American Northeast
After years of planning, we finally got to go on her fall color trip to New England. The night before was stressful, hoping Lois (Jolie’s Mom) did not get delayed in her flight to our house to watch the kids. Once they landed, Jolie picked them up at the airport at 9:30 pm, and we still had to finish up the final packing and preparation. We got up at 4:30 am to get through security for our 6:45 am flight. We flew through Salt Lake City, where we had a fun breakfast and a mimosa sampler.
Joshua Tree National Park
Old Faithful
For some reason, I decided to challenge myself and shoot every photo for this trip in JPG instead of RAW. This is what happens when you don’t use your camera regularly, ‘minor’ settings get forgotten sometimes. We booked a room for a couple of nights at the Old Faithful Lodge and drove up from Denver. This first day was all driving. We stopped for the Park signs at Grand Teton and the southern Yellowstone entrance.
Land of the Ancients
We spent several nights camping at the Morfield Campground in Mesa Verde National Park. The weather was perfect, and we enjoyed exploring this part of the state. We spent a couple of days at Mesaverde and then a day driving around the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument with a visit and hike around Hovenweep National Monument.
American Southwest
Day one started early before sunrise at the Doubletree in Grand Junction, Colorado. We drove 20 miles via the west entrance to Grand View overlooking Independence Monument. We arrived around 6:30 am, waiting for some morning light on a brisk morning.
The Bechler River
We did a 5-day backcountry llama trip into the Bechler River region of Yellowstone National Park in September of 2014. We used Jackson Hole Llamas (No longer in business) for the excursion and had one of the best trips ever.
Moab
We drove over the mountains to the Moab area to check out the sights and surroundings. What an amazing place to visit. We drove in through Cisco, a somewhat abandoned town before crossing the Colorado River near the historic Dewey Bridge. Stops included Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park Island in the Sky District, and Dead Horse Point State Park.
Lake Yellowstone
We made the long drive from Denver to Lake Yellowstone in the center of Yellowstone National Park. We drove through Casper, Thermopolis, and Cody with the start of our adventure via the East Entrance to the park. Fall colors are turning around the park, only helping the grandeur of Yellowstone. We stopped at Sylvan Lake on the way into the park before getting checked in to our room at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel.
Camping @ Michigan Lakes
I spent a night backpacking with my buddy Ford in the Michigan Lakes under the east side of the Nokhu Crags. This area is accessed via Cameron Pass on the Northwest corner of Rocky Mountain National Park. This was a quick one night trip. The highlight of the trip was watching a stand off between 4 elk and a bull moose in the drainage below us. The light was dim and was just one of those occasiions where we just watched the action and didn’t even try to capture it on camera.