Round-up, Part 1.....

So yeah....it's been a month...

I've had all sorts of plans for posts to catch up the rest of our summer.....but, they obviously haven't materialized. So, I'm just going to throw everything together here in a big mish-mash post, or posts!

The rest of our days in Duck Creek (July....):

Along with lots and lots of 4-wheeling, we also went to Bryce one day. I had never been, although I'd heard much about the beauty found there, and wasn't disappointed.

I read the funniest thing on a sign at one of the overlooks. It was talking about the first settlers around that area. He was (not surprisingly) named Bryce, and was a Mormon settler that had his home and ranchlands at the eastern base of the canyons later named after him. There was a quote from him about the canyons that he lived near, and it was, "It's a hell of a place to lose a cow." I absolutely busted up! Maybe because it reminded me so much of what my ranching uncles and grandfathers would have said about it!

After being in the quiet of the mountains in Duck Creek though, the major busloads of crowds at Bryce were surprising. We went to a couple of overlooks, and did a hike down into the canyon on the Navajo Loop trail. Something I'll have to remember for next time I go....the beginning part of the hike is easy, with a lot of switchbacks all heading downhill.....it's the hiking of switchbacks UP to get back to the car that STINKS! I think we should get some of that government stimulus $$ to Bryce and install a ski lift or something to get you back up out of that hole! ;)

Top of the Trail....

The bottom of the trail....at the base of the very, very tall and tenacious Douglas Firs that grow in this quite small and almost constantly shaded slot canyon.

The 4wheeling at Duck Creek was fabulous. There were hardly any people there in the middle of the week, and the trails were a lot of ATV-only trails through the forest. OUR FAVORITE KIND! We saw so many deer(including adorable twin fawns), and beautiful scenery, and the smells of the ponderosa pines and douglas fir made my week. :) We took a long ride out to a cave that was created from a lava floe that was very cool to explore around. It is called Mammoth Cave. It was open to exploring when we were there, but in the Fall they close it up as it is the home of hibernating bats (including a couple of endangered species) in the winter. We also found a fun creek to ride through and see how high we could get the water up around us...always a favorite thing for the kids! We will definitely visit Duck Creek again.

Here's a video we took of our little creek crossing. You don't see Riley since she doesn't like to get wet and muddy....we like water crossings for that exact reason!

Duck Creek 1...the digs

We took our annual family 4-wheeling adventure the end of July. A little different from other years, as we didn't go to Colorado. *gasp*! We were sad about it as the time got closer, but had so much fun where we went, that it's all good!

We decided to stick a little closer to home this year, so after finding out that the Duck Creek area in Dixie National Forest had lots of ATV trails, we found and rented a cabin there for a week. It was a great choice! In Colorado, we are limited to a few trails (because of age restrictions and difficulty level) so we really just do the same ones when we are there. We usually put about 50 miles on our ATV's in a weeks time. At Duck Creek.....well, when I tell you that we put about 170 miles on the ATV's, does that tell you how many trails we found and how fun the riding was?! And we didn't even do 1/3 of the available trails! Most of it was our favorite type of riding as well, just ATV tracks through forest. :)





The cabin was beautiful. Ron was excited about the pool table there, but then we never ended up playing! Which is good, since he now realizes his wish of having one in our basement is certainly not needed. We had deer in the meadow behind us, including a doe and her little twin fawns, and lots of chipmunks, which were quite irritating by the end of the week. We had rain a couple of afternoons and evenings, which was perfect for cooling things down, wetting down the dust on the trails, and making the forest smell divine.







We went fishing, which the little kids hadn't done before. They had fun although we didn't manage to get even a bite. As we sat there with our fishing poles we watched the fish jumping for the bugs above the water....I guess the waterlogged earthworms and powerbait weren't as appetizing. We even moved over to where the fish were jumping....yeah, not a bite! The ducklings kept coming over to investigate though....so cute!

Now, on to picture overload: