May 2 2013

Full day of beautiful hiking!!

Today was a big hiking day with about 3 miles at Corona Arch and almost 5 miles at Fisher Towers. The Corona Arch trail went up a steep incline, over railroad tracks, then across a bunch of slick rock. At two points, there were cables to hold onto… The first wasn't really needed, just a slanted slick rock, but the second was critical - Very steep! Roxie had her backpack on, and good thing, because Kevin could grab onto the handle and help her up. When we got to a little ladder, she found an alternate route. The actual arch was very cool & huge. Spent some time there taking pictures, had an energy bar and watched Roxie try to hunt down a quick little lizard.

After returning back to the truck, we drove across the street for lunch at a picnic table on the Colorado River. We also stopped at the dinosaur tracks site and got a close up look. Decided we had energy for another hike, so off to Fisher Towers, about a 30 minute drive.

Already the scenery is very different from Corona. The Fisher area is red rocky, switchbacks and amazing tall formations. We made a wrong turn at one point but only went slightly out of the way. Back on track, we went along the rim of the canyon, saw the biggest formation, called The Titan and got passed by 3 people running the trail with their lab. Got to a point where you had to cut around a corner and really watch your footing as to not fall. It was a little intimidating and just looked scary. It was too much for Roxie…. Tried to coax her over, but she wasn't having it. I put all my stuff down and carried her over. Next obstacle was about an 8 foot ladder going down into a tight crack in the rocks with no alternate route that we could see. I lifted Roxie onto Kevin's shoulders and with one hand on her and one hand on the ladder, he got them down safely! Up and around and we finally made it to the end with great panoramic views! We could tell Roxie was tired on the way back. It wasn't that hot, but she kept going in the shade and looking like she wanted to stop. She wasn't kidding - that night and the next day, she barely wanted to walk and was limping along. Guess the red rocks and all that climbing up and down were too much, plus I'm sure the cactus stickers we had to pull out of her paws on the Corona Arch trail didn't help either. Poor girl. Well, couple of rest days for her and she'll be good as new. It was a long hiking day but beautiful! Neither one of us wanted to cook dinner, so we ordered pizza and ate it in the truck while we took advantage of fast internet in town and uploaded pictures.

Corona Arch

Fisher Towers