My Amazing Adventures Out West: A Picture Book

Hi! My name is Matthew. I'm an explorer! You can tell that I'm an explorer because I wear a big hat.

One time I flew very far away to a state called Colorado to go exploring with my friends. I have cool friends. Here, let me introduce you. This is Colin.

I used to live with him in Colorado. He is a very funny person. In this picture he is wearing sunglasses that he found at an airport! Aren't they neat?

This is Erin.

I've known her ever since I was born! That's because we're cousins. That means my Mommy and her Daddy are sister and brother. Ever since we were little they took us on walks and hikes. And we still like to explore together! Erin is very creative. You can tell because she invented a deer sausage whole wheat tortilla hot dog without even trying very hard! That's what she's holding in the picture.

This is Kate.

She is another one of my good friends. Kate is very good at surviving in the wilderness. Surviving is a word that means not dying. See how she is wearing such warm clothes? Even though it was very cold where she was in that picture, she is toasty and warm. She's even laughing!


This is a picture of me with my camera. When I went out West I took it with me and took pictures of everything. That's why I'm making this a picture book instead of a boring no-words post that only boring adults like to read. But enough explaining, let's get to the ADVENTURE!

After I flew to Colorado Erin, Kate, Colin and I drove west to Utah. Utah is another state in the West. It has lots of sand and Mormons. We saw lots of sand but not very many Mormons! There were also some very pretty mountains. On our first day in Utah, we climbed on top of a small mountain so that we could see further. Look at all of that sand and all of those pretty mountains!

On our next day in Utah, we visited a very neat place called Arches National Park. The park is named "Arches" because of all the huge stone arches that are naturally found there. Can you see the arch in this picture?

Even though Arches National Park was in a desert, there were still a few plants and trees growing there. How do you think this tree gets its water?

This is a picture of me beside a very famous arch. You may have seen it on license plates or on quarters before. It's name is Delicate Arch. In this picture, I'm being a tourist. Tourists are people who have big expensive cameras and go to places to have their pictures taken with famous things. Can you find the other tourist in the picture? [hint: she's very small]

Do you remember trying to figure out how plants get their water in the desert? The Colorado River is one big source of water out West. This is a picture taken from our campsite one night when we stayed in Utah. Erin is down near the bottom right. See how big the rocks are?

Canyonlands National Park was another place we visited in Utah. For this part of the trip another cool friend named Greta joined us. She's the one with the camera in the picture. Even though it was a cloudy day, everything was still very beautiful. Look at the rock mountains in the pictures. They have a very special name - that eludes me at the moment, probably something like steppes or buttes or mesas... They are formed by a process called erosion. After different layers of sand and rock build up for a very long time, wind and water can slowly tear away at the rock, leaving only a little behind. And that's erosion! The cool rocks towers and canyons are all it leaves behind

This is a picture of me and Erin in the Canyonlands. Do you see the big pointy mountains far, far away? They're not flat like the mesas in the Canyonlands, are they? That's because they weren't formed by erosion. Instead they were forced straight upward by the Earth's natural movements!

After visiting Utah, we all decided to drive even further to a new state called Arizona. There was something very special in Arizona that we wanted to see. But all the way there we had to drive through a big desert. And it was very boring.

Why did we spend so much time driving? It just so happens that Arizona is home to a very special canyon. It's special because it's the biggest canyon in the world! And my friends and I wanted to explore it! Because we wanted to go down inside of it for several days, we had to get a special permission slip from the government called a permit. We also had bring all of the food and clothing we needed for several days. There aren't any McDonald's in the Grand Canyon! Do you see the big backpacks we are wearing? Those are to hold all of the things we need. They were very heavy! On our first day in the canyon, we hiked all the way to the very bottom. It was very long journey. On our way down we passed through many different layers of rock. I think the very bottom one was the coolest.

Every morning when we'd wake up it would still be cold outside. We would make hot cereal and coffee to help warm us up.

And once we'd start hiking into the sun, we would definitely warm up!

One interesting thing that we discovered in the Grand Canyon was that whichever layer of rocks we were hiking in seemed to be the biggest. All the other further away layers seemed smaller just because they were so far away! Also, each layer of rock had its own special color. I really liked the red rocks.

This is a picture of all of us on our way back up to the top of the canyon. You can tell that we're only half-way back to the top because the highest layers of rock still look very high above us. Can you see the river way down below us?

After we were all done hiking we were very tired. And since there weren't any grown-ups around, we ate ice cream for supper! I love ice cream!

On the very last day, right before we left, we cooked a very special breakfast. Because it was Easter Sunday, we decided to get up extra early to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon. We ate Spam, candied yams, cornbread stuffing, canned green beans and a whole coconut cream-filled chocolate egg! What a great way to end an adventure!

So, what is the moral of the story, kids? What? Adventure stories don't have morals? Well this one does. DON'T FEED THE SQUIRRELS!!!