geode hunting and mountain hiking

Looks like we have been a bit lazy with posting our adventures on the blog.
Well, time goes by too quickly and we are already back in the US for 4 weeks.
We are both busy in the lab but things are going well so far.
It it still hot here although the temperature sometimes drops below 30°C during the day. And since we are back, we also had time to go on some weekend trips.
Two weeks ago, we drove into the Utah desert and searched for geodes.




The place is really in the middle of nowhere and you don't want to have a car
accident there. But when you finally get there it's amazing: broken geodes are lying
around everywhere and if you start digging a bit you can find lots of intact geodes.
We found so many that we couldn't be bothered to bring all of them home.





The last weekend we hiked up mount Timpanogos in the Uintah mountains. We started hiking on Saturday around 5pm and made it to Emerald lake, about 3/4 up, before sunset.
Shortly before we reached the lake we encountered a big group of mountain goats just next to the trail. They did not seems to be disturbed by our presence at all and continued eating grass. Jake was very interested in the goats and wanted to chase them around while I was taking pictures but fortunately we had him on the leash.



Shortly after, we met a group of horse riders and Jake was even more excited to see his most favorite animal friends, horses. We're still waiting for the day when he gets kicked in the face by one of his friends...
We then put our tent up close to the lake and spent a short night in the tent before we got up again at 4am to hike to the top for sunrise. The hike in the dark was very peaceful and due to the fresh air the hike did not feel very hard at all.
When we reached the pass we could see Provo, a mormon town along Utah lake, on the other side of the mountains.


Our timing was perfect and we made it to the top just before the sun appeared behind the mountains.






We were the first ones on the peak and enjoyed the great view before other hikers arrived on top. We were a bit afraid that Jake would have problems on the way down but he was climbing down like a little mountain goat.
We enjoyed our breakfast back at the lake and prepared for our way back to the car at the base of the mountain. The last couple of miles seemed very long, especially when we hit the paved trail on the last 3 miles. The hike was great and we managed to hike most of it in the shade or in cool temperatures, apart from the last few miles.
Jake was exhausted and he slept the whole rest of the day, dreaming of mountain goats.

Wow, the last time we wrote about our adventures here in utah it was still snowing, and now it is already up to 30°C! Two weeks ago we spent a hot weekend in southern utah, in an area called San Rafael Swell. We went for an easy hike in a narrow canyon the first day and on the second day we drove through the park and enjoyed the view of the endless red rock formations. Close to where we camped we found some good looking boulders we had to try out. We also found millions of hairy caterpillars that invaded the trees next to our tent. But luckily they stayed on the trees. Before leaving the park we found same rather nice pictographs drawn on the rocks by the fremont culture more than 2000 years ago. It was a great and relaxing weekend with lots of sun and rock around us.

On our hike in chute canyon

Fred and Jake the climbers

only a few of the millions of caterpillars invading the trees

coni trying to see rocks...

cowboy country

fremont rock art

more fremont rock art...

and last but not least jake playing stick by himself

That's it. We spent our last weekend on skis for this winter.
We skinned up millcreek canyon and after 4.5 miles arrived at the yurt, where we
spent the night with some friends. But before we enjoyed a delicious fondue we
climbed the ridge behind the yurt, to ski our last aspen slope.


Back in the yurt we warmed ourselves up at the wood stove and introduced our american
friends to the fondue tradition. It was definitely worth carrying the heavy caquelon up the canyon!
The next morning we were glad to have our skis for the way down. Although the snow was icy we could still enjoy the beauty of the canyon before we headed back to the city.
And next year we will definitely reserve the yurt including powder snow.

new skis

Finally, Fred and I bought us some AWESOME skis!
It took us a while to decide what skis we want and then to find some that weren't too expensive.
Fred bought alpine touring skis and bindings and I decided to get telemark equipment.
Telemark skiing is quite big here, due to the perfect powder conditions we've got here almost all winter.


We've already tried our skis on the slopes and in the backcountry and they rock!



A week ago we skinned our way up through aspen groves early in the morning. And by 10.30 am we reached Reynolds peak, a 9422 feet mountain in Big cottonwood canyon, which is about 30 min from our house.



We enjoyed a great day with perfect sunshine and a stunning view over the wasatch range.
And we even found some untouched powder snow!

back country camping in canyonlands national park

hi everyone,
finally thanks to lots of help from nienke, coni's friend from holland, and coni's talents with the web, we have a blog website to share our american adventures with you.

Last week, I went back country camping in the canyonlands national park with my friend Rodrigo. Unfortunately coni could not join us on this trip since she was busy with classes and labwork. Both Rodrigo and I had a sore foot and a sore brain, so we simply enhaled the scenery and enjoyed the utter silence of the desert in the south of utah.
As you can see we were camping barely 5m away from a 600m vertical drop into the canyon of the green river joining it's bigger confluent the colorado. The spectacle was impressive, especially at dawn where cold and beauty dominated (-11C°)!

On our way back from moab we took the scenic highway that follows the colorado river along red towers and beautifull ridges. The road trip was good!

I hope the images will give a little impression of our trip to the south and let you join us in our life here in utah USA.

hugs to all

FRED

hello