In the span of just a few days, we hit some of the most fabulous scenery we’ve ever seen at The Grand Canyon and Zion National Park. Neither prepared us for what was ahead at Bryce Canyon National Park though.

Sorry, Grand Canyon, you may be bigger and more well-known, but Bryce Canyon gets our vote for Most Awesome Canyon. Walking up to the lip of Bryce Canyon is like peering into another world. We almost thought little green men were going to come out of one of the crevices to greet us.

The canyon is filled top to bottom with bright orange and yellow spires (hoodoos). Vegetation is sparse, but the occasional tree springs right out of rock, it seems. And the bluest of blue skies is overhead. This felt like an other-worldly land for sure.

Due to being just this side of the middle of nowhere, Bryce Canyon receives just under 1/2 as many visitors as Zion National Park and only 1/3 of what the Grand Canyon sees. The 1.2 million per year that do make the trek though are treated to a phenomenal landscape.

Recreation

Hiking

The main thing to do at Bryce Canyon is to hike down into the canyon on 1 of 11 trails. We took the Queens Garden and Navajo trails into and out of the canyon, and then we walked Knox along the Rim Trail (the only trail where dogs are allowed). Even early in the day, the trails were pretty packed.

There are some steep sections when entering and exiting the canyon, but overall, it’s not an exceptionally strenuous hike. The trails are smooth and well-maintained.

Camping

Bryce Canyon has two campgrounds, but we didn’t stay at them, so we can’t tell you anything about them.

Dog Boarding

Unlike Zion, there’s no pet boarding anywhere near Bryce Canyon. We timed our trip to get there as soon as the gates opened so we could hike before it started to get warm since Knox had to wait in the truck.

Getting Here

Bryce Canyon is not close to much of anything. We came up from Zion which was a fantastic drive, particularly on UT-12. UT-12 continues on through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, a drive that you’d probably appreciate seeing.

Pictures

Feast your eyes on these 120 pictures from our hike down to the floor of Bryce Canyon!

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Well, folks, the moment you’ve all been waiting for is here. The last two months, you’ve been forced to read articles by Mommy and Scott. First, Mommy told you about her road experience in her article Renewing My Faith. Then Scott told you about The Stories Around Me.

Those were decent travel accounts, I suppose, but I know that you’ve all been waiting for me to put paws to paper, so to speak, and tell you about the experiences I had, friends I made, and lessons I learned over 40,000 miles of travel.

Prior to November 2011, I thought I was one tough dog. I was the dominant dog in my group of canine friends. I chased birds, squirrels and chipmunks, who all scurried away in fear. I growled at strangers and they crossed the street to avoid my terrifying presence. And then my humans decided to drag me along on their road trip.

To say I was ill-prepared for the world beyond my mid-size Southern city is an understatement. I was a mere pup by comparison to my hardened country brethren.

Read the rest of the article in this month’s issue of Asheboro Magazine and use the comments below to let me know what you think of my writing prowess and, of course, the pictures that show what a good-looking pup I am!

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Having driven over 40,000 miles through 35-40 states and 3 Canadian provinces, it’s hard to pick out “the prettiest place we’ve seen”. There are two places that we find ourselves talking about consistently though: Alaska and Utah. We’ve told you about Alaska plenty of times before, so we’ll get to Utah now.

After our trip to the Grand Canyon to hike Bright Angel, we headed north to Zion National Park for our first real experience of Utah. We had no idea of how phenomenal the entire Utah landscape is, not just in Zion, but throughout the state’s National Parks.

A Brief History Of Zion

The main feature of Zion National Park is Zion Canyon, a 15-mile long gorge cut up to a half-mile deep through the sandstone by the Virgin River. For those of us from the east, the river is more like a wide creek, but out west, this is a bona fide river.

The park is home to numerous climate zones, flora, and fauna.

Numerous plant species as well as 289 species of birds, 75 mammals (including 19 species of bat), and 32 reptiles inhabit the park’s four life zones: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest. Zion National Park includes mountains, canyons, buttes, mesas, monoliths, rivers, slot canyons, and natural arches.

People have inhabited the region for around 8,000 years, first as hunter-gatherers, then eventually as Anasazi, Paiute, and Ute settlements. European descendants began arriving in the late 1700s, eventually leading to Mormon settlement of the area for farming.

The name was originally Mukuntuweap, the supposed name given to the area by the Paiute, but eventually was changed to Zion because

“The name change played to a prevalent bias of the time. Many believed that Spanish and Indian names would deter visitors who, if they could not pronounce the name of a place, might not bother to visit it. The new name, Zion, had greater appeal to an ethnocentric audience.”

Recreation

There’s no shortage of outdoor activities in Zion National Park. There’s backpacking, bird watching, camping, canyoneering, climbing, and rafting (when the Virgin River has enough water).

Hiking

Hiking was our activity of choice. There are 18 different options for seeing parts of Zion on foot. We managed to fit in several miles of hiking from The Grotto up to the three Emerald Pools, then we rode the park shuttle out to the end and walked a bit of the path towards The Narrows.

There are trails that are flat and paved and trails that are quite strenuous, so there’s something for everyone here. The Emerald Pools trails are low to moderate difficulty and will get you up above the canyon floor where you can get some outrageous views looking out through the canyon.

The park shuttle is free and will take you from the park entrance all the way back to the Riverside path to the Narrows.

Dog Boarding

For those of you traveling with your dogs, Zion doesn’t have a kennel service, but there is the Doggy Dude Ranch about 15 minutes from the main entrance near Springdale. Knox had a great time there running around with other dogs and gives Doggy Dude Ranch four paws up.

Camping

We spent two days, but only one night in Zion due to the overwhelming crowd. The campgrounds were completely full, but we were lucky enough to secure one night in the Watchman Campground in an overflow spot they had. We had a non-electric tent site (which was just as well since our electric cooler had gone belly up by this point) that was $16 per night.

Getting Here

The easiest access to see Zion Canyon is through Springdale, UT. Be sure to take an hour to drive out through the east, though, because the landscape once you get through the tunnel is different, yet still beautiful.

Pictures

Utah as a whole is a place that we really, really want to go back to. In particular, we’d love to spend more time off the beaten path in Zion hiking up to and beyond Angels Landing and into the wilderness. Here are 141 pictures to get you ready for your own trip to Zion.

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Back in March 2012, we stopped by the Grand Canyon on our way to southwest Colorado. We didn’t have time to hike below the rim that day. Instead, we just went to an overlook and saw the Canyon with a dusting of snow. But we knew we’d be coming back to venture down, down, down.

After leaving San Diego in September, we headed straight for the Grand Canyon for a couple nights of camping and a day hike of the Bright Angel Trail. There’s no better way to marvel at this giant crack in the ground than to walk down into it.

Bright Angel Trail Hike

There are two trails leading into the Grand Canyon from the South Rim: The South Kaibab trail and the Bright Angel trail. Since we could park and walk to Bright Angel, we decided to go for that one. We hit the trailhead around 8am, after dropping Knox off at the kennel for boarding.

We decided to hike in 3-4 miles and turn back based on time and how we were feeling. We armed ourselves with our Camelbaks and a couple of bananas and started down the trail. Even in late September, the sun climbs high in the sky and gets hot fast. The air temperature was probably only 75 at the rim, but inside the canyon, it jumped 10-15 degrees once the desert sun got above the canyon walls and started heating up the rocks around us.

The Bright Angel Trail is more heavily traveled than the South Kaibab and also has water stations, restrooms, and resting stations along the way. At the beginning of the trail, there’s a water stop at 1.5 miles and 3 miles. There are two more restrooms further along at Indian Gardens and Bright Angel Campground.

As the signs constantly remind you, “Down is optional. Up is mandatory.” The deceptive part of the Grand Canyon is that you’ll only spend about 1/3 of your energy getting to wherever you turn around to head back up. Hiking three miles down puts a little stress on the joints, but is otherwise pretty easy. It’s the three miles back up where you start to feel it. Over 250 people are rescued from the Canyon per year. Be smart and you won’t be one of them. Really, unless you’re on a speed hike, take it easy, rest regularly, and enjoy the view.

Other than the major elevation change, the trail itself isn’t incredibly tough. The trail is really well maintained and wide enough to pass other hikers easily. But there is that elevation. In the first 3 miles, the trail drops about 1,900-2,000 feet. Between mile 3 and 4, the trail drops another 1,000 feet. If you hike all the way to the river, you’re looking at about a 4,500 foot elevation change. Keep that in mind as you descend.

Hiking The Grand Canyon

What’s there to say about the Grand Canyon that hasn’t been said before? Probably not much. It’s a phenomenal landscape that seems to change with each turn of the trail. The rock formations change color throughout the day as the sun hits them at different angles and as you twist and turn around the switchbacks on the canyon wall.

The biggest problem with the Grand Canyon is that it’s like a siren call. Even when we hit the 3-mile rest house, it was tempting to continue on to “that spot”. And once you hit “that spot” there’s another “that spot” that you want to go see. There’s something around every turn and once you get down there, you really want to see it all.

The Grand Canyon Kennels

Unfortunately, there are no dogs allowed below the Grand Canyon rim. Fortunately, the Grand Canyon has a nice kennel. For $16, you can day board your dog.

At Carlsbad Caverns, the kennels were just crates. At the Grand Canyon, your dog actually gets a little run and has plenty of space to move around. It’s a much nicer setup that allows you to take your pet with you and still be able to head down below the rim to really see the grandeur of the Canyon.

Getting Here

The Bright Angel Trail is easy to get to from the west side of the Grand Canyon Village. Really, you can’t miss it with the signs pointing the way.

Picture Time

As you’d expect, Edie had her trusty camera by her side for the trek down into the Canyon so that we could bring the rock formations to your computer screen. One of these days, we’re going to head back to do a full rim-to-rim hike over the course of 4 or 5 days.

This is one of those epic landscapes that you really have to see to even begin to take it in. The hike that we did was just the tip of the iceberg of what there is to see here.

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Just a quick post today to wish a very happy holidays to all of our readers. We hope you get to spend time with your loved ones – both the two-legged and the four-legged ones!

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Last month, Asheboro Magazine published Edie’s article, Renewing My Faith, about her experiences and lessons learned from our time on the road.

This month, it’s Scott’s turn to talk about his experience on the road with his article The Stories Around Me.

Time and again, when people ask me about the trip, I end up telling stories about the people we met. Of course, I tell them how beautiful Alaska is, the unbelievable landscape of Utah, and what an epic drive the west coast of the United States is, but talk always quickly turns to tales of the people I met and the other cultures I learned about right here within our own borders.

Read the rest of the article in this month’s issue of Asheboro Magazine and let us know what you think in the comments below!

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Desert camping was high on our list of things to do while on our big adventure. We camped in the mountains and along the ocean numerous times, in forests and wide open grasslands with few trees in sight, so adding the desert to the list of experiences was a necessity.

Of course, we had more desert camping planned in Joshua Tree National Park, but we decided that relaxing in San Diego for a little longer was a better idea, so we didn’t make it there. It gives us something to do later in life.

Location

Mather Campground is one of two campgrounds on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. Desert View is the other South Rim campground and the third NPS campground is North Rim Campground at the North Rim. As far as external amenities, the Grand Canyon as a whole is in the middle of nowhere. Flagstaff is the closest city of any size and that’s a 1.5-hour drive.

Let’s get real though, you don’t come to the Grand Canyon to spend time in a city. You come to see one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. And Mather Campground is perfect for that. From the campground, you’re a 5-minute drive to the Grand Canyon Village and the Bright Angel trail head. This campground really positions you well for anything you could want to do in and around the Grand Canyon.

Amenities

Hook-ups

There are no hookups in any of the Grand Canyon NPS campgrounds. The only place nearby that we saw online with hookups is 7 miles outside of the gates. Potable community water spigots are available within about 50 meters of any campsite.

Bathrooms

The bathrooms are bathrooms. Nothing exciting, but they get the job done without being dirty. Unfortunately, you must supply your own soap since the bathrooms within Mather Campground only provide the toilets, sinks, and hand dryers. Showers are available for a fee of $2.00 per 8 minutes at the front of the campground.

Laundry & Wi-Fi

Laundry facilities are available at the shower house at the front of the campground. We didn’t use the laundry facilities though, so we don’t know the price. There is no wi-fi.

Campsites

The campsites are plenty big, with decent vegetation for privacy. We were lucky enough to be near the bathrooms, though no campsite is more than a few hundred feet from a bathroom.

We were also lucky that the campground wasn’t very full, making for quite a bit of privacy and quiet desert solitude.

Price/Value

Before taxes, the price for our tent site was $18. Considering this is one of the 10 most visited parks in the National Park System and that it’s about the going rate for anywhere in the nation, you can’t complain.

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Last month, we published an article about our travels in Asheboro Magazine called Living The Dream. We’re now writing a monthly article for them and decided that for the next three months, we’ll write about what each of us learned and how we grew on our big adventure.

This month was Edie’s turn to talk about her experience on the road with her article Renewing My Faith.

As a child and teenager, I spent a good portion of my time volunteering. Each December I helped the Red Cross throw a holiday party for children whose homes had been destroyed by fires. I was a candy striper at two local hospitals. I volunteered at a nearby nursing home’s wing for HIV and AIDS patients. I spent my time surrounded by other volunteers, both adults and youths, who wanted to help their fellow men and who asked nothing in return.

And then, I grew up. I became a corporate transactional attorney with a large regional law firm. More often than not, I watched concern for profit trump concern for others.

Read the rest of the article in this month’s issue of Asheboro Magazine and let us know what you think in the comments below!

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[Note: Another break for the two-legged members of the 160K family while Knox takes over blogging duties!]

Hello again, my faithful fans! I apologize for my long delay between posts, but typing with paws is quite difficult, and I don’t always feel up to the challenge. However, I have delayed long enough and finally bring you the post I know you have been craving.

Scott and Mommy did a post fairly early in our journey about the friends and family we were able to visit along the way. Unfortunately, they weren’t very thorough, and they eventually quit taking pictures during those visits to update the gallery they initially started. I, of course, am smarter than that. I decided to wait until the end of our big trip to write my post about the dogs I met along the way so that I could give a full report with plenty of photos.

As you will see, we encountered A LOT of dogs during our travels. Some were nice, some were not, and some were just plain crazy.

Female Farm Doggies

The lady dogs that I played with before our trip were pretty easygoing and viewed me as the alpha dog that I so clearly am. I assumed that all other dogs, especially female ones, would recognize my status and submit accordingly. Then I met Peanut and Mischka on our first farm-stay in Georgia.

Submissive was not part of their vocabulary…at least in regard to how they should act. For the first few days they ganged up on me, bit new holes in my backside, and made me going running to Scott and Mommy. It was quite a humbling experience for this former alpha male.

Thankfully for everyone involved – humans and canines – we learned to get along okay by the end of my stay on the Georgia farm.

And People Say I’m Crazy!

Many people (ex-boyfriends, random joggers, a pet psychic…) have told my Mommy that I’m not quite right, perhaps even crazy. So clearly, I understand what it is like to have a screw loose. Texas, however, introduced me to a whole new kind of crazy.

On our second farm-stay, we worked with a family who had 4 Great Danes/Great Dane mixes – Marconi, Tesla, Von Braun, and Goodall (notice the name theme!). I chose to spend most of my time playing with the smallest pooch, Goodall, who was only twice my size.

Unfortunately, this was a case of Dr. Goodall/Ms. Hyde (that’s right – I’m a well read doggy!). Goodall would go from happily playing to trying to kill me in 1.2 seconds. On more than one occasion she would suddenly freak out on me and attack. And then, after she’d recovered from her sudden bout of insanity, she expected me to be ready to play again. Once, she left a giant hole next to my eye from where one of her teeth sunk in during the attack.

Lucky for Goodall, she was a good horseback riding companion for her owner…otherwise her mean ways with other dogs and her taste for live chickens would have gotten her kicked off the farm!

Farewell, Sailor Moon

Our WorkAway stay in New Mexico brought 3 new pups into my life – Sasha, Harry, and Sailor Moon. Sasha was my favorite playmate at this house, but given recent events, I thought I’d tell you more about Sailor.

Sailor Moon was old – roughly 14 years old. She had bad arthritis and moved very, very slowly. She was deaf. She appeared to suffer from doggy dementia, too. She would get confused about where she was going and just stop in the middle of a room and not move. She apparently didn’t understand not to eat from my food bowl so I often had to growl at her to let her know what was mine. In hindsight, I think I was a bit harsh on her.

Mommy told me a few days ago that Sailor Moon had died. Her humans are very sad, and I bet Harry and Sasha miss her, too. My Mommy started to look pretty sad, too, so I told her that I promised to stick around a very, very long time. I don’t think my Mommy would do too well if I wasn’t around to take care of her!

Alaska Pups

Humans in Alaska are a very adventurous, rugged bunch, and their dogs are pretty darn cool, too. I made lots of doggy friends in America’s Last Frontier.

In Fairbanks, I met three cool pups. Hope was rescued from Africa when her owner was in the Peace Corps. Although she growled at me most of the time, she eventually warmed up and was lots of fun to play with during my stay. Eddie was a giant Mastiff mix with very strong jaws. Apparently, he wasn’t too bright and didn’t realize his strength, so he wasn’t allowed to play with other dogs for fear he’d kill them. He also had lots of crazy allergies and could only have lettuce and spinach for treats. What a sad, sad existence; I can’t imagine having to miss out on the joys of pancakes and ice cream cones with Grandma!

In Juneau, I got to hang out with three pugs who belonged to our Couchsurfing hosts. The two lady dogs weren’t too interested in me, so I spent my time hanging out with the cool boy doggy, Sven. He was twice the size of the ladies so he was the perfect size to be my playmate for our visit!

Annie, My Love

One of the Alaska dogs deserves her own special section.

Our Homer Couchsurfing host had a beautiful German Shepherd named Annie. I was smitten. She might have been twice my size, but I like the larger ladies. We spent hours romping around the tiny log cabin overlooking Kachemak Bay. I even cuddled up and fell asleep on her a time or two.

Annie, my love, one day I will see you again. Too bad we’re both fixed or we could make adorable pups together.

West Coast Doggies

Some of the coolest pooches from our trip live out on the western coast of the U.S.

In Portland, I met 3 more awesome dogs. Rowdy was a 17-year-old arthritic pooch who could amazingly still move lightning fast when it came to chasing a tennis ball. Macaroni was a Corgi mix with silky fur who loved attention…especially from my Mommy! There was also Lestat, a 10-year-old Dachshund-German Shepherd mix who was blind. That certainly didn’t keep him from becoming my BFF for our short weekend stay – we played together constantly!

Santa Barbara Couchsurfing brought another new groups of doggy friends. There was Kodi, a fairly senior pooch who loved his morning walks on the beach where he would happily bound into the ocean for any stick, ball or piece of driftwood the humans deemed worthy of tossing. There was Sunny, a Corgi who actually smiled at the humans. On different days during our visit I also got to play with Poppy, one of the nearby neighbor’s dog, and Lily, a dog-sitting visitor.

Finally, in San Diego, I met Nellie, the rescued pooch who belonged to Scott’s former roomate Brian. She wasn’t too interested in playing with me most of the time, but she did seem to enjoy our many visits to Dog Beach…where she made me look like a wimp by happily swimming into the water!

Pup Portraiture

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to write about all the awesome doggies I met on our journey, but never fear, there are likely still photos of them in the gallery below. [I met many, many cats along the way, too, but I'm not about to give any shout-outs to that uppity species, even the ones that let me chase them!] Paws aren’t the greatest for using a camera, but my mommy Edie did all the photo work, and luckily I have some pretty cool shots of my canine buddies from our trip around the U.S.

Can you spot the pooch who was given the nickname J-Lo – and can you guess why? Which doggy photo is your favorite?

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After our long, leisurely drive down the picturesque Pacific Coast, we got to take a break from constant travel and spend a relazing 2 1/2 weeks in San Diego doing nothing. Well…almost nothing.

Since Scott had lived in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego before we embarked on our epic journey, we were both fairly well acquainted with the area. One of our favorite parts about that neck of the woods? The restaurants! We revisited our favorite burger joint, breakfast spot, and fish taco shop, but Edie made sure we didn’t forget about dessert.

On Newport Avenue, the main drag through Ocean Beach, there is a little shop called Lighthouse Ice Cream. Lighthouse prominently features signs for its signature item – hot waffle ice cream sandwiches.

Although clearly not rocket science, the creation of this dessert was nothing short of brilliant. For $2.95 apiece (unless you get a specialty ice cream), you get a cold, creamy ice cream scoop in the flavor of your choice sandwiched between two hot, sweet waffles, and you can get the waffles in original, chocolate, blueberry or apple cinnamon flavors. Who wouldn’t love this? Well, beyond those needing to avoid gluten…

Scott had had the opportunity to sample one of these yummy creations during his time living in O.B., but somehow Edie had missed out on her many visits. Thus, our trip back to San Diego meant a required visit to Lighthouse for this treat so Edie could sample it, too.

Scott opted for chocolate waffles and cookie dough ice cream while Edie went with original waffles and butter pecan ice cream. The little paper wrappers did an amazingly good job of collecting any drips caused by the hot-and-cold dessert combo which surprisingly wasn’t as much of a drippy mess as you’d expect. And it was good. Very, very good. Lighthouse’s claim that these little treats are habit-forming is true. The blueberry waffle-blueberry cheesecake ice cream option is on our list for a future visit!

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