kanarra falls...

Yesterday morning was a great time to go hiking but also a sad reminder that hiking season is almost done. Unless, of course, I gear up in jackets, pants, boots and whatever else I'd need. Might have to do that for certain hikes, see how different it looks with snow and ice. Anyhoo...

This was taken  at the stopping point of yesterday's hike. I've done this hike maybe a handful of times and never thought to get down this far. Glad I did, though... it was gorgeous. The weather to start was a tiny bit on the cold side and the water was too. The further into the hike as the sun was starting to rise more the air and the water started to warm up a bit. On the way down, it felt like perfection as you crossed in and out of the creek and the water would hit your ankles or higher. 

If this is the end of hiking season, I'm glad I got to do it. It was fun, challenging and really rewarding. Not only in the pictures and views but also knowing that this stuff is just not even an hour away from where I live. Winter will definitely bring new adventures and a new chance to give what I used to have no patience for another shot... so we'll see where that leads. Stick around, there's still plenty to see. 

taylor creek: trailhead, cabins and alcove

And, this is the rest of the post for the second trip to the Taylor Creek Trail. The trail head, two homestead cabins and just a few shots of what can be seen. 

At the top of the trail it warns you about mountain lions and all the other stuff that you can encounter. 

This is the Larson cabin, it's about almost a mile into the trail. You can walk up to and around but you can't head in there. 

Just this shot was pretty cool looking, don't mind me. 

And this is the Fife cabin. Hit this one and you know you're almost to the end of the trail and at the Double Arch Alcove. 

The best shot I could get of the Double Arch. 

And here's just a small panoramic of the alcove. It's a nice place to check out, have a snack and just enjoy being outdoors.  

taylor creek: a bit of flora, a bit of fauna.

Second time hiking the Taylor Creek trail inside the Kolob Canyon section of Zion. It had stormed the night before so there were lingering clouds, cool temps and humidity. I'll save the actual hike for a different post, for this I'll have pictures of some of the plants and the animals (or their tracks) that I came across. 

Raccoon tracks. 

Deer tracks. Oddly, these were the only two prints I saw. 

This is one of the two squirrels that was "nice" enough to humor me and my constant need to take pictures. It seemed pretty comfortable around people, as long as you wanted to "drop" a snack here and there. A little squirrel skirmish broke out between the two but I wasn't able to get a clip of it. 

I'll have more on this hike up soon, including better pictures of the Double Arch Alcove, a panoramic and the two homestead cabins you can see along the way. 

kanarra falls.

This was the first hike of the season. Did this hike three times now and still haven't completed the whole thing. The furthest I've gotten was about 4 miles and just under 4 hours round trip. I don't know exactly what started the whole hiking thing but I'm glad it did. Soon, I'll be building on new adventures... indoor rock climbing, rappelling, who knows after that.

This was on the road in. It takes about a mile to get off the access road. The water was ankle deep and perfect to cool your feet off.


Wading through the creek... with some slippery rocks underneath.


The first waterfall you pass by.

And this is the slot canyon to the first waterfall with a ladder to climb over.

 This is the first ladder. The ladder was missing one rung but the climb actually wasn't too bad, at all. After climbing this there was another waterfall that you had to get up and over to get to the rest of the hike.

Just had to stick in a picture of my dirty trail shoes while taking a snack break.

And this is the second ladder. You had to wade through another slot canyon, climb over a couple rocks, saw a few more tiny waterfalls. The water wasn't as deep this time as it was going through the second but the water runs year round.

I'll definitely be heading back to this one and hopefully, get over that second ladder and completely finish off this hike. Getting as far as I did and climbing over some of this stuff was pretty much the whole "good job, good effort" thing but I wanna see it to the end. And to close it off, here's a picture of a lizard doing an awesome job of blending in.

red reef.

This Sunday's adventure took us to the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. They had campgrounds, places to cookout and hang for the day and also hiking. The trail that was taken was the Red Reef trail. I had seen on a few blogs that it led to a couple swimming holes and would be a nice hike. The hike, the scenery... everything about it was gorgeous. Nice and quiet, saw one group on the way in and luckily, got out of there before we saw two groups on the way out.
This was on the road into the area. Seeing this definitely got me excited for the day and didn't let me down at all.

This was the start of the hike. 

This was taken right before you get to the first swimming hole. 

I don't have a good picture of the first swimming hole and waterfall we got to but this was the second one. I'd seen pictures of people climbing the rope and jumping off this waterfall. You can't really see the bottom but the water was pretty deep. The parts I waded through I was up to the tops of my thighs.  

This was the view at the top of the second waterfall. It was beautiful and quiet. 

This is a picture was taken while I was basically standing in the middle of the creek water close to reaching my waist. 

Had to climb over a couple hills to see what was next since the water was pretty deep and didn't have the right clothes on to be swimming through the creek. I really do need to get better prepared for this stuff.

The views in this place were unbelievably awesome. You would never have guess this place existed. The only reminder you had that you were close to a city was the noise of airplanes overhead.  

And this was taken on the way out.

Wasn't fully prepared for this trip, who knew that you could have possibly been swimming in the creek... Oh well, all the more reason to head back here one of these weekends and maybe even bring friends. Definitely going to be better prepared for it. 

south fork of taylor creek.

This Sunday's hike was in the Kolob Canyon part of Zion National Park. It was about 2ish miles long and not maintained by the park. Was told that this trail is for the people who go mountain climbing. The trail wasn't all that wide and basically, if you ever wanted to take a machete and just thrash through you would have a blast here. The plants and trees were overgrown. It's in between two fingers of the Kolobs and it was a nice morning.

This was taken right at the starting point, sun wasn't even fully up and thankfully... neither were the bugs.

There were a lot or trees and just walls and walls of mountain. Some pretty cool formations here and there.

I'm pretty sure there was even a face or two in one of the walls... Can you see it? 

Trees provided some nice shade, the sand was pink and tired you out a lot faster than you would expect. Getting up some of the hills with just how deep some of the sand was, I was kicking myself I did "legs day" the day before...

It was a nice hike to get out and go but I'm pretty sure I got spoiled by all the creeks and whatnot. Oh well, another hike down and I believe there's about 3 more to go inside the Kolob portion of Zion. 

spring creek.

This was a really easy Sunday morning hike that was more getting to the scenery than walking in it.

I got stung or bit by something that just seemed to have aimed for my leg and dive bombed right into it. With a few expletives and some jumping around, I even had to check on it. All that's there right now is a big red spot and some yuck. Took some time for me to blurt out a couple more expletives,  curse the bug's life and kept moving. The hike was about 4 miles give or take. Mostly sand,  bugs, saw a snake or two. 

Crossed a tiny creek a couple times, saw where the creek used to be.

There were some places where you knew a gorgeous waterfall used to be but they were long dried out.

All in all it was nice to get out and stretch the legs but I'm not in a huge rush to get back here. 

timber creek overlook.

Did this quick little not even a mile long hike because the trail I wanted to do was already packed (got off to a late start). I guess it was nice to see a closer view of what I can see looking out the backyard and just to kill about an hour.

taylor creek.

Taylor Creek is inside the Kolob Canyon part of Zion National Park. A fairly easy almost 5 mile hike roundtrip, the worst part about it was at the very end when you need to climb these stairs made for giants. It was a nice hike, could hear the birds chirping, see lizards doing their pushups, weren't many bugs just yet.

I had to cross the creek a few times. Beautiful scenery, cool perfect about ankle deep creek water and there weren't many people there. (Made the mistake of going on Memorial Day Weekend)

At the end of the trail was the Double Arch Alcove. Wow, that thing was amazing. And it echoes. If you ever visit, make sure to sit on a log or a rock... because the sand gets everywhere.  

This was the view from inside the alcove. A couple groups, nothing too bad. 

One thing I wish I did was take a panoramic of the place. Maybe take a video or two... But since it's pretty close to where I am, I think I'll have to go back and do that.  

no better place to start.

... So, I guess, this all started a few years ago when the brand new adventure was in losing weight. It was new and exciting since I never really had to work to keep the weight off. Started by doing workout videos, changing the way I ate and all that. Then it was going to a gym. Now I do fun run 5ks, go for random walks and hiking. 

The picture on the right was taken in 2007 and the one on the left was in 2013. It took about a year to lose the weight. I wasn't happy with my clothes, the way I looked so I changed it and it was all for the better.