Friday, April 9, 2010

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...

Oh Coolio. Gangsta's Paradise is one of the coolest songs ever, and Death Valley is one of the coolest places ever. Picture recap:

Sunrise over Zabriskie Point


Salt flats at Badwater - looks rather like snow doesn't it?


Sand dunes near Stovepipe Wells

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

I am a terrible blogger.

Apparently I do cool things more often than I have time to tell you about them. Which I'm totally ok with. The other (and unfortunately truer) explanation is that I have way too much work to do to have the time to write about the fun things. So I'm afraid you're just going to get short versions of things.

So a while ago I mentioned a backpacking trip... over spring break I went to Paria Canyon with my roommate and some of her friends. It's a 39 mile trip, and we did it in three days...three very long days. Part of the hike was through a slot canyon, which was super cool and really stunningly beautiful. Pictures don't really do it justice, but here are a couple of attempts (taken with my awesome new camera):


You might have noticed the water in those pictures... holy cow let me tell you about that water. Every description we read of this hike said "ankle deep water, year round." Well, remember how we've had a lot of rain this winter? When we got to the ranger station the the day we set out, their trail update board said "chest deep, cold, muddy." OH HELL. Being somewhat foolish, and not easily discouraged, we set off anyways. Thank goodness the water had gone down since that update, because we didn't encounter anything more than about waist deep. However spending 25 miles wading back and forth across knee to waist deep, VERY cold water in the shade (the whole slot canyon thing keeps sunlight from getting to the floor of most of it) was not exactly pleasant. And oh my goodness was it muddy. I came home with everything I brought pretty much completely covered in mud. I actually hosed off most of my stuff in the backyard before washing it. Here are a couple more of my favorite pics from the trip. Woo Spring Break 2010!