Easter Sunday Hike 2013

On Easter Sunday morning we hiked the Confluence View trail from the lava cliffs down to the Virgin River. Part of the trail goes through the old city dump, which was interesting! We checked the iPhone for nearby geocaches but didn't really hunt for any. The weather was perfect - low 70s, sunny, the lightest of breezes.  The dogs were able to be off-leash and were sooooooo happy! They got in the river, got dirty and muddy, climbed rocks, chased lizards, and generally had a great time.

Mr. Mamie and Copper along the trail.

Mamie and Peanut at the trailhead.

 Doggies on the shore of the river - they both ended up wet and muddy!

See the little mountain goat? That's 'lil Peanut - she's a great rock scrambler!

HAPPY EASTER!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Geocaching 3/3/13

We spent a fun morning searching for some local geocaches! We started out by heading into BLM land on the edge of Zion to find Canyon Overlook.

This was the view to the west as we drive up a very steep, rocky dirt road.

We went in one direction, only to discover that the GPS on the iPhone was confused, and the cache was most likely on the OTHER side of that canyon behind me. Oooops.

Got going in the right direction and passed some dinosaur toes along the way.

At the cache - Mr. Mamie and the doggies are facing it, so the hide location isn't revealed.

Put the pack down on a rock along with the cache container in order to write in the log, and...

...a couple of GeoPups thought it was time to nose around for snacks!

After visiting with a pair of mountain bikers and sharing some cookies with their nice doggie, we headed back down the rocky road.

The sky was so blue and beautiful today!

Back on the highway, we turned east toward the main entrance of Zion NP to look for Tunnel or Shuttle. This was a micro cache; not our favorite kind but it ended up being a pretty easy find.

Mr. Mamie and the GeoPups headed back up the hill after finding Tunnel or Shuttle.

We turned toward home after that and stopped to look for Tomy's Cache, which was a no-find for us. According to the Geocaching App, no logs had been recorded for it since October 2012. It looks like there was quite a lot of road work in the area during the winter, so the cache may have been moved or destroyed.

Continuing on, we stopped and found PODUMP and Wal-nut 1 before calling it a day and heading home for all the mundane chores that were waiting.

All in all, a successful start to the spring season of geocaching!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

New Tent

We recently got a new tent, and finally managed to set aside some time to plan a camping trip.  So we spent Sunday afternoon making sure all was well with the tent and basically getting our act together to be ready to take off on the first day of Fall Break this week (which is still three days away, boo).  Here are a few photos of tent prep in the front yard...

 

Getting it laid out in the grass.

 

Annnnnnnd it's UP! This is before putting the fly on over the top.

 

Tall enough for a six-footer.

 Some people are lazier than others.

 

Look Peanut, Copper's in... you can go in, too!

 

OK, doggies are in with Mom.

 

Yes Copper, we really are going to all sleep in here!

Presumably the next photos will be from the actual camping trip!

 

 

 

 

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)

Watchman Trail, April 2012

In April we took a little hike on the Watchman Trail at Zion.

 Mr. Mamie stops in one of the few shady spots.

 The view behind us as we made the trek up.

Lots of lizards and other creatures were out enjoying the spring sunshine. See the little guy hanging on the edge of the rock on the right side? I love his yellow arms!

~Mamie "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" (Hunter S. Thompson)