A Very Strange Week

I was out of town all of last week.  Several months ago, a friend of mine from Illinois suggested that we re book a special trip that had been cancelled on us 2 years ago due to COVID.  This trip involved day trips out and back from Kanab, Utah, in addition to a day volunteering at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.  Some of our destinations were familiar to me, and some were not.  What a nice way to reacquaint with an old friend! 

Well, the week before the trip, my friend had to drop out because of illness.  I had already made arrangements, so I decided to go anyway.   I like traveling in Utah, and am always open to meeting new people on my trips. Let me say up front that I am not naming the tour company because of a number of unprofessional issues that came up during the trip. 

So I get there and find out that there is only 1 other traveler in addition to the guide.  Needless to say, the social interactions that I was looking forward to were minimal at best.  Any reputable company would have cancelled the trip at that point!  All of this led to a very strange week indeed.  I did get to see and do many new things, in addition to revisiting beloved locations, so all was not lost.  How can you beat riding on a mule at the Grand Canyon and driving a dune buggy over tall dunes!  I will be sharing my photos in the coming days with a bit of commentary. 

But first, on my way over to Kanab, I stopped at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.  I was looking for a rare milkweed plant.  My botany friend Matt had given me the GPS coordinates for it, so I knew just where to look.   After climbing up a steep dune, I found the plant.  Here it is with some views from that spot.

A few late blooming wildflowers.