christmas in the desert (1)

 As everyone knows, Christmas was on a Wednesday in 2024.  Which is a silly day to have a holiday because it is very difficult to make a long weekend out of it.  We managed, however, with some creative work hours for A later in the week, and were back in Moab from December 20-25.  We drove down Friday morning, waiting for the sun to come up and the mule deer to clear out of the roadside in Spanish Fork Canyon.  Although it was a little weather-ish in northern Utah, it was clearing and pretty dang nice in Moab.

Cutie little dinosaur in town

Once we got unpacked, Milton and H got on Pipe Dream for a four mile trail run, which A did an hour-long town walk to finish up some errands plus get some exercise in.  That evening, we three went next door to our neighor's for solstice soup (and beers) with friends.  

That's a view

After it warmed up a bit Saturday morning, H did another Pipe Dream trail run (five miles).  A and Milton joined our neighbor and her dog for a hike out at Mill Canyon.  We drove out the Mill Canyon road towards Tushar Tunnel a little ways, then parked and tromped around on old 4x4 roads looking for views.  We found them, along with range cows, a big ol' jackrabbit that the dogs chased and a whole bunch of porcupine tracks - that the dogs fortuntely had no interest in.  We were both surprised that porcupines might be out there in the desert with nothing but twisted juniper trees, but later learned that those critters are indeed found throughout the state.  Who knew?!

Sunday was a little overcast, so H, A and Milton just went back to Pipe Dream: H and M did a six mile run and A did a 4+ mile walk.  We end up at Pipe Dream a lot in the winter but sometimes we just don't want to drive to a trailhead.