We've been getting a lot of rain lately from an El Nino effect. Yesterday was rainy enough that the waterfalls around here started running! We drove out to see them at Snow Canyon and at Kayenta! They were awesome! All of the washes were running and the moss on the rocks looked beautiful! It was so foggy that the pictures look a little blurry.
We caught the tail end of a hurricane coming up from Mexico and had a lovely cloudy/rainy few days here. We took a drive one day to see if any waterfalls had started yet. Nope. The ground was still just sucking it up. While driving out through Snow Canyon we saw a small desert tortoise along side the road on the pavement. That's a very dangerous spot for them to be, so we stopped to take a look. It was slurping up water from the pavement! Even tortoises love the rain I guess. We were worried it would come to far out into the lane of traffic, so we stopped at the fee booth nearby to alert them so they could move it. She said for us to just move it since she couldn't leave her place there. We drove back and Paul carefully carried it off the road and behind some rocks to maybe keep it away. Hopefully it found water to slurp from other places.
We also took walks up by the Desert Garden and saw the effects of the rain on all of the beautiful desert plants up there! So lovely to see so many things blooming.
We just wanted a quick, beautiful getaway! We got a one night stay in a little cabin at Jacob Lake and spent a day at the North Rim. And...it rained! We got everything we had hoped for! Beautiful walks at the Grand Canyon and at Jacob Lake, rain falling and beautiful views and fresh, rain washed air, and forests and flowers! It was GOOD! The day we got back we had a fun "Pie and beer - Pioneer Day" family dinner at Juge's. We had great food and fun times playing her Pioneer Cranium game. No pics.
This crazy picture is of the rain puddle on our patio reflecting the Red Hill rocks behind our house! That puddle hasn't dried up yet because of the wonderful rain we received in answer to long time prayers for rain. It had been so long since we'd had any rain. We had gray skies and then a lovely slow rain starting on Christmas Eve and lasting all night long. Then we got a little more another day. Christmas day itself was a beautiful, blue skies and rain washed day! The desert responds to any water it can get with the wildflowers coming out! We took a walk this morning and they were blooming everywhere! So thankful for the rain! It's a Christmas gift from heaven this year!
A few nights after Christmas we finally went up to see the Christmas Lights at the Desert Garden. We thought maybe it wouldn't be so crowded...we were wrong, but it was still fun!
