Telluride at Christmas

We finally made it back up to Telluride - again. As most of you know Steve and I arrived here on December 16th and had to leave the next day because my Mom passed away in Las Vegas. We then flew to Pittsburgh and had funeral services for Mom on December 21st. My sister Lisa did a great job with the services which were well attended. Steve and I drove back up to Telluride on Christmas Day and it is gorgeous here with all the snow and lights but it is also very cold. We hope to get some skiing in over the next week.

More of the Virgin River

This is an area of the Virgin River called big springs about four miles from where the walkway ends at the last shuttle bus stop in the canyon. That back pack I'm carrying probably weighs about thirty pounds. We rented water shoes, neoprene socks and the wooden hiking poles from the Zion Narrows Outfitters. The equipment worked out great. I also rented and carried dry pants but didn't end up using them. After a while you just get used to being wet and it doesn't bother you. I had a garbage bag in my back pack which kept most of the contents dry.

Hiking the Zion River Narrows

I spent last weekend hiking the Virgin River Narrows in Zion national Park - 16 miles! Having never done this before I was told we would take two days to hike 16 miles down river and stay overnight in a camp ground half way downstream. Didn't sound too bad. Well I should have remembered better some of the stories of the early explorers who first map some of the rivers in the West. Going downstream is not always going down stream. Sometimes to avoid little waterfalls and deep areas you are forced to take the path up on the bank and over rocks and boulders. We started out Saturday morning at the trailhead after driving 15 miles on a narrow dirt road. The camp ground we reserved was located at mile marker 10 which we finally reached about one hour before dark. The water Saturday wasn't much above our knees but the water Sunday reached above our waists at times.

Telluride

I was hiking today and took this picture on the trail above Telluride. This is basically the town set in a box canyon. The long streets run west to east. There is only one road into town unless you want to count a couple of the four wheel jeep trails which run over the mountains. The weather is great right now with the temperature getting into the 70's every day and the nights cooling down to the 50's.

My sumer reading list

Since my last post was about how much more reading I'm doing with my new kindle I thought I would give you a list of my summer reading:

1. The Host by Stephenie Meyer - Stephenie Meyer is the author of the very popular Twilight series and since I liked that series I thought I would read her only other book called The Host. In The Host the bodies of humans are being taken over by alien souls only because the aliens feel that they can do a better job which when you think about some people it isn't a stretch. The book is a page turner and will have you asking yourself what it really means to be "human". Totally different from the Twilight series but still very enjoyable.

2. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese - Instead of reading this book with a medical dictionary in my other hand I skipped over the latin medical terminology which litter the book. But even so the novel was very entertaining. The story is about twin boys born in Ethiopia to a nun born and raised in India but sent to Africa to work as a nurse. One twin has to leave Ethiopia and finds his way to America and his father who he has never met. Great story.

3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoos by Steig Larsson - Set in Sweden; a magazine editor Mikael Blomkvist tries to solve a thirty year old mystery with the help of Lisbeth Salander who is an anti social troubled private investigator with great internet hacking skills. Another page turner and the first in a trilogy for books but each reads as a separate novel.

4. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - I know this isn't a brand new book but I finally got around to reading it. The Pillars of the Earth is about the building of a cathedral in England during the 1100's. I've studied how cathedrals were built in art history and the some of the differences between them but I never fully understood the "why" of the undertaking. This novel explores every aspect of the undertaking of building a cathedral in times when the general population had barely enough food to eat and a place to sleep. This novel also explores the nature of the political climate during this time.

5. The Forgotten Garden: A Novel by kate Morton - This novel is about a little girl who travels by herself from England to Australia and is taken in by a family. Later she learns she was adopted and then tries to find out about her past. A light but enjoyable read.

My Kindle

Sorry no picture but just go to Amazon. com to see what one looks like. I've had a kindle for about three months now and I absolutely love it. There are a couple of issues I want to warn you about before you go off the deep end like I have. First of all I'm reading constantly; like every night before I go to bed. Before my kindle I basically read on the airlines and away from home. My book selection stemmed from the new paper back releases available at bookstores in various airports. Now it is so easy to just go to Amazon.com and download a new book that I find myself worrying if I don't have at least 1 1/2 unread books sitting waiting for me on my kindle. I can download in the middle of the night if I'm desperate. My second problem is my choice of reading material. When I'm reading my kindle no one knows if I'm reading a trashy novel or an intellectual tome. I was always embarrassed to read trashy novels before because of the pictures on the front cover were to revealing. Now I don't have to worry about anyone even knowing what I'm reading. Amazon is pretty smart about this too. I got involved in one series of novels (six to be exact) because the first one in the series was on the Amazon/Kindle bestseller list and it was free! I've also found that I can even read my kindle in a moving vehicle which has always given me a headache before. I'm recommending a kindle to everyone but buyer beware it can be addicting.

Sequoia National Park, California

Steve and I are in Sequoia National Park outside of Three Rivers, California.  These trees are immense.  The park is a great place to visit with a variety of views and sites.  We climbed the over 200 steps to the top of Morro Rock, hike to the largest tree named the Sherman Tree (at least the largest in volume), and toured a marble cave.  We also saw a total of 4 bears; one we found walking up the road we were traveling on and a mother and two cubs we discovered routing around in the dirt above the road we were on.