Crazy Desert Adventure 3: The Conclusion

Tuesday, we woke up and headed to our next destination: an unmarked trailhead on an unmarked dirt road. It was the Mule Canyon trail in SW Utah. I like to peruse photos on Panoramio to find interesting places to visit, and these ruins were high on my list. After some searching, I was able to find the directions to this relatively unknown trail.

Starting on the trail we passed some “intense” hikers and we got some funny looks because I had a baby on my shoulders. The hike was pretty easy, and only about 1 1/2 miles to the ruins.

This is House on Fire Ruins. Because of the type of rock, the combination of the color and erosion pattern makes it look like the ruins are on fire. But to get the best light illusion you have to be there at about 11 am to 12:30 pm, otherwise the light is to bright or dark. So we planned accordingly. And it worked out great.

Here we all are (no Magnuses were harmed by fire in the taking of these photos):

Elina held this rock up pretty well:

And Magnus fell asleep on the hike back.

Next we visited Natural Bridges NM. I thought it was pretty cool.

Here are the three main bridges:

Sipapu: Kachina:

Owachomo:

The size of them was amazing. If you look under Kachina there are some people barely visible.

It was a fun place.

Heading north we crossed the Colorado and the beginning of Lake Powell.

Then we reached the home of the Goblins in Goblin Valley SP. Magnus liked this place, though he mostly played in the sand.

Here he is playing among the Goblins.

Seems like another world:

I like to climb them:

That was the end of our exploring in the desert. That night we stayed at our Uncle Sherman’s house in Riverton, and then all the way back to Vancouver on Wednesday. It was a great trip and my crazy idea of bringing Magnus with me turned out to be a lot of fun…

…even Magnus thought so!

Crazy Desert Adventure: Part 2

Our journey continued on Monday, April 9. Our first big stop was Petrified Forest NP in eastern Arizona. Before going into the park we visited a rock shop that basically had a parking lot full of petrified wood. They had more of the stuff than I had ever seen. It was really cool.

In the park our amazement continued. There was petrified wood everywhere. We did a short hike called Giant Logs (where the biggest logs are found). Every piece was very beautiful and full of color. Magnus didn’t much like the wind that was blowing but he liked the wood.

Here we are on Old Faithful, the biggest log in the park:

And some samplings of petrified wood:

And a Magnus for scale(1 Magnus=a large bag of apples):

The next hike we did was called Blue Mesa. So called for the bluish hue of the dirt.

Here the layers have not fully eroded yet to release all the wood, so there are places where the wood collects as it falls out of and off of the cliffs:

Magnus found two small wood fragments that he carried for a while.

We think this looks like another planet.

There were also some neat petroglyphs. What do you think the bird in the picture on the right is doing?

Elina looks so happy:

The Painted Desert:

On our way to the hotel we stopped by Canyon de Chelly NM on the Navajo Reservation and saw the White House Ruins. We got there just as the sun was shading them on the cliff far below. Can you see the ruins in the wide shot?

That concludes Monday and part 2 of our trip. Magnus was mostly good, though he didn’t care much for the getting in an out of the car. He did love the hiking parts.