Yup, I'm Still Alive!!!

And even doing some art now and then.  I have to admit, life just got a bit overwhelming for awhile, and something had to give (actually several somethings).  But I'm finally getting back to my blog and hopefully will get back into being consistently blogging again.  I rather miss it.

I'll begin with our wonderful, loooong trip in Sept.  My DH and I have been wanting to do the National Parks and Monuments for several years and this was the year.  We saw Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Badlands, Devil's Tower, a huge buffalo jump, Capital Reef, The Arches, Pipe Springs, Grand Canyon (north and south rim), Kaibab, Petroglyphs, Walnut Canyon, Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, Bandalier (not sure if that name is quite right, but it was wonderful), Zion, Anasazi State Park, Aztec, Bryce, Mesa Verde.  I am probably forgetting something, we saw SO much!!!  It was phenomenal to see all this landscape and history.  We even did a bit of other stuff and took 1 day off!  For a pair of "old folks" we moved along pretty well!  So, here are a few of our photos for you to hopefully enjoy.  I'll be back with a few pieces of new artwork over the next week or so.


          I tried to enlarge, but it will only show so much of them so to open up any of the wider views you can click on it.  They lose soooo much in smaller size.  :(
AHHHH...  I just realized you click on one, you can then see them all.  BUT you miss the comments, not many but still I think help make it more interesting so maybe quick look at the comments then the photos.

Oh, yes, we also had a quick trip to CA this past July and stopped in at Yosemite and another Petrified Forest there.  San Francisco Wharf, and John Muir Woods.  First the July trip.

 Always gotta have one of the locals photos!  
                                                  

                               

Now for the BIG trip! 

This is California Condor #87   

      Grand Canyon.

     

                              Capiall Reef

               Yellowstone  (below is buffalo herds)

                             

             Back to the Grand Canyon.

Devil's Tower, above,  Coral Reef below

               Bridges Nat'l. Monument- there are cliff dwelling ruins all over Utah, AZ, and NM/Colorado!!!

                     Coral Reef.

                           South Dakota homestead

                Badlands

              Yellowstone

                                   A couple of cuties.  :)

              Grand Teton

   Beauty, beauty, EVERYWHERE you looked!

 

 This was the scene each evening when we stopped for a camping spot.  :)

                        Grand Teton

                

 That is smoke from a forest fire.  We saw several of these and it made the Teton area and Yellowstone somewhat gray quite often.  Mornings seemed to be worst.  Seemed to clear up some later on.

 Eagles nest on top of the rock ridge.  (Yellowstone)

                                           Another eagle's nest.

  Just beauty along the roadside...

                                  Yellowstone

                                One of my favorite "buddies".

                                   Mesa Verde  (above)

 LOOK CLOSELY-  there are walls and old homes here in these next photos!

             Petroglyphs...

        The Painted Desert at Sunset

        Back to the Grand Canyon...

    This one is blurry because it was actually nearly dark.  Notice the car lights.  Well, people are NOT supposed to stop on the road like this (no shoulder, traffic jams- Grand Canyon) and dangerous.  This was the rutting season and the bulls were not in good humor.  This fellow would have rammed a car if not for the quickness of a tourist bus driver honking his horn and distracting him.

      We saw 3 of these fellows along the way, this one was one of 2 alike- Grand Canyon, the other was a 
  little larger and all brown, in Zion.

I hope you've enjoyed these photos.   I didn't come near to showing everything, let alone all my photos!  LOL.  We were gone 5 wks.  This is just a smidgeon.  Go out and explore our great country.  It is AMAZING!

                     GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!