Mount Rushmore

This has been a busy summer, or so it seems.  I have been able to go on a few outings with friends and family. I will be posting those outings in the next little bit. Here is the most recent trip I was privileged to take. John, has a roommate that is a pilot. Last Thursday he and another pilot flew John and I up to Rapid City, SD. From there John and I rented a car for the day and drove over to Mount Rushmore. We decided to do the Norbeck Scenic Byway through the Black Hills and hit up Rushmore towards the evening and stay for the lighting ceremony. Here are some pictures of our day trip.

  

Top Left: Boulder and the Flatirons. Bottom Left: Ground Speed of 170 mph. Bottom Right: North part of Boulder and the Indian Peaks in the background.

This is called Profile View.

Along the way we saw a number of different wildlife. Here is a collage of the living creatures.

Our first stop along the way was Sylvan Lake. We walked along the trail to the end of the lake.  The scenery was great.

The fall colors were pretty nice. 

 A grove of yellow aspen.

We drove through several little tunnels like the ones below.

After lots of driving we finally made it back to Mount Rushmore. 

During the lighting ceremony the park ranger tells how Rushmore came about. At the end, the ranger invited anyone who has formerly served or is currently serving in the military down to the front to retire the flag. She then asked everyone to give their name and the branch they served in.

 Retiring the Colors.

 Retiring the Colors.

On our way out.

After leaving Rushmore we headed back to the regional airport to be picked up by John's roommate. I was happy to finally have landed back in Colorado around 1am. It was well worth the trip though. 

Moab: Day 4

I finally have the chance to post the last day of our amazing camping trip to Moab. Since this was our last day, the morning involved packing up everything. As a group we wanted to do something together. We decided to attempt hiking to Delicate Arch. I say attempt because there is limited parking. I was really hoping that we would make it but also a little pessimistic since Lauren and I had already tried during the day time and were unsuccessful.

Before heading out on our quest we took a group picture. Some people are missing because they had to leave early.
 

The Whole Group - Almost

Once all the packing was done we headed to Arches National Park. We eventually arrived at Delicate Arch and found some parking. I was pretty happy. I had seen Delicate Arch but only in the middle of the night while taking sky shots.

There were a ton of people hiking to Delicate Arch. It was a beautiful day. Very windy but a perfect temperature.

 Delicate Arch

 The area around Delicate Arch

 Delicate Arch

 Our group

 Roommates
Photo by: John Chamberlain

Lauren and me 

 Photo by: Kiki Holl

After our hike was over we got into our cars and headed home. We were not planning on caravanning but we ended up with several reunions in various locations: gas stations, Starbucks, grocery stores. It was a blast.

 Lauren and me

It was very windy that day. Tumble weeds were being blown everywhere.

 Our first reunion

 Our second reunion

Our third reunion

Our fourth reunion/Dan's going away party

The reunion we never stopped for

 Best people to travel with!

This trip was a blast. It was sad that it went by so quickly. I look forward to the next of Kiki's epic trips: next year's Moab 4.0.

Good times had by all!

Moab: Day 3

After a short night (see previous blog post as to why) I woke up feeling rather well for only having had three hours of sleep. It was a bright sunny day. I was excited that I was going to see Canyonlands National Park for the first time. Lauren, John and I were total tourist that day. We did a few short hikes but since we only had one day to spend there, I wanted to see as much as I could.

 The Green River.

 Me

Lunar Eclipse

Unfortunately my picture of the Lunar Eclipse a few days ago didn't come out like I was hoping. I still enjoyed seeing it though. Maybe the next time it happens I will be able to get a better shot.

Moab: Day 2

Day two of our camping trip was just as good, if not better, than day one. It seemed like the never ending day. That is because there wasn't much sleep to be had. I'll explain later.

I mentioned in my last post that we ate WELL! One of the things that we did well in was our desserts. I found some pictures of the dessert we made Thursday night. They are called Campfire Cones. Basically, you take a waffle cone and add marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, and chocolate chips. Roll it up in tin foil and put it in the fire. Once it's done add whipped cream and chocolate sauce and walla.

 Good stuff

Lauren, Kiki, and myself about to enjoy goodness.

Ok back to day two. The group was going to go mountain biking again, so Lauren and I went back to Arches National Park. We decided to go off the beaten path from the more common places. We drove for a while on a dirt road to get to our hiking destination, Klondike Bluffs. It wasn't a long hike by any means but it was very pretty. 

La Sal Mountains

We had barely started hiking when we found this little guy. 

Where we came from.

We are headed to the other side of that wall. 

This area of the park had a LOT of sand. 

We had to make several pit stops to get the sand out of our shoes.

A Cairn. These are trail markers.

Tower Arch

 Tower Arch

It was a great hike. Once we made it back to the car we headed to our new campsite for supper. Since another eight people were showing up that night we needed to go to a group campsite.

Heading out of the Klondike Bluffs area.

On the menu for dessert Chocolate Eclairs. Kiki had brought some dowels and we took crescent roll dough and wrapped it around the dowel and cooked it in the fire. Once it was done we stuffed the middle with chocolate pudding and topped it with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. Another success in the dessert realm.

David Sietsema Photography

Eventually the rest of the group arrived and we enjoyed some good times around the fire.

David Sietsema Photography

The Group

David Sietsema Photography

Quality time with the roommate and Lauren.

Kiki and I had been planning to get some good star shots. Friday night was supposed to be the clearest night. She decided that we should go canyoneering first and then star shooting second. I was totally game. We (five of us) piled into her car and headed back to Arches National Park. We hiked up a crevice and did four repels down some cliffs to get back to the bottom. 

 Courtney, me, & Kiki

 Rappelling down.

On our biggest repel we needed a second rope to aid in the process. It was quite tangled. So here the guys are working on getting it all ready. 

We eventually got back to the car around 1:45am. Now we were off to go shoot some starts. Kiki and I decided to hike to Delicate Arch, three miles round trip. It was a very cold night but we were determined. Here are the results after some suffering and freezing.

 Delicate Arch

Delicate Arch

By the time we got back to our campsite it was 5am. I was ready for bed. Oddly, I woke up three hours later and feeling pretty good. 

Day 3 still to come.