Our drive today took us up from Provo along Interstate 15 on our way to connect to Interstate 80 westbound. I took this photo of the skyline of the buildings in downtown Salt Lake City as we passed by on the Interstate. This is the first time I have been to this area, but Bob was here both as a kid on a Continental Trailways bus with Mom and Brothers and later as a pilot several times on charter or leisure flights. Click on the image to enlarge.
I took this photo of a flower that was at a rest stop high in the mountains of Utah on our journey today on our way to see Capitol Reef National Park. We’re camped about ten miles from the park tonight and will see it tomorrow.
Our next stop will be in the Salt Lake City area of Utah. After that, we will head across Nevada going toward my sister’s place in California.
We drove through the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park today on our way to Page/Lake Powell. We were in Williams last night and are camped here in Page tonight.
While we were stopped at the Desert Watchtower near the east entrance to the park, I took several photos of the canyon and the river below. This is a section of the river as seen from near the Watchtower. Click on the image to enlarge.
When Hurricane Newton entered southern Arizona, it brought a lot of cloud cover to our area and a few very minor sprinkles of rain. But last evening and this evening’s sunsets were vivid red as the sun set in the west.
I took both of these images from the courtyard with my Canon EOS Rebel. Click on either image to enlarge.
Since late spring, the eastern most of the three Red Bird of Paradise (a.k.a. Pride of Barbados) has outpaced the other two shrubs in the courtyard by quite a lot. Last year, this one was also the largest after getting a slow start, but this year, it took off right at the start to be the biggest of the three.
The big shrub looks to be about six feet tall by eight feet (or more) across. We planted some small bottle brush shrubs late last year to replace the sage bushes that didn’t do very well. At this time, the one bottle brush shrub is almost completely covered by the giant Red Bird.
The Red Birds will start to fade out this fall and we will, as usual, chop them nearly to the ground to await their return next summer. Click on the image to enlarge.
We went to the California Desert over the weekend to celebrate a belated first birthday of our grandson, Jerry. We brought several presents for him, but this little Thomas the Train motorized ride-on toy might have been his favorite. We weren’t able to set up the track that came with the engine, but his folks will do that for him when they get back to their place. Click on the image to enlarge.
