A New Baby

 

When we got up on Monday, May 4th, we were greeted with a beautiful day and some exciting news in the campground. The white mare that was obviously ready to give birth had the baby on Sunday. It is a little filly and is as cute as anything I have seen in a while. She has a pretty white face and white stockings.

Time for a little breakfast.

That is one of the things that is cool about this campground. They have horses in the pastures on both sides and the horses are very friendly and will come right up to the fence for petting. The owners here do not mind if you feed the horses a carrot or an apple. We love to see the little baby animals and this was a real treat. They had not named the little girl yet because the grandchildren of the owner had different opinions on the name.

Our new friends, Merrill and Joy were leaving and headed back north, so we spent some time talking and we had time for a quick golf lesson.

Joy is new to the game, but she has a pretty good swing. The time instructing, got my juices flowing and I decided to look into playing a round before we left the area.

Here is a picture of Joy and Merrill standing in front of their Cardinal 5th wheel. Great people and we look forward to seeing them in Canada in a few months.

I did decide to head out and play the golf course down at Mt. Carmel Junction. It is a par 33 executive course, but it is exactly what I needed to work on my game before I get to Salt Lake City. I have plans to play while we are there with my good friend Laurie. I had the course to myself and really enjoyed my round. I played it twice to get my 18 holes in. I played very inconsistently, but managed a couple of memorable shots including a birdie on the tough #3.

The clouds threatened all day, but it did not rain on me. When I got back to the campground, they had had a good rain.

It is very surprising to me that I have only played golf twice since I retired a year and 4 months ago. I love to play golf, but we have been so busy, that it just has not worked into the plan. I really had a good time and I think golf will be in the plan a bit more often.

Tuesday, May 5, was moving day. We really enjoyed our time at Bryce Zion campground. By the time we left, they had 11 rigs in the park. The busy season is coming quickly to southern Utah. I guess it is time for us to leave. We are heading north. We have one stop and then on to Salt Lake City and a return to civilization. This blog will go in a different direction for the next few entries. We will be more focused on man made things rather than the beauty created by God. Join us for the ride, it does turn out to be a very cool experience.

A Drive to Kolob Terrace and Canyon –Zion NP

 

After our long day of hiking on May 1, we did nothing exciting on Saturday May 2. I did not take one picture. On Sunday, May 3, we got up early and went down to Kanab to go to church. It was a small church in this beautiful little town. After mass we were invited to the Parish hall for a meal. The priest came and sat with us. He was born in Viet Nam and lived for a while in the Philippines. He was very interesting to talk to and we enjoyed the experience. We then started our drive to Kolob Terrance road. We decided to take the long way around through northern Arizona. It was longer, but faster than going back through the east entrance of Zion NP. We had done that drive a number of times and we were looking for a different experience.

While we were driving we came upon a sign for the Pipe Spring National Monument. We had no idea what that was, so we decided to stop.

This is a small NM, only about 40 acres. This NM is the site of a natural spring that provided water to this very dry area. The site was first occupied by Ancestral Puebloans dating back to about 1000 AD. Then the site was used by the Paiutes. A small community of the tribe lived and farmed in the area. They did exquisite basket weaving. The area was first visited by European explorers in the 1500’s by the Spanish. They brought with them disease and religion. Neither was appreciated by the Paiutes.

In the 1880’s the Mormon Pioneers moved into the area. They built a fort on top of the spring. This was a big problem for the Paiutes. The area is now adjacent to the Paiute Reservation. They have restored the fort and use it to tell the story of what happened there.

Here is a picture of the spring pools at the fort.

We took a tour of the fort. Here is a cool stove that was original to the fort, and used by the Mormons.

We then drove on to the South of Zion NP. We took a drive up to Kolob Terrace. It is a 17 mile drive and gains about 3000 feet in elevation. At the end is the Kolob Reservoir. The drive had some very nice views.

Kim loved the pink flowers on the prickly pear:

We then drove over to Kolob Canyons road. We had heard the views were impressive, but we were blown away. It was some of the best views anywhere in Zion. It was a great way to end our visit to this incredible National Park. I took a bunch of pictures, I think these are the best.

We took a 2 mile hike out to a viewpoint. The views from the parking lot were better. The high valleys were just amazing to look at. There are a number of trails that go up and through this amazing valley.

On our way out we saw this turkey:

To finish the day we made a stop in Cedar City and then up and over Cedar Breaks NM. This is the same road that was covered in snow about a week earlier. This time it was beautiful. I got this nice sky shot from 10000 feet.

It was another amazing day of incredible views and a little history thrown in. This concluded out visit to the big 5 in Utah. We are just blown away by the beauty. We love Utah! We loved the fact that we had the time to see as much of the park as we could handle. We were not ready to do the Angels landing hike, but we still feel we got the full experience.

We got back to the campground and were greeted with big news from others in the campground, but I will get into that in my next entry.

Hiking the Narrows–Zion National Park

 

On Friday, May 1, we planned to hike the “Narrows” at Zion Nation Park. I was not sure  about this hike. Although we had visited the jump off point a couple of days before, I was concerned it was kind of a gimmick outing. We really like creek walking, but with the cold water, I thought we could just walk a half mile or so and call it good. After talking to a number of folks that had just finished the hike, many were just wearing sandals and told us that is all you need. So, me being cheap, we decided to go with our own gear and see what happened.

We drove into the park and had to park down in the town of Springdale. Then walk to the park entrance and get on the shuttle and ride it for 40 minutes up to the trail head. Then we walked the 1.2 miles up to the end of the dry trail and into the Virgin river. It was after noon by the time we entered the water. That was fine we were only going a short distance…or so I thought. It was close to 80 degrees, so the water was actually refreshing.

Here was our gear for the hike. I went with a Motorcycle Jersey because if it got wet it would dry quickly. We went with old tennis shoes and I wore some wool socks. The gear turned out to be perfect. I had a backpack with our lunch and extra dry clothes in a dry bag.

The canyon was beautiful with high rock walls. The water was not too cold. Here  we go…

It was not long before I noticed, I was really having fun. There were no steep climbs and my years of wading while fly fishing gave me good confidence. The fact that the scenery was breathtaking did not hurt either. Around every corner was a new rock formation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had people around us all day, but it was still an isolated experience because of the noise. The river rapids reverberated off of the walls and it was hard to talk to each other unless you were right together. Kim was having a blast also.

The river did a job on some of the rocks creating interesting things to look at.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the people in the picture on the right above to get some of the perspective of the size of the canyon walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we moved up the canyon it got more narrow. We could only see a small slice of the sky at times.

After a couple of hours we stopped for lunch. I found a nice log to sit on and we just enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We came to an intersection of another small stream. We decided to take the smaller stream for a while. It was also beautiful and very narrow.

We got to this small waterfall and decided that we should turn around and go back to the main river. On the way back a couple guys from Buffalo, NY noticed my jersey. They were on their way to Las Vegas to watch the Supercross race on Saturday night and stopped off at Zion to hike the Narrows. We had a nice conversation and then we continued on with our adventure.

 

Next we came to a large rock laying in the middle of the canyon. It just looked awesome.

This is the same rock from the back side. As we went further up the canyon it became very narrow and the water got deeper. It was at this point we looked at the clock and I was surprised to see it was 4:00. We were getting a bit tired and I was concerned about how long it would take to get back to the truck. We decided to turn around.

As we walked back I noticed we were moving much quicker than we did on the way up. Time was really not an issue. I slowed our pace to make sure Kim did not get too tired.

 

 

 

 

 

When we got back to the waterfall that I taken a picture of earlier, there were some guys rappelling down the rock. It was very slippery and one of them fell against the rock. He was fine and protected by his equipment.

We made it back to the trailhead in about 2 hours. Kim was pretty tired, but she was more interested in getting to the bathroom at the bus stop. We moved out and made it there quickly. By the time we made it to the truck it was 7PM. We were starving. We found a pizza restaurant and ate heartily. Then we had to get an ice cream cone. I felt we earned it. Here is the view from our restaurant.

It was an awesome day and any thoughts of this being a “gimmick” hike were long gone. This was an awesome adventure and I had a blast. If I ever make it back to Zion NP, I will do this hike again and go even further. It is really that much fun. I think we walked up about 3 miles, but that is only a guess. This is a hike that almost anyone in basic hiking shape can do. If you ever have the chance, be sure to take this hike.

A Ride Through Dixie

 

After our full day of touring Zion National Park, we decided that April 30 would be a rest day. We have found that if we just go, go, go, the experience is diminished. You get in a mode of just getting through it because of fatigue. That is not the experience we are looking for. So, we rested. Well, at least I did for the morning. Then I decided to explore the riding trails that are just west of our campsite in the Dixie National Forest. I got as much local information as I could, and then headed out.

The first thing I came to was a “Road Closed” sign. I took that as a challenge. It turns out, I have no idea why the road closed sign was there. The road had some recent culvert work done, but was very passable. It was a nice dirt road through a beautiful pine forest. After a while, the results of a recent fire were evident. It was a bad one, with entire hillsides burned. I came across a designated trail intersecting with the main road and the fun began. I rode for about five miles and the trail was getting rough. Then I came to this:

 

The trees in this area were burned out and I had more to discover, so I turned around to get back on the main road.

 

I rode for about 10 miles and came to an intersection. A sign there said “Harris Point”. That sounded kind of cool, so I took off down that road. All of the roads I was riding were 2 track. It looks like this is an area that Side by Sides and 4 wheelers use heavily, but on this day, I had it all to myself. I never saw another person or vehicle. I came to a nice viewpoint and took a few pictures.

That was a nice view, but I rode on to the Harris Overlook and it was much better.

There were some white Hoodoos there and a sheer cliff. It was very cool.

You can see that this area is burned out also. I found out later the fire happened three years ago. It is just part of the natural progression of life in the forest. The new life was already starting to take shape.

I went back to the main road and took a guess. I knew I needed to head East, so I took a trail marked #7. It was marked blue for medium difficulty. It was still a two track, but had some steep rutted hills on it. It was fun. Soon I was in a non-burned out part of the forest and it was beautiful. I took a few shots to remember the view:

It is really hard to capture the ride without a video camera mounted on my helmet. A GoPro may be in my future, but we made another significant purchase recently and it will have to wait.

Trail 7 took me past a few single track trails that I decided were a little too chancy for me riding by myself. I was right about the direction and soon came to the highway that runs right in front of the campground. I rode about 3 miles of pavement and I was home.

It was a really fun ride and it felt good to be back on the bike. I am really glad I brought the KTM 450EXC on this trip. It is much more capable of a dirt bike than the DR 650 I had on my last trip, and is still street legal. I ended up only riding about 30 miles. I needed to save myself for the adventure tomorrow. On May 1, we would hike the “Narrows” in Zion. I had no idea what to expect. As it turned out, It was the most enjoyable hike I have ever taken. My next entry will explain that very bold statement.

Who knew Dixie was in Utah?