April 10 As the snow has been in retreat, some evenings the rain barrel still freezes over:
But
the buttercups and spring beauties appeared in our yard last week, and
we finally made it up on our ridge to grass widows on display:
April 13-20 We took a rare spring vacation to southern Utah last week. Here's the evidence: We
spent a day in Zion NP. This several hundred foot waterfall was
the best part of the walk towards the Narrows, which was not accessible
due to high (and freezing) water...
Mule deer were common in the park, and seemed tame, as we also saw later in McCall Idaho...
These twin falls fell into one of the emerald pools, which was not as photogenic as it sounds...
The
next day we crossed the Colorado river on a bridge, and I shot some
photos of what I thought were vultures. I did notice some had
number tags on them. Only when I looked at them on my computer
screen at home I realized some of them were condors. You can see
the tag of 43 on its right shoulder. The color of the head was
what gave it away...
We
were on our way to Paige Arizona to do a slot canyon tour on the Navajo
reservation. There were about 50 tour trucks each with 14
tourists, with one tour on the heels of the next through the half mile
canyon. Still it was an otherworldly experience with lots of
chances for artistic photos...
We
also did the half mile hike to the Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado
River. This was as wide as my camera could go without cropping
out some of the bend. The small dots on the lower left of the
peninsula were kayaks...
We
had toured Zion and Antelope Canyon with our old friends the Troyers.
But then we headed toward home, and checked out Coral Pink
Sanddunes State Park, which was the full desert experience (but with 50
degree temperatures)... It was cool that several Holywood films were
filmed there in the 40's and 50's.
Coming down from the mountains on Utah 14 towards Cedar City, this mountain with a gray top caught our eyes, and the river of gray talus rocks eroding from it through the tan rock below.
After
taking back roads through the Great Basin NP and northward, we made it
to Twin Falls Idaho and got a cold windy view of Shoshone Falls.
The wind was so strong that one of the portapotties there in the
viewing park was blown over partly blocking our exit...
Our
final night was spent in Donnelly Idaho near McCall, and as we drove in
the 22 degree sunny weather, we observed this on the highway. It
was a cold mirage--there was no water on the road. Only wisps of
vapor betrayed the likely source of the illusion.
