No Labor on Labor Day

 

Today is our annual Labor Day holiday here in the US.  It is to honor all of the workers for their labor, and give them a day off.  Of course, nowadays most stores and businesses are open on this day, but a lot of people do have the day off. 

I feel like I have earned a day off!  I have finished my CRV work with Paul Smith, and also spent the last 3 days on line doing an applications RV course taught by Angela Thompson Smith, who happens to be Paul’s ex sister in law.  At the end of this course, the 5 of us students remote viewed an actual real world target, instead of viewing a location based on a photo.  This was great fun, and in addition to myself and a woman from California, we had a student from Greece, one from Australia, and another from Canada.  Because this course was done remotely, these ladies were able to attend.  The course content was the same as if it was taught in person, but obviously the social interaction wasn’t there.  I missed that. 

Today, I hiked a trail that was new to me.  There is a part of Zion National Park that is northwest of the main park, and has a separate entrance that is about 17 miles south of Cedar City right off of the highway.  It is called Kolob Canyons.  For a variety of reasons, even though Zion opened back up quite a while ago, Kolob Canyons finally opened up just 2 weeks ago.  It is a lovely 5 mile out and back drive with several trailheads along the way.  I chose to hike the Taylor Creek trail which is a 5 mile round trip down in a canyon along a creek.  Luckily, I got the last parking spot at the trailhead, but unfortunately, because of the smoke that has been drifting in from the fires in California, it was a hazy day.  All of the red rock formations along the canyon showed up dimmer in my photos, so I will be going back to take more photos when the leaves start to turn, and the day is clear.  For now, enjoy!

Here is one of the old cabins along the trail, the Larson Cabin.

More photos of the trail.

Now I am approaching the fabulous pay off at the end of the trail.

This is called the Double Arch Alcove.  The photo below shows most of it, as it is so huge that it was impossible to get it all into one shot.  I do not have any people in this photo, but if I did, they would be minuscule compared to the vastness of the alcove.  

The whole hike took about 3 1/2 hours, partly because there was a lot of scrambling over rocks and back and forth across the creek, but also because of all of the nice hikers I met along the way who wanted to have conversations.  It was a really nice day off!