Monday - no schedule

As much as we enjoyed our volunteer time the past few days, it was nice to have no schedule today.  Don't get me wrong, there are lots of things to do here, most of which we won't have time to see or do, but its so so nice to feel no pressure.  We'll be back and we'll see what we missed eventually.   Its taken us a while to slip into that state of mind, but now that we have, it feels good.

As we enjoyed our second cup outside we bid good bye and safe travels to our neighbors.   After lunch we decided to stay close to home and explore our area a bit more.  We dropped in at the gift shop at BF to use up our 20% coupon, then drove up the dirt road to find the place where the Kanab Creek cut a deep channel and passed under the trail.  It was a hot day and we felt like getting our feet wet.

the creek runs through the bottom of this narrow slot

We walked along the top until Dave found a spot he thought we could scramble down.  He had no problem and I made it down with no mishaps using the PBC technique, I learned watching numerous photo demonstrations.    (PBC = Pam's Butt Crawl)

the walls varied from just over our heads to completely enclosing the space.

No, Dave isn't using both sticks, he's holding mine so I can hold the camera

The water was delightful and cool and we loved our splashy walk through the mini canyon.  I hope our sandals are waterproof.   We'll see tomorrow when they dry.

Across from the north entrance to BF Sanctuary was a road leading to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.  We drove about 15 miles in to the entrance.  The sand dunes are a fabulous, almost neon coral color.  I was a bit disappointed with the park, however.  It could have been that we just didn't explore far enough in, but it seemed the whole place was there for the use of ATV folks.  We drove around a bit, through the campground and then back out again.   We selected a different route back and were rewarded with expansive views of the different levels of the Grand Staircase area.

The real color of the sand dunes is somewhere between the three pictures above.  I'm having a bit of a problem with the camera lens lately.  Its balking when I try to focus at a distance and  is audibly complaining when I try to put it through its paces.  I may be wearing the d amn thing out.   I might actually have to dig out the instruction booklet and read it.   Not my usual style.

On our way home, we noticed this cute cairn at the entrance to Best Friend's Dogtown (no pun intended).