I’ve put some pictures up from my trip to Arizona a couple of weeks ago. You can find some picture from Phoenix here, and some pictures from Sedona here. Of course, the more interesting ones are from the Grand Canyon, but I haven’t gotten through those yet. Hopefully in the next couple of days.

I am going to go back and rework the email updates that I sent out to people and put them up as posts, though. So watch this space…

Sorry I was out of touch with everyone for a while; it’s very expensive for me to make a cell phone call from Canada, and internet access is a bit tough to come by in the middle of nowhere. Thanks to those of you who’ve been emailing and calling — it’s good to know people back home haven’t forgotten about me. On a related note, I’ve received about 6 phone calls from “Unknown” or “Private” now, so if this is one of you, please leave a voice mail. That’s what it’s for.

I’m dirty, my car is filthy inside and out (I can no longer put the top down for fear of losing half my crap), and I’m pretty tired at this point. It’s been a good trip, though, and I think everyone should do this kind of thing at least once.

Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada are indeed as beautiful as they say; I’d highly recommend visiting them. Unfortunately, I only had one day left in which to see Glacier, which was disappointing. At least I got to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road, which I didn’t get to do last year.

Well, I’d better get back on the road. I’ll probably see most of you this weekend at some point. I’ll talk to you then!

The trip is going well; I’m about half way through now. After I send out this email, I’m going to load up my car and head off into terra incognita, otherwise known as Canada. I’ll be spending a day or two in the North Cascades, and then it’s on up into the Canadian Rockies to visit Banff and Jasper National Parks up there. Everyone I keep running into out here uses the same words to describe those parks… apparently they’re unbelievably beautiful.

Once I get into Canada, I’ll have to pay like a bazillion bucks a minute if I use my cell phone (roaming + long distance). I’d love to hear from you all, though, so if anyone wants to call in the next couple of days (while I’m still in the US), that’d be awesome. If I don’t answer I’m probably either trying to navigate a winding mountain road or out of range, so don’t take it personally…

So now, without further ado, I give you… Pictures!

A couple of shots of Mt. Rainier. Most of my pictures from that park are of the mountain, since it kind of dominates the landscape out there. You can see it from Seattle and Tacoma, it’s pretty impressive. Also pretty hard to convey the real sense of scale in a photo…

I went wading in the Pacific the other day, and there were these tidepools all over the place with anemones and other sea life. It was pretty cool.

The rainforest in Olympic NP is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. The plant growth is just incredible. Moss and lichen all over everything, and the ground is covered in this soft carpet of moss.

Anyway, those are just some randomly selected shots, since I don’t have time to really go through and put together a “best of” set. I’ll try and do that when I get back. I’d love to hear from y’all, but like I said, I may be kind of hard to get ahold of in a couple of days. We’ll see.

Also, as a note, I’ve had some trouble accessing my hotmail account over the last couple of weeks. So if you sent an email and it took me a while to reply, that’s probably why. Also it filled up with spam at one point, so if you sent an email and didn’t get a response, you may want to resend as I may have never received it. You’re probably best off sending me email at my new address, seth@sethrichards.com from here on out.

I’ve managed to find internet access, so I figured I’d send out an email while I’ve got the chance. I’m currently staying in a hostel in Deadwood, South Dakota, about 30 miles or so from Wyoming. It’s currently pretty dreary and rainy here, but I walked around some and it seems to be an interesting town. Lots of casinos. I’m guessing they get lots of business from the Sturgis rally, which is right near here.

Rain seems to be the theme of the trip so far. It rained buckets on me across Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota on Saturday, and then last night I got trapped in a thunderstorm (complete with gravel-sized hail) in the Badlands. So a little drizzle is something of a welcome change. The Badlands are pretty spectacular, though, as are the Black Hills. I’d email back some pictures, but the computer they have is locked down to only provide web access. I’ll send them when I get a chance.

I’m going to try to make it to Grand Teton on the other side of Wyoming tomorrow, and then onward to Washington. I’m not sure that they’ve heard of things like “the internet” or “cell phones” in Wyoming or Idaho, so I may be out of touch for a while. I’ll email again when I can.