It’s Coarse and Rough...and It Gets Everywhere

Story by Nicole

We went with a group of friends to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve for the full moon in September. The sand dunes are a pretty amazing natural feature of Colorado. They are large and dramatic and surrounded by mountains. Even though Jason has a great dislike of sand, he was lured by the friends, camping, and promise of pretty photos. 

On Friday night, we camped at Valley View Hot Springs, which is a secluded, beautiful hot springs nestled against the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We spent the evening soaking in the warm water and explored the area a little more in the daylight before setting off for the sand dunes.The view from our campsite (Photo/Jason Rafal)Exploring the Orient Land Trust area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The sand dunes are visible from a distance as you drive along the highway, but you don’t really have a good sense of their massive scale until you get much closer. We stopped at the dunes to try to get a campsite (in a stroke of luck, we actually got the last campsite available within the park) before heading to Alamosa for lunch.

On the way back from lunch, we stopped to hike at the Zapata Falls area to do some hiking. We had fun doing some mild off-roading to the trailhead (the people in the backseat were less amused) so we could explore the creek and get some nice views of the sand dunes.Looking up the canyon (Photo/Jason Rafal)Contemplating the creek (Photo/Jason Rafal)The dunes in the distance (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After hiking, we headed to the dunes to set up camp. Most of Colorado has had a fire ban this fall because it’s been so windy and dry, but thankfully we were still allowed to have fire in a an established campsite grill. After cooking, eating, and warming up by the fire, we headed out into the darkness to hike the dunes.Sunset creeps closer (Photo/Jason Rafal)The beautiful shadows of the dunes at dusk (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I’m going to disappoint you right now and tell you that we don’t have any fantastic dune pictures from our hike. The full moon allowed us to see fairly well, but it wasn’t quite bright enough for Jason to justify bringing his camera. I will tell you, though, that hiking on the dunes in the moonlight is amazing. The shadows are disorienting, and it’s impossible to tell how steep or high each dune is. It’s like being on another planet.

After we got back, Jason and Eric took some photos with a tripod, which turned out pretty cool.A plane crosses the starry sky (Photo/Jason Rafal)Eric is dramatic in the moonlight (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Sunday morning, Eric and I took a hike on the dunes before we headed back to Denver (Jason was done with the sand at that point). The dunes are totally different during the day—much less mysterious and unnerving, but still very impressive. After spending some time hiking up and sitting on the vast ridges of sand, we went back to camp to pack up and head back to civilization.Footsteps in the sand dunes (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On the way back to Denver, we stopped at Kenosha Pass to take some pictures of the fall colors. I would highly recommend visiting Kenosha in mid to late September. There are huge aspen groves that turn from bright green to yellow and deep orange. It was a beautiful day, and it definitely felt like fall. I hope the lovely season doesn’t pass too quickly.A variety of fall colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)More mountain colors (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The One with All the Pictures

Story by Nicole

Our last day in Alaska was full of activities.

Since we were unable to take a plane ride in Talkeetna, we decided we would try to find one in the Seward area. Because Seward is close to most of the things that people want to fly over, though, helicopter rides are a little more common in that area, so we settled on going up in a helicopter. Helicopters also allow you to get a little closer to the ground, which is nice when looking at animals and glaciers down below. We found one company that did a trip northeast of Seward instead of southwest, and since we were already going southwest in a boat, we opted to fly in the other direction.

Walking up to the helicopter (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Neither of us had ever been in a helicopter before. Jason was pretty comfortable with the idea, but I was quite nervous. Within a minute of taking off, though, I was feeling fairly comfortable, mostly because our pilot, Mike, was great at flying. Even when we flew through the wind coming off of the larger glaciers, the helicopter stayed pretty stable.

The view from the helicopter was amazing. We flew over glaciers and rivers and even some mountain goats. The best part was how we were able to see an area that’s really only accessible by helicopter. Mike said he sometimes drops people off out there to kayak or backpack for a few days and then picks them up later, which sounds awesome but also a little scary.

View of a glacier from above (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A peaceful pond (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Glacial ice floating in the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Color contrast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Flying along the coast (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Unexpected sunbeam (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A marshy clearing (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A semi-frozen pond (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Ribbons of water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Heading back to the launch site (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the helicopter ride, we asked Mike and his receptionist what we should do for a couple of hours, and they recommended the Alaska SeaLife Center, which ended up being a great aquarium and rehabilitation center. They had a bird room with a lot of very unperturbed birds, and we were able to get within several inches of puffins, which was pretty great. There were also seals and sea lions on display. All of the big display tanks had viewing both above and below the water line, which was pretty cool.

A tufted puffin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Puffins in the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A horned puffin (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A fish loses interest in us (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dramatic fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A seal prepares to dive (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had the very good luck of arriving about 15 minutes before the first viewing of Perl, a 10-week old sea lion pup. When we first arrived at the SeaLife Center, Pilot, the father, was in the tank. After we wandered around and looked at the seals, we came back to see Perl and her mom, Eden, emerging. Perl is adorable. Eden was a little protective, but she started relaxing after a few minutes.

Eden is tempted outside with fish (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eden is not thrilled (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eden and Perl (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Perl hanging out at the edge of the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After the SeaLife center, we had lunch and walked around until our ride to Anchorage picked us up. Our driver was a very nice woman who spends summers in Seward and winters in Oregon, and all the time fishing. On the way to Anchorage, we stopped at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center to see the animals. The Center was wonderful. They have a lot of happy animals in nice habitats, and they also work to rehabilitate and reintroduce animals into the wild.

Baby moose are the cutest (Photo/Jason Rafal)

An adorable red fox (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A musk ox enjoys the sunshine (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A bear blowing bubbles (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After an hour, we got back on the road for the rest of the drive to Anchorage. There is only one main road between Anchorage and Seward, and it is incredibly beautiful and very dangerous (between all the tourists looking at the scenery and the locals trying to get around the slow tourists). Our driver stopped at her favorite spot on the Turnagain Arm (so named because Captain Cook went up it looking for the Northwest Passage and was disappointed to have to turn around) so that we could look at the beautiful scenery. When we got to Anchorage, we walked around a surprisingly large open-air market, had a long dinner, went to a coffee shop, and then went to a great improv show at a brewery. Around one in the morning, we finally boarded the plane to go back to Seattle and then Denver. 

It was a fantastic trip. We would definitely recommend Alaska. We’ll be going back at some point to visit Denali National Park.

The Stuffted Tufted Puffin and Other Tales

Story by Nicole

On Friday we took an all-day cruise out to Northwestern Glacier. We were already excited about it because our kayak trip guide, JD, had gotten so excited when we mentioned it. Apparently it’s a fairly remote area and they haven’t been doing cruises out there very long, so not a lot of people have ever seen the glacier up close.

A glacier coming down toward the ocean (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We had mostly chosen this cruise because it emphasized seeing glaciers instead of wildlife, and Jason (probably correctly) thought that going on a cruise specifically to see wildlife was a good way to not see wildlife. Besides, we were more excited about seeing glaciers anyway.

We did see a lot of glaciers. I cannot remember all of their names and I was bad at taking notes, so you’ll just have to appreciate the pictures. Fun glacier facts that may be slightly inaccurate: glaciers are blue because the snow has condensed so much that they only reflect the blue light back, and they take about 15 years to condense this much. We have glaciers in Colorado, but the ones in Alaska are on an entirely different scale.

Another glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Deep cracks in the glacial ice (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The moon appears above a glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we got to Northwestern Glacier, we sat for a while and watched for glacier calving. We saw several chunks of ice come crashing down into the water.

The glacier calves near the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Calving from another side of the glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We did see a lot of animals. We saw lots of birds, including red-faced cormorants, black oystercatchers, horned and tufted puffins (Jason’s favorite), gulls, and some others. Our captain told us to look out for stuffted tufted puffins, which are puffins that have eaten too much for them to fly away, so they just flap along on the surface of the water and are unable to take off. Once he mentioned it, we saw them everywhere. Apparently puffins frequently eat too much.

Puffins flying low over the water (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A bait ball of birds catching food (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In front of Northwestern Glacier, there were also a lot of seals laying out on chunks of ice that had broken off of the glacier. They stay out of the water for long periods of time to stay warm, so our captain was careful to keep the boat far away enough to not flush them into the water.

The seals in front of Northwestern glacier (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Seals watching us (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also saw a few humpback whales. Until you see the tail, a humpback whale really looks like the Loch Ness Monster. We followed a couple of whales around until we saw the tails - tail up, whale down, as the captain said.

Small signs of a large whale (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Whale tail (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We also saw some seal lions (look closely) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On the way back, we stopped at a beautiful waterfall to take pictures. Our captain, very impressively, kept the boat at almost a standstill about 5 feet from the waterfall while everyone took pictures. In some semblance of order, the crew lined everyone up and took pictures of them one-by-one instead of dealing with the usual barage of selfies.

Pretty waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Us with the waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

With that, we headed back to Seward. The cruise was a little long - 9 hours - but we got to see a ton, and it was worth it.

A last view of the area (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Kayaking Through the Mist

Story by Nicole

On Thursday we did an all-day kayaking trip that included a hike to McGilvray Fort, which was built and abandoned after two years near the end of WWII. I have nothing but great things to say about this day trip. Our guide, JD, was not only helpful and fun to talk to but was also just a genuinely nice, sincere person. There were only seven of us, including JD, and everyone was fairly close in athletic ability, which was nice. 

Kayaks awaiting passengers (Photo/Jason Rafal)

All suited up (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The scenery and weather were kind of amazing together (even JD thought so). Resurrection Bay is stunning just because that’s the way it is, but when we woke up to dense fog, we weren’t sure how much we would be able to see of it. As we prepared to set off, though, the majority of the fog lifted, save for strips that hugged the mountains across the bay and led them a dramatic and ethereal quality. It barely rained on us, which was shocking to everyone, and it was warm enough to make it a little hot while we were hiking.

Kayakers in the fog (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Yeah…it was crazy beautiful (Photo/Jason Rafal)

JD contemplates the shoreline (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On the way to the fort we stopped at a waterfall. Everyone we’ve talked to in town has been amazed by the amount of water in the waterfalls and streams–these small coastal waterfalls are mostly based on rainfall, so they quickly dry up when it begins to clear. It’s been an unusually rainy August, so we’ve been seeing small waterfalls everywhere. This particular waterfall was roaring.

The very large waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we got to Caines Head State Recreation Area, we pulled the kayaks up on the rocky beach and began our hike. A fascinating thing about this area (that we noticed when we visited Exit Glacier) is that you can have a temperate rainforest right next to a glacier. You can be standing on a hillside of shale and looking at a glacier, then you can hike 50 feet to your left and find yourself in a dense, incredibly green, moss-covered forest. It’s quite remarkable. The hike up to the fort was very wet, and everything was covered in dense green moss.

Tromping through the mud (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Pretty mushrooms (Photo/Jason Rafal)

I am somewhat uninterested in the remnants of forts, but it was pretty cool to walk around in, if a little creepy. We also got to have lunch looking out at the amazing mountains across Resurrection Bay.

Some sort of weapons storage bunker (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The remnants of the dock (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When we got back to Seward, we walked around the town and took some sunset pictures. It was a very photogenic day.

Some of the day’s catch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The beautiful view from our hotel (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Great Alaska Railroad/The Shrinking Alaskan Glaciers

Story by Nicole

Boarding the train in the early-morning fog (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Wednesday morning we caught the train to Seward. We had heard that the Anchorage-to-Seward train ride is one of the most beautiful in the United States, and it did not disappoint. The train winds along the ocean, through mountains, and alongside mountain lakes on its way to the small coastal town of Seward. The green, snow capped mountains next to the greenish, bluish gray water (it’s an odd color because it’s full of silt) is incredibly striking. Our ever-helpful and informative train conductor taught us a way to remember the five main specifies of salmon in Alaska using your hand:

• Thumb: chum salmon (it rhymes with thumb)

• Forefinger: sockeye or red salmon (use this finger to sock out someone’s eye and make it red; yes, kind of violent)

• Middle finger: king salmon (the longest finger)

• Ring finger: silver salmon (silver like wedding rings)

• Pinkie: pink salmon (pinkie is like pink)

He also advised us that no matter what we’re here to see and do in Alaska, we should never show anyone our king salmon.

Emergency train tools (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole leans out of the train in an inadvisable way (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The train winds through the mountains (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The train continues to be absurdly photogenic (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The train ride is long and so beautiful that you actually get a little desensitized to the beauty. At first, everyone is taking pictures of everything. After a couple hours, though, there is a sense of “oh, it’s just another multi-colored mountain with glacial ice over a glassy mountainous lake, nothing special.” It is stunning, though. We highly recommend it.

Looking back as we arrive in Seward (Photo/Jason Rafal)

About three hours later, we arrived in Seward. A few words about coffee in Alaska: it’s huge. Apparently it’s the original hipster coffee state. They are obsessed with espresso, they started serving cold brew first, and everyone just expects there to be coffee everywhere. We noticed the espresso stands every few miles while we were driving to Talkeetna, and when we arrived in Seward, we noticed that the tiny building that housed our kayaking company actually had a sign on the door apologizing for not having coffee inside and naming a couple of options for disappointed, undercaffeinated visitors.

Espresso everywhere (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Apologizing for lack of coffee (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After we walked around Seward for a bit and got lunch, we caught the shuttle out to the Exit Glacier, which is on the edge of Kenai Fjords National Park. Exit Glacier is the only glacier that comes out of the Rhode Island-sized Harding Icefield into a valley instead of the ocean. Exit Glacier is losing about 130 feet of ice per year. As the glacier freezes, it crushes up rock, and as it melts, it pushes the silt out into the river with the water. Because of glacial melt and rain, the river has been running over the road to the park entrance, so they’re raising the road 5-8 feet right now. Our driver has been coming out here every summer for 12 years, and this is the highest the water has been. There has been retreating of the glaciers since the turn of the 20th century, but the past decade has been unprecedented.

A ranger-led tour was leaving the visitor center when we arrived, so we tagged along. Our ranger, Stephanie Larson, was a great source of information not only about the glacier, but about the landscape that a retreating glacier leaves behind. She taught us what a glacier is (a slow-moving river of ice), the four moraines represented (lateral, terminal, medial, recessionary), and a whole bunch of other things that you can ask Jason about if you’re interested. 

Two observations about Exit Glacier: it’s both impressively large and depressingly small. The amount of glacial loss in the last 10 years is crazy. Stephanie gently tried to make people think about global warming and the impact it’s having on these glaciers, but it’s hard to make people change.

Raindrops on large forest leaves (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Stephanie explains chattermark (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Exit Glacier (that big half-moon shaped cut at the bottom is only a couple of days old) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Off to the Last Frontier

Story by Nicole

On our way to Anchorage, we had an 11-hour layover in Seattle that we used to visit a friend of Jason’s and explore Seattle, which he had never seen. We spent the time walking about 15 miles around the city, from Capital Hill to Pike Place Market. 

I adore the Pacific Northwest, and Seattle decided to go even further and spoil us with beautiful weather. The clouds slowly cleared throughout the day, so we went from slightly cold to a little hot during our 15-mile walk around the city. We ate great food, we saw the sites, we hung out with an awesome person. It was a good day. 

Thai iced tea with lunch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

What Nicole thought was a giant coffee roaster in the Starbucks Reserve (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Pike Place Market (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nice branding (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Delicious and adorable empanadas (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Tuesday we had a leisurely morning to recover from the previous day. We had brunch at the Snow City Cafe, which was packed with people and had tasty food and a lively atmosphere. After brunch we drove up to Talkeetna, where we were supposed to take a plane ride into the park. Unfortunately the weather refused to cooperate with our plans and the planes weren’t flying, but we enjoyed the cute town and spent some time hiking around in the Talkeetna Lakes Park. Next time we’re in Alaska we’re going to take a little longer and spend some time in Denali National Park, so this was a good teaser. 

Drink offerings at Conscious Coffee (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Rainy day latte (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Moss being photogenic in Talkeetna Lakes Park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very attractive mushroom (Photo/Jason Rafal)

All Sorts of Waterfalls

Story by Nicole

For Monica’s birthday, a group of us went to Steamboat Springs for a night. Steamboat is a lovely small town about three hours from Denver, and it is home to the wonderful Strawberry Park Hot Springs.

We arrived in Steamboat on Saturday and spent a few hours at the Yampa River Festival, where we watched people ride over the rapids on rafts, kayaks, boogie boards, and stand-up paddle boards. Many people made it over the rapids successfully, which was an impressive feat, and many more made it over unsuccessfully, which was an amusing feat.

On Saturday night we went to Strawberry Park, which was wonderful. The springs are in a fairly remote location and it gets quite dark at night. It’s a beautiful place, but we don’t have any good pictures, so you’ll have to visit yourself.

On Sunday morning, we got up fairly early, checked out of the hotel, and went to Fish Creek Falls to go for a hike. We walked to the main falls, then hiked a couple of miles to the upper falls as well. It was a really beautiful spring hike, and I would highly recommend it.

Starting off down the trail (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Leaking water impedes our progress (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Cameron doing…something (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Climbing through the Aspen grove (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The mountainside (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole and Monica pose on a bridge (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason and Nicole at the upper falls (Photo/Someone Else)

Photogenic waterfalls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Eric at the upper falls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole, Monica, Eric, and Cameron near the top of the falls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

View of Steamboat (as well as Cameron and his absurd swim trunks) (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Aspen grove (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Beyond Lusk and Lingle

Story by Nicole

For Memorial Day weekend 2016, we loaded our camping stuff and our roommate, Martin, into Jason’s tiny car and drove to Wyoming and South Dakota. We headed to South Dakota because neither of the guys had ever been there and to see my uncle. Because we wanted to have Monday in Denver to catch up on things, we planned a Friday through Sunday trip.

After work on Friday we drove to Guernsey State Park, Wyoming, and spent the night camping next to the Guernsey Reservoir. Since it was Memorial Day weekend and we were showing up at 7:30 p.m. to try to get a first-come, first-serve camping spot, we were a little concerned, but we were able to get in and get a space without issue. We even had our entire campsite area to ourselves until a huge caravan of cars showed up over an hour later.

The reservoir was really beautiful, especially at sunset.

Martin staves off the evening chill (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Our campsite view (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A non-functional but attractive remnant of the past (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Dusk falls (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the morning, we got up and drove to Lusk, where we ate breakfast at a greasy diner before heading north. When we got to my uncle’s house, we wandered around the property for a while before heading to Custer State Park.

An old motor home (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A very colorful rock (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Hiking up the hill (Photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent most of the rest of the trip hanging out with my uncle and exploring Custer State Park, which is a lovely place (and quite peaceful when the threat of rain has driven off most tourists).

Unattributed words (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Watching the rain roll past our perch (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A large heard of bison (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At one point, when we were driving along the park roads, we found ourselves between two large bison walking down the road. We stopped the car and waited, hoping they would ignore us. It is very humbling to be so near an animal that could so easily ruin you and the vehicle in which you sit.

Bison coming toward the car (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Awesomely but uncomfortably close (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Right before we left South Dakota to head back to Colorado, we went to the Sylvan lake area. The lake is really stunning, and there are lots of great rocks to climb.

Martin squeezes in with a small waterfall (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole and Jason pose in someone else’s wedding setup (Photo/Martin Brandt)

Our last stop was the Cathedral Spires. It’s a really incredible area of narrow, high-reaching rocks, and climbing around was a great way to finish up the trip.

Nicole sits on one of the shorter, squatter rocks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

The Spires (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Spring in Portland

Story by Nicole

I decided to take some of my free time between jobs to go to Portland, Oregon, to visit my grandparents and an old friend. I adore Portalnd, and I wanted to share some of the visual highlights. Jason didn’t come with me this time, which means I took all the photos with an iPhone camera, so they may not be quite up to usual quality.

For me, every trip to Portland includes a trip to the International Rose Test Garden. We went the first evening around sunset. It wasn’t quite as crowded as earlier in the day, but there were still dozens of people wandering around taking photos and strolling through the roses. The majority of the bushes were blooming, so there were many layers of color variation.

Roses with Portland in the background (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Multicolored roses (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

On Wednesday, I went with my grandfather to hike Dog Mountain in Washington. It’s a fairly long and rather steep hike to the top of the mountain, but the views are well worth it. Unlike the forested hillsides in the area, Dog Mountain has a large area of hillside that has few trees and supports the growth of countless wildflowers. We were there slightly after the peak of the wildflower season, but the flowers were everywhere. There was an amazing view of the Columbia River Gorge and the surrounding area. It was beautiful.Light through the trees near the bottom of the trail (Photo/Nicole Harrison)The view near the top of Dog Mountain (Photo/Nicole Harrison)Rock penstemon alongside the trail (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

We stopped for lunch in Hood River before heading back to Portland. While there, we stood for a while and watched the people windsurfing on the river. It looked a fun activity, but I’m not sure I’d have the coordination. It also looked a little cold, with all the water and the wind.

Windsurfers (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Thursday was periodically rainy. After some delicious ramen, we took the Portland Aerial Tram, which some locals call the Twinkie, up to OHSU and back down to the city. It’s a pretty unique way to get to the hospital.

The view from the Twinkie (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

The Twinkie going back down the hill (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

I won’t go through my whole trip, but here are a few more pictures. I hope to be able to return soon.

My favorite fountain, Ira Keller Fountain(Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Vegetables for sale in Alberta (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Washington Park (Photo/Nicole Harrison)

Rain in the Desert

Story by Nicole

For the last weekend in April, we went to my Dad’s new house in Mesquite, Nevada (about an hour east of Las Vegas, and close to the Arizona and Utah borders). If you’d like to visit Nevada and look at all the pretty rocks, but don’t want to endure ridiculous heat, April is a pretty nice time to go. The temperature was in the 60s and 70s with spotty rain and clouds. We flew into Vegas on Friday night and flew out on Sunday night, so it was a quick trip.

On Saturday, we visited Valley of Fire State Park, which is known for its landscapes of large, unusually shaped red rocks. The rainstorm was always visible on the horizon, but we never got much of it where we were. The first place we visited was the Rainbow Vista Trail, which led to a beautiful view of Fire Canyon. Because of all the recent rain, there were a surprising number of green plants covering the sandy landscape. The dogs enjoyed sniffing bushes and climbing rocks.

A storm rolls in over the Valley of Fire State Park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole and Tilly pose on some rocks (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Trying to get the dogs to pose together (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Tilly and Mocha finally cooperate (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Tilly and Nicole climb down off a rock that was a little too high for Tilly’s taste (Photo/Jason Rafal)

When some rain arrived and drove us back into the car, we drove up White Domes road to see more of the dramatic scenery. The rocks aren’t just red—there is a lot of yellow, and we even found some purple veins. The landscape is simultaneously very beautiful and very harsh.

The storm passes by close to the park (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Christina makes her way from the parking lot (Photo/Jason Rafal)

After consulting the Visitors Center, we headed to Mouse’s Tank Trail to find some petroglyphs. The sign at the trailhead instructed us in possible ways to interpret the different petroglyphs. Everyone’s favorite was the Mystical Bat Woman, but alas, we were never able to spot a Mystical Bat Woman in the wild. We hypothesized that she may have mystically stolen her own likenesses.

Mocha and Britt among the petroglyphs (Photo/Jason Rafal)

On Sunday, after we had brunch with my family at a casino, we headed up to a mesa in Britt’s truck. The road to the top of the mesa is a one-way, rough, and sometimes steep dirt road. It’s ideal for four wheelers, but fairly challenging in a full-size vehicle.

Partway up the mesa (Photo/Jason Rafal)

At the top of the mesa, there are several dirt roads crisscrossing the somewhat flat top. There are several dramatic cliffs to look off of, and there is a lovely, prickly forest of Joshua trees.

The Harrisons consider a Joshua tree (Photo/Jason Rafal)

A baby Joshua tree (Photo/Jason Rafal)

Nicole at the top of the mesa (Photo/Jason Rafal)

In the end, we had a lovely quick trip that got us away from Denver’s spring snow.