Why Birthdays Should Come More Than Once a Year

Lynne and Addy came to Utah the week of Tamma Terisa's birthday (amongst others: happy birthday, Bethany!) and took Tampa to the aquarium.  There were some fish and some penguins and sharks and fish.  And colored birds.

 And colorful poison frogs in an aquarium.

Addy hauled her toy collection around the house in the largest container she could move. She practiced collecting eggs.  Then, too soon, it was time for her to move on to her next engagement in Ogden Valley. She left the toys and the eggs for us to use for Easter festivities.

For Terisa's birthday we took a long weekend down in Moab.  Yes, it was during Spring break, and yes, the jeep safari was gearing up, but it was a birthday; we had to go.  On her birthday we hiked Negro Bill's Canyon.  After we hiked up to Morning Glory Arch, we bushwhacked through a small side canyon to find this little gem of a waterfall.

On Saturday we drove to the Needles District of Canyonlands to hike the Chesler Park loop trail and the Joint Trail. We had never spent much time in Canyonlands before and it felt very adventurous. We started off in parkas in the morning.

As you might expect for a  national park, the views were stunning.

The trail wound through fins and joints and formations.

The trail was well-marked and reasonably uncrowded. I guess the spring break crowds might not get out this far...

We hiked for miles,

and miles,

 and miles.

 

Then we climbed down a staircase to the Joint Trail: over a half mile of a 3-foot wide trail between the fractured faces of 40-foot tall boulders. 

 Like a slot canyon without all of the scour turns, but just flat, straight walls rising up to the blue sky 40 feet above.

There were rock falls to negotiate

and boulders to squeeze between.

Sometimes we couldn't tell how we were going to get out.

Also, we found the cairn factory at the end of the Joint Trail.

Then we completed the loop. The formations were spectacular.

There were lots of trees, mostly Pinyon Pine and Juniper.

The landscapes are as alien as any other place on the Colorado Plateau. Notice Terisa is wearing a t-shirt in the afternoon. Overall we had a great 10-mile hike.  Unfortunately the trail was 11 miles long. Just kidding, we made it energy to spare.

On the way out, tired and sore, we still stopped at Newspaper Rock.  By now the sun had set and we were bundling up again.

On Sunday, we took the diversion we have been meaning to take for 35 years: through Nine Mile Canyon. Chock full of petroglyphs, pictographs and Fremont culture. It seemed like every surface had pre-historic graffiti on it. Or messages about aliens.  Hard to tell.

Also, there was a picture of a pregnant buffalo.

A fun week and weekend made us wish birthdays came around more than once a year. We are already planning the next adventure.