Everyone who does the Grand Circle in Utah and Arizona goes to Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Arches. Sometimes those tours will include a lesser-visited but still gorgeous national park called Canyonlands. Canyonlands National Park has three districts: Island in the Sky, Needles, and the Maze. Most people who go to Canyonlands visit Island in …
From National Parks
Aztec Ruins National Monument in New Mexico
Aztec Ruins National Monument is another Ancestral Puebloan site. But it is a little different from the ones Tom and I had previously seen. The other ruins were dispersed, with some of them in out of the way places, such as cliffs or canyons. They represent the later Ancestral Puebloan period when the ancient people …
Yucca House National Monument and Mesa Verde
After visiting Canyon of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado, Tom and I continued our exploration of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings. Our intention was to visit Yucca House National Monument, the next closest collection of dwellings to Canyon of the Ancients. However, visiting Yucca House is more difficult than you might expect from a National Park …
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument
After visiting Hovenweep, Tom and I continued on to Colorado where we visited Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Because Canyons of the Ancients is a Bureau of Land Management Monument, it is open to various uses. National Park Monuments are much more restrictive. Canyons of the Ancients National Monument encompasses 170,000 acres bordering Hovenweep …
Hovenweep National Monument in Utah and Colorado
As I mentioned last week, when I wrote about Navajo National Monument, Tom and I spent quite a bit of time viewing the ruins of Ancestral Puebloan people in October. Shortly after visiting Navajo, we visited Hovenweep National Monument. Talk about the middle of nowhere! Hovenweep National Monument is on the border of Utah and …
Natural Bridges National Monument
As we visited National Park sites in Arizona and Utah, Tom and I often saw bridges, arches, and windows carved into the sandstone layers. We visited Arches National Park in 2006, which is one of the big parks everyone hits sometime in their life. This trip we visited Natural Bridges National Monument which is similar, …
Bears Ears National Monument in Utah
In December, 2016, President Obama created Bears Ears National Monument. His proclamation set aside 1.35 million acres to be jointly administered by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. One year later, December of 2017, President Trump slashed the size of the monument to 200,000 acres and divided the remaining land into two …
Navajo National Monument on the Navajo Reservation
The Navajo Nation owns the biggest piece of Arizona of anyone except the Federal Government. Their reservation in northeastern Arizona is huge, especially compared to the Southern Paiutes in northwestern Arizona. The Navajo have the largest tribal population, so it seems right that they have so much land. After hearing about the Navajo for so …
Mossy Cave Trail at Bryce Canyon National Park
After a good night’s rest at Rubys Inn, I was ready to resume exploring the area. Tom and I stopped for one more hike in the park – Mossy Cave Trail – before leaving Bryce Canyon. Even though Mossy Cave Trail is one of the easiest in the park, Tom and I had never done …
Rim Shots of Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Canyon is my favorite National Park. I know I always say that each park site has its own beauty. I still feel that way, but Bryce is the absolute perfect blend of everything I want in a National Park. Its beauty is incomparable and it is very accessible compared to other parks. You can …