I ended up spending my Christmas weekend at Fort Bragg, CA. I got a hotel room with a view of the ocean. It cost a little more, but hey, I’m here, and why not.

This is the view from my room

I stayed there for 2 nights and enjoyed the fact that I could be in the same place for a couple of days. But time was of the essence. I wanted to be up in Portland, OR by New Year’s. So that Monday, I headed out and continued my driving along the coast.

The weather wasn’t really on my side that week. It was rainy and extremely windy. I got up to Bandon, Or. and the wind was blowing in gusts of 40-50mph. I decided to drive a little more inland to avoid the wind a bit.

Right around this time, my company was talking about having a meeting/retreat in Las Vegas at the end of January. My friend and co-worker, Erik, was visiting his parents in Lake Oswego, OR for the holidays. And to save the company some air fare, we decided to do a couple week road trip down the west coast in the beginning of January.

So I had to plan on getting up to Oregon before New Year’s. And I wanted to get to the west coast by Christmas. And before Christmas, do a couple days in Yosemite. All of this in two and a half weeks.

No problem.

After work each day, I would head into the sunset and drive a few hundred miles. Stop at a motel and do the same the following day. I made great time and got to Yosemite by the middle of the 14th week. It was so cool watching the terrain change from desert to forested mountain roads almost instantaneously. I stayed in Oakhurst for a couple days and got some good shots of Glacier Point at sunset.

Yosemite was pretty cool and I got to see it before the winter snows came.

At this point, it was the 23rd of December and I had to get to the coast for Christmas…

I stayed in Silverthorne one night and Denver on the following night. Then I drove up to Estes Park, CO to meet up with my nomadic friend Eva. She and her 2 dogs were staying at a friends’ cabin while they were away and offered some floor for me to sleep on. I’m not picky. I was happy to have a heated room and a roof over my head.

Here's Eva and her trusty Toyota.

Ace dog soakin' up the sun.

And Sophie.

Sophie just got fixed. Hence the cone on her head. Look out, though! She is dangerous with that cone. When she’s inside, she would swing it back and forth, hitting knees, tables and everything else at that level. When she was outside walking, the cone would bop from side to side. You could see the happiness in the way it moved. Then all of a sudden, the cone would go straight down into the snow. It would stay there for about 5-10 seconds, then it would fly upward,  flicking snow 10 feet up.

Estes Park is a little valley town right next to the Rocky Mountain National Park.

I met up with Eva at Ed’s Cantina in town. A good chill bar. Then we went to another rustic bar, which I have forgotten the name of already (something like Pine Mountain Lodge or something), where a blue grass band was playing original songs along with some covers. My favorite was the Axel F (from Beverly Hills Cop) cover in blue grass style. The people there were really nice. And I noticed that pretty much everyone there, and their grandmothers, rock climbs.

Eva was catching up with everyone there, while I was enjoying the vibe of the bar and meeting quite a few cool people. Eva introduced me to one of her friends, Andy, and they decided to take me for a hike that Saturday to see the great views of the area. They chose Mt. Lily.

view from Mt Lily

The hike was a 2 mile snow covered hike to the top. It was good exercise. I admit, I was winded going up. It was a combination of the altitude and my lack of exercise prior. But the hike down was fun. I used gravity and the snow to glide down.

When we reached the summit….

… We had a couple Pabt’s and soaked in the glorious view.

photo by Eva Rupert

The following day I spent at the cabin and worked on a couple drawings and paintings.  A good chill day to push paint around.

My stay at Estes Park was very brief, but I had to get moving. Time was beginning to be a factor for me. Christmas and New Year’s was approaching and I actually had to be somewhere by a certain time.

More to come…

It is approx. 1.5 miles to get to the Delicate Arch. A moderate hike. The last bit of the trail is this portion of the mountain that is carved out. Those that may suffer vertigo, may have a bit of trouble with this segment. As I was hiking back, there was a woman who was hugging the side of the cliff and moving real slow.

But it is indeed worth the hike.

I would suggest getting there a few hours before sunset in order to get the good colors.

Here is a shot of balanced rock that was taken right before sunset.

The following shots are taken of the view from my campsite in Arches. The view was quite inspiring to me. I worked on a couple of paintings that night.

I was eating at the Moab Brewery and a waitress saw me drawing and suggested, that since I am an artist, I should go and check out Castle Valley. That was a really nice drive. And I was able to get a shot of the moon rising.

I managed to get some good shots of the sun setting.

I missed this park on my last trip. So this place was all new to me.

The hoodoos are really neat. It is so fascinating to me that these structures are made from water seeping down into cracks, then freezing and splitting the rock. When the ice melts, it washes away the loose rock, leaving the harder of the rock in place.

Erosion is so cool.

My first night there I got to test my tent in its first snow storm. The tent held up well enough, but it is indeed only a three season tent. There was about 2 inches of snow that night.

The following day was cloudy and still flurrying. I went out to Inspiration point and got some misty shots.

I spent the next night at the Rudy’s Inn/ Best Western to dry my tent. I also made reservations for Thanksgiving Night and the following Friday there.

The following nights, to save money, I slept in my car around the Red Canyon; which is about 17 miles west of Bryce. The evenings were a balmy 40′s, but over the night it got down to the low 20′s. Amazing, how I’m getting used to these temps and not think too much about it.

I spent my three work days sitting on the leather couch by the big fire place at the lobby of Rudy’s Inn. It was really cozy. The work week went by really fast because I was busy on a project. Thanksgiving came before I realized.

I camped out at the Bryce North campsite on Wednesday night. I had a bundle of wood in my car that needed to be burned. And there is nothing like drinking a nice cold beer and warming up by the fire. Some one came up to me and asked if I would share my fire. It was in the low 20′s, so I said sure. His name was Gao Wei, a Michigan State Student from Beijing. He and his roommate were on Thanksgiving break doing some national park touring with Las Vegas as their final destination then fly back. His friend went out to one of the overlooks to get a photo of the Milky Way and some hoodoos. I  thought that was pretty cool.

We chatted a while sharing our travel stories. I was trying to get some local info from him about china. I have always wanted to see firsthand those long column-like mountains that you see in chinese scroll paintings. And I shared some of the adventures I’ve had.

His buddy came back and we talked photography for a bit. And before I knew it, all my firewood was used up. We said farewell and went on with our own adventures.

The next morning, Thanksgiving day, I got up before the sun and rushed over to the Bryce Point and got some great shots of the sunrise overlooking the hoodoos.

I then took a hike on the Rim Trail from Bryce Point to Inspiration Point. It was a nice 2 mile hike where I was able to get some more shots and a little exercise.

After my hike, I checked into my hotel room and went to the thanksgiving buffet at the hotel. I gorged myself and rolled back to my room and took a nap. The next day was spent doing my laundry and just chilling in my room. That Saturday, I checked out of my room and took one last drive through Bryce.

Bryce is a really cool place. When I was looking at the hoodoos at Inspiration Point, I was reminded of the Terracotta Soldiers of China.

Don’t they kind of give you that impression? Or is it just me?

After my drive through of Bryce, I continued on to my next destination, Arches. But before I left the area, I wanted to explore the Red Canyon area. I saw some trails when I stayed there the other night. It was fun to walk up close and around the hoodoos.

 
Peace =]
 

I missed the turn to route 9 and kept heading north on 89. I spent 20 minutes driving through some fantastic landscapes before I realized I missed my turn and did a 180. But the view was worth it. The scenic by-way was so nice.

Once I got onto route 9, I was looking forward to seeing Zion again. I came to Zion on my last cross country trip 15 years ago. I have fond memories of that place. I was hoping time hadn’t changed it too much.

The first thing you have to do, when you’re coming from the east, is go through a mile long tunnel through a mountain. I am fine with closed spaces, but this can be a little disconcerting for some that have claustrophobia. However, there are windows cut out of the rock every 100 yards or so that peer into the canyon below. Kind of like little teasers giving a sampling of whats to come.

Once you reach the end of the tunnel…

… you switchback down a winding road amongst a glorious view.

It was nice to see the leaves still on the trees and just turning color. The site of the changing color made me a little homesick for the autumn colors of the new england. These pictures were taken in the middle of November. The day’s temps were in the mid 50′s and the night temps went down to the low 30′s. Perfect weather for camping in my book.

I had to go and acquire a campsite. There was only one campsite open in the off-season months. The Watchman campsite.  For $15 a night I decided to camp there the whole week. I ended up getting almost the exact same campsite I did 15 years ago.

I could never forget this view…

Zion is such a  peaceful place. It was here, that when I just sat quietly, I couldn’t here any sound of civilization. In New England, no matter wherever you go, you will always hear some sort of hum or hiss of traffic, jets or trains in the distance. But here in Zion, all I heard was the breeze. And the nights were clear the whole week. There was no light pollution from neighboring cities. Making it able to see the milky way span across the cobalt night sky.

I went on to explore the park after I got my campsite established. During the off-season the scenic drive road is open to cars. Normally you would have to take the shuttle up. But it was good to go at my own pace.

The first day I went all the way to the end and took the riverside walk trail.

During the week, I would get up, make myself some oatmeal and then go to the Cafe Soleil which is in Springdale right outside of western entrance of Zion. This is where I got my internet connection for work. They had good food and coffee along with a nice view.  And they were all good peeps there.

In the evenings, I would go get some firewood from either the general store or the gas station. And get back to my campsite in time for the sunset.

 And at night I would be entertained by the campfire. It is so much better than watching TV. There are no commercials and no re-runs. This also made my camping experience complete.

I was inspired to work on a couple of sketches and paintings while I was warming myself by the fire. I was just soaking up all the inspiration till it was overflowing.

The deer had no fear of humans and would walk through our campsites throughout the day.

On my last day, I wanted to take a small hike. I went up the scenic drive and found a parking spot in the Emerald Pools Trail head. A nice hike that has a lower, middle and upper pool that is filled by water running off the cliffs up above. The hike to the upper pool was about 1.8 miles.

The pools weren’t very emerald in color due to the fact that it is in the middle of autumn. I’m sure in the spring and summer times the pools would reflect the green foliage nicely.

In closing, all I can say is that, these photos don’t do Zion’s beauty justice. There is a something about this canyon that makes you feel protected from the outside world and almost in another world entirely. I felt completely at ease in this place and something deep inside was rejuvenated.

In the afterglow of that last walk through Zion, I made my way back the way I came. Went through the tunnel one last time. I made a couple of stops on turn-offs along route 9 and explored the areas.

I was looking at the terrain and getting ideas on how to paint these landscapes.

And then onward to Bryce Canyon.

On my last cross-country tour, 15 years ago, I was not that impressed with the grand canyon. Or I should say the photos could not do it any justice. To me, it just looked like I a big hole in the ground. Like I have said before, you can’t get a true appreciation for a place, until you are walking through it.

There was a bit too much snow to go down and hike in the canyon this time. Perhaps on my spring/summer tour.

It ended up snowing more on Sunday night and Monday. I stayed at a Holiday Inn in Tusayan, AZ. This place was really nice. Clean rooms, Soft beds, a good size continental breakfast. The only thing that was lacking was their internet connection was crap. The front desk told me it was the storm that was causing the bad connection. Which makes sense. It was really really annoying trying to work in that condition.

So the next day I went south to Williams, AZ to a place where the internet was better. The lady at the Super 8 said they had a satellite dish internet. And I was getting speed of up to 9MBps. I stayed there for a few days.

Thursday of that week was going to be a full moon. I googled to find when it was going to rise. And what do you know, it was going to rise right around the time the sun was going to set. I had to get up there and see if I could get a pic of the sunset and moonrise.

I missed the orange setting sunlight hitting the canyon. But I did get some pics of the pink orange clouds in the east.  As I was traveling east along the south rim trail, I came across a couple, and the woman said to me “the moon is coming up”. Sweet. I timed it just right! and the position of the moon was perfect.

And then the moon went behind some clouds and it got too dark to take pics without a tripod. I took a few more pics of the sunset clouds in the west.

The road was calling to me to move on, but I had some work to do the next day, so I stayed in Williams one more night.

After work the following day I headed toward Zion.

I did stop a couple times to get some pics of the area.

I drove into the night by moonlight all the way to Buffalo,WY. I slept in my car at some rest stop when my eyes started getting tired.

I looked at my map and decided I would like to spend Halloween in Casper, WY. It sounded fitting for the night of ghosts and ghouls to be in a place with the same name as a friendly ghost. The snow storm was going to hit on early monday morning and continue through the day, so I got a room at Super 8 and watched the Walking Dead series on Netflix. Not a bad show. It’s got some good zombie scenes. It sometimes got a little too much like a soap opera for my taste. But good zombie make up nonetheless.
It snowed all day Monday and into the night. I didn’t want to drive in that. Not to mention, parts of Interstate 25 were closed down because of the storm. So I stayed another night. The following day I headed out and worked my way south into Colorado.

The next few days I kept driving south. Sleeping at various rest stops and working at a McDonalds or a Starbucks. Thursday night of that week, I was Driving down 25 and getting really tired. I was just a few miles north of Colorado Springs and I saw a scenic overlook pull off. It looked like a good place to get some sleep. I knew there was a reason for it being a scenic overlook, but I could not see it at night. I figured I could get some good photos of the morning light.
And I was right:

I heard on the weather channel that there were more snow storms coming into Colorado and I wanted to see the Grand Canyon. I wanted to go to the southern rim and work my way up to Zion. Almost the same path I took 15 years ago. So over the weekend I traveled down 25 to Albuquerque, then west on interstate 40 to Williams, AZ. and then up route 64 to Grand Canyon National park. The weather was perfect. I managed to go south of the storms. I drove roughly 800 miles that weekend.
I was a machine!

I got to Jackson Hole late and checked into a hotel and passed out. I needed the sleep. The next day I was feeling a little better and went out to see the Tetons.

It is an incredible range of mountains. And I knew I had to stick around and get pics of it at different times of day.I spent the whole week in Jackson. Every Afternoon I would go out and drive up to see the Tetons.

Jackson Hole is full of history and a fine place to stop for a visit. There are Archways made entirely of antlers in the town green.

One place to check out in Jackson Hole, is the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. It was a neat place and I was fortunate to be there on the last night of the season. I went downstairs to the steakhouse, worked on a sketch in my sketchbook and watched the last few innings of the world series. I’m not much of a baseball fan but it was worth the watch.

I had the 8 oz. Prime Sirloin Herbed Garlic Fries, Caramelized Onions & House Made Steak Sauce which was perfectly cooked. And the waitress was cute and complimented on what I was drawing. I was still a little under the weather and didn’t even get her name. But she seemed interested in my trip and site. I wonder if she’s reading this. I asked her of places to camp that had good views of the Tetons, because I needed to cut down on my expenses. She said the locals usually go out and make their own camps. She mentioned a few places and gave me directions. I went to look for it, but couldn’t find the place she was talking about. I must have taken a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end. Ah well, I stayed at an overlook pull off that night.

That Friday, I decided to take a hike up the Butte trail. This is a place where rock climbers come to test their skills. I wasn’t going to rock climb because I had no gear for that and I haven’t done that in years. I took the trail to see what the view looked like from the top. The trail switch-backed up the side of the butte on a trail that had loose gravel and steep inclines. It was a bit tricky to get up and even trickier to get down because if I didn’t make sure my footing was secure, I could have slid down the trail. I made it up and down without incident. Yeah, I’m good.

The view was worth the climb. Not to mention, the exercise was needed. I have been sitting on my butt either behind the wheel or behind my computer. A body in motion tends to stay in motion, and a body in rest tends to get fat and lazy.

After that climb I took a more level trail to the other climbing area. I never made it there because the sun was just about to set.

Also, there was a Moose blocking the trail.

I slowly turned around and headed out to an overlook pull off a little north of there. I documented the sunset and slept there to view the sunrise.

I wanted to capture the orange light hitting the east side of the Tetons. The morning was a too cloudy to see that. The clouds were moving and it looked like it was going to be a nice day, but I lost that perfect rising light.

I went down to Jackson Hole for some breakfast. I was beginning to feel the road calling to me. There were quite a few places closing down for the season. According to National Park website the winters can be pretty brutal there. “The coldest temperature ever recorded in Grand Teton National Park was –63°F”. Good god, that’s cold!

It was Saturday and time to move on. That will be my last day in the Tetons. I heard on the weather channel that there was  a snow storm that was going to hit and some of the roads were going to close for the winter.

The weather that Saturday sure didn’t look like snow was coming. It turned out to be a warm sunny, clear day in the 60′s. But the weather can change instantly in the mountains.

This was the first day on a weekend that was perfect for painting. All the weekends so far were either rainy, cold or too windy. But this day was PERFECT. I would have kicked myself if I didn’t take this opportunity.

I was glad I did.

I painted two sketches, working on my technique.

Around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I packed up my stuff. I said, “so long Tetons, thanks for the inspiration”, and headed north.