So after some sightseeing in the somewhat freezing rain yesterday today came up a bit better. Still some clouds and it might rain later on but it was good enough to go for a morning hike. Picked an easy hike, the Queens Garden Trail down into the canyon. The elevation here is quite high, ranging 8000 to 9000 feet on the rim compared to Mount Kosciuszko at approx 2228 metres (7309 feet) so I was a little wary of not climbing/descending too much as the cold air and elevation has kind of kicked of my asthma a little bit…

After climbing my way back out of the trail (read: more like trying to breathe without going into a coughing fit) a visit to the lodge store for a hotdog went down well. Then a short drive back to Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest to have a little look around. There was lots of roadworks happening on the road through Red Canyon so didn’t stop at many of the pullouts.

So having started the day early, kind of finished up midday and lazying around since. There’s all these pretty birds around the cabin and I even saw a hummingbird do it’s hovering thing.

Tomorrow it’s another semi earlish start for the 5 hour or so drive to Moab. Going to continue the National Parks expedition there visting Arches and Canyonlands.

And to continue with more pics:

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At the entrance, though this photo was really taken on exiting…

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Natural Bridge – but technically it’s an arch. Arches National Park should have stacks of these!

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On the way down the Queens Garden Trail

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At the bottom, almost at the Queen

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And here is Queen Victoria. It actually kind of looks like her I think! Seemingly enough, all countries seem to have creatively named rock formations! There was even a rock formation in Bryce known as ‘the poodle’!