Mountains back to the Desert

We spent a few days in the mountains of Southern Utah, waiting out a heat wave before returning to the desert. Finally, a big wind blew in along with cooler air. We were immediately on the move toward the San Rafael Swell.

It was another longish day of driving but we arrived at a familiar campsite in time for a sunset walk. The wind was still blowing as we started our walk.

As we climbed an abandoned trail on a mesa, the sun fell toward the horizon behind us. I captured our first shadowy family portrait of the trip.

It was a short walk that R participated in, and he wanted me to prove that he was there during this trip! (BTW, his paws and the rest of him seem to feel great now - so his sore paws and malaise during the trip were nothing serious).

As the sun dropped, Shyla gazed wide-eyed at the scene.

As the sun dropped, the wind stopped too! That made us very happy because our campsite was pretty exposed, and wind storms can rapidly become sand storms in the desert.

We had a relaxing and quiet evening in our campsite. I took photos of star trails over the mesas that I'll share with you later.

We awakened to the gorgeous colors of the desert. I think that part of what I love so much about the desert is how incredibly different it is than our mountain home.

This campsite has a great trail for Shyla and me to mountain bike so we headed out early, trying to beat the heat. She was a bit hot at the end but she was also very happy!

We stayed in that spot for only one night and headed out in the afternoon, hoping to secure our favorite campsite that is about 30 miles from Moab but still sometimes gets crowded.

After a shortish drive, we found that no one was in "our" campsite, one that we've dubbed "K's Rock" because we had a wonderful time with her in this spot last May. Yes, if you're counting, K has a lot of rocks named after her! R was ecstatic!

Although we call it a "rock", it's really a huge Wingate sandstone formation, very high and about 100 yards long. In this photo, you can barely see the Runner on the right peak, raising his arms to the heavens. It gives you a sense of the hugeness of everything in desert.

It turned out that there was a veritable garden of blooming plants at the base of K's Rock, which I'll show you in the near future. I've never seen anything like it in the desert before - a sandy floor covered in a carpet of flowers - purple, orange, red, and pink.

Yes, this Land is our land... and we are so lucky to live here.