Welcome to Utah

We were at the Border Inn the other evening, and while we were waiting for food to come, I headed out into the nearby desert to look for wildflowers. I crossed the highway, taking a quick look at the Welcome to Utah sign, giving it a brief thought and then moving on. After a brief jaunt in the greasewood, I noticed that a big truck had pulled in next to the sign, and with no hesitation removed the sign. Then they got ready to put up a new one.

Somewhere in my files I have a photo of the old sign, but I don't know where. Fortunately Dan Heller had one posted on the Internet. The old sign honored the 2002 Olympic Games held in Salt Lake and also showed a picture of Delicate Arch.

The new signs feature the word Utah in much bigger shape and the sandstone cliffs of southern Utah. I think the picture is of Zion Canyon.

Hopefully in addition to paying for new signs, the Utah legislature is willing to help protect some of its resources, namely the water that Southern Nevada wants to pipe away.

The crane hoisted the sign into place and workers quickly installed it. I'm guessing the really huge sign still left on the trailer will go on the Interstate.

So here's one of the first photos of the new sign at the Border Inn crossing into Utah. Ready to go visit?

Spring Flowers

I've really been having fun photographing flowers this spring. They have been about two weeks behind last year, but I figure that's just given me more time to get my bootie in gear and get outside ready to discover them.

In honor of all the spring beauty, I've restarted my A Plant a Day blog, which features plants in this area. Here's a sampling of flowers I have on the blog, but rephotographed this spring because I couldn't resist. If you like plants, be sure to check out the other blog!
The brilliant orange gooseberryleaf globemallow (Sphaeralcea grossularifolia) really lights up the desert floor. This is a plant I have in my native flower garden because I like it so much.

This beautiful tiny daisy is only a few inches tall. It's called spreading fleabane (Erigeron divergens), a rather funny name for such a cute flower.

I just saw this Nevada Onion (Allium nevadense) yesterday. It doesn't grow very tall, but the small balls of flowers are a nice splash of color in the gravelly soils.

I found this bright yellow flower on a rocky outcrop. It's called nakedstem sunray (Enceliopsis nudicaulis) due to the leafless stems.

This beautiful flower that lies close to the ground flowers at night, so you can see it at it's best very early in the morning. It's called tufted-evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa).

This splashy yellow flower with the lobed leaves is lobeleaf groundsel (Packera multilobata), which goes by many other names you can see if you click on the link.

I also saw this beautiful deep blue flower for the first time this year yesterday. The palmately divided leaves look intriguing, and the flowers are amazing. This is Anderson's larkspur (Delphinium andersonii), a member of the Buttercup Family.

I like the flower so much that I couldn't resist a closeup.

And last but not least for today, here's some desert Indian paintbrush (Castilleja angustifolia). It usually grows close to sagebrush, and the bright red bracts really light up the landscape.

Hope you're having fun looking at wild flowers where you live!

Into the Cave

While our visitors were here, we decided to take a trip into Lehman Cave. This is always a great destination for kids, with so much to see. I gave Desert Boy a flashlight so he'd have something to hang onto and then his hands wouldn't be free to touch the cave formations. Plus he thinks he's pretty cool having his own light.

The first room in the cave is the Gothic Palace, and my brother got the awesome shot above. The parents had lots of fun taking photos as we went on the leisurely tour.

Some of the passages are narrow. This one in particular has a very interesting ceiling.

There it is! Covered with draperies, the ceiling and narrow passage is really awesome. Thanks again, Pete for the photo!

Desert Boy had fun looking down dark holes and wondering if the passage went anywhere. Desert Girl was awake for most of the cave trip and didn't even make a squeak. I guess that means she liked it!

We had some typical kid moments in the cave, too. I mean, kids have to squirm and pick their noses somewhere, right?

Here's Peter, the photographer. He had to duck a lot.

Lehman Cave is known for its multitude of formations. Although the cave isn't long, only about 1.5 miles, it has a very high concentration of speleothems along the tour route, making one feel very much a part of the cave.

I like how the light silhouettes these three stalagmites.

Peter had more ducking as he went further into the cave.

We found a nice place for the cousins to pose for a photo. Except they don't seem to keen on the idea.

Once we let them do their own thing, they were a lot happier.

In the Grand Palace are some beautiful cave shields, including the parachute shield.

We peaked into the Sunken Garden, where some cave restoration is in progress, with the old trail being removed and hauled out five gallon bucket by five gallon bucket. Over 38 tons of material have been moved out of the cave this way so far.

Back in the Grand Palace, these funny bulbous stalactites hang from the ceiling. It's almost like we're getting an under-the-soil view of turnips growing.

Desert Boy looks like he's ready to be a cave guide. He's even got the hand movements down!

You can see that the two little ones are a perfect height for navigating the cave. A small build is definitely an advantage for cave explorers.

Near the end of the tour, the route crosses some natural cave floor with tiny rimstone dams. The calcite was deposited as water slowly spilled over from one dam to the next.

The exit tunnel was made in the 1970s, and they had to dig down through the cave floor to make a human-sized passageway out. That left some layers of calcite with beautiful banding. Some researchers have been doing work dating cave formations to get a better estimate of cave age and should have their results public within the next year.

The tunnel is a place where the kids can finally run! Desert Boy took off with excitement.

Right by the exit door we saw some cave life: a daddy-long legs spider and a cave cricket. What a great trip!

Some Desert Wildlife

I just love taking walks in the desert in the spring. It's not too hot and there is so much going on! Here's a sampling from one of my recent walks near EskDale. Above is a clouded sulphur butterfly munching on some blue mustard. On calm days, it is easy to see hundreds, if not thousands, of sulphurs around alfalfa fields, and apparently they occasionally want the taste of something a little different.

This is a very large western fence lizard. It was hanging out on the dark rock, sunbathing. It looked like a pretty good idea. He wouldn't let me join him, though, he kept darting away.

Here's another view of the western fence lizard. You can see the faint horizontal bands going across the lizard's body and tail.


Hiding under a bush was a baby horned lizard, just a few inches long. They blend in so well with their surroundings that it's nearly impossible to find one unless it races from one bush to another.

The Western kingbirds were having fun flitting around on the greasewood, but they sat still long enough for me to snap this photo, with the Deep Creek Range in the background. I am really thankful I live in such a beautiful place. Just looking at these photos makes me ready to go back out for another desert walk!

The Treehouse

My brother and sister-in-law kindly offered to help us do house repairs while they were here. Fortunately the house is in generally good shape, but I've been toying with the idea of building a tree house for Desert Boy for some time. Since my brother's an engineer and creative, I figured that might be a good project, and he agreed to give it a try.

I had picked out a location, next to a big poplar tree in the yard. There's an old dead stump for part of it, and I figured that would be a great location for a tree house for a three-year old, only a couple feet off the ground. The next step was assembling all the materials, which included a trip to the ever-fun equipment yard and its menagerie of stuff. (My husband continues to insist that it's not junk.)

Peter decided an old pallet would be a good floor.

It took some creative engineering to get it attached to the tree and make it solid.

Little Maria (wearing Desert Boy's coat) helped. She thought it was great fun to hammer with the little toy hammer.

Sarah helped add more stabilization while Maria peeked out of the new wall.

We found a fun sign for the tree house. Desert Boy helped put it up, although he had it upside down at first. He thinks the sign says that it is his tree house and every one else should stay out. I guess that's the gist of it!

Maria had fun climbing around the tree house.

Part of the tree house is a slide.

Besides sliding down it, Desert Boy decided it would be fun to send his little vehicles racing down the ramp.

Desert Boy was thrilled that he has a tree house. He even found a way to climb through the tree to get into the tree.

Maria thinks her dad is really cool.

She really enjoyed playing in the tree house and on the tree next to it.

Maria added a few final touches to the tree house.

And Desert Boy climbs through the trap door under the tree house.

A tree house with a tunnel is pretty cool.

Desert Boy is so happy to have a tree house. Thanks, Uncle Peter!