Back to the Southwest

The summer hiking campaign successfully prepared us for a road trip to the Southwest. We focused on southern Utah and northeast Arizona. But first, of course was the long, mostly-interstate drive. We spent the first night in Twin Falls, Idaho (a first for us). We didn't explore the town itself, but it sits on one side of a amazing gorge containing the Snake River. It's crazy that this gorge seems to appear out of nowhere ... driving along a seemingly endless desert plain, then suddenly this giant chasm appears! We had a nice evening walk along the rim, and an early morning visit to Shoshone Falls (which I believe is the "twin falls" of the town's name). Not much water running over the falls this time of year, but still quite beautiful. The visit here was a welcome break from the driving, and from the usual roadside motel eat-and-sleep routine on many high-mileage travel days.

Our first stop in Utah was Kodachrome State Park, where we camped for a couple of nights. We'd visited here many years ago for a day of mountain biking, but this time it was mostly a staging ground for our visit to Bryce Canyon. We spend both evenings checking out some of the shorter trails within the park. Very nice.