Death Valley! Well, it was definitely warmer than Utah - about 95 degrees during the day and cooling to the mid 60's at night. Brian finally found a place warm enough for me to stop complaining about my cold hands and feet. We saw all kinds of wildlife there too - the kind that fly - stealth bombers - and the kind that crawl - collared lizards. Actually, we did see more birds and plenty of bats. With 1.5 inches of rain a year you wouldn't think there would be any bugs for the bats to eat, but we always seemed to have at least one fly buzzing around us, and all it took was opening a hummus container to get a swarm of gnats. Where do they hang out? We couldn't figure it out.

So this place is hot and dry. You can see the salt flats at 288 feet below sea level, and Brian is finally getting to golf - they call this the devil's golf course. The balls are mostly crystalized salt and other minerals but really sharp and nasty. But the place had a very stark kind of beauty and we did plenty of canyon hikes that showed the different kind of rocks in the valley. Our camping was pleasant with the exception of one very windy night when some warm air blew through and we were almost blown away tent and all.

Death Valley has a history of borax mining, but now it is a hotspot for European travel. We met at least 5 tour buses a day of folks speaking various languages. We kept trying to figure out how they convince Europeans that Death Valley is a destination vacation, except that I can imagine if you're from a place that doesn't get much sun you could really make up for that there. Anyway, it was a fun time to sit in front of the general store and people watch, which is what we did when the day got too hot for hiking. We enjoyed the place as a break from the cold and do recommend it, but no earlier than October and no later than April.

Dear friends and family,

We finished our tour of Utah with some hiking at Bryce Canyon while we camped at Kodachrome Basin State Park nearby. We thought Bryce was the most spectacular of all the parks with its amphitheatre of "hoodoos" that looked like people frozen in time, sort of like the stone statues of the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. In addition we enjoyed seeing the bristlecone pine trees that grow there. The bristlecone pines are known to live up to 4800 years - in the White Mountains of California there are some that are that old. In Bryce they have documented them to be up to 1700 years old. Our stay at Kodachrome Basin was beautiful - the campground was surrounded by canyon walls and the night sky was great for viewing the Milky Way, Jupiter, and later in the evening, the moon. But it was cold - one morning Brian poured water into our aluminum pan and it immediately froze. So after three days of rising with the freezing temps we packed up to head for warmer climes - Death Vally NP in California.

Hi Everyone,
After several days of beautiful weather and great camping in and around Canyonlands National Park it turned cold when we arived at Zion National Park. It was well below freezing and were happy to be in a hotel room when we met our friend Steve just outside the Park. We spent four days with Steve. He and I (Brian) took a one night backpacking trip and all three of us took several day hikes. The overnight backcountry trip we took was not the one I thought we might take. I had wanted to go through "The Narrows". It is a 16 mile hike downstream a river that runs through narrrow canyon walls. It is a fantastic hike but the water is 57 degrees and the air was around freezing in the morning. We decided a dry hike sounded better and it was terrific. Some time in warmer weather I hope to get back to "The Narrows." As the pictures show it is a beautiful place. It was wonderful to be with Steve and enjoy camping with him again. Our families have camped together since our children were little and we have always had a great time together. We hope to catch Steve again after we return from Indonesia. Zion is a very popular park. 2.4 million visitors come each year and Spring and Fall are the most popular times. They manage the crowds well by using a shuttle system rather than allowing cars through the park. In this way it is similar to Denali. One difference is that the buses in Denali are old school buses while in Zion the buses are what you would expect in a city bus system.

Thanks for your interest in our trip - we love keeping in touch! Brian and Ruth

Dear Friends and Family,

Canyonlands National Park In Utah was the setting for a really great two night backpacking trip Brian and I took last week. We experienced both the big (the sweeping views of the canyons and rock faces) and the small (the abundant scurrying lizards and the cryptobiotic soils that build the sand into usable soil for plants). We were also very impressed at how smart ravens are. We had left our packs for about 15 minutes to pump water from a small pool and upon our return saw a raven sitting on top of Brian's pack. The pair of ravens had zipped open our top zippers on the packs and pulled out all the contents, checking for food in each plastic bag. All they found was garbage, but they had pecked and scattered the contents of those pouches all around in the short time we were gone. Zippers are no problem for them. The Tlingit first nation people in Alaska revere the raven and name one of their clans after it, and it appears in many legends and on the story and clan totems we saw in Sitka. Now we know why.

The backpacking was glorious, warm sunny days and cool starry nights, with great camping spots nestled amid the canyon walls. We were grateful for the warm weather!

We have enjoyed Utah and have visited several parks here: Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, Capitol Reef and now we are at Zion, the most visited park of all in Utah. This is a popular time of year to be here and we are with the crowds, but the weather, other than a cold snap this weekend, is cooperating. We drove through snow and 40 mph winds to get here, but now we are looking forward to a calm and sunny week. Brian and our friend Steve Benz, who is spending a few days with us, will do a 2 day backpacking trip here while I do some shorter hikes and camp in the park. We continue to be grateful for the R and R this trip is giving us and the chance to see our beautiful country. Thanks for your emails, comments and support! Love, Ruth and Brian

Greetings folks!

Our last two stops in Oregon were Oregon Cave National Monument and Crater Lake National Park. The first two pictures are from Crater Lake. At the cave we took a tour but our pictures were lousy, thus you don't see any. Also, while all caves are interesting and this one had some fascinating formations, the colors were very dull, so between the dull colors, the poor lighting and our limited camera, we didn't do so well. We had an interesting drive from the California coast to Oregon Cave National Monument. When we left the coast it was drizzly and 50 degrees and by the time we got close to the monument it was over 90 degrees and it looked like one good match could start a forest fire. Indeed, during our visit to Crater Lake we saw numerous forest fires, small ones, in the surrounding forest areas.

We spent a couple of days at Crater Lake, really two nights camping and one full day of touring and hiking. We climbed Mt. Scott, the tallest point in the park at 8900 feet to get a view of the lake. For those of you who don't know, the crater was formed when Mt. Mazama (part of the Cascades range, just like Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens) blew its top 7700 years ago and all the magma underneath it drained out until the whole mountain collapsed, going from a 14000 foot peak to a crater with 7100 feet rim in elevation. It took about 2000 years for the bottom to cool enough and the cracks to seal for water to collect, and now the lake is 5 miles wide and 1/3 mile deep. There are no trails that circle the rim because it erodes so easily, so the viewpoints and summits are the best points from which to get a look at the lake. Brian is standing in front of the "Pinnacles" formations which are fumeroles (old ash vents) that have been exposed through erosion. We're learning a lot about geology, more than any of you care to know I'm sure, but it's very interesting to us, being here and all.

And so now Utah, where we were sure we could finally get away from the rain once and for all. After all, the average yearly rainfall is only 7 inches. As you may note from the last two pictures, our 5 hour hike this morning was accompanied by a steady and cold rain, more of which is predicted for tonight and tomorrow. I think all of October's allotment of rain fell while we were walking today. We finally succumbed to a hotel, just too much rain to contemplate setting up a tent in when we were already drenched and cold. But the hike at Arches National Park was great fun. I am standing in front of Partition Arch. But my favorite arch is the one that is not there. The archless picture you see is Window Arch, which fell this year. The sign is still there, but the arch is not. It's fascinating to think that these formations are coming and going endlessly as erosion does the inevitable.

We hope you are all well, as we are, and we always look forward to hearing from you.

Ruth and Brian