So Friday morning comes, and Kendall needs to head back to Colorado for business. We see him off and then try to make some decisions with regards to our day's outing. We decide to go down to the Lake Powell visitor center and grab some shots, followed up by some wildflower shooting, and then maybe head out to Buckskin Gulch for a hike. The Glen Canyon Dam visitor center is very impressive, and it's worth a visit to see the huge structure. But as impressive as this dam is, you wonder how many beautiful canyons, hoodoos, arches and natural bridges were lost when they flooded this area in the 60's. Although I'm sure it's much easier to water ski on the Colorado river upstream of the dam now…
Now this is an impressive flower spike!
For wildflowers, we decided to revisit an area off of Cottonwood Road.
Finally, we made our way to Buckskin Gulch. Let me mention at this point that my foot was aching, and I wasn't sure how far I'd be able to hike before Rick would have to leave me to the wolves. We never got to the impressive parts of the Gulch where it joins Paria Canyon. I was checking some reports on that area after returning from the trip, and it sounds like that hiking the Paria Canyon would be an outstanding two or three day trip. We enjoyed our trip through the wash during this hike, enjoying the wildflowers and scenery in the area. We got a couple miles in when we found some rock formations that had these collared lizards on it. Most of the lizards were pretty skittish, but this one sat around and posed for the two of us for the better part of an hour. Rick would work the lizard for 5-10 minutes, then I would take a turn, and we'd each get progressively closer. Then we'd switch. There's nothing better than photogenic wildlife!
This is the entrance to the gulch area. Perfect size for a domo...
Our scaly friend…
Kiss me, baby!
If you were wondering about the weird out-of-focus areas behind the lizard, they look like this. I have no idea what that pink thing is doing.
Rick is stalking
You have no idea how close you have to be to a lizard (bottom right) to get them in the frame of an 8 mm shot…
Obligatory yellow cactus shot. They are truly beautiful!
We hiked a little further, and I did a little climb to get to higher ground.
In case you want to know where tumbleweeds come from, it's here—the tumbleweed factory.
Hanging on by a thread.
We ended up hiking back on what ended up to be the hottest day we spent in Page. But we weren't done yet—we had some toadstools to shoot!