May 25, 2020 White Pocket, Kanab, Utah

High of 79 and sunny.

I have always wanted to see White Pocket in the South Coyote Buttes. You need 4 wheel drive to get to the trail head, so we went on a guided tour. We got to drive in our own side by side. Our first time in one. We followed the guide in another one. We went from Utah, to Arizona, through The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument into the Vermilion cliffs. 

Red brain like rocks. We passed the Paw Hole entrance into the Coyote Buttes south. You need a permit for that and the BLM office is closed still so we could not get one. Next time, it looks pretty cool too. 

Yellow flowers. We passed a couple of these oil well looking pumps. Here they are used for water. Lots of cattle ranching in this area. White daisy and wire lettuce. We hiked around White Pocket for a few hours with our guide Dan. The rock formations here are phenomenal.  

Red and white bumps. Checkered white area.

Swirly red and white rocks.

John and Dan on the left side of this formation. Dan said it looked like bacon. We had lunch in a shady alcove with petroglyphs, pottery shards, bones, corn cobs all left by the ancients. 

Gray mint, yellow badlands mule ear, fragrant white sand verbena and evening primrose. Spider wort and badlands mule ear.  

Swirls and pinnacles.

Wild textures.

Hoo doo. pottery shards, bones, corn cobs left by the ancient Indians.  A vertebrae in papery thin rock fins, lines and curves, tiny concretions- balls of iron rock.   

Prickly pear bloom, creamy white flowers and globe mallow. Amazing rock formations. 

Big butte. There were lots of these old corrals in this area. There was a lot of ranching in the old days. 

Swirly red capped with white. A lone tree in the white sandstone. 

We were glad we were in the side by side. Some of the road conditions we experienced: deep ruts- John thought he was driving a slot car, deep sand, huge rocks, cows. We stopped by a Subaru that was stuck in the sand. Dan basically said there is nothing we can do to help and threw up his hands.  A jeep drove up that was going to tow them out. We drove around. Really glad we didn't try this in our Subaru. Swirly rocks, grass and lichen.  

Cryptantha, mats of greenery on a seep in the rocks, asters and California buckwheat.