Many different kinds of rocks

I've spent much of the last week looking at, learning about and
overcoming many different types of rocks out here in the Southwest
U.S. I've included some photos below to give you a sense of the
places I've been.

But I want to tell you about my 5.8 mile hike down Neck Spring trail
into a canyon in Canyonlands National Park. You know I'm not what you
might call a rugged outdoorswoman. So you may be surprised to learn
that I was the one who selected this hike. NOTE TO SELF: In future
read ALL info given about the hike, not just distance.

It would have been helpful to read that on average the hike takes 3-4
hours, a different pace than walking a treadmill at the fitness
center. And gee it would have been interesting to know in advance
that the elevation would change more than 300 feet. Still, nothing in
the trail description would have prepared me for the near vertical
ascent at about Mile 4.

We had been following the trailmarkers well, only missed them a couple
of times. So when the trail seemed to deadend at a huge wall of rock,
we looked at each other puzzled. "Surely..." was all we could say to
each other before spotting the next cairn (a pile if rocks, pictured
below) about 15 feet above our heads with the series progressing
straight up.

My first thought was to insist I couldn't do it. But then, what were
my choices? It would take almost 3 hours to backtrack and I didn't
have enough water for that. So I took a deep breath and went up,
literally one inch at a time for about 150 feet.

Sure, I'm proud that I made it. But I never could have done it
without Tom's encouragement and help. Like I've said before, he
really is my rock and he proved it again. We might not always live in
complete harmony, but it is good to know that in a challenge or crisis
we work well as a team.

One more note of interest. We have been proud of how clean we have
found our national parks. On our big hike we didn't see a single
sliver of plastic or paper anywhere. At Arches National Park we both
noticed the first cigarette butt on the ground (and declared it must
have been a European - they are the most prevelent tourists, large
numbers of Germans especially.

Winds are very strong, overturned vehicles in Arizona. Couldn't see
much of Monument Valley today due to wind/dust. So we are safe in a
motel tonight. It is good to not have grit between my teeth tonight!