United States

The Fascinating Scenery of Utah’s Byway 12

Having spent two days exploring Bryce Canyon National Park, it was time to head toward our next location, Capitol Reef National Park. We could drive north and then east to Torrey, where we planned to stay. That was the shorter route, but we went back towards Bryce Canyon to drive Highway 12. Highway 12 is a designated Scenic Byway so it seemed the more interesting choice. The beginning of the highway passes through an area known as Red Canyon. As…

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Hiking to the Inside of Bryce Canyon National Park

Having spent an afternoon in Bryce Canyon National Park, we were ready to see what more the park had to offer. The weather was about the same as the day before so we were looking forward to a good day. First, however, we needed to get some breakfast as our motel did not provide any. We stopped at a cafe in the town of Panguitch. We were able to get a table, but the place was pretty busy. Our waitress…

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Rounding the Stunning Amphitheater at Bryce Canyon

After spending time at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we were ready to move north to Bryce Canyon. It was not a really long drive from Kanab to Bryce Canyon. The drive is generally very nice passing through a variety of terrains. I particularly liked the green valleys we would pass through. They seemed so peaceful. The biggest challenge of the drive was the traffic. Highway 89 is generally a two lane road with occasional passing lanes. We…

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Grand Canyon’s North Rim Offers Remarkable Views

In 2019 we visited the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. The South Rim is the most commonly visited section of Grand Canyon National Park. Statistics indicate only ten percent of visitors to the park visit the North Rim. It’s easy to see why. The South Rim is closer to the major cities of Arizona with Flagstaff often used as the major jumping off point. The North rim is not near any major city. To get to the North Rim from Flagstaff…

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Vegas to Kanab, Utah Via Valley of Fire

In 2016 we spent a week in Utah checking out three of Utah’s big five national parks. We intended to go back and see the other two, but just hadn’t made it. It was time to go back and check out the two we missed: Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef. We planned to make a trip of it by including the north rim of the Grand Canyon and Nevada’s only national park, Great Basin. There were some other spots including…

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Victorian Homes in the Coastal Town of Eureka and Redwoods

One of my first blog posts was entitled “Why Travel.” I gave a number of reasons why people might travel. Here’s another reason: one travels to get things done. Such was the case this last March. After buying another car, we decided to give our older car to our daughter Andrea to replace her even older car. However, Andrea lives near San Jose, California, and as a teacher she couldn’t easily come and get it. We decided to drive it…

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Thanksgiving Weekend in Santa Barbara

While Silvette grew up in the Queen Ann area of Seattle, a number of years ago her parents and siblings one by one immigrated to Santa Barbara, California. Even our daughter, Andrea, went down to Santa Barbara for college. Our family is the only one left here in the Seattle area. Because of that, we have made quite a few trips to Santa Barbara over the years and have become fairly familiar with the area. This year Silvette’s sister invited…

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Discovering the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge

This trip has been about touring some of the byways in northeastern Oregon. There was one more byway in Oregon I wanted to tour, but we couldn’t make it work with our schedule. Instead I suggested we drive along the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge to see what it had to offer. Most people drive the Oregon side because of the ease of the I-84 freeway. Checking out the other side of the river seemed a unique opportunity.…

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Driving From Wallowa Lake to Pendleton, Oregon

On Thursday of our journey through three byways in Oregon, we started the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. However, it is a long byway so we did not finish it. We drove through the Hells Canyon area and ended up just past Joseph in the town of Enterprise. Today, Friday, we would finish the byway and begin to make our journey back home. In looking over the guide for Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, I realized we had missed an important stop,…

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