Whitefield's Travels

Kauai, Hawaii - May 10-18, 2019

Well, it was supposed to be a fabulous snorkel trip in the British Virgin Islands with a private chef and captain. Sounds amazing, right?? But, it was also more money than I could stomach! So, off to Kauai with our dear friends Pat and Sofija!!

Flying into Oahu

Arrived!

This is the view from our room

And our first dinner together!!

And, our first sunset right across the street!

GORGEOUS!!

Finally, at the Grand Canyon

After our afternoon in Page, we arrived in the late afternoon. Beautiful sites all along the way!

We were told the "must see's" at the Grand Canyon were sunrise and sunset. So, we were determined to do both, with a mule ride midday, then some hiking. We liked sunrise even better since there were clouds, a bit of rain, and majestic skies!

I was really nervous about the mule ride on the edge of the Canyon. In hind-site, I should have been more worried about the soreness after! It was awful!! I felt like I had been hit by a truck. Monte felt the same. It could be that I was really nervous and tensing up. You do have to control your mule, and I have NO experience at that! They would misbehave right on the edge! Totally scary!! But, also a nice way to see the canyon if you can relax.

Since we were so sore, we had to scrap the hike idea. I was so glad we did this at the end of the trip instead of the beginning!

Such an amazing trip! Can't wait to go back to different areas around Utah. I didn't know how much I'd loved the dessert!

Grand Canyon Oct. 2018

Our last couple days on our Utah/Arizona trip was driving from Zion thru Page on our way to the Grand Canyon. Since we really wanted to see the slot canyons, we tried now for the third time to book a tour. It is required to book a tour since all the slots are on Native American reservations. Finally, no risk of flash flooding in the forecast.

We we in luck!! We went with a less known tour and only had two couples from Germany with us. It was GORGEOUS!

Then onto the Grand Canyon!

Zion national park

We drove the 1:30 min this morning to Zion. Bryce was a deep canyon you hike into, but Zion is very tall mountains of rock with sheer, steep walls. I believe some are 2,000 feet high right in front of you!

We hiked the narrows today. You rent boots, neoprene socks and water pants, as well as get a walking stick to help manage the river. You basically walk up the river as far as you want as the river "narrows" with cliffs on both sides. It can be a dangerous hike if there is rain as there is no escape from flash flooding. We hiked about an hour in and then back out. You can't see the floor of the river, nor the rocks on the river floor. So, it's easy to trip and you don't know what you are stepping into. It isn't very deep though, but there is a current. I was in the lead at one point and stopped to let people go by. A women in the lead continued on my path and stepped into a hole! She screamed and next think I saw was in water up to her chest. I was so happy she got ahead of me! After that we followed other people's lead!