Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks

Utah is a terrain of mountains and canyons. Simply Rocks! If your travelling on the west of the States, and/or a lover of nature, an outdoor person, this is for you. Hiking, mountaineering, rocks, photos, trails, rare flora and fauna!

At the least, 2 and a half days would do, to cover both these national parks and around. We started one early morning to the Bryce Canyon. Began at the visitors center with a short movie about the place and the museum there. These canyons are natural rock formations made of limestone and small traces of metals giving them those mild shades of colors. Basically white with titches of light red orange. Beautiful shades, shapes and sizes. We drove to heights and various elevations. Took trails and viewed the most fabulous canyon formations called Hoodoos.

When in the park region it's always good to have plenty of waters and snacks along with you, especially when your walking on long trails under the sun, during the peak of the day. Ofcourse also carry your enormous energy and enthusiasm. Collect a map from the visitors center, plan your day with the help of the guides there, depending on your time and capability, as I have mentioned in my previous blogs.

So this what we do- drive through the scenic road, the complete stretch, stop at every overlook point, select a few best and easy to moderate trails to hike. Navajo Loop and the Sunrise point trails were the most popular among several others such as the under rim trail, the peek-a-boo loop, the upper inspirational point, rim trail, bryce point, rainbow point, ponderosa point, natural bridge. We walked and viewed the hoodoos really close by. Other points gave different views of them from several angles and elevations.

Chipmunks (squirrels), deers, ravens also hiked with us.

That night stayed in between the two parks and early the next day, we headed to Zion National Park. Shuttles ran through the park, making it easier to travel from point to point. Lots of wonderful viewpoint were there. I don't remember going for any trail here. Then on the way out, there was Red Canyon, may be not that popular, yet there was a beautiful place called Mossy Cave there. It was a short and easy trail. That was day 2.

Then the next day... stopped by a state park.. Kodachrome Basin State Park.. Don't expect too much there.. not as great as a National Park.. Afternoon, we drove back home... We normally avoid driving too late.. So I would say this was an ideal plan.. and an awesome trip. :) 

Bird Refuge- UT

It's called the Bear River Bird Migratory Refuge. Just for pure bird watching! Do you enjoy watching various species of birds? their flight and plight? If so, this is for you.. :)

You drive along a loop.. finding birds all around... we went during the monsoon period.. not a really good time for the car... coz the road.. isn't a polished tar road... its muddy... But ya ...it was a good time for the birds that prefer the marshy wet lands... :) All it takes is a slow 1-2 hour drive.. (aprox.).. 

Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, UT

All my previous blogs were quiet detail.. coz I had jotted them down then and there... making it easier for me to remember all my whereabouts.. :)

Well, Antelope Island is the biggest island in the Great Salt Lake, UT. I visited it twice, last summer. A beautiful land, scenic byway and easy trials covering glimpses of antelopes and bisons wandering around. These bisons are big animals looking similar to yak's or buffalo's i would say... silent animals not disturbing anyone... in fact they would quietly even pose for a photo with us.. :D

As usual, we stop at the visitor center.. its always a good start.. coz they are the experts.. and depending on your capability of choosing an easy or difficult trail, with the time you have.. they give you the best options to plan your day to an awesome experience of the park.

We got the map and headed to the lady finger trail... its an easy trail.. at the same time you gotta climb rocks.. when you reach the top... its really a magnificent lookout at the Great Salt Lake... You can see a smaller island at a distance... its called the Egg Island... An island where migratory birds lay their eggs.. an island free of human n animal species... safe for the birds and their off springs...  Amazing is n't it?!

Then we went for another moderate rated trail... ideal for a family... with benches on the way... It was also a beautiful view of the lake... There were other trails too... Frary Peak trail.. a bit more strenuous.. Dooly Knob trail.. giving other views of the island and the lake..

Oh my.. then we were tired of walking.. with the sun's rays burning on top... drove across pretty scenic byways to a Ranch.. On the way there was a beach... my sis and I were so excited that we ran into... and far.. to reach the waters... Oh ya.. its rare to find a beach in the middle of a dessert... Really beautiful... White sand.. and wavy looks with the wind... so beautiful it was.. but be aware.. when we returned only we realized we were cover with bugs... tiny bugs.. all into my hair.. Oh gosh... fully dusty we were... fortunately no stings... :)

Then to the ranch... a place in the island.. where the olden houses were... kinda lik a museum or a exhibit to learn the old ways ancestors lived... there were farms and tractors there..

That was a pleasant leisure day spent well... posing with antelopes, viewing the beautiful lake, bird watching...hiking etc.. :)

Forgot to mention.. there s also a boat harbor... before the visitor center i think... But well.. you need to own a boat for it.. ;)

A trip to TOYOTA

Then on November 8^th, Daddy took me and mommy to his work place, TOYOTA. We went to the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Inc. It is Toyota’s first wholly owned manufacturing facility in the United States. Since 1988, Toyota's Kentucky team has been building quality vehicles in the Bluegrass state. Today, "TMMK" is the largest Toyota plant outside of Japan. Each year in Georgetown, nearly 7,000 team members build about 500,000 vehicles and engines. Toyota's largest manufacturing facility in North America. That's about 2,000 vehicles every day!! 

We saw firsthand the beginnings of a global automaker, experience archival footage. Toyota, Kentucky the began in 1988. All the developments from then till this year were put up on a board. We also were allowed to climb inside the TMMK's vehicles on display. Then they showed us a video clip about Toyota plant- how it began. After that they gave us each a head set and the tour guide had a mike set to explain us everything going on within the plant as we were taken through. The TMMK manufactures the Camry, Avalon and Venza vehicles.

The tour guides led us through the portions of our 7.5 million square foot facility via an electric tram. The tour began in Stamping where we saw cars take shape from huge coils of rolled up steel. Then they moved to Body Weld where these stamped pieces are put together. There was a team of computer-controlled robots performing the welds that resulted in a completed body shell. That was amazing!! They were moving on their own from one place to another. Looking up we saw overhead conveyors transport the cars from Paint, to the Final Line in Assembly. Camry, Avalon and Venza vehicles moved along the assembly line in the order of purchase by retailers and customers. There were different colors of the cars lined up in a mixed order (order of purchase) and so based on that order the various parts of the cars were lined up and brought to the different stations to be fixed and assembled. This tram driven tour took approximately an hour and a half.  They didn’t allow us to carry cameras or take photos for security reasons. 

Mammoth Caves and the Nashville Ganesh Temple - Weekends Spent Well

On 4^th November, Friday morning mommy casually saw the weather channel and noticed that the weekend would be sunny and pleasant.

Close to noon, Daddy called us up from office saying he will come home early and that coz the weather is good this weekend, we could go somewhere, probably mammoth caves and some place in Nashville, Tennessee (We had been thinking of visiting the mammoth caves for long). So he asked me us to get ready and also asked me to look for some good hotel room and places to visit in Nashville.

He came in the afternoon, had a little more work to do. Side by side we also searched for a hotel near mammoth caves. (It was a complete last minute plan this time.) Then close to 4pm we booked a hotel room at the Mammoth Cave Hotel. It’s inside the cave region. Then we quickly got ready, packed up and by 5pm left the house (quite late!).  We started our journey to Mammoth caves. It was a 3hr drive. We were close to mammoth caves around 8pm. Dad drove a long way into the caves. It was getting dark and mommy was getting scared, asking me “Did you write the correct address?”, “Are we heading in the right path?”… “No one seems to be around!!” woof... The address I had loaded in the GPS was the visitor center. But there was no other address in the website! We reached the address… the visitor center… Obviously closed at that late time! Then daddy drove around, we noticed some lights behind, the hotel was there. Thank God!

The next day morning, we went to the Mammoth caves visitor center, found out the various tours there. We chose the New Entrance tour which included the complete Frozen Niagara tour and a portion of the Grand Avenue tour.  A bus came outside the visitor’s center, it took us into the forest and we got down at the end of a road and at the base of a mountain. There was an entrance door at the base of the mountain. This ran down for 1000’s of feet with so many steps and stairs running down through narrow paths in the caves. There was a guide with us inside the caves. She said the caves and rocks were all made of limestone. In some place in the cave there were sandstone rocks on the ceiling. There were a lot of mites and tithes formed all over the frozen Niagara tour. It was really dark inside. It was an exciting trip!

After this we went for a small tour near a river called the Green River. It was the lowest part of the forest and mountainous region. The guide with us said we were standing at a place even lower than the caves. It was hard to understand, but of course the truth! There was a sinkhole- is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks for example in sandstone. There was a lake and a stream connecting to it which led to the green river. Some of these streams and rivers passed through the soil.

Then close to 2pm we started to Tennessee, the neighboring state. One of daddy’s colleagues told him long back that there was a big nice Ganesh temple in Nashville, a city in Tennessee.  Remembering that he planned to take us there, also we planned to look around some famous and popular places there. On the way to Nashville, we stopped at McDonalds, there’s a free Wi-Fi there. We hadn’t yet booked a hotel at Nashville to stay that night. So there at McDonalds, as Daddy got himself a cup of coffee and mommy and I an ice cream each, we took out the laptop, looked for a low priced and good hotel located close to the temple. I located a hotel which was also on the same road as the temple. And so we booked it. Then we continued our journey to Nashville. We reached the hotel at 4pm. Then I searched for some good places in that city, from the net as well as pamphlets found at the hotel. Nashville is also known as “Music City”. There were a lot of music concerts held at various places. But we dint find much of them interesting to us. Then that night we went to the Ganesh Temple. It took us 30 minutes to reach.   Realizing that it wasn’t as close as we thought! The Ganesh Temple was big and beautiful. The idle, Ganesha was huge and the garland decoration was very beautiful.  There was a big puja and a lot of prayers when we went. At the temple, a lady told us that there were four Old Hickory Road (Street names) and that many people get this confusion. She gave us a pamphlet with hotel/ restaurants in that locality. For dinner, we went to Woodlands Hotel. I had rava dosa! J

The next day, Sunday, we planned to just spend a few hours in Nashville and start back by afternoon. Coz we had to travel a long way back. In Nashville, we actually dint have any idea where to go or what to visit. A lady at the hotel reception told us about a place called Opryland. And that there was a big luxury hotel there and that it would be worth looking around. So we went to that luxury hotel. There were acres of indoor gardens with all tropical plants, cascading waterfalls and indoor river with their Delta flatboat. It was really magnificent. 

Places we went in October- KY

October 15^th – We went for an “Airfest”.  It was held at the Georgetown airport. It’s a small port, not used commercially. There were many planes and jets ranging in all sizes. These planes were the ones used in military air force and some during World War II. We were allowed to see the inside of all the planes. They were magnificent. In one of the planes used in military, we saw the various levels inside the plane from the pilot place in front till the rear part of the plane. And there were many guns with long chains of bullets piercing out of the plane at different points- the sides, rear and front. Then we also saw 3 people jump with parachutes from a flying jet. They landed down safely. Apart from all the planes displayed, planes were also flying above us.

October 16^th – We went to “Keeneland Horse Racing”.  This was the first time for both Daddy and me to see a horse race. There was a big gallery and it was like a sports stadium. There was a huge crowd there for the horse racing. We spent a few hours there. Races took place one after the other. We watched a few races.

October 22^nd – We went to “Evan’s Orchard”. There were a lot of pumpkins on the fields. Coz it’s Halloween time here. Apples picking season was over. The apple trees were bare. There were also corn fields. Apart from the fields, there were also a lot things for small kids- pony rides, camel rides, pet zoo, play area. Then there was also a gift shop and a café shop.

Cincinnati- Downtown and Museum- October 9th and 10th, 2011

On 10^th (Monday), Daddy had work at the office at Erlanger, KY; so we planned to spend Sunday there at Cincinnati downtown. Sunday, we started quite early in the morning, deciding to visit Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. We started around 9 and reached about 11 in the morning. There was a beautiful architectural building. Inside there were three museums- Science Museum, History Museum and a Children Museum. They were also featuring two movies in an Omnimax theatre- Hubble and Toronto Ally!  All the museums were wonderful and very interactive with video’s showing the history and story behind most of the stuff showcased.  Omnimax theatre was huge the screen ran from the ground to over my head. The picture/ movie were like real life, the size of objects and people.  And horizontally the screen was till the ends of the maximum my eye balls could rotate from left to right. Hubble is the story about NASA and its mission of correcting the lens/ resolution of the satellite camera capturing pictures of Saturn. Toronto Ally was a story of a person chasing a Toronto in order to capture a picture of it from the center of the Toronto. Both the movies were superb and the effect at the Omnimax theatre was magnificent.

That night we stayed at a Hotel in downtown.  The next day, we all got ready early in the morning. Dad took all the luggage, put them in the car. Then he left for work. Mom and I, stayed in the room a little longer, had coffee and some breakfast. Then we checked out and went out to look around downtown. We got some pamphlets at the hotel about things in and around downtown- restaurants, places to visit, things to do, etc. We found trolley (bus) that travels around downtown, then to Newport, the place where we went last week for a sailing trip on the Ohio River; and on the opposite direction to Covington, some other place in Cincinnati. It was really cold that morning; we went to the fountain square, it’s an open area place where musical events take place; with a lot of chairs and tables; and a fountain in between. We found the trolley standing there; we got in, and came to know it was going towards Newport. It took us for a short trip around that place and then back to fountain square. The driver then told us he was going to Covington and that this circle would keep going on- from Covington to Newport. So we stayed back in the bus, went till Covington and again back to fountain square. That was a nice sightseeing journey.  Downtown routes are quite easy to understand, there all parallel and perpendicular roads /pathways. We walked around the place, the hotel and the fountain square; which is also very close to the hotel, a few cross roads left and right. We saw a lot of tall buildings, went into a public library, and went into big shopping malls-Macy’s and Saks Fifth Ave, really costly shops! Then close to 5 in the evening, we went back to the hotel, sat in the lobby, waiting for dad to return back from office. Then dad came around 5.30 and we reached back home at 7pm.

Again one good weekend!

Cincinnati- Cruise and Zoo- September 23rd and 24th, 2011

On 23rd (Friday) Daddy had work at an office located in Erlanger, KY about 60 miles distance from home. Since he had to go so far, we planned to visit Cincinnati downtown which is close to that office and spend the weekend there. We booked a hotel room for the night stay on Friday, so that we could spend the whole Saturday visiting good attractions at Cincinnati. So got ready early that morning and all of us started to that place. Daddy dropped Mom and me in Florence mall, a huge mall close to his office and he left to office. We spent the day shopping at the mall.

After Dad's work, he came to the mall to pick us up. Then we went to a boat/ cruise harbor on the banks of the river located across the border of Kentucky and Ohio states. We went there to find out tickets and timings availability for a trip on the cruise. Luckily there were tickets available right then for the dinner cruise which was about to begin in a quiet short time.  We bought the tickets for the cruise which was for two and a half hours up and down the river, around a 6 mile in total. It was a slow drive in the boat. It was a nice trip, good scenery and a lot of bright lights as it turned dark in the night. It was really chill with a cold breeze passing by.

The next day (Saturday) we planned to go to a Zoo, it is in Cincinnati, Ohio, only a few miles from the hotel and the river. We spent an entire day at the Zoo. There were a lot of exciting things at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical garden. It was a huge Zoo with a lot of trails and paths leading to various animals, birds and insects reserve spots. There were safari rides- trolley (Bus rides) and trams, running through the Zoo. We traveled on them and visited almost the entire Zoo. Apart from this we also saw a 4D movie. Yes, not 3D, it’s 4D!  It was "Wizard of the Oz" story.  It was a nice experience. As you know a 3D movie, we had those goggles plus a feel of reality of the story around. My seat rocked, vibrated and water was really sprayed. There was a scented smell in the theater. Bubbles flew around. They took us into the movie. We could feel the movements of things happening. It was funny and exiting. The first time I heard of and watched a 4D movie.

That day evening we started back home and reached in the night.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park - September 3 to 5, 2011

Daddy had a 3 day vacation, 5^th (Monday) being Labor Day! Daddy and I had been thinking to go somewhere/visit for this long weekend.

I had been browsing in the Internet to find some good places around here. We finally decided to go to the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. This national park was created as a national treasure to preserve the environment (which was destroyed by large scale logging) and is about 800 million acres. This national park has about 1600 bears and frequented by 7 million visitors each year. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through the centerline of the park.

We started on a long drive to Knoxville, a city in Tennessee. It was my first trip in Daddy's car, a really long way!! As we started early in the morning on 3^rd (Saturday), it was a pleasant journey. Some stretches where covered by green trees on both sides of the highway running for several hundred miles and on a mountainous terrain. It’s about 225miles far and took around 4 hours’ drive to reach Knoxville, a city in Tennessee around 11:30 am. Then from there we went a further 1 hour drive to the Gatlinburg, the main gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We went to the Visitor's center and collected few maps, got info about the attractions and directions etc. We took few trolley (bus) trips through the mountain ranges. There were many trails for walking and cycling through the mountain ranges and forest. We went for a hike through the mountains, a part called Sugarland. This was an easy and quiet short hike. We walked up the mountains for a hike of 2.7 miles. There was a waterfall at the end of this walking trail called the Laurels Falls. We also visited Riley’s Aquarium. This was all on Saturday.

Stayed the night at a motel nearby in a place called Pigeon Forge and the next day morning, started our trip to Clingmans Dome, We drove through the mountain ranges for 23 miles, a scenic drive and then walked up the dome, a curved pathway to reach the highest point of the ranges. From the top we could see a 360 degree view of the mountainous terrain. This is a view of the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  In the distance you can see the river which runs through Bryson City, North Carolina.  Clingmans Dome is located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  At 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome is Great Smoky Mountains National Park's highest point.  Clingmans Dome Trail provides access to the Appalachian Trail and Mountains-To-Sea Trail.

Out of the national park, on the way back near Sevierville, we went for a scenic aerial travel in a helicopter! We flew over a lake, the Douglas Lake. I sat beside the pilot, it was a thrilling experience.

The whole trip was really awesome. Enjoyed!