Travel tips | Impressions

Thoughts about my country Lithuania

I visited my country this December – not the best time for visits weather wise. First of all it is a risk to get your flights delayed, for the weather conditions happen to be bad on both sides of the ocean. But I was lucky in that sense. Just skipped in between storms, of course not with some spoiled nerve cells. So unless you really need to – try not to fly in winter. Also – it is not the biggest pleasure to enjoy Lithuanian nature in winter, too. It may be very beautiful, especially if it snows, no wind and the trees get covered with the white fluffy stuff. But have in mind – the roads are not being very well cleaned, all the rides are risky those days. To tell the truth – nobody cares…that is what scared me most. People got decieved by politicians, by city officials so many times that they don’t pay attention any more. And maybe they are right – either you change the circumstances that you don’t like or you ignore them if you feel helpless. Most of them do try to enjoy what they can control and ignore the rest to the extent that Lithuania is now among African countries counting the lowest participation in political election events…It is sad, very sad. But what can they do – each time they elect as it seems good honest people to their parliament – every time they start “rotting” there, by which I mean not showing up to the sessions, accepting bribes, making nice trips abroad to foreign countries for public money and caring only about themselves and their families as if the rest of the population is of second sort… As a good example – two years ago an election for president was held. A popular guy from TV humor “Dviraciu” show, an analog of Jay Leno here in the States, decided to run. He said I have the money, but I don’t have any program, any platform, don’t care, just am doing it as a joke and I expect no more that one person to vote for me. At least he was honest. So how many votes did he get ? He got 7%, and that is very very sad.

I didn’t take my camera this time because the weather is usually very dark, rainy, with very occasional sun showing itself by the horizon. So sorry – no pictures…I also didn’t plan to travel, just to visit my friends and family. Which was very nice, people still have this warmth not spoiled from the hardships of the evolving capitalism. Our people are very hospitable, creative and dilligent. Again -this is my impression, everyone may have their opinions…And as we all know – everyone’s experiences differ. Mine were really good, I can only be grateful I am friends with so many admirable Lithuanians. I love them dearly and therefore am not happy that the government is so corrupted and that they don’t care about our citizens at all. It seems only the journalists are pushing the truth out of the bureaucrats’ chambers, but very often they are called liars and their rights are getting limited. There was this article in the newspaper – couple of years ago the then mayor of Vilnius made arrangements of spending the capital’s 6.5 m LTL by giving it to an American Lithuanian – Fluxus person Jonas Mekas to pay for his collection of avant-garde movies…as if in the times of economic hardships it is the thing that Lithuania needs most. By definition a piece is considered avant-garde “if it causes a circular reasoning that causes a great deal of general confusion”. Maybe that is the catch – they want general public to be more confused than they are already now… 🙂 I am more than sure that by their own intention maybe one person and three specialists would watch those movies filmed with a moving camera (very irritable for my eyes personally), but definitely no more…But the city will pay. And guess what – I believe that this is one of the popular ways of taking money from the budget and dividing among themselves. Sorry guys, but my opinion comes from observing life there, reading the news and doing some thinking… Why then and who could explain in what ways several people in Lithuania got so extremely rich in such a short time, buying islands, yachts and villas in exotic countries not being some extraordinary talants and having in mind that the country is free from Russia’s occupation and their version of socialism for only 18 years? While the others are struggling to get ends meet, paying for utilities and food, and they have worked honestly all their lives or work now full time.

At the time they were discussing the millions going to the US for the movies, the weather played a joke, or maybe it wasn’t a joke, it just stayed normal – because this happens every year. It started raining and freezing to the extent that all the pavements and streets were covered with beautiful shiny ice. As far as I remember even in Soviet times it was a normal practice to spray some salt on the sideways during those conditions so that people could walk and not break themselves. But no, Lithuanian cities didn’t have money, especially Vilnius. No, that was not included in the budget, as if Vilnius was located in Florida, as if a sudden freezing rain is something that never happens here… So people were falling down every day of those 3 dangerous days and breaking everything they could, getting concussions, etc. The hospitals were filled and overfilled, doctors talked on TV explaining in detail the costs of each type of broken bones, starting form hip bones ending with arms and legs, the costs of people missing their jobs was discussed, but no, no changes in the budget, no money for salt. The municipalities just don’t care. Of bigger importance is to have those crazy (sorry specialists) movies and getting the public trained intellectually which they can’t do by themselves, whereas if they are sick and have broken bones – so what, they will heal without government’s interruption. And people don’t complain about that, they think it is normal, which is not a good sign in a country striving to be a prosperous democracy.

And guess what happened during the New Year ? (I was away by that time but I read in the newspaper) The same capital, Vilnius, had enough millions to pay for the firework and laser show! And who did this money go to ? No, not to some creative Lithuanian artist, but to a German! I have nothing against Germans, God forbid -I like them a lot as much as every other nationality, but in those hard economic times why not to help some struggling local artists instead of a foreigner and gathering all the enormous, hungry for impressions crowds, with the inconvenience of traffic jams, etc. and giving them nothing that at least would reach their expectations (based on my acquaintances’ descriptions who saw it)… So it goes, as Kurt’s hero Bill the Pilgrim said in bombed Dresden…

And it goes not so bad in peoples lives who have jobs they enjoy. Still everyone makes their homes cozy and nice whatever the means they have and life is turning better little by little, can’t even be compared to the one we had during Soviet times. Except, life was not as busy then and we had more time for interaction, for jokes. By this I don’t even want to compare or analyze this complicated issue, I just want to mention a thought that struck – even in the worst times people find their ways to be happier, even in wars, which makes them survivors. It is the law of Nature…

The biggest event in Lithuanian culture this autumn I would dare to say was “Arc De Triumph” – a competition of opera singers. It was beautiful, they would broadcast it every Saturday and the streets would be quiet dead because almost everyone was glued to their TV screens from 9 to 11 pm. And if you met an acquaintance in the street – you could bravely start conversation about the last program, about who the best singer was, how he or she performed that specific aria or sang those high or low tones. Everyone liked it and had opinions about who was their favourite. Listening to classical singing is really a big pleasure, I miss it here a lot. We get only one opera per year which is performed in St. George usually in February by Teatro Lyrico d’Europa.

Other than that I didn’t have time to visit more theaters or concerts, I spent a couple of days in Druskininkai for the pleasure of using the waterparks and seeing the quiet, clean, tidy and very beautiful resort city tucked in the most attractive forests Lithuania has. It consists of mostly hotels and spa’s, not too many people living permanently, but a lot of people coming to get healthier. I highly recommend to go there any time of the year. There are mineral springs coming from its soil and they are used for different procedures. The surroundings in the healing spas are very modern, comfortable, so it is a big pleasure to use some of the procedures. But the greatest fun is in the waterparks. I say parks – plural – because even in this pretty small city there are two. One was built for European money when Lithuania joined EU, the other by an owner of chemical factories. I guess some ego played a big role here. The waterparks are beautifully designed, with sculptures and decorations. Lots of pools, rides, underwater pressured streams and waterfalls. But the highlights of both are the different kinds of saunas they have. So many and so different that it takes hours to check all of them and to figure out which is best for you. And all of them have special decors, special herb smells, amazing…There is also herb tea for your peasure and rehidration in relaxation areas. For challange seekers each park has an ice room – all white with icicles and buckets of ice to pour on yourself after a hot time in sauna. The saunas have information about their temperature and humidity on their doors and they also have exotic names. I counted 16 saunas in the main park, and some 5 or 6 in the smaller, private and more expensive one. For me personally -I liked the ride on a tube in a circle of a fast narrow river, some poeple liked sitting on their tubes while one of the pools was bubling in big waves. I liked the rides on tubes down some circling pipes which were not too steep or scary. Youngsters liked riding on their butts down in narrower and steeper pipes. But best of all (I know it sounds crazy) – they have well designed big aquariums with well chosen fish. Observing them are hours and hours of fun :-)…

I am back in Utah now, living my usual life and having fun dinners with our friends here. I guess I never have enough of interactions :-)…When someone asks – was it sad to leave my country, are you happy to be here again, it is hard to answer shortly. All those feelings, lots of feelings. I am happy I can visit my country and my folks, I am happy that they are still doing well, that I can enjoy time with them and I am grateful I have my own world here and that I almost got used to this very different climate, and that we have a good community here and a very good yoga teacher (for comparison I went to two yoga classes in Lithuania – it is another story, but in that sense I am on a better path than they are there, sorry…) and that we still have some B&B business in those tough economic times.

Floral Expo in Bellagio, Las Vegas

We don’t go to Las Vegas very often (it is 2.5h from us). Maybe twice a year. And only once to see some shows and wander around. But either that or on the way to the airport we always visit the Bellagio Floral exposition. I agree, Bellagio has the most beautiful singing fountain show every 15 minutes. But for me – nothing beats the Flower show. I read in their flyer that they change the flowers and themes 7 times a year but never had a chance to check it for myself. We somehow happen to see the fall decorations almost every year and I have to say that they are very different each time. They may have some big pumpkins and mums and watermill, but there are always different creatures covered with natural things like moss or flower petals, and they also have some featured trees, which are usually exotic in one sense or another. This time they were singing and raining trees:

And some trees-faces, as if they were taken from fairy tales. One of them even moved his eyes and opened his mouth to say something. If only have I had an opportunity to see such a live tree when I was a child – that would have been a huge impression…

The other tree-face was not moving but still very cute:

And as usual some humongous pumpkins:

And here are some “creatures” as I call them -maybe some grasshopper or other kind of bugs:

To get to that expo you just follow through the big entrance hall to the very end. The hall has the outstanding Chihulli glass flower ceilings:

It is a matter of taste, I prefer live flowers…

And then there is Las Vegas, with its Blue Man Group and other decorations:

This time we visited Dr. Scott’s hypnosis show in Riviera – it was really fun I didn’t expect. Those several people (not all of all the volunteers) were so well hypnotized that they talked and behaved rather funny, we laughed out bellies off! The other show was a show I never heard before: Raw Talent Live -Fuego. I liked the word Fuego, but the first part of the name is not enticing therefore not good in my opinion. If it wasn’t for pre-shows on the TV screens by ticket offices – I wouldn’t have chosen it. It was kind of a musical with some contents about a laptop how it gets into the hands of Evil then Good forces and how they learn about the world cultures and problems from the laptop and realize what happiness truly is. The singers were good, the dancers were especially good, and the clothes were fantastic. Lots of Latino rhythms. The decorations were mainly projected with lights onto transparent screens, very creatively, and on the whole it was quite a show in big speed. I liked it a lot with the exception of the last dance. The last dance was about becoming regular again and dancing the dance of happiness, which didn’t feel. The clothes were too simple, the music too loud and noisy… But everything else was really worth seeing and I highly recommend to everyone. They don’t let you take pictures on the show, so no illustrations, sorry :-).

Hummingbird Nest

This spring guests showed me a nest that the lady hummingbird has built on the right edge of our B&B sign right in front of the main doors. It was the beginning of May. Soon she lay two tiny eggs and sat on them for three weeks:

How did we know that there were two eggs – I climbed a stool and put a mirror on top of the nest to peek into, while the hummingbird mom was gone to eat some. While she sat – her nest and the surroundings were clean. Not so after when the super tiny chicks appeared :-):

Actually it took again three weeks for them to grow to this size seen in the picture, train their wings and fly away. For the first ten days you could see nothing in the nest, just the mother coming and feeding them now and then. When I looked with the mirror – I saw two breathing featherless bodies with three downs each, without distinguishing where their beaks or butts were. Then the vertical beaks started to appear:

And then one day we notice that there is only one bird still in the nest, the other is gone. The second one was hesitant to fly out, he still sat on the edge of his nest and trained his wings which to my eyes seemed too small for flying…the first fly ended in a bush close by:

And then another bush:

and then the tiny bird disappeared in the big pine tree. You could only wish them the best. So may have them are killed by predators. But the ones who make it – they live up to 18 years, a real record for such a small creature which has his heart beat at times he flies with an enormous speed.

Interesting as it is we had two families this summer in that same nest. The other one was a different mom for she was much more intimidated by passers by. The fathers don’t play any role in sitting on eggs or raising the family – that fact I read in the internet and i never saw a brighter bird there (males are usually more colorful).

Slot Canyons in Zion’s East

If you enter Zion National Park from the West entrance, after crossing the Virgin river you find yourself doing switchbacks, back and forth until you reach a much higher level and can really enjoy the big picture of Zion mountains. There are some pockets by the road there for you not to slow the other traffic. And then you reach a tunnel which was exploded and created around 1928. Before that people would send mail or logs for houses on a cable connecting the top part of the area to the bottom of the canyon. Therefore one of the mountains here is called Cable mountain. So this tunnel was of great help for locals as well as travelers. Its length is 1.1 mi and it is pretty narrow. It has two lanes for sedan cars, but once those houses on wheels try to get through – they stop the traffic on one side. So sometimes when lots of people who can’t part with their houses travel here, there is a wait period before you can enter the tunnel. It is not so bad if you don’t rush because the views are magnificent. And then the tunnel has three holes-windows in the rock that are supposed to ventilate and give some light. But don’t plan to stop your car and look around through them. Once you get from the tunnel – there is a parking for a really cute trail – Canyon Overlook. I highly recommend it to everyone, it is only 1 mi round trip and is very diverse. But this time we decided to drive further from the tunnel and check the slot canyon on the right from the road. When it rains that canyon becomes a force of nature full of water. But as it is a desert here and it rarely rains, it is mostly a dry exotic path on the bottom of imaginary river with real fantastic walls:

The passage is sometime very narrow and those types of formations are called slot canyons.

At some places the canyon is so dark, gloomy and still have some water in deeper pools, that you have to find your way out to the top top and walk around those unpleasant places:

But then they open up again and there you can see trees growing and turning into fall colors:

It is usually much cooler in those slots than in the area around. Here and there you can notice the signs of the force of water when it rains:

Water and wind have created different forms in slots, arches being one of them.

There is a feeling of being a dust in the vastness of our Mother Nature:

Meanwhile on the high up walls winds are sculpting another arch. I am not sure how many millions of years it takes them to finish their job:

Those little maples are not the regular ones we are used to. And I am sure they are not the sugar maples, ether. They grow in the bottom of the canyon by this imaginary stream and have the form more like bushes, than trees. But nothing can beat their redness in autumn:

Once you get enough of slot canyons you can look for a less vertical slope towards the road and climb you way to there, to your car parked in one of the pockets. The other side of the road has also several interesting trails, which are not designated and are left wild for various wanderers to improvise their walks. It is usually by following the bed of a dry stream, tracking the waterways. One of such walks is called Many Pools trail. We didn’t have time to do it that day, just a little portion of it. It is late autumn and the sun is setting pretty early. Just two images of Many Pools:

For the end – a little pine that grows in a sandstone rock as seen from the road on this same Eastern part of Zion NP:

Kanaraville Canyon in its splendor!

We read about this canyon in our local newspaper three years ago. It is about 50 min drive from us – to Rt 15 and then a little North, one exit after the Kolob Canyons of Zion NP. Once you get off the highway on the Frontage rd. – head North for 4 miles till you see a red nicely painted barn where you turn Right and head towards the canyon. There is a parking there, but nothing else. It is on public lands so no WCs or information is provided. Therefore it is more wild, and you can experience more solitude. The only time we met several groups of people there was the time after the article was published about it. All of them were locals and all of them came because of the article. But the next year we met only a couple of photographers or romantics. This is the most spectacular of all the canyons I have seen, but that doesn’t mean in absolute sense. I still haven’t seen a lot. We visit it each October, closer to the 20th-24th, when the trees are turning into red and yellow hues. Here is the entrance to the canyon:

Though it is not in a National Park, but the path is pretty good, evidently – still popular among locals. It goes by a stream, we don’t even know its name. The stream has an interesting feature – sometimes it looks like a normal stream and sometimes it disappears and leaves a dry bed. It completely disappears very soon after you enter the narrow part of the canyon which makes it easier to walk.

At this time of the year the Rabbit brushes are finishing their yellow blooming. Behind my back there is an entrance to the Narrows. It takes 40 min to walk there:

The pictures are taken in three different trips this year and last year. So some trees are still green and others are already in their full autumn colors. Some are already naked…

Sun or cloudy – those colors were so divine that I can’t resist to share more and more with you:

At some point the canyon becomes very narrow and sun never gets to its bottom, so it is cold there.

Then again it widens and lightens until you get to a place I called “meatgrinder” – an analog from Tarkovskyj’s movie “The Stalker” which at some point was very popular in previous Soviet Union where I grew up and learned to understand the world:

HOw long does it take to go deeper into the canyon – as long as you want. We walked for a hour once the Narrows started and there was no end to be seen. The walk becomes harder, more boulders and trunks to climb in order to proceed, but at the same time it becomes more dramatic. You can feel the force of flash floods that happen when it rains – huge trunks of trees are brought and stuck in the middle of the canyon. Going out is also nice for you see the walls of the canyon in a different angle and it seems it is a different path. You start noticing smaller things:

And once you get into the sun again – it seems so warm and nice…

Out walks usually last around 3-3.5 h. But it is your choice.

When we returned home I took a picture of our Mexican sunflower by the kitchen window together with Chrizantemums:

Autumn colors on top of Zion NP

As it is our tradition already, we drove North of Zion to admire the aspens of October 3rd. You get out of Zion NP through the East entrance, then reach Carmel Junction ant turn left on Rt 89 till you reach Rt. 14. The road winds up the mountain with the views of smaller hills on the right and nice summer houses built on almost each of them. Very soon you start seeing aspens, the yellow beauties of autumn. And then lava fields start to appear. The strange thing is that you can’t really see a volcano but the black chunks of lava are there as if they have just erupted from the Earth’s depths:

Far in the distance of this picture you can see a lake – it is Navajo Lake, almost in the midway of Rt 14 to Cedar City. If you drive further, you would reach a junction which directs you to Cedar Breaks National Monument. It is worth visiting and it looks a little like Bryce Canyon’s erosions, only we have seen it earlier several times and this time Navajo Lake was our destination. Here is how it looks from the road:

Then we turned around and drove back a little till we saw a parking pocket on the right of the road with a wooden closed gate to a bike or service road. Here we walked towards the lake and found ourselves enclosed like in some fancy yellow decorations:

At some point we saw a board telling that this is the path that circles around the whole lake. It is a pity we didn’t have time to walk all of it, but it would be fun for anybody to do it on foot or on a bike. Because it was all horizontal, no climbing involved. And the aspens were just bursting in color:

Some bushes looked as if they were one of those who was talking to Moses years ago…

The creature we saw by the path:

And other little fall decorations:

We reached the edge of Navajo Lake and found ourselves much higher than its shores but lower than Rt. 14. It was a warm day, exactly the right one for hiking but the clouds were covering the sun here and there and at some points we had to wait for it to come out and lit the scene or take it as it was:

Here is Andrei, our main photographer:

After this short walk we drove back to Duck Creek Lake:

and the forest near by:

We finished the trip with a short drive to Aspen Mirror Lake on the left of the road which appeared to be a fishing destination. We caught some good images there, too:

While on Rt 14 – there were plenty of places to stop ant take pictures, so beautiful all the way, but as always – no time to do everything you would like to. The whole trip took us about 5 hours, with 1.5 h one way. Another place of interest there are the Navajo Falls that come from a hole in the rocks bordering Navajo Lake. Those falls are the birthplace of the Virgin river that is responsible for carving Zion canyon and then is rushing all the way through Springdale, Rockville, St. George, crossing Arizona and Nevada to Lake Mead. It It is the river that gives us our irrigation water for gardens and orchards so that Southern Utah towns look green as if they are not in a desert. But it was another trip to those falls and I will describe it later.

A Mining Town Jerome in Arizona

I haven’t written for a while, it was a busy summer. We had no time to travel, so there was a pause in my posting. But we still did one trip in the end of hot July when the monsoon clouds in teams were crowding the skies:

And then they would concentrate into one bundle and rain:

So we headed south to Arizona and down past Flagstaff to Prescott. But on the way there was Montesuma’s Castle. It is just a name for an ancient Indian dwelling built in the crevices of the rocks. It is definitely worth visiting, except the timing was not good – way too hot. The sweat was running and the short trip from parking to the castle seemed like a hard walk. But the view impressed. It is unbelievable how those people were not afraid to live so high up, to raise their kids without losing them to the bottom and constantly climb up and down for the water supplies from the river:

Next day after staying for my Bowen class in Prescott we drove back towards Flagstaff through Jerome. It is located on a rather steep slope of a mountain, but luckily not as steep as Montasuma’s Castle. Maybe that is the reason people still live in Jerome, though some of its buildings are abandoned and it gives some charm to the town. The main street is winding down the slope and here we see a house for sale – it is listed as a previously operated Brothel with two big windows for the girls to show their beauty. I don’t remember the price of it, but it was reasonable:

And the street winds down:

Looking down from Jerome into the Valley we could see the Jerome Museum set in some rich person’s mansion who established his riches while running the copper mining business in the mountain. It is a pity we were too late to visit it.

A church turned into a hotel?

The remnants of a hay-day bank in the center of the town:

The same bank from the side street:

And one more image of it – I guess I liked it:

In one of very short side streets we noticed that we could not only look around but also – take a movie ourselves:

And that was it, the darkness came as it always does very quickly in these southern countries…

Zion Narrows

Summers are deadly hot here. Or so I perceive them. The only thing one can do in the park, to my opinion, is hiking the Narrows. Well, there are people who enjoy the heat after spending long and cold winters in the Midwest e.g., so I don’t argue with them. I am happy they can do some other trails in addition to the Narrows. But not me. In the temperatures of human body my body refuses to move… Zion Narrows is the only place you can expect to get some relief from summer’s sweltering heat. Not as much for the reason they are narrow, as the name says, and the sun is not baking the bottom all day long, but because first – you have to walk in the water, and also – there are plenty of places where ancient water that was rained long long ago is soaking through the sandstone walls and creating a natural swamp cooler. But before you get into the Virgin stream you have to suffer a little. You have to get onto the shuttle which is not air conditioned and though the drivers are very interesting in telling their stories about Zion NP, at the end of 45 min ride you start feeling sorry for them – to work all day in this heat…Good they manage not to turn into dried prunes.

Then you get out in the last stop which is called Temple of Sinawawa because there is a natural rock pulpit and an altar in the middle of the square surrounded by tall walls. Good thing there is a toilet there. After that – no water, no toilets, you have to think and organize your life around it. So you start walking from that point towards the depths of the canyon on a paved path – quite a comfortable one. It is 1 mile to the end of the path called Riverside Walk which ends with some stone steps landing to the rocky shore of the river. This is where crowds gather. The ones who prepare themselves for the hike, change their shoes if they have the better ones for river walk, or take off their shoes they are sorry to get wet, and the ones who don’t plan to hike into the river, just watch the hikers or sit on the bigger rocks and have their lunch:

Having that in mind and being already hungry we had our lunch before the very end of the path:

Lunch in Zion

As you may see we were using our ski sticks for support in the water as well as gaining more speed on the even path.

Squirrels are spread out all over that path. They are not afraid of people and some are pretty fat. Which leads to a thought that maybe not all visitors sustain from feeding them which is forbidden…

Here is the beginning of the trail in the water. Yes, very crowded even on a regular weekday. I guess main reasons being school holidays and kids like water. But nevertheless there was enough space for everyone. No accidents, peaceful strolling up and down the river, with some kids swimming in deeper places. We tried to find shallow passages so that our butts don’t get wet, though the water wasn’t cold at all.

This is a very popular place for taking pictures – the stream rolling down the slope is very cute and refreshing. Sometimes you can even see the canyoneering people landing down the stream in zigzags while attached to ropes. This is also the place where the barefooted hikers finish their hike into the canyon.

But on that particular day the crowds proceeded further. And it was beautiful, but not as beautiful as getting far more deeper into the narrows of the canyon as you will see.

As seen in the pictures the sun was especially bright, which is usual here, but because it was July, not September, there was practically very little shade, it was beating us or caressing us (depending on perception), and a hot wind was blowing all through the canyon. So at that point I gave up, as never before, my body refused to walk further…way too hot even in the water. Thanks God my husband proceeded and he took those beautiful pictures of the narrows:

Isn’t it like in a fairy tale? And yes, there are no crowds any more, only the strongest can get a glimpse of the best views -fair like in fairy tales…

The view on the way back:

My sole advice for travelers in summer – try to start you day as early as you can. There is some though very little morning coolness, freshness. Try to capture and use it.

The end.

Wahweap Hoodoos by Page, AZ

We did this trail on May 6th, 2008. The beginning of May was very slow with guests at our B&B, so we used one of the days off. It took the whole day. To drive to Big Water from us, Zion NP, is more than 3 h. Then we parked the car at the end of a dirt road which lead deeper from Big Water and ended by a very wide and almost dry river. The hard duty cars, I guess, could drive further. But we proceeded to a 9 mile walk. At first it was confusing – the mountain lines were wide apart and two almost dry rivers were meeting somewhere here. We took the road which lead to one of the streams and towards the mountains first, but after meeting very disappointed Austrians, who were confused about the map BLM gave them and after having wondered for a couple of hours in vain -we decided to cross the desert towards the previously seen wide river bed and follow it.

Though it looked attractive and led mysteriously to some hills and rocks, it was the wrong road, one has to turn left from it, cut the desert and follow the wide river bed at wetter places covered with white salts.

We had our lunch sitting in one of those rock holes, listening to the silence and looking into the vastness of nature:

Here are the very few delicate flowers sticking from the desert floor:

even the lupins:

Those are the views we saw walking further and further – it seemed endless…

But the hoodoos we were striving to see were much further…over there in the distance to the left:

At last, here they were. We saw some immediately by the river bank and some behind a corner to the left. A big group of mushroom like rock formations that happen to be sculpted by nature forces in certain rocks:

Due to occasional rains the area gets some of them are gone forever…only their dark brown heads are still sticking from a melted stem:

Some are still standing erect:

but already quite a difference in comparison with pictures we saw in galleries which enticed us to come and check for ourselves. I mean they look very different, very much melted:

That was it. We headed back all the same way in this wide space of the river which apparently has had water once upon a time… The trip took us totally 5 hours.

Whitewater Canyon from Colorado City

Yes, we had to drive from highway 59 directly through Hildale and Colorado city – I have no clue where one ends and the other starts. To the very corner of them where the mountains are letting out a small stream. The road has the same name – Whitewater canyon, so there is no way of getting lost. But then it gets bad, really bumpy and in places like a ditch. In spite of that we managed to reach the very end of it – a small parking place with several big trucks there already. Some people from around here don’t believe in driving smaller cars when not carrying big loads…At some point, I guess, the gas prices will change the belief system. And there we started – on a very sandy path by the stream. To tell the truth – it was not an easy walk, not so much up, mostly a little up and down, but the sand made you feel as if you are in a bad dream sliding back with each step. It was the end of April, so there were cacti blooming:

Being careful not to step on some prickly ones little by little we reached the main feature – the narrow part of the canyon with a little waterfall and steep rocks:

This was the view in front of us:

Pretty. But we had to pursue our trip upwards. It was tricky to find which side of the steep canyon to climb, where was a passable route. On the left side. So here we climbed it and continued to walk on slick rock ( and believe me – it is much more comfortable than sand) and then again sand-rock-cacti, bushes, up and up the slope of the canyon towards the pines we could see on its edge.

It was a pretty long climbing, maybe for a couple of hours until we reached the top more or less (I say more or less because even if you think you have reached the top – there are still ways to go up) and had lunch there with the beautiful vistas, slick rock and pine trees:

So we still went further up a little till we reached a real edge of that mountain facing the vistas to the other side. Though the latter ones looked the same – this or that side. Red mountains in far distance, perfectly clear skies, that is what Southern Utah is.

And then we descended the same way we came up, except that the views always look a little different and it is now harder on your knees not as much on your lungs:

And then we lifted our heads and noticed an arch high up on the left side of canyon wall looking towards descend, towards Colorado city:

Some adventurous people we met on the trail hiked there to have fun walking on it…not us. I wish we could see them over there while we were taking pictures, but to no luck.

And here we were again passing the cacti:

crossing Colorado city with its huge homes with multiple wives:

and back to our not so big home though it is also a B&B. We reached our Rockville via a back road which is not so good as driving through Hurricane, but is very picturesque:

Till next trip!