Hiking the Narrows

Today we hiked the Narrows. Its a section of the Virgin River that runs through Zion National Park. We hiked a bit over 4 miles up the river and then back, totaling almost 9 miles. The Narrows runs through a canyon that rises hundreds of feet, mostly straight up on both sides of the river. In many places the river channel is narrow enough that you have no choice but to kike in the water. Usually the water was less than knew deep, but we got into sections that were waist deep. It is hard for pictures to do it justice, so in most of the pictures I've tried to be sure there is a human somewhere in the pic, sometimes looking very tiny! What an incredible place!

Zion National Park

Tonight we are camped at Zion River RV Park. Below is a picture of the sunset looking over the river behind our camper. Tomorrow we are going to hike the narrows. The narrows is a hike that is primarily in the river that runs through Zion Canyon. Check for pictures tomorrow, it should be awesome.

More horse riding

Actually I was told that Jake is a mule, but I'll consider it a horseride!

Horse ride through Bryce

It took me 66 years to get on a horse. After 3 hours I know why!  Actually we had a fantastic time, but I'm sure we will be sore tomorrow!

Trish rode a horse named Sanka, I rode Jake.  It was a bit scary on the narrow trails, sometimes with a very steep and long drop off the side, but we were told to trust the animals.

Zion National Park

We made a drive over to Zion today, only an hour away from Bryce. Beautiful views, glad we are headed there next!

more hiking pics

Awesome hike today

We did a 4 mile hike down into Bryce Canyon and back up to another point. beautiful scenery every direction. We will post more pictures separately, but for now just one with my lovely wife in it.

Bryce Canyon

Travel map so far thru August 23

We've been on the road for 83 days, traveled just over 5,000 miles. Been in 15 states. Below is the map, now in 2 parts, east and west.

This is for you Rickie Smith if your still watching!

Wonderful first day at Bryce Canyon National Park. It was a little cool, about 67 degrees, but it felt nice after all the heat we've experienced lately. Bryce Canyon is very beautiful and we found it has a lot of trails to hike. We decided to stay an extra couple days here, total of 8 now.

Great campsite at Bryce Canyon, lots of room! But the temp is a bit chilly. Coming from temps in the 90's and 100's, including today, 58 feels cold! Thankfully we are allowed to have a campfire.

Headed to Bryce Canyon National Park today for 6 nights.

Jack's new toy!

Great time in Utah!

We spent the last couple days and nights visiting with our friends Debbie and Phil in Hooper Utah. They were kind enough to have us camp in their yard, a very interesting place. Among other things they have a field of alfalfa they grow and harvest. It was a wonderful time.

Yesterday we started with a round of golf at Hubbard Country Club on the Hill Air Force Base.

Then we drove up to Snow Basin Ski Resort for a Blues Brews and BBQ. Snowbasin was where the Salt Lake City Olympics held the downhill and GS events in 2002.

Then we went for a dinner of pizza and beer at a pub in Ogden Utah. Finally a late evening relaxing at a fire on the porch of Phil's workshop. (pictured earlier in the day)

Awesome time, our thanks to Debbie and Phil. We are looking forward to seeing them again when they visit Maine and when we go skiing in Utah!

So, we spent the night at the American West Heritage Center,  falling asleep to the sounds of nature, as well as the smell. Who knew buffalo crap smells a lot like cow sh*t.

I was sleeping like a ....

When I was awakened by a ....

It is amazing how much noise such a pretty bird can make!

Anyway, these are pictures of two of our neighbors yesterday.

PS: pigs snoring sounds just like people!

Tonight's campsite in Wellsville, Utah. Just out of site down the field in the picture is a small herd of buffalo. First time in awhile we have mostly blue skies. The smoke has cleared for now anyway.

This site is on the grounds of the American West Heritage Center. It is a wonderful place with historical reinactments of various stages of western life. The place is ours for the night, gates from the road have been locked until morning when they open at 11 am. They did give us the lock combination on one gate in case we needed to get out. But it is so nice, quiet and peaceful.

Good hike this morning in the Pocatello, Idaho area. We started about 9 am in hopes of avoiding the heat. But trails out here are so open that the sun baked us within 2 hours. Everything is so dry it's no wonder there are lots of fires. Tomorrow we'll try golf.

Smoke

We are tiring of the smokey skies. Mountains that we know are there are nowhere to be found. Tonight the smoke was almost too much to sit outside. Plus it showered ash all evening.

But the good news is that the sunset is interesting!

In Dillon, Montana, headed down to Salt Lake City.

We went hiking today in the hills near Petty Creek Montana, looking for Bighorns. It took awhile but we finally found some!



Tonight's campsite, for the next three nights is in Alberton Montana. We actually headed east today, first time in a long time! We have decided to go east and South a bit and avoid the western part of Washington and Oregon due to the forest fires.

So we cancelled our service planned in Grants Pass Oregon and will instead head slowly to Salt Lake City. There we plan to get together with some new friends we made a month ago in Wyoming. Meanwhile we will spend the next week in Montana.

This campground is right on the banks of the Clark Fork River and is active with whitewater rafting. We can walk right down to the river edge, which makes Jack very happy!

Today's campground neighbors!

As soon as we approached the fence about 10 sheep came over, seemingly curious about Jack. Then three of the alpacas approached, staring at us.

We are in Moyie Springs Idaho.

Kootenai Falls Swinging bridge

Its a long bridge, with a fair amount of movement, both sideways in the wind and up and down as you walk. Jack handled it without complaint, he practiced last summer in Vermont on a much shorter version of it.

Kootenai Falls, Libby Montana

This falls is so big it can't be captured in one photo. Even these three don't show all of it. Definitely the most impressive falls so far on our trip. Down river a  bit is a suspension footbridge that we crossed for different views. I'll post pictures of that bridge and a view from the other side.

This is in northern Montana, just before crossing into Idaho. Shortly after these pics were taken we entered the "smoke zone" from the forest fires. Views of mountains in Idaho so far are quite restricted by high level smoke. Only in one area did we actually smell smoke so far.