Click on the thumbnail pictures to see them full size ...

So it's been an interesting 2006.  What better way to regenerate than a few weeks of fun stuff? 

Friday October 6, 2006:  It begins

Let's get started.    Destination?  Inspired by a beautiful picture once seen on the 'net, the destination is Zion National Park in Utah.  Bobbi saw the picture too, and she's up for some "hey, let's do something fun for our birthdays" action..  We board Northwest Airlines around dinner time, and roll into Las Vegas (it's the nearest airport to Zion) around 11PM.    Sleeeeeeep.

Saturday October 7, 2006: Zion National Park

The next day, the trusty Ford Taurus hauls our butts to Zion.   For our first day, we've decided we want to hike "The Narrows" at Zion, which looked spectacular on the web.  The great news, is that it looked as fabulous in real life.  We started in the more benign parts of the park by Zion Lodge, easily reached by tour bus.   Here are a few pictures of this part of the park:   ..  We quickly moved on to "The Narrows", which  is the upper part of the park that can only be reached by hiking up through the Virgin River itself.  Over many million years, the river cut a path through sandstone that was fluvially deposited about 240 million years ago.    The river is a balmy 50 degrees, and the water is murky and we can't see where we're walking.  Stumbling along using the Braille method, we manage to hike up about 2 miles.  It's not a pretty hike, but it's worth it..  The visual effects are stunning... ... The walls of the canyon are eroded and smoothed by the flow of the river, which then also exposes the colorful stratified layers of sandstone.   Here are more pics of Bobbi and/or Jeff in The Narrows:  . 

Sunday  October 8, 2006:  More Zion

After a shower, dinner and some rest..  The hunt begins for the hike for day #2.    On the way, we stop at various interesting stuff in the park .  Here are a few of those pics: 

The target destination for the day is a different part of the park called "The Subway", another amazing swath cut through the sandstone.. this time by the Left Fork of Zion's North Creek.   The principals of the fluvial erosion are the same in this part of the park, except that the timing of the erosion caused a rather unique formation.  The hike is about 2.5 hours up, and along the way we stop to see some cool waterfalls and stuff  ..   Then we finally reach "The Subway."  .. Is that the coolest thing ever, or what?   Here are more pics.. 

After that, it's a long drive back to Las Vegas..

October 9-11, 2006: Las Vegas

The Las Vegas experience was inteded to be orthogonal to what we'd just lived in Zion:  From nature and rocks, to unnatural and Martinis.  In the city, we did some boy watching , shopping , and the usual stuff ..   I think I ended up about $60 positive in gambing winnings.   We also got reasonably dressed and went out for some nice food and drink.   It took me some mild coaxing to get Bobbi to go, but we also made a pilgrimage to Hoover Dam to see if it's still there.     It is.  .. and it's still pretty "dam majestic." 

Click here to move on to the next leg of the journey.