Our U.E.A. break

We always look forward to the break in October so we can go down south to the St. George area. We left on a Thursday morning and arrived at our Quail Creek camp ground in the afternoon. That evening we had tickets to the play Mary Poppins. We went with our friends the Lovelands and actually convinced Kenny to go to this play. Maddie's friend Skyler also went with us. This was his first time to Zions or a play. While we could not take pictures during the play we took a couple pictures before hand.   The play was great and there is something about Tuachan  and the things they can do that really makes for some memorable moments. This time it was the silhouette of Mary Poppins on the cliffs behind as she was flying into the stage.

The next day we went to Zions. The park was crowded and it took forever to even get into the main gate. it must have been the reopening of the park after the government shutdown plus UEA. We decided to go to the east side of the park to some lesser known places. We still had to wait at the tunnel entrance as some big rigs were going through the tunnels.














We then went up to do a hike called Many Pools. It does not show up on the park map but it was a great place and we only came across six or seven people for the two hours we hiked this area. As the name says there are a lot of pot hole pools along the walk up the slick rock.

You follow the drainage pattern of a grayer color rock  and wonder what this place would look like in a rain storm as the water path would flow from pool to pool.

We came near the end of the series of pools and  as I came around the corner I came into a herd of Big Horn sheep. We both were startled and the sheep took of towards the rest of the group. The sheep saw the group which yelled stampede and then the sheep veered and ran up a cliff to be in a safer area. We watched them for a while and they watched us.

 It was then time to turn around and head back but there was still amazing scenery as we walked back with old juniper and pinion pines creating some wonderful framework for the scenery. Some of the trees make you wonder how they ever survive.

We followed the trail of pools back down.

As we neared the highway we found that there was actually a tunnel under the road and followed it into another drainage pattern that lead to our car. In this area there were maples and they were turning into their fall colors. Back home the leaves never really turned into the bright colors so actually got to see some autumn reds.

We decided to have our lunch down in this canyon since it was nicer than eating  in our car along the side of the road.

After lunch we headed to another hike that lead to Pine Creek Falls. Again it is not a mapped trail and he trail leads to some bouldering before you actually get to the falls but it was worth it.

It was getting late but we decided to take the tram up the other portion of the canyon because know the crowds would be leaving. As we went to the Junction stop Cindy got a phone call and it was Tawna Field calling saying they just saw us because they were on the shuttle going down the canyon. What a small world.
We stopped at the lodge and had ice cream and saw some deer and turkeys and then continued up to the end of the canyon as the shadows started to darken the canyon.

That evening the moon was full and the whole camp ground was washed in moon light. The pictures do not do it justice. I did one picture with a longer exposure.

The next morning I tried to capture the sunrise from the camp ground. Doesn't look a lot different from the over exposed moon rise though it was much warmer.

In the morning we did a hike to some concrete arrows. These were built in the 1920's and were used by the first airmail system to point directions for the planes to know they were on the right path. They were orginally painted yellow so they would be easier to see. It is better concrete than most driveways. Since it was at the top of the butte it also had some wonderful views of Quail Creek and the surrounding area.

After this hike we went swimming at Annette's sisters place and then headed home having had a wonderful little excursion.