just look at the pictures...
THE WAVE: PART 1
Yes … Part 1 because there are just too many pictures to decide which are the best. The elusive Wave hike … a 6 mile roundtrip hike that starts in Utah and ends in Arizona. But it’s really not just about the Wave itself, the other sandstone features on the way to the Wave and surrounding the Wave are just as amazing. The Wave is located in Grand Staircase National Monument and managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
BRIAN HEAD AND BRYCE CANYON
With a gap of 10 days between dropping Jason/Paula/Oliver off at the airport in Salt Lake City and meeting friends in Vail, we needed to fill the gap with a few other destinations. First was Powder Mountain, then with Utah still on the mind, the Wave started my mind going. Well, southern Utah isn’t exactly right next to northern Utah so I figured … why not stop by Brian Head and ski a day as a stopover, so we did.
POWDER MOUNTAIN
We heard from our friend Blake that a group of young entrepreneurs had purchased a ski resort in Northern Utah a few years back with a dream to create their “perfect” town to foster new ideas and the sharing of knowledge. Since we were in the area, we decided to check it out. About an hour and a half north of Salt Lake City, just outside the small town of Eden, UT, is Powder Mountain.
SNOWBIRD
On our third day, we headed out to the Snowbird Resort, which is about a 45 minute drive outside of Park City. It’s more of a local mountain, so we were looking forward to less crowds and different terrain – and it’s EXACTLY what we got. I fell in love with the mountain within the first two runs that we did….beautiful scenery, wide runs, varying pitches….and very few people. It’s like we had the whole mountain to ourselves. And to top it off, it was a gorgeous day so I feel like everyone’s spirits were up.
PARK CITY
We spent the first day of the new year skiing at the Park City Resort, which we were able to walk to from our condo in town. Bright and sunny day in search of some good groomers and maybe even some powder? Yup, we were able to do a short hike off the Jupiter chair to hit some snow that was still barely touched. Jason rocked the beardhead to keep warm as the frigid temperatures stuck with us. We thoroughly enjoyed Park City, both the skiing and the town. We will be back for sure.
- Jonathan
THE CANYONS
After spending four days in Jackson Hole, we drove about five hours to Park City, Utah, where we would spend the next four days scoping out a few resorts in the area. The Canyons was our first stop – which welcomed us with super cold temperatures, to the point where it felt like our fingertips and toes and even noses were frozen! We have no idea how cold it was…but it definitely felt colder than Jackson Hole. It was really awesome to experience a different terrain than what we’ve seen so far…and see the endless rows of bare aspens against the white snow. Can’t say this was a favorite of ours, but definitely glad we came for a visit.
- Allie and Jonathan
JACKSON HOLE
We were able to ski four days at Jackson Hole and were blessed with a couple awesome bluebird groomer/cruiser days matched up with a few epic powder days. On a bluebird day, Jackson Hole is beautiful. The view as you drop into a run is just insane. Apparently pretty enough to paraglide off the side of the mountain from the main lodge.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK DAY 3
We got to ride one more time in the snow coach on the way out of the park. Took a quick stop at Kepler’s Cascade where waaaaay back in the day, some dude lost his horse and was stuck out there for a little over 30 days in the snow! He somehow survived by staying warm near the thermal features of the area. Can you even imagine surviving for a month without modern gear?? The dude didn’t even have pockets in his pants! Pockets hadn’t been invented yet!??!! Insane!
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK DAY 2
GRAND TETON AND YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARKS DAY 1
So we knew we were going to drive out to Jackson Hole to do some skiing between Christmas and New Years, but we decided to schedule a last minute stay in Yellowstone National Park.
Apparently people book their holidays at Yellowstone out a year before, well, not us! I think we booked about a month ago. And it's not just ensuring there’s availability at the Snow Lodge either, you have to book space in a vintage Bombardier snow coach since the roads are closed to normal traffic once the snow starts falling.
BEND
We FINALLY made it up to Bend to visit our good friends, Matt and Kate, and skied a couple days with them at Mount Bachelor. After skiing, we may have bit off a little more than we could chew. We decided to start a 4.5 mile hike at 4 PM, knowing that the sun would go down at around 4:30 PM. Let’s just say that it was pitch black by the time we got back to the car. We did get to see some nice colors in the sky right around dusk though.
Note to self … don’t hike in the snow in the winter when its about to get dark.
- Jonathan
MONO LAKE AND THE COMING WINTER
It's been quite a while since we posted anything, sorry about that …
Going back almost a month to my birthday, December 1, we cruised up to Mammoth to ski a few days on our way up to Tahoe. There is really nothing like skiing on a Monday; it completely ruins weekend skiing for you.
After skiing, we drove out to Mono Lake. This place is kind of magical. The tufa towers are calcium-carbonate spires formed by interactions between freshwater springs (previously underwater) and the alkaline lake water. The formations are a little unreal, feels kind of like another planet. Mono Lake is an ancient lake, over 1 million years old. Definitely worth a stop if you’re up near Mammoth.
BIG SUR
Never been here before, surprise surprise…
We weren’t exactly sure where to camp, thankfully our friend Katrina mentioned the possibility of dispersed camping in Los Padres National Forest just off Highway 1. Well…it's not really just off the highway…we ended about 5 miles up Plaskett Ridge Road. Definitely worth the bumpy adventure up the single lane dirt road.
MOONSTONE BEACH
At a distance, Moonstone Beach doesn’t really seem like much. Walk out onto the beach and you’ll notice it's not really sand, but small multi-colored stones. Pretty amazing actually. We spent a good 20 minutes or so just sifting thru them pulling out ones that caught our eyes. Then Allie let out her inner child and had some fun chasing sea gulls.
- Jonathan
MONTANA DE ORO STATE PARK
Being one of California’s largest state parks, we only took a quick glimpse at what it had to offer. We only stopped for about an hour and strolled part of the Bluffs trail in search of the Stonehenge formations near Bluchon Point. Unfortunately, we didn’t do our research properly so we ended up in a different area. Neither of us had heard of this place, but were pleasantly surprised by its beauty. The colors and textures of the rock formations by the water were incredible.
We will be back again to explore more when we have more time!
- Jonathan and Allie
INTERNATIONAL BALLOON FIESTA
Wowza.
We heard about International Balloon Fiesta through a friend, named James, and we quickly googled it and were immediately sold! We originally were set to go up on Sunday, but the weather wasn’t favorable and no balloons flew. MAJOR BUMMER. Thankfully, we didn’t have anything else planned the next few days so we were rescheduled to fly on Tuesday morning.
We spent 2 days exploring Albuquerque, trying New Mexican cuisine, went to a handful of antique shops, and visited the Georgia O'Keffe Museum in Santa Fe.
CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK
Unreal. Awesome. Amazing. Spectacular. Mysterious. Enchanting. These are just a few of the words that come to mind when I think about Carlsbad Caverns.
The caverns were discovered in 1898 by a sixteen year old boy named, Jim White, who noticed a big black whirl in the distance. As he got closer, he realized the black whirl was actually a ton of bats exiting a giant black hole in the mountain. Days later, he returned with supplies to make a ladder that would allow him to descend into the hole. He spent much of his time exploring the cave with homemade torches. After the Caverns were featured in publications like National Geographic and The New York Times, Congress established this area as a national park in 1930, well over 30 years after Jim had first discovered them.
WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT
Quick pit stop to check out this monument. If you’re in the area (not really near anything) it's definitely worth a pass thru. White sand as far as the eye can see, pretty incredible…that’s all.
Off to spend the night at Guadalupe National Park and go see the Bat Flight this evening at Carlsbad Caverns (sorry, no cameras allowed, so you’ll just have to go see it for yourselves!)
- Allie and Jonathan
CHIRICAHUA NATIONAL MONUMENT
I haven’t been back here in almost 14 years and before that probably since I was 5.
Chiricahua, the land of balancing rocks -- what an awesome monument! Southeastern Arizona doesn’t typically get much attention, in fact, most people think its just desert and sand, but Chiricahua is definitely worth a visit.
A free shuttle drops you off at the top of the trailhead and you can do a 7.3 mile hike down thru the Heart of Rocks, loop back to the visitor center, and campground.
The weather was perfect while we were there too and almost had the entire campground to ourselves.
- Jonathan