More than anywhere else during our travels, we have been able to enjoy
sitting outside in our lawn chairs here in Hurricane. Even on the
hottest days, the early morning or late evening is usually mild enough
to enjoy some outdoor sittin’ time on our rented grassy lawn, and on
non-hike days, sometimes it’s as far as we get.
The male I named Smuckers, after a coughing dog from Seinfeld, because he had a “cough.”
Not long into our stay here, I noticed that a pair of the park’s
numerous robins continuously hopped in and out of the bushes at the back
of our site. I figured they must be building a nest in there, and
though I looked, I couldn’t find it. Then one day, I came out to
discover this:
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| The unmistakable blue shell of a robin egg. |
I thought TBG had found it and put it there for me, but he hadn’t! There
was a nest in the bush after all — the top corner of the chair is
pointing to it — though I’m not quite sure how the shell landed on my
chair through the bush. I like to think “my” robins left it for me to
find. They did like to perch on the back my chair specifically, and they
did leave me a worm on the seat once, so you’ll just have to accept my
animal magnetism as fact.
For the next two weeks I had a nest-side seat to observe both parents
bring food to the quartet of roblets (my word, no need to correct me in
the comments.) The nest was soon far too small for the four fat
fledglings, and one day, I heard a great ruckus up in the tree next to
the nesting bush. I looked up to see a large raven with one of the
babies clamped in its beak and a screeching mob of adult robins trying
to frighten it into letting loose of its meal. Hungry ravens do not
frighten easily, though, and it flew off with food likely meant for its
own brood. It was touching and fascinating to witness other robins come
to the aid of “my” robin family like that.
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| And then there were three. |
Something else I didn’t know about robins is that, once the roblets
fledge, the mama goes off to start incubating another clutch, while the
daddy stays to continue to feed and teach the fledglings how to get food
for themselves.
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| Feigning helplessness. |
It’s been funny to observe the
speckle-chested, nearly grown juveniles flying perfectly well and
completely capable of tugging their own worms out of the dirt pretending
to be totally incompetent when Daddy has food. Any day now, he will
leave them to their own lives, and he will go help Mama with the new
hatchlings. I will miss having them around, for sure.
I’ll get back to our Zion adventures in
the next post, but for this post things will be a little out of order
chronologically, highlighting some non-Zion expeditions. First up, we
took a drive down near the Arizona border to see what Water Canyon had to offer.
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| Vanishing point |
It looks as if we were the only ones there, but due to the very poor
parking skills of the few other cars in the lot closest to the
trailhead, we had to park a short ways away.
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| It’ll get cooler in both senses of the word. |
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| Look up, it’s Water Canyon Arch! |
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| Lushness lines the canyon’s sides. |
The trail into the canyon was lined with blackberry bushes, which we
thought was odd and cannot find an explanation for that, and we even saw
two red poppies, which are definitely out of place here in the wild.
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| Rock staining looks like striped wainscotting. |
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| The trail is up the waterfall. Tricky! |
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| We didn’t travel much further. |
Although it is possible, and it was our original intent, to go much
further than this point, we did not. The trail becomes narrow and rocky
as it clings to the side of the canyon wall. It is not a very long
section, but it was enough for me to be discouraged and call it quits.
With the spectacular scenery in the canyon being the highlight anyhow,
we weren’t disappointed at all.
I had found a local U-Pick cherry orchard a few weeks ago, but we had
dragged our heels getting there. Finally, seeing the news online that
the supply was dwindling, we headed over with our bucket. It was very
hot out, the cherries that were left required the tallest ladder to
access, the horses that shared the orchard decided it was best to graze
right under wherever we were and share their biting flies with us, and
did I mention it was very hot out? Nonetheless, we ended up with three
pounds of scrumptious cherries, some of which I made into a really good
sauce for our grilled pork chops.
Being only an hour away, we decided to take a day trip down to Kanab for a hike on our 22nd Anniversary.
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| 22 years of hiking! We’re exhausted! |
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| The formation is named Mansard, like the roof style, I’m assuming. |
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| Fickle weather had our eyes to the sky as we navigated the switchbacks. |
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| A little prickle frog scales the rocks! |
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| Nearing the pretty plateau, where the going was easier. |
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| Petroglyph cave |
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Peering out from the shelter of the cave. (the rain never got us) |
I have to give huge props to TBG (22 years doesn’t happen by accident, you know)
for finding a celebratory eatery, which he researched over a month ago.
Not only did he choose the place, he called to find out their
social-distancing and safety practices, so that if we decided to
actually go out when our anniversary rolled around, we’d be okay.
It felt a little weird to walk into a restaurant, but we were so pleased with Wild Thyme for their excellent CV19 precautions, and we were able to thoroughly relax and enjoy the fabulous food.
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| We had the patio to ourselves! |
Now, for my readers who enjoy pictures of food, we took them especially with you in mind (hi, Laura!)
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Clockwise: Wild Thyme salad, adult beverage, Tropical Piggy bowl, Beef medallions bowl, lava cake, salted caramel cheesecake
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Our return drive extended the anniversary
fun because we took the highway route that dips down into Arizona and
enjoyed some of the “extra” hour due to the time difference.
The most recent hike we did rounds out this post, and it is, so far, among our favorites.
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| There is a spring in his step! |
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Beautiful morning sun lights up what’s to come.
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| Spring Creek meanders back and forth across the trail. |
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| “Stunning!” often declares TBG. |
We knew from trail descriptions that at roughly three miles in, it
becomes much more difficult to continue. We hadn’t planned to anyhow, so
we found some nice sittin’ rocks and had a snack. Not five minutes
after we’d redonned our packs and started back, TBG flung out his arms
and declared, “Rattlesnack!” and then, “Get your camera ready!”
Hahaha! My husband of 22 years is hilarious! But I already had my hand
on the camera strap, so I guess we’re well-matched. I tried to peer
around him, but all I saw was this:
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| branches…rocks…a little tree…Oh!! under the root to the right of the little tree |
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| “How’sssssss the hiking?” |
Like the previous two, this one didn’t rattle, but unlike them, it
didn’t hiss or really try to scram. While it’s always a little
disquieting to spot these guys, we were happy it didn’t feel very
threatened by us, and we watched it curl calmly back up under its root
for a nap. Fearing for two other hikers who had passed us while we
snacked, we started to stack some branches in the main trail to
hopefully direct them safely around the hazard. While we were doing
that, they came back, and were thrilled with being able to see the viper
without stumbling upon it themselves.
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| Re-negotiating one of the problems on the return route. |
For my sharp-eyed followers, you’ll have
noticed that all three maps have had the data hand-altered. For the two
canyon hikes, that was necessary because the GPS freaks out when it’s
between rocks and hard places. The anniversary one was due to TBG
forgetting to turn it off at the end of the hike, and it recorded the
distance all the way to the restaurant’s patio.
Now, let’s take another look at the most beautiful photo of this post before we go.
Treat yourselves occasionally, Faithful Readers, watch for the joys right under your noses, and most of all, be well.
COMMENTS
Nice job of seeing, avoiding, and even photographing the rattlesnack…. your critter spotting skills continue to impress. Also, congratulations on the anniversary and on finding a unique and exciting way to celebrate. Eating out at a restaurant is such an unusual event these days.
Let’s just hope we continue to see the rattlesnacks before they see us! This encounter was very non-scary, fortunately.
Thank you for the anniversary wishes! It was a very nice treat to be able to go out safely and for such a delicious meal 🙂
Despite the caption on your anniversary photo, I do not believe either one of you is tired of hiking. Wouldn’t it be fun to know how many hiking miles you’ve put on your relationship? That’s the kind of mileage that makes a relationship stronger. And you know he still likes you, because he warned you about the rattlesnack. 😂
Happy Anniversary, you guys. Here’s to 22 more years of exciting adventures!
You’re right, never really tired of hiking! Those miles make our hearts stronger, too ❤ ❤ We'll go with your theory that he was warning me and doesn't just like me for my good zooming camera 😀
Thank you for the anniversary wishes! Here's hoping our 23rd year has us celebrating some time with you!
Have a nice evening, Annemarie
And Happy Anniversary! You know I give extra credit to those of us crammed together in tiny tin cans all day every day. so, as far as I’m concerned, this was your Silver anniversary! What a fabulous accomplishment. Nice work!
Your Kanab explorations looked especially fun, and the views in that area are spectacular. Love the photo of you climbing up among the rocks. It’s hard to appreciate the scale of this stuff otherwise… and the questionable weather sure added some drama to the sky! Speaking of drama, you two are starting to become rattlesnake magnets!
Yeah, those of us living fulltime in RVs get to count anniversaries in dog years!! More cheesecake!!!
Kanab is so nice, both the town and the landscape. We thought the town was kind of like a mini-Sedona. This whole area is definitely calling to us as a potential future domicile. :O