We’ve just hiked our way to the top of a plateau known as Upper Table Rock and the view is breathtaking!  It’s so quiet I can hear my heart pounding as it settles back into a normal rhythm after our ascent.  The dark gray rain-filled clouds are hovering and ready to burst.  The air is cool while the birds soar in silent flight.

Just recently I shared with you our discovery of a long-forgotten blink of a town known as Hilt. It’s  just a few miles south of the California Oregon border.  When I told a friend of mine about our discovery, she asked me, “Did you know there is a Buddhist Temple just beyond Hilt?”  Um, no!

Hilt, California.  Yesterday, we had a few hours to call our own so we grabbed our jackets, the camera and a water bottle and off we went.  We knew the weather was going to change quickly and dramatically. But, at least to start with we were enjoying the sun.  We opened the moon roof and hit the highway.

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.

Rainy Days in 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 seven days so we are in no hurry.

Whenever we travel to/through the state of Nevada I can’t help but relive a few childhood memories.  I grew up in a blink of a town known as Gardnerville, which is about 45 minutes south of Reno.

El Cardonal. Just over 1,000 miles south of the U.S./Mexico border is the town of Cabo San Lucas and just about an hour north of Cabo is the town of Los Barriles. And if you drive another hour or so beyond that, you’ll arrive in El Cardonal.

Greetings from Ashland.  Ashland, is just 15 miles north of the California/Oregon border.  A town of about 22,000 residents, Ashland is home to the world renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Southern Oregon University, Lithia Park (a 93-acre park in the heart of town), the Ashland Independent Film Festival, the awesome Rogue River, over 60 wineries and the list goes on.