Summer Re-cap

Autumn begins in a few days. Wow! This summer has gone by really, really fast for me. Since summer is my favorite season (and we've had dustings of snow already, eek!), I present my summer 2011 recapitulation.

1. I left Texas for Nevada and started work at Great Basin National Park in May.

2. I bought a cute, new outfit.

3. Drove 70 miles, one way, to Ely for grocery shopping. Didn't leave town without stopping at the drug store for a fabulous chocolate malt.

4. I passed an emotional kidney stone in June and, eh-hem, lost a bit of weight. Still feeling the after-effects and trying (rather unsuccessfully) to put the weight back on.

5. I attended my first ger warming. Later in July, attended my first ger sleep-over.

6. Bought new running shoes and began training for the Outer Banks Marathon. I've run 206 miles in training thus far; only 227 to go, and then 26.2 for the race itself.

7. Speaking of miles, my car rolled over 100,000 miles. Way to go Little Car!

8. Visited Adam in mid-July in Provo. Went through Timpanogos Cave for research/comparison purposes. I might be a little biased, but I think Lehman Caves is much cooler.

9. Attended the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City and saw "The Music Man" and "Noises Off!" I love the theatre! I'm heading to Cedar next week to see "Dial M for Murder".

10. I sugared the hair off my legs (and other body parts). Don't worry, it hurt more than I was expecting.

11. Gave a countless number of cave tours and hiked a lot of miles in the alpine area in the park. Sang "Don't Fence Me In" at every campfire program I gave.

12. Made a flashlight holder for a belt for a co-worker.

13. Won "Overall Best Ranger Spirit" award and worked this summer with a totally awesome group of individuals who are slowing starting to trickle out to winter work destinations and it's hard to say goodbye.

It's been quite the summer. The nights are getting colder and there's the hint of fall in the air here. I don't know what the fall/winter/spring holds, but I'm up for a grand adventure, whatever it may be.

Day of Exploring

Monday, Labor Day, was the first time in a long time I actually didn't work or have school on the holiday. As my mother taught me, you must labor on Labor Day. And I did. Tuesday, the day after, I had some fun.

I have been wanting to get into the southern part of the park to explore, especially Lexington Arch, but my little car couldn't get me out there, you need high clearance. One of the protection rangers, Anthony, has a vehicle that can get out there and we decided to make a morning of it. Plus, since most of the trail is on BLM land, it is the only trail in the park where you can take a dog, so Anthony's dog Molly came with us.
It's kind of a steep trail, and you can't see the arch until you turn a corner and BOOM, there it is. It's the largest limestone arch and pretty spectacular. It's six stories tall!

We stopped at a bench on the trail, rested and got some water, then hiked the remainder of the rather steep trail to the arch itself. We hung around and scrambled over the rocks and took plenty of pictures.

View of the valley (actually looking into Utah here with Pruess Lake at the base of the far foothills) from under the arch.

We took a slight detour up a different road into the park on our way home and it was the most spectacular view. Like I said, I've gotta get south and explore before it gets too cold and starts this snowing nonsense again.

Around dinner time, the chief ranger, Greg, invited my roommate and I to go up Strawberry Creek to look for elk. Strawberry is another place I have yet to explore and the chance to see elk again (not since Montana days) was not to be passed up.

We drove to the trail head, then started hiking. It was really pretty, but rather sheltered. As dusk got closer, we started to hear elk bugling. Now, if you haven't heard this before, it is one of the coolest noises in the world, right up there with the 3pm bell telling you school is done for the day.

There was a little hill with a rock out-cropping and we hiked off the trail and up this a little ways until we were above the treeline. We looked across the drainage and there he was, a massive bull elk. My little camera was not the greatest for capturing his splendor, but here he is. We listened and watched him bugle to the other males and females in the area and marveled. It was a grand experience. We hiked back down the trail in the fast fading light. It was an awesome day. There's just so much more to see and do, I feel like I don't have enough time to do it all!