After enjoying the coolness at 8200 feet for several weeks it was time to do a major shopping trip which meant surviving desert heat at lower elevation.
Drove off the Kaibab Plateau in the afternoon at a balmy 77F. Everything looks so green and lush with our late spring rains and snows.
Yup, another fire lookout tower near Jacob Lake. I’ve climbed this 100 foot one too.
Destination Kanab, Utah where I parked at Bill’s house. This cut off an hour and a half drive to St. George to shop on Wednesday. Plus I got to see where Bill lives, nice house by the way, and I invited him to dinner at my favorite restaurant in town, Escobars. If you like Mexican food this place is the best. Just don’t show up on Saturday when they are closed.
In order to try and beat the predicted 104F in St George I left Kanab early, for me, and headed west for another hour. Thank goodness it’s a pretty drive. My routine is to go to the farthest store and work my way back to the way out of the town congestion. Costco was the first stop and I bought a new Memory-foam pad for the 5th-wheel bed. Had already put one in the truck-camper and that bed was most comfortable. The box it came in was huge and heavy and another shopper actually put it in my cart. I managed to muscle it into the back seat of the truck and now will need help getting it out. Next stop Wal-Mart, where I absolutely hate to shop. Then Natural Grocery for the last of my list. Although I seemed to just fly through each store it still took three hours and the temps were rising. Yet I needed a long-sleeve shirt inside the stores. I really don’t like AC much but in these soaring towards 100 temps guess it’s a necessity.
After a second night of dinner at Escobars, Bill’s treat this time, we sat out in his back yard talking and enjoyed a pretty sunset while the temperatures thankfully dropped to doable 70s. Sleeping was fine as the temps continued to drop and it was even a bit chilly in the morning.
Which made it perfect to take a walk with Bill’s dog Sasha on the nearby Bunting Trail amongst the Vermilion Cliffs in the morning. All the spring rains really brought out the flowers in the otherwise dry desert environment.
With only a little climb the views north spanned to the Kaibab Plateau, where I would soon return to cooler temperatures.
This is a gorgeous hike into the red rocks of southern Utah. Bill and Sasha walk here almost every morning. In fact we crossed trails with a lady he sees regularly walking with her dog Singer. I think the trail head is only about a mile from his house. Nice and convenient.
We really didn’t go far, our destination was dinosaur tracks in broken down sandstone that was once sand dunes. The three toed prints are about 12×8 inches and we could see two tracks on this boulder.
After breakfast at Houstons we took a drive around the properties of Best Friends and then to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes.
This State Park was carved out of BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land basically for ORV recreation. I’m sure glad some of the dunes were spared the tearing up that involves.
Plus there are the distant views.
A quick stop at the Visitor Center to refill water bottles and I just couldn’t resist this antique.
Before long it was back to the North Rim where I saw the hybrid bison for the first time this season. And back to work on Friday. I have no desire to return to the desert heat any time soon so hiking and camping may be limited to the Kaibab Plateau for a while. I’m OK with that.