Bulldog and Snow Canyons

[Ratman]

I spent the last week camping on the edge of the Mojave Desert and at Snow Canyon state park (NV and UT).





It was just like this. The cloud a mixture of rain and dust, blown by the wind. The sun squeezed between the Earth and Sky, Twilight




The carcass of a Joshua tree hissed in the wind.



The wind howled all night, rocking the RV like a sailboat on a sea of sand.



If you look closely you can see the RV in the center of this photograph. I drove the dirt road for several miles before selecting this camp at the mouth of a tall and narrow canyon. I am in the Mojave, in the Woodbury Desert Study Area, next to the Great Basin Desert and Colorado Plateau, just around the corner from Joshua Tree National Landmark. I like my mountains and canyons raw and open like this place. Every scar evident. The sign of water's force written in the top of these canyons. Fault lines in the distance. I stand on broken crust. Time surrounds me, in a scale I can barely perceive.



After hiking a couple of miles up an unnamed canyon I discovered this plaque mounted against the rock.



As winter descended upon us I could still find these.







After a few days we re-located our camp to Snow Canyon State park near Saint George UT. Full hook ups for $20/nt. Showers available. Dogs welcomed on 2 trails.



We hiked into the dissolving light of sunset.



The next morning we hiked down to the sand dunes. In 1955 John Wayne made a really bad movie right here, "The Conqueror", was a box office bomb.

The wind was blowing again, my camera filling with grit as I attempted to photograph wind.



Our morning hike into the red walls and secret canyons. The wind had died down some and the weather was perfect for hiking.







A daytime view of an ancient lava flow. There are two seperate lava beds evident within Snow Canyon. The most recent is a mere 10,000 years old. The lava that covered these dunes flowed freely more than a million years ago. The face of the Basalt cliff is about 70 feet.



This canyon we claimed as our own, at least for this day. Lava pressed against sandstone and just enough space between for me and my dogs. I felt like a kid at recess, the door flung wide open, the bell just rung. I lay in the sand, with my dogs, and go back over a list of things I am no longer responsible for.



My dog rooted in the sand like a pig, taking dirt baths. He had a blast, we all did.



At is a perfect time to visit the deserts of the southwest. Daytime temps in the 70's and the nights dropping into the 50's.



My Co-Pilot and Navigator.