Southwest Utah - first half

Back for some more very-delayed blogging about last summer!

At the end of July, we headed in the direction of Colorado.  Luckily, Utah is on the way, so we stayed a few nights in Cedar City.

While driving there, we found this excellent (and new, I think) Electrify America charging station, complete with a solar awning - nice!  Shade plus power from the sun, also pull-through spots.  It's almost like the gas station model has some advantages...

On to the rocks!  I enjoyed roaming all over the Cedar City trails and finding new shapes and fun colors (things that Utah does so well):

Thor apparently has a vacation throne here?

Geology is way more interesting in the real world compared to reading books in school:

Especially when the informational sign is well designed and placed:

A mural near the visitor center that made me smile:

I'd had Snow Canyon State Park on my radar for a while, time to go explore another piece of Utah:

John could sleep here:

But maybe not if this guy has anything to say about it:

Lava!  A sharp (literally) contrast to the sandstone:

In our happy place:

Unique trail marker:

Possibly part of a lava tube:

The entrance to a lava tube, one of several unexpected things we found in the park:

Shadow selfie - hello world!

Good luck deciphering all the comings and goings:

Some ropy lava sitting on sandstone:

And a good view down the valley:

I'm beginning to wonder if John needs a nap...

This little one was just hanging out (hiding in plain sight?), and with all the bikes on the path I decided to try to convince it to get a move-on.  It finally begrudgingly acquiesced.

A big wall that might have petroglyphs on it somewhere:

We couldn't resist a hike up a volcanic crater, with a view down at Tug-E:

Craters are fun formations to run around on:

Back in Cedar City, we saw this big thing at the Frontier Homestead museum:

It took a couple passes before noticing an adorable bird standing in front of it!

I found a couple interesting-looking FKT's in the area, always a fun excuse to try something new.

The first was the Bryce Canyon Traverse Duathlon:

https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/marcy-beard-bryce-canyon-traverse-ut-2024-08-03

This looked super fun!  There were no female times (at the time - that didn't last long) and it had several aspects that would be new for me: The trail traversing Bryce Canyon National Park, plus the chance to use my bike to traverse back.

See the link for a summary of my experience and some additional photos, if you're interested.  Bryce is so dang photogenic that I'm including a bunch more pictures here.

Thank you for the awesome assistance, John!

Tall shadow selfie in the early sunlight:

Pointing at a distance point, which I'm guessing I visited later that day:

A surprising addition to the "summer of flowers" picture album:

Hoo doo?  I do!  You can do too!

I tried not to get so distracted by all the amazing shapes, but it's really impossible to avoid.

The lighting changed throughout the day:

Sunshine for now!

The Hat Shop, my new favorite part of the park (which we had not seen before):

Yay for Ponderosas!

The dramatic scenery continues, possibly at Mud Canyon:

Why yes please, I'll take some food and water:

Clouds starting to collect above the rim:

Agua Canyon Connecting Trail - currently closed, no resupply here:

Just one more uphill to Rainbow Point:

I'm amazed this tree is still standing:

Trek complete!

Now for my next trick...

John took a couple pictures during the descent:

And he met me where we started the day, back at Fairyland Point, woo hoo!  That was a fun ride down.

A highly enjoyable adventure!

More FKT action in the next post, which hopefully won't take me another month to write..

Yosemite fun

We always love spending time in Yosemite.  We keep finding new things to see and do, and that could go on for a while.

One new thing that is also super helpful - there's a new Rivian charging station nearby!  We even got to attend the grand opening to celebrate.  Thank you Rivian - and Gary (the Gear Guard Guy):

Tug-E appreciated the easy recharge (seen in the reflection of the glass):

Back in the Valley... newly noticing something odd about this sign:

Ah, the land of the giant granite walls:

"On this site President Theodore Roosevelt sat beside a campfire with John Muir on May 17, 1903 and talked forest good.  Muir urged the president to work for preservation of priceless remnants of America's wilderness.  At this spot one of our country's foremost conservationists received great inspiration" - thank you both!

Another inspirational spot - Olmsted Point on Tioga Road.  Including a view toward Cloud's Rest (my destination that morning), the bump at the far end of the ridge:

A fun overview of the area, with Tioga Road wandering through dramatic scenery:

The quest for the day was the Clouds Rest FKT:

https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/marcy-beard-clouds-rest-yosemite-ca-2024-07-22

I was rather surprised to be the first woman to submit this one, and not at all surprised that my "fastest known" accomplishment didn't last very long.

Regardless, it was an excellent trek and totally worth doing no matter how fast anyone else runs it.

A few more photos besides the ones in the link above, starting with the fairy tale-like path into the woods:

The hugeness of the views is hard to describe or photograph:

Half Dome from a different angle than I'm used to seeing (and El Capitan in the background, if I'm not mistaken):

Flowers amid the granite:

It's fun to run in Yosemite!  This sign is near the campground we normally stay at (Hodgdon Meadow):

On another day, I followed the trail from the campground toward the big trees, finding this fun step carved into a blowdown:

Yay for Giant Sequoias!

A long time ago, we humans cut a tunnel through a tree stump in Tuolumne Grove - at least the tree was already way dead at that point, and it makes for neat pictures:

Hello raven!

I'll never get enough of big tree vibe:

Practicing my flower photography:

A sugar pine dropping:

Sugar pine ornaments:

Thank you beautifuls!

A dramatic picture from John, taking a break from his trail work to admire Half Dome:

John also caught a glimpse of Nevada Falls through the trees:

One last big outing while I had still had time... another FKT.  These efforts are really good training for me.  I'll push the pace significantly harder than regular training runs, plus it's motivation to see new things.

Or in this case, repeat a route except starting/ending in a different spot:

https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/marcy-beard-yosemite-r2r2r-ca-2024-07-26

This is another route I figured would continue to get attention from other (and faster) women, and I was again lucky to complete it before that happened.  Yay for that!  I just reread my FKT report in the above link, and it's one of the more fun ones I've written.

A few extra pictures for good measure...

Starting from the top of the Yosemite rim instead of at the river this time, with another look at Half Dome:

Yosemite Falls - it's always worth the steep hike to see it up close:

Hey, what are you doing up here, John?  He was on a hike of his own on his day off from trail work, coming up here to see if he could spot me as I ran by.  Sweet!  That made me laugh, but then I had to go...

The picture he took as I scurried up the trail:

Ground-level view of the falls and the rim turnaround spot to the right of it:

What's the point?

One more picture of Half Dome and Nevada Falls (and other people taking pictures):

Phew, that was a good one!

I had a bit of extra time and energy so I trekked over to Sentinel Dome to see something new.  Happy to find some Ponderosa Pines along the way:

The skyline diagram at the top, including, of course, Half Dome:

I'm guessing this tree had a tough life:

Pines that are still surviving despite winds and hard weather - inspiring!

Yep, that was a good way to finish this week of Yosemite fun!