The Adventure Continues-Utah, Arizona & Nevada!

Hi Everyone!

We hope you are all doing well! Craig and I thought we'd share some more photos of the things we saw, learned, and did in the states of Utah, Arizona, and Nevada after our last post of Colorado. We buzzed through the desert on side-by-sides and boated on Lake Powell (Glen Canyon National Recreation Area) and enjoyed a few "oldies but goodies" like the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. We hope you enjoy these pictures as we continue to share all the adventures. As always, we love hearing a line or two from you, anytime! Much love to you as we navigate this life, that is in one way or another, an adventure for us all! 🧡

We drove along the fringes of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah while en route to our next destination. We didn’t get to see some of the more popular attractions here, but we highly recommend looking it up and visiting this place if you get the chance.

Craig photographed this slot canyon in Escalante National Monument on one of his hikes.

Also at Escalante National Monument. From looking at this photo, I’m glad he made it back that day. 🤨

We didn’t plan to go to the Grand Canyon, but in southern Utah (Kanab), we realized we were only a little over an hour from the canyon’s north rim in Arizona. It was a wonderful day here. Still, almost no people to speak of, and by the end of the evening, we were virtually the only ones left in the park.

And there she is…in all her glory at sunset.

Point Imperial, Grand Canyon. It’s easy to walk around here and take pictures for hours…

…and that’s pretty much what we did. It was so serene here—except when Craig gets closer than I’d like to the canyon’s edge.

In Kanab, we took a Side-by-Side ATV excursion. Our guide drove very fast. It was a tad stressful—and a total blast trying to keep up with him!

Along the ATV excursion, we stopped for short hikes in beautiful places.

For some reason, large portions of rock had broken off some of the rocks, creating huge arches.

This picture doesn’t really indicate how slanted the rock was that we walked on. Then from the rock, we glided down steep, powder-soft sand that completely covered our shoes. We were a mess!

…and that was BEFORE our guide’s ATV got stuck in the sand. This adventure was not on the itinerary. Make sure you watch the video below for more on this ordeal. 😄

For anyone who has never been to Horseshoe Bend in Page, Arizona, the circular, “horseshoe” route of the Colorado River is much bigger than it looks in photographs. Kayakers 1,000 feet down look like tiny toothpicks from the top rim. A storm was brewing this evening, making for a great picture, but we paid the price; we didn’t make it back to our car before we got poured on.

Lake Powell/Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is a beautiful manmade reservoir on the Colorado River.

Boating here was like a hiking adventure on water. We were in awe of the different landforms and rocks.

Glen Canyon National Recreation area has filled 96 canyons and has over 2,000 miles of shoreline—that’s more than the west coast of the US.

We spent all day, and only saw a small portion of the vast 185-mile long lake, but we hope to go again!

We stopped two nights in Las Vegas, NV to pick up our son and daughter-in-law, Chris and Ambrey. (YAY!) It was a very quick stop, but we enjoyed riding up and down Las Vegas Boulevard and taking in the sights. We had never been here before. Just WOW!

This picture does no justice to the luxury of Ceasar’s Palace, but here’s a glimpse. 😮

Our blog would not be complete without a factoid! Outside of New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, there is a sculptured replica of the Statue of Liberty. The artist, Robert Davidson, made $233K for the creation of the statue. In 2010, the US Postal Service released the Lady Liberty "forever" stamp. Unfortunately for the post office, instead of using an image of the New York statue, they accidentally used a photo stock image of Davidson's Las Vegas version. The mistake was discovered three months and 3 billion circulated stamps later. Davidson sued the post office for using work he deemed different enough to be protected by law. He argued his version was "sexier and more fresh-faced" and had more defined lips and eyes than the masculine original. A federal court agreed and ruled that the post office pay Davidson 3.5 million dollars for infringement of copyright. The stamp was discontinued three years after the discovery and with 10.5 billion printed stamps, still holds the record for the largest run of an error on a postage stamp. I guess it wasn't really a forever stamp after all. 😉

Our next destination is Death Valley, Yosemite National Park and more with Chris and Ambrey. We love spending time with our kids on the road, and there are still so many things to discover and enjoy. See you soon! 🐕🤸‍♀️🤸‍♂️