More of Southern Utah

Zion National Park is beautiful. The hiking varies from easy to strenuous. Right in the center of this picture are two people taking the two day climb up the face of the cliff. I could see them in the original photo - one person is toting a blue bag.

The Virgin River flows through the canyon

This is Grafton. It's a ghost town near the south entrance to Zion. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed here. This was the street where knife fight took place and the famous bicycle scene.

We heard about Glitter Mountain and I wanted to see it. It turned out to be more of a Glitter Hole. That is Steve picking up some of the larger pieces

Have you seen the Lucy & Desi movie called the Long Long Trailer? Tim said I shouldn't keep any rocks. He has fears of our motorhome turning into another episode. 

4-Wheeling in Hurricane, Utah

Our friends Becky and Steve from Idaho drove their motorhome to meet with us. They towed their cargo trailer filled with toys so we could all play in the desert together. It was a different world that we otherwise would not have experienced

See Mollies Nipple

"It's A Butte"

That first day we rode 73 miles. I was gritty when we got back. But it was a good gritty

These are dinosaur tracks. 

And this is where they were located.

Snow on the mountains, red rocks, surprisingly green

The next day we went to the sand dunes.

I just don't understand how people can walk out onto these rocks. When they crumble (and they do because the rock is not solid) it is a long way down. We could see St George from the top of the cliff.

The next day we drove to St George. The peak is the same one as above but the view is from I-15. Now you know why I didn't stand on that rock jutting out.

I think the Flintstones lived here along with those dinosaurs. Seriously whoever did that cartoon probably got their inspiration from here.

We switch vehicles after lunch

Lone tree on the dunes

Abra-Kanab-ra

Across the Arizona border from Page we stopped in Kanab, Utah for a few days. A friend had told me about Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.  They work nationwide with shelters and other rescue groups to promote pet adoption and spay/neuter services. On their 3700 acre property they house dogs, cats, birds, horses, and pot belly pigs.

The outbuildings are octogon shaped, very clean and filled with happy animals; many of whom are difficult to adopt out. All the dogs need to pass tests such as not jumping up on people and getting along with other animals. 

An incredible number of volunteers spend vacation time to help at the shelter. It was an amazing experience to see and feel so much love.

The property is so spread out that we took a van for the 90 minute tour from location to location. They fought the courts and took in 22 of Michael Vick's fighting dogs. Six have been adopted; several died from natural causes. Ten remain as un-adoptable and will live here in what surely is paradise after what they've been through. 

The pet cemetary is for animals that have passed on that lived out their lives here.

We are in Mormon Country. There is a lot of history of the Pioneers life coming west and settling in Utah. 

We took a ranger tour of the house. Check out this awesome stove.

And this mustache cup

This home was built like a fort if needed to fight off the Indians.

The house was built next to a natural spring and the ranch was used to house the cattle that the faithful paid to the church for their tithe.

We took a drive to Pink Coral Sands State Park.  Miles and miles of sand that was fine as talcum powder.

Glen Canyon Recreational Area, Page, AZ

Imagine yourself travelling for miles in the high desert. You come upon a deep crevice and look down into the canyon and wonder: how do we get down there? Well you don't. Not here anyway.

The Colorado River carved this passageway through the canyon walls. It is called Horseshoe Bend

This is as close as I cared to get to the edge. It's a long way down. We could see boats on the water below fishing and touring.

We went on another hike to see some hoodoos someone named Toadstools. I liked the face in the rock on a hillside.

I call this Bedrock - like from the Flintstones

The next several photos show the primary reason we came to the Page area. We wanted to experience the famed Antelope Slot Canyon. We took a tour on the Navajo Indian Reservation into this colorful and magical place located in the path of a wash.

Our guide Rosie was top notch. She wore this mask because of the fine dust that swirls up from the ground and on windy days from above. Today was calm and she didn't have it on for long but giving 5 tours a day you can understand why she would wear it.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves: Upper Antelope Canyon

Lights; Shadows; Textures; Colors

We exited, then turned around and walked back through. Just imagine the monsoon rains turning into flood waters rushing down this wash and swirling through the slot canyon

Holding the flame in the palm of our hands

Since we didn't take the overpriced Hoover Dam tour, we decided to take the Glen Canyon Dam tour. The dam is massive and our 82 yr old guide, who had been employed there as an electrical engineer, was very interesting and informative. 

That's a lot of concrete. It's kind of freaky being inside knowing the pressure of all that water is right next to you. This dam was unique in that it had a lawn. Yes, that's grass being watered at the bottom just above where the water would spill over - which by the way it hasn't since 1984. That was the last time the Lake was filled to capacity. It was a heavy snow pack year and then it rained most of April and May. All the dams along the Colorado River had to release water and flooding occured down river to Mexico. Mmmmm I wonder what Parker looked like?

This particular dam creates Lake Powell which is a huge recreational lake. Our campground was within the National Park. This is our view. What a wonderful campground. The sites are huge, we rode our bikes for miles and really enjoyed our time here.

Can you tell?