Zion Nat'l Park, Day 1/4 - Ice Box Canyon, Nevada

Monday, April 26, 2021 - Wendy and I visited Zion National Park back on Sept. 16, 2018 (read that blog here), and I really wanted to come back and do some hiking. So I did come back 3 months later, in December 2018 (read that blog here).

The "back-story" this time around is that a couple of months ago I received a letter from JetBlue saying that my JetBlue MasterCard was being closed due to inactivity; and that all my bonus points/miles will expire 60 days from this notice. Wendy said YES, I could go out to Zion again. So I booked my round-trip flights, using points, and actually paid $11.20 in taxes and fees:

Ellie took me to Logan, and I was at the gate in plenty of time (they didn't even blink at my "burst hiking poles"!):

and I was on-board at 2:42 (for my 3 PM flight):

Easy flight to JFK:

but I will NEVER PURCHASE FOOD in an airport:

Pretty nice day for flying:

and I had THE WHOLE ROW to myself out to Las Vegas:

If you do not mind wearing a mask (the whole time) - and I don't - flying is pretty easy these days.

That's what it is like to fly across the country:



Of course the LIGHTs ARE ON in Las Vegas:


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Monday, I was up-and-at-em. No breakfast at the hotel (I was not surprised - I had hit the grocery store last night), so I headed west-of-Las-Vegas for a quick morning hike in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area:

I had done some research, and AllTrails and Backpacker Magazine had identified Ice Box Canyon Trail, a "2.3 mile heavily trafficked out and back trail located near Las Vegas, Nevada that features a waterfall and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking, nature trips, and bird watching and is best used from September until May." SOUNDS GREAT! I have my Senior-Lifetime National Parks Pass, so I didn't have to pay any entrance fee, and drove 7.7 miles on "Scenic Loop Drive":




I started right about 8 AM:

Pretty cool being out on a "desert hiking trail":


Scrambling over rocks, past pretty flowering trees in the canyon:

No waterfall, though, at the head of the canyon:

Real Pretty going back down:


I finished about 9:20, and it was time to say Goodbye to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area:


Time to head 200 miles northeast (and lose an hour/Time Zone) to Kolob Canyons Visitor Center in the western part of Zion National Park:



There was a "rainstorm" that had come through Las Vegas overnight (like, a couple of drops), but it was heading northeast. I caught up with it in Utah, and it had turned into really raining - no hiking for the rest of today, but let's get some cool "mountains-in-the-mist" pictures:





IT WILL BE SOOOO COOL to come back here on Thursday and hike these canyons!!

I then made my way down-and-around to the Zion Park Motel, where I stayed when I was out here in Dec 2018. The only room they had available for all 3 nights is a "Family Suite" [2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen/dining room], which I certainly don't need, but you take what you can get.

Pizza from across the street, some Wolverine movie, bedtime. Thank You God for these WONDERFUL Adventures!

Sunday Flying Music:

Al Stewart - Between The Wars, 1995

Afro Celt Sound System - Seed, 2003

Bill Evans - The Complete Live at the Village Vanguard, 1961 (3 cds)

Monday Driving Music:

Aretha Franklin - Aretha's Best, 2001
EXCELLENT 20-song cd.

Counting Crows - August and Everything After (deluxe) live cd, 1994
This second disc is taken from the band's penultimate performance during the August tour, recorded at the Élysée Montmartre in Paris, France, on December 9, 1994.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live Forever: The Stanley Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, September 23, 1980, 1980

Brazilian Girls - Brazilian Girls, 2005
Actually, this is not a "girl band", but rather very good trance/house music. I like it, and it took me through the evening.

The Met / Guggenheim / Frick Madison

Friday, April 9, 2021 - This trip started because I bought a Hubert Robert print ("The Fountains") at an on-line auction ($20 plus tax) - the only catch is I have to either contract with someone to deliver it to me, or pick it up myself, down in Mount Kisco, NY. Given my wonderful luck seeing the Monets in Boston with Wendy a few weeks ago, I hit the website for The Met (formerly The Metropolitian Museum of Art - I don't know if the new name will stick). It turns out that they currently have, ON DISPLAY, 15 Monets that I have never seen (plus 2 more that I want to take "better pictures" of). So that's the tail wagging this dog! I made on-line reservations for entry between 11 AM-and-Noon, got my SpotHero parking at 35 East 85th Street, and researched other museums. The Frick Mansion is undergoing renovation, but they have moved their Art Collection into the the Whitney Museum of American Art, at 75th and Madison, and call it "Frick Madison". So I scheduled a ticket at 2:30 PM. And since I will be in the neighborhood, I checked out the Guggenheim Museum. I really do not like (almost) any of their collection, but they do have a GREAT selection of paintings by Jackson Pollock, one of which ("Untitled (Green Silver), 1949", which I have not seen) is On Display! That, plus a couple of Picassos, allowed me to purchase a ticket for 4 PM. Looks like I have a BIG DAY planned!


I left the house at 6:30 AM and got to the auction house in Mount Kisco exactly at 10:30, right when they open! 15 minutes later I was back on the road, and parked in NYC by 11:35 - so I was at the Museum at 11:47
I had MY MAPS, and I was READY TO GO:

To get to the back-right American Art section, you HAVE TO GO THROUGH The Temple of Dendur:

The Museum currently has an exhibition titled "Karl Bodmer: North American Portraits". As an artist, he journeyed through the Upper Missouri area 1833-34, drawing Native Americans and the landscape. I have not like his work as much as I like Alfred Jacob Miller, but Bodmer's piece "View of the Stone Walls" caught my eye:
To quote the display-text: "Bodmer's dynamic panorama features an exposed stratum of sandstone, today called the White Cliffs and part of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument." I hope to be there, and see this, this coming Sat. Aug 28, 2021 on my fall roadtrip!

Also On Display are some New Art - ""Promised Gifts". The beauties include:

Sanford Robinson Gifford - "An Indian Summer Day On Claverack Creek", 1877-79 oil


Alfred Thompson Bricher - "Low Tide, Hetherington Cove, Grand Manan", 1899 oil


William Stanley Haseltine - "Rocks at Nahant", 1864 oil


In the Winslow Homer galleries, there was something new:

"Harvest Scene", c. 1873

plus an old favorite: "Moonlight, Wood Island Light", 1894:

Back in the American sections, there were 2 old favorites:

Albert Bierstadt - "Merced River, Yosemite Valley", 1866 oil:

Thomas Moran - "The Teton Range", 1897 oil:

And then it was over to Gallery 620, with its wonderful selection of paintings by Canaletto and Francesco Guardi:


Canaletto - "Piazza San Marco", late 1720s oil:


Francesco Guardi - "Piazza San Marco", late 17260s oil:


And then it was time to visit Galleries 818 and 821, with their new Monets:

"Regatta at Sainte-Adresse", 1867 oil:

"La Grenouillère", 1869 oil:

"Île aux Fleures near Vétheuil", 1880 oil:

"View of Vétheuil", 1880 oil:

Then off to see a couple of Picassos, then downstairs to Gallery 541 to see 2 wonderful pieces by "Workshop of Francesco Guardi": "Venice: The Dogana and Santa Maria della Salute" and "Venice: The Rialto". UNFORTUNATELY, Gallery 541 is "Closed Off": But the pictures look nice (I think).

I walked back out onto Fifth Avenue at 1:30, so I figured I would just walk up a few blocks and try my luck getting into the Guggenheim early:


It was there that I stopped MapMyWalk, which I had started right before going into The Met - 2.86 miles:

On my way up the big spiral staircase I saw a wonderful Picasso - "Woman Ironing", 1904 oil:


Now, how do I want to talk about Jackson Pollock? Wendy and I saw "Mural", 1943, [in the collection of the University of Iowa] at the MFA in Boston on July 23, 2019, as part of the exhibition: "Mural: Jackson Pollock | Katharina Grosse": I don't think it is particularly very good, but it is reaching forward to his moments-of-excellence in 1947-through-1950 (with occasional beauties after that). I have previously written about The Pablo Picasso Period I Like (cubist, 1909-1912) [read blog here], so I think next week I will write about The Jackson Pollock Period I Like. Which brings us to today's "excellent Pollock" - "Untitled (Green Silver)", ca. 1949:

I left there, and made my way down to 75th and Madison - Frick Madison:
Wow - looking at it in a photograph sure makes it look like a REALLY UGLY BUILDING!!

The Collection is on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors, so I tooke the elevator up and walked down. The J.M.W. Turners are on the 4th floor:

The Harbor of Dieppe, 1826 (?)

Cologne: The Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening, 1826

I was then told the "Photographs are not allowed", which leaves the Claude Monet ("Vétheuil in Winter", 1878-1879) and the two by Francesco Guardi ("Regatta in Venice", ca. 1770 and "View of the Cannaregio Canal in Venice", ca. 1770) un-photographed. But their images are available on-line:

Back up to my car park, and left The City at 3 PM. Traffic getting out of town, and on the Parkways in New York and Connecticut. 483 miles driving - Home at 8:01 PM - Thank You God for a Great Adventure!!

Driving music - music I have not shared on a blog before:

Pat Metheny, Dave Holland & Roy Haynes - Question And Answer, 2008
Pat Metheny won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for "Change of Heart" (track 6 on the album).

Then, becuase jazz still sounds good:

The Miles Davis Quintet - Miles, 1956

The Miles Davis Quintet - The Legendary Prestige Quintet Recordings (Disc 3) [only "Round Midnight"], 1957

Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run, 1973

Paula Cole - This Fire, 1996 (only 2 songs)

Pearl Jam - Live At Benaroya Hall (22-Oct-2003), 2003
26 tracks - nice, but I don't need to keep them.

Pat Metheny Group - Offramp, 2012 debut album
It won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, the Group's first of ten Grammys.

Otis Redding - Live In Europe, 1967 live album

various - Warren Miller's Cold Fusion, 2001
Once upon a time, after seeing one of Warren Miller's GREAT SKI MOVIES, I decided to create my own special albums of soundtracks-of-his-ski-movies. I researched, and drove, and ripped, and wound up with 8 albums for his movies:

Cold Fusion [2001] 19 songs,
Storm [2002] 9 songs,
Journey [2003] 18 songs,
Impact [2004] 22 songs,
Higher Ground [2005] 18 songs,
Off The Grid [2006] 14 songs,
Playground [2007] 2 songs,
Children Of Winter [2008] 26 songs)

I don't ever listen to them, so these drives are a good opportunity to listen to them and keep what I like. Out of today's listening, only "Silence" by Delerium (featuring Sarah McLachlan) is a keeper, but I'll see if it is a different version from the one on Delerium's Karma album.

Jackson Browne - The Next Voice You Hear: The Best Of Jackson Browne, 1997 greatest hits album

Peter, Paul & Mary - Album 1700, 1967