Day 37: Hieroglyphic Canyon Trail

I wake up earlier today. At about 9. I feel pretty accomplished in this. I shower and wander downstairs and make some coffee. Hanna has to study today since she is becoming a doctor and has a lot of crazy school stuff to do. I make a weak attempt to persuade her to abandon studying for the day and fail to convince her. I spend about an hour on stumble and come upon an interesting psychology article. It is long and I spend another hour reading it and learning about people.

I finally decide that I want to go outside and do something. I spend another hour trying to decide if I want to go hiking or wheel my truck. I research places nearby. I finally decide to hike; I don't want to risk messing up the T Rex. He needs to get me home still so I should not abuse him. I find a trail that sounds interesting that is not too far away. About one, I head on my way.

I stop at a gas station to fill up the T Rex. I go through the prepay process and leave the pump in the truck while I go to get some water for my hike. I come out and the pump has cut off at 5 gallons. I know it should be about 15. WTF?!?! The pump has already reset and I don't want to go through the process of trying to charge my card again so I give up. I am not in dire need of gas right now anyway. I need my receipt since I got a car wash. The reciept printer on the pump is not working so I go back inside to get it. After explaining to the cashier which pump I was at, how much gas I got, and how much it cost, I finally get my receipt. I now have the car wash code! I go to the car wash and punch in the code. Every time I push a button, the machine makes the most obnoxious beeping sound at me. It is an extremely out of tune, sounds like a dying bird sound. I go through the wash. T Rex still has some dirt and dust on him but at least the salt from Lake Tahoe is gone.

The Trailhead

I make it to the trail system and set off on the trail. I come to a Y in the trail and take the right branch. I think this is correct. After 15 minutes of hiking and still not turning the direction that I think I should be going, I check my map on my phone. Yup, I am definitely not going the right way. I head back the way I came and take the other branch in the Y. This seems right. I see people on this trail and eventually come to a canyon that has glyphs all over the left side. I spend a while exploring the canyon, climbing on rocks, and taking pictures of the glyphs. They are pretty cool. I really like seeing these ancient remnants.

Artistic shot of the day...

The trail

Did you know the inside of these cacti is actually wood?

I decide to do some rock climbing. Nothing crazy, just climbing up the side of the canyon. A couple with two dogs, an Akita and a German Shepard, enter the canyon area. The German Shepard immediately bounds into a pool of green slime. They try to get her out. After much coaxing, she eventually comes out of the gross water. Moments later, the Akita, who is wisely trying to avoid the water, slips into the pool. This is seen as a cue to immediately jump back into the water by the German Shepard. The couple now has two wet, gross dogs that will not get out of the water. After some more coaxing, the German Shepard and the the Akita are finally convinced to get out of the water and stay out. I watch all of this from my excellent vantage point on the rock. I wish I had the foresight to catch it on video. It was really quite humorous.

Dog Glyphs!

Nice array of glyphs

Green slime pool!

 I eventually decide to head back. I make it to my truck around 4. Even with the detour, it was only a 2 hour hike. My phone had told me 3 to 4 hours. Hmmmm. At least the rest of the info was accurate and I found the trail head.

Nice lighting on the way back. It is so green!!

I get back around 5. Time to make dinner! I grill some steaks while Hanna saves the potatoes that I accidentally neglected. Everything turns out awesome!! So now I am watching the Grammys and wishing they would auto tune some of these live performances. I love some of these songs but I think my karaoke version might be better on some of these. Oh well.  It's fun to watch! Hanna just made some super awesome mint tea out of fresh mint. It is an awesome color of green! :)

Super awesome tea!