dog canyon trail.

today (i’m almost all caught up!!!), i abandoned my family, and headed up the very same mountain that we have been staring at out our camper door all week. here i am, all ready to go.

the entire hike is 5.1 miles out and up. and then 5.1 miles back and down. i wasn’t sure how far i would manage, but i was hoping for 2 miles, which was about a 1000 foot incline.

the official weather worn signage.

enthusiastic/slightly insane selfie. (it was very sunny).

the path up. very rocky. and very uppy.

the view from the first little part of my ascent (a lot of zigging and zagging with our camper still in view). i took the liberty of circling our camper.

my favorite orange cactus (ocotillo) is in full bloom here. and if you look off into the distance on the right, you can see white sands. (and also in many of the other scenery shots i took).

dog canyon.

sunny, squinty, still slightly crazy selfie with lincoln national forest sign.

a view from up high.

this trail looks south along the ridge of the mountains.

more rocky trail views.

more scenery.

these agave plants are the coolest. with a giant asparagus looking stalk shooting out of it 8-10 feet high.

selfie with the land below.

looking out of dog canyon, as i moved into it.

so. i made it about 2 miles. it was tough. i had to stop and rest. a lot. i turned around and started back down. which is difficult in an entirely different way. instead of tired lungs and heart, my knees and hips bear the brunt of the work. and i’m always worried about rolling an ankle. thankfully, i had derek’s hiking poles to help. i did stop for a bit to enjoy the scenery and the peace and quiet before returning to lidkid land.

white sands in the distance. 🙂

leaving.

so, i have an app called alltrails. and i love it. i load the map before i start. then i can record my trail. it helps me to see how far i’ve gone, what the elevation looks like, if i’m off the trail… etc. here is the data from this hike.

also. derek sent me this cool pic of me, barely a speck, up on the bit of the mountain that is in front of our site. he used binoculars to spot me, so don’t bother trying.

and finally. a zillion pictures of cool plants that i took along the way. 🙂 . enjoy!