And Christmas must be music.....

And NAM said to Pocketmouse as they played with the ornaments....."You be the Pega-sis, and I will be the Pega-man!"

Over the River and Through......Wyoming....

Between Laramie and Fort Collins ...it was REALLY cold. But, we were toasty and warm inside of the Ranch House in Colorado.

Nice table setting....

Thanksgiving Day festivities under the Pteradactyl Nest.

Move over American Idol.... It's DazzlingKiraand kidlets....


Visiting Station #13.

Wow. Fireman have big....washing machines.Zi inside the fire truck....


Whoa! Wait a minute! That fireman must be magic. That dollar bill must not be real! Or...the pen is a fake magic pen!

HELP!!! I am being held captive by a man with a new 10.2 MP camera!!
Thank you Bethany and CB. It was great food, great company. Thanks to DazzlingKira and kidlets for coming along.

"I wanna play the wee-wee game". ....Zander

Christmas Cactus blooms once a year

Our Fourteener

Yes, we have been to the top of a fourteener. Mt. Evans. (aw right, so we did drive most of the way)
There is a reverse fourteener happening this year. Need a hint???

Yes....there are still Wild Places close by

I have been to Antelope Island several times before and have ridden along the trails on the east side and up to Sentry Peak (which was awesome). This time we chose to start from the west side at White Rocks Bay. We ignored the 30% forecast as advised by Weatherman Bob. As a result, we got some spectacular clouds, no rain and perfect temperatures in the 60s. We rode for nearly FOUR hours and covered somewhere around 14 miles. There were miles of soft cantering paths with spectacular vistas on all sides. Wow, this is quite the ride! We will be coming back here often. I am told that October through March is the time to come to the Island. Then, there are are no flies, mosquitoes or sand gnats.

This is Trailblazer Bob pointing out a geological feature. (Yes, there really is a Molly's Nipple on Antelope Island)
Looking north from Elephant's Head look out.
Looking northeast towards the mountains in the Ogden area.
The remnants of the bison round up four days ago. They are still in holding pastures awaiting their yearly exams and inoculations.
Looking back to where we started at White Rocks Bay. Not another person in sight or earshot for miles in all directions. Love that lone Juniper tree "trimmed" by the wildlife.
A particularly striking rock formation on Elephant's Head Trail.
The rocks on this island are incredible. The oldest rocks on this island are among the oldest on earth. The Farmington Canyon complex, 2.7 billion years old. They comprise the southern 2/3 of the island.
Quartzite ( metamorphosed sandstone) is found on the island in nearly all of the rainbow colors plus white and grey. One variety shown below is a conglomerate quartzite with a big chunk of red jasper in the middle and lots of agate pebbles.
Beautiful red rock and sage. In this case, it is red quartzite instead of sandstone.

"You don't have to be crazy...but it helps"

The lyrics go something like this from C.W. McCall's "Black Bear Road".
"We went about a mile-and-a-half in about four hours, busted off the right front fender, tore a hole in the oil pan on a rock as big as a hall closet. Went over a bump and spilt the Kool-Aid and Roy Gene stuck his bolo knife right through the convertible top and the dog threw up all over the back seat. Peanut butter don't agree with him, you see.

So we had to stop and take off the top and air everything out and clean it up. The dog run off and RJ says she felt her asthma comin' on. I was sittin' there wonderin' what to do when the en-tire scenic San Joo-wan U-Drive-'Em Army Jeep car sank in the mud. At thirteen thousand feet above sea level.

Well, we shoveled it out and ate our lunch, the dog made a yellow hole in the snow and Roy Gene got out his Instamatic and took a snapshot of it."

It all started out as a trip to visit Wildbound and maybe my sister, Horsewoman in Preston, Idaho. Trailblazer wanted to check out Franklin Basin up Logan Canyon as a possible place to horse camp and ride. We only had a Utah Atlas. We hadn't brought any food, first aid kit, GPS or matches. We did not have peanut butter or Kool Aid. We did have a laptop computer, digital camera, a couple of jackets, two bulletin boards and cell phones that got no reception.
We drove about 5 miles past the turn off to Tony Grove and began driving up the Franklin Basin dirt road, and I mean dirt and rocks. 5-7 MPH tops. We decided we had seen enough that we didn't think we would ever come here again. The ridge looked like it topped out, the road MIGHT have gone through to Idaho and somewhere connected (we were thinking) to Franklin, Idaho. Oh well, give it a try. It's got to be better than the road we came up. Then, the road opened out in a great dirt road, 30 MPH. Wow, let's keep on going, this is much better than the road coming up. Hmmm. Getting on the north side of the mountain. Snow, ice, MUD. A sign that says "Rocky Road, Low clearance". Couldn't be any worse than we've been on. What followed was about 6 miles of snow, ice, mud, but going downhill. We had no choice, we could not have gone back uphill. The Pilot was a trooper, we only scraped bottom a few times.
Then, we came upon 2 bikers, who had gotten their wheels stuck in the 18 inch deep mud. They saw us coming and scrambled to help each other extricate their bikes from the mud so we wouldn't plow into them. They got to the side of the road (see video below). We stopped, rolled down the window and asked if we could help them. The expression on their faces was priceless as they looked at what we had just come down that they couldn't get up. "No, thanks, we're ok" Then, we asked "Where does this road go?" They said it hooks into Cub River. We asked how the road was and they said this was the worst spot.
Finally, we got out, connected into the gorgeous Cub River Canyon and then into Preston to visit Horsewoman and crew. On the way out, I commented that I probably would have rather stayed home and gotten a few things done. I do not like all that adrenaline rush. Just give me a nice COMFORTABLE adventure. I guess I should write this all into C.W. McCall type lyrics. Give me a while.

The Really Good part of the road--
Road still lookin' good, a little slippery mud, snow, but not bad at all.
Hmmm. Somehow the photos don't do it justice how BAD the road was. Snow, Ice, Deep Mud, Rocks......
Almost to Cub River. Road lookin' pretty good.

Escalante Days

We just returned from a delightful trip to the Escalante Art Festival. Who, in a million years, would have ever thought we would watch belly dancers in Escalante??

Sprinklers left on all night forming ice sculptures.

It was fun and interesting. We sold enough to more than pay for the trip and looked at a lot of real estate. Toured a few art galleries and gift shops. Saw a great presentation by an Arizona professor on Escalante photography by Dorothea Lang. She was one of Everett Ruess' mentors and married to Maynard Dixon the artist. We also enjoyed a boy scout pancake breakfast, dining at the local cowboy hang out and a buffalo dutch oven dinner at the Pine Creek trailhead. I got a request to carry my jewelry in a Panguitch gallery and got several more contacts, all impressed with my displays and unique jewelry. I was mildly surprised at what sold and who bought it. Most of my customers were from out of state including Florida and Germany. I hope to go back next year, maybe with Cowboy Bob and some paintings.

Paradise Ride on Foxtrotters

Friday, Wildbound and I joined 2 other ladies and went for a nice ride on some Missouri Foxtrotters. Sooooooooo...enjoyable. We rode through fields in Paradise, Utah near Green Canyon. Here are a few photos. Notice Wildbound's new dog, Chani.

Peach Days

Sayyadina learned how to slice peaches for drying.
The finished product.

Hmmmmmm. New recipe. Spiced Peach Freezer Jam. Tastes like Christmas. Made with fresh peaches (not cooked), sugar, ultra gel, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, vanilla and tangerine essential oil. Cowboy Bob said "Oh, my, this rivals the elderberry jelly". This is not only great on toast, but would be a great ice cream topping, on waffles, German pancakes, make fresh peach milkshakes, AND use as the peach sauce base for fresh peach pie.

Escalante Bound for Everett Ruess Days

Just letting people know that we will be going to Escalante for Everett Ruess Days Art Festival. Go to everettruessdays.org. I have reserved a booth to sell jewelry and rugs. It is October 5-6. I am busily working on preparations for that. The Grand Staircase theme and all. I am working on a new Grand Staircase Collection named after actual geographical features in or around that monument. Petrified Forest, Pine Creek, Boulder Mountain, Sand Creek, Silver Falls Creek, Blue Spruce Camp, Sugarloaf, Waterpocket Fold, Sunset Flat, Pinto Mare Mesa, Hole in the Rock, King Mesa, Peekaboo Gulch, Brimstone, Red Breaks, Horse Pasture Mesa, Purple Hills, Oyster Shell Reef, Tarantula Mesa, Burr Trail, Anasazi Park....just to name a few options.
I do have another blogspot for my business. Just go to the link at the side, dreampacker newsletter.

Walk Like A BabyTarantula

Sorry don't know how to load appropriate music here. Sayyadina beware, do NOT watch this. This little sweetie was discovered by Nicoletta on our driveway. Tristano's hand for comparison. We had to chase Ninja (the cat) away a couple of times because she wanted to pounce it.

Storm Bound

A couple of snapshots of the storm the other day. In the one above, you can see the wind swirls whipping up the water in the Great Salt Lake.

Hie to Kolob: Ogden 3rd Ward Girls Go There and Back Again

Trailblazer and I led a group of girls from inner city Ogden. Most had never been hiking before. Every one of them finished the 3 1/2 mile hike around the Bicentennial Trail in North Fork and then hiked some more after lunch to visit the Beaver Ponds. We were helping out Artwoman Sheila (Cowboy's Art Teacher). I showed them plants along the trail. Yarrow, Mullein, Asters, Snowberry, Coneflower, Geranium, Gumweed to name a few. And many of those DYCs. (Darn Yellow Composites)
Trailblazer: "This is the meadow.....been bringing scouts up here for 20 years". (Now named Bicentenniel Meadow after the trail it's on)
Artwoman: "Now there's a painting!"
Trailblazer in his element leading the way. Look for that cowboy hat.
Trailblazer: "that moose rack was this big on one side"



Artwoman captured a snake, mortifying some of the girls.

Subway for beginners: Cutler Creek Culvert, no ropes required.
"Go towards the Light"

We all had a great time. Even Shanea who did the entire hike in flip flops. She found out that flip flops have no traction on muddy trails. She's the one grinning in the photo above. Later, we all went back to Fort Buenaventura and made gemstone bracelets on a Creation theme. Unfortunately, didn't get any photos of all the awesome bracelets. Not only did the memory card get misplaced, but the camera surrounding it. It finally showed up at the end of the night.

Yes, Wildbound, There Really Is a Bristlecone Bob

"Bristlecone Bob" Connelly was our park story teller, telling history, geology and a few bear stories. (Does this sound familiar?) He even had the entire group of about 30 singing Home on the Range and America the Beautiful. He was also our Cave Tour Guide. (In a different outfit)
Can you see Cowboy Bob doing this in a few years?