Just a walk in the park...

Ok...more like a 9+ mile long hike in Chesler Park...but I took liberties for titling the blog.  I forgot to take my Garmin with me, so I don't have the official distance, but it is my estimate based on the maps.  My wife was out on a back country overnight patrol and I didn't/couldn't/isn't really allowed to go with her.  So, she spent the night out and I met up with her the next day.

I haven't run since last Saturday and I've done some strength training, but not much else.  It was a very hard hike to start out with and I was really feeling it...it is very frustrating to lose conditioning so fast...or feel like I have anyway.  Perhaps I'm not alone...perhaps this just happens to 40 somethings in their bids for fitness.  Who knows.

Anyway, went to a new area of Canyonlands, for me...Chesler Park...it is a high desert plateau area previously used for cattle ranching.  It takes a lot of up/down across several neighboring canyons to get there, but once you hike through the pass, it opens up into an expansive area.  Very nice really, after you catch your breath though.

There is a section called "The Joint Trail" which I found out later how it got its name.  It is a corridor between two huge rock formations...and are literallly walking within the "joint" of those two formations...it is very eerie and not for claustrophobics.  There were some tight spots that had my daypack scraping along the sides.  I think it would make a perfect movie scene...a nice horror chase sequence sort of thing.  My wife took the pic...that is me about 40 feet away...the walls extend up around 50+ feet...very cool!

I met up with my wife who was enroute from the opposite direction.  She had a full pack on and scraped a bit too.  She is a trooper, I tell you.

We hung out the rest of the day meeting up with park visitors and giving them directions, guidance, etc.  We also inspected the various back country campsites along the route and even issued a warning to one party that had their tent setup outside of the campsite boundary markers.

We did have an interesting nature find.  My wife noticed a Midget Faded Rattlesnake that was sunning itself next to a cliff wall and within 3 feet of one of that party's tents!  The snake saw us and retreated to a shady crack under the rock.  We left to give it some space and I returned with my camera.  It had come back out to sun a bit...it rattled at me!  It was so cute...as far as rattlesnakes can be...you know..."midget" and all.

We were excited because we've seen a gajillion lizards and knew that this particular variety of snake was common in the area, but this was the first sighting!  Yay for us.

Here are some more pics in the slideshow...hope you enjoy!

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