Wild Places and Open Spaces

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Collared Lizard………..Desert SunSet……..BullSnake…………..Kris at Grand Canyon

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Arizona Desert……………………….. some pictures of the Grand Canyon

Hello everyone!

We’ve covered a lot of ground in the past (nearly) 3 weeks. Almost didn’t get out of Canada though, because we were pulled over at the border, questioned and searched. Once they were fully satisfied that we were not going to become illegal aliens and confiscated our bird seed, we were allowed into the United States of America.

Stopped in Missouri on our way to Colorado to see the famous Arch – what an engineering phenomenon. Drove through the plains of Kansas – very flat and very hot. It was in Kansas that I got my first look at the Rocky Mountains on the horizon of Colorado. We spent a bit more time than originally planned in Colorado because we had come across some nice areas. Depending on elevation, within a mile the weather could change from a nice balmy and cloud-free day to frigid temps with hail. Did some hiking in T-shirts were snow had not yet even melted.

Mesa Verde National Park was our first “true” destination in Colorado. It was breathtaking. Indians who lived here built cliff dwellings (houses built into the cliffs) around 1100AD and they are very well preserved at this park. The wildlife here was amazing as well – wild turkeys with Toms strutting their stuff would walk through our campsite, as would mule deer, and we saw wild horses and coyotes among others.

Somewhere in Colorado Jim managed to get 2 wood ticks on him. The first one I found on his calf, and I don’t think it had been on him very long as it was not engorged. I can’t even believe that I saw it because it was so small. The second one I actually found a couple days later when we were already in Arizona. Jim and I had been hiking around some Indian ruins in Homolovi State Park searching through the dirt and debris to find old pottery. We had gone our separate ways around the cliffs and mounds of dirt. When we met again Jim told me that he had fallen off this cliff and proceded to show me his war wounds….he was all scraped up all over his elbows, arms, legs, everywhere. I would have given anything to have seen it happen (luckily it wasn’t a larger cliff…). Anyways, as I was checking out his numerous scrapes, I happened to look at his belly button and found the second tick! This one had been feeding quite happily (he was hugely engorged) and was not very easy to remove. Tick removal as many know, can be a very trying experience, but I managed to remove the mouthparts/head intact without the help of isofluorane (my friends at Baker’s will understand). However, we still need to somewhat be worried about the diseases that the blood suckers may have instilled in Jim – Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever among the many. However, it is unlikely that he got anything as he has not shown any signs and they usually appear within 12 days of being parasitized.

The desert dwelling that we have been doing over the last week and a half has been great. Have been to the Grand Canyon, Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands and Zion National Parks. All have their own unique environments and beautiful scenery. It is amazing how accustomed to having such a large amount of water available to us in Canada…in the desert water is at a premium (obviously) and we have to pay for showers and water, and there are no streams/waterways to filter water from! People go through many lengths (we have seen many feats of engineering, including many dams) in order to get water to certain areas. In the desert our days are set up differently – we tend to do “chores” in the midday, and leave our hiking to the early am and late afternoon. There can be huge differences in temperatures from the day to the night – 90F in the day and 60F at night – when you throw elevation in there we have had nights that have been in the 30’s – I usally wear my toque to bed these nights!

Our tent managed to get away on us once so far…we had set it up, pegged it down and when we returned at night to it, low and behold it was gone. We were pretty upset because we had thought that someone had stolen it at first, but we eventually found it (in the dark which was a feat in itself) about 250ft away erected right side up on another site across the way. Apparently in our absence it had been swept up in a “dust devil” (a mini tornado-like-thing made of dust/dirt) and went for a tour. It was pretty hilarious, and we had a good laugh about it.

We took an unexpected side trip to Great Salt Lake and camped on Antelope Island State Park. Here we had a bison join us for dinner. He was a welcome guest for a while, as he was grazing 10ft or so away from us as we were eating. However, he eventually decided that he wanted the campsite as his own, and he grunted/huffed and ran us off the site! We hid behind the car for a few minutes while he sniffed our pots and dinner, then he went back to grazing like nothing happened and allowed us to continue our dinner. Great Salt Lake is pretty neat – the water is much saltier than the ocean and very buoyant he tells me, as he took a dip in it.

We have camped every night but the first, had only 5 showers since we left, and have eaten dinner out twice. We have gone 7021km, spent $1169.07 and had 26 peanut butter sandwiches.