In the early 1960's I attended The College of Southern in Cedar City, Utah for 3 years. On weekends when the weather was nice my friends and I 'explored' the parks and other areas in Southern Utah. I was interested in archaeology and we did many surveys looking for historic Indian sites. I have several pieces of decorative wood in my garden from Southern Utah. Those were happy times in a beautiful area of the USA.

The Bryce Canyon photo -- Priceless!

Sounds like you had a wonderful time!
So glad you finally got to see some desert to twist a phrase a little (can't see the forest for the trees) maybe you couldn't see the desert for the life!

By the way, Capitol Reef NP is not exactly small--the actual NP itself, which encompasses the "reef", is about 100 miles long. The preserve is 377.98 sq. mi. By comparison, Arches is 119.8 sq. mi. and Zion is 229.1 sq. mi. Bryce is the tiny one at 55.99 sq. mi.

Here are a couple of pictures
http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Please, throw some more in that languished thread! I just love the perfectly "landscaped" desert

Your descriptions were so perfect I felt I was there. What wonderful memories you made We've been to many of these parks and they are so beautiful. LOVE the family photo

Loved this episode, y'all!

First off, there's more than one national park in Texas as well as several other subsidary parks operated by the NPS. Not to forget the Big Thicket which is in east Texas! A hidden (and highly diverse!) gem that's for sure! http://www.nps.gov/state/tx/in...

Also, I followed a great long distance hiker over the last few years as she hits up several long distance trails in the US. One of them is the Hayduke Trail which runs thorugh many of the areas y'all must have visited on your trip. It's definitely a blog to check out...the SW Is much more varied than people imagine it to be! I was constantly amazed by the areas she walked through on her hike!
http://www.walkingwithwired.co...

As an episode idea for the future, could y'all talk about gardening with kids? My son just turned one and we've really struggled this year in keeping up with it all (whereas previously we were out in the yard constantly). I can imagine others go through the same thing but I wondered how it changed as time went on and more kids were added...plus all of the usual juggles of household stuff along with work. I know it will get easier as he gets older but it just seems so difficult right now to try to manage gardening along with everything else.

Misti-

I'll try to put together some coherent thoughts on gardening with children for next week. Something more helpful than "I don't know...we just do what can can. Sometimes we manage, and other times- not so much"

Hugs, because I understand the "need" to do it all and the frustration when you aren't getting done everything that you would like to!