Arches in July

Amy and I took the kids to Arches National Park the last week in July. Amy had never been down here even though we drive right by it every time we go to mom and dads. She is not much of a desert lover but I think she changed her mind about that a little after this trip.

The picture above and below is taken at the overlook at Park Avenue. It looks like a painting just standing here looking down the little canyon


My favorite rock formation that I have seen yet. Balance rock is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.






We took the little 1 mile hike back into double arch with the kids. They had a blast playing around on the rocks. Had a couple little trips and some tears but they had a blast



The last hike we took was back to Skyline Arch. The kids did great with the little hikes that we were able to sneak in. The temperatures were around 100 degrees in the days leading up to our hiking day but mother nature helped us out and gave us a cool 80 degree day.

During my week off we decided to go down and visit my parents in Monticello Utah. They took us on a great ride around San Juan County and I took some pretty cool pics of some of the areas we went to.

This is a shot from the top of the Moki Dugway overlooking the Valley of the Gods. It is an amazing view that this picture hopefully captured for you.

Here is a quick shot from the truck that Amy took of the road down the dugway. She was holding her breath most of the way down.

Ethan did not want to get out and be in the picture so he is missing here but I am standing with Amy and Hazen on the lookout at the top of the Dugway.

Another shot from the top of the dugway.

Amy and Hazen with Mom and Dad

Here we stopped at the Mule Canyon Indian Ruins. It is a restored Kiva with a watchtower that is to our left.

We are standing in front of the house block that is attached to the Kiva.

Here is a wider picture that takes in the whole housing block.

It is amazing that many of these structures are still standing. As you drive around these back roads you can catch a glimpse of walls still holding to the sides of the canyon walls. One of these times I come down I am going to go for a walk in these canyons and get some good close pictures for all of ya. It is a good time of year to be in Southern Utah. Not to hot during the day but still gets a little chilly during the day.

posted by Cole

Turkey Tags Still Available in Utah

For those of you that did not put in for the Utah turkey hunt this year or did not draw out you are still in luck. The Utah DWR still has tags for sale online for the Sourthern Region, Regionwide hunt. The hunt runds from 5/04-5/31.

The hunt Unit is for the following Counties:

Millard, Sevier, Beaver, Piute, Wayne, Garfield, Kane, Washington and Iron Counties.

I'm Back

As some of you may know, I took a job last June out in Rock Springs with Halliburton Energy Services. It has been very busy for us out there and as a result my outdoor excursions have slowed down. As well as my update of my site. But I am going to start showing some pics from the gas fields of Western Wyoming. Spring is also coming and we are ready to get outdoors.After leaving the computer and keyboard world I ended right back at it this winter. Here I am sitting inside of our command center at my workstation where I ran the horsepower pumps by computer that we use to push our frac fluids down hole.


Here are a couple of shots of our equipment. We go day and night.

It is great to work outdoors again. And each day at work is an outdoor excursion.

Hazen's First Camp

Hazen finally got his first camping trip. I still cannot believe that we did not get him out last year but we did not get one camp trip in last summer. That will change this year. This is the first of many that we will take as a family.

We decided on Spring Hollow in Logan Canyon after I finally convinced Amy that the bad weather we were having would blow over Saturday afternoon. As usual, she was right and you can see that things are a little wet in the pic below. But the sun is shining in the background but it did stay very cold. The firepits up here are great if you have little ones. You don't get very warm around the fire but you do not have to worry about them falling in.
Just behind Amy and Hazen in the picture below is the creek that runs down from Spring Hollow. It was running great and is the perfect background noise when you are camping. This is the first time we have used the tent that is also in the background. We upgraded to a vacation cabin from our old tent. This gives us a lot more room and a place for the kids to play if it rains.
When it did not warm up we decided that it was best if Amy took the kids back to the house for the night. I stayed at the camp to stick out the cold and wet night. It really felt like March rather than June. The boys had their coats on the whole time that we were there.
Amy said that Ethan cried all the way to Logan cause he wanted to stay. He helped me with every aspect of setting up camp from the tent to gathering wood. He really loves being outside and was on the move constantly.
As I crawled in my sleeping bag around 11 I was a little upset because it was not too cold at that point and I felt like the kids and Amy could have spent the night without getting too cold. My mide was changed for me around 4 am when the temperature dropped and even woke me up. I stacked blankets on me and was glad that they went down.

The next morning I got up around six and built a fire and some hot cocoa and fried up some bacon. The morning was still cool but the sky was clear as could be. Probably the reason for the cold morning.
Amy and the boys got back to camp around 10 that morning. We had the camp until 2pm and we stayed for every bit of it. We let Ethan cook some more marshmello's and then we did hotdogs for lunch.
Ethan and Hazen had a lot of fun playing around the camp. Hazen was so bundled up that when he fell he did not feel a thing but then could not get up on his own either. He came out pretty dirty and I smiled with pride.
This is the creek right behind our camp.

Post by Cole

Fishing at Logan Canyon's 3rd Dam with Clint

My good buddy Clint and I went fishing on Third Dam a few weeks ago. And I can finally say that I am a successful fisherman. As long as my success is not measured by the length of my fish.

As you can see from the first two pictures the evening was amazing. These pictures show just how bright and calm it was. They were even taken with a cell phone. Really wish I would have had my digital camera but these turned out really nice.

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Clint and I started fishing up on the top end of the dam where Eric had caught a few fish. We had no luck and decided to head down to the spillway. We found our spot right under this tree and fished here till it got dark.

Clint was the first to catch a fish. The fish were biting of the top and I mean really going after it. Some of them brought their whole bodies out of the water. So I broke out every last fly I had in my arsenal. Clint told me I was crazy and went back to his spinners and had fish following him right up to the bank. When he caught his first albino fish it did not take me long to switch to my rapalla minnow.
They followed my minnow up to the bank as well and it was on with the little guys. Here I am below with my first fish of the season. Whoever said size doesn't matter hit the nail on the head. It was good to get it on my 6th fish day of the year.
Here is Clint with one of the albino fish he caught. The Game Warden said that they are almost impossible to catch but Clint caught 3 and I caught two of them.
In all Clint caught 5 fish and I caught 3
Here are the lures and bait we were using. They were stealing the Salmon Eggs right off of the hook. To the right of the eggs is my Rapalla Countdown Brown Trout Minnow. On the bottom, Clint caught all of his fish with these lures. The one on the left is an in-line spinner lure with the orange, yellow and green spoon with a copper spiral body weight. In the middle is the Simple Simon Lure. On the right is another in-line spinner with red dots. They loved each one of these and followed them all into the bank.