Dessert walk

The trip continues...
We decided we wanted to check out a place we had driven by several times where the cliffs were colorful and had interesting stripes.
When we parked we found that many people hiked back here because of some interesting toadstool formations.  Hence the name of the trail - the toadstool trail!

Beautiful formations and stipes running through them!

When we were just starting, a man that was leaving, told us to be careful of rattlesakes, saying he had just seen a couple!

It wasn't long before we start seeing these - rattlesnake holes!  We steered clear!

It was dry and very hot out there!

We saw this little gecko along the way.  He blends in pretty well, don't you think?

 Someone who had come before made a nice little stack of stones.

Do you see the toadstool?  They are at the right of this picture.

Here's a little closer view.

Time to walk back. We were so ready for air conditioning and a drink, but so enjoying the desert beauty.

Tomorrow I'll share the slot canyons, a whole different kind of beauty!

Colorado River Raft trip

We had river raft trip planned for one of our days.  This was on the Colorado River and was a 4 hour float.  It didn't start until 12:30 so we started our day by stopping at a little museum in the town we were staying in.  Kanob, Utah bills itself as 'Little Hollywood' because there have been so many movies and tv shows, especially westerns, that were filmed there.  All along the shopping area are little plaques with photos of actors who had been there.  Some familiar names were Tony Curtis, Ronald Reagan, Don Knotts, Omar Shariff, Charlton Heston.  Some of the shows done in the area were Daniel Boone, The Lone Ranger, Bonanza.  The museum was just small and didn't have a lot that we knew, but it was fun to see.

This was one of the sets, from a movie Bob enjoyed.


Then it was on to Page, Utah for the river float.

We stopped along the way to see Lake Powell.  It's a beautiful lake, surrounded by cliffs, with the prettiest blue color!


Then it was time to get on the raft!  This was not a white water rafting trip, but a calm raft ride.  We got on the rafts just down from the Glen Canyon Dam.

The day we did this was 9/11 and the dam was lined with flags to commemorate that day.

Here we are, starting out, with this great view of the dam.

Here's another raft, to show you what we were on.
It was another hot day, 95 degrees when we got on the river.  Down in the canyon it's 10 degrees warmer, so it was very uncomfortable!  We were reminded frequently to keep drinking, and the guide had a bucket of cold water on the raft that we could use to dip bandana's our hats in.  I never wear a hat because I think I look terrible in them, however, I had taken one along to protect myself from the sun.  When they first mentioned the wet hat idea, Cheri and I both said no way would we do that.  However, it didn't take long for modesty to die and our hats to be soaked, along with our hair.  This was repeated several times, along with everyone else on the raft.

 The canyon walls were lined with many different colors of rock, along with markings from water running down it.

The views were amazing, with changes around every bend.

We saw a few people fishing along the way.

At one point, we pulled up on the shore and took a short walk to a canyon where there were Indian Petroglyphs on the wall.  Our guide was a Navaho Indian who was very interesting to listen to.  She said these markings were to show things that could be hunted here and where to find them.

A highlight of the trip was seeing these wild horses!

When the trip was done, we had a 45 minute bus ride back to where we started.  We rode through a section of the Navaho Reservation, which is huge.  It's in parts of 4 states.  I liked this little church that we saw while driving through it.

That was it for the day.  Cheri and I had to do some major work on our hair before we could be seen in public, but it was so worth it!

Bryce Canyon

Another place I was really looking forward to visiting was Bryce Canyon.  We had seen photos of it while we were planning and I knew it was another beautiful place!

 We had to stop here to show this to Ruby.  This place had a gift shop and also sold sandwiches so we picked some up for lunch.

Here is our first view of what was to come.  Bryce canyon is known for the unusual shapes, which are called hoodoos.

As you can see, this was another area with tall cliffs.  Here's Bob and Mark sitting too close to the edge for me.  There was actually more distance than this photo shows, but still scary!
Do you see the smoke on the right side of the picture?  They were dealing with two forest fires in the area, and one of the paths we were planning to walk on was closed due to fire.

Here's Cheri and I in the same spot.  You notice we sat on the other side of the bench.  No way were we walking around it.  :)

There were fire rangers working to prevent further fires.  They were cutting down dead trees and gathering dry wood into these teepee shapes to be burned later.  We could hear the chain saws while we hiked and we saw a few of them taking a break.

 Bob and I on the trail.

It's interesting to see the old trees that have fallen.  Isn't the bark interesting?

Mark, by a sign echoing what Cheri and I kept saying!

Cool markings on an old tree, made by bugs.

When we finished walking the first hike, we were at 9115 feet.

This is another canyon that is so vast, it's hard to even take it in!

At one of the pull of spots there were a few ravens.  They must have been used to people, because they hung around, and let people get pretty close before flying off.

Here's Bob with the raven.  We named him Ed, as in Edgar Allen Poe.  Bob put this photo on Facebook and said he tried to strike up a conversation with him, but he always answered "Nevermore".  If you are a Poe fan, you'll understand that!  I know our friend Jenny will!


After the hike and drive, we got to the main part of the canyon and absolute beauty!

Look at all those hoodoos!

Do you see the people at the bottom of the canyon? Mark and Cheri did the hike down it.  They said it was gorgeous, but quite a hike back up!

On the way out, we saw a pronghorn antelope!  There was another one in the trees but I couldn't get a picture of it.

Shortly after that we saw these mule deer, the two in back are young ones.
It was fun seeing them in the light, but we stayed late and were driving home in the dark.  At least 4 times on the drive home we saw one or more on the edge of the road.  We were happy to get home without any accidents that night!