Saturday, March 31, 2012

Views, views... more Zion

We sure are enjoying all the scenery we're seein' out the window, but it's even better when we can go tearing around in this cool landscape! C'mon along with us as we explore more of Zion...

Here we go up a windy road - and we mean UP! You can see the snows dusting the sides of this graceful looking mountain and we'd sure like to play in that fluffy white stuff!

Below: this is not a very pretty picture, but can you spy somebuddy hiding? Awesome camouflage, eh?


With a bit more elevation, we came around a corner and dug this! (Well... every corner has the most beautious views...)

Below: nowTHIS was where we wanted to play!

Soooo - Ma and Pa let us out to run in this ginormous meadow with the amazing backdrops -
We gamboled and chased sticks and heavenly smells -
We were all finally breathless - us from running so hard that high up and Mom and Dad from the views!
Then. If you can believe it - on the way home, we got to swim in a creek that runs down the valley; oh how cooling that was!
Avalon was brushed out by Dad - she was full of red sands from the river! (I got brushed too, although the dried silt didn't show up on my coat!) Next day, Mom and Dad took a couple of hikes, while we played to our hearts' content at a DUDE ranch for us puppers! We got a walk along the Virgin River too (and even waded into it - heheh!)
Mom here: all along the ridge on top of the arch is a viewpoint that was stunning in every way - so glad we did this short and easy hike as our first in Zion. As mentioned in our first Zion post, it's not very dog friendly unfortunately, but we knew we couldn't miss out on doing a couple of hikes here before leaving.
Pointing out the obvious - something down there; we could hear the voices of people in the slot canyons below us. It apparently takes some 7 or 8 rappels of 50 - 100 feet from about here to get into them - yikes!
Pretty steep
Straddling the slickrock
An overly friendly and eager critter who was trying to get into our backpacks while we were ogling the views - drop is 700 feet down.




And then we headed for the Zion Lodge, where the trail to Emerald Pools begins.
And... we found more glorious wonders - the falls were so cooling on an increasingly hot day that eventually reached 80+! We climbed up to the top of the falls...
...to watch the water slide across the rock and over the edge - very tranquil
And a very peaceful ending to our day!
Now back to your regularly scheduled narrators - yeah... whew! So later, we went to see a totally-like completely different part of the park in the way north, where Mom wanted to get pictures of the rocks with the sun setting - why? We have no idea, but again, we dug the smells and we love truck riding, so...
Here are a couple of the pictures - until next time, we're signin' off. Happy Trails!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

From Tehachapi (via Vegas) to Zion NP

Mom has been freakin' out about all the photo editin' and stuffs that's happened since we last posted! But we say... over the last year, Ma has not been a great secretary anyway, so getting in one a week is a pretty good average heheh! Well... we did a few more fun things before leaving Tehachapi! One thing was to visit a valley nearby called the Cummings Valley. There are a lot of organic farms, vineyards and - an Ostrich Farm!

This is George and he's about forty years old. These big birds live to about 75 years of age!

On our last night, there was a train setting on the tracks next to our RV - Dad took a picture of it glowing in the sunset...
Next morning, we took off for Las Vegas - about 300+ miles; here are Momma's white knuckles!
Gassin' up...
We had a really good ride over to LV and a great sleep at a cool RV Park called Arizona Charlie's! Here we are descending into the valley where Las Vegas is!
We passed this place called Primm, which is a town right on the border of Cali and Nevada.
Great rates, but Ma and Pa weren't interested heheh!
Next morning, after gassin' up again, we headed out for Virgin, Utah, about 10 miles from Zion National Park. We took a potty stop.
This is the Virgin Canyon Rec Area heading into St. George, Utah.
After we set up camp, Mom and Dad took us to some BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land to shake out our feets and stuffs. It sure felt good and there was so much to smell and a ton of acreage to test out - wooeeeeehhhhhh!
This morning, we left early to check out Zion NP - is it ever gorgeous! However. It is not really dog friendly. So we took liberties in some areas and dipped our paws into the Virgin River etc. etc.
Above... the Virgin River with a buncha Red Rocks - awesome scenery.
Canyon after canyon stilled our breaths...


Oh how good that felt to dip our tootsies!
These are called the Three Patriarchs (above)
Checkerboard Mesa
By the shores of the Virgin...
More scenery from Zion
On the Pa'rus trail, where dogs are allowed - whew!
All the roads in Zion are paved with red sandstone! But this photo's special - check out the wild mountain goats crossing the road and on the slickrock - can you spy them? (There are three in this picture, but hard to see!) We have a video of them, but can't upload them at this point - it was a truly rare moment...
We did manage to get this uploaded, so here is a very short, very poor quality movie of the goats we saw - Dad had problems finding and getting the camera going, so it's not great, but you can see the "family group" anyway. Mom put music over the track, cause we were talking very loudly at those goat/sheepie animals, all allowed to go loose out there on the slick rocks! Anyway... enjoy!
From Mom: Thank you so much for your comments - want to visit you to see what you're all up to - running to catch a sunrise pic, then be back here a bit later to say hi! It really has been an eye-opening experience thus far and there's so much more to see that we're mind-boggled - after early photo shots, we're headed to the northern, higher elevation and less visited areas of Zion. The girls are extraordinary travelers - we're so proud of them!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Still MORE to do in Tehachapi...

Hiya y'all! Yeah... we're still in Tehachapi, but we've found so many outstanding things to do here, that we could stay at least another month - well... if we didn't have a plan we were tryin' to stick to! So here we are at what they call "the Tehachapi Loop." Because it's so hard for us to explain the magnetic appeal of this place to anyone but the diehard choo choo train buffs, who come from all over the world to see this thang, we're gonna jes' set down a link... here! We are definitely not train buffs in any way, but we gotta woof this: it was pawsitively mesmerizing to watch the show, when three loud, whistling diesel engines came 'round the bend, towing 108 cars behind. Seeing the spectacle of that snaking train winding around the LOOP - OVER itself, was incredible. We made a little movie of it all, but it only gets one star compared to other vids of it on youtube! Enjoy!





Mesmerizing. Like a giant Lionel train set or sumpin'!

We had hiked a bit up a trail, then a hill where there were all sorts of rocky hiding places for us. We sniffed out bunches of lizards, rodents and other assordid animals that we couldn't catch, while Ma and Pa set up their flashy beasts.

We always smile on account of three.

Sammie playin' hidey hoo - peekaboo!

Sad to see the train leave for up country, but there'll always be a ton more comin' round the mountain heheh! THEN. We got to visit Tehachapi Mountain Park, which you can check out HERE. Did we ever LOVE this place!

There was still lots of snow (and treeloads of squirrels), so we had our paws loaded with things to do! Plus, we had the whole park to ourselves and took full advantage of all that property up there!

There was some good roaching to be had for Sammie...

...and plenty of snow, as we woofed, so there was no lack of things to do, places to sniff, and fun to be had. We plum wore each other out as well as Mom and Dad, who needed to do some meditations. So, we headed in the opposite direction to...

...a most peaceful and beautiful place called Mountain Spirit Center. (You can go HERE to check out this serene spot)

When we arrived, there was a monk circumnavigating the peace bell pagoda-like structure, all hand painted. He bowed to Mom as she approached quietly - as if to invite her and Dad. We all wondered if the monks at this temple take a vow of silence for certain periods of time occasionally.

And we thought this might be the dojo? Such a beautiful setting... We all felt very much of an inner peace at this lovely place.

We've been having wonderful days during our "enforced" stay here in Tehachapi. If you ever get stuck somewhere, we hope that it will be here - there's loads to do. We still have one more post to do about our travels in and around this area!
Peace out