A Little Adventure

Milo has been wanting to go to the zoo to see the elephants and the rhinos. They haven’t been out when we’ve gone during the winter months. Scott and I decided that we should go when those animals were out and also on a day when he could come with us.

We told Milo a day or two before that we were going to the zoo. He excitedly went to find his maps of the zoo (all three of them) and proceeded to tell us what we needed to go see. He had a few things that he wanted to go show Dad. The night before we went, he wanted to sleep with his maps. He ended up setting them to the side of his pillow and managed to fall asleep.

These are pictures of Milo looking at his map telling us where we needed to go.

It was a beautiful day to go to the zoo. We started out by going to see the elephants and the rhinos. Milo quite liked seeing them.

He kept wanting to go see the “jaguar.” I felt sad to tell him that this zoo didn’t have a jaguar. He also keeps wanting to see the lions, but the lion died, and so we can’t see it either. Luckily they have some other great animals that he enjoys seeing. We did go see the leopard and the tiger.

Milo then wanted to go see the giraffes and even went into their stinky house again with Scott. He wanted to see if the giraffes liked his maps. We finally convinced him that the the giraffes were looking at him and liked his maps.

He also quite liked going to see the gorillas. Milo calls the big gorilla “King Kong.” He wanted to see King Kong. It was hilarous. I was starting to get tired by this point and so Scott and Milo went and saw the desert bighorn and the wolves by themselves. Scott and Milo went inside the reptile building and saw the big turtles, the snakes, the crocodile, the frogs and a pink bird.

After these adventures, Milo decided that he’d like to go on a train ride. He quite enjoyed that and wanted to go again after we were done.

All in all, it was a great day at the zoo. Milo wants to go back again. I told him that we would go back again soon….

Milo was very excited to have the opportunity to go on two Easter Egg Hunts. The second one was at his cousin Jared’s house.

Milo had gone up to stay with his grandma the night before while I went to work. I came to pick him up just in time for the hunt. He decided that he wanted to stay with his aunt and wasn’t too excited about going when it came time to go.

I did manage to get him to the Easter Egg Hunt. Jared had some puppies and Milo didn’t want to go see them. He did finally pet one of the puppies (and take a picture) after Jared brought it over to him.

After lunch it was time to hide the eggs. Milo didn’t want to go on the ride to see the cows with all the other kids, so he stayed back. He was still a little unhappy about being there. He did perk up when he realized that he could help hide the eggs for the younger children. He again just dropped them randomly on the ground.

When it came time to look for the Easter eggs, he wasn’t too into it and so we found all the eggs that were near the beginning. He did manage to get quite a few. He did have a fun time. We had to leave soon after the hunt was over so that we could make it back for the soccer game.

All in all, I think Milo had a good Easter.

Milo and I went to the annual Easter Egg Hunt for the Mom’s group that we attend. He had a fun time as always.

We met at the park and it was a beautiful day. We divided up the eggs and the children into a younger and an older group. We were to split up our eggs in between the two groups. I hid our eggs for the older group. Milo wanted to help me “hide” the eggs for the younger group. It was really funny to observe him help me. For his first attempt, he grabbed an egg from the bag and then dropped it on the ground. It, of course, broke open. We picked up the goodies and put them back inside. I told him he needed to carefully take each egg out of the bag and put the egg gently on the ground. He placed them out in the open and didn’t even bother to find a place to “hide” them. I figured it didn’t really matter that much.

We again this year decided to have each child look for one specific color of egg. Milo at first wanted to find the pink eggs, but since there was a girl in the group, Milo ended up looking for blue eggs. He was okay with that, but we all know that he professes that his favorite color is pink… He had a fun time looking for the eggs. He was very good about going around and looking. After we were done, he enjoyed eating his candy.

Here are some pictures of how things went.

My traveling companions had done some very nice hikes on Navajo land including Antelope Canyon on their first day. The second day we were hoping to get walk-up permits to the Coyote Buttes North permit area (a.k.a. the wave). We didn’t win the lottery…so we decided to explore Buckskin Gulch via Wire Pass. Information at the Paria Contact Station indicated that there were some waist deep pools of water in the canyon. In preparation we all wore or brought along sandals for the water. The hike starts from the Wire Pass trailhead. Day hikers for the Buckskin Gulch area fill out a permit and pay the fee. There are no limits on day hiking although overnight camping permits are limited.

The hike starts out by walking up the wide wash of Wire Pass for a bit (about a 1 mile or so) until you hit the first section of narrows in Wire Pass. The canyon opens up again before slotting up for the remainder of the journey to the confluence with Buckskin Gulch (about 2 miles from the Wire Pass trailhead).

The walls of the Wire Pass narrows aren’t particularly high. There is still some nice reflected light to be found.

We hit Buckskin Gulch and headed downstream. The walls of the canyon in Buckskin Gulch are much higher. This really increases the effect of the reflected light. What a spectacular canyon. I particularly enjoyed the vegetation growing near the top of the canyon walls. The fluorescent green leaves of the vegetation are a nice complement to the beautiful red canyon walls.

A typical scene in Buckskin Gulch.

We soon hit the first small sections of water. At these first sections, it was possible to avoid getting wet by stepping on rocks. By the third pool the stone hopping was over. The pool was only knee deep, but we quickly realized that this water was cold! We waded through around 10-15 pools which were mostly knee deep. Only one or two were waist deep. Navigating the pools wasn’t hard, but there just wasn’t any sunlight penetrating this section of the canyon in the morning. We were getting a bit cold when we finally found a nice sliver of sun…

The canyon quickly became wet and cold!

Just what you wanted to see as you round the corner…another pool.

This section of the canyon was very beautiful. It is hard to see in this small image, but the section of the wall was wet and moss covered.

I see the sun!!!

We warmed up a bit in the welcome patch of sun. As we continued we encountered another pool or two before the canyon changed and the water pools disappeared for the remainder of our hike. Unfortunately we were hiking on a time schedule and ran out of time. We were forced to turn around and go back the way we came.

High walls with beautiful reflected light. Notice the size of the person for some perspective.

Darla and Clint marching forward down the canyon.

I really loved the amount and varied type of vegetation in the canyon. I really wanted to get out my long lens a couple of times and shoot vegetation near the top of the canyon. That didn’t happen, but eventually in a wider section of the canyon we found this bush growing down lower. The photo doesn’t do the scene justice, but it gives you an idea. Yes, the bush is growing directly out of the rock.

Wading through the water the second time didn’t seem nearly as cold. The sun was higher in the sky and apparently helped keep us a bit warmer. The water certainly wasn’t warm, but the bit of sun was very welcome.

It is still cold!!!

Hug the wall It is your friend.

Overall I was very impressed with my first foray into Wire Pass/Buckskin Gulch. The canyon is very accessible (there are a couple of small downclimbs in the Wire Pass narrows that may not be so small depending on how the last flood left the canyon) and quite photogenic. It also happens to be what is considered the longest slot canyon in the world. There are a number of overnight hikes that can be done that include Buckskin Gulch. Some routes are just overnighters while many hike the approximately 40 miles (it varies slightly depending on where you start) to Lee’s Ferry. I highly recommend at least a cursory visit to the area.

I managed to get down to the Kanab area again. I guilted myself into working for most of the first day. The guilt eventually wore off and I headed out to photograph a couple of locations in the late afternoon light. During my last trip to the area, we didn’t manage to get out and see the Old Paria (Pahreah) townsite and badlands. Part of the townsite’s allure was lost in 2006 when a suspicious fire burned down the old movie set. The badlands are very colorful and worth the short dirt road (around 5 miles) to the townsite. The road is well graded and certainly passable by a passenger car in dry conditions.

A portrait oriented shot of the badlands. I was happy to see that the clouds were at least somewhat interesting.

How about a landscape oriented version…

Another mile or so down the road from the townsite is the cemetery. I was hoping that I would find an old and somewhat dilapidated cemetery. Unfortunately, it didn’t meet my expectations. The cemetery is nice, but it is an area that has been restored. The headstones are symmetric sandstone blocks devoid of any writing. There is a nice monument in the center that tends to get in the way of some photography. It is a fun shot nevertheless.

I left Kanab a bit later than I wanted, so I was in a hurry and just took photos from the two main areas in Old Paria. There are a few pullouts along the dirt road that are worthy of a stop. I will include those on my next trip.

I was in a hurry to get on down the road to the Rimrocks Hoodoos area. I pulled into the small parking area and hurriedly walked the short trail (~0.5 miles) to the Rimrocks Hoodoos area. I headed straight for the section of white hoodoos that is west of the Toadstool Hoodoo. Unfortunately the clouds were blocking most of the sunlight which precluded me from getting the shot I wanted of the area I call “white hoodoo town.” The clouds behind the hoodoos were nice, so I played around and found an angle that produced a fun little image.

A resident of “white hoodoo town” with some nice clouds in the background.

As I looked at the cloud bank sitting on the horizon, I realized that my chances of getting some good light on the hoodoos was pretty slim. I decided to return to the Toadstool Hoodoo area and try to be creative until the light went away. It actually worked out well as to the northeast there were nice clouds, to the south there were angry clouds, and to the west the sun was setting through the clouds.

Toadstool hoodoo with some fun clouds and soft light.

The Toadstool hoodoo with his little friend.

Angry clouds vs. the Toadstool hoodoo.

Angry clouds vs. the Toadstool hoodoo in black and white

One of my final shots of the day. A nice silhouette of the Toadstool hoodoo around sunset.