near Hurricane, UT
My appetite for crawling around on interesting rock formations had been whetted yesterday while driving past the southern end of Zion National Park (photo at left) so today, fueled by a large (and extremely HOT) cup of coffee, I embarked from my room at 9:00 am for an "exploring" day. Heading east on Highway 89 I drove up into Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on the Johnson Canyon road, one of the few paved roads in the area. Actually, the un-paved roads were fine - wide and well graded, but I could see (by deep ruts here and there) that once they got wet it would be a different story. The air was delicious and filled with the smell of sage and juniper, but the weather started to deteriorate so I drove back down to the main highway and headed east for another 30 miles or so, where I found another road the went up into the monument. This was a wide, smooth and DRY dirt road, so I drove a few miles off the highway and parked, then just wandered around, looking at this and that.
After an hour or so of shuffling around looking down at the ground for interesting rocks, etc. I stumbled (literally) into this rock (photo at left) where someone with the initials "J.H.B." carved the date "Jan. 1, 1914". This part of the monument still allows cattle grazing (ugh!) and I was prevented from exploring an interesting little box canyon by a small (but determined looking) herd of range cattle, who had staked out their "turf" and didn't appear to be too friendly. Bidding them adieu, I continued my wanderings through sagebrush flats punctuated with the occasional yucca plant. Further "punctuation" was provided by numerous prickly pear cacti, an aptly-named feature of this area that had just began to bloom here and there. What little firm crust left on the surface of the dry streambeds was lost to the hooves of the nomadic cattle, but the brush was sparse enough to allow reasonably effortless cross-country travel. Raptors were common everywhere I went, but I didn't notice any rabbits or rodents, and only a few deer. Eventually growing tired of zig-zagging around the countless sage bushes, I left and drove back toward Kanab and checked out Kanab Canyon for an hour or so before flopping down back at the hotel.
Day 3 - Friday