May 6, 2017 The Wave, Arizona

After 9 years and the 13th try at the lottery we finally got a permit for the Coyote Buttes North, which includes The Wave.  The Wave is one of the most photographed places in the world. Coyote Buttes North is pretty incredible too. We were lucky to get the permit and very lucky that is was a partly cloudy, cooler - 80+ day. It is a long hot hike.

John hiking toward the two North Coyote Buttes. There is no trail and the route is across slickrock. They give you a map with photos of landmarks along the hike with GPS coordinates.  I immediately lost the map, but John had the coordinates in his GPS. Peaks along the way, looking wave like.

 Pink flowering bush, white flowering bush, cliff roses, sego lily, evening primrose and yellow blooming prickly pear cactus.More cliffs with nice lines. You have to have the permit to get in, only 20 people a day get in, these signs are to remind people, Spider lily, pink prickly pear cactus bloom, cool lines on the rocks. We did not even see all of the 20 people, true wilderness.

John entering the wave area and by a pool of rainwater.

Sue and John near the wave. More lines and colors. The sun was in and out, the light and colors were constantly  changing. None of these photos do the place justice.

Looking east, the way we came to get here. We used to say when we could not get a permit that the Wave was over rated. but it is not overrated, it is an unbelievably beautiful place.

Rainwater pool. John in what they call the Wave, this is the classic shot. The Wave is only a tiny part 

of show here.

John took this of me photographing from the side of the Wave. Lines and colors. 

Lines, colors and shapes. I love this view of another small lake .

There were more shapes than you could imagine. The second Wave.

John surfing the Second Wave. Rocks like rising biscuits and lines. 

Looking down into the Wave from above. You can see the way we came behind it. Sorry, but here are more lines and colors.

John surfing The Wave and walking a line.

This swirl is to the east of the Wave.  We hiked a different way back, up the narrows of Sand Creek to the other side of the valley, then back.

 More of the same whirling and curling lines on this side too.

Stunning sculpted rocks, peaks and pinnacles. Fractured slickrock in front of pointy hills.

A flowering bush, green growth where water seeps through the rock, a collared lizard who is missing most of his tail, colors, lines, and a white flower. Rock lines, a sign warning not to go into narrow canyons when it rains, flash floods can kill you, seed heads, a huge cliff rose bush, it perfumes the air, and a sign coming into Kanab - Abra Kanabra!

May 5, 2017 Round Canyon Draw, Utah

We started out the day by going to the BLM office to try for the 13th time in 9 years to get one of 10 passes into North Coyote Buttes to hike The Wave.  13 was the charm, we won a spot. John made me get up early-which I hate to do and go with him and put the application in my name because he thinks I am luckier than he is. There was only one of 10 spaces left and they said they don’t like people to hike alone, so they did a special dispensation for one more. Woo Hoo!! Then we drove up Cottonwood wash to hike Round Canyon Draw. We passed fields of yellow which were the yellow bee balm and sego lillies.

Colorful rock pinnacles on the way in. Lots of flowers. Lupine, vetch, phlox and midget paint brush.

Fringed puccoon, a ponderosa pine on the canyons edge-haven’t seen them for awhile, red pigment bleeding down to the white layer below, convoluted walls in the canyon. We arrived at the mouth of the narrows. Very, very narrows.

It is a twenty foot drop into the canyon at the mouth. We were fortunate that someone  left a piece of webbing anchored in. John still belayed me down because I am a wimp about exposure.  Most of the canyon is a pretty nice stroll with only a one more 20 foot drop and a few smaller ones.Spectacular canyon.

The water sculpted graceful  patterns on the walls.  A couple tall shots to show how deep the canyon is.

John in another deep shot. The narrows are 1.4 miles long, then the canyon widens out. The cottonwoods are just starting to leaf with spring green leaves.

Wide part of the canyon. White and yellow flowers, patterns on the canyon wall, a cool rock on a dotted rock, mustard flowers.

Sunny part of the lowers narrows. Oh my or The Scream rock, a couple of other patterns on the rocks, pinon nuts and juniper berries from above the slot have fallen in.

On our way back out of the canyon.

The reflected light is  stunning.

The yellow fields in Cottonwood wash. Backlit prince’s plumes, antelope, mallow, white asters. We are in the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument. It is one of the monuments the current administration is reviewing  to drop the protected status so mining can be done here.  A  licence plate on the coach next to us.

                                                                     Sunset tonight.

.

May 1-4, 2017 Mesquite, Nevada to Kanab, Utah

We reluctantly left our secluded desert campsite for town.

It was a tight turn getting out of the campsite. John stopped at the exact right moment and saved the side of the bus. The  home of the famous Clive Bundy who refused to pay BLM fees to graze his cattle on BLM land.

It is always a shock to leave the boondocks for a real RV park. We are camped at the Casa Blanca Casino. The RV park is pretty grim, but they have a great pool.  And I won $125 with the free $5 of slot play they gave me for joining their players club. Plus a free hot dog (75 cents) and $2 off at the ice cream place. 

We are in Mesquite to visit my high school friend Rhonda. Good to see her. We did a quick tour of Mesquite. We started at the museum and art gallery. The museum was started by school children, they hauled all the rocks in, but stopped when the war started and the building was then finished by the men in town, hence the change in rocks. Real cute museum- that is where the phones and irons are. The lady there showed us how to spin cotton and played the victrola for us. The indian design was if front of the art museum. Their current exhibit is of art from the towns school children. Real cute.

Mesquite is home to 7 golf courses- the green on the map. We missed our  chance to ride the camels, we are leaving tomorrow. Saw this licence plate on a truck in town and gasp our thermometer said it was 98 today. Rhonda came over for a wonderful dinner John cooked for us.

Sunset over the RV park. Before leaving Mesquite we stopped at the RV/Truck wash and gave the bus a bath. Good-bye layers of blowing dust, and remnants of dirt roads. 

We drove from Mesquite, Nv into Arizona for a few miles, the into Utah near St George, back into Arizona into Colorado City and the Arizona strip (which used to be where the Mormons lived with there many wives since it was almost impossible for either Utah or Arizona to get to), through Fredonia- Arizona’s desert rose and the gateway to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon back into Utah and are now camped in Kanab ( A western Classic), Utah.  Here is the bus at the Crazy horse RV campground. 

The current basket is becoming the basket from h$%l. There have been numerous problems on it and it has been going on and on. This crazy robin  sees his reflection in the bus and has been flying at it all morning trying to chase it off. I guess that is what we get after John washed the bus.

We took a tour of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary today. It is the largest no kill animal sanctuary in the nation. It is pretty incredible.  They have around 1,700 animals living at the sanctuary. The animals have high class places to live and receive excellent care. This second photo is a ‘catio’. it is the outside area for the cats. 

This mural is at the visitors center. We went by th check out what to do here. This bunny yoga sign was there, it is at the best friends animal sanctuary.

Evening light on the butte behind the RV park. The grass is shoulder high.