Escalante Natural Bridge

Check out the Escalante Natural Bridge behind me that we came across near Escalante. It totally looks like someone came along and carved it out.

Did you know that the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is larger than the state of Delaware?

Howling with Wolves - Starring Aspen

Earlier today I was over at the Nat Geo website and I stumbled across a recording of some gray wolves howling. Now, I've never thought that Aspen resembled the wolf (fox-maybe, dingo-certainly) but I'm starting to think she might have a shot at joining a pack if she gets the opportunity. Anyway, call your dog(s) into the room and enjoy her audition tape:)

The Boulder Mail Trail

We attempted a hike on the Boulder Mail Trail the other day.  However, when you can't even see where the trail begins it tends to slow you down quite a bit.

Supposedly, the trail starts where I am standing.

We did get to cross over the Boulder, Utah airport?  Yes, it does say "Boulder Airport and UFO Landing Site.

Merry Christmas!

Snowball fight in Utah!

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Adventures of Arnie

This post is for all the Arnie fans out there.  For those of you who haven't had the fortunate experience to meet Arnold, he is our distinguished (and generously proportioned) beagle mix.  He's had a bit of a rough year...first he hurt his doggie ACL, then the vet had the nerve to tell him he needed to lose 15lbs (which is particularly hard when you're 12 years old and built fairly low to the ground).  Anyway, he's been hitting the trails for just over a week and is progressing nicely.  Here are a few photos for anyone needing their Arnie fix!

Arnie has been trying to make better dietary choices.  Lately he's been snacking on snow instead of fattening doggie treats.

He's a big fan of the slickrock routes!

He has no problem letting us know when he needs a rest.

The Box

We checked out The Box hike just outside of Escalante today.  An amazing 8 mile hike through a canyon in the Dixie National Forest.  Used the new Leki Makalu Thermolite trekking poles today. They are SWEET!

The view coming out of the canyon.

JD entering The Box.

Presidential Traverse - Video

We obviously did not run out to New Hampshire and then back to Utah in a day.  We just put this little video together from our Presidential Traverse earlier this year.

Click on the image to view the video.

The Devil's Garden

We spent part of the day exploring the Devil's Garden, which is located down the Hole-in-the-Rock Road near Escalante, UT. The dogs, especially Aspen, had a great time running around the rock garden.  The garden has a rock arch, a natural bridge, and plenty of rock goblins.  Check out some pics.

The entrance to the Garden

Emily, standing with the goblins.

A rock arch.

The Gulch

Today we checked out a few hikes down the Burr Trail road just outside of Boulder, UT.  The Gulch Trail is a 19.4 mile hike through some beautiful scenery.  I know, I know.  You are thinking that we are so hard core to hike 19.4 miles in a day.  Well, we are hard core but we didn't hike the whole trail.

Entrance into the Gulch

Did you know?  -  The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is actually managed by the Bureau of Land Management instead of the National Park Service.

Lower Calf Creek Falls

A short 6.4 mile hike (6 miles from the trailhead, 6.4 from the parking area) to the falls at Lower Calf Creek today. The hike was great and it wore the dogs out which makes for a quiet evening.

Lower Calf Creek Falls

We are gonna hit up the 6.6 mile Escalante River Trail tomorrow. I think Arnie is gonna take the day off. He is a bit tuckered.

We have arrived in Escalante, Utah!

So, we arrived in Escalante late Friday night and were welcomed by about 8 inches of snow. We also received another 6 inches on Sunday morning. If you know anything about the Grand Staircase-Escalante, it gets about 16 inches of snow all year on average.

Hopefully the sun will come out and melt it all so we can get to hiking and write revisions for a couple of Falcon Guide books!


The car after a morning snow.


Our little cabin for the next month.

The End and the Beginning

Capitol Reef National Park

We have officially wrapped up our careers as Traveling Trainers for Leave No Trace. We spent three years on the road and didn't spend any time in southern Utah until the last two weeks of our final year. Two weeks is not a lot of time when you consider how much there is to do in southern Utah. Lucky for us, we have been hired to spend six more weeks in Grand Staircase-Escalante and Glen Canyon revising two hiking guide books for Falcon Guides.

We'll have more on those adventures soon as we begin hiking in four days.