Shadows Of Time

Today I was totally blown away by what I saw  when we went to Bryce Canyon in Southern Utah. It was a lovely cool day but I could see that there was smoke in the air. Funny because we seen a lot of Fire Signs saying Fire danger “Moderate” not bad for the middle of Summer.  I was worried that the smoke in the air would make for some not so good pictures.  It soon cleared away and I was soon  happily  clicking away.

First- We travelled through a area that is called Red Canyon. At first I thought we had arrived at Bryce Canyon. I would have been happy with that. We spent about half an hour in this area taking a few pictures and enjoying the scenery. What amazes me about these special places  is- you can be driving along and all that you can see for miles is low lying shrubs and tall pine trees, and all of a sudden, you come around a corner and low and behold, its like you have arrived  some how in a different scene in a movie.

Red  Canyon

Majestic

Back in the truck and onto Bryce Canyon now.

The rock formations in Bryce canyon are called “hoodoo’s”.  “Hoodoo” – A pillar of rock,usually of fantastic shape, left by erosion. “Hoodoo” – to cast a spell. but they were created over Millions of years by the effects of rain, snow, wind and violent earthquakes and volcano's. The pressure of lava underneath forced the land up wards creating the plateaus we see today.  Most of this occurred at the time the Dinosaurs were wiped out or just before according the the pamphlets we were given. I’m including a scan of the brochure that explains Differential  Erosion well. This is how the huge rock formations were created over time.

The first few millions of years

 

And the next few million years or so.  You get the picture.

This is what they call the Bryce Amphitheater

Me

Dann

Sorry to say but we didn't walk any of the trails that were here for the offering. That would have put us right down the bottom of these huge hoodoos. I have seen some of the pictures people take down there and they are something else. Maybe next time we will be able to go down the bottom. Dann has a bad foot and it would have been to painful for him .   Where's my gun !!!   I was very happy with what we could see from the top.

This big guy was sitting on the railing waiting for a free hand out that never came.

The told us that on a clear day from this vantage point, you can see into New Mexico and Arizona. Stuffed  if I could see it. Forgot to mention that these formations run for 18 miles along the rim of this huge mountainous range. It has 18 Viewable vantage points.Totally awesome experience. On the way home we called into a little town called Bryce canyon city.

Once again I seen something that made me speechless, and that's saying something.

This is a log of wood. At first I thought it was artificial, made to look like a piece of tree trunk.  I  ran my fingers across it and realized it was like marble. I had heard about these but had never seen one. It’s called “Petrified Wood”  basically what it is..IS -------
In order for the trees to petrify, they had to be buried quickly with mud and silt to eliminate oxygen which would cause them to deteriorate. Ground water rich in silicon dioxide and other chemicals would saturate the buried trees. The reds, browns and yellows result primarily from compounds of iron, while manganese and other minerals account for the purples and dark blues. Through a mineralization process on the cellular level, and by silicon dioxide acting as a cementing agent, the wood became petrified. This process took millions of years! 

This is the top of that same log. So shinny/smooth and hard. After that I took a couple more pictures and we headed home.

Where he belongs !! 

Dann having a wee rest

Last but not least, I have been playing around with the Panoramic view on my new camera. I know these pictures are going to overlap the sides ..Oh well !!!

What a great trip !!!!

Danns Great Grandsons 1st Birthday

                          

Treys 1st Birthday

We took a couple off days of from Panguitch and went up to Layton Utah for Danns Great Grandsons 1st Birthday.  Was nice not to have to tow our home for this trip. We arrived about a hour early for the birthday party and decided to go straight there. They were still setting up tables and what not..Dann helped, I watched..  *sigh*   Danns Grandaughter Kaylee and her husband  Brian had not long moved in to their new home, so no shady Trees. It was a lot hotter up there than in Panguitch. A lot of guest from both sides of the family were there as it was Kaylees birthday as well I found out later. I felt bad that we came with out a gift for her.

Birthday Boy “Trey” Opening His Gifts

I am not sure if it was Kaylee, Treys Mum or Devan Treys Auntie that made his Birthday cake but Trey was given it on a plate and was allowed to go for it.  He was a neat cake eater. His little fingers poked in and around the cake and into his mouth, so cute to see.

Trey & His Mum Kaylee

 Treys Proud Grandma In The Middle Watching Her Boy Eat His Cake. His Great Aunts Keiko & Tina Watching As Well

 

I want to take this opportunity to introduce you all to my Husbands children and a few of his grandkids.

Left – Right, Shirley Tina and Keiko. with dad in the Background. Is Shirley watching a fly crawling up the wall or what

L-R  Devan (Granddaughter)  Kaylee with her son on her knee. (Granddaughter) Dann, Shirley ,Adrianna(Granddaughter) Tina’s Daughter, Tina, Keiko and Keikos husband Tony

AND “Finally” The Birthday Boy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREY

This Old House

 

A few evenings ago Erika, our neighbour came over and asked me would I like to join her for a walk. I accepted eagerly as I had been thinking about going for a walk but never did. On our first walk we came across this very Old House. We tried to come up with a figure as to how old it was, I said about 100 years old, Erika came up with about 75 years.  We stood on the footpath outside this beautiful old house and were both silent for a bit. I said to Erika, I can just see clothes flapping in the wind on the clothes line that was no longer there.  I could see a rocking chair with a old man with a pipe sitting in it whittling away. Children playing in the front yard, all in period costume.The area around the house was very over grown with weeds and native shrubs. A few evenings later I went back with my camera and captured what I had seen.

The back of the house as we approached.

Side view of the front

Front of this amazing old house. Sun was directly behind the building

If Only those Walls Could Talk

Butch Cassidy's Hideout

 

Butch Cassidy

When we were in South Dakota they had a huge hail storm and our truck and RV was damaged. The truck had its hood (bonnet) ,roof dented from hail stones. We didn't have time to get it fixed there because we were 3 days from leaving.  Our awning on our RV was also damaged, holes and cuts from the stones along the rolled up edge. We finally got the truck fixed the other day in a little town  called   Circleville   about a half an hours drive from Panguitch. The guy there did a excellent job. Dann was very happy with his work. If anyone is ever in that area its called Daltons Auto Body Shop. After we dropped the truck of we continued into another town called Richfield were we did some shopping and had lunch with Peter and Erika our neighbours who were kind enough to pick us up after leaving the truck at the panel beaters. On our way back to pick up the truck Peter showed us this little beaten up shack that was about 500 meters of the road nestled amongst some green trees.  Found out  it was  one of Butch Cassidy’s hide outs. There are apparently many of these through out Utah. I did a search on youtube for it and found quiet a few including a video a guy made showing us one of these hide outs where Butch left his signature in some rocks where he and his gang were taking refuge under from the law.

http://www.youtube.com/user/bonuntr

Click on the above link

Below are some pictures I took of this particular hide out

 

I love my new camera and its Zoom

On the way home I took some more pictures of the beautiful country side.

What a beautiful place to visit, scenery was postcard material.