non-random sampling

Having camped at Cottonwood Creek, we packed up and started the hike back out of the canyon. . We hiked back up to Horseshoe Mesa and back to the rim by way of the Grandview Trail.

Happy to have navigated the snow covered cliffsides we stopped at Desert View Point to watch the sunset. Not much was happening as the sun was trapped by a big mean cloud, but patience paid off and the last several minutes before it dipped below the horizon made us glad we waited around.

We drove a short ways out of the part and camped in the Kaibab National Forest. The free and solitary camping in national forests has been one of my favorite discoveries of traveling in the west.

The plan for the next day was to drive to Bryce Canyon by way of the Glen Canyon Dam.

We started the next day on top of Horseshoe Mesa. During the day we made our way off the side of the mesa down to the Kaibab Plateau. The Kaibab is home to the Tonto Trail which you can follow for 70 miles east to west in the middle of the canyon.

We camped that night at Cottonwood Creek, which was doing pretty well due to all the melting snow higher in the canyon. It was a neat place to camp and completely different from where we had stayed the night before.

These pictures are all from that day and are presented in the order they were taken.

We camped a night on the rim and the next day went into the Canyon via the Grandview Trail. The top of the trail was snow-covered and steep but after a while things got better. It was an excellent trail with almost no one on it. This was quite a change compared to the heavily-trafficked Bright Angel and South Kaibab Trails I’ve done in past years.

The ranger at the backcountry station where we got the permit had told us about a cave and old abandoned mines near Horseshoe Mesa. We were excited about finding them and definitely managed to do so. I quickly realized that the idea of exploring caves or abandoned mines is much more appealing to me than the actual process.

We found the Cave of the Domes rather easily and explored just enough to see the hundred-year old signatures on the ceiling. Including the quite famous Kolb Brothers , who had a studio right on the rim.

We are back in cold Bozeman after a week of almost constant warmth in the Southwest.

It was an excellent trip indeed, and we got to see a lot of really beautiful country.

Here are some of the pictures from the drive down.

As of tomorrow at noon it will officially be Spring Break for us Montana State folks. Kez and I are driving down the the Grand Canyon and plan on stopping by Bryce Canyon NP as well (I’ve never actually been there.)

We have had a bunch of snow up here and I’ve been enjoying it, but it’ll be nice to get to somewhere a little warmer and less snowy.

To tide you over until next week here are some random picture I’m pulling out from the vault. Except for the picture of the pine needles which I took today.

Photoshop is an amazing tool and one without which digital photography is sorely lacking. I’m not very skilled at Photoshop but the following “before and after” of an old picture that I messed with the other day illustrates how you can make your pictures better without being over-the-top or altering reality too much.

The third picture is just a shot of Mainstreet, Bozeman I took a couple days ago. Before Photoshop is was a picture of an old shoe.

I thought this was an interesting peek into life at Montana State. In the middle of the school day yesterday you go outside and see a giant man-made mound of scaffolding, hay bales, and snow setup directly in front of the library.

This went on for about an hour around lunch time, with giant speakers and a DJ playing music as baggy-pants clad bro-bras put on a show for the crowd.

Allow me to share one of the best things I’ve found on ye olde interweb in a long time. The following Garfield comic strips without Garfield are shamelessly stolen from This website

Described as

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life?

Just when everyone in Bozeman was about to put on their snorkels and flip flops old man winter arrived with a little bit of the white stuff. It is a win-win situation though because I’m happy when it snows and I’ll be happy when I can wear shorts.

On a totally unrelated note here are some pictures from two nights ago. Our friend Elizabeth had Kez and I over for dinner and it was awesome. She was nice enough to give me the recipe but I doubt it’ll be half as good when I make it. That is Kelly on the baritone. They are going to get married later this year.

As a special bonus, you can ponder as to whether the self-portrait of me looks more like a sailor, a statistician, or a hobo.

Due to overwhelming demand I bring more captures from last weekend. Awesome sweetness. (Robin I owe you one)

These pictures were all taken in and around Gardiner. That little town really grew on me. Usually we just pass right through it and it was fun to be able to hang out for a little while. It doesn’t hurt to be with such a swell group of folks too.

Luke, Kez, Hilary, her friend Stephanie and myself went down to Yellowstone by way of the northwest entrance in Gardiner, Montana. Here are some pictures of Gardiner. It is a nice little town, especially in the winter when it isn’t overrun with tourists.

When we rode up into town that elk was just hanging out in someone’s yard. They said that they will tag elk only if they are troublemakers. So I thought keeping my distance was a smart idea.

Yesterday, to kick off the 3 day weekend, Kez, myself and our friends Elizabeth and Kelly drove to Dillon Montana, a bustling little city about 60 miles south. It is a really nice drive and these pictures do it absolutely no justice. It was a nice sunny day which I feel like have been in short supply recently.

I just found out Microsoft Live has a nice map of the area here. If you hit the magnifying glass in the upper left to zoom in about 4 times the map looks really awesome. There are a lot of farms in that area.

The other night it was about midnight and I was going to bed when I could hear the wind really howling. I looked outside and it was just dumping giant flakes of wet snow, which were blowing sideways in the orange glow of the streetlights. Usually the snow we get is fairly light but these flakes were ginourmous because it was relatively warm. I decided to delay bedtime and go outside for a few minutes. .

It was really dynamic weather, which is always interesting. But I think it lasted all of about 15 minutes because about as soon as I went inside it had stopped.

The daylight pictures are from yesterday evening when I braved the slop of melting snow to go for a bike ride in the more rural area to the west of town.