Bragg Family South

We left Utah early Saturday morning and drove into northeastern Arizona, land of the Navajo Nation. Our first goal was Canyon de Chelly National Monument ( http://www.nps.gov/cach/ ), home to Anasazi ruins (such as the small one pictured above) and dramatic red rock canyons: Canyon de Chelly National Monument is different than most in that it is still largely tribal land, and many Navajo still live and work amongst its sites. The green vegetation of the canyon below supports herds of cattle, sheep, and horses, and crops like corn are still planted. Many Navajo also work by providing guided tours in 4-wheel drive vehicles along the bottom of the canyon, where you get the best view of the ruins. We didn't pay for this type of tour (we'd do it next time, though), so our view was limited to that from the cliffs above: You can see the small dots that were the vehicles (only tribal members or their paid guests are allowed down below). The ruins are barely visible to the u...

Here's the kids at Golden Spike National Historic Site ( http://www.nps.gov/gosp/ ). Some of y'all have visited this site, others have not--in a nutshell, it is the site where the first railroad from the west met the first one from the east. Their linkage made the first transcontinental railroad. On Wednesday of this last week, my meeting took the afternoon off for some field trips. Bragg Family South took our own field trip, up Logan Canyon to the Bear Lake overlook: This natural lake is a beautiful blue because it is shallow and has a light-colored bottom, and thus does an excellent job in reflect the clear blue skies of this high elevation lake. Our ultimate destination was Fossil Butte National Monument ( http://www.nps.gov/fobu ): This pretty but rather unassuming butte contains the fossils of many different species of animals and plants. It had been part of an ancient lake, and is well-known for the fishes preserved in its rocks. My meeting wrapped up on Thursday aftern...

The day we left Boise was beautifully clear. Our main destination for the day: Craters of the Moon National Monument in south-central Idaho. This fantastic landscape was formed some thousands of years ago as lava poured out from cracks in the ground, running over the flat lava plains of southern Idaho. Here is one view of these old flows: There are also interesting plants and animals that live in this area, including limber pine. This gnarly species is not unique to Craters of the Moon, but is probably the most common tree is this harsh landscape. Below is a picture of a dead limber pine, its branches distorted by heavy mistletoe infestation: This tree was deliberately poisoned by park staff to try to staunch the mistletoe (yes, the same parasitic plant that people pucker up under during Christmas) infestation. Nowadays, they recognize it as a natural occurrence, and leave the trees alone. In the picture below, Hope and the kids look into one of several "spatter" co...

On Sunday, we left our hotel in Orem , Utah, at the south end of the Salt Lake Valley and drove to Salt Lake City to visit our friends Adrian and Christen Grell , who have lived in Salt Lake City since moving from Monticello, Arkansas, five years ago. They now have a three year old daughter Ella--in the picture above, I'm sure Hope is providing some deep wisdom on parenting while sitting in their backyard...After our short visit with the Grells , we drove north to Idaho. Along the way, we made a stop at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument ( http://www.nps.gov/hafo/ ). This site preserves a bunch of mammal bones preserved from several million years ago. Below is a waterfall along the highway near the site: This fall tumbles over volcanic deposits that dominate this part of Idaho, and is probably dry most of the year--it has been particularly wet this spring and summer. You can't see much of the actual Hagerman fossil site--we stopped in their visitor center for a while, a...

After our stormy entry into Oklahoma the day before, Friday morning opened clear and dry. We spent the night in Guymon , a oil and livestock town in the panhandle of Oklahoma. We continued westward, with open vistas like the one above dominating our travels. I was surprised at how much agriculture was present in this area. Eventually, we got into more of the grasslands that I expected to see here in the southern Great Plains, and with this transition came more and more pronghorn antelope: Our first destination this morning was Capulin Volcano National Monument ( http://www.nps.gov/cavo/ ). This volcano stands high above the plains, and starts to mark the transition between the plains and the Rocky Mountains. Here, Hope is reading an interpretive sign to the kids in the bottom of the extinct crater: This picture is of Stephen at one of the overlooks on top of the volcano: This area is basically desert, and some of the cactus were blooming, like this prickly pear: While very t...