Tagabonds: National Park

Monday, June 30, 2014

Arches National Park, UT

If it seems like we were all over the place in the last few posts, it's because we were! We arrived in Colorado just in time for us to leave the state and drive to Salt Lake City, UT to catch our flight to Alaska. We had previously been through SLC, so we didn't plan for any exploring time while we were there. Once we got back into SLC after Alaska, we made one final stop in Utah at Arches National Park before going back to Colorado to pick up the rest of our trip. Whew.

Our stop at Arches National Park was relatively quick, as we had friends to meet the next day in Colorado. We mostly drove through the park, stopping a couple times to walk some of the shorter trails.

We were both stunned by the beauty of the red rocks, and amazed by all the shapes and sizes - it's surreal that all the formations and arches were naturally formed.

If we had more time, I would have loved to stick around for a sunset. Can you imagine the glow of the setting sun reflecting off the red rocks? Ah, I bet it's beautiful!

See more Utah posts here, more National Park posts here, and more Nature posts right here.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Kenai Fjord National Park | Landscapes and Glaciers

As I mentioned in my last post, we went on a boat excursion out of Seward to see wildlife and glaciers along Kenai Fjord National Park. It was unbelievable to see so much wildlife, but the scenery and glaciers are what really took my breath away.

The tour we picked was six hours long, and we were warned ahead of time that the waters would be choppy. I'm prone to motion sickness, so I was sure to have ginger candy and peppermint on hand to help with the sickness. Despite my preparations, I still spent parts of the ride in a little discomfort (but it was definitely worth it!).

The boat left from Seward and took us on a scenic ride out to Holgate Glacier, passing a lot of wildlife, many mountains, and a couple of smaller glaciers along the way. The wind was intense, making the temperature even more chilly - most passengers rotated their time between being outside and being inside the enclosed boat area.

When we arrived at Holgate Glacier, we were in awe as our boat stopped in front of the massive glacier. They turned off the boat motor and requested that all of us be quiet. An odd request, it seemed, but soon enough we understood why: if you're quiet, you can hear the glacier crackling! We even got to see part of the glacier's ice fall off into the water (the boat staff scooped up some of the freshly-fallen ice to make margaritas for the boat ride back!). The glacier ice was an unbelievable blue color and the whole experience was truly spectacular.

On the way back home, we witnessed what the locals call "cloud failure," which means we saw some sunshine! The sun didn't stay out for long, but it was nice to warm up for a few minutes and it was a treat to catch a rainbow as the sun went back into hiding.

See more Alaska posts here, more nature posts here, and more national park posts here.