Saturday, August 20, 2005

Arches National Park, Las Vegas, and Back in California

I'm home!!! I finally reached sunny and beautiful Los Angeles, CA. I got here last weekend but have been busy helping my sister find a place to live in the S.F. bay area and just unpacking.

So unfortunately, I am late in posting my last shot of my road trip home. We stopped at Moab, Utah to see the Arches National Park. The red sandstones and arches created a magnificient scenery. I took way too many pictures but only post some of the best here. We also stopped at Las Vegas before getting home to Los Angeles. We didn't get to do much at Vegas... I lost all of $1. Much of a gambler... =P

Anyway, I am back in California, and it's good to be back. I'm going to head out to see the Pacific Ocean tomorrow and soak in some sun!
A shot of Park Avenue.

Another side of Park Avenue.

And the other wall of Park Avenue.

Part of the Courthouse Towers?

Not sure where this is, but pretty cool part of Arches Park.

The Windows at Arches Park.

That's the North Window.

That's me with arches in the background.

South Window.

Couldn't see everything at Devils Garden but it contained lots of arches.

Narrow walkway in the Devils Garden.

Me in the Devils Garden.

A shot of the Fiery Furnace.

More arches on our way out of the park.

Another shot. Pretty amazing landscape.

Going towards the beginning of the park.

We stopped at a side to take this one.

Courthouse Towers on our way out.

We were tiny compared to the arches and great wall.

We stopped at Las Vegas for a night.

We stayed at Monte Carlo.

What we saw from our room.

More shots from the room in Vegas.

We saw the world's tallest chocolate fountain in Vegas.

This is the chocolate fountain.

Paris and New York.

We saw the water show in front of Bellagio.

Bellagio at night.

More water show shots.

And another shot of the water show.

The last shot of the water show. Posted by Picasa
Approaching Arches National Park.

Shot of the Great Wall?

Our first stop at Arches National Park -- Park Avenue.||  Posted by Picasa

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Leaving Frisco, Colorado and Colorado National Monument

So it turns out that we were staying at quite a beautiful, pituresque place -- Frisco. We were right next to the Dillon Lake, which mirrored the surrounding mountains and was brimming with wild flowers, bugs, and birds. My sister and I took a short walk in the morning before taking off for Colorado National Monument.

On our way to Colorado National Monument on I-70 West, we drove through Glenwood Canyons. It was quite a majestic view of the varied rock formations and different from verdant, green mountains surrounding Frisco and Vail. We also passed by Grand Mesa, which was near Grand Junction and very visible. It is supposedly the largest flat-topped mountains.

We saw Colorado National Monument by driving through the Rim Rock Drive. It was a breath-taking 23 mile drive. Gazing at canyons over 500 feet deep, I was quite awed by what the nature could have in store for us. Wherever we stopped, we took in the view in absolute silence -- we heard no birds, bugs, etc. I had to break the silence by seeing if I could create an echo through these canyons. And I did...and apparently, some other visitors I didn't see heard me and asked me if I was the one yelling. I guess we weren't really completely alone.

So I have a digital camera with a memory stick of 256 mb. What does that mean? It means I can take a lot of pictures. I took over 180 pictures yesterday of the Rocky Mountains and over 140 today of Colorado National Monument. Yup, I sifted through them to pick what I thought were the best. =)

Oh, and an addendum to one of the old blog re: blowing through Kansas on I-70. Part of the I-70 was marked by AAA as being tolled. We paid $2 toll to pass through a stretch of 30 miles between Kansas City and another city (which name escapes me). I thought that was quite odd, because we couldn't see why the toll was needed!

Tomorrow, we are going to see the Arches National Park.
We stayed at Frisco, Colorado, which was right next to Dillon Lake and Frisco Bay.

My sister and I took a walk around the lake before we took off. That's where our hotel is.

Mountain reflected off of the Dillon Lake.

Another shot of the lake.

We headed I-70 West to Grand Junction and Colorado National Monument. On the way, we passed through Glenwood Canyon and White River National Forest.

We passed through a tunnel on I-70.

Passing through Glenwood Canyon was pretty awesome! It was a majestic drive.

Colorado River ran parallel to us through the Glenwood Canyon passage.

Another shot of the Glenwood Canyon.

Made me feel like an ant driving toward this.

A view of the Grand Mesa, one of the biggest flat-topped mountains.

Another gorgeous shot of where we were driving through.

Grand Mesa from a distance.

We headed into Colorado National Monument, which has over 500 feet deep cayons!

Me and the Colorado National Monument.

We took a drive through the Colorado National Monument on the Rim Rock Drive.

We passed through a couple of tunnels while on the Rim Rock Drive.

Pretty cool shot of the canyons from Cold Shivers Point in the Colorado National Monument.

Another great shot of the deep canyons.

Me in Colorado National Monument and the blue sky.

Deep canyons and the valley below.

This is as close to my sister as you will see on my blog. View of the canyons.

This is Ute Canyon in Colorado National Monument. I couldn't resist yelling "hello" and "go bears" to see how it would echo in the canyons. It was pretty cool.

View of the canyons from a little ways along the Rim Rock Drive.

I snapped away at over 140 pictures of these canyons. This is probably one of the better shots.

We noticed a tunnel and decided to climb up and explore.

That's me by the tunnel. There was nothing in there and it was pretty dark.

A view of the Coke Ovens.

Canyons off in the distance.

Another part of the canyons.

Independence Monument in Colorado National Monument.

And we left Colorado after sightseeing at Colorado National Monument.

We entered Utah, where we will be sightseeing Arches National Park. Posted by Picasa