Our Getaway

We made a get-away last week to the Utah desert, wanting to feel warm sun on our faces and dirt under our feet for a brief time before a long winter.

I adore the sight of red rock and a deep blue sky.

I love the sight of my sweet chocolate Shyla's fur in the desert sunset light with a backdrop of red rock.

And I love the twinkle in R's eyes when he's so very happy!

We departed early on our trip due to a big winter storm system that might have made traveling over the Divide to get to Utah very treacherous. We didn't arrive at our campsite until around midnight. The trip left me exhausted and left my spine in agony.

But, when we stepped out of the LabMobile, and I saw the gazillion stars twinkling in the dark sky, I was suddenly possessed with energy that even overrode my spine pain. The sight of so many twinkling stars in the dark desert sky was inspiring!

I made a short time lapse video of the stars spinning around the North Star over the course of about 5 hours (while we slept). Over that time, my camera took 77 exposures of 4 minutes each, and then I used software to stack them together into a video and a final photo. You can watch it here or at Youtube.

Here was the final photo after five hours. There were so many stars spinning in the sky over our heads that the dark sky was barely visible!

I'm afraid that I won't be able to refrain from telling you about our trip in upcoming posts!

Friday Skyday

We were beyond thrilled when we arrived at our new campsite outside Crested Butte to find clear skies! Based on our web research, Crested Butte looked like an island of drier weather in the midst of our rainy state - so we immediately made a beeline for it.

Our campsite had incredible wildflowers all around it with sunshine making them glow.

It also had a pond about 50 yards away! R perfected his takeoff technique over the coming days. Lift off...

... and flight!

Shyla was watching his technique, and we saw her take flight for the first time in her young life. After leaping and flying for her first time, Shyla decided that she loved it, and we saw her do this many times in the following days. The "butt up in the air" pose was Shyla's unique twist to the Lab diving technique.

On that first evening, the sunset was beautiful - even more than usual because we hadn't seen sunshine in days.

The few clouds in the sky dissipated after the sun went down. The stars twinkled overhead with the bright moon up just after sunset. It was so bright that it was tough to see shooting stars, although there is one short one toward the upper right of the photo. This photo was taken with the camera pointed to the east while the moon was still up.

Then, after the moon set, I programmed the camera to take photos while we slept. The camera took many 4 minute exposures (with 5 seconds breaks between them) over the course of two and a half hours. You can see how many more stars were visible without the moon in this photo than when the moon was out (above). The North Star is at the center of all those circles.

While my camera was making star photos, we drifted off to sleep, eagerly anticipating riding/running on the many gorgeous trails near us the next morning. It was amazing how sun and clear skies lifted our spirits!

The Last Idyllic Desert Day

Although we were in the desert for a week, it turned out that we had only two sunny days - the first two days.

At that time, we didn't know that multiple events, including the weather, were about to turn against us.

Shyla high-fived at sunset on our second day. We all thought that we'd hit the weather window absolutely perfectly.

And, she gazed to the horizon. I think that the colors of the red rock desert complement a chocolate Lab's fur and golden eyes beautifully. In fact, the painting of Angel K, shown in the upper right sidebar, was created by Kathleen Coy based on a desert sunset photo of her.

At the west end of K's Rock, the sky turned sublime colors after the sun had gone to bed.

And the dried wildflowers, which we saw in bloom when we camped there back in May, looked pretty against the backdrop of the orange sky.

After dark, the sky was still clear, and I took multiple photos, over about 30 minutes, to create "star trails" around the North Star. I combined all the short exposures to make the photo below. The meteor that I showed you in a previous post streaked through the sky while I took these many exposures.

I never cease to be astounded by the beauty of our Earth. Can you believe that our sky puts on a show like that one every clear night? I wish that I could be in the desert for even more incredible starry nights!

The next day was when things changed - our weather luck and our LabMobile luck. We made the best of it, but there were no more warm, relaxing, and idyllic days. More about that in a future post.

Happy Sunday

Shyla and I are reveling in our morning rides. It's cool, and we're having a blast. She's getting good at "heeling" next to my bike, so I can take her more places than I used to be able to take her.
It truly feels as if every flower in our neck of the woods is blooming right now. The wild roses are going... wild!

Shyla and I are continuing to work on her agility, and she is doing so fabulously. I still need to be right next to her as she negotiates most obstacles, like the teeter-totter and the weave so I can't get photos yet.

Last evening, we saw the "super moon" which is closest to the Earth that it will be all year. The super moon was unfortunately obscured by clouds until well after it rose last evening. However, it was gorgeous as it emerged from the orange clouds

In honor of Black and White Sunday, I am sharing one more attempt at star trails. These trails are from one night on our desert camping trip in May. It's cool how placing the North Star off-center in the photo makes the "circles" look almost eliptical. The part of my star trails that I'm not satisfied with is the obvious gaps within the trails. I plan to try some more soon, with shorter gaps between exposures. However, I still like this one from one of our favorite campsites in Utah.

I captured more very fun bear action the other day - this time involving a cub with big aspirations... I'll share it soon. Happy Sunday!

A Canyon to Remember

Our first Utah campsite was at the mouth of a canyon at the eastern edge of the San Rafael Swell. We arrived as the sun was setting and the moon was already high in the sky. Our LabMobile camping van is in the lower right of the photo.

The moon looked particularly gorgeous above the red cliffs that loomed over our campsite.

After arriving, we took a sunset hike on a vast expanse of slick rock with the canyon far below us. The sandstone surface made for easy hiking and the the rock formations lining the sides of the slick rock glowed in the setting sun.

I looked at the deep red rock in the photo above more closely. It was a work of art with colorful lichens flourishing on its rusty surface.

After our hike, the sun rapidly set, and I had a brief moment to take a photo of the stars rotating around the North Star before the moon shined too brightly on the northern sky.

The next morning after a long sleep, Shyla and I headed out for a mountain bike ride to explore the canyon. It was deserted - we had the entire beautiful place to ourselves (except for the two R's who were running up on the slick rock). That's what I love about the West - if you leave the beaten path, there are still places that offer complete solitude.

I looked straight up after we entered the depths of the canyon. The wall to the right holds a gallery of pictographs, drawn thousands of years ago. The artists chose a glorious place to display their talent.

Shyla and I had an incredible ride, through the cool shade of the canyon and then up into the sunlight at the top. It seemed ironic to see her panting after porpoising through the snow at home so recently.

She was fascinated with the sights and scents, striking dramatic poses as she surveyed the novel world.

As we descended back into the canyon during our return to camp, Shyla explored a low wall made of red honeycomb-like sandstone.

Shyla decided that it was the perfect place to bow down in thanks for the beauty of our world. The desert always reminds me that we are small specks within the endless universe.

We had a wonderful time in that canyon. However, like several places that we visited on this trip, it reminded me of K. Last spring, knowing that her time was running short, we visited this canyon with her. Seeing the canyon again brought back intense memories of K and moments of deep sorrow. It was so bittersweet being in such a glorious place with her and knowing that it was the last time that she'd be there. And, as I foresaw last year, K was not with us on our return to this canyon, except in spirit.

The juxtaposition of rejoicing in the bond that I'm building with Shyla while I'm still grieving for K overwhelms me sometimes. My heart tells me that I'll probably never stop grieving for K - my bond with her was like no other. However, Shyla's sweet sensitivity and loving spirit are helping me more than I ever thought was possible.

Life marches on but the pawprints of angels remain in my heart.

Giving Thanks in the Desert

We spent the holiday of thanks and gratefulness out in the wondrous red rock desert of Utah. After we learned that Shyla could travel, albeit with no running or long hikes, we headed out on her first camping trip. I think that this girl was made for our style of vacation!

It was unseasonably warm - glorious, you might say - in the desert. I rode my bike each day in shorts, and we lounged in the sunshine during the daylight hours.

The one "downside" to winter camping, even in the desert, is that daylight is scarce. I had many hours to learn how to make photos in the dark, with long exposures making mystical looking pictures. Early one evening, clouds blew in front of the setting moon with the backdrop of the still-reddish western horizon.

When we camp, we have time to get to know each campsite in great detail. We learn where the North Star is, and exactly when the sun will rise and set on our temporary home in the desert.

I had fun capturing photos of the stars rotating around the North Star from our campsite near the "Top of the World". My first try was when the sky was still red from sunset. It was hard to see the stars with my naked eye but my camera saw them when its shutter was open for a long time.

Then, I took another one a little later when the sky had turned darker. Can you believe the beauty of our world?

Shyla's leg problems changed our normal camping routine. She was allowed only short leash walks - which we did close to camp. We did a variety of training games during our short walks like stand-stays even when I was tossing objects around her. It was a great opportunity for her to learn to generalize her training to all sorts of locations. With every dog who joins us, I am surprised to realize that they need to be taught that "stand" means "stand" regardless of whether it's in our kitchen, in the forest, or in the desert.

Shyla has vet appointment on Tuesday to x-ray her leg again. If the lesion on her ulna is getting smaller, then we'll assume that it was a mystery injury to her bone (we never saw any injury occur). Alternatively, if the lesion isn't shrinking, we'll be heading for the experts again, for a bone biopsy to look for an infection or cancer. My gut feeling is that it's an injury, perhaps an old hairline fracture that got banged on a rock or something (that scenario was proposed by the vets)... but only time will tell.

I'm trying to be more like a Dog, just like my precious K taught me - and we're making the best of things rather than worrying.

As you'll see as I show you photos from our trip in the coming days, I have many of Shyla and not so many of R. That was because of our odd schedule, where we did a "tag team" routine of puppy-sitting Shyla in camp, with each of us humans going out for adventures on our own. But, don't worry - I have a few good ones of our handsome black lab!

I am so happy that Shyla loves camping as much as the rest of us. I feel sure that we have many adventures in our future!