M-Photo | Field Notes

Change of plans went we got to Kanab, Utah.  We intended on exploring Vermillion Cliffs off road trails, but consistent reports of deep sand on the trails we chose not to take the risk of getting stuck. We went to Bryce Canyon for the day.  Wow, there were a lot of people there and about 30% were were wearing masks.  This was the most populated place on our trip!    On our way to Moab we took an unplanned excursion to Capital Reef and had lunch in a lovely park. There was a lot of smoke haze from all the wild fires in Colorado.  Since we were trying to avoid people did not to go to Arches, we went to Goblin State Park instead.  We explored the park and checked out  a couple off-road trails in the area.  On the way back to Moab we found an alternate route on HWY 128 which went through an amazing canyon. The ride was so fantastic that we took it again to I-70 on the way home.

 The Air BnB we stayed at was in the town of Joshua Tree.  We decided to have a leisurely morning and catch up on laundry before heading out to Joshua Tree National Park.  We ended up staying late for the moon rise.   I can see why so many photographers shoot here - the landscape and the light was fantastic!  Camera: FujiFilm XT3

On the way to California we stopped briefly at Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas and then found an alternate route to the town of Joshua Tree, our base camp in California. We stopped along the way to photograph the burnt Joshua trees and had lunch in the railroad ghost town of Kelso, which is now a National Mohave Preserve Visitors Center.  Great little stop out in the middle of the desert. We travelled on part of old route 66 and I told Erich, wouldn't it be cool if we came across an abandon motel and we did.  Ok, it was a restored motel but a pretty cool happy accident.  Camera: FujiFilm XT3 Red Rock Canyon - Las Vegas, NV Burnt Joshua Trees Kelso, CA Route 66 The Salton Sea was completely deserted.  We were the only ones there and it was 109 degrees, you could feel your blood beginning to boil.  The Salton Sea is one of the world's largest inland seas and lowest spots on earth at -227 below sea level. It was re-created in 1905 when high spring flooding on the Colorado River crash

We are used to taking a long vacation every year and I have to say it was tough taking two weeks off with no where to go.  Well, no where is not really an accurate description.  We actually chose to go to the middle of nowhere Arizona, Utah and California.  The goal was to stay away from populated areas and stay heathy.  We booked Air BnBs in the cities of St. George, Joshua Tree, Kanab and Moab and cooked all our meals. We had the RTIC cooler in the Jeep filled with lunches, the Stanley and an extra two gallons of emergency water for our daily excursions. St George, Utah was base camp for Parashant National Monument in the Arizona Strip for three days of off roading to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  In preparation of the Arizona Strip exploration I ordered a BLM map that included secondary roads in the area.   Each night I plotted our course for the next day.   The first part of each day was to travel across the Arizona border, which was like six miles from the Air BnB. We did th