Travel with Art

Our drive from the south rim of the Grand Canyon was under blue skies but accompanied by a lot of wind! The landscape continued to be filled with craggy rock faced cliffs rising up from a now green desert scape (cactus amongst green bushes and grasses as the monsoon season had dropped a fair bit of water on the area). All went well driving until the rush hour traffic to get around Phoenix to reach the more southerly Maricopa. When the GPS went up to a 30 minute delay it kicked back in and rerouted us so that we were only 5 minutes behind schedule to arrive at Celine's home. A few days of rest, swimming, shopping with Celine and time once again to hit the road. We headed out on a Sunday so no more Phoenix rush hour traffic. The day was on the windy side but otherwise clear and hot. We drove through the surprisingly hilly landscape of Arizona. The deserts were greener than usual and had an abundance of shrubs and grasses to accompany the cactus. We continued to marvel at the fract...

The drive Long day driving to reach Bryce Canyon National Park. But the 9 hours were through a varied and interesting landscape. We had straight as a narrow and plains, mountains next to lakes, and rolling hills. All through mostly clear and sometimes cloudy skies. Only twice did the black clouds on the horizon drop some rain on us. Red Canyon Next day we headed towards the entrance of Bryce Canyon National Park. Along the way we stopped several times at sights in Red Canyon which had hoodoos and cliffs brilliantly lit by the morning sun. Bryce Canyon At Bryce Canyon we parked outside the park and took the 'free' shuttle to tour the park (hint: if you come this way drive into the park itself and park at the visitors Center and take the shuttle from there - $25 entrance applies to whether you are driving your car in or you are taking the shuttle from the parking area, once in the park everyone can use the shuttle for free). Although called a Canyon this park is really a set of p...

Mom flew into Calgary a few days before the start of our road trip. Ivan's kids got back from a Greek holiday around the same time. And Carmen and Sharon drove up from Lethbridge for their daughter, Kathryn's flight to France where she will be an au-paire for the next 10 months. Lots of people to say hi and bye to! Monday morning we headed out for the 9 hour drive to Gardiner, Montana at the north entrance to Yellowstone. I thought Canadian prairie province roads were straight but the drive from the USA border to Great Falls was one long straight as a narrow highway! Twists and turns returned as we jogged west and then south. Gardiner is a small quaint village with a river running through it. Great view from our friendly hotel. Dinner was in a cowboy restaurant with healthy (eg not American) sized portions. The first day sights included: Mammoth Hot Springs (great landscape and resting Elk looking for a tourist to tangle with), the road to the northeast entrance with hoards of...

It was a pleasant drive to Calgary. The weather forecasts continue to be wrong: they call for rain and thunderstorms and I get clear, sunny, and warm. Day 2 and I headed out with Ivan to meet Susan and her kids: Jane, Sam and Andrew. We continued out to the ski resort of Sunshne near Banff to hike the trails of Sunshine Meadows. An old school bus runs you up the 5 kilometres and the majority of the elevation to the base village where most of the trails flow into. From there you get to head out on a network of many kilometres of hiking trails. All have good footing and rest benches along the way. We did the hike to Rock Isle Lake and onwards to the look off of Monarch, and finally a circuit around Larix Lake. If you are interested in gorgeous hiking read on at http://sunshinemeadowsbanff.com/sunshine_meadows/sunshine_meadows.htm Next I met Jeanne to celebrate her birthday with lunch at The Broken Plate Greek restaurant. From there we continued on to wine tasting and shopping at the Wi...