).  We would be checking in at the Best Western later, so they said it would be fine to park here beforehand.  The inn is very attractive with huge rock formations behind it as well as across the street, very similar to the lovely Best Western in Sedona.  We gathered all our hiking gear up and took the free shuttle into the park.  Zion has a shuttle system that everyone is required to use to access the park, keeping traffic in the park itself to a minimum.  It's a great system, very easy to use, and you can catch the shuttle at many locations in Springdale, including very near the Best Western. 

Barry started complaining of a "sour stomach" on the shuttle, but we didn't think too much of it and started our hike on the Overlook Point trail (an 8-mile, strenuous-rated hike) at around 12:20 pm in hot sunshine.  The temperature at the start was in the upper 80s, with highs in the mid-90s predicted, from the southwest heat wave that is beginning in earnest today.  This was our hottest day of the trip other than the heat at the bottom of the Grand Canyon near the Colorado River.  Even though this is a dry heat, the sun is strong, and there was little shade on the hike.  It started right out with steep switchbacks, from the bottom of Zion Canyon up, and we knew we'd be climbing for a long time as the hike advertised over 2100' of elevation gain.

Even if Barry had been well, I think this would have been our least favorite hike of the trip as the trail was semi-paved, with big broken pieces of pavement, nearly all the way.  We are used to dirt or sandy trails that are easier on the feet and knees, but the constant pounding on sidewalk-like pavement really wears an already-tired body out.  It was a hot and sweaty hike up, and even the beautiful views didn't help make it much fun, especially since Barry seemed to be feeling worse.  I wish we had just turned around and not forged ahead to the overlook, as he couldn't even enjoy it when we got there, and couldn't manage to eat anything; and by this time, it had been many hours since breakfast.  He seemed to be feeling worse by the minute, and I knew we just needed to get down the mountain and into the hotel room so that he could relax.  We saw a high of 98 degrees on his temperature gauge on the way up, so the heat was unrelenting, not helping matters much.

Going down was faster than up, of course, but with the tough pavement underfoot, hard on the knees, and Barry needed to stop now and then to rest.  With a mile and a half to go, he finally succumbed and threw up off the side of the trail.  I felt so bad for him, but there was nothing I could do but to encourage him to go on so that we could get to the hotel.  We finally made it to the bottom and saw that we had done the hike in 3 hours, 39 minutes (park literature says the average time is 5 hours round-trip), but Barry was pretty green and had to sit for quite awhile on a bench before continuing to the shuttle.  He was scared he might get sick on the long shuttle ride, but he managed to hold it together, and we were able to check in and get him into the room, with plenty of gator-aid to help with dehydration, and he never did get sick again, but felt pretty miserable.  I then ran down to the little store next to the hotel's restaurant and got him some ginger ale to drink as well.

We had planned on a nice meal at a Mexican restaurant here in town ("Oscar's") recommended by Kathy at Cali Cochitta in Moab, but Barry couldn't even stomach the thought of food, so I ended up taking the shuttle up to a pizza place in town and ordered some pasta to go for myself, then walked back to the room (only about 1/2 mile and very pleasant out by this time - 7:30 at night) with it to eat in the room.  Not quite the evening we'd planned on.  Maybe we'll make it here again someday when he is feeling better.

Because of Barry's condition, it looks like our plans for a short morning hike in the Emerald Pools area of Zion are off, so we'll probably just take our time checking out in the morning and make the drive to the HIX in Henderson, Nevada.  Today's hike put us just over 101 miles of hiking for this trip, so we have a lot to be proud of, no matter what. I just