Utah

“Zion is spectacular in early October,” wrote my friend Michele. “You should spend more than a morning or afternoon there. You would really enjoy the hike to the top of Angel’s Landing. Zion is one of my favorite parks of all time and the temps are so nice in October.”

Unfortunately — due to limited time and needing to spare my legs for the St. George Marathon — I spent only an afternoon in Zion National Park and did no hiking. Instead, I rode the free propane-powered park shuttles to various vantage points. Still, it was nice to gaze at the red sandstone cliffs and see some of the critters (including deer and lizards) up close. Continue reading »

Eastern Utah, south of Arches National Monument, was another wonderful surprise to me. Through this entire expanse the scenery resembled a cross between Arches and Sedona, Arizona. A town that might be worth stopping through is Blanding, which has a Dinosaur Museum. More photos are here.

One natural area of interest I never got to visit during my 2005 Great American Road Trip was Arches National Monument in eastern Utah in Moab. I could not pass up the opportunity, then, to pass right by it on my way down to Ironman Arizona from Colorado in 2006. The graceful, arching rock formations here are really a sight to behold. Click here for more photos.

I spent a sunny Sunday morning in Provo, Utah. As with Logan, Utah, I pretty much deemed it too brown and dry for my tastes (I’m not sure why the Wasatch Mountains by Ogden seemed greener than in Logan or Provo), but can pass on a few superficial impressions: Continue reading »

I hadn’t given any thought about visiting Ogden until I met a climber chick named Jennie at the City of Rocks on top of a rock I had just climbed. She told me how much she liked Ogden, which made me resolve that I’d have to at least drive through the town which had hosted many of the events in the 2002 Winter Olympics. When I arrived in town, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. Continue reading »