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Category Archives: road trip

Slot Canyons

Have you ever seen photos of slot canyons in the southwest? The beautiful rock and narrow passageways are beyond belief. These tunnels through the rock are formed by erosion over the eons. And during a rain event, you certainly would not want to be in one. I was lucky with the weather. During October, southeast Utah received over four inches of rain! While I was there, there was not one drop of precipitation. However, the dogs were lucky to find puddles or small streams of water on most of our hikes, left over from the previous month’s rainfall. I did always carry water for them but they seldom needed it.

The two slot canyons featured here are near the Goblin Valley State Park (more on that later) where we camped for two nights. The canyons, Bell and Little Wild Horse form a loop. They are located on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands and dogs are allowed. In fact, these were rated as dog-friendly. And I suppose if I had smaller dogs or if I had a human hiking partner, maybe we would have gone further and made the entire loop. As it was, we came across obstacles that were four feet or more and I had to assist Luna a couple of times and catch Sky once before she fell backwards. But what really stopped us in Little Wild Horse Canyon was a rock wedged in the slot. I would have had to go under it or clamber over it and who knows what other obstacles I might find past that one. You can see Sky crouch to get under it and the photo is deceptive and doesn’t really show how high it was. Oh well. We had gone quite a ways and turned back to explore Bell Canyon. Again, there were four-foot obstacles but then we came to one that was five feet or so and I could not imagine lifting both of my 63 pound dogs over it and then hefting myself over it too. Later I found out that were obstacles as high as eight feet!

Slot canyons are a test of my claustrophobic inclinations. I generally avoid closed-in areas. I was mostly ok with these canyons since I could often see the sky above me. However, near that wedged rock, the canyon was very narrow and dark. It was fun and stunningly beautiful. And the cottonwood trees were so beautiful.

There’s that rock.
See her crouching to get under the rock?

Travels with Dogs

The girls and I just spent three weeks traveling to Utah and New Mexico, going hiking, watching birds and we attended the International Western Music Association annual award show. It was a lot to take in.

The dogs were excellent travelers, always ready to hop in the car for the next big adventure. The weather was really lovely – sunny and cool for perfect days of hiking but also cold, often really cold at night. Luna and Sky curled up with me each night in the tent trailer and we managed to keep kind of warm most nights. We saw lots of amazing sights – great sunsets and sunrises, red rock and canyons of Utah, ancient ruins and thousands of Sandhill Cranes.

Our first campsite was at Antelope Island State Park near Salt Lake City. The lake is dreadfully low and I never did make it out to the water’s edge. Antelope Island can be a good place to see birds but the day I was there it was pretty windy. It has a pioneer ranch where you can walk among the old buildings and equipment. There are some horses you can rent and also there is an introduced herd of bison that is actively managed.

The marina is high and dry
Keep your distance from these guys
An old silo
This little Important Bird Area (IBA) is a small grove of non-native trees on the ranch.
You can see Salt Lake City in the distance

On the Road with Sky

Sky and I went to Loon Lake, WA last week for a NADAC agility trial. We met several friends there and had a terrific time. Out of fifteen runs, we had three qualifiers and three runs with only one error. For us, that’s a very good showing. We know our weak spots and what we need to work on before the next event.

Along the way in both directions, I stopped as often as possible to explore the landscapes. It is really a beautiful part of the state and with fall colors, even more so. We crossed the Loup (Loup Loup Pass), went down the lower Okanogan and across the Columbia, up to Grand Coulee and then south to Wilbur at highway 2. From there we went north at Reardan to Springdale and over to Loon Lake. There’s a lot of little towns in Washington and the highways don’t often go directly from one community to the next. This sounds like a complicated route but really, it’s the quickest way. On the way home, we went from Springdale to Fruitland and then down to Creston, making for a longer trip with an overnight stop but it was worth it to meet new friends and see the mountains between Springdale and the Columbia and various wildlife too. I saw lots of white-tailed deer and wild turkeys and a coyote and a porcupine. I also got to see some of the Carpenter Canyon wildfire that burned this summer.

On the way to Loon Lake

Heading down our road I realize I’m going to need new wiper blades in addition to a latte before I get out of town.
Up the Twisp River to drop Luna off with her friends Quincy and Frida til Ken can pick her up that evening.
Also along the Twisp River. Evidence of the fire that burned this summer. Retardant makes the trees even more colorful than usual.
We stopped to walk on the x country ski trails at the Loup.
The trails are carpeted with larch needles.
Larch needles on a rock.
Ponderosa pine cone and larch needles
Wolf lichen on a pine tree.
Oh look, Sky found a stick.
I think these are kinnikinnick berries.
Some larch needles remain on a small tree
Lichen at the end of a cut tree
More lichen
This is sort of like one of those silly Halloween images
Waiting for a treat
Is this a stick or a log?
Pine drops
Beautiful western larch treees
I love these sculpted by wind sand hills
Winter wheat in Lincoln County
Long straight road to Wilbur
Maple tree clothed in yellow
Mountain ash berries
Tiny mushrooms
A hydro power plant on the Spokane River
What do you mean we have to get back in the car? I’m just starting to have fun.

 

Two videos from the agility trial

 

On the way home

Bufflehead ducks
Canada Geese

 

Redwoods

A trip through Northern California is not complete without a visit to the Redwoods. We stopped in one of the many Redwood State Parks and also the National Park. Lighting for tree photography was nearly as bad as it could be with high bright sunshine so I didn’t spend much time making images of the massive trees. It was good enough just to stand among them. I also enjoyed the other things growing in the old forests. Of particular interest to me was a large Trillium with reddish flowers. It was new to me. I found this article about it on the California Native Plant Society blog. One visitors’ center had slabs of wood from redwood trees showing their really wide annual growth rings. Here at home on the east slope of Washington’s Cascades, tree rings are close together, nearly impossible to see and showing very slow growth.

Trillium?
Buttercup. Much larger than the ones at home.

Views from the Road

We spent three days in the Big Sur area and wished we had time for more. It was lovely and the weather was over the top nice. Even the views of and from the highway were superb. We saw migrating whales at most every overlook. We stopped at one place each time we went by in hopes of seeing a California Condor and sure enough, as we were headed north, Ken finally found one and we each had brief glimpses of it. The water of the Pacific looks different along the California coast compared to the Washington coast. Maybe because there are so many more rivers emptying into the ocean up here.

Unending vistas
We saw this fellow painting in the parking lot twice and he had paintings in his van that you could look at and possibly purchase.
A reminder to look for whales. There ought to be a condor outline also.
Whales
They look turquoise under the water.