Took a trip in late June on the Green river in central utah through Desolation/Gray Canyons with Rebecca, Todd, Suzanne, Will, Jake Scott, Janice and Connie. This is our first camp - the bug shelter came in very handy the first two nights!!
this rock had a big hole in it .... so of course I had to climb through it.
Rebecca preparing for the storm....
We had a big hailstorm in the middle of the first day -after that the weather was very nice.
We saw some very nice shell fossils (these are something like a mussell shell) in one of the side canyons at our 2nd camp
A cool rock known as mushroom rock
The gang working hard
One of the petroglyph sites we visited.
A pretty sunset.
Prickly pear cactus near a petroglyph site.
Some pretty flowers at our second camp.
Its the desert in summer - who needs a rain jacket (.... or pants ..... or a tent fly).... not Connie. Here is Connie modeling the latest in extreme sports wear!
Connie (without the rain jacket)
The Carsleys (notice they are properly wearing their lifejackets even though the trip leader failed to warn them of the consequences if they didnt)
The Bennats during one of the many calm stretches.
Rebecca and Janice trying their hands in the padillac
Rebecca and Janice in-sync
The Joe Hutch Canyon Rapid was the only big rapid in the canyon. We all made it through fine, but this one boat in another group had some problems as you will see in the next several pictures.
Where did everybody go?
Just seconds after this shot, the boat hit the big rock to the right and dumped all the folks out again (talk about a bad day)
A columbine in Rattlesnake Canyon
The happy group on the last day of the trip
this picture is out of order, but we saw this little black bear (with radio collar) at the end of our holly lake hike (see more detail on next picture) about 0.2 miles from the trailhead. He had a friend nearby who was much bigger but didnt get a shot of that one.
Me and Erika went to Grand Teton National Park to do some hiking and wildflower watching. The big hike was one we also did 8 years ago but wanted to do it again to see more wildflowers. It was to Holly Lake which is 6.4 miles (one way) and 2,600 feet above the trailhead. This is a hike Erika wanted to do - I didnt have to talk her into it. Here she is looking chipper at the trailhead (it wasnt cold, all the gear is for the mosquitos)
A view across String Lake at start of the hike
There were some beautiful patches of columbine.
A view of the trail on the way up.
Monkey flowers
Saw a bunch of Heather just before reaching the lake.
Ma at Holly Lake - notice proof of the elevation on the sign (9,410 feet).
Our lunch spot - doesnt get much better than this.
On the way down on the tricky snow sections. Ma made it down without having to inspect the snow up close and personal despite some very slippery footing.
The next day we did a "warm down" walk (only 3 flat miles) to phelps lake in a new addition to the park called the Laurence Rockefeller Preserve - it is an old inholding owned by the rockefellers that was recently given to the park service with a few new flatter trails. Get there early (especially on weekends) because parking is limited and they have a parking attendant to make sure you only park in the designated parking lot.
At phelps lake we saw several types of columbine - spectacular. The rangers think that they were seeded by the previous owners (the Rockefellers)
another columbine
another columbine
another columbine
Saw a pretty bird (species unknown) in its natural habitat - a parking lot.
On the way home we stopped to see grand prismatic spring in Yellowstone.
