A Rolling Pickle Gathers No Moss

I love the mountains

I love the clear blue skies

I love red arches

I love the cliffs so high

I love the whole world

And all its sights and sounds

Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da

Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da

Welcome to my post about the trip I took out west! If you just read through those lyrics and wish you had a catchy tune to put with them look no further than this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC-jau-fpJY

There you have it! A new song to sing and make up lyrics to (you will notice my posted lyrics are slightly different) as you adventure. You are welcome. And that concludes my post on my adventure out west. Thanks for stopping by...just kidding.

How do you tell the stories of so grand an experience? What words can you use to properly convey the serenity of watching the sunset from within a sandstone arch? Is it possible to describe the immensity of towering canyon walls only 40 ft apart? How do you invoke the sense of presence and challenge a mountain gives when you stand at its base looking only to its peak? It's simple, you don't. These are impossible feats, and therefore I will not attempt them. What I will attempt to do is portray some of the captivating moments of this trip in a manner that will inspire you to venture out and experience some of these things yourself.

For starters this was a summer vacation. A celebration of my friend Kelly graduating undergrad and being accepted into UF Vet School. Wait wait wait wait....I said SUMMER vacation, right? How do you explain this?!?!?

I don't know. Some people said things about "It's early season" and "It's 8,000 ft of elevation," but I don't care. It's May and there is no snow in May. Well nobody sent mother nature the memo, so she decided to start our trip off with scurrying about Colorado trying to out-run a large snow storm. The good news is that we managed to never get stuck, and stayed on schedule with all our visitations (even added an additional one in). The snow was not that bad though, after hiking about ten minutes we would warm up.

Now I suppose I should include a list of places we went. I will do this with a photo or six from each of the stunning locations.

First up: Rocky Mountain National Park

First picture of the trip!

First hike destination of the trip!

What it lacked in snow, it made up for in chipmunks.

Then on to Black Canyon of the Gunnison:

The visitor center had a nice view.

The "Black" Canyon sure was white.

Colorado National Monument:

This was the additional stop.

Arches National Park:

Landscape Arch

Double-O Arch

Sitting inside Double-O Arch.

Landscape Arch from above.

Double Arch (no O)

Sunset from the western arch of Double Arch

Zion National Park:

Although scarce in photos, the narrows were amazing fun.

Grand Tetons National Park:

Somebody forgot to take the mirror cover off the lake this morning.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

It's the bear necessities...

And our final park Yellowstone:

Turns out Old Faithful once cheated on another geyser.

Mammoth hot springs had no mammoths.

Fairy Falls had no fairies.

Grand Prismatic Spring did have a grand prism of colors though.

The stories that occurred during and between these photos are far too numerous to recount on here. This has already been a pretty lengthy post, albeit almost entirely pictures, without the stories. Of course if you wish to know about a park or the journey as whole I would love to talk about it. Send me a message or catch me in person and I can delve into as much detail as you care to sit around and listen to.

This trip was an astounding journey to some marvelous destinations, but to be fair none of the sights seen or trails conquered can compare to the quality of people I got to spend it with. I would like to give a quick shout-out to the friends that made this fun trip into the fantastic experience it was especially since most of you I will not see again for at least two and a half years.

Carolyn - If I had to pick one word to describe you after our short time together: spunky. You were definitely a trooper doing all those hikes through the snow in your Nikes, but you made it just fine and I don't recall you ever complaining about it. The greatest part of your spunk however is the passion it gives you for the Lord. I appreciated your input in our devos and the way you found a blessing in everything. If I had to qualify how I felt about getting to meet you just before leaving on this trip what would I say? So blessed.

Caroline  - You are like a homing missile for adventure. If there is adventure out there, you are going to find it. You have a wonderful tenacity for taking on any challenge and completing it yourself, no helping hand needed. I hope these next two and half years present you with plenty of mountains to conquer, rivers to raft, rocks to climb, and trails to blaze. Hopefully you have an adequate list of new adventures for Gainesville as well now.

Janzen - My British humor co-fan. It saddens me that our time on the trip together did not overlap longer. I am thankful however for all the laughs you brought to the camp site and trails. You really did hop in and blend into the group dynamic perfectly, a seamless transition from no-Janzen to Janzen. Also I just want to add that I am still impressed that you just hopped on board right after hiking the entirety of the Grand Canyon. If you ever get tired of hiking one of the wonders of the world and wish for a new adventure, feel free to hike to Panama and say hello!

Melissa - The strong independent single rider. I know I know I know... you are going to quietly say "that's not true at all" as I repeat so much of what others said whilst we were on the trip, and that is that nothing would have progressed on our trip without you. And while I do hate waking up cold and damp, without you taking on the necessary evil of waking us up bright and early and preparing for us to leave we certainly would not have had the time necessary to complete all the things we desired and set out to do. You were a joy to be around, even if it was early and cold.

Kelly - Where would I be without you? At home on my butt and laptop a lot more, that's for sure because I would have nobody inviting me on super fun snowboarding trips or epic cross-country extravaganzas! I sincerely appreciate your invitations on these last couple trips and hope that I helped out and was fun enough to merit having me. Fortunately you just got into vet school, so I am much more confident of where you will be in two and a half years than anybody else. Go ahead and plan for me to come visit you in Gainesville when I come back because we will have plenty of catching up to do.

Kristin - The one friend I will see again after posting this and before Panama, so I better make it good  I suppose. I have known you for-basically-ever and if I had to describe you as a friend in one word it would be...*drum roll*...faithful. I considered making some joke instead of a serious word there, but I decided that word was too perfect. You are a faithful friend that is always there for those you care about, and you are faithful follower of Christ Jesus that always keeps Him as a focus in activities. I could go on for ages about our friendship, but for brevity's sake it will suffice to say that I deeply appreciate our camaraderie.

I would also like to extend a special thank you to Mr. Darrell and Mrs. Joan for their generosity in making this trip possible. Also a very special thank you to the Tesses who housed Kristin and I in Bozeman, Montana with so much hospitality you would think that we were related (although we are family, not in blood but in Christ).

Thank you to anyone reading and the next post will most likely be from Panama!

Romans 1:20 - "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."