winding down, wrapping up

After the last two days of national park hordes, we needed to get out on some less-frequented trails.  We also wanted to take Milton with us: off to the Sand Flats Recreation Area!

Weather in the La Sals, per usual

 The weather was potentially iffy (see above photo with it raining (or maybe snowing) in the La Sals ... again) so we didn't want to go too far afield, but we did want to try something new and do at least a few miles.  We also thought that any of the more popular trails like Porcupine Rim and the Slickrock Trail could be really busy, given the long holiday weekend.  We decided to just do the two short hiking-only trails at SFRA: the Juniper Trail and the Pinyon Trail. 

Sand Flats view (town is out of the shot, to the left)

The Pinyon Trail is a interpretive nature hike, only about a mile in length, starting at a small parking area on the right as you head out the road, just past the narrow, one-car-at-a-time section.  It's pretty accessible, has an informative leaflet to read along, and we had it all to ourselves.

Kings of the mountain

The Juniper Trail is about six miles out the road, near the Juniper campground.  It's a lollipop loop of about 3 miles (?), with the loop portion on top of a bluff with stunning views.  We met up with a Colorado couple and their very nice, mellow dog, and talked with them for a quite a while.  We all bemoaned the rise of social media telling the whole world about our favorite secret places; I'm not going to tell you where they camped - because they said they were all alone there, on Memorial Day weekend, and it was great - but you can bet that H and I have filed it away for future reference.

Looking toward the Porcupine Rim

We reconvened back at the Slickrock Trail parking lot for snacks and beers.  There was good people-watching too, with all the hikers, MTBers, campers, jeepers and dirt bikers milling about.  Milton took all the activity in stride (because he's such a good boy).

Bandanna-wearing adventure dog

The only real mistake we made all weekend, hiking in the parks notwithstanding, was leaving at 3 p.m.  We ended up in traffic at a standstill in Helper, where the highway drops to one lane and starts heading up Price Canyon.  We sat/crawled for an hour before it loosened up again.  On the plus side, it didn't rain or snow on us at all!