Russ & Elaine Sweet’s Travel Journeys

12/16/2022

Elaine Eldredge Sweet, another reason the otter is your spirit animal!

The more you know 🌈

09/12/2022

I wondered what would be so special about a National Park that is about the scrubby desert Joshua Tree. I shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, we have Redwoods and Sequoia National Parks. I’m sure there are others.

We visited Joshua Tree NP today and it is so much more! This park is where both the Mojave and Colorado Deserts converge—that and it’s iconic rocky landscape make for a unique NP experience. This park is mountainous and lies between the Coachella Valley (think Palm Springs) to the Southwest and the communities of Twentynine Palms, Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley to the North. The Morango Valley is to the West. It is dry, arid desert at its finest, aside from thunder storms that made their way through the valleys and the park. Mostly, this park is about interesting rock formations and plentiful desert flora. As for wildlife, it is there, but desert tortoises were hiding today.

09/04/2022

Today, we are on Day 23 of our 42-day National Park Road Trip. Today we visited Zion National Park in Southern Utah. Much of what I want to post may be interpreted as criticism of the park. It is not. We picked Sunday of Labor Day weekend to visit and we did not thoroughly investigate prior what additional preparations we needed to make. So here is what we learned. The park was crowded even though we left early to visit. The first lesson we learned is Zion Canyon Scenic Drive is closed to all traffic at Canyon Junction, except for shuttle busses when they are in operation, which is pretty much all day, now. This nearly 8 mile road includes some popular features such as the Temple of Sinawava and The Grotto. Also, the shuttles we saw were at maximum capacity. If you still prefer a little social distancing, this was not going to be an option. We travel with a pet and if we felt comfortable on a packed shuttle bus, we might have found a boarding facility outside the park for the day. Another lesson learned. The village outside of the park entrance offers parking but at 9:30 am all parking was full both inside and outside the park. Since Elaine is gathering stamps and stickers at the Visitor Centers at each park, today was pretty much dropping her off while Miles and I circled the parking lot. It looked like a perfect storm of thousands and thousands of visitors squeezing the last bit of summer before school begins. Arches Rocky Mountain, Glacier and Yosemite National Parks have some sort of timed entry system to moderate traffic flow and bottlenecks. Zion NP would do well to investigate initiating a similar system. Still, the scenery was fantastic. We’ll try another time of year with better preparation. Zion has a smaller unit called Kobob Canyon. Do not miss this lesser traveled part of the park. We did take the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, but be aware that historic tunnel allows traffic through one way at a time and there will be a wait on days like today. Also there are height restrictions so bigger rigs may be asked to turn around.

09/03/2022

Only 20 minutes into the park and I am already stunned. This is Inspiration Point.

09/02/2022

We are wrapping up our stay in Moab, UT. Today was a final look at Arches (this time; we’ll be back).

09/01/2022

Elaine and I ventured out to the edge of Canyonlands National Park tonight for some stargazing. This area has some of the best conditions for seeing stars even when you’re competing with a crescent moon low in the Western sky. My wife taught me how to take some stellar pics with my iPhone and a tripod. She took some too and will likely post them to her page. Here’s my sample:

08/31/2022

If you are planning a visit to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park or any of the multitude of other places to see in Southern Utah, might I suggest making Moab, UT your home port while here. Both parks are easily accessible to Moab. And Moab, itself is a great little town with tons of hotels and a plethora of restaurants and eateries for every palate. If you are planning on a day in the parks, consider picking up a box lunch at either Red Rock Bakery and Cafe or Moab Diner. We tried the Red Rock option and the sandwiches were abundant. We also had dinner at the Moab Brewery and the food was outstanding. There are even a couple of restaurants that are dog friendly and one features a Pooch Menu. This is so far, our favorite stop on our National Park Trek.

08/31/2022

Our progress so far. We made a sticker wall on the slide out.

08/28/2022

It’s been a whirlwind trip near Rapid City, SD. First up? Wind Caves NP, followed by Custer SP, Crazy Horse Memorial and Mt. Rushmore
National Memorial. Then it was off to Wall Drug and the Badlands NP. The Black Hills is phenomenal. The whole area is a must see!

08/27/2022

Hard to believe as of tomorrow, we will have been on the road for two weeks. As of today, we have visited four National Parks, six states and a handful of monuments and memorials. We’re headed to our fifth National Park tomorrow. The pictures document our travels so far:

08/22/2022

Today was a two—fer. Two parks, 200 miles, a picnic lunch and lots of stops for pictures. Most of my pics are on my Nikon digital camera so it may be few days before I share more. Today, we drove into the Grand Tetons National Park. I’d like to nickname the park, Glacier NP’s younger brother—not quite as big, but every much as grand and beautiful. In addition to GTNP, we took the upper loop of of Yellowstone by Mammoth Hot Springs. Tomorrow we head South into Wyoming for a few days before we venture to Rapid City, SD and The Badlands, Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wind Caves and of course Wall Drug. There’s also a replica of the Scandinavian Stave Church we want to see. Enjoy the views of the Grand Tetons.

08/20/2022

Today we took the Southern Loop. Many stops along the way including geysers and mud volcanoes as well as the vistas and wildlife. I will let Elaine share our up close and personal encounters with furry cows (bison). As for my encounter, several of us were stopped on the path around the mud volcanoes due to a bison on the trail. We were told by a ranger to turn around. I turned around to see the beast following us back up the trail about 25 yards behind. He turned around and we waited for him to wander off. I think I’ve had enough wildlife encounters for one day.