Utah 2019

May 1st - 15th, 2019
​Utah

Heading west

I received two enthusiastic thumbs up during my last checkup at Johns Hopkins, so Alison and I decided to take advantage of my reasonably good health and head west for the first two weeks in May. We plan on staying in the following places:

• Hualapai Indian Reservation, Arizona (one night)
• Leeds, Utah (one night)
• Moab, Utah (three nights)
• Torrey, Utah (one night)
• Glendale, Utah (six nights)

This will give us easy access to:

• The Grand Canyon West Rim
• Red Cliffs National Conservation Area
• Arches National Park
• Canyonlands National Park
• Capitol Reef National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Zion National Park

Neither Alison nor I have ever been to this part of the country and we're eager to see it. It's been on our short list for a while now.

Camera

I've been using a Nikon Digital SLR camera for about a decade now. At the beginning of that time, it took photos that were clearly superior to those taken with my smartphone. Nowadays, however, the tide seems to have shifted along with major advances in smartphone camera technology. So, this trip will be the first one that I take and photograph without my (relatively) clunky Nikon in tow. To give me more flexibility with the smartphone photos, I've purchased inexpensive wide angle and macro lenses for my iPhone.

Time will tell how good these pictures really are.

Books

My very favorite book of all time, covering both the fiction and non-fiction genres, is A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. About a decade had passed since I read the book for the first time, and although I have a strict policy of never reading the same book twice (as there are so many other books waiting to be read), I decided to return to the book for a second reading.

After reading it the second time, enjoying it at least as much as the first time, I realized that I wish I had been taking notes as I read. So, as soon as the second reading was complete, I turned back to Page 1 and read it for a third time, taking notes as I went.

I cannot overstate how much I enjoy this book. In fact, when my time on this earth is done and I am cremated, I'd like to take two things with me in the casket: (1) photographs of my wife and children and (2) a copy of this book.

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Photos

Here are some photos that we've either taken or collected recently.