February 28: St. George, Utah

We drove through clear skies yesterday, but lots of new snow on the ground from Butte to just north of St. George. We stayed last night in Idaho Falls, and really experienced winter with lots of snow and cold temperatures for my mid-night trip outside with Toby. Thousands of black angus cattle in the fields in the high country - they must have a law forbidding any other species!

Audio books make the drive much more pleasant. As we drive, we are listening to The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich. It is very well written and the narrator does her voices very well. It is a story about an Ojibway drum that is found as part of an old collection and the story behind the family that owned it. We are really enjoying it, and over halfway through already.

We stopped for a day in St. George, Utah. It was nice to stop after 2 days of driving, and St. George is always the first place to experience the desert and warmer weather. We spent a lovely afternoon in Snow Canyon just north of the city. It was closer to the city than Zion or Bryce Canyon and allowed dogs. A touch of chill in the air until mid afternoon, but beautiful clear air and amazing colors. We are continuing on to Mesa tomorrow.



I went for a walk among the lava fields while Lloyd waited with the dogs.



Magnificent!

Max greeted me at the trailhead.

Petrified sand dunes at our second stop.

The layers of the petrified sand dunes were like broad steps up the hill.



We were able to take the dogs on some of the hard trails in Snow Canyon.



The fine red earth on the trails reminded me of our visit to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia.

 

Volcanic pipes at the top, red sandstone in the middle, and a dark shale (?) with iron in it at the bottom.

 

Wonderful rock formations



These are called Moki Marbles. They are formed of small grains of sand cemented together with black material (iron), when water seeps through loose sand. Some were embedded in the sandstone, while others had worked loose.





An earnest tree growing in a crack in the rock.



There are apparently pioneer signatures from the 1880s on the rocks in this area,
 but we could only find modern graffiti.



Tracks left by a little desert creature with a long tail.

One of our last views of the park. Note the hole in the rock at the left of the photo.





This new housing development really intrigued us, as it is located at the base of a mountain,
 and the homes' colors really blend with the different shades of rock.
Neat stone wall, too.



A life-sized sculpture near the gated community was quite remarkable.
The rocks are man-made, and incorporate five or six horses' heads.
The one below is about halfway up just to the left of the crevice.