Thursday, April 19/2018

We were up fairly early.....well Kay and I were at least....so we had time to enjoy coffee and eat breakfast before we hit the trails.    Who knows what adventures were ahead of us.

We stopped at the trail head, took a picture of the map and headed out.

Sandy trails

The first thing that struck me was the incredible color of the sand and the depth of it.   Man we slogged through some deep stuff before we hit the harder packed trails.  We were surrounded by juniper trees and sage brush and the smell was simply incredible.   The sun was shining and it was a gorgeous day.
Booko was riding shotgun with John and Kay and I had the tunes blaring enjoying life.   We are soo blessed.

nothing but sand and junipers

It is not a ride unless you have a "beverage" stop!!

Booko, chillin on the trail.....

Incredible "designs" on the surrounding cliffs

We travelled several of the numbered trails and eventually found ourselves in a canyon which ultimately took us up onto a huge mesa that had been "clear cut" for the wood.  It was windy as hell up there and it was getting late so it was time to crawl back down into the canyon and return home.  It is a good thing that we took a few pictures of the map before we left because it was very helpful in navigating the trails home.   Many of the signs were numbered but the arrows where missing on many of them so it was a bit of a challenge wondering if trail 102 was this way....or.....that way!!
John has a pretty good sense of direction and Kay's and my skills have certainly improved over the years so we too had a bit of a clue as to which direction to head.
We eventually arrived back at camp to find the cats safe and sound and happy to see us home.  John had left the outside cupboard door open and I had left the inside door open so they could come and go into the trailer when they wanted throughout the day.  Apparently it worked well so we will have to remember to do that again tomorrow.
The campfire felt awesome tonight and once supper was cooked and consumed, it was time for me to head to bed.  It had been a long day.  Seven hours on the trail is too much and I was bone weary!!  But.....Life is Good!!

Layers and layers of rock