Saturday, October 20, 2007

Weekend Adventures

Three of us headed up to Bryce Canyon for a backpacking trip one weekend. Here are me and Neil at an overlook on the Under the Rim Trail.


The park ranger told us that the trail we planned to take was "boring and not that scenic because you're in the trees all the time." Bah. He was wrong. Trees are very scenic, particularly turning maples, and we still got plenty of views of hoodoos and rock formations. Apparently, most of the visitors thought the same as the ranger, and we had the trail to ourselves, which was excellent.


It was ridiculously cold. Karen and I were hoping for snow so we ripped snowflakes out of our trail maps and hung them on the tent window. Sadly, it did not work.

And... to red rocks Nevada to go rock climbing! Even before we reached the crags we had to find our way through a crazy landscape of carved sandstone and deep gullies and washes. We got lost a few times.

More red rocks, Karen leading a route on the Magic Bus Wall. After the sun went down (we got caught in the dark without headlamps hiking back to the car) we went back to our campsite and grilled steak, asparagus, and garlic bread. I had forgotten this glorious part of car camping, the ability to bring vast amounts of food too heavy to carry in a backpack.


And last weekend, the Grand Canyon. The best thing about the canyon was how the Colorado River cut through layers of rock laid down over time, and walking down it you travel through the different ages of the earth, from recent times at the top all the way down to bottom rock layers formed when only bacteria lived on the planet.



The ponderosa pines that line the North Rim smell like butterscotch. Kaibab squirrels with huge rabbit ears and white fluffy tails run around the forests too.

Pine Valleys and Pomegranates

Living in the desert, we miss trees. So my first weekend here we headed for the Pine Valley Mountains, where there were aspens, pines, and even oaks! Here's me with Neil and Laura, my roomies.
One stream we worked at a few weeks ago had a pomegranate orchard nearby... here are the 33 pomegranates that Laura and I managed to obtain and are still trying to eat. They are sitting on our lovely ten dollar thrift store coffee table.

There are some very neat rock formations right outside of St. George. Although these views of red rocks also include views of housing developments, its very neat having slot canyons and climbing right in city parks.

Sacred datura, or moonflower. Apparently this flower is hallucinogenic, and can also kill people.

But, the best part of where I live is not the town itself - it is the short distance to amazing national parks like Zion, where we spend our weekends.

Unfortunately, Kiira and i fell into a cave while hiking up Hidden Canyon on our Zion trip.