We ventured into the park for a hike today. It was a great trail. We worked our way up the cliff faces on switchbacks too numerous to count. Along the way we walked through a slot canyon where the walls are covered with swirling erosion patterns and hanging gardens where plants find footholds in even the smallest of spaces. From Observation Point, about 2100 feet above the trailhead, we had a great panoramic view of the canyon. All this beauty was created by the little Virgin River, it is barely a stream right now. It must be absolutely amazing when it is running full.
Our side trip to Hidden Canyon (another slot canyon) involved narrow trail with chain hand holds. Very cool.
It is raining this afternoon….probably an end to the slot canyon exploration and their inherent flood risk. We will probably go for a more open trail tomorrow.

We trekked down into the canyon to get a close up view of the terrain. The trail names reflect some of the shapes along them…at least sort of: Queen’s Garden (Queen Victoria hoodoo), Navaho (the rock color I think), and Peek-a-boo (lots of windows and some arches to peek through). My favorite part was a set of switchbacks through a narrow steep box canyon that had lots of big Ponderosa Pine growing in it. It seemed very weird to find them there. The green of the needles and reds of the stone really look beautiful together. It was a great hike and a totally different perspective from up on the rim.

A perfectly ripe pear, still warm from the afternoon sun, freshly plucked from the tree. Right there in the orchard I took my first bite. The juice ran down my chin and across my wrist. This is what a pear should taste like. Absolutely wonderful! the park is maintaining a number of historic buildings and the orchards planted by the late 1890 Mormon settlers. Apples and pears are ripe now and it’s ok to pick and eat. Yummy.

These folks are pretty caviler about steep, narrow, cliff-side trails. We hiked Devils Garden to see a bunch of the famous arches. The main trail traveled across a lot of “slickrock” sandstone that was anything but level. We returned via the primitive trail….that was even more exciting. We walked on the top of fin formations with deep crevices on either side. One section was a narrow sloped track across the face of a sandstone cliff. It was really un-nerving to look at but fortunately not quite as scary to actually cross. Overall it was great fun with a chance to see amazing formations.

It is smooth, worn or fracture face of entrada sandstone with varying amounts of sand sprinkled across it. It is quite challenging to walk on dry. They claim impassable wet, I believe them! That is a pretty typical hiking surface around here.

We hiked the moose ponds trail along Jenny lake in hopes of seeing a moose. We trudged through a couple miles of prime moose habitat but, no luck. It was early so we decided to head for a waterfall nearby. Guess what, shortly after we started that hike the folks we met greeted us with “just so you know. There is a cow moose on the trail about 100 yards ahead.” We never saw her but she used the trail quite a while. Those big feet leave tracks even we could follow. Goes to show, we see these critters on their own terms.
Hidden Waterfall was pretty and I was visited by a cute little field mouse while we admired it. All in all a nice walk.

Our first view on the hike was of a floating, moving, rainbow formed in the wind blown vapor off of grand prismatic springs. We were behind the geyser basin and the angle of the sun was just right. It was a surreal sort of sight. Then there was a tall dainty water fall. Finally, there was a back country geyser. It was spectacular in the colors of the pool and its swirling fountaining. It certainly wasn’t the highest eruption we saw but probably overall the coolest. It was a little more like earlier discoverers might have seen. There were no boardwalks or fences or signs since it was off the beaten path. Well worth the walk.

We walked through Mammoth springs with its huge color streaked terraces and through artist paintpots where there are vividly colored pools and splopy sounding mudpots where the thick gloppy mud flew through the air propelled by popping bubbles of steam and gas. I laughed out loud as I heard and watched. It is such a silly sound and amazing sight.

30 or so Bison were milling around the pond at the start of our hike. We had to divert off through the sage brush to safely continue on to lakeside Yellowstone Lake. There are small wildfires on the far side so a haze hangs over it most of the day but it is still a beautiful view. It’s a little cold, low 50s even this time of year, to take a dip in. They claim it as the largest high elevation lake in the world at about 7700 ft above sealevel.