Southwestern US
Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico
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Chasing sunbeams in Upper Antelope Canyon
Do you ever find yourself visiting a place and having that moment of, wow, I never thought I’d be here? That was me with Upper Antelope Canyon. I’d seen photos – many photos – over the years. And I’ve always wanted to visit. But when I first looked into it years ago, my main takeaways… Continue reading
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48 hours in Page, Arizona
Technically, the title of this post isn’t 100% accurate. We did spend roughly 48 hours in and around Page, Arizona. But I’m going to extend the time and distance covered in this post by about 6 hours and 70 miles (115 km), respectively, so I can also share some photos of our drive from Utah… Continue reading
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Hiking Angels Landing – Zion National Park, Utah
With so many popular NPS sites transitioning to lottery systems due to extremely high demand for permits, I’ve decided to adopt a new strategy: enter every lottery every year until I eventually get them all. Given my past success with NPS lotteries – or, rather, my complete and total lack of success – I entered… Continue reading
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Hiking The Subway – Zion National Park, Utah
For reasons I’m not entirely clear on, when I first planned our Zion trip I didn’t think to enter the permit lottery for this hike. Then a couple months later, I was messaging with a friend and mentioned this trip, and she asked if we’d gotten Subway permits. Unfortunately, by this time the main lottery… Continue reading
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Hiking to Kolob Arch – Zion National Park, Utah
“I’m pretty sure I already know the answer to this, but how do you feel about hiking 14 miles in one day?” I asked my husband as I was assembling our Zion itinerary. Predictably, he wasn’t enthused. To be honest, I don’t love hiking 14 miles (22.5 km) in one day either. It’s something I’ve… Continue reading
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A comprehensive guide to visiting Zion National Park
(Updated May 2026) When I started planning our late-May trip to Zion National Park this past January, I was already far too late. This was entirely my own fault. I’d put in for an Angels Landing permit and decided to hold off on booking anything until we found out because, quite frankly, if we couldn’t… Continue reading
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A photo a day: desert southwest edition
Two years ago, shortly after we returned from Glacier National Park, I put together a post sharing one photo from each day of the trip. I ended up writing many additional posts detailing our time in the park, but in the meantime, that post gave me the chance to share some of my favorite images… Continue reading
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Hiking to Druid Arch – Canyonlands National Park, Utah
A few years back, we visited The Needles district of Canyonlands National Park for the first time. Unfortunately, with just one day there, we were forced to make a choice: hike all the shorter trails or hike one 11+ mile (17.7 km) trail. We opted for the former as it would allow us to see… Continue reading
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Hiking Devils Garden Loop – Arches National Park, Utah
One really nice thing about Arches National Park is that many of the arches are easily accessible. A couple can be seen from the road, and a handful of others can be reached via a short, relatively flat and easy walk. But way up in the northernmost reaches of the park is a trail to… Continue reading
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A comprehensive guide to Arches National Park
(Updated May 2026) When I was a kid, there were a couple girls in my school whose families would head to Moab, Utah every single year for spring break. I never really understood the allure of returning to the same place over and over again when there are so many other things to see, but… Continue reading
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Hiking in Moab – Corona, Bowtie, and Pinto Arches
We weren’t able to get the full week of Thanksgiving off work this past year, so instead of our typical weeklong trip, we stayed closer to home, opting for a four-day weekend in Utah. We’ve been to Moab before – multiple times, in fact – but despite those previous visits, there were still three hikes… Continue reading
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Visiting the lesser-known parks and monuments in the Four Corners area
As you’ve been reading about for the last month, this summer’s eight-day roadtrip took us on a loop from Colorado to northwestern New Mexico and then across the border into northeastern Arizona. The largest chunks of time were spent in the four parks and monuments I’ve already covered, but we also made a few shorter… Continue reading
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A driving tour of Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona
If you’ve seen Forrest Gump, you’ve seen Monument Valley, at least from a distance. But seeing it onscreen isn’t the same as being there in person. And I’d wanted to visit Monument Valley in person for a really long time! From Canyon de Chelly, we headed north toward our final campground of the trip. Like… Continue reading
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A tour of Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona
I don’t remember when I first decided I wanted to visit Canyon de Chelly. I think it was one of those things where I heard about it or saw a photo that really captured my interest, and from that moment on, it was on my list of places to visit one day. So when we… Continue reading
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A colorful visit to Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
After three days in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, our desert southwestern adventure continued at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It was a bit of a drive, though we’d be gaining an hour because Arizona does not observe daylight savings time. I’ll admit, after visiting Escalante Petrified Forest State Park in Utah a few years… Continue reading
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A guide to visiting Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico
Never go to New Mexico and Arizona in July. This isn’t a lesson we’ve just learned. After previous family summer vacations to southern Utah and the Grand Canyon, we weren’t at all unfamiliar with the unpleasantly high temperatures and dehydratingly low humidities of the southwestern US in the middle of summer. In fact, we initially… Continue reading
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Chimney Rock, Yucca House, and other southwestern Colorado snapshots
For the past couple weeks, I’ve been recounting our Memorial Day weekend trip to southwestern Colorado to visit the Ancestral Puebloan ruins of Hovenweep and Canyons of the Ancients. We also made brief stops at two other nearby national monuments, a roadside attraction, and spent some time in the town of Cortez. Since none of… Continue reading
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A guide to visiting Hovenweep National Monument, Colorado & Utah
For at least 10,000 years, the desert southwest has been inhabited by humans. Initially, nomadic groups roamed through the region, but starting in about 500 CE, as farming proliferated and life became more stationary, permanent settlements were constructed. Over the next 700 years, thousands of dwellings of many types were built throughout the region, generally… Continue reading
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Desert dwellings – Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Colorado
Memorial weekend is a tricky time of year for Colorado adventures. Three years ago, we went to the drier and more desert-like western part of the state and the weather was perfect. Two years ago, we went into the mountains and got snowed on. So when I sat down to plan this year’s Memorial Day… Continue reading
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Snapshots from the sky: spring 2024 edition
In retrospect, flying to Seattle for 3 days, Austin for 5 days, and Dallas for 4 days – all in a 5 week period – was overly ambitious. I definitely overbooked myself, and in the aftermath I very much paid the price. I don’t regret it, per se, because all three trips were fun. But… Continue reading