Natural Bridges NM

We stopped by Natural Bridges National Monument for a day of biking and hiking. It's a pretty place with viewpoints of 3 large bridges and trails down to (and between) them. We biked over to Sipapu Bridge and then ran a loop between it and Kachina Bridge. Here is Sipapu from the road - the green circle in the middle of the photo:


I ran across the plateau first, while John ran down into the canyon in an opposite loop. A cairn along the upper trail:


Rock head:


Kachina Bridge from up high:


The trail heading down to the bridge:


The bridge from underneath:


Hi John!


Interesting tree (probably juniper?):


Odd balanced rock:


Sipapu Bridge from underneath:


An interesting angle on the rock in the background - almost looks like it's in front of the bridge:


"Warning - Unfenced Viewpoint":


Turkey vulture:


Looking down into White Canyon:


John waiting for me at the top:


The third bridge, called Owachomo (not so easy to see):


Instead of walking down there, here is a better angle:


The solar installation at the park - we are seeing lots of solar panels at most of the national parks and monuments this summer. Utah is a great place for it!

Paddling at Glen Canyon

A few scenes from our paddle workout at Glen Canyon and a short ways up the Colorado River:





Hey, I got a selfie to work!


Flying our pack raft:


A very scenic "Howie location":


We're ready to rent a houseboat for several days and hang out in Glen Canyon some summer - but only if some friends come with us. Let me know if you'd be interested!

Canyoneering near Hite, part 2

The next day we returned to the same area for another short canyon, this time the "East Fork of Mile 27.4 Canyon." We were looking forward to another couple hours playing around on sandstone. As I write this from Boulder City, NV, I remember and miss the sandstone!


John strikes an imposing figure:


A random hoodoo:


Almost a selfie:


At the top of the first rappel (15 meters high):


It was an easy one - a nice change for me:


The second rappel was our highest to date, 32 meters. Too high to double-back our 50-meter rope, so we had to use a second rope to pull it down. This was good practice for a subsequent canyon at Zion, even though we (likely) won't need this skill at Desert Winds.

Getting set up:


I *love* this shot:


Looks like he got it all figured out:


Another fun rappel, just quite a bit more of a drop. Looking back at the ropes as John is starting to pull them down:


Stemming practice:


The slot below the rappels was awesome - narrow, curvy, interesting, and in some places really narrow:





A rare view from above:


One of my better "downclimb" photos - I may be getting better at it, but usually it doesn't look any too graceful:


We had planned to do the east fork as well, but some dark clouds and wind chased us away. Hopefully we'll be back there someday - it's a neat place to learn on some short and sweet canyons.

Canyoneering near Hite, part 1

I'm a long ways from being caught up on blog posts (among other things), but I'll post some photos here and there and we'll see what happens this week while we're at an RV park with internet and electricity. We spent 10 days dry camping in somewhat remote areas, had great fun exploring parts of southern Utah and northern Arizona, and lived to tell about it :)

After John's solar class in Colorado, we returned to Utah and made tracks toward Lake Powell. On the way south we stopped at a spot along highway 95 to do some canyoneering. I'm pretty excited about the Utah canyoneering book I bought - we never would have found many of the places that we've taken our ropes into. This particular spot has the charming name of "Death Canyon".

I don't seem all too concerned about that on the way in:


My colorful arm injury from Moab - it never hurt much nor affected me anywhere near like it looks like it should have:


The bottom of the rappel, which turned out to be pretty wet. Enough wet to turn the sand into quicksand. We have since learned that it probably had a finite depth that might go up to one's waist but we probably wouldn't get TOO stuck. Ultimately, however, I declined to test it out. We went up to the slot canyon to play around but didn't do this rappel:


Pretty canyon country:


A short rappel that we did just for practice, looping the rope on a chokestone up top. "Look Ma, no ATC!":


John demonstrating the art of "stemming", or using both sides of the canyon to move along without touching the ground (very useful for getting over obstacles):



I was a bit shaky (and still am, if there is anything below me that I really don't want to fall into):


But some spots were easy:



Just practicing:


Downward Dog for canyoneers:


Overlooking the northern end of Lake Powell and the first bridge over the Colorado River since Moab many miles to the north:


Parked on sandstone at the Hite Campground - a wonderful place for primitive camping:


The view out the back of Howie:


More to come - another day!

Free endorsements

i.e. I'm not getting paid for posting these opinions :)

Food-related discoveries from the past several months:

Ziplok Zip N Steam bags - easiest way to cook veggies (especially broccoli) we've ever found

Greek Gods honey yogurt (thank you Sprouts)

Uncle Ben's jasmine rice

Cherry wine from Spanish Valley vineyard near Moab

Farr's Fresh Ice Cream Cafe in Vernal, UT (there are also a couple locations near Salt Lake City, but we didn't find it until we got to Vernal) - make your own sundae, pay by the ounce, fresh fruit toppings, yum!

Dried blueberries on oatmeal (thank you Brandi)

Sabra pine nut hummus

Himalayan Kitchen in Durango, CO - my new favorite-est buffet

Making beans in a crock pot

Annie Chun's sushi wraps - make your own sushi rolls

And last, but definitely not least - we have discovered that John can stir-fry! :)