Pa'rus Trail, Zion National Park

Tequila here....   Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  This time, Bandido and I get to go along on the hike!  The picture above shows us trying to get out of the back of the car at the trailhead.  We could not wait.


I don't understand why we can't go on most of these hikes in the national parks.  They look like adventures that we would love.  It just doesn't seem fair.  But enough whining.  We did get to go on this one.  Dad told us that Zion National Park has set aside a 3.5 mile paved hike just for us dogs... and people, and strollers, and bicycles.


We were able to get on the Pa'rus Trail as soon as we got out of the car at the Visitor Center (whatever that is).  Well, not right away... Mom and Dad had to go pee first.  They called it a restroom.  That's another thing I don't get.  Why do they go inside to pee when they insist that we pee outside.  Humans are so strange.

Anyway, off we gooooooooooo!


Dad said we had to have plenty of water.  Mom and Dad carried theirs in these funny packs that they tied around their tummies.  Bandido, being the gentledog that he is, carried water for the two of us in his spiffy, red pack.  Dad said something about Bandido needing a job.  I am glad that he did all the work so that I could concentrate on chasing lizards.

Look!  There's one of those pesky lizards right there!


There sure are lots of pretty mountains to look at here.  That's what Dad says.  I really did not notice them.  Still looking for lizards.

The trail followed the Virgin River.  I asked Dad what virgin meant, but he told me that I was too young for that kind of information.  Any way, it was fun looking and listening to the water.

We got to see a couple places where the water dropped over some rocks and splashed into more water.  I liked it.  I wonder who is pushing all that water over the edge.  Dad said something about gravity... another thing I don't understand, yet.

We saw some dog prints in the concrete path.  Wow, that must have been some big and heavy dog to make a print in concrete like that!  Or, was it a mountain lion?  Mountain lions make me scared.  I heard they are mean.

Speaking of scared.... Do ya wanna hear something funny about Bandido?  (He's gonna be mad that I am tellin' you this.)  Bandido is scared to go across bridges!  He jumps over walls. He barks at strangers when they get close to the motor home.  Dad says he is strong as an ox (big cow).  Dad talks about how smart he is. He acts like he is such a tough dog all the time.  BUT, he is afraid to go across a bridge.  SO FUNNY!

Look at him with his nose next to the bridge while he is being very careful with every step.  Not me!  I trotted right across.  I am a brave dog.

Mom and Dad let us stop several times to get a drink of water.  One time we got treats while Mom and Dad ate food that looked a lot better than ours.  Not fair!  Here is a picture of Bandido drinking water.  That is my nose on the far lower right, waiting for my treat.

LIZARD!  LIZARD!!!!!!!  It was movin' around right next to me in the tall grass next to the trail.  You can see part of it in the lower right part of the picture.I saw it first and lunged at it.  THEN, it lunged at me and tried to bite me.  Whoa!  The lizard tried to bite me?  It's a good thing it missed because I would have been a "goner" (whatever that is)!  Mom pulled me back right away.  Dad said it was a coiled Diamond Backed Rattler.  Now he was acting scared.  Mom tried to get a picture of it with the photo zoom lens (whatever that is).  Dad told her that she could not chase this snake like she did the other day.  Because Dad was so hyper, Mom's pictures weren't that good.  Drat. I really wanted to see what it looked like.  All you can really see is the back of it.

Mom and Dad told a park ranger along the trail about the rattler.  The rest of the hike we had to stay in the middle of the trail.  What fun is that?  How was I supposed to harass the lizards?  Dad stayed in the middle of the trail too --- to set a good example for me n' Bandido.

To change the scary mood, Mom decided to take pictures of flowers along the trail.  Even though this does appeal to my feminine side, chasing the lizards was more fun.

OK....  We got back to the car, and we're on our way back to the motor home.  Dad says that I have to call this last picture, "The Pet Picture of the Day."  Mom took it when I fell asleep in the back seat when I was sitting up.  I was so-o-o tired!   I am mad that she took a picture of me without my permission.

Valley of the Gods - an off-the-paved-road adventure

Roger here... So many things to see in and around Monument Valley.  We only had one more day.  What to do?  What to do?  

We wanted to do something unique that included the dogs.  The people in the site next to us recommended driving our car along a 17-mile gravel road in a Bureau of Land Management area.  Our little, very-low- clearance, Toyota Matrix on a hilly, twisty, gravel road?  Our neighbors said it would be fine.  (I am sure they had no trouble in their Hummer :-).  We decided that if the road was too challenging, we could always turn back.  So, off we went to The Valley of the Gods.  The opening photo looks like a group of "gods" overseeing their domain, don't ya think?

We drove 22 miles on paved roads to the small town of Mexican Hat on the San Juan River.  We then drove an additional ten miles to the gravel road.  We passed the Mexican Hat formation along the way.

After a moment of trepidation --- fording a stream within a hundred yards from the entrance --- I determined that driving on the road was actually fun, a new experience.  I just kept the manual transmission in second or third gear, and the Matrix performed well.  There were a lot of twists and turns.  Part of the fun was seeing the road ahead.

The scenery was wonderful --- similar in many ways to Monument Valley, but the thing that made this adventure special was the isolation.  We did see a few other cars on the road, but most of the time we were completely alone.  It was so QUIET.

There were places to pull off the road to take pictures, or just relax.  People are also allowed to camp there.  We stopped at several of these peaceful places.  We felt comfortable letting the dogs off-leash, something that does not happen often. 


It was fun to see them run and play.

Hey Bandido.... go get the tennis ball!

It has been a while since Bandido has been able to do his favorite job, retrieving tennis balls.  Good to see he has not lost his focus, even though this action shot is definitely out of focus.

At one of the stops we pulled out the lawn chairs and enjoyed a picnic lunch.




As we neared the exit, we traveled through mile after mile of intense wildflowers.  Every 500 feet, Dianne shouted, "Stop the car!"  I included one shot of the flowers.  Dianne added the slide show.
(It's only seven photos.  I was surprised to see all the flowers in bloom in the desert. -- D)

Our Toyota survived the adventure without damage --- just a little dirt.  Well, quite of bit of dirt.  Red dirt.

(Dianne again:  The red dirt is unavoidable; we kept rug runners all over the carpet in the motor home while we were there.)

The drive back to Monument Valley was uneventful except for the interesting "zig-zag" pattern that Dianne observed on one of the mountains, and the requisite free-range cattle grazing along the road.

We have two pet pictures of the day this time.  The first shows how tired the doggies were after their day of fun.

I hope that most of you see the humor in the second photo.  At our first stop, just after we let the dogs off-leash, Dianne decided to snap a picture of them running.  At the moment that she pushed the button, the pups assumed the position.  Dianne and I are still laughing about this unintended action shot.

Wow, now THAT'S a morning dog walk!

Dianne here -- The main reason we chose sturdy dog companions, as opposed to smaller, more RV-sized dogs, is that our favorite activity when we travel is to hike.  This morning was a good test of our buddies, to see how they did on some uphill and downhill hiking.

There's a great red rock hiking trail right across from our camp site here at Goulding's RV park.  Roger scoped it out the evening before, and stated that he thought Bandido would have no trouble, but that we'd need to see how Tequila got along.  

Not to worry, Tequila was a champ!  Here's an action shot of her jumping up a rock, one where her mom had to resort to hands-and-knees scrambling.

We crossed a wide ledge to get to the prize -- 

A very cool arch that is only seen if you climb up the trail.  Of course, we scrambled up to get a photo of Roger and Bandido under the arch (opening photo).  Roger then took the following photo through the arch, showing the famous left- and right-mitten formations down in Monument Valley.  

We also took a shot down to the campground below, and could make out our RV in the left foreground, right up next to the rock:

Warning:  My friend, Nancy R. should stop reading NOW!!  (She'll know why!)

While Roger had the camera to take the "mittens" shot through the arch, I noticed Tequila go on high alert.  Following her gaze down below where we were standing, this is what I saw:

It headed right for us, and eventually disappeared under the rock we were standing on:

The checkerboard pattern on its back as it got closer let us know it was not a rattlesnake (and no rattles).  I Googled it when we got home and discovered that it's a gopher snake, a common snake in the desert.  (Non-venomous.)   Here's a short video I took of the snake as it made its way toward where we were standing:



Roger demands that I edit the blog to point out that he was right and I was wrong; the snake was six feet long.   He claims I have no spatial abilities.... 

From now on, I'll be sure to follow Tequila's gaze whenever she goes on alert!


Hard to imagine such a hike right across from us.  In fact, here's a photo Roger took out the window of the RV:

And here's a shot of our RV from the rear, showing our view out the front windshield.  The reviews of Goulding's are mixed; it IS the only rv park in the area, and its prices reflect that.   I was glad I took heed (I had read about the high prices here) and made a laundry run in Cortez, Colorado where I paid $1.75 per wash load.   Out of curiosity, I peeked in the laundry here, and sure enough, each washer took 12 quarters!  $3.00 per load! 

The pet photo of the day is actually a short video of Bandido.  He entertained us this morning as he tried to retrieve his favorite ball out of our magazine rack, where Tequila had deposited it.  He removed a newspaper section, a crossword puzzle book,  and a "Bark" magazine from the rack, but couldn't quite get to the ball.  I wish I had the camera earlier, but I did capture him getting my sudoku book out.  What a smart dog!  I finally took pity on him and reached in with my opposable thumbs to get the ball for him.  I can't imagine ever not having dogs; they make us laugh every day!