We tried our hand at winter camping. I just really like the desert and I hate the heat so I figured the desert during the winter would be great. And it was! Except at night it was really cold and very little changed that. Lesson learned. Anyhow, we drove to Grand Canyon National Park. We arrived after dark, so our first view was sunrise the next morning. A very nice introduction. Hiking at the Grand Canyon isn't much fun, as it starts on the downhill and ends on the uphill. But we did a couple little jaunts and it was quite nice. On the way back home, we stopped by Monument Valley which was beautiful and camped near the southern entrance to Canyonlands National Park in Utah. That night was probably even colder, but woke to a spectacular sunrise. I was super nice to take a vacation and get away for a bit. I don't think we'll be winter camping again anytime soon, though.

Sunrise on the south rim. 

Desert Watchtower. 

Mittens at Monument Valley

Sunrise near Canyonlands. 

Newspaper Rock. 

New Year New You

... Nah.


I'll just update some of my previous goals.

2017 was a pretty 'meh' year. Not a whole lot happened besides the relative madness that is politics. I did get a new position at the shelter that I still mostly really like, even though it can be super busy/stressful at times. My manager is leaving in a month though, so things could take a drastic turn. I don't know how I feel about all of that.

I finished paying of my student loans, so that's cool.

I signed up for my first official trail race in May. I decided to go all in and do a 50k. It's at Greenland Open Space, which is a trail I'm very familiar with. It's mostly flat and I'm hopeful that I'll finish. Gotta get on the training though! My days off are Sunday, Monday and Thursday, so no more "Trail Tuesday."

This year my modest goals are to get out of the country, run some more, maybe buy a house?

Still have the cute and broken foster dog. I really want to know the person who adopts him. He's just a neat dog. That said, I want him to be done with foster and all healed up, because he's pretty annoying in the house with all the cat chasing and not-quite-trained-ness.