Logan River Trail

We've done this trail about a dozen times this summer - most with Besta.  

Here are some shots from one of them:

Nathan on doggie-doo-doo duty.  

Trying to entice Besta out on the water...he is SUCH a chicken!

Besta kept trying to 'tight-rope' walk the logs and he fell in a couple times.  

One of the many creatures we encountered on the trail.  

And another - it's a duck in case you can't see it :)

Mama and Besta at our favorite rest spot.

And THIS is what we came home to...

Crimson Trail

A few weeks back Nathan, Besta and I did another hike for our Summer of a Million Hikes.  We hiked the Crimson Trail, which I heard was not as hard as the Wind Caves, but I felt like the climb up to the rock wall was just as if not tougher.  The Crimson Trail is cool because it winds up to the top of the China Wall...which is a huge shelf of rock situated about 2/3 up the mountains in the canyon.  The first part of the trail is hard and then once you're on the rock it is nice and the views are spectacular!  In fact, if you look at THIS pic from our Wind Caves hike you can see the rock wall behind us.

This was at the beginning of the hike - the river ran right past our campsite. Nathan almost got swept away while wading out with Mitch. 

Another view...looking west just a wee bit up the trail from the pic just above. 

Nathan and Besta the Trail Blazer.  He LOVES hikes.  He will run up until we can't see him, we'll holler at him, and he comes trotting back only to repeat the process over and over.  So in the long run he actually hiked the trail 3-4 times in one shot. 

Incredible view looking east at the rock crest.

Besta WOULD NOT cross this little crevice...and it was only 4' deep.  Nathan picked him up and carried him over it...(the pic of Nathan above is just over this crevice).  He probably would have stayed there - but he got the balls to cross it once we began to walk away. 

Wind Caves

Our first adventure in our Summer of a Million Hikes went ok...no one died. I thought I was going to, but I survived. I was honestly quite shocked at just how out of shape I am...I shouldn't really expect any different, but man oh man I am going to have to do some serious conditioning to be ready for some of the harder hikes.

My brother Mitch and his cute wife Michelle came up to make the hike with us. The hike is about 2.5 miles long and it took us 2.5 hours. I was awe struck by the beauty of the canyon, it was as if I had just taken it for granted and forgotten how majestic it is.

Here we are at the trailhead. Besta was so excited I am surprised he didn't pee himself.

This is part of the switchbacks winding up to the caves...you can see part of the cave - it is the dark spot in the upper left hand corner.

Mitch found this rock and had to climb it - so Nathan helped to get Besta up on it...

At one point the trail forked...and there was cute little sign that pointed to the right...well which direction do you think we went?? Yep, Left. Mitch assured us this was a shortcut. Well it was but it was awfully steep for a bit and we had to teach Besta to rock climb ...If I hadn't been so scared that I would have fallen to my death I would have taken a photo of our cute dog trying to be a mountain goat.
Right before you get to the actual caves you get to these beautiful rock outcroppings. I went to one and Mitch and Michelle sat on the other and I took a photo from across the 'great divide' hehe

From where I took Mitch and Michelle's picture I turned right and took this one. See the little guy in the white t-shirt? That's Nathan. The pic of us below in the big cavern is in the cavern on the left. We are standing right at the edge of the green.

Mitch and Michelle and I made our way over to where Nathan was - this is me down in the cave while Nathan is uptop snapping the photo.

This is standing (right where we are in the pic below) in the big cavern looking back up/out. Behind Michelle there is a spot that has obviously been camped in - there were even remnants of a campfire.
Mitch took this for us - this shot puts it all in to perspective - I can't believe how high up the caves are. Right behind where we are standing there is a HUGE dropoff (see three photos up)
Here are Michelle and I with the flowers Nathan picked for us. I am smiling so big because we are almost done. :)

As we were just getting ready to head back down the trail, Mitch spotted some deer on the side of the mountain - he then had to watch them...here are our boys watching the deer.
Besta did pretty well - he has to be in front though, which is kinda funny. When we got to the top of the hike he DID NOT want to be anywhere near the edge of the cliffs . After the hike we went to Iggy's to watch the last half of the Jazz-Lakers game. So sad...oh well, there's always next year!

Up next: Crimson Trail

Summer of a Million Hikes

I have decided to set a 'Resolution' for myself (and thereby Nathan too, and sometimes Besta). We live in some of the most beautiful country around and I would like to see more of it. So starting last night I decided to make a list of hiking trails I want to conquer before summer is up (or before we move if we do indeed move...)

We did our first one last night and while it cannot in actuality be called a 'hiking trail' it was a good warm-up for Nathan and I who have been a little sloth-like as of late. We did not take photos to document our travels, but we're going to do the trail once a week - we took Besta and he LOVED it - so next time we go I'll take and post some pics.

Tonight (well, this evening) we are hiking the Wind Caves - I have never done that in the daylight (funny story...I'll tell you when I post pics) so it should be fun.