Scenes From Utah Hikes (04-26-16)

After leaving Vegas, we headed to Utah to do some hiking.  Utah is probably my favorite state for hiking, although our first venture out didn’t work out so well.

This trail had  a warning to anyone who is afraid of heights, but I am fond of saying I am not afraid of heights, I am afraid of falling.  This Canal Trail took us along the edges of a canyon above the Virgin River. Unfortunately, the trail (you can see it below Paul, along the CLIFF) was too close to the edge for me, and I had to turn around.

Still, the views were nice.

Just to prove my point, here is me, smiling at the top of a mountain, with a gorgeous view, but no fear of falling. This was the Red Mountain Traverse Trail- about 8 miles long, with varying views along the way.

Paul posed for the same picture.

I love hiking on rock, and this trail offered plenty opportunity for that.














Another view from the same hike.  This was one of my favorite hikes.  The valley we are overlooking is in Snow Canyon State Park, in Utah, near Zion National Park.

We have spent a fair amount of time hiking in Utah, so this trip we were kind of staying away from the places we had been before, and trying something new.







Another day, another hike- this one in Red Cliffs  National Conservation Area.

The weather was all over the place while we were in Utah.  80s one day, followed by 62 degrees the next.  Add differing elevations to that and you never knew what you were gonna get.


I really wanted to check out Kolob Canyon- it’s a more remote part of Zion National Park, and has some great hiking trails.  It also had snow. Fresh snow.

Our plans for hiking being thwarted gave us time to drive 10 miles down a dirt “road” to Toquerville Falls. This is a popular swimming destination, but not until the spring run off slows down!

Nearby Snow Canyon State Park was on my list of places that I wanted to hike, but we ran out of time. We were staying at an Elks Lodge, and thought we’d be able to extend our stay but they had a special meeting going on and we had to leave. 







It was really cool to realize that we were only 4 hours from home, so we can come back whenever we want!




Speaking of home, on the way there, a tire on the truck developed a bubble, and Paul had to put on the spare.  Luckily we caught it before it was a catastrophic failure.
We were planning on replacing all 6 tires before we left Havasu for the summer, so we bumped it up on the priority list, and they have already all been replaced.  We even got the damaged one replaced for free- we love Discount Tire!



We have been home for about a week now, busy buying things (more on that later), planting things and all the usual stuff.

Vegas, Baby! (04-22-16)

For Paul and I, Vegas falls into the “been there, done that” category. And yet, we just spent over a week there. However-  we only went into the city itself once- and it wasn’t to gamble or see a show!




Our primary purpose in coming to Vegas was to attend the Scottish Highland Games.  Paul and I both have a fair amount of Scottish in us, and we enjoy these Celtic Festivals.

We were joined by Mike and Julie, and Randy and Liz, who had all just left our house the day before.  We also met up with Dave and Jan, friends of Mike and Julie.

Paul and Mike both look great in a Kilt, and seem to enjoy getting into the spirit of things by wearing the traditional garb (the man in the middle is the leader of one off the Celtic bands).

Highland Way was one of several bands that performed on the main stage.  There was live music all day long.

There was plenty to see and do, with competitions taking place all day long.

The Athletics, such as the Caber Toss, are always fun to watch, and other competitions included  Drum Major, individual piping, drumming…

….and pipe bands.

Food and beverage were also plentiful, and several of our group attended a whisky tasting.



Over Yonder, away from the music, was an area of tents where you could buy all things Celtic, and check out the Clan tents.  Neither the Johnston or Campbell clans were represented, so I affiliated myself with the Clan Inebriated. Easy to join- just look them up on Facebook!











Closing Ceremonies featured Scotland The Brave:

The only time we ventured into the city was to check out the Carroll Shelby Museum.

 Anyone who is interested in cars should check this out.  We had a guided tour that lasted an hour and a half, and I never got bored!

This is Shelby #1- the first car Carroll Shelby ever modified.  He was offered $26 million for it, and turned it down.

The Shelby 1000- Yup, that’s 1000 horsepower!

The Super Snake- topping out at over 200 mph.  And even though Carroll Shelby died a few years ago, you can still have one of these built for you

The tour was full of anecdotes about Carroll Shelby- his racing life, the cars he built and his relationships with auto manufacturers . 

Our adventuring mostly consisted of hiking.  Maybe surprisingly, there is a lot of hiking available in the Las Vegas area. 



We first headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
















The Calico Hills area is one of my favorites.  The rock colors and formations are just really cool, and fun to hike on.











We also hiked to Madre Spring on a different day, but we called that hike “exercise”.  Not much to see of interest, but at least we were out and about.

On one of the hotter days we headed up to nearby Mt. Charleston, which sits at a higher elevation. The trail we chose was to Mary Jane Falls.  It was almost 5 miles long, and over 1500 ft of elevation gain.

We call this type of hike a “twofer”.  The scenery along the way was great, and there was a cave. and a waterfall at the end of the trail. 




Julie and I sat by the waterfall while Mike and Paul wandered over to the cave. The arrow points to the guys.












Of course you can’t hike all day every day, so we had plenty of time to hang out.

The RV park where we stayed happened to be a shooting range, and all the guys took advantage of that to do some target shooting. 

After dinner it was time to get out the firewood and the musical instruments.




Life is good.









Soon enough, it was Wheels Up, as we all scattered for our summer destinations.  Our next stop is Utah, where we’ll do some hiking.

Playing Catch Up (04-14-16)

Apparently “some” inquiring minds would like to know what we’ve been up to since my last post, which was, egad, over a month ago. 

After leaving Tucson, we headed to El Paso, by way of Chiricahua National Monument, where we spent some time hiking.

Hiking among the hoodoos at this park is quite a blast…..

…and offers some spectacular views as well.

We spent two weeks with Paul’s mom, taking care of some yard work and just general stuff that she wanted help with.  We also both had our dental check up since our favorite dentist is in El Paso.  How exciting!



In early April we went home to Havasu, stopping in Tucson to visit one more time and see our friends’ new house. 

We no sooner arrived home when we got a message inquiring if we were home.  Our friends Mike and Julie were looking for a place to celebrate Mike’s birthday:

So, along with friends Liz and Randy, they came to hang out with us for a few days.  The weather wasn’t very pool friendly, but we still had a great time.


As usual, the kitchen was well used and we cooked several meals together.

Of course, there is always something going on in Havasu and this weekend was no exception. 

The boat show was about more than just boats- also on display were side by side ATVs- do I see one in our future??

  

There were also Jet ski races on the lake, which were actually fun to watch.

Come Monday, they all took off again, but there was no need for long good-byes. They were headed to nearby Vegas, and we followed them the next day.


More on Vegas later…..