Catching Up - Sammie and Avalon Style!

We'd like to start out by woofin' our "hi's and hellos" to our buds - we've been a mite bizzy in the last week or so; have tried to keep up on that book of faces (heh heh!), but we're not even doing so good on that one! So... this post is furry long - so fasten your saddle cinches and set tall on that horsie; we'll tell you some tall (but true) tales!

Firstly, the other day we got to go to a neat-o place called Ken's Lake, which is surrounded by red rocks (what else is new?), a waterfall, a sorta scary jeep road, hiking and biking trails plus the La Sal Mountains! Oh yeah... and a lake!

Here I am, first to jump in and I must woof, I look a bit like an old lady (like mom?) floundering about in there. I'm just lookin' over my shoulder for a stick or something to be thrown to me!

Then we DID spy dad with a couple of wooden ones...

After a few tosses, I had to shake all that water from my furs!

Then we had a little tiff over one of the stickies!

Then Avalon got zoomies! We spent quite some time there and then walked along a trail to see the waterfall, which was actually several falls - bootiful! (We got to wade in some of the lower pools!) For Part the Second, we're gonna narrate the tale we were told by Momma and Pa about their adventure into the Fiery Furnace - sounds sorta scary, eh? It's not too bad!

At Arches NP (where we are NOT allowed to go - so rude...), there are many places for humans to go and see so much beauty. We're all sort of on "gorgeouscountry" overload at this point, but find we always have plenty of room for more. There are apparently over 2500 arches in the Park, and our pawrents wanted to see some on a furry special hike - to - the Fiery Furnace!

As you can see by this signage, a permit is required for access; either one has to sign on for a tour with a ranger or be ultra experienced in backcountry hiking. There were about 15 other people, and they'd all been warned not to go if they had a fear of heights or of squeezing through tight spaces in rocks. Also, there'd be some minor technical rock scrambling and boulder hopping over a few steep crevasses - ya think? Too late... Mom and Dad had sealed their fate and signed on!

So, from the parking lot, the Fiery Furnace looks like the above picture. A ginormous labyrinth of tiny finger slots that humans could easily get lost in, but not us, of course!
Here is our intrepid leader, Ranger Victoria Allen. She was most knowledgeable and taught Momzers and Dad tons of stuff using words we still don't get like Cryptobiotic Soil and plants and all the ways arches are formed and the differences between bridges and arches and oh, we are simply exhausted already!
So the beginning of the three hour tour (we're not kidding!) started at 3 P.M., on a perfect day. They spent a few minutes in a sandy wash, studying desert plants and THAT SOIL! It was neither too hot or humid (never here!) and as the day wore on, the sun cast the rosiest glow on the sands and rocks, making everybuddy look a bit pinkish!

The first arch they saw was "Kissing Turtles" Can you see why?

The light was playing beautifully colorful games on all the walls, just like the above picture!

Here's a boulder hop Mom did, using a helper's arm - Dad told us he jumped all by hisself!

Here's Mom and Dad going through "Crawl-Through" arch, which technically isn't an arch yet, cause it has to be three feet tall/wide, but for the day, it was a "baby arch."

Another canyon later, the pawrents experienced "Walk-Through Bridge." The difference between an arch and a bridge is how they are formed. A natural bridge is formed mostly by water running through it and an arch is formed by the erosion of sand grains, little by little, in the weakest point of a cliff (that becomes an arch). Mom's fave ) definition is: "An arch spans a valley of erosion."

At any rate, here's Mom listening to a talk and then watching a demo of Ranger Allen doing the "Penguin" walk over a crack in the rock - a sorta climbing move.
She's so coordinated!

After everybody got across the crack, they ended up in a rock alcove that had a huge pothole in it - and several really small potholes as well. And also...

TWO incredibly cool arches! Known as Skull Arch, the pair, together with the rest of the wall, look more like their namesake upside down, than rightside-up heh heh!
We loves this shot of silhouetted Dad in a slot!

Here he is, strolling two more bootiful cliff walls. By this time, it's prolly about 5:15 P.M. The rocks are really starting to glow, although you can't tell in all the images.

And as he and Mom pad along on some cliffy slickrock, look what they see up above as they head into the alcove!

Perfectly named: "Surprise Arch!" It spans 63 feet, but da folks never learned how tall it was - we'll find out for you if ya like! Well... all good things must come to and our pawrents would love to thank Ranger Allen for all her fabuloso teachings and - wait! There IS more! (For more reading on this amazing place, please press HERE!)

If you can't see movie: press here.
Yesterday, Momz and Dadzers took US for a pawesomely cool hike!

And this pitchur above shows a little of where it took place. The name of this Canyon has a most unfortunate name. As the author of an article on GOMOAB.com wrote,"On a politically correct scale of 1 - 10, Negro Bill Canyon gets a 1." Please read more about this beautiful place with its important history HERE.

.We have to woof at you all about something... there are at least a million lizards here and we found several of those. Above, I am scoping one out.

Above, Avalon in action as she thinks about it... then pounces.

If you are a boy doggeh, you might not want to lift your leg here.

Momma could not find out the names of the purple flowers, but thinks they must be from the Pea or Snapdragon families. The white flowers are Apache Plume and smelled just heavenly. We loved the caterpillar and mom like the way the spider web glittered in the sun...

Avalon loved the cool waters along our hike... it was getting over 85 degrees out in the sun! The trail was lovely and shaded with this stream all along the way...

I loved to dip my claws and paws in the river, then come running out onto the soft red sands.

This was our fave pool to swim in - so fantabulous to cool off in!

We finally rounded a bend in the canyon to see a cairn and THAT in the distance! Morning Glory Bridge - isn't it spectacular?

If you can't see this vid: press movie -
We just love this area and wish we could stay here longer! Still... we get a week more - yayhoooooo!