If Santa can fit down a chimney...

Chris took a video as we squeezed through Spooky Gulch, a slot canyon near Escalante, Utah. It was gorgeous and a lot of fun, though a little disappointing that we drove more than 20 miles each way down an unmarked, gravel road only to arrive at a parking lot full of cars. Passing other hikers in the slot wasn't very fun. But I can't blame people for wanting to go here, it was remarkable. At one point, the "canyon" was so narrow my foot became wedged between rocks because the floor was not as wide as my foot. (I always have had wide feet)

The noise in the video is Chris' backpack, scraping against the walls. The A heart C graffiti on the canyon wall was not ours. There must be another Andrea out there somewhere who loves a different Chris. Who can blame her?

My coyote caller

I've always known that my sweetheart used to enjoy the art of coyote hunting. On our Utah trip, he brought his coyote calls to see if we could bring one in just for kicks. We hunkered down and sure enough, within 10 minutes we had a coyote in sight. The animal's sense of sound was phenomenal. From miles away it knew the exact origin of the sound. The sense of smell is amazing, too. Apparently, coyotes always circle around their prey and approach from downwind. We only caught two short glimpses of our coyote. It smelled us and left without a trace.

I have limited knowledge of animal calls, yet I am sure my husband operated his calls like a pro. One sounds like a dying deer, the other mimics a suffering rabbit. I always assumed coyote hunting was an obscure past time until we visited the Sportsman's Warehouse in St. George where we discovered an entire rack of coyote calls, not to mention the aisle of duck calls, room full of elk calls and warehouse of other various animal sound making devices. Now I am just getting carried away.

 

One night the coyotes complained about our campfire when they emerged at the edge of the forest.

 

Spending time with dad

Half way through our Utah camping trip my dad flew out to Las Vegas and joined us. It was great to spend some time with him doing some of the things we like so much. Seeing the Grand Canyon together was especially memorable for me. When I was three years old, we took a trip to the Grand Canyon and as I grew I often thought about going back to what was, in my mind, the best place in the whole world. Then we started a Grand Canyon fund - fundraising consisted of throwing all of our change into the glove compartment of my family's 1978 GMC conversion van (two toned green, last I heard, it still runs) My dad promised we would return to see the canyon in 1989, but as the story goes, my parents won a trip to Hawaii through Carquest auto parts, and the Grand Canyon lost priority.

The hike up to Angel's Landing in Zion National Park was another highlight. I did this hike in 2006 and it intrigued my dad. The landing is a 1,200 foot high rock formation with trails carved into the rock. During the last portion of the hike, the trail clings to a narrow ridge that is sandwiched between two drop offs. A lot of hand contact with the rocks is required and you'd rather not fall!

 

We also took dad through his first slot canyon, which really turned out to be a winner. He kept saying, "I can't believe how much fun were having!" I guess that's why we keep choosing Utah as our favorite vacation spot.