Grand Circle Vacation 2002

Grand Circle Vacation - June 30 - July 9, 2002

Cathleen at the Grand Canyon, North Rim

Yes, that's me. On the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Quite hazy at the Grand Canyon during my stay, but what can you do? Not like I had any control over that.

Why was I at the Grand Canyon in the first place? Yet another of my forays into the World. This foray was a lot closer to my front door than some of the others I have taken. But it was no less fun, no less exciting, no less...new, for lack of a better word. But perhaps I'd better back up a bit.

The trip I actually went on is called The Grand Circle. Not sure who actually came up with the name (I do know that it was not I); in fact I did not even know the trip I was planning actually had a name until I sent away for some literature about the places I was planning on visiting. I had actually planned to drive to Denver on my vacation, obstensibly to see My Padres play those Rockies at Coors Field. I thought that I could (and should) take in some sites along the way. Why not, as I was going to be in the area anyway. As I did more research on those sites, I came to the conclusion that I would probably enjoy just going to those sites. Just scrap the Denver plans and do that instead. So I did.

I started calling my trip the National Park Tour at first. Until I got the literature I mentioned earlier and realized that it already had a name. But what, you ask, is The Grand Circle? Or probably more, where is it?

The Grand Circle is just that, a circle. It encloses many National Parks, Monuments, and Recreation Areas as well a many state parks within its confines. The ones I choose to visit are/were:

The Grand Canyon
Mesa Verde
Arches National Park
Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky District
Capitol Reef National Park
Bryce Canyon National Park
Zion National Park - no pictures from here (unfortunately); it was the end of the trip and I was tired of taking pictures at this point

I also ended up seeing a few others just on the spur of the moment:

And, of course, the requisite stops in Las Vegas on the way out on the trip and the way in from the trip.

I kept a journal (as I usually do on my forays) and the attached webpages are those journal entries. I may have edited some personal stuff out but, by and large, you will get the entire journal entry as I wrote it. I have also embellished a few of the entries because, as I read them, it seemed that I didn't quite write all I should have at the time. So, if you see the word NOTE somewhere, those are thoughts I am just now adding.

I hope you enjoy my thoughts and pictures about the trip. I know that I did not see all that I had hoped for a variety of reasons. I will be going back some day to see the rest.

NOTE: Also check out the pictures of ME at various stops along the trip.