Excellent Adventures

We awake and breakfast early. We have a long drive ahead back to Los Alamos, and a few things we’d like to do along the way first. Of which the most important is a visit to a confirmed fossil site. We have not had a lot of luck with fossil...Read more

We awake and have breakfast. Gary needs some further shaking out of his vehicle, and we load up and drive in to Flagstaff. Once Gary has things squared away for the work on his Jeep, we move into the Wandermobile and head to Sunset Crater. This is the youngest crater...Read more

Gary will get it. I awake early and, anticipating that we may not do much walking today, I walk out to the highway and south. Plus it’s quite chilly and I want some warming sunshine. There is a historical marker along the highway explaining that Dairy Springs was indeed a...Read more

We wake, breakfast, and break camp. The weather is overcast, but that may be a good thing: We are planning on hiking the Bright Angel Trail. We will not be hiking all the way to the canyon bottom. That’s 16 miles round trip with more than a little change of...Read more

We breakfast and break camp, then head to the Glen Canyon Dam. The visitor’s center is closed, but there is an impressive slab of sandstone with dinosaur footprints outside. It seems to be that there are two species of dinosaurs represented by the tracks here. The dam. I realize that...Read more

Another Sunday morning with my mom, and a late winter storm has dropped snow on the mountains. Mount Timpanogos. Almost the entire mountain is underlain by Oquirrh Canyon Formation, mostly Bear Canyon Member. The smaller mountain at far left is underlain by Granger Mountain Member, which is mostly sandstone —...Read more

Though I did a fair amount of walking yesterday, I wasn’t really hiking. I decide this is a good day for a long hike not too far from Mom’s. After consulting my guide book, I settle on Provo Canyon. I’ve photographed this before, but the camera loves it. This is...Read more

This is going to be almost entirely a personal post, with little geology. Don’t hesitate to skip ahead a day if that’s not to your taste. I graduated from BYU in 1985 and have not spent substantial time on the campus since around 2000. It seemed appropriate to visit the...Read more

Based on weather reports, I decide this is the day to head a bit south and check out Jurassic National Monument, which includes the Cleveland-Lloyd dinosaur quarry. I missed it a couple of years ago, when Gary and I drove there and found it was not open that day of...Read more

My sister Lori is interested in a short hike with me. I consult my guide and choose the hike to Stewart Falls, which is described as an easy family hike, three miles round trip. The trailhead is at Aspen Grove, which I haven’t visited in 40 years. It takes me...Read more