Canyonlands National Park

Hi all, Dianne here.  This blog entry will be about the morning hikes Roger and I took while exploring Canyonlands National Park.  Had the forecast not been for triple-digit heat, we would have done another trail or two after lunch.  As it was, we set our alarm for 6:00 and entered the park around 7:45 a.m., intending to see as much as we could before the heat set in.  Our three hikes together totaled just under 5 miles.


Neither of us had ever been to this park, so we weren’t sure what to expect. 

Hazy Formations Looked Surreal

As we’ve discovered during these past two months in Utah, each and every park has a distinct personality all its own.  Canyonlands is no different.  

Mesa Arch

We decided to do three of the shorter trails and hit the highlights recommended by a park ranger.  Our first trail of the day took us to Mesa Arch. 

View Looking Through Mesa Arch

The lower canyon was hazy, which made for a surreal-looking photo session through the arch.

Next, we did the short hike to Grand Viewpoint.  As we walked along with our early-morning shadows, I decided Roger and I looked like Ma and Pa Kettle in our frumpy hiking hats!


The scenery, as usual, was stunning…

A little uphill climbing meant calories burned…

Here is a sampling of the scenery:

Clouds Cast Strange Shadows

This balanced rock formation looks like a flying saucer has landed…

More beautiful scenery…

Finally, we took the Upheaval Dome Trail.  Here’s a view into the crater:

More beautiful scenery…if you look closely, you can glimpse the Green River flowing through this canyon:

This rock formation reminded us of Half Dome at Yosemite:









Every afternoon, during the hottest time of the day, we hole up inside the RV instead of sitting outside, like we normally prefer to do.  Our RV vents are plugged with pillows, and our sunny-side windows are lined with Reflectix foil insulation.  It really helps us stay nice and cool (we even have to adjust our AC to keep from being too cold), but the visual effect is like living in a tin can.   We're ready to leave the desert!  


The pet photo of the day shows Tequila taking her afternoon siesta on my captain's chair.  

Z-z-z-z-z-z-z....

Steps to Travel on a Budget

In today’s high inflation economic era when expenses are high and incomes are low it’s very tricky to handle the travel budget, People think it’s not possible to spend budget friendly travelling trip. I think travelling is all about forgetting the entire stress and spending quality time in all the possible ways you enjoy wholly. Your trip can be more beautiful and relaxing if you blend them perfectly with your budget preferences. So I am telling you the art of travelling cheaply, there are some golden rules for budget friendly travelling that should cut dollars in your next trip.

First of all keep in mind never select the peak days for travelling. Peak day mean public holidays and school holidays season in these days travelling spell is on peak. And the prices are slightly higher than the normal season.

Read my post on Travel tips for Pregnant Women

Plan your trip three or four months in advance in this way you can get the economical and discounted tickets. Before doing this keep in mind your profession or company where you doing the job or the institution where you study. It might be possible your institution or company has some collaboration with any airline and you can get the discounted tickets for your trip.

Over packaging is a common mistake during travelling. Try to pack multipurpose clothes like T-shirts, shorts it can also work as sleeping attire. Always wear comfortable joggers during travelling instead of packing different type of shoes. You need to have a small bag instead of two or three big suitcases during travelling you can save your time and cost.

Try to take a look of travel packages it will give you a fantastic outlook to spend less and save more. Travel agencies facilitate you with different type of packages. These packages have multiple facilities included in it. Make sure before choosing a package you take a look on all the bounces and services include in it.

The most important golden rule tries to avoid the usage of credit and debit cards. Because majority of cases debit cards charge some amount of money every time you spend them on abroad. This can leads to multiply your expenses. Instead of that pay in cash or you can use special travelling credit cards these types of cards help you to avoid paying the extra amount of exchange rate. Another thing related to money avoid to change money on the airports during the trip they mostly offer you the worst rates.

The last but not the least rule is to be creative and never underestimate anything, do things you never did before in your life, i.e. if you can rent a horse you can travel on horse as well for some time that will save money and will give you more amusement. Look something which going to be fun, avoid too heavily visited areas, it will save your cost as most of the time heavily visited areas costs more.

I am sure if you pay attention on these suggestions you must enjoy your travelling trip with your allocated budget. Always remember travelling is not concerning how much you spend, it is always counted as how much you actually enjoyed.

Dead Horse Point State Park (near Moab)

Roger here....  The dogs needed a day out, and we knew that dogs are allowed on most of the hiking trails in Utah's state parks.  So we got up early, packed up the hiking gear, water and food.  We grabbed the dogs and traveled about 40 miles to Dead Horse Point State Park.  

Even without the excuse of walking the dogs, we had intended to visit this scenic state park.  However, we did not know how amazing it would be.  Every place we have been in southern Utah has been beautiful.  Every place we have been in southern Utah has been unique.  Dead Horse Point was no exception.

We started down the East Rim Trail (three-miles, round-trip) at about 9:30 in the morning.  The temperature was around 82 degrees,  perfect.  The trail was well-marked, and mostly flat.  It was paved, in portions, with sections of slickrock marked by numerous cairns.  Much of the trail hugged the rim of the canyon, 2000 feet above the Colorado River.

Tequila gave us a thrill, early in the hike, when she attempted to chase a lizard over the stacked-rock wall.  Fortunately, Dianne was alert while she jerked our errant dog off the side of the wall that she was determined to scale.  (Dianne here:  Tequila scared me to death when she leaped up the wall -- there was a 2,000-foot or so drop on the other side!  Of course, she had no way of knowing that.  This is the second time I've saved her life; the first time was when I jerked her back from the rattlesnake that was lunging to bite her at Zion.  This little girl keeps me on my toes!!  Thelma and Louise drove their car off a cliff in this area of Utah.  I may start calling her Thelma.) 


BAD DOG!  Tequila can be a trouble-maker.  Bandido just stared at her with one of those, what are ya thinkin', looks.

Here is a shot of Bandido demonstrating the proper way to look at the canyon.  GOOD DOG!




I have run out of adjectives describing the Utah scenery, so please forgive me when I repeat myself.  We enjoyed these amazing vistas as we ambled down the trail.

We eventually got our first glimpse of Dead Horse Point, a peninsula-like protrusion thrusting into the canyon.  In the 1800's cowboys used Dead Horse Point to catch wild horses.  With sheer cliffs on all sides and an access of only 30 feet it made a perfect horse trap. With a fence, it also made a perfect corral.  According to legend, a band of wild horses died on the point when they were abandoned by the cowboys.  Sad story.

Soon after our arrival at Dead Horse Point the temperature started its daily upward surge. Our dogs exhibited the classic signs of being too warm as they sought out shade whenever they could find it.  We brought their new cooling jackets, and were pleased to observe their effectiveness.  

We scrambled through a rocky area, then quickly arrived at the end of the point and a magnificent view of the twisty Colorado River below.  What a view!

We joined a nice couple who were gawking at the view, much like us.  We took turns taking each others' pictures.  Not a bad picture.  You can actually see our faces beneath our frumpy, but very cool hats.

As an aside, our new hats are filled with cooling beads.  The beads absorb water, when immersed.  They remain wet for hours.  My new friends from the Fiery Furnace hike had them and recommended them.  I bought them at the Arches Visitor Center.  They really do work.  So now I have replaced my frumpy blue hiking hat with a much cooler (literally) frumpy white hiking hat.


OK, well, that view had to be the highlight of the day.  Wait!  Is that Johnny Depp over there?  I should say, "Is that Johnny Depp DOWN there?"

Our new friends pointed out the scene below --- the filming site of a new movie, The Lone Ranger.  If you look carefully to the left of the white tents, the black blurry spot is actually an old locomotive.  It is sitting on a short section of train track.  We were able to see it clearly through binoculars that our friends shared.  We will have to see the movie to find out what the scene was all about.  I am just sure that Johnny Depp was down there :-).

Time to move on.  A short distance down the trail we saw this structure.  We don't know what it is, but assume that it is related to the filming of the movie below.


Heading back to retrace our steps, we got a quick picture of the other side of the point.

The walk back was warm.  We have got to get an earlier start in the morning.  We made frequent stops in the limited shade to water the dogs and ourselves.  One more shot of an interesting rock formation next to the canyon.  (The opening photo of this blog was taken through one of the holes in this formation.)

Back in the air-conditioned car, we opted to drive to a shady picnic table for lunch.  Our hiking lunches have changed since we left Texas a few months ago.  Instead of sandwiches, which seem to be heavy after all that exercise, we are now eating a little summer sausage, a little cheese, some fruit and a granola bar.


The next post will in all likelihood cover an anticipated visit to Canyonlands National Park and other new vistas.


The Pet Picture of the Day demonstrates Tequila's ability to lounge in almost any circumstance --- body on the captain's chair, head on the lounger's extended footrest, legs in the air.

Day Hike + Night Cruise - Moab, UT

Hi all, Dianne here.  There are lots of good places to hike with dogs around Moab.  One hike that we'd read about and was recommended to us by our good friend Sue was the Negro Bill Canyon Trail.  We set our alarms, packed up, and set out to be on the trail by 7:30 a.m. to beat the heat.  Just in case the dogs got hot before our return, we brought along their new doggie shoes and cooling vests. 

Bandido and Tequila were so excited!  Not only were there lizards to give them a thrill around every turn, but swimming minnows in the clear stream to pounce on.  

Parts of the trail were very narrow and closed in by vegetation (including some poison ivy that kept us on constant alert), but amazingly no mosquitos, gnats, or biting flies.  The surface was soft sand in parts, and slickrock in others, including a bit of scrambling here and there.  

Tequila proved herself as a great little hiker on any terrain -- she bounds up the rocks like a mountain goat, and actually jumps better than Bandido, even with his longer legs.  

This is a perfect hike for dogs!  We were shaded by the canyon walls for most of the hike, and we got to ford the little stream about ten times each way.  

The trail ends at Morning Glory Natural Bridge, where a natural spring seeps out of the rock wall and forms a shallow pool.  It was so large I couldn't get the entire bridge into one shot.  

Here's a few shots from underneath:

View from directly below

We let the dogs sniff around and play in the pool of water for a while before we started our return trip.  

Hey!  Is that a minnow?  What is a minnow, anyway?

Toward the end of our four-hour hike, the dogs were starting to get tired and hot.  

We soaked their new cooling vests in the stream and put them on.  There was still enough shade that we didn't have to put on their shoes due to hot sand.

I think the vests really did cool them off, because they didn't run for shade, dig a hole, and lie down like they did on our last hot hike.  
Now for the night cruise...

When Roger did his research on the Moab area, one of the things he really wanted to do while here was take the Canyonlands By Night & Day night boat ride and experience their sound and light show.  We arrived at their dining room for a delicious western-style dinner, then boarded an open barge for a cruise on the Colorado River at night.  

Somehow, Roger and I ended up with the best seats on the barge (very front row on the side).    The boat ride began with an interesting talk about the history of the area, and Dee, our guide, pointed out some interesting rock formations in the shadowy twilight.  

When it was truly dark, Dee sat down and a recorded narrative about Moab's history played over the boat's loud speakers, timed with lights aimed at the canyon walls.  That part was a little cheesy, but we did enjoy the boat ride on the Colorado River, and experiencing the canyon in the moonlight was nice.  

The pet photo of the day shows Bandido and Tequila doing a synchronized sniff near the natural bridge on our canyon hike.