Category Archives: Trips

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Hot Air

Imagine a beagle 100 feet long, 50 feet tall, and 40 feet wide. The dog is hovering 10 feet above your head. Suddenly, one of his Prius-sized paws moves slowly toward your face. As you pull back and turn to get out of the way a scarecrow the size of a water tower is coming at you from the other direction. You turn again and a see a piranha with 10 foot tall teeth laying on its side, looking at you like he just found dinner.

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Red rocks and brown mud on the Green River

Green River canoe trip
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I can’t say I was excited about this trip in the days before we left. Suzy and I have been on a number of multi-day river trips in the past. While we did enjoy those trips, my memory is a little more pessimistic than hers. She remembers the warm days, the cools nights, the peace, the laughter. I remember the long drives, the heavy gear, the hot days, the flipping of boats in big, powerful rapids, the W-I-N-D blowing so hard we couldn’t make forward progress. I was feeling pretty anxious.

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The Road to Druid Arch

The Needles District of Canyonlands NP is our go-to place when we are looking for a desert experience. It is beautiful, close to home, and not as crowded as Moab, which has become a Mecca for bicyclists year-round. While the campground in the park often fills up during peak season, the close-by Needles Outpost usually has spots available and the view of the Needles from there is breathtaking.

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Taliesin West – Not Your Grandma’s House

Taliesin West is unlike any house I’ve ever seen. Of course, I’ve never seen another Frank Lloyd Wright house before so that would explain it. And, to be fair, Taliesin West isn’t just another Frank Lloyd Wright house.

First of all, the grounds are home to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and School of Architecture so in addition to the house there is a gift shop, theater, classrooms, etc. Thus, it feels a little more like a compound than a home.

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The beautiful desert

It is difficult to describe the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, AZ but I think it’s safe to say that if you like rugged beauty, prickly things, and the best flora the desert has to offer, then you should definitely check it out. In addition to the trees, grasses, succulents and cacti, we saw owls hunting, frogs swimming, rabbits doing whatever rabbits do, and quail wandering around making that funny little quail sound. Note, these were not critters in cages. These were wild animals that have made the gardens their home.

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