Grand clouds and rain!

We had another chance for a business/pleasure trip.  Paul needed to go to Ashfork to pick our some large natural hearth stones.  We just went in the car since we will have them brought here by truck.  We left on Monday evening and got to stop at Jacob Lake for dinner and then arrived in Flagstaff just in time for bed.  We thought about camping out, but with the rain and mud and being in the car we decided against it.  Good thing!  The next morning we got to Ashfork and picked out the rocks right as they opened.  Since we had a little extra time, we drove over to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and enjoyed a little bit of time there seeing the canyon through the clouds with scattered showers.  There was still a good crowd armed with ponchos and umbrellas.  It was grand and magnificent!  After that it was time to head home via Jacob Lake for an early dinner.  I love it when we can work and play all in the same trip!  

Notice the people on the view point and then look how far it is down to the bottom of the canyon!  Someone wanted to take our picture and instructed us to give each other a kiss!  Ooh lala!  

The sun peeked through the clouds here and there at different view points and it was beautiful!

The clouds at the Vermillion/Cliffs/Marble Canyon area were hanging out among the rocks.  Took these shots through the window.  

Leaves and meetings

Monday we took Anna Lou and headed up to see the leaves.  We stopped to eat our KFC picnic at Cedar Breaks picnic area and discovered they didn't put in any plates or utensils, so we ate mashed potatoes, gravy and coleslaw with lids and straws.  Thank goodness the chicken was finger lickin' good!  After that we didn't have much time before dark, but the leaves were really pretty and the antelope were really cool.  Every other night of the week was filled with meetings of one kind or another.  

Delayed gratification at Brian Head

The view from our bedroom door and balcony and Eden showing me her trick.

Weed called it an exercise in "delayed gratification".  We went to Brian Head Friday afternoon to work on repairing all of the phony stone that is falling off the Sheffield's cabin in exchange for some time up there.  It was a beautiful working environment with the fall leaves in full color and the weather was perfect.  The Weavers came up to help us out and Juge made us dinner.  They had to go home, but we spent the night.  Dorothy and Steve came up late in the evening and she cooked us a great breakfast the next morning.  We got lots done with a bit more help from the Weavers on Saturday.  We have a little bit more to do and will enjoy going up again.  Looking forward to time at the cabin with family in the future!  I learned a lot about brushing joints and grouting that I didn't know before and our work came out looking as good as phony stone can look.  

Into the Woods with the Webelos

This year at the upcoming Webelos Day Hike Paul and I are in charge of teaching the Into The Woods requirements.  It includes a plant/tree identification hike and then a short class all about trees and a little about plants.  I have enjoyed learning more about the trees and plants in the area where we will be doing this.  We went up one night this week to check out the hike and make sure we had the plants and trees we want to use identified correctly.  It is a beautiful little hike and we enjoyed the evening.  A bonus for the evening were the amazing clouds just as the sun was setting.  

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.  

Labor Day and the rest of the week

We finished of the Labor Day weekend with a couple of random hikes that we picked out of a stack of Cedar area trails that I've had for a long time.  They were both nice...but VERY steep.  The first was to Hendrickson Lake.  We hiked to the lake and then continued on past it to the next trail junction.  It was extremely steep going, but a very pretty little lake.  

 Then we drove a crazy road to the top of the  mountain and then hiked down the Left Fork Bunker Creek trail and then back up the Right Fork Bunker Creek trail.  We didn't know they were actually downhill single track bike trails for the most part, but we did see some crazy people who were riding their bikes there.  They must have been crazy!  I only saw a few sections I would have even attempted to ride on my bike.Too old for that kind of breakneck activity!  They were both pretty trails, but not ones that I would do again.  Tired legs! In all we did about 12 miles, but it felt like more.

We had our family dinner on Sunday at Weed and Derek's.  It is always a treat to spend time with everyone!  Thanks to the Smiths for hosting!

Then I finished up at Webelos Day Camp on Friday evening.  Enjoyed that even though it was really hot.  Saturday we biked up to the Ledges where Paul needed to talk to a contractor - that was a killer ride. Then in the evening we drove to Brian Head and had dinner and celebrated Juge's birthday at Sheffield's cabin with them and some friends.  Dorothy treated us to a ride "over the river and through the woods" to get some ice cream to go with the brownies.  That was a lot of fun too! It was a fun evening with fun people!  Happy Birthday Juge!  We love you! And that was our week.  

Starting off Labor Day - camping and hiking!

So excited for the Labor Day holiday!  We took off Friday afternoon after work and found our favorite camping spot in need of some cleaning up, but unoccupied up by Brian Head.  We only saw a few people 4-wheeling the whole time we were there.  It was a beautiful evening with the wind blowing in the tree tops all night long and even a short rainstorm.  We could hear the trees rubbing and squeaking.  We had a traditional easy cook meal of hot dogs, chips, cottage cheese and beans with candy bars and hot chocolate to warm us up for dessert.  We took a beautiful evening walk and then sat by our fire listening to a good book until we got too tired and then hit the sack.  We were up early for breakfast, cleaned up camp and then took off on our hike to discover where the Rattlesnake and Lake Creek waterfalls drop off to join Ashdown Creek in the gorge.  We've seen these waterfalls many times form the bottom up, but never from the top down.  We started from High Mountain Trail.  It's about 4 miles down a very steep trail to get down to these creeks.  The cairns were a bit hard to find here and there because of the tall grasses and the trail is very tight in some areas just pushing through thick stands of Oak and Mountain Mahogany.  We also did quite a bit of log hopping too, but it is a beautiful hike and with the wind still blowing here and there, we were very comfortable weather wise.  We saw a group of 4 lady hikers at Rattlesnake Creek, but other than that, no one else. We found the Rattlesnake Creek drop off point very close the where it crosses the trail.  So cool.  We have been so close without even being aware so many times.  The Lake Creek drop off point is a bit more of a challenge and we had to satisfy ourselves with seeing the first two of several drops before the final one that we see from the bottom.  The canyon got VERY deep and we would have needed ropes to go over several falls in order to get to it.  We could hear it from a trail above, but couldn't see it because of trees and because of the steep drop off.  We had lunch there and then headed off on the challenge of going back up a few thousand feet in only 4 miles.  It's a huff and puff hike back to the top, but we made it in good time and headed for home.  Now we need to figure out an adventure for Monday! 

These are the top up and the top down shots of Rattlesnake Creek waterfall.

This is the second waterfall we saw on the way to the drop off  point of Lake Creek falls and the bottom up shot of Lake Creek falls.  

Evening walk and cooking dinner.

I LOVE Aspens!  

There were three ponds along the trail.  

Thank goodness for the people who put up the cairns and maintain the trail as much as they do.  

Lots of other beautiful waterfalls along the way.

Amazing scenery too!  It was very motivating to watch our progress up the trail by the view of these reddish outcrops.  First we were way below, then we progressed until they were right across the canyon.  So happy when that happened.  We hiked a total of 9.e   miles with and elevation drop/gain of  1800 feet.  

Our yummy lunch and some horned toads.  One of them was so FAT!

Pine Valley dinner...and a passing rainstorm

It was a good time and a good dinner, but then the thunder, lightening, wind and rain made for a very quick clean up.  Too bad everyone went home.  We decided to wait it out and by the time we drove down to the camp ground area it was pretty well gone and we enjoyed a beautiful, fresh air, cool evening walk!  We saw all of picnickers high tailing it and all that was left were the campers with their smoky fires adding to the evening air.  It was lovely!  Glad we stuck it out!  

A few too many snakes!

Yikes!  I don't much like snakes.  We did enjoy some beautiful scenery on Smith's Mesa and did find the little arch that Lance took us to once before, but in the process we came across a couple of snakes in a very short distance.  I was ready to move along to new territory after that!  We did move on and ate our picnic lunch at Lava Point and then drove home over Cedar Mountain (which I slept through way too much of) and made it back in time to head to Pine Valley for a stake leaders dinner. Snakes...they creep me out!  These were the first poisonous ones we've seen this summer, thank goodness!  

Snake number one (coiled up) was sitting in such a cool, shady spot that he couldn't be bothered to rattle and on our way back we chucked a little stick at him to see if he was even alive.  He answered with a little tongue flick and nothing more.  The other one (bottom right) was much bigger and more awake and gave us a good warning rattle and went on it's way. 

The little "hobbit house" was really well located so that you could miss it very easily.  It was a very interesting little piece of construction.  

Cub Day Camp 2015 - Adventure is Awesome!

This year's day camp went with the Lego Movie theme as well as the new, updated Cub Scout program's Adventure theme.  Our stake was lucky enough to enjoy being in charge of the climbing wall again.  I went Friday evening to help with the Webelos and just stopped in to make sure everything was running well and train the volunteers on Saturday morning...2 more just like that to go still.  It was hot, but so much fun.  The kids don't really pass anything off at the wall, but it is a favorite and I love it because they do learn that they can do hard things and gain a lot of confidence with many of them racing for the best time by the end of their session.  The best one for me was the kid who didn't think he could do it at all, but just kept trying going a little higher each time and on his last go before it was time to move to the next activity, he made it all the way up!  His mom was there and it was great to watch that interaction and to hear him say he had done something he had never done before!  It was awesome!  And it was great to have Paul there to support me by helping set up both times. (I made it up one of the walls before we got started too. I'll try another one next time if I have time.)