Wendy and I just got back from our vacation to the Southwest US.  In a sentence, we went to the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, and Death Valley National Park, slept in a tent 6 out of 8 nights, drove 1500 miles, took lots of pictures, and had a great time. 

Summary
Day 1 - Clear and in the 90s; flew into Las Vegas; stocked up on food and supplies; grabbed dinner at Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner in Kingman, AZ; camped in the Kaibab National Forest outside Grand Canyon National Park, where the temperature got down in the 40s at night.

Day 2 - Clear and in the 80s; drove into Grand Canyon very early; hiked to Cedar Ridge along the South Kaibab Trail with an informative park ranger (3 miles); strolled along the Rim Trail; got a prickly pear margarita at El Tovar Hotel (too alcohol-y); showered at Mather Campground; watched the sunset at Powell Point; camped in the Kaibab National Forest again.

Day 3 - Clear and in the 90s; climbed the Desert View Watchtower on the way out of the park; stopped off at the Little Colorado River Gorge; briefly walked around in Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park; arrived at Bryce and looked around a bit; camped in Dixie National Forest, where the temperature got down in the 50s at night.

Day 4 - Perfectly clear and in the 80s; got up to see the sunrise in Bryce (wasn't that good); hiked the Navajo/Peekaboo/Queens Garden Trails (6.4 miles); got lunch at the Bryce Canyon Lodge; drove to nearby Mossy Cave and walked around in the river; hiked the Bristlecone Loop Trail (9100 feet elevation) and played in the snow; showered at the general store; stopped at a few more spots on the way out of the park; camped in Dixie National Forest again, where it was windy and a little wet.

Day 5 - Cloudy and in the 60s; drove to Zion; got lunch at Zion Lodge; hiked to the Lower Emerald Pool in the rain; rode Fuzzy the horse and Moses the mule; hiked the Riverside Walk just up to the Narrows (water was too high); stopped off at Big Bend; hiked to the Weeping Rock after going a half mile in the wrong direction (uphill); spent the night in Terrace Brook Lodge.

Day 6 - Pretty clear and in the 60s; hiked to Angels Landing (5 miles, 1488-foot climb); stopped at the excellent Springdale Fruit Company for lunch on the way out of the park; drove to Death Valley; stopped at Zabriskie Point for some desert views; camped at Furnace Creek (196 feet below sea level), where the temperature stayed in the 70s all night.

Day 7 - Hazy and in the 80s; drove to Badwater Basin (282 feet below sea level); hiked to Natural Bridge; saw weird salt crystal formations at the Devil's Golf Course; looked at colorful desert minerals on Artists Drive; hiked up Mosaic Canyon; walked around the Mesquite Sand Dunes in the rain (yes it rained in the driest place in the country); stopped at Dantes View on the way out of the park; drove to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area just outside Las Vegas and camped, where it was cold and rainy.

Day 8 - Cloudy and in the 70s; drove into Las Vegas; checked into the hotel early (yay!); packed our bags.

Quick facts
Miles driven:  About 1500
Highest elevation reached:  About 9300 feet
Lowest elevation reached:  -282 feet
Highest temperature experienced:  90s
Lowest temperature experienced:  40s
States visited:  4 (Nevada, Arizona, Utah, California)
Showers taken:  6
Pennies pressed:  4
Miles hiked:  About 25
Times coyotes were heard at night:  2
Times we wished we were doing something else:  0

Thoughts
Two important things for the trip were health and weather.  It occurred to me about a week before we left that our trip would change significantly if either one of us was injured or hurt with something as simple as a twisted ankle.  Thankfully we were both in great health before we left so it wasn't an issue.  Weather was also pretty important, but I didn't expect much bad weather considering the fact that the areas we were visiting were deserts with very little rainfall.  However, it rained for roughly half the trip, which turned out to be a pretty big downer, especially since so much of the trip was about enjoying an outdoor experience.  But as long as you have a poncho and some relatively warm clothes, rain doesn't stop much.  It definitely would've stopped our harrowing ascent up the slippery rocks and steep cliffs of Angels Landing in Zion, but most other things would have and did happen as planned. 

If I was gonna do the whole thing over again, one small thing I would change would be water storage.  We thankfully packed more than we needed to with bottles and a huge collapsible container.  It might've been slightly easier to just buy several 1-gallon jugs of water when we got there and filled up smaller bottles of water for use when hiking.  But that's a small thing.  No harm, no foul. 

Pictures:

[gallery /img/2008/05/sw01.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw01-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Me standing on a ledge.  Don't slip.:::/img/2008/05/sw02.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw02-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - A well-fed squirrel (though not fed by us) with Wendy in the background.:::/img/2008/05/sw03.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw03-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - A spectacular view of the canyon on a 3-mile hike down into the upper part of it.:::/img/2008/05/sw04.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw04-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - That mountain is actually several miles away.:::/img/2008/05/sw05.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw05-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Gnarled wood.  They say water ran through these parts.:::/img/2008/05/sw06.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw06-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Me standing next to another tall stalk of something.:::/img/2008/05/sw07.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw07-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - We asked a guy to take our picture while we stood on the edge of a cliff.  He said, "Just be careful.":::/img/2008/05/sw08.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw08-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Red trumpet flowers.:::/img/2008/05/sw09.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw09-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - One of many types of spiky plants.:::/img/2008/05/sw10.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw10-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Me hiking up out of the very upper part of the canyon, which, as you might imagine and which you can tell from my face, sucked (except that it was incredibly beautiful).:::/img/2008/05/sw11.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw11-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - An ugly, though incredibly important, California Condor flying over the canyon.  It's hard to judge scale, but that bird's wingspan is a good 9 feet.:::/img/2008/05/sw12.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw12-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Sunset on the canyon, shining light and casting shadows.:::/img/2008/05/sw13.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw13-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Sunset on the canyon.:::/img/2008/05/sw14.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw14-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Right after the sunset, a moonrise.:::/img/2008/05/sw15.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw15-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - A different view of the canyon, this time with the river at the bottom.  Hard to believe that teeny tiny river did all that.:::/img/2008/05/sw16.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw16-150x150.jpg:::Grand Canyon - Amen.:::/img/2008/05/sw17.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw17-150x150.jpg:::Little Colorado River Gorge - A good-sized lizard stayed put so I could take his picture.:::/img/2008/05/sw18.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw18-150x150.jpg:::Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park - Wendy stands triumphantly atop a 20-foot pink sand dune after trudging up in 90-degree desert heat.:::/img/2008/05/sw19.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw19-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - The red hoodoos and canyons at sunrise, which I didn't think was worth getting up for at 5am.  It was just as beautiful 2 or 3 hours later.  Yes I'm still mad about that.:::/img/2008/05/sw20.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw20-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - Talk about bed head.  That's the scraggliest deer I've ever seen.:::/img/2008/05/sw21.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw21-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - The beginning of a hiking trail down into the canyon.:::/img/2008/05/sw22.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw22-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - These two hoodoos resemble a prairie dog on its hind legs and a woman in a robe praying.:::/img/2008/05/sw23.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw23-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - That hoodoo is number 1.:::/img/2008/05/sw24.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw24-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - If trees could talk, they'd say, "Screw you, stupid rocks.  I'm growing here whether you let me or not.":::/img/2008/05/sw25.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw25-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - Mules and horses.  So that's where all those droppings came from.:::/img/2008/05/sw26.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw26-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - Absolutely gorgeous color in every direction.:::/img/2008/05/sw27.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw27-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - No I'm not just standing there with my wrist bent like a fairy.  Look about 4 feet above my head.  That's a snowball.  It gets pretty cold at night at 9000 feet elevation.:::/img/2008/05/sw28.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw28-150x150.jpg:::Bryce - Another view of the canyon.:::/img/2008/05/sw29.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw29-150x150.jpg:::Zion - Fuzzy the horse (black) and Moses the mule (brown) took us for a little ride.:::/img/2008/05/sw30.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw30-150x150.jpg:::Zion - Gorgeous red and yellow flowers.:::/img/2008/05/sw31.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw31-150x150.jpg:::Zion - Big rocks and green trees.  You can see some rain drops if you look closely.:::/img/2008/05/sw32.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw32-150x150.jpg:::Zion - Me hiking to the top of Angel's Landing, quite possibly the scariest experience of my life.:::/img/2008/05/sw33.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw33-150x150.jpg:::Zion - Don't worry.  If you slip, you can hold onto that chain.  Or you can take out the people below you.:::/img/2008/05/sw34.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw34-150x150.jpg:::Zion - We made it to the top and promptly sat down and hugged the rocks so we wouldn't fall.:::/img/2008/05/sw35.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw35-150x150.jpg:::Zion - A view from the top.:::/img/2008/05/sw36.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw36-150x150.jpg:::Zion - This bold little chipmunk would've gladly jumped in my bag and taken all of my food.  He had no fear, but I didn't give in.:::/img/2008/05/sw37.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw37-150x150.jpg:::Zion - On the way back down.  If you look closely, you can see two little tiny people silhouetted against the clouds near the top of the mountain.  That's where we were.:::/img/2008/05/sw38.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw38-150x150.jpg:::Zion - Buffalo have long, slimy tongues, as Wendy now knows firsthand.:::/img/2008/05/sw39.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw39-150x150.jpg:::Zion - Those elk antlers are as soft and fuzzy as they look.:::/img/2008/05/sw40.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw40-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Some rolling dirt hills near sunset.:::/img/2008/05/sw41.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw41-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - These hills really looked like vanilla-chocolate swirl ice cream.:::/img/2008/05/sw42.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw42-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - I'm officially the lowest human being in the western hemisphere.:::/img/2008/05/sw43.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw43-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Me on the salt flats, 200 some feet below sea level.:::/img/2008/05/sw44.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw44-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Yes, a river passed through this desert at one point, though it's incredibly hard to believe.:::/img/2008/05/sw45.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw45-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Wendy checks out the salt formations in what's known as the Devil's Golf Course.:::/img/2008/05/sw46.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw46-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - This pigeon was oddly beautiful, but I still didn't give him my lunch.:::/img/2008/05/sw47.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw47-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Rolling sand dunes.:::/img/2008/05/sw48.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw48-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - This guy almost gave me a heart attack.  He ran out of a hole in the ground just as I was walking by.  I thought it was a snake.:::/img/2008/05/sw49.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw49-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Footprints.:::/img/2008/05/sw50.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw50-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Wendy discovers a new way to descend 30-foot sand dunes.:::/img/2008/05/sw51.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw51-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - Yes, it's dry in the desert, though it rained while we were there.:::/img/2008/05/sw52.jpg:::/img/2008/05/sw52-150x150.jpg:::Death Valley - These 65-mph roads go on and on forever.  I thought they were kind of cool.:::]
#travel