Welcome to JOYFUL REFLECTIONS. Also welcome to MARCH!!!! My header picture this month is a photo I took of the pretty Crocus blooms in our yard... The Crocuses and Daffodils are the first signs of spring here in Tennessee. I am definitely ready for SPRING...

Friday, February 3, 2012

Best of 2011: Western Trip--Part I

As I continue my Best of 2011 posts,   I got to relive our wonderful three week trip this past June to visit several of our western states.  Wow--what an incredible trip!!!!!  It is much too hard to pick out my favorites in only one blog post---so I'll divide them into two different posts.  (And even that was hard since that trip was the highlight of our entire year!)

Today,  I will share six of my favorite pictures with you.  Above is a picture from the PAINTED DESERT.   That was our first major stop on this trip ---and we were just blown away by the colors of the desert.   Unbelievably gorgeous!  If you would like to see my blog from the Painted Desert,  click HERE.

Be sure to click on all of the photos in order to see them larger.




After leaving the Painted Desert,  we visited the PETRIFIED FOREST.   This is another fabulous place!!!! Above is just one picture of the petrified wood.  For more explanations of  petrified wood,  click on my blog post HERE.




All of my life,  I had heard about the GRAND CANYON, but had never seen it in person until June 14, 2011.  I wish you could have seen my face when I saw this beautiful place for the first time.  I got teary with JOY,  and was overcome by God's glory when we first got there.  Oh My Heart!!!!  This place is truly awesome in every respect.   The picture above was taken at the Grand Canyon and shows the Colorado River below. For more pictures from the Grand Canyon,  click on my blog post HERE.




Another first for us was seeing the sunset from the GRAND CANYON.  This picture will show you a sample of what we saw.  Is this not breath-taking?  For more sunset pictures from the Grand Canyon,  click on my blog post HERE.




Zion was not one of our favorite places on this trip ---so we hope to go back during another season (when there aren't so many people),  so that we can stay longer and do some hiking (which I think would be the highlight of that area).  Here's one picture from ZION NATIONAL PARK.   For more pictures of the Scenic Byway 9 near Zion,  click HERE.




Finally,  here is a picture of another gorgeous place we visited,  the CEDAR BREAKS  NATIONAL MONUMENT.  That is snow you see in this picture.  Cedar Breaks is high in elevation ---so we encountered quite a bit of snow while there.  If you want to see some of my blog post from Cedar Breaks,  click HERE.

As I said I will publish another post from this wonderful trip to the western states this past June.  It was an incredible trip--and we hope to go back sometime!!!!!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you on Monday.
Hugs,
Betsy