I know I am late with my blogging about this hike, but the views were good, the trail was even better – so I still decided to share. It all started as usual – Adrian sent a message about the coming hike and several individuals as well as their dogs decided to celebrate Easter by challenging their muscles and getting more in touch with nature.
We drove Kolob Terrace Road to the first top valley and parked the cars by a sandy path on the right, leading through the fields towards very pretty looking rocks:
Upon reaching the rocks we climbed up on a path done at some point by Mr. Lee who owns the land and lots of lands around. He has done it for his cows to lead them from one valley to another. As if someone mentioned that he had to blast the path in the rocks:
I wonder if the poor cows see the beauty around them or they just are sad of the lack of food in this desert…
Then we descended down to the valley downstairs and walked along a stream:
The dogs had a blast in that stream , especially in the bath tubs which were supposed for the cows to drink…
Not long after this dam we had to climb up – literally, on a steep slope on a slick rock:
The view on my stop to catch a breath:
There on the top there was a surprise – I love surprises and who doesn’t. It was a pond with water and swamp plants in it:
We had our lunch here and the dogs had their fun. the view to the other side, the one we started from:
That is it, we went down with no adventures. The celebration was over, life is simple.
Adrian led us, a bunch of locals, again to some interesting hike. It was the beginning of June, wonderful weather! By wonderful I mean – not hot, light cloudy skies, best for hiking. One could never wish for more in this desert…
We started in the upper part of our park and went up the Pastel canyon:
Crows saw us off:
And desert flowers met us on the way:
The canyon got thinner and narrower:
We needed to use ropes twice:
We had to sneak through thick bushes and climb slippery sandy slopes:
But we reached the top where the canyon joins East Rim Trail:
Some of the last hard climb on the top:
And there we had lunch. From that point there was no climbing any more, mostly descending, very lightly, very nicely, at first on a nice forest path:
With abundance of flowers here and there:
Then the forest opened up and disappeared in the back… but the flowers were still there:
Doesn’t it look like a path to Eden?
From there we could see our end point in the distance in the bottom of this canyon. But to reach that point – oh, it was a rather long walk – around and around the edges of canyons of which there is no lack in this country:
Thanks God there were different interesting flowers on the way:
Adrian says we walked totally 5 miles, but to me it seems we walked very long miles. Here is the finish line, with a cold bottle of beer (thanks to one of our fellow hikers):
…………the end……….
If you want to see our flowers at their best -May is the time to come. After that everything more or less fades till October, though there is always some plant in bloom. But not in abundance. What else can you expect in a desert…So here are our roses:
Evenings are saturated with Honeysuckle smells…
Here are the flowers that come from seeds every spring by themselves, I guess they are called volunteers. But we don’t know their more particular name:
Finally – my husband’s favorites, the dragons as he calls them, they sit in front of our windows, catching insects:
