The Best Laid Plans..........
Just in case you forgot, Mother Nature is in charge.
Well, we were planning on heading down to California tomorrow for some boondocking, hiking and exploring, but the weather is encouraging us to wait a week.
Cold weather doesn’t bother one of us, but these weather systems blowing into California this winter have been interesting to say the least! Following is a photo of what it looked like here in Mesquite on Valentine’s Day.
They say it may happen again later this week!
We’ve settled into a nice routine here in Mesquite. During the week, I’m up at 6 PST to trade the first few hours of the options market. We both head for the Mesquite Recreation Center at some point in the morning for workouts and the all important pickleball games. I can tell you that, in retirement, pickleball is at the center of the social universe. We are still learning our way around town and I am really enjoying getting back to a small town atmosphere on a daily basis. Las Vegas is only an hour away if we decide we miss traffic. We did make the trip down this past weekend for the Tampa Bay Lightning vs Vegas Golden Knights game. Always interesting to walk the Las Vegas strip with all its excess. As long as we don’t have to live there!
We have purchased an annual Utah State Park pass as there are many state parks with great hiking in southern Utah. Sunday, we visited Red Cliffs Desert Reserve just north of St. George, Utah. We hiked a very small portion of the northeast corner of the reserve on trails allowing hikers, mountain bikers and horses. Great views and very accessible. We will definitely be back to hike and bike as well. We also were able to visit the premier bike shop in Hurricane, Utah post hike, Over The Edge Sports. Amy was able to get the lowdown on the local trails, group rides and everything she needs to get her mountain biking career back on track.
A few weeks ago, we visited Snow Canyon State Park in Ivins, Utah about an hour north of Mesquite. Absolutely awesome hiking! The park layout was such that there was a north and south entrance with one road traversing the park. We did four seperate hikes and each one was interesting in its own way. We hiked the Scout Cave trail and were treated to some awesome views of caves in the cliff walls.
We then took a side trail to Johnson Canyon and were thrilled to see a natural bridge that wasn’t in any of the descriptions we had read. Really cool!
We drove further into the park and hiked the Petrified Dunes trail. Really cool but sort of a pain in the ass to hike. As you might imagine, the former sand dunes are now just really steep rocks.
I saved the best for last. We were on our way out of the park and Amy noted a trail that was really short that we should try. I should tell you that 200 yard into the hike we encountered a young couple pushing a huge baby stroller through the sand. The canyon, however, defied all expectations.
That may be the first quarter mile hike in my life that has produced anything that cool!
Weather permitting, next time we’ll be talking about Joshua Tree National Park and the surrounding areas,
We're looking forward to seeing and reading more! Love, Michael & Jane