Snow Canyon & Pine Park

We always love to visit Snow Canyon after a rainstorm.  We did so on an evening last week.  Here it didn't really rain much, but above Zion they had over a half inch in an hour.  It was a devastating thing for the 21 people who were killed in the flash floods that resulted.  7 were killed in Keyhole slot canyon in Zion, 1 man was out driving the back roads south of Hurricane, and the rest were women and children from Hilldale.  3 boys did get out of that group alive, thank goodness. Rain in the desert can be a terrifying, destructive event or beautiful event.  Here the light shower left Snow Canyon looking beautiful. 

Friday after school we packed up and went for a quick camp out at one of our old favorites - Pine Park. We were disappointed to see that other campers had left the place a mess including damming up the stream which destroyed one great campsite, cutting down many living trees to make a wilderness shelter, and leaving trash of many kinds strewn about.  Before we left we cleaned up after them and felt sad that they had killed so many of the new growth Ponderosa pines that are so unique to this otherwise desert like, Pinon and Juniper area.  People who aren't capable of cleaning up after themselves need to camp in an established campground where there are people who are hired or volunteer to clean up after them.  They should leave the dispersed camping to those of us who know how to leave no trace for the people who come later to enjoy.  Our last two camps have been this same story in different locations.  The last time was drunken hunters and this time we are pretty sure it was Scouts - which makes it all the worse.  We did have a great time other than that.