Runs on a driving vacation across the west

My family and I set out last week on a driving vacation to see national parks in Utah, Colorado and Arizona.

We set out on Tuesday up the I-15 to Las Vegas.  Driving past the Ivanpah solar thermal power station was cool:

We arrived in Hurricane, Utah, our staging point to visit Zion National Park.  The hikes in Zion were fabulous but it was very crowded.  My boys and I did a short hike /wade up the Narrows -- I waited for a gap in the throng to take this cool picture:

When we got back to the hotel, at Sand Hollow, I set out for a quick 6 miler on jeep trails in the desert.  It was a beautiful sunset:

The next morning I got up at 5am to head out into the desert in the other direction for a 7 mile wake-up run:

Then we were off to Bryce for a car tour-  lovely trails, wish I had had time there to run them-- and drove through Escalante.  Back in 1992 I did a fantastic backpacking trip there with a pal down Coyote Gulch to Steven's Arch on the Escalante.  We drove through that day all the way to Moab and got in late.  The next day we went to Mills Canyon to see Dinosaur footprints:

We did a driving tour through Canyonlands and then on to Arches National Park: Just fabulous.

The next day I woke at 5am again to run on a local trail in Moab, the left hand of the Mills Creek Trail.  It was a bit of a bush-wack and slow going but there were beautiful pools and waterfalls:  I covered 6 miles in 2 hours (!):

Later that morning I took the boys to swim  in the creek and then we were off to Cortez Colorado: There I found a great mountain biking trail in the Carpenter Natural Area just a mile from our hotel.  I ran 5 miles that evening.  The next morning I woke at 5am for a 10 mile Father's day run on those trails before the family woke up.  The trails were twisty and fabulous, the designer of the trail system was a genius:

That day we headed out to Mesa Verde:  The kids and I did the walk through the Balcony House. The pic below is a different pueblo.  The Balcony House tour was crowded but the kids had fun on the ladders and tunnel.  The walk up the cliff steps was a bit scary.

Then on to Gallup New Mexico-  our hotel was only three miles from the High Desert Trail system where I put in a fun sunrise 10 miler before the family woke up:

Onwards to visit the mining museum in Grants, NM and then through the Pertified Forest.  We made our way to Payson where we stayed near the Highline trail.  I put in 9 miles running on dirt roads before the kids woke up, before I actually found the Highline Trail-  so we'll have to go back, it looked beautiful.

 Later that morning I took the family for a  short hike on the Highline Trail, then we went on to hike at Water Wheel where we found a nice pool to cool off in:

That afternoon we drove to Phoenix.  I got up late and went out to get breakfast fixings before the kids woke up.  I drove out to Dreamy Draw to run on my old stomping grounds out of Dreamy Draw out behind Piestewa Peak (originally Squaw Peak) near where I grew up.  An 8:30am start was a bit late -- I carried 80 oz of water and kept my shirt wet the whole run. I ran from Dreamy Draw through the back side of Piestewa Peak and on to the Piestewa Peak trailheads for more water and returned.  

 The trails were beautiful but the heat was oppressive. At the end of the 10 miler, the car thermometer registered 114F:  I don't knowhow I did it, but as a teenager, I used to run long distances on those trails and I never carried water.  Last weekend several Phoenix hikers and mountain bikers died in that heat, its no joke.

 Later that day we visited my old high-school.  I showed the kids one of the plaques my cross-county team had won after a third place finish in the Skyline Divisional in 1981.  Over the last thirty years I guess they lost the other trophies we won!  I was also a bit sad to see that my brother's 800m record of 1:55 had finally been broken in 2012, after 29 years.

 The last day of our trip I did a 9 mile run circumnavigating Piestewa Peak out of Dreamy Draw.  I started early and it was only 105F when I finished!  Back in my day, none of these trails were marked;  now its mapped out with trail blazes.   The City parks people have done a great job preserving the desert and improving the trail system.

It was a great trip and its good to be back in Pasadena.