Thunder, lightening and perfect timing

Campsite views

We decided we'd better get in another camp out in the high country before it gets too cold.  We also wanted to do a little road rambling.  After work on Friday we packed up and headed for mountains near Brian Head.  Our chosen campsite was occupied, so we hurried to find another one to get settled before dark and hopefully before the rain set in since the clouds were looking very threatening.  Paul made a great dinner of Dutch oven stew and biscuits while I worked on getting the rest of camp set up.  It got dark, so we ate by lantern light...perfect food and surroundings.  The clouds were still very threatening, so we hurried and cleaned up and stowed the gear and headed for the tent to watch a movie on the laptop.  Just as we got everything squared away and were warm and dry in the tent the clouds let loose. After we finished our movie and sacked out it really started up with lightening and thunder and it even hailed some (we found ice outside the tent in the morning).

Leftover ice chunks from the hailstorm

It was so fun to just lay there and enjoy the noise and light while staying warm and dry.  It was a little hard to sleep until things quieted down some.  We made up for it by sleeping in and having breakfast in the tent.  After striking camp we went out exploring several roads we had wondered about over by Panguitch Lake area.  One of them was a real 4-wheeler challenge in our 2-wheel drive Toyota, but we satisfied our curiosity and found some nice future campsites in the process and managed not to get stuck in the mud or slide off the road. After all of our rambling we made the drive home through Zion. 

Yankee Meadows Lake from atop one of our road rambles

Bristlecone Pines on another rambling road

Piles, piles and more piles of basalt along another rambling road

It was a great day with loads of beautiful scenery.  We even had left over stew and biscuits to have for dinner when we got home!