Wow, time goes fast around here. Here is a picture of the bunkhouse (as promised).
Here in Utah is the Best Friends Sanctuary for rescued and injured animals. They have cats, dogs, parrots, turtles, bunnies, pigs, goats, horse, mink, reptiles, etc., etc.. We are going to volunteer at the sanctuary. This is Amy and Captain Turkey who are also living at the Cowboy Bunkhouse.
Here are a few other friends we made…
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We have been working hard and hiking a lot. We went to a local concert honoring veterans at the high school on Sunday. JoAnn (the owner of the bunkhouse) was part of the choir. It was very nice. We then drove around Kanab with JoAnn and her husband to see some of its history. This town is where many old western movies were made. Very interesting little (I mean little) town.
We feel more like part of the family than a volunteer. We are even going to the family ranch in a week or so. This adventure is more than we expected and we truly are happy in our decision to do workaway.
Just driving around is beautiful. You see colorful mesas, mountains, small towns, and even buffalo.
The past two of our days off we have gone hiking in Zion Canyon. With each step we take, the views are more amazing than the last (as Mike likes to say “wower” with each turn).
The first day’s hike was to Overlook Point, which was beautiful. We passed over a small wooden bridge and through a grotto. We then went on a longer trail to the lower, middle, and upper emerald pools. Only the upper pool had water to speak of. It was 102 degrees and no rain. After another hike on the grotto trail, and seeing a few deer standing in the river, we called it a day.
See Zion Day 1 Gallery
The second day’s hike was a river walk, Weeping Rocks trail and the Narrows trail. Walking along the river was very peaceful and serene. As we hiked on the Weeping Rocks trail we realized just how enormous the canyon is. The Narrows gives you the opportunity to get in the water (called the Virgin River). I enjoyed it a lot, but it was about 50 degrees.
We saw a few animals along the way. Many lizards, baby squirrels, a deer that practically walked into us
See Zion Day 2 Gallery
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On the days we work we take smaller hikes. Recently we went to Antelope Canyon. OMG you could not believe it. It is on Navajo land so you have to pay to go into the Canyon. The canyon is a crack in the Earth into which you descend pretty deep.
Taking pictures is difficult because the sun shines down and makes many different colors and reflections on the rock. One rock is called the chief (can you see why)…
Here are a few other pictures. Some are taken looking up…
At the end our Native American guide played a beautiful native song on his flute
See Antelope Canyon Gallery for more pictures
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After visiting Antelope Canyon we went to Horseshoe Bend. No words could describe it. Take a look…
This is what you see hiking to it , THEN BAM the ground opens up…
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We also saw Glen Canyon (Lake Powell). There is a large dam and a very popular lake for recreation and scenic fun.
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Update (06/14/16)
We had the day off Sunday and decided to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The ride there was gorgeous. Beautiful open fields, pine trees, aspens, and even a few miles of what was a forest fire.
We stopped at the visitor center and lodge. It is so nice at the lodge. As you hike out on a short 3/4 mile path you see Grand Canyon on both sides of you. Wow!
We then made the decision to hike down into the canyon. Now this sounded like a good idea, but the top of the canyon is at 8000 ft above sea level and the spot we hiked down to was at 5000 ft. Did I mention that you go down 3000 ft in 4 miles? Well the hike down to the “red bridge” was awesome (see photo below – you can see the bridge in the middle of the photo. Mind you we had already hiked down some). Beautiful scenery and wild life EVERYWHERE you looked.
As you can image going back up was a LITTLE more strenuous. The hike down was 4 miles, we were told the hike up was also 4 miles. Our bodies disagreed. The hike down was 4 miles as advertised, the hike up seemed like 20 miles (lol at least that is how the last 1 mile felt). Mike told me he was walking on stubs. By the time we got to the top, I was out of breath and Mike’s stubs and ankle were aching.
The funny part (relatively speaking) was that we were meeting people along the way that had hiked from the South Rim to the North Rim in 12 hours (that’s 24 miles of hiking). We did the 1.5 mile hike and the 8 mile hike in 7 1/2 hours. REMEMBER we did go down 3000 ft in 4 miles and back up. Breathing is a lot more difficult at 8,000 ft. I’m not making excuses but we’re not that much out of shape either. Ok maybe a little out of shape, but we made it. As we do more and more hikes we are feeling better and better.
Believe it or not, it was worth it. This is truly something you have to experience (and suffer though) to believe.
We would do it again (just not this week – hahaha). Here are a few pictures. See more at North Rim Grand Canyon Gallery
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Update (06/26/16)
Wow, how time flies. We have been having a great time here in Utah. Internet is slow so updating the blog is more time consuming than I had anticipated.
Anyway, we went to Bryce Canyon last week. It is AMAZING. So different than Zion and the Grand Canyon. (Frank you were right – a wonderful place to hike). We hiked for about 6 ½ hours. We went through slot canyons with trees and plants growing in any little crack. Some trees have very different coloring and are really beautiful. Other trees have all sorts of twists and bends. This place is like no other!
see more pictures in the Bryce Canyon Gallery
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One of the many reasons Mike and I decided to do the “workaway” lifestyle was to meet and experience the actual lifestyle of the people who live in the area (not do just the touristy stuff).
The nice family that own the Cowboy Bunkhouse also have a ranch about 1 hour away. They took us there on Friday the 17th. It is so remote and vast. We saw long horn steer, the family cabin and went to different lookout points with 360 degree views of the canyon.
We had some lunch on the top of one of the lookout points and then went down to the small man-made lake for some fishing and swimming. We felt like Huck Finn (lol). It was really a lot of fun. Here is a picture of JoAnn, Jeff, and Josh (my buddy).
For other pictures of the range see Deer Spring Ranch Gallery
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We have also gone to a Mormon sponsored picnic. We had a great time. They had barbeque beef, beans, dutch oven potatoes, etc. There were even a “mini-train” ride for the kids and horse drawn wagon rides.
We sat with a family of 6 (mom, dad, and 4 boys). One of the young boys had figured out how to get rich in life. He was going to become a computer hacker, make lots of money, then use his hacking ability to wipe out all traces of himself and sit on the street and beg for more money, all while being secretly rich. Quite a concept (LOL).
When I said this was a small town out in the open valley, I really mean it. This is their one and only stop sign
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Since it was 108 degrees on Monday the 20th, we decided to take a 10 mile hike on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon (so we didn’t go down into the canyon like the last hike).
We sat and had lunch on a lookout point 5 miles in. It was so quiet and beautiful. We would just stop in the middle of hiking and listen … well listen to nothing. Just leaves rustling once in a while. It was so surreal.
Mike and I are truly blessed to be able to experience this together.
On the way back from the canyon we saw a herd of bison.
We stopped at a small family run restaurant (and Inn). They had a photographer giving an hour and a half lecture on landscape photography. I really enjoyed it. They also have a lecture on Navajo Indians and how they weave stories into their blankets. We plan on attending one of these lectures soon.
For more pics see North Rim Gallery (part 2)
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This past Friday the 24th we took a rafting tour down the Colorado river. We started at the Glen Canyon Dam (this creates Lake Powell). It was a lot of fun. We saw some wildlife (birds, fish, and goats) and we stopped at a small beach for a light lunch. We also saw some petroglyphs and a formation in the rock that looks like a coyote howling at the moon…
do you see the coyote?
If you remember reading that we went to Horseshoe Bend a week or so ago, well on this trip we were in Horshshoe Bend on the river. You really don’t realize you are in the bend because down on the river all you see is large rocks 800 feet above your head…
Top view River view
On the way back to the dam, our raft’s motor decided it was working too hard. We ended up with a rescue raft (just another tour raft) coming out to get us. I must say there are worse places you can get stuck than the Colorado river on a raft. No one felt bad for us.
see Colorado River Raft Gallery for more pics
Once we left the Raft ride, we stopped at a small beach on Lake Powell. It’s weird, the water in Lake Powell is 80 degrees, after it goes through the dam it’s a whopping 45 degrees.
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That pretty much sums up the past few weeks. We are working our shifts at the bunkhouse and doing some fun projects (will show pics when done). We also brought a few of the younger workaways (let’s face it, they are all younger than us) to see the dam, Lake Powell, and Horseshoe Bend. They don’t have a car and were leaving soon so we took them to see these beautiful sites.
Next day off and another adventure on Tuesday (Cedar Breaks, Cascade Falls, Ice Cave, and a lava tube).
Also our friend Tracy (from Connecticare) is coming to visit us and stay at the bunkhouse from July 1st to July 5th. We can’t wait to show her some of the magnificent sites we have seen.
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Update 7/12/16
So we did it, we purchased a laptop just for me to use to load pictures and update the blog (however internet access is still an issue at this time).
Anyway, on June 28th we decided to head out and up. We went to Cedar Breaks National Monument. It has an elevation of over 10,000 feet, so it was cool and there were lots of flowers.
We even saw some small snow piles.
It was a great hike (7 or 8 miles). There was a visitors center that reminded Mike of the ranger station Yogi and BoBo used to visit. We saw a family of marmots, which are related to squirrels (so cute).
There is a type of tree called Bristlecone Pine there, some of which are over 1,700 years old that as portions of the tree dies, other portions twist around it. They form some interesting designs as they get older…
Cedar Breaks is near the town of Duck Creek. There are several buildings (mostly ATV rental places) and nearly everyone is in overalls and has a dog in the back of a pickup truck. Regardless, we did have a good lunch and decided to visit Cascade Falls and an ice cave near by. Cascade Falls is a very long waterfall where the water comes shooting out of a hole in the side of the cliff face. The water doesn’t come from a creek or river, it actually comes from Navajo Lake and the water seeping through the rocks. It eventually just squirts out the side of the cliff.
The ice cave was disappointing. It was really just a small hole in the ground that you climbed down into (using a rope) and once there stood on some very slippery ice. Not too exciting.
for more pictures see Cedar Breaks Gallery
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Our friend Tracy came to see us on Friday July 1st. We picked her up in Las Vegas and had lunch on the “old” vegas strip.
On Saturday we took her to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for breakfast and a hike. She was very moved by the beauty of the canyon (who wouldn’t be). It was so much fun being with someone who was seeing it for the first time.
On Sunday we went to Zion National Park. We hiked, Tracy swam in the icy cold Virgin River, and we had lunch in one of the canyons (Weeping Rock). It was a wonderful day.
On the 4th of July, we had a fun time involving the local community which is one of the reasons we like workaway so much. The town had a parade that anyone can join. We thought it sounded like fun, so Mike, I, and Jane (from France) volunteered to join in the festivities. Jeff made a bunk bed on his trailer and pulled it through the streets of Kanah with Mike on the bottom bunk (ringing the dinner bell) and Jane and I on the top bunk in our cowgirl hats and American flags.
Well someone (Mike) decided to have a pillow fight, after all we were in bunk beds. The spectators LOVED it. Mike would try to hit us from below, sometimes knocking off our hats and Jane and I teamed up to knock the stuffing out of Mike. It was loads of fun.
The fire fighters were spraying everyone with water. This little dog got in on the fun (thanks Tracy for a fun photo)
After the parade, we took Tracy and Jane to Bryce National Park. Now you would think every canyon is the same, but you would be soooo wrong! Tracy thought the same thing till she experienced Bryce. Just take a look…
We ended this perfect day with fireworks in Kanab Canyon. We are so glad we got to share some of the time with Tracy.
Sadly we had to take her back to the airport the next morning.
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On Wednesday, our friend Jane was leaving for Las Vegas, to continue her workaway adventures. She needed to catch a shuttle from Cedar City (1 1/2 hours to our North) to Vegas. We offered to drive her there.
Did I ever mention our room at the Cowboy Bunkhouse is nice but only has a double bed. Now I love my husband, but a double bed is just to close for those tossing and turning moments. So we got a room in Cedar City with a KING size bed. Jane’s shuttle didn’t leave till after midnight and we were not about to leave a very pretty young girl on the bench at the gas station. Oh yes you read that correctly. Out here some of the bus stations are really just pickup points at gas stations even if it is after hours and the station is closed.
So we all went to dinner and Jane came back with us to the hotel to wait there. When we saw the KING size bed, we all dove for it. Mike and I on one side with Jane in the middle. We sat and watch TV till 11:30 p.m.. and laughed that such a small (or big) thing had us all so happy. Anyway we dropped Jane off at the bench and headed back to the hotel. The nights here are so beautiful. There is little light pollution so you can see hundreds of stars. We stopped the car on the side of the road, and can now check off something on Mike’s bucket list. We saw the Milky Way!!.
It was a great day, but also a little sad to see our new friend Jane leave. Hopefully we will stay in touch and see her in France.
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When we woke up (did I mention we slept in a KING size bed – ahhhh), we were on our way to the “big city” to buy a computer.
Well, Cedar City is not such a big city. There is no where to buy computer. So we were off again. We had to go to the bigger city of St. George. They have a Best Buy and other big city stores. It was very funny to us because every time you want to buy something, the answer is usually the same “You gotta go to St. George”.
I can now say I am the proud owner of a new Lenovo Yoga computer and it is dedicated to pictures and updating the blog. YAY!
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July 9th -Since I wouldn’t let Mike buy the island the Beach Boys song about (Kokomo), he decided he wanted to visit Kodachrome Basin because, after all, Paul Simon sang about it. It was beautiful, but not as colorful as we thought. But we did do a few small hikes.
see Kodachrome Basin Gallery for more pics
We left Kodachrome and headed out to a small area on the side of Bryce called Mossy Cave. We had heard about some water there (actually the only place that has water in Bryce Canyon). We were not expecting it to be much but headed up the trail and were so surprised. The first thing we came upon was a 20 foot high waterfall (with running water).
But we noticed that everyone just looked at the waterfall and left quickly without really looking around and see what else the area has to offer. Let me tell you, they missed out. We continued past the waterfall up a small path and saw several other smaller but unique falls. We were the only ones there and as we have so many times since May, remarked on how lucky we are to be able to experience all this beauty together. You judge for yourself…
see more pics in Mossy Cave Gallery
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UPDATE 07/20/16
We finished work on Wednesday (7/13) at 2:30 and didn’t have to be back till Friday at 4:00. So we decided it was time to go to Capital Reef National Park about 3 1/2 hours away.
We drove about 1/2 way to a small town called Tropic and stayed at a bed and breakfast called Buffalo Sage. The owners, Alice and David were so nice. We sat on the deck until well after dark and had cocktails and snacks. David knows a lot about astronomy and pointed out Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and some communication satellites that were passing by. I even got Mike up at 3:20 a.m. to see the Milky Way – it was beautiful since there was no light pollution.
It was hard to get up in the morning – we had a king size bed and were VERY comfortable. Alice made us a wonderful breakfast the next morning, complete with omelets, homemade biscuits and jam, cherries, coffee and orange juice. It was delicious!
We headed north to a place called Calf Creek. It was a 6 mile round trip hike. We found it to be very exhausting because it was very hot in the canyon. But boy was it worth it. At the end of the trail was a 130 foot waterfall with a swimming hole at the bottom. It looked like paradise. see for yourself…
The afternoon sun made good pictures of the fall impossible, but I think you get the idea.
Along the way we saw grass that looks like bamboo, a few lizards, and some beautiful rock formation.
See Calf Creek Gallery for more pics
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We headed out for Capital Reef – named this because one formation looks like the capital building and one other formations just jot up out of the earth like a reef.
Now we intended to do another hike that day, but the heat from Calf Creek Canyon made the king size bed and a/c in the next inn (the Broken Spurr) just to inviting. We had a quick dinner and embraced a quite nights sleep.
The next morning we got up early because we had to be back at the bunkhouse at 4:00 to cook dinner for the staff and had a 3 1/2 hour drive. But we managed to sneak in a 4.6 mile hike up Capital Reef Rim Trail.
Now you have to understand that it was hot and we went up 1,100 feet in 2.3 miles. The trails are marked with small stacks of stones called cairns. (See the little rocks I highlighted on the top of a small rock – you may need to zoom or make the picture bigger on your screen -LOL).
What did we see when we got up there, you ask? The top of the visitors center. Not the best choice of hikes, but we have learnt all is good and laughed it off. We did take a picture of the trail sign – we figured we earned it.
We hiked back down, and since we only had an hour before we had to head back, decided to take the 10 mile scenic drive through part of the canyon. We drove passed the visitors center (hahaha) and saw some beautiful sights, like the castle…
At the end of the drive was a dirt road called Capital Reef Gorge. Now how could you not go down a dirt road at the end of a beautiful canyon? Boy were we happy we did. It ended up being a slot canyon for cars. 1000 ft rock formations on either side of the car. There were so many colors and shapes, we couldn’t believe it. I tried to take a picture with the car to give you all some perspective of the sheer size of these rocks.
Check out the colors
It was time to head back.
We are DEFINATELY coming back and hiking through this beautiful canyon.
for more pics see Capital Reef Gallery
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On the way back to the bunkhouse, we needed to stop and get gas. We were starting to get a little nervous because there are many miles between towns and gas stations. We headed into a small (small, small) town and saw a sign that said gas. We thought it was a joke but, well see for yourself…
A pump in the middle of a gravel lot. Like I said we were out there.
On the “highways” you see signs that say “so and so’s restaurant” 1.5 hours ahead -lol.
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We finished up our time at the bunkhouse and headed out on Monday morning (7/18) for New Orleans, etc. and back to North Carolina. After a brief stay there we are off on our next adventures. We leave on Sunday the 31st for Aruba to work at the dog sanctuary for the months of August and September, and then off to Panama.
We have to say that our time in Utah was better than we ever expected. Jeff and JoAnn, owners of the bunkhouse are wonderful people. Josh and Jennie, 2 of their 7 children, were so pleasant and fun. We LOVED our time there and will definitely return. We have been asked to help out next year at the bunkhouse and/or the ranch they own. As our last act at the bunkhouse we convinced Jeff to let us paint one of the rooms a color other than brown, and it looks great.
We met people from all over the world including France, Turkey, Canada, Korea, Denmark, Israel, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Australia. Some we hope to keep in touch with.
Well that ends this portion of our adventure, but we hope it is only the beginning. Next entry will be Aruba.
