Sunday, March 16, 2008

Back to the Slickrock

Driving back from Canada to Moab felt like I fast forwarded about 3 months. We went from glaciers and deep snow to redrock and sunshine (although we only have to drive 30 minutes and we're back into snow in the La Sals).

Feels like spring is in the air, the willows and cottonwoods have buds that are just getting ready to burst, birds that I haven't seen for months are showing back up in the area and tourists are calling wanting to know if they can get to the campsites and trailheads not realizing that we manage the mountain and it is still under deep snow.

Last weekend we made it out to the river (not in the river yet, just the beach) to collect iron with magnets from the beach sand for Rivers' science project and flew kites. You can also see that the beach is tamarisk free for now. Last year the beetles defoliated them and the BLM cut and burned a bunch around the campsites and beaches. Go beetles, bring back the beaches!


















Yesterday we hiked into lower Seven-Mile Canyon on an old stock trail that I hiked when I lived down here 14 years ago. It is a pretty amazing trail that the old timers built to get stock down into the canyon for water and it is still intact. It is hard to tell from the photo but the trail is pretty exposed, I am sure a few cows met a pretty harsh end falling off the edge.















And of course once down in the canyon the monkeys had to climb on every boulder we passed


2 comments:

Gubba said...

Buck,
It looks like the fun never ends down there with endless places to explore. Utah is awesome!! The cabin we were at is my parents. It is in Midway just west of the homestead. I use the term "cabin" loosely. I don't let my Dad call it a cabin, only a house in the mountains. Anything with a washer & dryer, and a big screen TV can't be considered a cabin; but it is a great place to get away for the weekend any time of the year!!
I will talk to Shaun and see if anyone in the old stomping grounds has any footage or recordings of our performance at his farwell!!

catch ya later, Gub

McKell said...

Bri do not be deceived, it may look warm, and the trees may look like they are budding, but I am convinced that spring will never come. I keep trying not to wear a coat up here, as if to trick myself that it is Spring, but I just end up cold and wishing I had a coat.