Carrying On

Fortunately, so far, Utah has not imposed the restrictions that many other states have, so I have been able to continue exploring the desert areas south of Cedar City.  I do not know if this situation will change in the future, as there is already talk about the county south of here, Washington County, restricting out of county use of the state parks that are located there.  Grand Canyon National park has just been closed to visitors, too, but Zion National Park, which is not too far from me, is still open.  I will continue carrying on as usual until something changes.  I would like to share my photos with all of you so you can vicariously enjoy my hiking locations if you are stuck at home!

Yesterday, I hiked a trail  that is located in the "desert" section of Zion, on its west side.  It is called the Chinle Trail.  You do not even have to go into the park to access it, which makes it very convenient.  The main part of Zion National Park is along the Virgin River, and is just on the other side of the mountain above.

The Chinle trail is about 7 miles one way, and I hiked out for 3 miles before turning back.  I encountered about 6 people in all, and can only assume that without the stay at home directives, there would be more hikers out there.  As you can see from the photo, the landscape is sandy with a lot of desert shrubs in the first part, and then goes to pinyon and juniper after about 2 miles.

A claret cup cactus near the trail head.

 Here is the trail.  Pretty easy and level for the first 2 miles. 

 Desert Marigold, a common spring flower in the area.

Cholla cactus and the mountain.

Entering the Zion Wilderness.

The trail continued in the desert habitat for some distance, and then started to change to pinyon and juniper.

At this point, I was walking along the edge of a deep canyon.

My goal was to hike out to the "Petrified Forest", which I estimated to be at about the 3 mile mark.  I knew I was getting close when I encountered this petrified tree laying across the trail!

After crossing the wash at the head of the big canyon, I started seeing pieces of petrified wood on both sides of the trail.  Turns out, the biggest "tree" was the one that I had just stepped over in the photo above!  Below are pieces of petrified wood of various sizes.

I was doing some wildflower photography along the way, and the area next to the big canyon and around the petrified forest had the most flowers just starting to come out.

On the way back, there was a very interesting cloud formation off to the southwest.  Almost looks like a comet, doesn't it?

 More clouds forming over the big mountain.

 And another claret cup cactus near the trailhead. 

In these chaotic times, even if you are pretty housebound, at least take a stroll around your neighborhood and get some sunshine.  We all need at least 20 minutes of sun every day to stay healthy, and walking is the best antidote for depression if you are feeling down.  Eventually all of this will pass, so take care of yourselves in the mean time.