Christopher and Kim Update Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Thanks for your updates Shane and Wendy and Scott! Happy birthday to Jared yesterday! I will receive my first vaccination shot today. It’s been a busy week for us.
- Tuesday we had my Geology class - see the pics in front of the beautiful picture window overlooking Heber Valley. Elder Aaron Taylor is doing well and is in Renton, Washington now, to the south of Lake Washington.
- Wednesday Cayson and I went to work at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We took Grandpa on a hike in the afternoon, along the trail by big Cottonwood Creek. We went and purchased Cayson’s new bike Thursday and he has been riding a LOT since then.
- Thursday we went to see Aspen and Seth’s new dog “Woody” and then took them out to Wallaby’s. Kim and I enjoyed the restaurant more than the other times we have tried it. Woody is a beautiful dog.
Saturday Kim and I left about 8:30 to head to the Escalante area for our weekend getaway. We first stopped by Redmond to see Corin and Kylie’s house and get the grand tour of the house and yard. The feel of the house reminds me a lot of the house we lived in while in Fayette. It has high ceilings and they have painted many of the rooms. The previous owners didn’t do anything with the yard, but Corin and Kylie have lots of plans, which they will start implementing. He works at USG in Sigurd, 17 minutes away from Redmond. They make drywall and other fire-retardant products using gypsum, which is mined right there in Sigurd.
Then we headed toward our mid-afternoon hike. I had planned and searched maps and it’s a good thing I paid attention to elevation! See the pic of me at the pass at 9600 feet. There were a couple of trails near there that I considered, but then I saw that the START of the trail was at 8000 feet and it went up from there. So I knew there would be lots of snow. But we did pull out at some windy overlooks. They will be good hikes for late summer.
So we dropped way down into Boulder, Utah, and then across Hell’s Backbone, which was amazing. The road is built right on top of a ridge with steep drop offs on both sides. We were trying to find the trail to Upper Calf Creek Falls, which they say is not labeled. Sure enough, we couldn’t see it, but it turns out that it’s quite steep (down) at first so it wouldn’t have been good for Kim anyway. So we ended up at the Lower Calf Creek falls trail, which was gorgeous.
At this elevation, it was actually very warm! We were quite hot on the hike. It’s a few miles to the waterfall, so we didn’t make it.
We made it to our Airbnb in Escalante, which was called “Desert Farm” and had Llamas and Alpacas and sheep and chickens, and a Border Collie named Chubby. The Airbnb was upstairs, and quite old, but cute. After checking in and resting, we went out to eat at Escalante Outfitters, which was superb! The hosts of the Airbnb had recommended it. Kim got a pizza and I got a cake to go with my smoothie that I made in the apartment.
We found out that Boris and Krystal were in Puerto Rico - checking it out to possibly go to law school there. So Kim face timed them on Sunday morning and had a good chat. Then we went back to the lower Calf Creek Falls trail. I have an energy time limit, so we have to turn around in one hour regardless. We didn’t make it to the falls again, but had another beautiful hike. After a rest at the Airbnb, we then went to the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. There we went on another hike of about 1 ¾ miles, which looped by many petrified logs (very colorful). I had over 15,000 steps by the end of the day.
I always wake up early, so I got up quietly both mornings and headed out to collect rocks. Over time, I’ve become skilled at using Google Earth and Google Maps to identify good rock collecting places in any new location. Then we headed out a different direction to go home. We stopped for a hike at Mossy Cave trail, which is actually part of Bryce Canyon National Park, but away from the main part of Bryce. The ice cave was really nice. Then we stopped for a last hike at Red Rock Canyon, but it was too snowy for Kim. So she composed a letter to Aaron while I hiked and ran for 30 minutes, before heading home. Our April trip will probably be back to Bryce.
Have a super week! Here is a link to a panorama shot -
And here is the link to Prosperity Poem 113 - One Year From Now
Christopher and Kim
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