Travel Journal: Utah's National Parks April 23-30 2011: Last Day and Home!

I did manage to catch a speck of the Royal Wedding...tuning in for the balcony kiss on replay I think. Maybe it was live.  Whatever.

Gawked at the hats; may I just say the the MIL, the Queen and the Princess of Spain, in a dusty rose, had the very best hats?

I liked this article about the Spanish princess's milliner, and the philosophy in the dress/hat design.

(Scoll down a bit to read the article. Just lovely!)

But we had other fish to fry that last full day...or at least we hoped to be frying some fish later.

We drove over to Circle Valley, most famously known for being where Butch Cassidy hid out as an outlaw.

Not sure if the Sundance Kid was with him or not.

Bernie checked in at a fly fishing supply shop for the inside scoop on local fishing, then we drove over to the river.

Perhaps I should have done more thinking about petroglyph communication.

These symbols by the bridge over the river meant nothing to me!

Another bridge sign made me think the red human form was a symbol for Piaute

That is just a guess though.

We tried a few places along the river, then Bernie settled into one spot and I went exploring a bit.

I like how the center of these flowers apparently change colors as they age.

Hacking our way through the willows growing aside the river was not easy. Next time we will bring along small pruning shears; we noted that others had clipped willow branches to make getting around the river bank easier.

Live and learn is our motto.

And we do have much to learn it would seem.

I can see how this area would be great for someone needing a hideout.

The water is right there, you could fish for food or maybe hunt for ducks on the river.

Plus it is just plain old pretty.

(Can't you picture Piaute Indians on the ridge too?)

Above the river there was a pasture with an old pen of some sort.

No cattle, no "No trespassing" signs, just a bunch of weathered fencing in a field filled with dandelions.

The owners of the fly fishng supply shop said that were able to buy a small house in Circle Valley for so little that they jumped on the chance, turned part of the house into a fly fishing shop and rent out the rest of the house (two bedrooms, living, kitchen) while they live in a near by bigger town.

Circle Valley is so pretty, I wish I could figure out a small retirement business like that to justify having a second home there.

Northern Utah fishing is a lot better than Southern Utah fishing, but Bernie wanted to see what the area offered.

(Turns out it was just a nibble or two...no frying fish for dinner after all.)

A five minute drive up the road I kept a wary eye on a wandering cow, and checked out some more rock formations. 

Big caves tucked all about this area.

Of course I didn't get to go check any of the caves out as I was by myself.

Notice not only the multi colored formation, but also the skinny form behind and to the right of it.

It looked like a good shove would be enough to push it over.

How about that cave in the upper center of the picture?

Do you suppose every teenage boy in Circle Valley has at one time or another checked each of the caves out?

(To say nothing of teenage girls with their boyfriends?)

Anyway....when I turned around to drive the five minutes back down the road to where B. was fishing, the warndering cow decided that would be the PERFECT time to attempt to cross the road...while I had a gigantic red cattle truck roaring down the road right behind me.

I slammed on my breaks and the cow and I made very good eye contact through my windshield.

I believe our eyes were equally large...

The cow pulled a U turn and hoofed it back to the side of the road, looking very confused and scared.

Happily the cattle truck was able to come to a stop without rear ending me.  I wasn't sure what I might need to to about a confused/scared/lost cow, so I drove on, feeling very inadequate for these kinds of rural happenstance.

The cattle truck driver put his flashers on and got out, disappeared up the side of the road, (presumably chasing the cow?) and then about five minute later got back in his truck and drove on.

Naturally I was worried: Where was the cow now? Had the driver figured out who the cow belonged to, and gave them a call?  Was it is own cow? 

It was a fairly busy curvy road; I just didn't want to see road kill cattle or human for that matter.

Maybe this kind of thing goes on all the time and I just don't know about it.

(Ignorance...is...bliss!)

And my favorite picture of the day, taken just down the road from where the cattle truck was parked in the middle of the road,  while I was being a Nosy Nancy trying to figure out what was going on.

That night we went out for Mexican food in Byan Head.  There were exactly four people in the restaurant that usually is packed to the rafters in ski and summer biking/fishing season.

Outside the sun had melted away a lot of snow and we found ourselves being watchful not to step in mud.

The restaurant owner chatted with us, explaining that she had decided to stay open even during "Mud Season May".

I think we timed our exit from Bryan Head early the next morning just right.

The magical white snow was rapidly turning into muddy mush.

We would do better to plan to spend other days here in summer when the wild flowers carpet the mountains and valleys or in autumn for the fall colors.

The drive north was a rainy, cloudy, snow showers, sunshine mix.

Then....right next to us across a field with cattle, suddenly this cloud structure fell and spread.

Isn't it weird?

Almost like a heavy fog and yet it seemed to be moving.

I took the pictures from the car passenger window as we drove past it.

The field had cattle; in fact we had just been commenting as we were driving about at all calves and their moms in the fields.  A week earlier we had not seen a single head of cattle, now they all seemed to be turned out to graze.

More cow worries: Would this strange cloud lift the cows up and swirl them around up in the air?

We kept driving, I kept looking back and there wasn't any news reported about flying cows the next day so I am guessing everything was OK.

A few days later I did learn that one can submit weather pictures and win camera store vouchers for some pretty good dollar amounts if your picture wins as best picture for the week.

Darn.

I think I could of won with one of these shots.  Or even with the Good Friday storm shots.

Maybe some impressive weather will happen again and I can submit and win something.

Cross your fingers!

As we pulled into our driveway snow was falling, again, and I was quite happy to realize that the three bouts of late season snow in our home area had kept all my tulip blooms in bud form,

I had been  so afraid it would be warm while we were gone and I'd come home only to find they had all bloomed and dropped their petals.

It stayed cool the following week, and only warmed up on the following Friday and Saturday.  By Mother's Day Sunday we were in cold rainy weather again.

The spring bulbs and flowering trees are gorgeous here in SLC; now if only I could stick around awhile and enjoy them...

Oh yeah...we're going to be outta here again in four more days.

Whew.  Life is happening faster than I can blog it!