Canyon Country Burros

The wild beauty of the San Rafael Desert never grows old.  This view of the Henry Mountains and red rock formations is a favorite.

On our first afternoon ride in Canyon Country, Daisy meets this wild fellow.  He hee-haws at her vigorously and gives us the evil eye.
That's our first burro sighting, but not the last.

 A handsome burro pair gawks at us from a meadow.

 Later, and miles farther from camp, we spot this trio, one of which appears to be a youngster.

 This is our camp, with Steve and the horses settling in.

 Daisy settles in, too.  She enjoys her Dinty Moore beef stew.  (She gets the can to lick after we eat most of it for our supper.)
At night, we hear coyotes howl.  Toward morning, we hear the burros hee-hawing loudly and close by, perhaps urging us to come out and explore.

And the next day, that's what we do.
To be continued...

Dragonfly Panel

With a mild winter and not much snow, southern Utah called in mid-February, and we answered.

Daisy was there, of course, presiding over the ride. She's actually standing on an "old road" as Steve generously calls it.  The rocks piled up along the sides shows that someone did some "road work" once upon a time.

We found our way deep into the Horseshoe Canyon complex, searching for a pictograph we had heard about but never seen.  A fellow blogger gave us some new information, which made all the difference.  (Thank you, Dennis!)

Here's Janie, looking up at the panel that is well shielded by an overhang.

The figures are small, but exquisitely detailed.

Don't you agree?

As far as we can tell from online research, dragonflies in southwestern pictographs are only found in this panel and in one depiction somewhere in New Mexico.

Another scene in the panel seems to show a spiritual calling of the animals, perhaps for good luck in a hunt.  This same theme is seen in the Great Gallery in Horseshoe Canyon and also in the Harvest Scene in the Maze.

Three granaries are nearby.

And previous visitors have found and left behind a few pot shards and pieces of chert that show signs of being worked.

Upstream is a shaded pool, which might have attracted the Ancients to hang out in the area.

Daisy enjoyed a dip.  She never passes up an opportunity.

As we climbed out of the canyon, 3 wild burros (only the ears are visible on the third one) appeared in our path, demonstrating that we had chosen a trail that the burros considered to be a good one. Thank goodness Coco seems to have come to terms with burros and didn't freak out like he did on our last encounter.

With many miles of hot trail behind us, Daisy and the horses were pleased to find a snow bank.  They didn't need snow cone syrup to enjoy their frozen treat.

Desert Pool and the Bad Burro

We finally got in a spring trip to southern Utah.  Above is a view of the Henry Mountains from across the vast San Rafael Desert.

Down the sandy hills we went,

riding past domes

and other formations,

past a brush corral built by cowboys (or outlaws, or cowboy outlaws, depending on which stories you hear).

up to cliffy overlooks

and down to a beautiful emerald pool below a sandstone pour-off.

From above, you can see the deep cut water has carved into the sandstone as it flows into the pool below.

Here's the bad burro.  He scared the socks off of Coco, who whirled and ran away at light speed, unfortunately with Janie aboard, going downhill over rocks and dunes, then halfway up a slope, before finally deciding to stop.  Deciding, I say, because the reins and frantic screams of "Whoa!" did no good at all.  The good news is, neither horse nor rider were hurt, although both were a bit trembly at the end of the run.
The lone bad burro didn't run away.  He stayed close, braying at Daisy and generally being obnoxious for at least 15 minutes.  That's unusual.  Most burros stop, stare, then run off, all within a minute or two. A loner is also unusual, since we've only seen the burros in groups before.  Maybe he was having a bad day, but we'd rather not encounter this particular jackass again.

Speaking of Daisy, here she is, post burro experience.  Unperturbed, she took another dip in the pool, came out clean as a hound's tooth, then quickly corrected the cleanliness with a vigorous roll in the sand, groaning with pleasure.  This is Daisy's version of a luxury spa.