Escalante Trial and Dolores


We did a little hike on the Escalante Trail this morning. McFee Reservoir should have probably 20 or 25 feet higher this time of year. Good indication of our drought.

The Yucca plants are producing fruit. Apparently it can be quite good albeit I have never tried it.

A few shots of the 1200 year old walls of the ruins.

Then we had a nice lunch at the Montezuma Mexican outdoors on the river restaurant in Dolores

The Awakening of Russell Henderson


Every Sunday, I try to post an excerpt from my novel, The Awakening of Russell Henderson. Here’s another. The book is available at http://www.amazon.com/author/edwardlehner.

I got out and saw an older version on Hanna coming to greet us, same green eyes, auburn hair, only much longer, with strands of grey, braided into a plait. She had an air of grace and elegance about her, like a dancer I had once known briefly. I immediately sensed her as a woman to be reckoned with. She ran up and gave Hanna a long hug and turned to me, gave me a once over and said, “Hi Russell. Welcome,” and gave me an equally long embrace. “Thank you for bringing her home. Come, let me show you around our humble abode.”

She took my hand and led me towards, what I would find out, was a Spanish style house. The ‘humble abode’ was a sprawling one story, white stuccoed, palace with red tile roof, a covered porch with arches supported by round columns,  covering a glazed red tile floor. The entry door was a dark stained, heavy, solid looking wood door that opened into an arched entry that led into a large great room with a dark wood beamed ceiling and multi-paned windows. The interior walls were soft off white stucco, hung with tapestries and modernist artwork. She led me through the comfortably furnished room to wide double doors and out to a back yard, enclosed by thick shrubbery, onto a flagstone patio with chairs and benches surrounding a fire pit. On the right was a large hot tub. There was an out-building, which was Meg’s studio. There was Frank’s wood-shop which was attached behind the two car garage.

Peekaboo Canyon


Peekaboo Canyon is a slot canyon about ten miles from Kanab, Utah. The canyon was maybe 40 feet deep and narrow in some places allowing for single file. Some areas widened to allow for two or three people to pass one another. The colors were beautiful. Here are a few images.

We took ATVs through desert to the canyon site.

The entrance.

These are “Moqui” (ancient peoples) steps who carved these, most likely, to store and access foodstuffs to keep them both cool and protected from critters. While it was close to 100 degrees outside, the temperature in the canyon was comfortably cool. The canyon floor is now maybe four feet lower from around an estimated thousand years ago when these were carved.

Into the canyon


Into the canyon
abandoning space and time.
hopes, dreams lie above.

We hiked into this slot canyon about ten miles from Kanab, Utah last week. It was amazing and beautiful even in 100 degree temperatures.