Gooseberry Mesa

My eldest brother and I drove down to Cedar City to ride a classic ride outside of Zion National Park. We drove out with the assistance of Jeff's GPS to the trail head. It was about a thirteen mile loop with a lot of ups and downs and a lot of technical stuff along the trail.

The trail runs up on top of a huge mesa and hence the name. It was cooler on top of the mesa than down in the valley but it was still in the 90s.

Jeff has a tendency to maneuver easily over very treacherous ground but to take a spill over very smooth patches. This is a photo of one such spill. Notice the cactus just to the right of Jeff's rear end. A near miss.

A lofty seat in the sky.

One of the trail markers saying "Extreme Difficulty". The trail was very fun but the heat sapped your energy and made you feel tired.

The end of one half of the loop trail. There are several ways to do this trail and we picked the one that put some of the bowls and ledges and redrock playgrounds at the end and we were too wiped out to do much.

We decided that we needed to cool down and Jeff's son, Matthew, had been on a river hike in Kanaraville that we opted to try out. The hike started out on on a steep trail but then went through the water like a mini narrows hike. The red rock was beautiful and contrasted with the green plants along the river.

Jeff took this picture which looks to me like it could be a post card.

Jeff bustin' his swagger as he enters the canyon portion of the hike.

There are two water falls at the end of the hike. It was a great way to cool off and the perfect end to a great day.