Impressions

Yes, we had to drive from highway 59 directly through Hildale and Colorado city - I have no clue where one ends and the other starts. To the very corner of them where the mountains are letting out a small stream. The road has the same name - Whitewater canyon, so there is no way of getting lost. But then it gets bad, really bumpy and in places like a ditch. In spite of that we managed to reach the very end of it - a small parking place with several big trucks there already. Some people from around here don’t believe in driving smaller cars when not carrying big loads…At some point, I guess, the gas prices will change the belief system. And there we started - on a very sandy path by the stream. To tell the truth - it was not an easy walk, not so much up, mostly a little up and down, but the sand made you feel as if you are in a bad dream sliding back with each step. It was the end of April, so there were cacti blooming:

Being careful not to step on some prickly ones little by little we reached the main feature - the narrow part of the canyon with a little waterfall and steep rocks:

This was the view in front of us:

Pretty. But we had to pursue our trip upwards. It was tricky to find which side of the steep canyon to climb, where was a passable route. On the left side. So here we climbed it and continued to walk on slick rock ( and believe me - it is much more comfortable than sand) and then again sand-rock-cacti, bushes, up and up the slope of the canyon towards the pines we could see on its edge.

It was a pretty long climbing, maybe for a couple of hours until we reached the top more or less (I say more or less because even if you think you have reached the top - there are still ways to go up) and had lunch there with the beautiful vistas, slick rock and pine trees:

So we still went further up a little till we reached a real edge of that mountain facing the vistas to the other side. Though the latter ones looked the same - this or that side. Red mountains in far distance, perfectly clear skies, that is what Southern Utah is.

And then we descended the same way we came up, except that the views always look a little different and it is now harder on your knees not as much on your lungs:

And then we lifted our heads and noticed an arch high up on the left side of canyon wall looking towards descend, towards Colorado city:

Some adventurous people we met on the trail hiked there to have fun walking on it…not us. I wish we could see them over there while we were taking pictures, but to no luck.

And here we were again passing the cacti:

crossing Colorado city with its huge homes with multiple wives:

and back to our not so big home though it is also a B&B. We reached our Rockville via a back road which is not so good as driving through Hurricane, but is very picturesque:

Till next trip!

This was on one of the first days of May. The spring here was wonderful, the main factor being the temperature- it was not too hot. Well, except some 4 days in the middle of May which caused some people heat rashes. But the beginning of May was fantastic and a group of locals as well as some visitors collected for a trip on the upper part of Zion NP. We parked the cars on the right hand side of the road approximately half way from the tunnel to the East entrance and proceeded down to the dry wash. And then up and towards a pass in between two red typical Zion peaks. Here is how it all looked:

Lines of Zion…

Towards the pass…

Our group on the pass:

A small stream on the way down to the other side of the pass towards the Big Hole:

Still not the Big Hole, but a small one…

At last - here is she!

On top of the Hole we had our lunch:

The leaders of the group - Adrian and Delores. Adrian’s way of getting his water during the trip…

Brian Head Ski Resort is located in the same mountainous area as Cedar Breaks National Monument, just minutes from it. It is 12 mi from Rt 15 and totally 27 mi North of Cedar City. The resort itself is not very attractive, but the slopes, the trails, the views, the chair lifts are fantastic! It is always smart to check the weather over there before going because even when we have warmth and sunshine in Zion, the winds in Brian Head can be unbearable and the snowstorms blinding. So we waited this year for a long time until we picked the best day, which was April 4th…pretty late in the season :-). This is how it looked:

Empty chairs, well graded slopes…and it was Friday for God’s sake…Where were the people? Is this economic crisis hitting us already or everyone is tuned to spring activities?

This is the smallest and easiest trail, by Navajo Lodge. It used to be dotted with a lot of small skiers, closely held by their instructors, or groups of snowboard beginners…The terrace used to be full with lunch eaters, hard to find an empty table. And here we are all by ourselves (we hardly caught a lonely wandering Englishman to take this picture):

For us, the consumers, it was the best! And a little surrealistic - you go down the slope - and there is no one around, you have the slope just for yourself, as if owning it for those several minutes! The sun is kissing your cheeks and the wind is cooling the well layered body, you fly down like a bird with no obstacles, just the smooth white terrain - tell me about the feeling of “present”, “the power of now”!

This is the view once you get to the top with the longest lift from Navajo Lodge. Is is always so beautiful to see that huge space with colors, especially the red rocks sticking from green forest and white slopes…The only problem - when you go up, you are excited to go down as fast as you can on those empty trails together with the wind… I checked - it takes 7-8 minutes to go up on the chairlift and some 3-4 min down - so in an hour you can make up to 5 rounds.

There are houses on the sides of the skiing slope - but I never saw anyone there. Just an investment, I guess…

And here we are color matched on the top of our beloved mountain:

That day we skied from 1 pm till 4:30 pm, which is considered half day and it was enough ant even too much for our untrained legs. We went 15 times downhill. The next Saturday, which was April 12th, for the closing of the season they declared half price for tickets…it was certainly an incentive to skip Tai-ji and leave all spring work at home and go skiing once more. The weather couldn’t be better. And again - there were extremely few people skiing on all 3 mountains with all the 8 chair lifts operating…Good for us, but not so good for the owners of the lifts who were in my eyes - just waisting electricity and not saving nature… But what can you do - you just enjoy!

Spring in Rockville is very beautiful. Especially this one, because we didn’t get the late frosts as usual which kill the tree blossoms. But i was a little cooler than usual, so everything started blooming later that usual. Anyway - from March to May it is a very good time to come the Zion NP and hike a lot! The temperatures almost never get to hot, they are in a comfortable range for hiking or working outside. And a spring breeze is cooling you constantly. However, there can be some rather windy parts of days. Also - there may even happen to snow once, as it was two years ago: March 15 th morning looked like this:

This year it snowed on March 16th, but it wasn’t as impressive. But have in mind - those are the only one or second times during winter season that we see snow!

So if you are more into blooms and flowers - come no earlier than the end of March. The same pear tree you just saw under snow looks like this:

And we have sunsets like that:

Closer to the summer those sunsets get less red and impressive, because the sun sets in a different location in regards to the canyon direction. But we still have beautiful views around while evenings set down:

WE have a fairy tale in Lithuania by Biliunas about “Cursed monks” who were punished and turned into stone figures because while going up and reaching for the torch of happines on the top of a mountain - they couldn’t sustain from doubts, fear and curiosity and looked back… The author definitely never visited this area, but I have never seen a mountain which would illustrate the tale better:

And here are some blooms:

Those are peach trees blooming:

The irises come out later, only by the end of May:

And please, don’t miss our sign almost all buried in flowers…

Come and see for yourselves…

The end.

Here in Rockville and Springdale we are blessed - we have Yoga ant Tai-Ji classes! It is hard for us to choose where to go or to find time for both. Ann Rutz teaches Anusara Yoga and David Rutz teaches Tai-ji. They are both wonderful teachers, what a family!

This time I will talk about Tai-ji which we usually have on David’s terrace, and that is how we usually see him :-):

And this is us, his most devoted students: Susan, Genevieve and Nida:

It all started several years ago - David got engaged in his Master’s Chungliang Al Huang classes in Oregon and even invited him to our canyon one of the beautiful autumns maybe a couple of years ago.

Here Chungliang is in the middle of the circle teaching us to relax in our movements, to dance in his class and through life.

He also showed us how graceful he is while doing Chinese calligraphy:

At the end of the classes as usual we were taking pictures with him:

But then he left and David decided to continue teaching us the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life. So we are enjoying every minute of it:

Especially when the weather is nice enough (which is almost always we have it on the terrace with the magnificent views of Zion:

That is why when we come to class we at first all exclaim what a wonderful weather we have here, how beautiful the mountains look and how grateful we are for that:

Then we do the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life created or choreographed by Chungliang, trying to be as graceful as possible and also trying to feel the energy floating around and through us:

And at some point we always discuss things like whether there is a bad and good energy or just the energy we need and use and the energy we don’t utilize (Susan’s brilliant thought). We discuss Chinese symbols, some philosophy and then David tells us something in pure Chinese language, which to him sounds musical and to me - not so much :-). He is a very good student of everything Chinese! There are quite a few Chinese paintings in their house, so when the weather is not the best -we do Tai-Ji in the house and admire the art:

There is also another Buddha outside who watches us while we dance and gives us a hint to be as Present as possible:

We usually end the class with the healing movements of Spring Forest Chigong and then usually Ann, our Yoga teacher, comes back from walking their dog Lao-Tzu and we have a nice chat with her:

And then David sees us off, till next Saturday:

Thank you, David!

Here is how our Zion National Park looked this winter. It is usually like that every winter, except that this winter we had a lot of snow. While I am writing this it is already 28th of March and I can still see snow powder on the slopes of Mountain. But the pictures were taken not now, but at different times in December and February. Here is the entrance to the park and the main scenic drive:

We were so happy to catch that beam of sun on the edge of the mountain:

Virgin River by the Temple of Sinawawa:

There were some bright colored ducks swimming in the river:

As every temple the Temple of Sinawawa it has an altar and a pulpit:

There was much more snow in February and those are a couple of views on the top part of the park - the Canyon Overlook trail:

Hello again! After this trip to California spring started bursting in our Rockville, so I had to take care of my garden first. Feeling a little late with my impressions from Monterey…

Here what I saw from the airplane flying from Las Vegas to San Jose. It was the Death Valley underneath us and one could clearly see the white salts of Bad Waters! Boy, I liked it seeing from above just weeks after we visited it on the ground level :

Then the Sierras showed their snowy tops:

California on the other side of Sierra Nevada mountains is very green - quite a difference:

And here is the Silicon Valley with San Jose in the middle. Can you feel the tremendous and concentrated brain energy pulsing in the air?

Luckily the Bowen Workshop was held not in San Jose but in Monterey - it was a beautiful drive to there! I just couldn’t take pictures, the car was too fast…But believe me - there were lots of flowers on the green hill slopes by the road! You will see some of them growing in Monterey where I could walk and enjoy them. But fort of all - the House of 4 Winds (sounds impressive) where the workshop was held:

I mean the smaller one on the right. The bigger one is the Museum of Art. We parked the cars to unload the massage tables and were greeted by Karin Twohig - the workshop coordinator and John Wilks, the teacher for this topic: “Bowen for Back Pain” :

Everything was organized very well for such a sizable class - 34 participants. The House of 4 Winds had a big hall for listening to our teacher and performing the assessments he taught as well as some minimal number of moves on each other:

During small breaks we had chats in the kitchen while drinking tea with cookies, nuts and other snacks. Those breaks seemed always too short because there were so many information to exchange among participants or answers to get from the more experienced ones. I bet Sandra Gustafson never had a minute off…

Then again - back to demonstrations and studies. In this particular one John Wilks was showing us how to do the Pelvic procedure on a lying person:

During the lunch break I wondered around and saw some outstanding views:

The bright yellow flowers could be seen all the way from San Jose to Monterey. As I looked closer - they are from the same family as Irish shamrocks:

This time the sea lions didn’t fight for their rocks, they each had one and were peacefully resting:

Sometimes I wish I’d stop admiring flowers so much…

Returning back to Bowen workshop - this artistic house was on the way:

Here is the whole group of us students - Bowen practitioners:

I guess we were so in a hurry after the class that we didn’t take the untidy massage table away from the view…sorry about that…

It took me a long day to fly that 1h and 20 min flight form San Jose to Las Vegas…They found they had to attach some little thing to the airplane and it lasted for 4 h’s. So this is the evening view of Las Vegas Strip before circling it and landing:

Now with our sharpened skills in Bowen Bodywork we continue helping people to live and enjoy their lives without pain.

I guess - every little town has someone. We have Susan Taylor. She simply shines. Not only that she eagerly helps in every Rockville event, but her presence is more than her help. Seeing how people love her I dare say that she lifts the vibrations not only in me. Today - March 10th - was Susan’s Birthday. Here is how her house looked in the morning when we came to congratulate her:

Susan’s daughter Marie organized the most beautiful Birthday party for her I have ever seen. It was in Rockville Community Center and how many people participated?…Sorry, I was so excited that I didn’t count, but my guess is - no less than a hundred… Here is how it looked:

And here is our Susan, alone and with Marie:

And with our outstanding photographer Jim who is reading a poem specially created to Susan (he and his wife Carol are also poets). He was also very excited, he could hardly see what to read:

Though the invitation said “no presents”, Susan got two. Well, she got some more, but the others were not official. Under the experienced direction by Alison a bunch of women created and sewn a fantastic quilt - a very personalized one for it had the pictures of Susan and her friends on top, several of Susan’s best pictures of Zion park, Buddhist monks and Rockville under snow (which rarely happens) and Buddhist prayer flags on the bottom. It emphasized not only Susan’s social talents, but her talents as a photographer as well. I bet she likes the quilt because she is a picture lover and keeps boxes and boxes of them.

So here is the quilt:

And here is the other present:

This fancy man (Agent 007)  simply emerged from the box while Susan was unwrapping.

There were lots of cards, but this one requires to be shown separately. It is made of metal and is huge like a sculpture:

This is the most magic moment - and what do you think - she blew all of the 58 candles at once! What a lung capacity!

And here are some of Susan’s friends, sorry, I didn’t take them all…Some pics were blur, too excited to have steady hands…

Alison and Johnny:

Oh, I have to mention - almost all of us has green dots on our noses - to show we belong to “Susan’s gang”:

Delores is embraced by the man who is not her husband - she is the artist of the metal card! Such a delicate and tiny woman and so strong…

Ann Weiler Brown with Trista and Allan:

I can’t mention our wonderful Yoga teacher Ann with the best yoginia’s:

Susan with Sandra, Kim and the legendary La Berta:

With Margot:

And with Fay:

Logan is the journalist and politician - he helped to introduce democracy in Lithuania and other Baltic and previous Soviet Union countries, not an easy task. He even knows some words from each country he has worked and always greets me with “Labas”. On his teeshirts he always has something peculiar. Good that Lenin here has this punk comb on his head - otherwise it wouldn’t be funny to me, having lived through his established regime:

Robert Perkins with Fay (both artists and neighbors as most of the people here):

The end.

We did the Artist Drive then stopped at Golden Canyon and walked up a little. Very dry, no flowers or anything, except maybe one bush. But the rocks are spectacular:

And only when we reached the Visitor’s center which is by Furnace Creek - we saw the abundance of Desert Sunflowers - the ones we were seeking…Maybe I’ll place too many pictures of them here, but I can’t help. I want to share their beauty, their ethereal nature and my big feeling of ‘Awe’ -when you think: tender lush flowers in a harsh desert environment…(but you shouldn’t think, just be present - as Eckhart Tolle advises us). This is the place where the feeling of stillness and sacredness fills the heart and there is a possibility to connect with the Great Consciousness or God…

The sun was setting, so we drove back through Furnace Creek, which is a little oasis in the valley - they have some good palm trees and look like an island of life:

And then up to Zabriskie Point. When I was young and lived in Lithuania I saw a movie by this name by Italian film director Antonioni - a very existentialist movie that was forbidden in former Soviet Union. But as the constrictions were getting looser some enthusiasts showed the movie for small audiences and I never forgot it (well, and never even for a second did I dream to see the place with my own eyes). It ends with lots of naked bodies making love on the slopes of Zabriskie Point…It is a beautiful scene, but when you see the surface and structure of those slopes in reality - as one person said - making love here would be the last thing on my mind . You can decide for yourselves…

And the sun is setting, heading home…

I highly suggest to see Death Valley NP, but not in summer. If you can’t go during the flower season which is March, warm yourselves up in winter or late fall. But if you are going for extremes - they say it feels like in a oven in summer. And I would also suggest not to take our bad example (in and out in 5 hours) and stay there at least for a night so that you could enjoy more of it and see its morning! There are many more good pictures to be made if the sun shines from different side. Best luck!

We spent 5 hours in death Valley on March 5th this year. A little too short for a drive of 5 h one way…We left Rockville, UT at 8 a.m., in 2.5 h as usual reached Las Vegas, couldn’t resist the temptation to stop at Bellagio and have one more look at the Chinese new year flower exhibit there (were not disappointed - the abundance of orchids in daylight looked fantastic!) and then proceeded to Death Valley NP by Rt. 160 which starts on the Southern part of Las Vegas. Three years ago the southern part of Death valley was especially in bloom, so we expected something close this year. We passed Pahrump on the way and it is quite a town to sleep, eat and have some fun. On the map it looks like the town we chose for sleep that night - Indian Springs and that was a mistake. We almost missed it in the dark, it had only one motel and one restaurant and because of the lack of competition - the quality was so so. Back to Death Valley. So we reached the entrance around 1 pm and at last saw some higher elevation flowers - primroses, dandelions, poppies. Not so dense, but still there were patches and it was sensitive to walk on that desert - not to step on a tiny blooming thing.

It was a perfect place for lunch among blooms. The weather was also - perfect! We left Utah at minus! 2 C and came to Death Valley at 25-30C! With the air being so dry - it the the most comfortable temp. As I mentioned -those first patches of flowers were in the elevations above 3000′ above sea level. As we started going down and down - the road twisting and going straight, still very long way, the blooms disappeared and it was only sandy - stony desert with some enduring bushes.

It is 50 mi from the South entrance to Bad Waters, so it takes a while to get there. We reached the lowest part of Western hemisphere at 2pm. It is a very pleasant atmosphere there, some good energy spread throughout Death Valley. But that is my subjective opinion, don’t take it seriously :-). At some point in Earth’s history Death valley was a long lake. Then it dried out and here we have this long and salty valley. You can walk where you want there, people have made a path where the lowest point is, ant their path is white like snow. The mud mixed with salts is constantly changing its shapes, growing. So there are some sounds of “devils playing golf” in some parts, but we didn’t hear them this time. But to walk on that salty even path to space - what a pleasure!

It is 282′ below sea level. There are no streams which would bring the water and very little rain. So we have this dry bottom of a lake, which is nice now but so terribly hot in summer. And this is how the road goes in that bottom:

Occasionally at some point we started to notice the desert sunflowers growing in a string (why in a perfect string? why only by the road? hard to know) so close to the road that people may harm them while parking…

And only by Furnace Creek and by the visitor’s center we started seeing a lot of them - worth stopping and taking pictures. But about that - next time…