Sunday, April 22/2018

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and the weatherman was more than cooperating again.   I'm thinking that it could be a sun burn kind of day and I can't help but think that our Kimmy would be toast today if she were here.

John has decided that we should make our way over to Hog Canyon today and check out the trails over there.   Kay and I really do not care and will follow and enjoy the sights, sounds and the smells.  Man, I just can't get enough of the juniper smell.  It truly is incredible and I would love to bottle the smell and take it home with me!!

Yucca in the sand

The trails were easy again today with large sand dunes and in some areas, pretty heavy sand.  The color of the sand is awesome and of course it is that fine "blow" sand that Utah is famous for.  It almost has the consistency of icing sugar and any little breeze will pick it up and carry it away!!  Of course by the time we get back tonight, we will be covered with it!!

WATER!!

Booko loves the water

sitting alongside the little creek

We travelled the trails for quite a while and Kay and I were really glad we took the time to get a map of the area.   There are a million trails in this area and it would be so easy to get lost.  Of course this is desert terrain and really quite inhospitable if you were ever so unfortunate to find yourself lost.
Even with the map, we managed to get off on a trail that we inadvertently took (despite the fact that it was labelled) and found ourselves off the main trail and about a mile or two into the back country.    As it turned out, we simply were making a big loop back to the main trail so we really weren't lost, just temporarily relocated!!
We had come to a cross trail which was labelled and I wondered "well how in the hell did we get here when trail 104 A isn't supposed to hook up to trail 101"?   As we were all discussing my ability with a map (I am the chief navigator by the way) we thought we heard a voice.   What!!!
As it turned out, this young woman was walking along the trail and the first thing that came out of her mouth was....."did you see a blue truck"?   She had been walking the trails looking for flint as she does mozaic work and had lost track of which trails she had taken and was unable to find her way back to the truck!!  She was lost and was out of water and that, in this desert, can lead to catastrophe.
We had her hop onto the back of Henrietta and gave her a ride back to the main trail.   She was several miles from help and we really had no other choice than to get her back to civilization.   Of course there was limited cell service out there as well and she was unable to get in touch with the folks she was with.  As she was trying to use her phone, a truck happened along the main trail headed back to the highway so John asked them if they would mind giving this young lady a ride back to civilization.  They agreed and we gave her a bottle of water and wished her luck in finding her friends.  We then got to continue on our way towards Hog Canyon.
Eventually we found the proper trail and set off again towards our goal.   Of course all this adventure with the lost woman had cut into our time and we never did make it to Hog Canyon.
It was getting late and we decided to turn around and head back towards camp.   We still had at least 2 hours to go to hit camp!!

Again.....beautiful sandy trails

Sand and Junipers

Beverage stop on the way home!!

sandstone cliffs along one of the trails

the white mountains - good name, considering the color!!

almost back at camp

Booko - tired after a  long day on the trail

We arrived home safe and sound and John soon had the fire going and we were able to  sit around and re-hash the day's events.    We were still blown away by finding that young woman out in the middle of "knowwhere"  without any decent "survival" gear with her.   We wonder what would have happened if we had not come along as we did.   Even if she had a clue as to where she was, she had miles and miles of trail to walk in order to get back to civilization.  I shake my head and thank my lucky stars that we have survival equipment packed in the quad at all times because one never knows what could happen.
The cats survived another day so that was a good thing too.
John loaded the quads and got mostly ready for tomorrow as it is a travel day again and probably Kay's last day to camp with us before we part ways.  She will head to Nephi and her summer job and John and I will continue our journey back to Canada.

One sleepy boy!!

It was a great day for the last one here at the Peek-a-Boo Trails.   Mostly easy trails but John did manage to find us some adventurous terrain the first day but, we all survived and both Kay and I said we would certainly return here again at some point.   Life is Good......

Saturday, April 21/2018

The sun was shining when we awoke and according to the accuweather app, it was going to be a hot day.   Now there isn't one of us, that is going to be complaining about that!!  We got breakfast out of the way, made a snack for the trail and headed out.  

We remembered to leave the two doors open for the cats to come and go.  Bookos was riding shotgun again with John.

More sand and more junipers

The trails today seemed more friendly.  The sand was not as deep and the trails were wider.   We actually had a good variety of trail today with slickrock peppering the trail at intervals.

Booko keeping busy chasing lizards ....  He was VERY busy!!

Booko was out of the quad at every stop today chasing lizards.   He actually got pretty close to a capture at one point but I am not sure what he would ever do with it if he did catch it.  He is a real coward when it comes to other creatures.  He is more apt to stomp the poor thing with his big feet than he is to actually put it in his mouth.  He was busy all day and I am sure he is going to sleep well tonight as he has made a few miles just checking stuff out!!

flags on the quads

Beverage stop

One never knows what you will find in the forest!!

At one point along the trail, Kay noticed that someone had left a rather rickety stationary bike along side the trail so of course we had to stop and try it out!!  John had missed it completely but we managed to stop, get a few laughs and take a picture!!  Gosh, who has more fun that us!!

Our travels today took us into the higher elevations and along the rim of the Parunuweap Canyon Wilderness Study Area.  The views over the edge were really quite incredible but unless you have a really good quality camera, I am afraid that the splendor of the area is not captured in the pictures.  The iphone people are really going to have to work on that!!

The Parunuweap Canyon is cut from mostly Navajo Sandstone and contains rocks from the Jurassic age.  Now this is why much of the state of Utah looks like it belongs on another planet.  There is simply millions of years of evolution here and it is staring you in the face.  The study itself involved minerals and apparently there are about 6 million tons of gypsum in the canyon with even larger deposits outside the canyon.   There were a few other minerals found but gypsum seems to be most abundant.
The flora consists of mostly pinion pine, oak trees, sage brush and manzanita.  Oh, and lets not forget the juniper that pepper the landscape in the lower elevations.  It truly is an incredible ecosystem.

Incredible views

John and Booko

Henrietta at the Canyon rim

Wide sandy trails and Sage brush

Coral Pink sand dunes

Back down in the lower elevations

The Red Knoll

The Red Knoll

Kay and Booko attempting to climb The Red Knoll

Now The Red Knoll is some sort of pink rock formation standing solely on its own in the middle of the trail system.  It is something to see and I imagine it too is of sandstone composition as it has that same feel about it.  We did manage to find the trail that took us right up to the base of it and Booko and Kay both tried to climb it although neither one of them made it too far!!

It was a "short" day today with us only staying out on the trails for about 5 hours.  It is steak night tonight so we had to be making tracks home so that John could cook us supper.

The cats were busy when we arrived back at camp and they too seemed to have a good day.  Man, I am sure glad we thought about leaving that door open so that they had access in and out of the camper.  It is a great idea and we really do not have to worry about them when we are gone.
Supper was great and Booko was snoozing in his chair before we actually called it a day.   We have one more day of trails here then will pack up and continue our journey home.
Life is Good!!

Friday, April 20/2018

A little snow

We woke up to a skiff of snow on the ground this morning.   And, it was chilly.  The weather man said it was to warm up later in the day so once Kay and I (and the animals) lounged in the warmth of the camper we headed into town to see if we could get a map of the trails.  We needed to get some more ice for the coolers and of course there is always something to buy at the grocery store.

They are cozy - Corrina and Booko

Corrina, Sky and Booko.   Dogs and cats can get along!!

John decided that he would join Kay and I for the trip into town and once we found a map and picked up our supplies, we headed out for a driving tour of Johnson's Canyon.

Drive out to Johnson's Canyon

Lion Head - stone formation

We had picked up a brochure of several of the areas around Kanab and Johnson's Canyon was one of them.   Apparently there were several places of interest along the 15 mile spur and so we headed out to see what we could see.......

Old pioneer grave

We passed an old pioneer gravesite.  Many of the sites were on private property so we were unable to get close to them so had to settle for "distance" shots and believe me, the zoom on the phone camera is not all that great.
We passed the site where episodes of Gunsmoke were filmed and it was pretty run down.  It is unfortunate that the site was not preserved as I am sure it could have been turned into quite an attraction in today's times.   Many of us grew up with Miss Kitty and Marshal Matt Dillon.

Gunsmoke movie set 1955-1975

Petroglyphs and an old Cowboy shack were along the route

"Cowboy" advertising was scratched into the rocks and this one
advertised a store and what it had to offer.

It was a nice little drive and being only 15 miles long, we got to turn around and see it all again before we finally headed back to camp to settle in for the evening check out our new fancy map and prepare for tomorrow's adventures.  We are headed to the trails across the highway so will see some new sites.

Life is Good....