Last month my wife and I took the time to take in some National and State Parks in Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Some of the things we visited were, Red Rocks Park/Amphitheatre, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens Vail CO, Rifle Falls State Park Colorado, Colorado National Monument, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capital Reef National Park, Temple Square in Salt Lake City UT, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim areas), Monument Valley, Four Corners Monument, Mesa Verde National Monument and then we topped that off by visiting Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum in Abilene, KA and the John Wayne Birthplace Museum in Winterset, IA. It was a long 18 days and 4,800+ miles through some rather desolate areas of the plains and southwest, then piled on loads of white knuckle mountain switch-back driving, and we got to see some interesting little towns and cities. In the end it was another wonderful vacation.
Here are a few photo highlights…
Rifle Falls, Rifle Falls State Park Colarado 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Colorado National Monument, Grand Junction CO 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Arches National Park, UT 
Jug Handle Arch Along Colorado River Outside Moab, UT 
Canyon Lands National Park, UT 
Canyon Lands National Park, UT 
Dead Horse Point, Dead Horse State Park, UT 
Capital Reef National Park, UT 
Capital Reef National Park, UT 
Zion National Park, UT 
Zion National Park, UT 
Zion National Park, UT 
Zion National Park, UT 
View of Zion National Park, UT 
Red Canyon, Bryce Canyon City, UT Area 
Bryce Canyon 
Angel’s Window @ Cape Royal Grand Canyon North Rim 
Angel’s Window @ Cape Royal Grand Canyon North Rim 
Grand Canyon North Rim 
Monument Valley 
Monument Valley 
Horseshoe Bend, Page AZ 
Mesa Verde, Cortex CO 
Random Cactus Flower 
Random Cactus Flower
There are lots of wonderful things to see across the United States of America if you just take the time and effort to see them with your own eyes. Photos are nice but they really don’t do justice to the overwhelming beauty of some of these National and State Parks.
Featured Photo: Display @ Iron Horse Restaurant Kanab, UT
Society's Building Blocks 
Nice pix; all but the 1st one could be summed up with one word…DRY…
The Gotch’s SIL lives in Gunnison, CO, where last Sunday’s relative humidity was 8%.
The Gotch
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We had originally planned to swing up to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and a couple of other things up in that general area for a couple of days including driving right through Gunnison, CO but we changed plans mid vacation and picked a different route home that was at lower elevations.
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“we changed plans mid vacation and picked a different route home that was at lower elevations.”
Running out there in 09/2021, at that elevation, kicked my flippin’ @$$!
The Gotch
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I know exactly what you mean, hiking up Mt. Rainier a few years ago really kicked my butt, I actually couldn’t complete the trail I had planned and had to turn around and head down the mountain at about the half way mark. The elevation wasn’t effecting me too much this trip, at least not for the activity level that we were engaging in, but it was causing problems for my wife so we rerouted the last seven days of our vacation to lower elevation areas and got to see some other areas that were new to us.
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