Rock Springs, Utah

We had to go to Tropic to drop off a few pictures for the new gallery at Clarke's (http://www.thegalleryatclarkes.com/), so we continued on to Cannonville. At first we thought we'd camp at Kodachrome, but the campground had four or five parties in it. Ellen, a girl after my heart, said, "We don't want to camp here with all these people." No, we didn't. So we went down on the Monument and turned on the Rock Springs Bench Road. After a while we got into a little trouble with the truck and the trailer in a steep, muddy wash. We turned around and went back out to the corral. There we found a really nice little camp just off the road. We hiked, climbed the sandstone around camp, and went to bed when the sun set. It was a pleasant until about 5 am. At that point, I realized that it was cold—too cold for my sleeping bag. It started warming up again by about 9 am, but those hours between 5 and 9, whew, they were cold. After breakfast we drove down the creek a little way and looked around. It isn't too far down to the Paria, but I wasn't going to make it with a little girl. So, we went back, packed the camper, and drove home.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorlemann/RockSpringsBenchUtah#

Second Left Hand Canyon, Utah

It snowed a lot yesterday. But today was warm and sunny and I wanted to see if I could get up the canyon. I forded the creek and mucked my way through the melting snow and mud for about a mile. When I found a place to turn around, I left the truck and went on by foot. I got to a formation called Noah's Ark (look at the pictures to see if you think it looks like that, but don't expect to see any kangaroos). It was big, beautiful, and quiet--the way I like it. Plus, I needed some wood and I found some. Can anyone tell from the cone what it was? The correct answer wins first prize, but Lannom doesn't get to play.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aorlemann/SecondLeftHandCanyonUtah#