National Parks Extravaganza

A friend from Munster, France came to visit for a couple weeks during her school holidays -- she is an English teacher outside of Paris.  Her family took such good care of me during my time away from home that I wanted to give Joanna as thorough a tour as possible.  I planned a trip to some National Parks around Colorado, including a dip into western Utah to visit Arches National Park.  I also made sure she experienced some American traditions: a drive-in movie (we saw Inception), a diner, a milkshake, a root beer float, a pancake breakfast, and s'mores.

On Monday I started my new position as Leading the Way Fellow at Global Explorers.  I'm responsible for coordinating our travel programs for students of mixed abilities.  (This past year I was Leading the Way intern.)  In summer 2011, we'll be sending Leading the Way teams to the Grand Canyon, the Southwest, and Machu Picchu.  I'm so excited!

Below are photos from the National Parks tour.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Joanna and Me

RMNP

Aspen in RMNP

A rabbit hiding

Setting up the tent . . . it wasn't this much fun the subsequent nights.

Elk chilling outside a church in Estes Park, CO

My neighbor lent us her sand board . . . Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Woohoo!

Southern Colorado . . . driving from Great Sand Dunes to Alamosa

The sand dunes are other-wordly!

Joanna on our climb up the dunes

View during our climb

Great Sand Dunes!

Mesa Verde National Park

Ruins from the cliff dwellers

Ancient handprints near petroglyphs in Canyonlands National Park

View from our campsite at Arches National Park

Sunset at Arches National Park

Devils Garden campground

Landscape Arch

Arches National Park

Beautiful light after a storm

Another sunset at Arches