oahu - diamond head

well back on land after 7 days in our floating hotel.   we spent the night before the cruise and the night after the cruise at the military hotel hale koa.  WOW what an awesome place will show more of it in the next post or so.

time warping a bit but the day we got into Oahu we gained 3 hours so we headed out for our first adventure.  Diamond Head  seen below from our hotel



we took public transit but I guess at 2:00 its the busy time of day it took us an hour to get there (and only 15 minutes to get back) But it was cheap 1.50 each and since we didn't rent a car it was convenient and we didn't have to fight the traffic.

I found a really good site on the internet that talks about the trail and how to get there
http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/hikediamondhead.html

the bus drops you off at the bottom and you have to hike in and through the tunnel to get to the entrance on the street with cars.  A bit scary in the short tunnel because it is close to traffic but not to bad. Its $1.00 a person to get in if you walk in so that was cheap.  but you must get there at least an hour before they close because you wont get out otherwise the fences are shut.  I would have preferred to do this in the morning but we were on a time schedule and this was on my must do list.

then up we go




the views along the way are great





after climbing the switch backs there are many more stairs



yeah hubby wasn't to happy it was about 80 and 90% humidity



and more stairs


and i didn't take pictures of the spiral stairs it seems  hahaha

here you can see where we started from



this is the fire station look out



it has some great views








and an awesome view of crowded waikiki beach




this was used to get supplies up to the top during the war



it was so worth the trip

yeah its a little windy

zion part 2

continuing on from yesterday one more set of pictures from our day trip to Zion

due to it being February most of the trails were closed at points  this is as far as we could go on the river walk further in if you have the right gear you can walk the narrows next trip!!



beautiful river water



took the drive up through the tunnel and this was such a pretty site to see



the tunnel has carved in sections that let in daylight which is really cool here you can see one of them carved into the wall



and a close up



a bit of snow left



saw some deer but forgot to add to flickr to add here oops.  but did get this mountain blue jay



and of course the squirrels have to have pictures of that



and now time to say goodbye



if you haven't been to this park it is well worth going.  gorgeous.

zion national park

we added on some time while in Vegas for a quick day trip to Utah.  We have been to Zion once before and loved it spent several days there hiking and thought it would be fun to see this time of year.  its only about a 2 1/2 hour drive away

this is angels landing which we hiked the last time we were there, well I only got to scouts landing and hubby went the rest of the way.



most of the hikes were closed at certain points so you could only go so far like weeping rock



an overhang that usually has water falling over it but instead had deadly ice falling instead this is as close as we could get



seeing the ice and snow on the mountains was fun





we spent several hours in the valley.  will post one more set of pictures tomorrow

red rock beauty

continued from my last post we are still in the valley of fire near las vegas.

the state park offers some stunning views even if you only drive through which include this rock that the brochure didn't list what it was called but I have named Dogma



but if you get out of your car and take a short walk you can see the backside (well you can also take one of the campground exits to see this too but walking is much better)



the sand is a wonderful red tone



there are hieroglyphics through out the park as well but I was surprised to see the star ship enterprise



just we aware of the cactus



i stuck myself pretty good getting this shot



but no snakes and no scorpions were found at all.  it was really to cold for them after all in Feb it didn't get above 60 but for a northern gal coming here in February was awesome

but there is more than just red rock here that will be my next post

valley of fire amazing red rock

we spent a week in the Vegas area for some celebrations including a birthday party and a wedding.  One of favorite places to go while there is to the valley of fire.  its about 40 miles out of Vegas and a gorgeous red rock canyon.  my title page has a picture of the road from our trip last year.



the entrance to the park is gorgeous set against the desert forefront and the mountains behind it with snow on them still.

the red rock and strange formations make me think it is like Mars right here on earth



you can take the drive around the park to see the sights which is a lot of fun



or you can get out and take a hike


most of the hikes are not very long a mile or two at the most.  each has its only special sight to see.  i will show some more photos over the next few posts.



yeah proof I was there

the teaser - valley of fire

well I spent the last week plus in Vegas.  it was an awesome trip for a wedding and a birthday party. I got to do a lot of things and best of all see some friends I haven't seen in a while.

I have lots of processing to do so not sure how fast I can get the blog posts done but here is your teaser picture.  if you have seen my blog header you might recognize this.  the blog header was taken last year while at the valley of fire.



we were playing around with the rocks and made this. Yes that is my last name.

the big rock

this is one big rock.  check out the trail that goes to the right

this is the other side of it


it leads up to a rock face called monkey face.  next time we go hiking here that will be our destination but early and a cool day hopefully