Utah Hiking Trip

I often took a deep breath and whispered prayers of gratitude while hiking or admiring God's glorious creation throughout the two week trip I was privileged to take with my sister, Karen, and our friends, Christine and Ann.  Those three people planned the trip, researched the hikes and assigned people to make night time reservations.   We put 2500 miles on Christine's van, hiked over 60 miles and took 150,000 steps in several state and national parks in Utah.  We stayed in small towns - a manufactured home in Hanksville, a two story cabin in Torrey, a cabin near horses, sheep, and llamas in Tropic, and a cottage in an orchard in Virgin, Utah.  All delightful owner-owned spaces with friendly hosts and far away from the maddening crowds!

How blessed I am to have a younger sister willing to have me tag along on these great adventures!  Notice that we are not wearing our hiking shoes in this picture.  She had a brilliant idea to spray our hiking shoes with some water repellant spray our first night in Salt Lake City.  Then she stored them under the kitchen sink and neither of us remembered to retrieve them so it was quite an ordeal to get our AirBnb host to have her cleaning person overnight them to our next stop in Torrey, Utah!  I hiked for 5 days in my new Clarks walking shoes and she in her Keens!  Our hiking shoes finally made it, not to Torrey, but to Tropic because no overnight delivery on the weekend.  

We visited Goblin Valley State park and took our pictures among the HooDoos!

Our first big day of hiking in Little Wild Horse Canyon turned out to be our favorite for the whole trip.  We loved the challenge and the way the light shown throughout our trip on the canyon walls.

Lots of challenges over and under the boulders

This woman worked for AARP, now retired, she volunteers to take trash out of Lake Powell every year.  She and her husband spend a week on a houseboat and clean up all around the lake.  We liked her shirt, Trash Trackers!

Karen managed to capture a rainbow in this picture of rest!  I think it was near this stop that a young couple from Belguim showed us a little video on their phone of a rattlesnake! 

We loved the wildlife!