given the rain up north, we decided to head down south (again) for labor day weekend. we hadn't been to escalante for a long time--so we decided to go to that area.
we up early and started our adventure saturday morning. we stopped at our usual gas station in scipio, and saw that the animal park there has grown.
look at that sky.
we stopped in torrey to look at some other properties--this time with a realtor. we are considering buying some land and/or a house down there. so far, we have not done that! but it was fun to look around.
this house was lovely, but only on 1.3 acres of land. ideally, we'd like a nice house on about 10 acres of land.
we looked at other places--even a huge house in escalante. we also went to the thrift store in escalante. then we headed out into the mountains. we did some exploring, looked for rocks, and then found a place to park and camp. we didn't see anyone else the entire evening.
we went on a nice hike. it was beautiful out there.
w always loves to climb.
oh yucca! we do love yucca.
this one had some nice seed pods on them. interestingly, most yuccas you see don't have these.
what cool wood. if only we could get this home and put it in our yard.
i love this shot. the cacti look great.
while in escalante, we saw a swap meet and, naturally, had to stop. we didn't find anything good. but w found this full-body raccoon hat. and, if you can imagine, it was only $15. w looks pretty tough here.
so happy!
we went for a night walk before it got completely dark. the sunset was nice.
i'm not really sure what s is doing in these pictures.
b w is hiding trying to look like a raccoon.
two interesting things about camping at this spot.
1. it was absolutely quiet during the night--no wind, no animal sounds, no nothing. totally quiet.
2. it was the softest camping bed i've ever had before. our tent was on a thickly padded pine needle ground. it was so nice and soft.
the next morning, we packed up and headed out so we could make it into escalante in time to go to church.
a cool rock b found--half black, half gray.
if only we could just have these plants growing in our yard.
b went on a morning walk with w. i don't remember what i was doing.
he took some nice shots of the pond.
it looks nice, right?
then, in contrast, he took some shots of the less-than-great parts of the pond.
on our way back to town, we stopped along the side of the highway and walked along a little stream bed.
the flowers against the rock mountains looks nice.
it was early enough that it was still cool and shady. it felt nice.
as usual, we looked around at the rocks.
this is a cool monochromatic picture.
to my surprise and delight, there were lots of flowers in bloom. we saw lots of flowers throughout the area.
we attended church in escalante and, as usual, enjoyed it. it was fast sunday--so we got to hear lots of testimonies.
after sacrament meeting ended, we headed out and saw this coat in the coat closet. it is the exact brand and twin of the old tan down coat that brian inherited from his dad. it was a cool thing to see.
we went over to the visitor's center to change and found these cacti with lots of beautiful prickly pear on them. b picked one off, and then prepped it for us to eat it. it tasted good.
b likes painting cactuses--so he took a lot of pictures. these are the best prickly pears i've ever seen.
notice the xty in the background.
after church, we headed out along the burr trail road. we hadn't been out there since our first escalante trip. we were looking for the purple rocks.
we went out and out further until we could find the same spot we had first seen in 2009.
and then, we found it. 
those rock mound hills we remember of gorgeous colors.
the sky was amazing that day too.
we got out and started walking into this familiar, yet unknown part of escalante. we quickly found some petrified wood.
s took on the persona of a park ranger and told us the story of the father of escalante (the park-monument), carlos fargo.
the scenery really was this gorgeous. and there wasn't a soul out there.
scat.
i love these craggy desert trees.
this is a fun one.
we found a lot of pieces of petrified wood. some of them were pretty big.
the caked-dry ground.
a series of shots of me making it up a very steep purple rock mound hill. 
finally, i made it.
we were working our way up. our goal was to make it to an opening in the rock mountain.
it was a steep and challenging ascent. but we made it to the top. once we got there, though, we realized we'd never make it to the opening we had seen from below. it was way too dangerous to try to make our way to the opening--although w thought we should try.
so we took a little rest at the top, enjoyed the view, and then worked our way down again.
making my way down.
look at those saw teeth.
a huge stump of petrified wood.
i slid down the rocky hill you saw me climb earlier. it was fun sliding down, but it did a number on my pants. sadly, that was the last outing for these old jeans that i got when i first started school at byu back in 2000. they were a good pair of pants!
what a beautiful rock b's standing on.
a piece of petrified wood i found.
without b's shoes this time. he had to snag another picture of the nice varnish on this rock.
look at all that rock wood!
i like this one with the slabs of rock in the foreground.
the biggest pieces of petrified wood we found on the hike. 
w lovingly caressed them, wishing he could take them home.
such other-worldly looking ground.
b and i are always on the lookout for scenes to try to water color, which is why we often have so many pictures posted. it's definitely for our benefit and enjoyment.
you know how much we love cactuses.
we drove further out on the burr trail road thinking we would enter canyonlands np. to our surprise, though, it was just another entrance to capitol reef np. rather than entering capitol reef, we took a side road into horse canyon.
we parked, got out, and did some hiking-exploring. w found a shady spot to rest.
and then a fun place to climb.
i like to think of this as william's big boy high chair.
we found lots and lots of fremont's mahonia shrubs. they had little holly-like leaves and beautiful pinkish-purplish berries. we picked and ate quite a few. they were surprisingly tasty. a bit tart and a bit sweet. as b described it, they tasted like huckleberries. but they were bigger than huckleberries--so you were able to get more of a taste than you ever can with a huckleberry.
they were a fun find. 
we found a hole in a rock. 
what?! a raccoon. 
we found some small "slot canyons."
we saw a strange pile of wood from a distance so we walked towards it. it turned out, we stumbled upon an old mine. 
the mine openings had been sealed off.
it would be interesting to know what they mined here.
b climbed up to see the opening of a cave. these are the pictures he got of it.
we hiked along the level of the mine for a little longer and then made our way down to the ground floor.
an interesting wooden tree stump lashed together with some other wood.
we decided it was time to head back out to calf creek so we could get back to the campground in time to cook our hotdogs and s'mores before it got dark.
since our hotdogs weren't very cold any more, we used a can of baked beans to boil the dogs in before we roasted them. b wanted to make sure we didn't get sick from warm hotdogs. 
it was fun to watch them boil in the can.
the dogs expanded to fill the entire can. it was a bit challenging to get them out of the can. but we managed and had a good weenie and s'more roast. 
a view of the sunset. we got to spend the night in my favorite campground. it was great. 
the next morning, we cleared up our stuff and headed out to the hell's backbone road. we had never gone on it before and were ready for an adventure.
the road surprised us, though, as it wasn't as thrilling as we expected it to be.
we got out at the hell's backbone bridge area and took some pictures and enjoyed the scenery. this was definitely the wildest part of the trip.
looking down into death hollow was awe inspiring. it's a deep canyon, and we were up high above it. ledges always fill me with a healthy dose of fear and awe--sublimity. 
this tree right on the edge was gorgeous. i loved its cragginess. 
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