Day 10: Utah

Hi, we're Utah! BY THE WAY DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE SKIING HERE? WELL WE DO!!

The beautiful snowcapped ski slopes of Utah. We suggest you ski. Or else.

We roll into the main bit of Dino Monument. They have a big Stegosaurus statue!

They also have that big enclosed quarry you see in every dinosaur book ever published.

Nops contemplates the biomechanics of allosaurid theropods.

A dead camarasaur.

The artistically-backgrounded carcass of an allosaur.

An exposed Camarasaurus skull in the quarry wall.

Martinek discoveres the vertebral series of a new, gigantic stegosaur.

At a nearby gift shop, Uncle Nops clings for his life upon a large sauropod.

T-neck manages to tame the bucking beast.

Giving up on the brute, we explore the shop.

Sign at a nearby rock shop. Holy Schmidt!

A big pink sauropod!

A view of the Uinta Mountains.

Some rock formations in Ashley National Forest.

Atypical Utah scenery--not many trees farther south!

We hit 4000! Woot!

Route 191 South

We stop at the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum in Price.

Look at the Gastonia!

ROAR!

We get back on the road and gun it for Moab.

I like big buttes, I cannot lie.

Nops takes a closer look.

Yah! Yah, Canyonero!

A precariously balanced rock.

We nab this sweet-as campsite in Dead Horse State Park, right outside Canyonlands.

After pitching camp, we head into the town of Moab for a bite and a pint at Eddie McStiff's. Alcohol is supposed to be hard to come by in Mormon Utah, but this is SOUTHERN Utah.

We stop and try to watch the sun setting back in Dead Horse.

Not as cool as it looked there. The guy nearby with a hardcore camera apparatus might have done better.

Goodnight, moon. Children, scootch closer. Chop chop.

Day 11: July 8, 2005

This is the day we really started hitting up all the parks hardcore. There are tons of pictures from each place, even though I'm only posting the highlights. Therefore, any park for which I have ten or more good photos will get it's own section from now on. Click on the title image to go to that park's sub-page.

The park we camped in, in all its glory.

Dead Horse's National Park Neighbor. Not as spectacular, but it's got some arches and wheat.

Via a map drawn on the back of a bar tab from Boulder.

Lots of arches and lots of people.

Unique advertising outside of Arches.

Our hotel at the end of our first day of National Park hopping.

Day 12: July 9, 2005

The mark of the beast! Rock on!

Stuck behind an Arizona plate at construction. Thanks, Pennsylvania.

Our detour leads us to Four Corners. Uncle Nops is unimpressed.

T-neck loves it in Fourstatesville, then grabs some fry bread. On to...

Hot eats, cool treats.

Outside Bridges, we spot some cool scenery, like these mountains.

And this giant nipple.

And this chair.

We stop at another scenic overlook.

The road through here is pretty scenic itself.

The mighty Colorado River.

DEEP THOUGHT: "If they ever come up with a swashbuckling school, I think one of the courses should be laughing, then jumping off something."

In case you ever wondered what the top of a mountain looked like.

Day 13: July 10, 2005

Hot damn, some greenery!

DEEP THOUGHT: "If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason."

Nay, we are but men. ROCK!

Rocky road.

Along the road to Bryce Canyon, we find this crazy formation.

Just like Thunder Mountain Railroad, but with slightly less risk of decapitation!

We head out of Bryce and towards Zion National Park.

And hit 5000.2! YES!

Zion: a great place, if you don't get out of the car.

Waiting to enter one of several tunnels as we descend into the park.

We get a hotel in Hurricane, Utah. We plan to return to see Zion tomorrow, but...

Day 14: July 11, 2005

This is about all we photograph of Zion, which is so crowded it resembles Disney World in July. Disgusted, we hightail it out.

Cruise America, FUCK YEAH! One of 8,000 Cruise America campers driven by the elderly we saw on our trip.

Our final stop in Utah is the town of Virgin. You know how I know you're gay? You have a rainbow bumper sticker on your car that says "I like it when balls are in my face."

The Virgin Jail--a fair penalty for lack of sexual experience.

As we depart Utah, we find green again! See you in AZ!

Next: Arizona