Exploring Paracas

This morning, after a nutritious breakfast of cake and cookies, we went over to Paracas Bay, where we boarded a tour boat that took us out to the Ballestas Islands. These rocky islands are full of cool rock formations and arches and are home to tons of wildlife, including dolphins, boobie birds, cormorants, penguins, and sea lions. We also got to see another awesome line drawing on the side of a hill.

Boat tour to Ballestas Islands

After the boat tour, we got to drive through the Paracas National Reserve, which is an amazing national park where the desert meets the ocean. The landscape was almost eerie, though quite fascinating, in it's desolation.

Paracas National Reserve

Following a tasty and big-portioned lunch, which included tacu tacu, a traditional Peruvian rice and bean dish, we made the four-hour drive back to the airport in Lima to catch a plane to Iquitos. The flight had rigorous weight restrictions for carry-on bags and fees for checked bags, so before checking in for the flight, we removed just the things we needed for the next several days and repacked into our daypacks. Then we left the rest of our stuff in the airport's luggage storage area. I feel sure I left something important behind that I will soon discover isn't as important as I thought!

Lunch at El Piloto

Delicate Arch

We made it over to Arches National Park this morning before it was too hot to be able to enjoy it. Our goal was to hike the Delicate Arch trail and see the famous arch that most people probably associate with the park. Round trip, it is a moderate three-mile hike. The terrain reminded us a bit of Enchanted Rock, if you're familiar with that well-known hunk of granite in central Texas. The hike was fun and the reward of seeing the gorgeous arch was well worth the effort to get there!

The Delicate Arch Trail begins at Wolfe Ranch

The creek at Wolfe Ranch

View along the trail

Tadpole pool 

Interesting formations at the top of the Slickrock area

Happy Hikers

Almost to the top of the trail

Our reward!

Proof that we made it

Max always finds the highest accessable point

We always find lots of rock stacks when we hike,
and Clay decided he wanted to try his hand at it today.

Ute Indian petroglyphs

All the Mexican food, after a strenuous morning

Sadly, this is the last day of our Epic Summer Road Trip, but ending it at Arches was a good way to go out. Ruth and I will get on a plane back to DFW tomorrow and jump back into sports practices and CC tutoring prep work. The boys will continue on in the RV and will have a couple of days of Man Trip, before they head out to west Texas for the family's annual gathering near Ft. Davis. Thank you for following along on our journey. It's been amazing in so many ways! Stay tuned for future adventures.

Death Valley

We left Las Vegas this morning and headed to Death Valley. What a bizarrely beautiful and sort of mildly terrifying place! It was 102° when we arrived around 10:00 am, and they were predicting a high of 109°, which is pretty mild compared to the 132° this spot often sees at the height of summer. The wind was blowing, which made it tolerable, but almost the instant we stepped out of the vehicle, we felt our lips chap and our throats parch. Our first stop was Zabriskie Point, where we had sweeping  vistas of the Badwater Basin salt flats and the surrounding mountains. The Basin, which is the lowest point in North America, was our next stop. From a distance, the land appears to be covered with snow, which seems to make sense as you take in the gorgeous mountains all around, until you look at the outside temperature. It's a funny mind trick of Nature. After leaving the basin, Jeff and I took a short hike to see a natural bridge, while the kids, weary of the heat, waited in the RV. Then, we drove by Artist's Pallette, along Artist's Drive. It was amazing to see all the colors in the hills! Later, we popped into the visitor's center and then drove by the sand dunes on our way out of the park. It was a surreal place. We are so glad we visited but don't feel like it's a place we need to return to in the future. I do kind of feel that if we were ever to travel to some uninhabitable planet, we might find a landscape similar to this one.

Barren but beautiful

Zabriskie Point

Badwater Basin--282 feet below sea level

The salt flats

Natural Bridge

Artist's Pallette

Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes