Canyons and mountains

K is still feeling under the weather. We're taking short walks on the trails near our house in the morning and evening. She perks up, follows scents, and runs around during our outings. They are, beyond a doubt, the best part of our days. This morning, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and K was trotting through an aspen grove. For a moment, everything felt right with the world.

Don't worry - K is still generally happy and comfortable. We have the pain from her leg under control. I think that I'm feeling worse than she is because cold hard reality is setting into my heart. This is real, not some theoretical scenario being spun by a vet. We see K's oncologist at CSU on Monday so we'll learn more then.

Back to stories from our recent trip, our bipolar switching between the mountains and desert came to the forefront again, just 2 days after we arrived in the La Sal mountains. We awakened to much colder weather (too cold to sit outside in the mountain air), and I even wore mittens on my bike ride! So, we enjoyed the mountains for the morning, and then we decided to head back to the land of red rock desert. It was storming down there as we descended in the LabMobile.

We drove south, gradually moving ourselves toward a good position for viewing the eclipse in a couple of days time. As we drove south, the sun started to shine again.

At about dinnertime, we arrived at an area that is a huge plateau that overlooks Canyonlands National Park. We never go into the National Parks since dogs can't do much in them, aside from ride around in a car. But, we thought that a view of the canyons, from lightly-regulated BLM land, would be fun. We arrived at one overlook around sunset when the rock glowed like honey.

Then the sun set in a brilliant light show with cliffs and mesas in its foreground.

We found a spot to camp, and I noticed the incredibly dark sky with a zillion twinkling stars. So, I set up my camera for a very long exposure of the stars circling the North Star. The funny part was that the Runner decided to take the dogs for a walk while my camera shutter was open. You can see his headlamp's path in the bottom of the photo.

The even funnier part was that we thought that we were camped in a discrete and legal spot. In the dark, we really couldn't tell exactly where we were. When the Runner looked around in the morning, he came back to the LabMobile in a hurry to say that we needed to move pronto. Apparently, we weren't legal, and we weren't discrete. That's a perennial problem with our habit of wandering around and not choosing a campsite until after dark - although it's a lifestyle that we both like.

So, we quickly evacuated our campsite and headed back to the overlook above the canyons where the sun was still low in the sky. K looked sleepily at me as I took her photo in the morning sun.

Then, I took a group portrait, with R on the left, the Runner sitting, me standing, and K sitting next to me.

R looked gloriously handsome as he stared adoringly at the Runner with the canyons behind him.

We didn't stay very long on this plateau. The stormy weather had passed, and the stifling heat of the desert had returned. K and I took a short mountain bike ride in the early morning heat.

By evening, we were back at 9000', now in the Abajo Mountains of Utah.

K looked much happier in the cool mountain air! Little did we know how much excitement the next day would bring, including a bear being chased past our campsite, a nearby forest fire, and a solar eclipse.