Way Out West

Scott's Bluff National Park in Nebraska was a major landmark for pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail.  The view from up top is fantastic.  But you don't have to walk up.  There is a paved road all the way to the top.

I've wanted to come here ever since "Close Encounters".  It is a volcano core from which all the soil has eroded.  Legend says a young man was magically changed into a bear, and marked the mountain with his claws as he tried to kill his sisters on top.

One day we stopped for a picnic lunch on the shores of Bear Lake, which straddles the eastern border between Idaho and Utah.  It is a natural, high mountain lake.  And yes, the water really is that shade of turquoise.

Monument Valley Utah.  Going here was like stepping into a John Wayne western.  You can still rent the cabin he stayed in while filming there.

Bryce Canyon in Utah is simply breath-taking.  Don't miss it.

Mount Rushmore is something you simply must see for yourself.  Pictures just can't do it justice.  If you have never seen it for real, do yourself a favor and go.  Amazingly, no lives were lost during construction.

The Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming are steep and rugged.  They are also home to a pre-historic stone structure known as "The Medicine Wheel."  Its use is unknown.  Like Stonehenge, but without the PR.

The road between Woodruff and Ogden in Northern Utah travels through a high mountain pass that is one long, continuous aspen forest.  It's closed 6 months of the year.  I'd love to see it in autumn.

Four corners is the only site in the U.S. where the borders of 4 different states intersect.  Talk about hot and windy.  The heat burned right through our shoes.

Zion National Park. They named it right.