Hiking is not ideal at Sandy Flats. While there are many trails for bikes and atv’s hiking consisted of jumping up on the rock and following it to see where it goes. Today, I stopped in at the Forest Service and Park’s information Center and asked for dog-friendly hikes. The gentlemen immediately gave me a brochure with several choices but recommended Grandstaff Trailhead for today’s hot weather, based upon the gentle ascent through the canyon and the ample supply of water for Elvis in the creek at the bottom of the canyon. That was a great recommendation.
Elvis and I hiked about 6.5 miles round trip. We aren’t sure if we made it to the end because the trail just seemed to vanish in an area of hard flat rock, but we got lost a few times so we figure we made up for the lost mileage if we didn’t make it to the conclusion.
The title photo for the hike shows one of the dozen of lizards that we saw crossing the trail. Elvis was curious about the first couple, but then lost interest.
The snake caught my attention. It didn’t have any rattles. There were several people around who had checked their guidebooks and couldn’t identify it. I just knew it was big.
Most of the the hike consisted of crossing the stream dozens of times, which gave Elvis lots of opportunities to drink and cool off. I kept my feet dry for the trip out, but managed to give myself wet feet on the way back. By noon, the temperatures were hot enough that I didn’t really care about wet feet. Lots of dogs were off-leashed, some well-behaved, some not. Elvis received one nip and one pretty good bite on the shoulder from a pit bull. It didn’t break the skin, but I could see the slobbery indentation. The owners seemed embarrassed, but not enough to put their dog on a leash.
We are going to lay low this afternoon with cold drinks and do some research about where to go tomorrow. Probably south or west.
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