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So to finish off this trip, we had 2 more days to play and hike. After getting up an leaving Blanding we headed east to find House on Fire Ruin. I haven’t looked up the trail for this hike other then using Google Earth. It looked like a short walk from a pull out on the road so that is where we went. Found a trail heading toward the canyon to find our way down, but came to a problem, there was no trail going down. So we blazed our own following deer tracks down this steep hill. Markai wasn’t to happy with me at the time, but I told her think of the adventure we can tell someone about! She was ok once we got to the ruins! There was nobody around and we took our shots and did some exploring. However we only had the place to ourselves for about 20 mins before a big group of people showed up. That was our call to get outta there. I spotted some places to climb back up to our car and through the trees and slickrock we went. Markai was unhappy with me again, but we made it safe. We did find the trail about a mile down the road later, so all we did is shave off some hiking.

The next stop was Natural Bridges National Monument since it was about 20 miles away. We did a quick loop through and hiked only through one of the Bridges and took some pictures. It was the middle of the day so the light was nothing extra and the wind was blowing so we didn’t stay to long. After here we were thinking of heading to Lake Powell to ride the Ferry cross the Lake and head home a day early. As soon as we hit the highway I changed my mind and we decieded to go stay in Moab since we love it there. We made a couple stops on the way here, once was called Buttler Wash Ruins. It was a cool place to see some ruins at. I would love to be there in the rain though. There would be some sweet waterfalls comeing through, even an arch tunnel was there that would have a big waterfall coming out of it. Sometimes I just wish I had bad “rainy” weather. We were the only people here at this spot and I only new there were ruins here by seeing some on Google Earth when we were in Blanding. The sign on the road told you nothing, so it was a good thing I checked it out. After this we took a detour to Newspaper Rock to find a big wall of Indian writting. A few pictures there, then off to Moab. We took it easy that night and got up the next morning to drive though Arches National Park. I didn’t feel like doing much other then just going home. It was a long road trip that wasn’t supposed to happen, but since Mother Nature is a pain sometimes we got to see some neat stuff!

Now for the next adventure….

House on Fire Ruins and Butler Wash Ruins.

So the birthday trip we had planned to do was based on some decent weather this year. Planning on camping 2 nights in Kodachrome Basin, then up the road about 40 miles to Escalante for another 2 nights. Well mother nature, that mean old woman, didn’t think that was going to be a good trip for us. Saturday March 21st we get up and get out of the house they day of my birthday and head to Kodachrome Basin State park. Once we get camp setup then we head down a dirt road to Grosvenor Arch. The first thing on the road is a sign saying “4 wheel drive recomended.” Well the Mazda 6 is a beast sure it can handle it. Down the road we go, and run into a cattle drive heading toward us. We wait for it to pass us up, then there is now a little creek we have to drive through. We couldn’t let that stop us! We checked it out then hit the pedal to the metal and went through! The car did great there and back. After that then we went down another dirt road to check out Willis Creek, and Bull Canyon. Another crazy dirt road to test out the car on. During the rain we would not make it. 12 miles down the road we finally find Willis and go check it out. A nice little water wall was in the slot canyon, so I climbed on in to take some shots. Bull Valley Gorge is a lot deeper and the one thing it has I haven’t seen in a slot canyon before is a truck wedged in it. Back in the 1950′s some people took a wrong turn and well the truck is still there jammed in the canyon. It was a good first day ending next to the camp fire.

The next morning we head up to Bryce Canyon and hike down to Wall Street, which is always closed whenever I want to hike it. We are at a higher elevation so the weather was a bit cooler then the day before. We wind down the switchbacks and enjoy the sunny weather, it is just good to be out and away from work. We didn’t spend much time in Bryce but once our hike was done then we saw it, the big black clouds rolling in! We didn’t know if we were going to get soaked at camp and blown away since it was a windy day. We decide to pack up camp and get outta there. The weather said it wan’t going to be very good or warm the next few days and we didn’t want to spend our time freezing! Zion here we come!

Zion wasn’t to exciting either, no big waterfalls, to cold to do the Narrows, no good Spring color yet…. so we spent the night in a cabin and got up the next day and said, “Hey lets go to Horseshoe Bend!” Arizona here we come! There were some cool clouds the whole way and I was excited to see what we might have for pictures. On the drive there we passed tons of roadkill, and as sad as that is to see deer all over the road it brings brings food for birds. Eagles in fact eating these deer. We passed one eagle on the deer and switched seats in the car and did a drive buy shooting to get a picture of it. At least one shot came out pretty cool. Once we got to Horseshoe Bend we gave our Vibram Five Finger Gloves a try, it was about 1 1/2 mile round trip mostly through the sand. The only issue I had was the sand getting inside and under my toes. My toes seemed to lift higher then normal so it was a little uncomfortable walking up a hill. There were some great clouds for pictures and also tons of wind! Don’t get to close to the edge or you might lose your blance and that would be the end of you. Markai tried to pour some water over the edge and it just blew back up where we were, that was neat to see.

After this stop we thought about doing Upper Antelope Canyon but the $20 each price tag and the lack of time just didn’t work for us, so we headed to Monument Valley for a few shots. Then through the Valley of the Gods to find the next spot I wanted to take some pictures of, House on Fire Ruin. It was to late in the day to do that one so the next morning we were planning on doing that. After a long day of driving we stayed in Blanding, UT since it was to cold in my book to camp!
Part II will be on its way soon!