A few weeks ago I learned that fellow bucketeer Polly Syllabic was going to be vacationing in southern Utah and northern Arizona. As chance would have it I visited the same area not quite a year ago. Here's a few images from that trip to whet her appetite for the great southwest.
The first picture (at the top) is from Kodachrome State Park which is close to the far more famous Bryce Canyon National Park. It is really in the middle of nowhere but is a lovely valley. Unfortunately we were there during the heat wave last summer.
The next couple of pictures are from Bryce Canyon where we spent the days (nights, evenings, and early mornings spent at Kodachrome). Really an amazing landscape.
The heat caused us to change our plans. We opted to avoid staying near Zion which was lower elevation and thus even hotter and move south and up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. As luck would have it we managed to get a cabin at the last minute.
A penstemon and a fence lizard at the north rim.
We came back to Utah and visited Zion while staying in the cooler environs of Cedar City. Unfortunately the only pictures I have from there are from the far north of the park (below). The really spectacular areas of the main canyon we visited in the evening and it was too dark for photography. I really want to go back to Zion - it was the most amazing place that we visited.
And on our last day we took a real break from the heat going to 10,000 feet in Cedar Breaks National Monument.
In January I was fortunate enough to travel to San Francisco where I met many wonderful kossacks (but that's another story). It was beautifully clear day and here are some images of the same general area from the air.