Trinidad, CA

We have made it to the reunion! It's been a great trip, and it feels like we have been away from home for a long time! Here's a quick overview of our travels:

* Canyonlands . . great wide-open spaces and a super quiet campground with awesome night skies!

* Great Basin NP - alpine lakes and bristlecone pines

* Great basin region - in Utah and Nevada - a "Sagebrush ocean" punctuated by mountain ranges.

* Ancient Bristlecone pines in the White/Inyo mountains.

* Giant trees and snow-capped mountains in Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks

* Grassy hillsides with scattered oak trees and chapparal in various parts of CA.

* Pinnicles National Monument was hot! . . we swam in a pool and had a nice hike the next morning.

* San Fran . . . Alcatraz, Muir Woods, Point Reyes National Seashore.

In the Rockies

The first few days of the trip have gone great! Calista has been great in the car. She's enjoying the various car toys, reading, etc. She has been a bit silly at times - on the first afternoon she put her bunny on her head and declared, matter-of-factly, "I have a bunny on my head!"

We camped the first night at a state park in Illinois. The second night we were at a state park on a reservoir in western Kansas. We arrived in Denver yesterday afternoon. Today I hiked with Tyson up in the mountains, and Tatiana, Calista, and Sarah visited the Cherry Creek Arts Festival for most of the day. Our hike was at an abandoned mine, and involved a route that was featured in a recent edition of backpacker magazine. We hiked a few miles up to the old mine, and then continued to a ridgeline that afforded a great view of the surrounding mountain ridges.

Tomorrow we head for Canyonlands.