Memorial Day Weekend Trip Day #2: Canyoneering, Tadpoles, and Flash Flood

 This is a long post. But it was a long day, full of good memories, and something I want to preserve when I print out my blog (blogging is a wonderful way for me to keep my photos and thoughts organized!).

So the day started with hopping into a vehicle and driving an hour and a half to Capitol Reef National Park. We hiked up a beautiful trail and I kept stopping to take photos.

Within an hour, we reached this gorgeous arch. Lots of other hikers were around, too. But they planned to go back to the parking area the same way they came. We planned to go down the canyon via seven rappels and get back to the parking area in about five hours. We could see some big puffy clouds forming, but the sun was shining and this canyon had a very small drainage area, so we felt like we weren't taking on too much risk.

We rigged to a small tree and took turns going down the 130 ft drop. I watched. (This photo and the next are Randi's--thanks for getting such awesome photos!)


Here's Jeff starting down. It was an awesome rappel.

From the bottom, this is what it looked like.

Here's my friend Randi. She's the one who was responsible for me being there, and I am so grateful! What a terrific experience.

The second rappel was just a short distance away. It was 140 ft, but didn't seem so long as it was split into two parts, the first along this cliff...

…and the second part dropping into this sweet alcove. One thing I like about canyoneering is that everyone gets a bottom belay on the longer drops (and on shorter drops if they want). That's a nice added safety measure that hardly takes any extra time and no extra gear.

Then it was time to pull the rope and bag it, along with the pull cords. We ladies had it under control.

We progressed a bit farther and rappelled through this arch.

And soon after we had to squeeze through this slot to finish the rappel.

A short downclimb followed, where I fell off the slippery branch but managed to land on my feet. Whew. Sometimes a small mistake can lead to big consequences, so I was grateful that I didn't even get a bruise from that incident and vowed to be more careful watching my footing.

Around a couple more corners we had another rappel, where our leader Lisa posed for a photo.

This was one of the most beautiful rappels (this photo and next are Randi's).

There was a fun little swing at the bottom that I just had to do a couple times.

We rounded a corner and had a short traverse.

This led to a nice rappel over water. I was actually surprised how little water we were seeing in the canyon as it had rained the entire previous day.

This little puddle of water did a nice job reflecting the rappeler.

We had one more rappel, and we weren't in a big hurry to do it, as we were having so much fun. After we were all down, we paused for a photo, which was a great idea. (This is Lisa's photo.)

But fortunately the fun wasn't quite over. Around another corner we found this cool little cave.

We started playing around with silhouettes, and then Randi told me I should go do a headstand. I accepted the challenge (and ended up with sand in my hair for days!). Ah, the goofiness. (Randi's photo)

From there we just had a short hike back out to the road and our vehicles. What a lovely canyoneering trip! The raindrops started falling as we walked back.

They stopped as we popped into the little store to get pickled asparagus and observe the gorgeous scenery.

The drive home was pleasant, and we all had a glow from a beautiful canyon trip.

When I got back, the kids and my husband had returned from a trip to playgrounds in Escalante and a drive along the Box-Death Hollow Road. We got out the bikes and biked down to some pools we had seen, where we discovered tadpoles.

We started wandering from pool to pool, following the channel.

In one we found mating frogs, and in another, frog eggs on a tumbleweed.

The kids couldn't resist burying themselves in the sand.

The storm clouds were gathering, but there was still a little bit of sunlight.

We trudged up the hill (Desert Girl insisting on pushing her own bike the entire way), and went to the delicious dinner. Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling was the theme, and the kids got into the spirit of things. Thanks so much to our wonderful hosts, Gary and Mike, for sharing their house, plus everyone who made the tasty food. Yum!

After dinner a brief hailstorm ensued. Then someone called out, "Look at all the waterfalls!" Sure enough, the previously dry rock now sported torrents of water. We watched as the streams joined and made boiling currents of water. Places we had hiked the day before were now a river. We could only imagine what was happening to all the tadpoles and frogs.

We were all in a safe place, so we could enjoy the view of this marvelous flash flood. And Desert Girl couldn't resist walking barefoot on the hail.

The night ended with some thumb wrestling.

What a day! But we still had one day left of our vacation...

2015 Stream Insects BioBlitz

 This year's BioBlitz at Great Basin National Park featured Stream Insects. Dr. Boris Kondratieff from Colorado State University came as the lead taxonomist and gave the opening workshop.

Then it was time to head out to Upper Lehman picnic area to practice catching stream insects.

Those who had never seen them before were quite surprised.

We also had experts who were trying to find unusual specimens.

One of the most entertaining aspects was watching Dr. Kondratieff and Dr. Nelson speak Latin as they batted species identifications back and forth. 

With some specimens collected, it was time to sort.

Then we split up into a couple groups to tackle different streams.

Despite the rain, everyone persevered and found a variety of critters.

The next day the sun came out. Some groups hiked up high into the snow, others drove to remote locations in the park, and our group traveled along Snake Creek. We started at the end of the road.

We were missing the picnic tables from the day before!

As we moved down the stream we encountered different organisms, particularly in the springs, where the number of juicy cranefly larvae were quite numerous.

The afternoon brought some interpretive programs, which the kids just loved. I was so grateful to my mother-in-law for sharing the experience with them.

They enjoyed making their own insect in an activity called Frankenbug.

Sunday was also a beautiful day, with short morning field trips.


Then it was time for lunch and wrapping it all up with the preliminary results. Many stream insects were identified to species level, and some larvae were taken back to the lab to see what they would hatch into.

It was a fascinating BioBlitz, and I'm sure some people will never think of streams in quite the same way again!

Baby Pronghorns

 The other day as we were driving I noticed these two little pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). They were so cute. Pronghorn mate in the fall, and every spring we see little ones around (if we're lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time).

Within a few days of being born, pronghorn can outrun humans. They eventually get up to 53 mph, the second fastest land mammal in the world, after the cheetah. Fortunately for them, no cheetahs live around here. Pronghorns do have to slow down when they get to a fence, as they don't jump over them but rather crawl under them. It's a strange sight, but they seem to do it pretty well.

When the young pronghorn caught up to their mom, it was easier to see their size. Even though we had stopped alongside the road and were watching them, they didn't seem very alarmed.

Eventually they ran off. I bet the next time we see them the young will look appreciably larger.