North with the birds

I'm back in civilization again after a nine grid spree. After having fixed my tires and gotten things straightened out in St. George, I hit the road. Started out with a challenge, the first one I needed to backpack into. Although there were roads to get close, after awhile they deteriorated into tracks only a hard-core ATV or something could handle. Anyway I packed up everything I needed and hiked into the site the evening before. Not all that far, but two miles uphill wasn't exactly what I wanted to do at 3am in the dark. Set up with my bivouac bag and sleeping bag, and with the weather cooperating everything turned out fine.
     After that I started heading north, working in some hilly country outside of Kanarraville and Cedar City. The one in Cedar City had some crazy steep canyons, but on the plus side I could hang out in the library with all the other weird vagabonds. After that I headed out to Parowan Gap, remnants of an old waterway that became a library of petroglyphs. Lots of beautiful views and rolling sagebrush.

Petroglyphs at Parowan Gap

View of the Parowan Gap from one of my points

     I've been getting better at navigating hillsides, but it helps that I also ran into some good luck in grids. Parowan Gap, Lund Desert, and Desert Rat Grasslands all have been pretty flat and open, plenty of sweet sage.

Sunrise over the sage at Desert Rat Grasslands

My farthest ranging trip was out toward the Nevada border, not so far from Great Basin National Park. The drive to the Needles took me past old mining town, mountain ranges, and open country. Once in the Needles, I got back into pinyon-juniper slopes.

Pinyon-juniper slopes way out in the Needles

A species of buckwheat out by the Needles

     After a couple more near Beaver, which I got to name after fictional planets from an obscure science-fiction TV series (Ral Parthea and Tarn Vedra anyone?), now I'm relaxing in St. George. I've got four days off and plan to explore Zion, so more pictures should be forthcoming!