National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 68 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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What a video! You got to watch that first step!! I can't imagine that was good for the arch, though. I would assume there were no park rangers around at the time.
Thursday 15 September – part six: well, which way do I go now?
The road ends at the Devil’s Garden trail head and, once again, everyone had descended on this area, and the parking was just packed. Mark very kindly told me that he’d drop me off at the entrance, so that, in his words “at least one of us gets to see it” and I set off, as he set off in search of a parking space.
I started off, getting photos and video on the way, but when I came to a fork in the trail, I realised I could realistically go no further, as Mark would have no idea which way I’d gone, if he did get a parking space and was able to follow me. Once again, in the distance, I was able to see an arch, so I got some photos of that and sadly headed back. I had high hopes for this place, especially reading about how many arches were here, yet I’d barely seen any. Don’t get me wrong, this park was still a delight, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. :
I found Mark at the trail entrance, having managed to find a parking spot, after a Californian driver had cut him up and taken the first parking spot he was trying to get in. I have to say here that we noticed a couple of trends during the road trip portion of this vacation. Firstly, there were an amazing amount of Californian plates at all the places we visited and secondly, very often, they were the culprits of some of the worst driving that we saw. I don’t know if we were just unlucky or whether this is something that others have found?
On that subject, we also played licence plate bingo, after having been amazed by the sheer variety of states that we spotted in Yellowstone. You might think that getting some of the southern states would be tough – not at all! : It was actually the northeastern states that we were left without sightings of by now, along with Hawaii and Mississippi. Oddly enough, we never expected to see a plate from Hawaii but what is it with Mississippi? Are they just home lovers?
Mark also spotted this unusual fellow as he walked over to meet me:
We started to make our way back through the park, and when we reached the viewing area for the Skyline Arch, this time it was deserted, so we were able to park up and head a little way up the trail to get some great photos of it.
From here, we headed back through the park to the visitor centre, with me getting as many photos as I could on the way back.
As we arrived at the visitor centre, I saw a coach arrive and start disgorging. I knew, from witnessing the same thing at Monument Valley, what would happen next. Nearly every female would be heading for the restrooms, so I got Mark to drop me off, while he parked up and I made it in time!
We asked about where the nearest gas stations were in the visitor centre and decided that we’d head back into Moab to the same place that we’d got our lunch from. They had told us that there was one gas station somewhere near the turn to Canyonlands, but they couldn’t guarantee it would be open and we only had a range of 100 miles, with Canyonlands 30 miles away.
I would never have expected the park to be as busy as you found it! You got some beautiful shots of the arches you did get to see and the ones of you and Mark are really nice.
Caught back up after a few missed days - loving the pictures of Arches, more than Bryce I think. Glad you were able to get closer to some of them! Crazy how crowded it is, and I agree it seems it might be insane in the peak tourist times.
I am amazed at how busy these places are. But it is still all so beautiful. I am sure my family would be complaining about seeing another "rick". LOL! But evry picture you have shown is just wonderful and keeps me wanting more. Also the size of everything is so big...You don't get that till you see a few people in the picture.
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I am amazed at how busy these places are. But it is still all so beautiful. I am sure my family would be complaining about seeing another "rick". LOL! But evry picture you have shown is just wonderful and keeps me wanting more. Also the size of everything is so big...You don't get that till you see a few people in the picture.
That's very true and that's why I tried to snap a few of those photos to put it in perspective.
Caught back up after a few missed days - loving the pictures of Arches, more than Bryce I think. Glad you were able to get closer to some of them! Crazy how crowded it is, and I agree it seems it might be insane in the peak tourist times.
Arches was one of my favourites, but I think the fact that it was so crowded meant that Bryce wins out over it for me.
Thursday 15 September – part seven: this is just like the Grand Canyon!
Once we were all filled up again, we headed back past Arches and took the 313 over to Canyonlands. It was at this point that I started to think maybe we’d done the wrong thing. Not only was the sky darkening over, but Mark was complaining about how dull the road was, which it was, although in fairness, there was some beautiful scenery again along the way.
By the time we reached the start of the park, I was really hoping that it would be worth it. Well, I can say with certainty that just a couple of miles down the road, it was. We first caught a glimpse of Shafer Canyon and I think both our jaws dropped in unison. As soon as we saw an overlook, we pulled over, so that we could admire it more fully. Wow, it was just like the Grand Canyon and, as someone we met later on, said “it puts it in more perspective” and it did.
It was then back in the car again...
We headed next for the Green River Overlook and we had no idea of the stunning sight that awaited us. It was as if the earth had been ripped in two beneath us. It’s just mind blowing to think that this was caused once upon a time by water and, yet today, you look down and the river doesn’t seem to be much of a force of nature. How things change!
Mark suggested heading up to Upheaval Dome next, but when we got there, it was a trailhead, rather than an overlook, so we headed back along the road.
We stopped at Holeman Spring Canyon overlook, where Mark got chatting to a couple who were artists and he told Mark that he paints three pictures a day! Now that’s what I call productive! He also said that every day here is different, as it depends on the weather.
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Wow, I never expected Canyonland NP to have such amazing sights! To be honest, for some reason I didn't make the connection that there might be, um, canyons in CANYONland
Loving the Canyonlands pics! We will be staying 2 nights at either Canyonlands or Arches (camping). I had been planning to camp at Arches, just because it looked like that would be where we would focus our time.... but after hearing about the crowds... I'm not sure.... The plan is to camp both nights at one or the other and then just do a "day trip" to the other park..... I'm curious which park you think would be better to spend *more* time in/has more to see..... As I definately want to camp in whichever park we will spend the most time in.....
After having seen the Grand Canyon last summer, Canyonlands sure gives it a run for the money! It is just as amazing. I imagine the colors change daily depending on the weather. Must be fun to paint!
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I don’t know if we were just unlucky or whether this is something that others have found? 
but what is it with Mississippi? Are they just home lovers? 
Not only was the sky darkening over, but Mark was complaining about how dull the road was, which it was, although in fairness, there was some beautiful scenery again along the way. 
Amazing scenery! 
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