Balabanova All Over

Monthly Archives: April 2017

[Tucson, AZ] Today, I headed to the East side of Saguaro National Park today in the Rincon mountains. My hike there did not disappoint. I hiked a few miles of the Tanque Verde Rdige Trail, which is a back-country trail that goes way into the Saguaro National Park wilderness. I liked this trail better than yesterday’s; there were many more types of vegetation around, the climb wasn’t as steep, and I got… Read More

[Tucson, AZ] It seems like only yesterday Olivia and I were in Northern Arizona hiding out from a spring snow storm in our Flagstaff hotel. Here I am, mere weeks later in Southern Arizona, waking up at 5 am to beat the heat (it was 80F/26C by 9 am). Sigh. I am here for a work conference, which doesn’t start till Sunday. I arrived yesterday (Friday, 4/21) so that I can get… Read More

[Holbrook, AZ] Our very last day on this trip involved a lot of driving! First, we headed east for almost two hours towards Petrified Forest National Park in Holbrook, AZ. The park is situated on each side of I-40. The Northern part features the famous Painted Desert – a desert of badlands. Badlands are areas of dry terrain where sedimentary rock and clay-rich soil have been eroded over time by wind and… Read More

[Flagstaff, AZ] Mother Nature gave us a rainbow and took away a sunrise. We woke up today to rain in Monument Valley, which meant we were going to do our sunrise tour with little chance of catching the morning light.

[Monument Valley, UT] After our tour of Antelope Canyon, we drove out to Monument Valley, another 2 hours east of Page, AZ. We arrived there around 4 pm – or was it 5 pm? We keep getting confused about the time, because we are supposed to be an hour ahead of LA, but Utah observes daylight savings time and Arizona doesn’t, which means Arizona matches LA time but Utah is an hour… Read More