After setting up camp in our 3-month rental house, in our new life in Ashland, OR, we had several weeks to call our own before we took ownership of what is now our B&B.  We took care of a few matters of business and spent time scouting out our new town.  When the time was right we packed our son’s car and drove it across country.

You’ve probably figured out by now that southern Oregon is home to a multitude of lakes; Lake of the Woods, Hyatt Prairie, Willow and Fish Lake are just a few of the ones we’ve explored.  But as far as mountain lakes go, Crater Lake is the granddaddy of them all.

We pay the obligatory fee at the entrance to Burney Falls State Park, park and step out of the car and it hits us – we’re in the mountains.  What is it about mountain air and the smell of pine trees?  I swear the air has healing power and for me, it always brings about a big sigh of happy.

One of the things we noticed almost immediately at Bryce Canyon National Park was the small trees growing on top of some of the hoodoos and we were pretty amazed by that.  How did the trees seemingly grow out of stone?

Bryce Canyon’s Rainbow Point.  At the risk of repeating myself when I said I was pretty sure Zion National Park was not like anything else I’ve ever seen, I think I have to take it a step further by telling you that it may in fact be Bryce Canyon National Park that takes the prize.  Don’t get me wrong, I fell in love with the sheer magnitude of Zion, but Bryce is another world.

The Tunnel.  One of the tidbits I read before coming to Zion National Park was that if you don’t do anything else, you must drive the tunnel.  I thought, “Okay, we’ll drive the tunnel” having no idea what that meant.  This tunnel is like nothing you’ve ever seen.

Zion National Park. We awoke this morning to p-o-u-r-i-n-g rain so the only reasonable thing to do was roll over and go back to sleep, which we did.  It goes without saying that we got a late start to the day, but we’re here for 7 days so we are in no hurry.

Yosemite has been a big huge significant influential part of our lives.  I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve visited Yosemite, long before the days of digital, that’s for certain.  Many, many years ago we took to traveling for the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend, almost always to the Sierra’s, the CA gold country and many visits to Yosemite.