I recently spent about 10 days in southern Utah, both camping and staying with friends. I experienced all kinds of weather: hot, cold, wet and dry. Rather than present my trip as a travel log, I decided just to group certain photos together along with my thoughts. Click on any photo for a larger version.

Red Canyon

For the most part, I hiked in areas less travelled. I had thought about going to Bryce Canyon National Park, but it happened to be on a weekend (not that a weekday would have made much difference), and the traffic leading into the park was heavy, so I turned around and headed for the dirt roads.

Being spring time and with the recent rains, many plants were blooming.

Yellow prickly pear cactus.

Claret cup cactus

Evening primrose

This was probably blooming a million years ago. Fossilized plant material.

Not exactly blooming, but pretty none the less. (Click for the larger version to see the detail.)

It always amazes me where plants choose to take root (probably not a conscious choice). There’s plenty of sand and dirt around for a plant to grow in, but perhaps these cracks have more moisture in them.

Utah fleabane growing in a crack in the canyon wall.

A single leaf ash and a pine are sharing the same crack.

Jack Rabbit sniffing Scotch broom.

My friends George and Kristine as we explored Manganese Wash.

Go forward to Utah 2016, Part 2.