The Times and Travels of Nolan
Documenting trips I’ve taken and places I’ve seen.
A sunny afternoon, an open interstate, and an official NPS unit in the GPS. There aren’t many better ways that Elizabeth and I could draw up a Sunday afternoon. On February 4, 2024, we were just in the process of finishing up our weekend getaway to Arizona by driving back from Sedona to Phoenix. Just …
Continue reading “Arizona 2024: Montezuma Castle National Monument”
This summer, I’ve gotten really into watching people thru-hike the Pacific Crest Trail. There’s a lot of interesting tics and behaviors that the thru-hiking community does. Some of it elicits that typical reflexive human scorn when you’re watching it – “Oh, no way I’d do _____ if I was out there hiking!” One of those …
Golden sunlight poured down on the streets of downtown Sedona. The sun was dropping rapidly as it tends to do in early February, and Elizabeth and I were still just a little bit drunk. I hope that when I look back on this blog 40 years from now, I can still remember the bliss of …
Elizabeth’s big Christmas present was off to a pretty great start. In the first 36 hours we’d driven through a beautiful mountain section of Arizona, visited a national park, and had an awesome, moody low-light sunset in Sedona. But, in my considered opinion, nothing prepared me to wake up on a sunny morning in Sedona …
Elizabeth’s Christmas present really couldn’t be off to a better start. We’d been in Arizona for less than 24 hours and had already had a delightful national park visit. There was a little bit of apprehension for us for the rest of our Friday afternoon, since it involved a drive from Holbrook to Sedona, and …
A conundrum, expressed in chart form: There are 63 American national parks. Elizabeth and I want to visit each of them. After a slow ramp up, we really got going in the post-graduation pandemic times when the outdoors was the only escape. And then in August 2021, we made a huge mistake: we got engaged. …
Continue reading “Arizona 2024: Petrified Forest National Park”
