August 19, 2006 by annie.

i’m heading out tomorrow morning to take tyler to banff national park in alberta, canada…then a little farther north to jasper national park. banff np is canada’s first (oldest) national park and the world’s third. in case you’re wondering which parks are the first and second in the world (as i did)…number one is yellowstone national park in (mostly) wyoming…number two is royal national park, south of sydney in australia. anyway, we’ll be hiking like crazy…and i get to see my first icefield. i’ll post our adventures as soon as we get back in about a week.

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August 19, 2006 by annie.

date hiked: august 6, 2006
distance: park avenue trail = 2 miles and the windows trail = 1 mile
highest elevation: 5653 feet
elevation gain: 320 feet
time: approx 1.5 hours (both trails)

the park avenue trail in arches national park was my favorite hike in the park. the trail follows the wash to courthouse towers where you can either be picked up or turn around and head back to the start. my favorite rock formation was the one above. i think it looks like three women…chatting away (which is why it is aptly named the three gossips). i loved it.

the windows trail is a loop that includes the north window, south window, and the turret arch. tyler thinks the two windows look like alien eyes. it was interesting that the two windows are not actually parallel to each other and you can only get them both in a picture when you round the trail loop near turret arch.

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August 19, 2006 by annie.

camped: august 5, 2006

after a long day of awesome sites, we were heading north (towards home). it was getting dark…and we had almost completely circled monument valley without having stopped to take pictures. we realized we needed to stop and take some shots…and start looking for a campground. turns out, we camped at gouldings in the town of monument valley, ut and woke up to this view outside our tent in the morning.

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August 19, 2006 by annie.

date hiked: august 5, 2006

the navajo national monument consists of several well-preserved cliff dwellings. i was very excited to have been able to make this stop on the trip. unfortunately, we arrived too late to take the guide-led hike to the betatakin/talastima dwellings…so we could only take the mesa-top trail overlooking the canyon. again, this is one of those times where the picture doesn’t account for the amazing view.

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