Baby Goliath turns Two!

Our little baby giant sequoia tree is growing up fast ... he turned two this fall.  (Those are oranges on the tree behind him ... we've been waiting for months for them to ripen)

Here's how he looked in October of last year at age one:

And here is how he looked when we first brought him home from the Sequoia National Park gift shop, back in August of 2012.

He seems to be growing pretty exponentially, much faster than doubling his size every year like the gift shop lady said he would.  We expect him to be terrorizing the neighbourhood any day now.  We'll try to repot him soon.

Candy Corn M&Ms

Well, a whole year has passed since I shunned trying the Candy Corn M&M's, for no good reason.  We picked up a bag at Target and thought we might as well give them a try.

I was surprised ... these are really good!  I know nothing about Candy Corn itself, I don't think it's as big a seasonal deal in Canada as it is in the States, but I can report that this white chocolate M&M is very tasty.  I would definitely buy these again.

From Route 12 back to Las Vegas

After turning south at the end of Route 12, we followed Highway 89, Route 14, and Interstate 15 back to Las Vegas, through more of Utah's beautiful and ever-changing landscapes.

... and back to the surreal landscapes of Las Vegas!

The next day we drove home to Los Angeles, but since we have done that drive before I will spare you from looking at more photos.

Route 12 through Red Canyon State Park

Just past Bryce Canyon, the road cut through Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest.  We didn't realize there were trails here right beside the road, but when we saw them as we pulled over to take photos, we stopped and went for a short hike.

The road passed through a couple of tunnels ...

The photos can speak for themselves ... the weather conditions were so perfect, you couldn't take a bad picture.

Next up, the rest of the drive back to Las Vegas ...

Route 12 through the top of Bryce Canyon National Park

Our route passed through the top of Bryce Canyon National Park, and there was a trailhead for Mossy Cave at the side of the road so we stopped to do the short hike.  The cloud remnants from the previous day's storm were blowing through so it made for some dramatic skies and light conditions.

A small waterfall is in the distance in the photo above and below:

The river was flowing well as there had been a storm the day before.  Below is the river approaching the small waterfall.

I don't seem to have a photo of the mossy cave itself - it wasn't that exciting, it was one of those slightly hollowed out caves where water oozes through and drips over the outer edge.  The trail leading up to it was great though!

Scenic drive along route 12 West of Escalante - Part 1

On Sept. 28 we drove from Escalante back to Las Vegas.  To get there we drove the rest of route 12, which is supposedly one of the 10 most scenic drives in North America.  We hadn't been too disappointed in the other half of this road that runs between Torrey and Escalante, so we were looking forward to it.

We drove through a bit of fog patches, which were beautiful as they burned off the mountains:

And now the road is about to cross through the top section of Bryce Canyon National Park, so I will put that in the next post ...