Marc's Public Blog - Hiking / Backpacking

After landing, was greeted by Waymo cars taking people around, unfortunately they didn't go far enough for where I was going. Taking an uber all the way to Sedona, ended up being difficult and expensive, but eventually got there:

The next morning, went to visit parks/hikes with Mark:

Even the local mall, great views even then:

Then went to Bell Rock:

In the afternoon/evenings, we worked on LEDs :)

wiring a new array

part of the work was to reduce the amount of long ribbon cables

yes!

More lovely trails, this one to seven sacred pools:

sinkhole

The seven sacred pools were actually quite small :)

not quite enough to bathe, in :)

There was a very cool cave off the trail:

Mark had a great time looking around with me:

Later, went to Cathedral Rock just around sunset. Also beautiful:

Also lots of nice cute stores in Sedona:

After leaving Sedona/Flagstaff, quick stop at the Bonito Lava Flow. Didn't have enough time to stay due to a reservation at Lower Antelope Canyon and a 2h drive to get there:

Pretty route on the way, no time to stop, though:

Eventually arrived at Lower Antelope Canyon just in time for the tour with just minutes to spare:

first went to the wrong one

then found the correct one

it's a fair ways down

Then rain happened:

small rivers started to form :)

then it started raining for real ;)

Got exciting in very little time:

Getting tours last minute was hard, so I got one for wind canyon, but it also got flooded, so we went to secret canyon instead:

wider but nice

The nice bonus is the tour company had its own private access to Antelope Canyon:

While in the area, I tried to sign up for real "the wave" without success, but there was this very cool "the new wave" a few minutes outside Page, well worth the visit:

A few more pictures the next day before driving out:

Not far outside Page are Toadstools part of Grand Staircase Escalante NP. Cool walk:

And further up the road, there was Moqui Cave, fun weird quirky place:

this is very random :)

but just next door Sand Caves was a cool visit:

And that was it for the Page Area, next was Zion...

TThe east side is accessed through Zion Ponderosa Ranch Resort, where you can also stay:

nice property

climbing wall

Tturns out using their shuttles ended up being required as the road to the trailhead was very muddy and not passable without something like a rubicon (regular 4WD and anything without a locking differential would not do it)

jeeps they use to drop people off at the trailhead

Because it was not possible to drive to the trailhead and that it was late in the day (just enough to finish by sunset), I changed the plans to stay at the ranch overnight to go the next morning:

someoen was over optimistic in driving there

this was the way to go, I did mention it was muddy on the trail

but even the jeep dropoff was not able to go to the end

finally at the trail, which was reasonably dry

lovely leaf colors

chipmunks waiting for our food :)

they were hungry, as usual :)

fearless :)

great view on the Zion valley

Angel's landing, just across, that was for the next day

there was a trail from observation point to the park, but it was closed

After some nice views, it was time to go back:

is it thanksgiving yet? :)

the car trail back was still muddy, had to walk it back

had to wait for the jeep pickup

Then it was time to head over to the main park entrance:

I had already done the quick hike by the tunnel, and it was fun to do again:

the few windows in the tunnel

It was a bit late in the day, just enogh time to do the river walk again:

obviously the narrows were kind of wet :)

don't miss the last shuttle, it's a long walk

Still a bit of time to do the lower emerald pool

One new thing for Zion is that you could avoid the shuttles and parking by using Ebikes

The next morning, back for Angel's landing:

it was somewhat steep at the end

After the hike, it was late enough in the day that it made sense to head back to Las Vegas for my flight home

Xmas trees

On the way back, I hadn't gone to Hakone Gardens in several years, so it was a good time to go back: