Fall and Winter 2005 Trips

More Zion National Park
You can never tire of a place as magical as Zion National Park, so to celebrate my birthday we headed to Zion yet again. Best part was the slot canyoneering.

Watson Lake
Okay, this really wasn't a trip because Watson Lake is in Prescott (where we were living at the time), but we went there so many evenings that I had to include a few photographs. So pretty.

Thanksgiving Trip
In November, we spent Thanksgiving in Tucson (where Warren had a photoshoot), then headed over to California to spend a few days with my brother's family and parents (who were there visiting.) While in California, we spent one afternoon kayaking in the Newport Back Bay and had fantastically close encounters with all manner of birdlife.

Christmas Break
For the Christmas/New Years holiday, we headed up to Utah to my parents, stopping in en route at Bryce National Park.

After a few days at my parents, we headed through the snowy Uinta mountains over to Dinosaur National Monument to see real, actual dinosaur bones still intact in the dirt (very cool!).

After a few hikes at Dinosaur NM, we spent two days at Canyonlands National Park, hiking in the Island of the Sky area one day (above) and the Needles area the next (below).

We actually went off trail on the return portion of the Needles hike. If it weren't for Warren's supurb backcountry skills, we would surely have had to spend a night in the wilderness--sans tent, jackets, food, etc... It was actually a pretty scary experience, and I'll admit this: I wasn't terribly brave!

Our last stop before ending the two week vacation was to check out the 2,000 year old petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument.

Summer 2005 Trips

During the summer of 2005, Warren and I went on a number of weekend jaunts in the Western US.  Here's a quick run-down of what we did:


Zion National Park
In early May we made another trip to Zion, catching a beautiful display of 'orange globemallows' en route:

While there, we hiked a bit in Zion, then explored nearby Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park:

In mid-May we took a weekend trip to California so Warren could photograph an airplane, and in late-May we spent a long weekend exploring eastern Arizona (on a photo shoot for a congressman, who wanted some beautiful landscape photographs of Arizona for his office in DC).

White Mountains
In early June we spent a weekend backpacking in the White Mountains, along Arizona's eastern border. It was my first pack-in trip, and other than having a fairly sleepless night, I was hooked. When it was all done, we climbed a nearby fire tower to survey our hiking area:

Zion National Park, again
In mid-June, we spend another weekend in Zion, this time hiking the East Rim Trail...fun but exhausting (a bit too hot!)

Backpacking in Pecos National Forest, NM
Having not gotten our fill of backpacking, we headed out again in early July for a three day hike in the Pecos National Forest, just north of Santa Fe. It was a beautiful spot, and a great hike (other than when we misread the map and ended up hiking over 17 miles in one day, fully loaded, at a 10,000+ altitude. Yikes!) En route to/from Pecos, we stopped in Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Waputki National Monument & Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
In August, we fled the Phoenix heat in favor of a weekend in the cool climate of Flagstaff (northern Arizona). There, we explored nearby Native American Ruins and climbed a volcanic cinder cone (two steps up, one step down). Then we headed over to the Grand Canyon and headed part way down one of the trails we'd yet to hike together.

Hiking in the Wasatch Mountains
In August, while on a weekend visit to my parents house in the Salt Lake area, we spent an afternoon hiking in the nearby Wasatch mountains. After hiking up to a glacial lake and braving a sudden and fierce storm, Warren surprised me with wedding bands made out of meteorite. What a guy! :) [We'd been married for 2 years at that point, but were fairly unconventional about the whole thing so we hadn't gotten wedding bands yet.]

On the way down, we actually got chased by a moose. Seriously!

Warren's Surprise Trip to NYC!

For our anniversary, Warren surprised me with a 5 day trip to New York City! What a romantic. :)

We stayed at the stylish Moderne Hotel, saw the hilarious Broadway Show "Spamalot", and ate dinner at the top of the Rainbow Room. Warren made all the arrangements ahead of time and managed to keep it a secret until the week before. 

While there, we (characteristically) walked a lot, exploring the streets and sites of the city...

...and indulged in some of the more 'touristy' activities like touring the UN (very interesting) and visiting the Museum of Modern Art:

We had a blast spending time with Betsy's aunt Ardith (who lives in New York City). Together we explored the Park Slope area and had long conversations over delicious New York food.

On our last day in the city, we strolled around Central Park, and then renewed our commitment to each other for another year amongst the beautiful flowers and shady trees.

It was a perfect trip!

The Big Island of Hawaii!

In February 2005, Warren and I went to the Big Island of Hawaii. We spent the first three days exploring at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park...

...where we were lucky enough to catch an active lava flow--all the way into the ocean! Of course, getting to the site required traversing an ankle-wrecking field of hardened lava.

Then we headed over to the other side of the island to meet up with friends Josh and Amy, where we spent four more beautiful days. We kayaked out to a snorkeling spot one day...

...and snorkeled with giant sea turtles and other colorful sea life on another day.

We also visited the observatory at Mauna Kea (Warren, Josh and Amy even went twice!)...

...and visited other parts of the island like South Point, Lapahoehoe Point, and the Waipi'o Valley:

Beautiful trip!