WHERE ARE WE NOW?? -- Back in Estero, Florida

We are finally back home after 130 days on the road !!

We arrived back home on Saturday Oct 8. I have added several previously missing updates (Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion NP, but still plan to add the following updates in the near future..

Angels Camp, CA - Yosemite National Park - Sep 13
Sedona, AZ - Sedona, Arizona  - Sept 23 - 26
Holbrook, AZ - Painted Desert NP - Petrified Forest NP - Sept 27
Santa Fe, NM -  Sept 28 - 29

Here is a route map of our completed trip.
(You can click on either the map or the detailed itinerary to enlarge it so it may be a little more readable.)

Albuquerque, New Mexico – Hot Air Balloon Fiesta

Albuquerque, New Mexico – Hot Air Balloon Fiesta – Sep 30 – Oct 3

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We had great expectations for the Hot Air Balloon Festival, but were not ready for the superhyperactivity of it all. I don’t know if superhyperactivity is a word or not, but it fits this years Balloon Fiesta.  It really does overwhelm your senses with the grandiosity of it all, and while it is going on you sort of expect it to wind down, but they just keep releasing more and more balloons.

We could not have topped off our trip with a better choice than the Albuquerque Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.  I took over 2,100 pictures and about 15 movies of the spectacle, but don’t worry, I won’t show too many of them.

Morning pilot ascensions – Each morning, usually before dawn, they have 10-12 balloons  fill up and take off. This will give the other balloons an idea of the wind currents, or lack of wind, the direction and speed of the levels of air current as the balloons get higher and higher. Fabulous.

Then on the first morning as the balloons were preparing for the first Mass Ascension, there was a military plane flyover, over the field.  You can see their lights if you look closely just to the upper left of the balloon.

Mass Ascensions - They broke a record this year, releasing 438 or so balloons in a one hour period, and we were situated so that every one of them took off right over our heads.  They continued releasing balloons for at least another 30-45 minutes after the 60 minute time for the record. There were reportedly over 600 balloons there for the weekend that we were there and almost all of them went flying.  They did these ‘Mass Ascensions’ on Saturday , Sunday and Monday morning . What a thrill to be there and join in the excitement of it all.

In the image below there are about 25 balloons on the ground, and about 30 in the air. Imagine how it looks when you can see 400-500 balloons in the air… I don't know if you can see them all even if you click on the image to enlarge it, but they are there as described.

It really is impossible to capture in one picture since they cover the sky from the horizon in front of you to the horizon behind you. All you can capture are snippets of the total image when you stand there in amazement, getting a seriously sore neck from looking up over your head, and all around behind you.

Here is a series of images, the first being from directly behind us, and the next is further to the right.

The following images continue turning to the right

And continuing to the right

Continue turning until I have turned a little more than 180 degrees so the last image is directly in front of us.

There was a nice surprise for a young lady in the crowd named Silvina…..

Each evening they inflated the balloons again and lit them up from the inside with gas flame so the balloons were glowing.

As mentioned, with over 2100 images there are many, many, many detail images of the various balloons, but there is no way I can put them on this blog. I may add more later, but for now this is all I can manage.

GO TO ALBUQUERQUE FOR THE HOT AIR BALLOON FIESTA if you ever have the opportunity. A word of warning, make your reservations early, as things fill up fast..

Be home soon. We need a rest from our vacation.travel.

Bryce Canyon National Park - Glendale, Utah

Glendale, Utah – Bryce Canyon National Park – Sept 22-23, 2011

The Park is named Bryce Canyon National Park, but there is really not a Canyon there as you would see in Grand Canyon NP, or the Black Canyon of Gunnison that we went to back in June.

Although Bryce Canyon NP is only a few miles away from Zion NP, as you drive closer to Bryce the scenery changes again, starting to show the spires, rather than just the striations of color that was in Zion.

On to the Park entrance.

Holy Mackerel, check out these spires in Bryce, they call them Hoodoos, and there are spectacular areas of Hoodoos everywhere in Bryce. We were so impressed with Bryce that we took over 400 pictures.

We were bundled up because it was COLD-COLD up there early in the morning.

Moving on to an area called Inspiration Point.

Don’t get too Inspired and get too close to the edge of the cliff.

The Park Service has made many hiking trails down among the Hoodoos so you can get up close and personal with them.

Moving on around the rim road...

Here is a feature named ‘Natural Bridge’, but they point out that it really is an Arch, not a natural bridge.

Check out a closer view of the Arch. There is a very hardy little fir tree seemingly growing right out of the rock just below the center of the arch.

In Zion NP most of the roads and trails were at lower levels, because most of the time was spent looking up at the large formations. In Bryce, almost all the viewing areas are necessarily higher than the Hoodoo features you are looking at, so you look down on the hoodoos, unless you hike down into the trails. The rim at Bryce NP is between 8000 and 9000 ft in altitude, and it was really cold when we got there in the morning. The shrubs below have already started changing to their autumn color, and it is only three weeks into September.

Here is Sylvia at Ponderosa Point. I wonder why they chose to make the top of the sign reach elevation 8908 ft, instead of 8907 ft.  At 8907 ft, she could have comfortably looked over the top of the sign without cutting off her chin.

Here is the view down from Ponderosa Point.

Here is a formation they are calling ‘The Poodle’ If you look closely, there is a ‘standard size poodle sitting up and looking toward the left…

This time they made the sign a little lower, or maybe she is standing on a rock…..

We also saw Pronghorn Antelope on the way out of the park.