Monthly Archives: November 2011

Rocky Mountain

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Rocky Mountain National Park is located about 1.5 hour drive away from Denver, Colorado. Its main features are the mountains and the varied environments from forests to mountain tundras. You can drive the Trail Ridge Road, a stretch of US Highway 39 that goes through the park from Estes Park in the east to Grand Lake in the west. The road is the highest continuous highway in the United States, reaching maximum elevation around 12,100 feet elevation.

I went to the Rocky Mountain National Park while visiting some relatives who lived in Denver during a 4th of July weekend one year. We went on a trip where we drove to the park and visited a camp ground in the park to listen to a presentation on elks on the first day, stayed at the nearby Estes Park for the night, and on the second day drove up the Trail Ridge Road past its highest elevation. It was pretty interesting to notice the difference the high elevation makes to the wildlife and vegetation. Temperature went from the 80s in Denver when we started the road trip to the 40s up there. Not only it was cold, but it was also quite windy. We saw wildflowers and other tundra vegetations, and learned from the park ranger on a short tour of the tundra that everything was so low to the ground so they’re able to withstand the high winds.

The photo below was taken at a stop on the Trail Ridge Road up on the mountain. This was a trailhead for a hike in the mountain tundras. It was too cold for us to take on this hike, and some of us started feeling a bit woozy from not the elevation change (and lower oxygen level up there), so we decided to head back down the mountains instead.

Trail head at Rocky Mountain

Bryce Canyon

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Bryce Canyon National Park is located in Southwestern Utah, about 90 miles away from Zion National Park. Bryce Canyon is known for its hoodoos, the spire-like rock formations in arid, desert areas formed by erosions. While hoodoos can be found also in other places in the world, nowhere else you could find a large concentration of them like in Bryce Canyon.

I arrived late at night on my first visit to Bryce Canyon, and we went straight to our hotel that was located just outside the park. We went to the Bryce Amphitheater — the main area where the hoodoos are found in Bryce Canyon — very early in the following morning, hoping to catch the sunrise and see the sun light illuminating the amphitheater area in the morning. We were not disappointed; it was quite a sight seeing the sun rises in the distance, then slowly seeing the hoodoos in the Bryce Amphitheater being lighted from just silhouettes to bright red color of the sandstone. During the daytime, you can see the area quite clearly from various overlooks in the park. The air quality around Bryce Canyon is among the best that you can see as far as 160 miles away from there.

The photo below was taken from an overlook near the Bryce Amphitheater during my second visit to the park. It was early spring time. That morning it was a bit cloudy so we didn’t get to see the same dramatic illumination of the hoodoos, but the sun light was still soft in the morning that you can see the details of the hoodoos at the Bryce Amphitheater. In the background, you see some vegetations that looked like bushes. Those are actually tall pine trees — to give you an idea of the scale.

Bryce Amphitheater

Zion

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Zion National Park is located in Southwestern Utah, close to the Nevada and Arizona borders. The main feature of this park is the Zion Canyon, a canyon 15 miles long and up to half mile deep, surrounding by large sandstone mountains. At the end of the Zion Canyon, there is the Zion Narrows, a gorge that at one point is as narrow as 20 feet wide but 2,000 feet tall. The east entrance to the park goes through the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, which is a winding road that cuts through rocky surroundings and then descends into the canyon.

The first time I visited Zion was during a weekend road trip with my brother when we went from Phoenix to the Grand Canyon National Park, and continued north to southern Utah to visit Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Parks. The drive through the Zion – Mount Carmel Highway was interesting enough, not knowing what to expect to see when started descending into the Zion Canyon. That’s when we were awestruck seeing the tall mountains around us (and realizing how small we were in comparison). We parked our car at the Visitor Center and took the shuttle bus to the Zion Canyon (that’s the only motorized vehicle allowed into the canyon). At one point of the ride, our driver slowed down and pointed us to a vertical cliff of one of the mountains. There were two specs in the middle — a couple of mountain climbers on their way up. They had been climbing since the day before, and it would take them at least another day to reach the top.

The photo below was taken during my second visit to Zion on another road trip with two of my cousins. We stopped after driving down the canyon on the Zion – Mount Carmel Highway to pause and enjoy the scenery around us. On this photo you could see my cousin in the bottom middle part of the photo looking at the mountains around him. He’s about 5’6″ in height, but in this photo he looked quite small in comparison to the surrounding mountains.

Zion National Park

Grand Canyon

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One national park in the United States that is among the most well-known is the Grand Canyon National Park. Located in Northern Arizona, it is a canyon carved by the Colorado River since over 17 million years ago, exposing layers of rock that tell the earth’s geological history from over two billion years ago. The Grand Canyon is 227 miles long, up to 18 miles wide, and over one mile deep. It is considered as one of the world’s natural wonders.

The first time I visited the Grand Canyon was during the time I was working on a project for a regional hospital in the Navajo Indian Reservation about one hour north east of the Grand Canyon. One day I decided to leave work early and on my way back to Phoenix, I took a detour into the park. I remembered the first time I saw the canyon after driving on flat lands for a while. I’ve seen photos and TV programs on Grand Canyon before, but nothing compared to seeing it with my own eyes. It’s one of those sights that just took my breath away and all I could say was ‘wow.’ Since then, I’ve been back to the Grand Canyon National Park several times, and it’s still awesome to see the sights and observer other visitors’ reaction in seeing the canyon for the first time. But that first visit was one that I always remember.

The photo below was taken during one of my return visits to the Grand Canyon. It’s a photo of the canyon from the South Rim during the sunset. One of the lessons I learned from visiting the Grand Canyon is that the best time to take photographs of the canyon is either at sunrise or at sunset, when the sun light is soft and not as harsh as in the middle of the day. During the day in the bright day light, your photos of the rocks would look washed out.

Sunset at Grand Canyon

Saguaro

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Saguaro National Park is located in Tucson, Arizona. It comprises two areas (called districts), the West District at the west suburb of the city of Tucson, and the East District at the east suburb of the city. The park gets its name from the saguaro cactus that grow abundantly in the park area. The saguaro cactus is native to the Sonoran desert, and it’s known for its large size (it can grow anywhere from 15 to 50 feet) and long life (some can live for more than 150 years). Whenever you think of the ‘wild west’ the picture wouldn’t be complete without saguaro cacti as part of the scenery.

I visited Saguaro for the first time when I was working on a project in Scottsdale, Arizona. While I was there, I did a road trip to visit the park in Tucson. You can drive your car on both the paved and gravel roads inside the park. There are also walking paths where you can walk among the tall saguaro cacti. And a trip to the Saguaro National Park wouldn’t be complete without a visit to the nearby Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a living museum that showcases the native vegetations and animals.

The photo below was taken at the West District of the Saguaro National Park on my second visit to the park, during a road trip I took with my cousins on the way to Phoenix, Arizona. We arrived in Tucson close to the sunset time, in time to catch one of those amazing moments of the day in the Southwest United States when the sky lights up as the sun sets in the west. The silhouette of the saguaro cacti added interesting details to the scenery; the cacti with their arms looked like human beings standing around.

Sunset at Saguaro National Park