Nature & Wildlife

Animals, plants, geology, and the natural world.

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Capitol Reef National Park is filled with incredibly dramatic red rock cliffs.  While we've seen many of them throughout Utah and Arizona, these were still impressive. When the family started feeling a little road sick from the windy road, we pulled over for a little while and Tucker

Petrified Forest National Park

If you continue East along the Historic Route 66 are, you find the Petrified Forest National Park.  It is an entire forest that had been petrified, leaving behind what look like fallen trees -- the petrified forest.  They have a pretty simple, but nice, visitors center with a video explaining how

Meteor Crater, AZ -- Worlds Best Preserved Meteorite Crater

Savannah had a dream about a Meteorite Crater, which started me searching for any nearby.  One really stood out: Meteor Crater, AZ. About 30 min East of Flagstaff, AZ, near Historic Route 66, is Meteor Crater.  It is the first confirmed meteorite crater in the world and is claimed to

Marble Canyon, AZ

If you following the Colorado River east from the Grand Canyon, you get to Marble Canyon, AZ. While not quite a deep, it is still an amazing sight.

Carson's edited photos

I edited a few photos that we took on our Brice Canyon trip. Here they are: Tucker appears to have attracted quite a few animals there. For this one, I edited myself in because I wasn't in the original picture. See if you can find me! Comments Gene

Bryce Canyon National Park - Navajo Loop Trail at Sunset Point

Sunset Point was our favorite area at Bryce Canyon National Park.  It had great views, but the hiking trails really differentiated it.  The kids and I took Navajo Loop, a 1.3 mile loop that brings you up close with the hoodoos. We started by hiking through 'Wall Street&

Bryce Canyon National Park - Bryce Point

Southern Utah and Northern Arizona have so many red rock geologic formations to see.  We figured that Bryce Canyon would be 'more of the same'.  It was awe inspiring.  Even the kids that had been reluctant to go were oohing and awing. After the Visitor's Center,

Bryce Canyon National Park - Visitors Center

We've been putting Savannah's 'Every Kid in a Park' annual National Park pass to good use. This week, we went to Bryce Canyon National Park.  In preparation, we learned about Butch Cassidy, since he grew up near there -- its a captivating story. The visitor&

Twisted Forest Trail, Brian Head, UT

Our Halloween themed hike: the Twisted Forest Trail.  The ancient gnarled Bristlecone Pines match the stereotypical haunted forest look.  It is believed that the oldest of the trees on this trail are about 2000 years old, but others not too far away are 4500 years old. The trail starts off

Dinosaur Track Recreation Site, Parowan, UT

Just a few miles east of the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs in Dinosaur Track Recreation Site.  The kids enjoyed finding fossils, seeing the dinosaur footprints and climbing through the rocks.  Archeologists believe that the footprints are from Hadrosaurs.   We also found other interesting fossils. What we thought would be a quick

Day Trip to the Grand Canyon

Phil and Nicole joined us for a day trip to the Grand Canyon.  One great thing about Southern Utah is the proximity to so many national parks. The drive was surprising.  We expected barren desert, to find beautiful meadows surrounded by evergreen and golden-leaved aspen forests.  Fall was the

Cedar City Rock and Mineral Show

The kids have loved attended Rock and Mineral shows in Atlanta and DC.  So it was one of the first events that we looked up when moving to Cedar City. It finally arrived and was a little disappointing in comparison.  We really liked the educational displays that they had in

Star Gazing Party, Cedar Breaks National Monument

Every Saturday during the summer, Cedar Breaks National Monument hosts as Star Gazing Party.  The night sky is so incredible by our house that we were eager to see how much better it would be far away from city lights and at 10000' elevation. We arrived to find that

Berry Family Reunion at Silver Lake, CA

Silver Lake is a beautiful lake south of Lake Tahoe near Kirkwood ski resort.  The lake was beautiful and the weather was perfect. It was so nice to spent time with family and even meet relatives new to us. Angela brought a box of family photos that led to fun

Taylorsville, California

Grandma and Grandpa Knight invited us to visit Taylorsville, California with them.  We took the scenic backroad -- a narrow, windy, dirt road that meanders through the hills, past creeks and dormant volcanos on the way. It was a beautiful area and delicious food at the little market in Taylorsville. The

Hiking in our Backyard

We have loved exploring the hills behind our house. This garter snake was about 4' long -- I've never seen one so long:

Cedar Breaks National Monument

We were excited to have Grandma and Grandpa Aksland visit for the weekend.  With the car fixed (at least, we hoped it was fixed), we decided to visit Cedar Breaks National Monument. The stratified cliffs were beautiful to see.  Amazing to think how this was all formed. You climb about

Iron County K9 Police Recognition Event

The Friends of Iron County Police K9s hosted an activity and recognition event of our police force in the park. The SUU Aviation School had one of their impressive helicopters for everyone to see.  We regularly see these red helicopters flying around the area. The SWAT team used explosives to

Free Fishing Day - Lake at the Hills, Cedar City, UT

Each year, Utah has a free fishing day.  At Lake at the Hills, here in Cedar City, several local groups and businesses sponsored a fishing class, provided fishing equipment, lunch, and a police dog demonstration. We arrived on time, which you can see from the empty chairs, was about 15

Sand Mountain / Sand Springs Pony Express Station, Nevada

While mostly desolate, there were a few points of interest on our drive to and from Cedar City. We drove through Walker Lake and saw 20+ big horn sheep, which was a first for us. On the way back, we stopped and ate dinner at Sand Mountain, Nevada and stopped

Time with Uncle Norman and Aunt Beth

Savannah has really enjoyed living next door to Aunt Beth and Uncle Norman. Uncle Norman has an incredible bug collection.

Visiting Oxbow Nature Study Area and Loyalton, CA with Grandma and Grandpa Knight

Grandma and Grandpa Knight invited us to go on a nature adventure with them.  We went for a nature walk at the Oxbow Nature Study Area in Reno, then we explored Marble Hot Springs, near Loyalton, CA and saw lots of amazing birds. Both areas had far more water than

Baby Goats with Phil and Nicole

We made a quick weekend trip into Utah, primarily to look at a house.  Despite the house not working out, our time with Phil and Nicole and their family and their baby goats more than made up for it. Feeding the animals: Nicole also braided the girls' hair:

Sparks Marina and Truckee River

It was nice being back in Sparks, NV.  Our first day, we went for a walk with Grandpa Knight around the Marina.  We saw a lot of Night Herons, Cormarants, Yellow-Headed Blackbirds, etc...  Beautiful area. The next day, Grandpa Knight invited us to ride on the bike trail next

Baby Bunnies

While driving west, Nicole told us that they have a few baby bunnies.  My family couldn't pass that up, so Phil and Nicole were gracious enough to let us stay the night at their house and play with the bunnies. The kids had a great time playing with