Rho D'island

First week in October I spent in Rhode Island with my family. I had hoped to do some kite photography, autumn photography and hiking/travel in northern New England but the weather did not cooperate. Also, the leaves were far their fall peak, an unusually late fall for this part of the country.

There is a very nice bicycle railtrail called the East Bay (for you Marylanders think "eastern shore") Bicycle Path. It starts in the city but within 10 minutes you are in quaint bayside towns and along swan and egret filled ponds. Its 26 miles round trip through a few parks and along the Narragansett Bay.

My parents and I also took a day and drove to a place called Shelburne Falls. In northwestern Mass, its a small quaint New England town in the hills. There is a river running through the town with a waterfall. They have damned up most of the river to reveal the granite underneath. In the granite are "glacial potholes" that were carved by rushing water while the glaciers retreated. After travelling in the national parks out west where large plots of land are set aside far from development it was kind of weird to see this natural feature right in the middle of a town.

Oh yeah, and I got to spend some time at the Middletown beach laying around for an afternoon. As many of you have heard me rant, in RI the beach is 45 minutes away at most as compared to my current 3 hour drive from home to Ocean City.

Various New England pics below and here is the whole gallery.

Along the East Bay Bike Path

Horses at Middletown Beach

Shelburne Falls in Massachusetts

Angel's Landing (as in you might meet one) (Utah Trip Day 8/Zion NP)

Friday (9/16/2005) we hiked the hardest hike of the trip, Angel's Landing. Its a 5 mile round trip hike to the top of Angel's Landing, a cliff that extends right into the canyon and affords one of the best views. The hike has a total elevation change of 1500 feet and took us a total of 5 hours including a hour at the top. After what seems like a hundred switchbacks, the last third is over very narrow ledges with cliffs on both sides and chains for support. Its very doable if you are in shape and take your time but it can be treacherous and harrowing if you are afraid of heights. And you have to go down the same way you came, definitely harder on the way back. I'm glad we left this to last. The view is fantastic but after that I was done with hiking for a little while.

A few Angel's Landing pics below and here is the Zion gallery.


Last section of the hike


Top of Angel's Landing


View at the top

Hoodoos (Utah Trip Day 7/Bryce NP)

On Thursday (9/15/2005) we drove from Springdale east to Bryce Canyon NP. It takes just over 2 hours. After getting advice from the park ranger at the visitor center, we drove to the end of the park (about 18 miles) and hiked the Bristle Cone Loop. Its very scenic but more of a stroll than a hike. As we slowly made our way back to the park entrance we kept stopped at a number of overlooks. Basically the park is on the edge of a plateau and consists of the fancy erosion along the ridge. Technically, its not a canyon though one ranger claimed that in 1 million years it will be and then they'll call it Bryce Canyon Canyon (yuk, yuk).

In the center of the park is the large "amphitheatre" of hoodoos. Hoodoos are the towers of stone that are created by "ice wedging". (Ice wedging is erosion cause by constant freezing and thawing; Bryces gets about 200 days a year where the temperature is above freezing during the day and below freezing at night.) There are a number of views in this large section as well as some trails where you can walk among the hoodoos. We took the trail into Queen's Gardens and out through Wall Street. The Queen's Gardens is so named because there is a hoodoo that looks like Queen Victoria. Wall Street is a narrow channel through high walls that seems like a street in NY among sky scrapers. We hiked just over 3 miles in 2 1/2 hours including a ranger talk and getting lost. Its definitely the "must do" hike of the park. There is also a long hike with camping called the Under the Rim Trail that follows the whole length of the park.

The following pics and gallery don't do it justice but I'll be posting more when I finish processing all the panoramas from the trip.


The Grottos


Natural Bridge


Amphitheater