Utaventure

At the end of November it started snowing and with that our first ski season here could begin. A ski season that would last until April! Geert and I are only beginners (in skiing 😏), so we opted for the 'Earn & Learn' deal that our ski resort (at 20 minutes from our place!!) offers. With this deal we got 3 days of lessons, all our ski equipment and a ski pass for the whole season ... hard to beat that, right! Our boys are way better than us, so no lessons for them. We bought skis for them and off they went! Utah claims to have 'The greatest snow on earth'® (Utah has even copyrighted this phrase, hence the little registered trademark symbol I added next to it).  Storm clouds coming from the Pacific Ocean pass over the Great Salt Lake. Like a sponge they suck up enormous quantities of water vapour from the shallow waters of the Lake, heated by the desert sun. When it reaches the first mountain peaks, this precipitation - thanks to the dry mountain air - falls as ...

November 2016 Our 2 last stops during our Thanksgiving weekend trip were the Coral Pink Sand Dunes  State Park and Bryce Canyon National Park . Our intention was to do the Coral Pink Sand Dunes ánd the Buckskin Gulch Trail near Kanab on our way to Bryce Canyon. Buckskin Gulch is a slot canyon (like the Antelope canyons that I covered in my previous post Antelope canyons & Horseshoe Bend - November 2016 ) in the Southwest and is for free (not like the Antelope Canyons 😏) with no need for a tour guide. Surprisingly you will not see the crowds here like you do in the Antelope Canyons ... probably the bumpy access road and the fact that it's a longer and more adventurous hike have something to do with it. Why more adventurous?  As it is not a guided tour, you'll have to analyse the risk of flash flooding, the number 1 danger in slot canyons, yourselves! Never enter a slot canyon if there is significant chance of rain anywhere in the canyon's drainage area ... ...