Thursday, May 26, 2016

Spring Travels to the Utah and Nevada desert - May 2016

Escaping the wintery climate of North Lake Tahoe, we headed east into southern Utah and Northern Arizona to dry off and warm up. The weather sort of cooperated and let us travel where we chose, but the regular rain showers and stormy skies kept us out of some narrower slot canyons.  Although our original goal was to get a permit at The Wave in northern Arizona, we were unable on multiple tries to score one of the 10 spots per day that are handed out by lottery. We did however get to Wire Canyon and Buckskin Gulch - both worthy of a day's exploration.  We stumbled upon Desert Wildlife Sanctuary and Pipe Springs National Monument in Nevada, and hit one of our standby regulars - Red Rock Canyon State Park.

Lake Tahoe is stormy with the sky falling on our departure.




Red Rock Canyon











Earlier Stop at The Huntington in LA










A Cooper's Hawk










Desert Tortoise





Petroglyphs













Wire Canyon / Buckskin Gultch












Escalante River







Red Canyon






Beavertail Cactus



Pipe Springs National Monument






Extraterrestrial Highway , Nevada


Jack rabbit



Boondocking on 120 in Nevada