Hurricane, UT Part 1

For 10 days in late April I stayed at Willow Wind RV park in Hurricane, UT.  This park is about 15 minutes from Zion National Park. 

While there I visited Zion several days, but also visited some other places.  One of my favorites is Snow Canyon State Park in Ivins, UT. 

My favorite hike is the Hidden Pinyon Trail.  Its only about 1.5 miles if you don’t connect to other trails, but is so beautiful.

The trail goes thru these rocks and turns to the left. 

I also visited Jenny’s Canyon, a short walk in the park.

I just went back and looked at the photos from my visit to Snow Canyon State Park in 2013 and a couple of the photos are very similar to the ones above.  But I do have a few different views on that post.  The URL is below --    http://travelingwpam.blogspot.com/2013/06/zion-national-park-and-virgin-utpart-1.html

Another day, I visited the Little Black Mountain Petroglyph Site.  While some things list this as being in Utah it is actually located in Arizona.  I think the BLM office in St. George, UT is in charge of it so that is probably why you see both AZ and UT.  I knew it was a dirt road and I had read some warnings about the road.  I have a Honda CRV, not a 4-wheel drive.  But I made it.  After a fairly steep, bumpy hill it was just a typical dirt road that seemed to go forever.

The petroglyphs here were made by several different Indian groups over an 8000 year period.

I enjoyed the area, it was well worth the drive!  Now I have to go through all my Zion pictures and decide which ones to post.  I leave Michigan tomorrow, so it might be several days before I continue with trying to catch up on this blog. 

Sun City, AZ–part 3

I also visited the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, AZ.  Another great desert garden in the area!  Lots of hummingbirds, fun walks and great scenery.

One of many failed hummingbird shots!

I thought this was a great “no trespassing” sign!

I really liked the shapes on this tree trunk.

Sun City, AZ part 2

There was a bike trail nearby that I enjoyed, the New River Trail.  This is the same name as one of my favorite rail trails in Virginia, but is quite different.  This is a paved trail in the Phoenix metro area where you can go for a long distance without having to stop at intersections.  The trail goes under bridges so you don’t have to cross roads.  The scenery wasn’t great, but I enjoyed the hummingbirds and saw a couple of Road Runners.

I visited the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix in between repairs.   My back and legs were still bothering me, but I am learning to just take more breaks when I do things.   I took advantage of several benches!