The Map. I found one I thought would be useful. The "yellow" dots are hikes we have done. I will be more specific later but here it is for now. It's BIG

Posted by Khiori at 10:30 AM | Permalink

I'm going to see about finding a map to put up of all these different areas.

Posted by Khiori at 07:38 AM | Permalink

Little Leo on the Prairie heh

Posted by Khiori at 02:18 PM | Permalink

We finally found our way over to Kinley Creek Falls. To get there:

Hwy 173, past the shooting range. Park at the bridge. Cross the road, follow the path along until just past the "Unburned Acre" sign on the path. Go down to the water then follow up river until you can't go any further.

Solo and Leo came along as usual. Leo had no problems jumping from rock to rock. Poor Solo is just not designed for this kind of thing. But he tries really really hard and keeps up - even when I'm yelling at him to "STOP SHAKING WATER ALL OVER ME!!" heh.

The falls themselves will soon dry up so I'm glad we came when we did. The bottom of the falls there is a deep pocket of water. I'll bet you could even swim around in it - but I wouldn't.

Lil Billy Goat Leo

Solo was tired.

He was holding me in place by putting his paw FIRMLY on my foot lol

We made a shelter from the sun. It was hot!

Here are the falls.

Above the falls there is a boulder that looks like an eagle. Very cool.

On our way back, Solo rested for a bit while we reoriented ourselves.

Some day I will be able to take a focused picture of flowers rather than the dirt below them! HA!

It was really rocky. This was where Solo waited while we scrabbled up to the falls.

Me! I got a bit sunburned on those lily white arms lol

Posted by Khiori at 12:18 PM | Permalink

We went to see the wildflowers when Mom and Jesse came up. Here's a pic of the view from the rocks we sat on.

And I found a Lady Bug :)

Posted by Khiori at 12:11 PM | Permalink

I'm going on memory as we did this hike about two weeks ago. I don't remember what time we started, but it was morning. When we arrived at the trailhead, there was one car parked there already so we put the dogs on leash for the entire hike. Also, it was windy and chilly. We didn't see anyone until we actually got to the hotsprings though.

The trail is 2.5 miles going up and down along the Bradford Ridge Path. It's fairly well maintained. Narrow and steep for the most part. It's not a hike I would recommend to the casual walker though. By the end, both Solo and I were dragging along. I'm still nursing a bruised toe from this hike.

Picking up from the last time we took this trail:
This view shows where we would be headed. Where you see all the yellow flowers on the furthest mountain would be our destination.

We found a number of wildflowers and I tried to get pictures of them. Here they are. I'm trying to get their names.

About half way along the path, we passed the Lone Pine. I don't know the real name of the tree. But it stands out as it is the only one around. Also, nearby there's a cache :)

And MORE wildflowers:

Forks in the road can be dangerous places. Taking the wrong one can lead you out of your way and into more difficult trails. Of course, we went the hard way :D Solo had a really hard time. It was slippery with sand and rocks. And very steep. We basically had to get in front of him and brace him as he came down. Of course, Billy Goat Leo had no trouble at all. Unfortunately for all of us, he was on leash and pulled me off balance a few times. We would take the easier but slightly longer trail BACK. heh.

(Go UP this trail, not to the right)

By the time we hooked back up with the trail (about 1/4 mile) we were finally at Deep Creek. We stopped at this beach area for an hour to rest and lunch. Just beyond us, to the right / up river, is the place of the hot springs. It was busy that day with about a dozen or so nekkid people. We left them to their nekkidness while we four splashed in the creek. It was running pretty hard and chilly. Solo and Leo just LOVED the water. But we had to leave them on leash for a couple reasons. We were close to the path and people were using it (the dogs would have run up and bothered the passer-byers) and the creek was running so swift I was afraid they'd get knocked off their feet and swept away. It was hard for even me to stand upright in the water.

We didn't get many pictures on the return trip. We were more concerned with getting back as it was getting late. Solo was having a tough go of it at the end too. Plus my toes were getting hammered. I have a bruised toenail now from that return trip. It was hard and long but well worth the hike.

Round trip ~5 miles. Six hour round trip hike.

Posted by Khiori at 10:35 AM | Permalink

More on this tomorrow!!

Posted by Khiori at 09:16 AM | Permalink

Not far from home we go to walk the dogs. It's close to the desert and the wildflowers are blooming like mad!! Here's a taste of one day's short hour long walk.

Solo coming down a hillside in a spring wash.

Billy Goat Leo!

Wildflowers. Lovely.

The hills are alive with Solo's!!

Me, Solo and Leo. Look closely for Leo. He will "swim" in front of us when we hike. Solo almost always stays just behind me. DH took the pictures.

Finally Leo gets a bit tired and approaches us.

Solo AND Leo are in this pic. Look closely.

Solo is wondering what's going on behind him.

Fun time is over. Time to go back to the truck. Me and TWO dogs. Look closely for Leo.

Posted by Khiori at 01:01 PM | Permalink

I realized that I wasn't clear about the passage about the garden yesterday. It's from a book called The Daffodil Principle.

Just after I had put that up on the site I received email that the garden would be closed to the public for the season on Sunday the 10th. So Sean and I ran over to see the garden and take pictures.

Wow. That's all I can say from my first impression. Wow. We entered under an archway with trees blocking our view on the left. We got to the end of the row of trees, turned the corner and were faced with a million bright yellow and white faces. Wow.

Pictures!!!

Here is just a little more. It's more current. There are waaaay more than 50,000 bulbs now:

...one million daffodils, accented by assorted other bulbs such as fritillarias, hyacinths, muscari, and tulips. Some of the flowers are in drifts that spill down the steep slopes; others stand in large beds. All were planted, one at a time, by one woman -- Gene Bauer. She started 38 years ago, inspired by a few daffodils in a neighbor's garden. Bauer planted 48 daffodils in the fall of 1958. Needless to say, they thrived. Since then she's planted more daffodils each fall, but in the thousands. Some years, Bauer plants as few as 8,000 bulbs. In the fall of 1993, she planted 35,000. It's a kind of gardening zeal that makes the spring bulb ambitions of most of us seem rather paltry.

Every slope cleared, every trail carved out of the hillside, every bulb planted -- all the hard work -- has been done by Gene and her husband, Dale, but mostly by Gene. Or as she puts it, "The work is done by two hands, two feet and a body minus a brain."

Posted by Khiori at 09:27 AM | Permalink

This is based on what one woman locally did to beautify her home. She lives in Smiley Park. I have been waiting to put this up for when I have a photo of the daffodils, but I'm afraid I'll miss their peak this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

........ You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience." After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand lettered sign that read, "Daffodil Garden."

We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different coloured variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.

There were five acres of flowers. "But who has done this?" I asked Carolyn. "It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's her home." Carolyn pointed to a well kept A frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. "Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking" was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one. "50,000 bulbs," it read. The second answer was, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."

There it was, The Daffodil Principle. For me, that moment was a life changing experience.

I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun one bulb at a time-to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time - often just one baby step at a time - and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things.......

"It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!" My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. "Start tomorrow," she said.

It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, "How can I put this to use today?" . . . . .

Posted by Khiori at 11:29 AM | Permalink