Sunday 28th May 2017

Bryce Canyon National Park was in top form.  We lucked out with sunny days and nippy nights.  Hiking at over 8,ooo feet gave our tickers a good workout.

My snazzy new walking stick garnered several compliments on the trails. When I explained it was a cactus stalk and let people hold it they were rather impressed. (The burly beast weighs only 10 ounces)

One day we hiked the Fairlyland Trail. 8 miles of some pretty good elevation gain and loss.  The fabulous scenery helped with hoofing it on the uphill sections.

This Pine is hanging on by a thread, or should I say root.

Some sections  of the trail had quite steep drop-offs on each side.

Hoodoos of every shape and colour.

We then moved on to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  This area covers a massive chunk of barren wilderness in Southern Utah.  There was lots of driving on dirt roads. This nice wide slot canyon was at least a mile long.

The walls were so high and sheer.

The only wildlife we saw was this cute lizard.  He was trying to give us the evil eye.

Another slot canyon hike was mostly paddling through a red stream.

The water was nice and warm though.

We drove 26 miles on this road to find a slot canyon. Red dust took on a whole new meaning.

It’s called Spooky as it’s so narrow it gives some people the heebie jeebies.

We had to travel sideways the whole way.

We only made it part way through, as it got quite technical with huge boulders to ascend.  The part we did get through was good fun.

We moved on to Idaho for a couple of weeks.  The only highlight was this hike.  Snowmelt had turned this trail into a babbling brook. The bikers loved it.

The overflowing river made the trail very damp.  Dean was prepared with his good old Chaco sandals.  I had to bushwack around the edges to keep my feet somewhat dry.

We finally made our way into Eastern Oregon.  This area of the State is very sparsely populated.  The trail started out nice and dry but….

I will let you decide who has on the most sensible footwear for a snow trail.  I do know my feet were nice and warm.

A crystal clear alpine lake was at the end of the trail. A beautiful place to have our snack.

This is when I need a fancy camera.  I could only get part of the double rainbow with my phone.

Spring flowers are blooming in Eastern Oregon. There are no leaves and hardly a stem  on these lovely Bitterroot flowers.

Quite a bit of Phlox is out and this patch had a nice color combo going on.

Next stop is Redmond Oregon for a few weeks.  We hope to get in some pickle balling, hiking and best of all family visits.