Toadstools & Sand Dunes

The shop is closed on Sundays, so that's my day to escape. This past Sunday I headed toward Page to get my oil changed and stock up on some stuff. On the way there I saw a sign saying "Toadstool Trailhead"... no idea what the trail was, but the name alone was reason enough to stop so I decided to head there on my way back from Page.

Awesome hike! Short, less than a couple miles round trip, unless like me you can't find the actual trail bit and wander around for a while in other directions taking photos. You end up walking in a wash most of the way, then the trail picks up and makes you feel like a mountain goat at times:

 

So, at the end you get to this foreign looking landscape that resembles a sci-fi flick from the 60s, of what they thought another planet would look like. And there are toadstools. Rock toadstools.

 Pretty nifty.

After that hike, I ended up back in Kanab earlier than planned so I kept going to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, a state park about 20 or so more miles toward Zion. There was sand, lots of it. And wind. Not a great combo, but you can get some pretty sweet pictures of sand blowing off the dunes. The sand isn't so much pink as it is orange... maybe at dusk it turns pink?

There was this old wood beam fence running along the edge of the dunes. I sort of went a bit photo mad for it, but it just looked so cool. This was my favorite at the end:

Perfect temps, perfect sky so all in all a pretty good day off. This was my only day off this week, so I earned it. You can see the rest of the photos here:

http://heather-applegate.artistwebsites.com