At 12:00pm PDT, we left our home in San Juan Capistrano, CA. Hardly ten minutes after leaving, we discovered the rental Chevrolet Uplander minivan had dead accessory outlets. That should teach me to establish a multi-point check to the vehicles before launch.

Being a tech-dependent roadtripper, a sense of panic was starting to take hold, but Dad being the mechanic he is, discovered it was just a blown fuse. We switched fuses with the rear A/C blower (since no one is in the far back of the van anyway) and all was well again. Continuing on I-15 past Barstow, CA, our first official stop was Calico Ghost Town, coming in at 2:30pm PDT. Today was the final day of their annual Bluegrass Festival, and heard some slammin' tunes. I may despise the whole "my-wife-left-me" country music genre, but oddly enough I dig bluegrass jams (probably inherited that from Dad's southern heritage).

After walking around, seeing the Maggie Mines, and having a buffalo burger, we left at 5:00pm PDT and stopped briefly at Barstow Station before heading directly west on Hwy 58. (Our GPS unit turned out to be defective and permanently lost satellite reception from this point on so I'm driving blind with just the road map.) We turned north on Hwy 395 at Kramer Junction and arrived in Ridgecrest, CA at 7:00pm PDT. Here we will stay for the night... Tomorrow will be 105 in Death Valley. (Woo wee!)

We left Ridgecrest, CA reasonably early and headed out on Hwy 178 through the Panamint Valley. I absolutely love traveling down the middle of the valley while high mountain ranges tower over us on either side. We turned at the 190 junction and headed east toward Stovepipe Wells. Stopping to take pictures of the "Elevation: Sea Level" sign was a definite priority. (So awesome!) It didn't stop there. On we descended to even lower elevations!

Upon heading to Furnace Creek, my dad gets it in his head he's gotta see Scotty's Castle. (Grah, that wasn't part of the plan.) While I initially scrapped that idea, I was getting the pout show. *sigh* Fine. After stopping in at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, the decision was made to sacrifice Dante's View for the Castle. For now we first visit Badwater Basin and its "282 below sea level" elevation sign. Crowds were more prevalent in this area. After spending 20 minutes here, rather than walk out to the salt flats, we headed back to check out Devils Golf Course. (Don't tell anyone, but I snuck a few licks of some salt deposits. Mmmm...) and then topped off this area with a loop through Artists Drive/Palette. Good stuff.

Off we go to Scottys Castle. Unfortunately timing wasn't quite right. We missed the 2:00pm tour by 15 minutes, and the next one wasn't available until 3:00pm. We couldn't wait around for that and then expect to be in St. George, UT before nightfall, so the best course of action was to take a quick look around for 20 minutes and then book it. From there we used Hwy 267 to head towards Hwy 95 via Scotty's Junction, over into Nevada and passing through the northern fringes of Las Vegas, NV for gas and food before continuing (using the 215 belt) over to the I-15 north.

A nice surprise was the I-15 portion through Arizona as we rounded impressive tall rock formations. It would make any geologist giddy...need to do that again. Here we are in St. George, UT with a time zone change to Mountain. Mom visits a long-lost friend in the morning and then head to Zion. Good times...

After visiting one of mom's old friends in St. George, UT (and spontaneously buying some western gear 50% off from a place going out of business) we continued up northbound I-15 briefly before taking Hwy 9 east heading toward Zion National Park.

As we near, signs were already making claims that parking lots were full. Now Dad has his Golden Age passport, which gets us all into the park free, however it wouldn't be free if we had to park outside the boundaries and shuttle in. So we strategically said we're "going through" (which technically was true, just not right away, hee hee) and found plenty of space at the Zion Visitor Center. I'm sure it's much harder to find one of the 450 spaces at peak times on weekends or in the summer. I get why they want to keep vehicles out of the park as much as possible, but heck we were driving through anyway, and only staying 3 hours.

We took their shuttle, leading us all the way up to the Temple of Sinawava, where the walls of the canyon completely surround you. We took a little stroll down to the Virgin River and soaked my feet in freezing cold water. That'll wake you up for sure. We could have taken hiking trails that lead into the crevices between the towering rocks, but there was too much else to see so we sacrificed that adventure.

Back down the shuttle path we headed, stopping at Big Bend, Zion Lodge, and the Patriarchs before coming back to the center. Each stop had its own personality and we made sure to capture them all. That's all for Zion!

We continued east on Hwy 9 through the long tunnel and a little more of the park before emerging on the other side and striking Hwy 89. A turn north onto Hwy 12 routed us near the next national park entrance, where we settled in at the Bryce Canyon resort. I made reservations for one of their 2-room cabins (parents loving it) and here we are. Day 4 will be horseback riding and driving through Bryce National Park...

Today we managed an early start and headed out to the Scenic Rim Horseback Ride, staged across the street from Rubys Inn around 9:30am MDT. (As an added bonus, the girl saddling my horse was rather easy on the eyes, just saying...) We spent the next 90 minutes riding through the forest to the northern fringes of Bryce. I hadn't ridden a horse in over 10 years (and my folks over 30 years) but we all thought it was the greatest thing ever. Surprisingly, I'm not sore. Yet.

After that concluded, we packed up and drove to the south end of Bryce Canyon NP, starting with Rainbow Point, and slowly worked our way back northward. Good thing too, as it saved the best viewing for last. The Bryce and Inspiration Points were the highlight of the entire run. I must have taken over 100 pictures today. After 3 hours of that we left and headed east on Hwy 12.

All was hunky dory for a while. But here's where the whole vacation quickly went south. I noticed most small towns on this highway posting 40 speed limits, and I kept to my personal rule of "never 10 above the post," (meaning somewhere in the 45 vicinity). Unfortunately I failed to notice the particular limit in the town of Escalante, UT was 30 (on a 4-lane highway? Yeah ok...) so just as I'm getting out of the town, I got flashed down by the local officer who clocked me at 47.

Son of a...

Pretty low for a small town. Guess they're hard up for lunch money. I'd say something but that would drastically alter the G-rating of this thread.

He did me a "favor" and wrote the citation for less-than-actual, saving me US$50, but that's still US$107 I won't be spending on this trip, not to mention what I'll have to do back home to keep this ticket off my record. I've never received a moving violation in my life, but the thought of higher insurance premiums kept me from enjoying the rest of the Hwy 12 scenery. I'll just refrain from spending any money until I get out of this state, to even things out. (So there!)

We've stopped here in Torrey, UT, just a short hop west of Capitol Reef National Park, where we'll be spending the morning. Then it's off to Moab.

*sigh* Son of a...

After leaving the small town of Torrey, UT, we continued east on Hwy 24 into Capitol Reef National Park.

I was still bitter about the "tragic event" of the day before. (Yes, one of my personal faults is the 24-hour "I hate my life" syndrome when something unfortunate happens. You'll have to suffer along.) But I forced myself to take pictures of the highlights of the park. After hitting the visitor center, we headed down the Scenic Route and gawked at the huge rock formations high above. We didn't go into any of the gorges, as I'm pretty sure the minivan wouldn't have volunteered to brave any dirt roads today, and ominous clouds were starting to form.

We probably didn't even reach the halfway point before turning around. You could spend all day down here. Getting back to the main highway, we continued east on Hwy 24 through the rest of the park and found a few lingering hot spots. Some of them were unfortunately hiking distance and the parents weren't down for that, so the major Capitol Dome had to be forfeited.

The park boundaries were soon behind us and we eventually connected to Hwy 95 south. Being a scenic route, rock formations continued their steady presence, towering over us at every turn. We passed through some of Glen Canyon NRA , coming upon the overlook of the Colorado River and onward south. I managed to burst through my self-pity-party and enjoy this area with rivers, bridges, and plenty of rock.

After a few hours we finally arrived at the Natural Bridges National Monument. The 0.9 loop introduced us to all 3 bridges in its path. The only strenuous part was the last one, Owachomo, the prominent-looking arch, where you could almost stand under it. My folks sat this one out and watched from the outlook as I descended to my goal. The path down was easy. Not so much on the way back up. Whew, this nerd needs to exercise more.

Our final event for the day completed, we hightailed it and continued east to Hwy 191, turning north. Thunderheads loomed off in the distance, and by the time we neared our destination of Moab, UT, lightning bolts were streaking off to our west. *happy sigh*

I really like this quaint little town of Moab. It has everything you need (well, except the Wal-mart, but maybe that's a good thing). We enjoyed an excellent Italian dinner at Pizza Jay's, right in the heart of town.

We're staying here 2 nights, so no excessive driving for Day 6. Arches comes first, then Canyonlands the day after. More rock gawk for us tomorrow.

We made no haste this morning in getting out of our hotel. After a quick McD breakfast and supply replenishment at the local shopping center, we made for Arches National Park, a distant 5 away, about 10:00am MDT. Being a Friday, you could tell the tourists were out on the prowl, with more around today than we've seen all week. Tomorrow would probably be worse, which is why we're doing the relatively less-popular "Island in the Sky" Canyonlands then while everyone else goes to Arches.

We repeat our inside-out driving strategy as before, using the park's main road to shoot all the way to the top at Devil's Garden. I wish my folks had the endurance to make the 1.6 round-trip hike to the Landscape Arch, but all we could really do was the Pine Tree and Tunnel Arch. We also took a few minutes to visit the Sand Dunes arch. From here we drove back down the park road, stopping at random viewpoints. We took the east fork past Wolfe Ranch to Delicate Arch. Again, the parents took the easy lower trail. I went ahead and took the upper trail, which was only 0.2 but steep in elevation climb. Exercise is good. The arch itself still seemed far away, and my camera is only a 3.0x zoom. Bleah. Still a better choice than the 3 trek to get right next to it!

After that, down and down the paved road we followed, until reaching the fork that led to the Windows section, the most prominent cluster of arches. We managed the easy hike to the North and South Windows, as well as Turret arch. Plenty of pictures to be taken. We sat inside the North Window arch for a while and took the amazing view in.

Our final stop was the Balanced Rock (the same one as seen at the beginning of the 3rd Indiana Jones movie), and that's it! After the typical Visitor Center deal, buying souvenirs and watching the presentation, we left the park at 4:00pm MDT and spent the rest of the day lounging around in Moab.

It's a somewhat long driving day tomorrow. After Canyonlands we have to get to Salt Lake City, UT. Should be fun.

We filled up the gas tank and our stomachs before leaving Moab to continue north on the 191 for the "Island in the Sky" district of Canyonlands National Park, the last of the 5 Utah "Rocks" we intended on visiting.

The paved road led as far as we could go, to the Grand Viewpoint overlooking the center of the park where "Island in the Sky," "Maze," and "Needle" districts all intersect. It's a rather stunning 270° view from on high.

As we roll back, catching other viewpoints on the way down, we took the west fork to Upheaval Dome. We braved the 0.5 roundtrip hike up to the dome viewpoint, absolutely magnificent. Our final stop was the Mesa Arch, another 0.5 loop hike, but totally worth it. This arch hangs out over the edge of the cliff, so not something you could exactly stand underneath. More photo opportunities as usual. And that wraps it up!

At the visitor center, after watching the video and getting the postcard/magnet stuff, there was a scheduled "ranger talk" discussing what we liked about the park and what we'd like to see, such as better access, facilities, etc. Mom had plenty of input to give. There was notable discussion about balancing the need for better access without disrupting the natural beauty of the landscape, a topic where I'm sure all federal-owned parks have similar feedback.

We left the park about 1:00pm MDT, finishing up US 191 and transitioning west on I-70 for a while before exiting on US 6 as a shortcut to Salt Lake City. We cut through the old historic downtown of Price, an extremely rustic look and feel. As we began up the summit, the mountains bragged their hues of green, making for a pleasant 2-hour drive through this area. While being emptied onto US 89 North, we noticed patches of snow still loitered on the peaks. I stayed off I-15 just long enough to go through the town of Provo, UT, the town referenced in a fictional book series I had read many times. From there we cut over to I-15 and we're now in downtown Salt Lake.

We'll be seeing the Tabernacle Choir in the morning and doing a little touring of Salt Lake before heading back south.

We started the morning with a complimentary shuttle ride (courtesy of Best Western) to the Temple Square for the 4,055th taping of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's radio show. The acoustics were incredible and of course the choir and orchestra were amazing. We sat right behind the sound mixer, so I was treated a first-hand look at the mix in action. (Yes, I'm an audiophile nerd too. What, you didn't know??)

After the return shuttle, we packed up and headed right back to the Square a few hours later to shoot pics of the historic gardens and of course the big temple, with an abundance of overly-friendly guides at different points revealing to us the history of the gardens. Thumbs up from me!

Next was the Capitol building. I've made a personal side goal of seeing all 50, although my total count is still in single digits at this point. The grounds in front were all under construction, but my goal to see it was complete.

The last destination for the day was the actual Salt Lake. We headed west on I-80 and exited to the south area of the lake, called Saltair. The lake itself was "deeply challenged" from drought, making it necessary to walk for a spell to the water's edge, where there were loads of brine shrimp floating about.

All goals accomplished! We continued south on Hwy 36 to get back to US 6 and head even further southwest to the remote town of Delta, UT. Everything here is closed up, but I guess that's what happens when you arrive on a Sunday. Tomorrow is the Great Basin and the trek through Nevada. More than half way...

Delta, UT, being in its remote location, seemed to lend itself as a ghetto town, giving us a great excuse to start early and make for US 6 west.

We crossed over into Nevada and back into my native Pacific Time zone. Shortly thereafter we arrived at the Great Basin National Park. After picking up tickets for the 11:00am Lehman Caves Tour, we used the available 70 minutes to head up near Wheeler Peak, the highest point in Nevada. At the end of the paved road we rushed to take our pics and walk the short trail to a stream where the snow was there but melting fast. Spectacular views of the valley and of course Wheeler.

Back down we headed, just in time for the 60-minute cave tour. I've seen similar caves in Texas, but that was a while ago so it was nice to see the stala(ct/gm)ites again. Unfortunately many of the stone icicles within reach were broken off, because people at one time were allowed to take a piece home with them, way back before anyone realized how much damage it was causing.

My favorite part was taking the long tunnel out of the cave, with the way it was built offering acoustics ripe for a prolonged echo chamber. At the end, the ranger showed us the "heartbeat" by quickly slamming the outside door, and hearing that slam echo back and forth. You could feel the boom in your gut every time the soundwave hit you. *shivers* Ooo SO cool....

That's all for the Great Basin! Once again we returned to US 6 and kept our westward route. Upstate Nevada is exactly how I imagined it: alternating ranges and valleys throughout. Not too boring. I have a feeling we'll see a little more of that tomorrow. We stopped in Ely, NV for that famous Jailhouse steak across from Hotel Nevada, but I guess they don't do lunch. Their first reservation was for 5:00pm and we were hours early. *sigh* So we had lunch at their normal restaraunt and took off by 3:00pm PDT.

We are staying here in Tonopah. Tomorrow is one of the most exciting days of the trip, with the famed Tioga Pass bridging our path into Yosemite. Leaving early to jumpstart the day.

After a great breakfast, we continued west on US 6 from the town of Tonopah, crossing the Nevada/California border and heading west on Hwy 120. As Mono Lake came into view, we made a spontaneous decision to go to the southern end for a look around. Here they had a loop trail with a bunch of Tufa columns. Tourists were sparse, so it was plenty quiet, making for a satisfying stop.

We continued west until US 395, and took a brief jaunt north until arriving at Hwy 120 again, this time starting up the famed Tioga Pass. I won a contest on RoadtripAmerica.com, claiming the road would re-open for the summer on May 10th (It opened May 11th but I still won a consolation prize.)

As we neared the pass (aka the east entrance to Yosemite National Park) plenty of snow still stuck around on the high peaks. We were stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures because each view was more grand the higher we got. Tioga Lake was half frozen making for a key picturesque scene. Onward...

After the entrance to the park, we stopped at several more points where sparkling lakes backdropped with mountain peaks became the main feature. It took us a while to even reach Yosemite Valley. Once we did, we snapped pics of all the waterfalls, all at their peak flow. The visitor center and store carried the usual tourist trap stuff, as well as the 22-minute movie about Yosemite in the theatre.

Once that was finished, we found the road that led to Glacier Point, a high-altitude viewpoint overlooking a good chunk of the park. It takes over an hour driving up to the top, overlooking and taking (way too many) pics of the entire view of Yosemite Valley, and driving back down again. I wanted to see the Sequoias at the southern end, but it was getting to be 6:00pm and our driving day wasn't finished yet, and so those plans were scrapped. It would have been another 1 hike. Yeah, not in the evening like that. In any case, we'll be checking out those kind of trees later.

From there, we travelled south on Hwy 41 to Fresno. Unfortunately there was a gruesome accident, causing a 40-minute delay, so we didn't arrive at our destination of Selma, CA until 8:15pm PDT.

Crazy driving today. We may plow straight home after visiting Sequoia National Park and not stop in Bakersfield. We're all anxious to get home.

We left Selma, CA behind and ascended back north on Hwy 99, then using Hwy 41 as an access to Kings Canyon Road (Hwy 180) and steered east for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks.

Now I thought Kings Canyon NP was only accessible via the Cedar Grove area. I didn't realize until this morning that the boundaries of Kings Canyon included the tiny patch encompassing Grant Grove. Totally groovy. That means the total National Park count for this trip is 10. Such a nice round number.

Upon entering the park, we did the Visitor Center shindig, and then headed up Hwy 180 to Grant Grove. I remember the Redwoods from my 2005 roadtrip, but the size was nothing compared to these. Woo-wee. They are plenty big. I took way too many pictures of trees that refused to fit in the viewfinder.

An hour later we head down Hwy 198 and into Sequoia NP. Because of construction near the south end, we were trying to time our visit accordingly, due to the construction overlords only letting traffic through once an hour, on the top of the hour. It wasn't long before the giants of the Lost Grove came into view. More awesome. More pics.

On to the next one, the Giant Forest. Time constraints were starting to become a factor, so my folks didn't want to hike to the alpha-biggun General Sherman tree. Oh well, this park is practically in my backyard so there's no reason not to return soon. We passed it up, but did check out the Tunnel Log, as well as Mora Rock. Speaking of Mora Rock, I went ahead and scaled this thing, not knowing you had to go 300 up! I was once again out of breath climbing those stairs, but ah, well worth it. Excellent views all around.

My watch displayed 1:45pm PDT as I finished up that little adventure, so we booked it down the highway, thinking we would make the 2:00pm passage. When we reached the construction site, there was no work being done. (Figures.) We were only challenged with a 9-minute alternating stoplight for traffic. *sigh*

Leaving the park, one of the awesome sights was Lake Kaweah, outside the park by Three Rivers. Absolutely gorgeous. If I ever get a boat or RV, I'm coming back here for sure. We used Hwy 65 as a shortcut to Bakersfield, with an early dinner at Chipotle before our final leg at 5:30pm PDT. Using Hwy 99 and then I-5 for the rest of the journey home, we tied it all off in 2.5 hours. No traffic. Good times!

It is over. Nice to be home, once again.

Glad I have a few days before returning to work. There's so much to do trying to get settled back in. Overall the trip was decent. The endless fields of rock amongst the plateaus made for incredible views. Favorites would include the Glen Canyon and Tioga Pass areas. Least favorites, like I have to even mention it again. Go read Day 4 and get back to me.

Here are my stats for the trip:

Total stops: 24
States visited: California, Arizona [briefly], Utah, Nevada
National Parks visited: Death Valley, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Arches, Great Basin, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia
National Monuments visited: Natural Bridges
Number of speeding tickets: 1 (Son of a...)
Total cost: US$1,252.93 (Includes my share of lodging, gas, minivan rental, food, personal expenses, and of course the US$107 ticket. Watch those small towns, kids!!!)