geology

I drove up to Meteora, a cluster of monasteries perched high atop narrow rock outcrops. The geology and the monasteries on them are equally impressive.

Great Basin National Park is an mountainous oasis surrounded by the dry basin below. We hiked up to bristlecone pine forests and to the glaciers below Wheeler Peak.

Our first stop on our way east is Crater Lake. We explored the rim, hiked to the summit of the park's highest mountain, and camped below a nearby volcano.

Today we drove south to the Grand Teton National Park, one of the youngest mountain ranges in North America. The peaks rise sharply form the flat plains and lakes below. Later in the day we hiked into Death Canyon.

Our second day in Yellowstone included sites in the northern part of the enormous park. We stopped by Tower Falls, the Lamar Valley, and Mammoth Hot Springs.

Today we explored Yellowstone National Park, our nation's first national park. We started in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone area, passed Yellowstone Lake, then headed over to the Upper Geyser Basin to see Old Faithful. Hiked up one of the surrounding mountains, and explored the Midway Geyser Basin.

It's still cloudy, so we cannot see any of these volcanoes. We hiked down to Spirit Lake below Mount Saint Helens, then hopped over to Mount Rainier and hiked up to the glaciers on Alpine Trail.

Crater Lake so impressed us we decided to spend another day here. We continued touring the rim and hiked down to the water to explore the lake by boat with a quick stopover on Wizard Island.

We spent the day trolling around Arches National Park—a breathtaking landscape in southeast Utah.

Having secured a campsite in Arches, we set out today to visit Dead Hose State park and humongous Canyonlands National Park.