grizzly ridge yurt, ashley national forest - utah

every now and then a girl is taken to a secret getaway by her husband. this was one of those times.

just outside of vernal, utah is ashley national forest.

i have been telling gordon forever that on my adventure wishlist is to stay in a yurt.

he made another one of my wishes come true.

i was surprised and didn't ask once where he was taking me.

he realized how much i trust him wholeheartedly because i never asked once where he was taking me.

i trusted he wouldn't take somewhere or do something i wouldn't like.

i was right.

we had to backpack to get to the yurt.  it was a slow few miles, up a slight hill, in snowshoes.

i've done easier things...

but i still enjoyed myself.

i was so proud of my pup, briggs, who, at 11 years, showed this snowy trail who's boss.

this was a lovely sight to see!!

glamping?  why yes, don't mind if i do!

melting snow for water.

warming up and drying off by the wood burning stove.

looking at the moon through the sky window at the top of the yurt.

morning view.

outhouse (i told you we were glamping).

mountain folk.

i may or may not have told gordon i could live in a place like this...

down the mountain we go!

rabbit tracks everywhere!

and the wee one leading us all the way back to truck without us picking her up once.

seriously, my little pups are amazing!

sundance film festival 2014

this year we changed it up a bit and went right to the heart of the action: park city, utah the radio station we listen to, x96, was broadcasting live interviewing film makers, directors, and actors. we felt very VIP.

aaron ashmore, shawn ashmore's twin (shawn is from the xmen movies.  i got a little too excited at first when i thought it was shawn.  meeting aaron was cool, too, though.)

with jeremiah bitsui who played victor in breaking bad!

pretending we're red carpet status.

with bill, a x96 radio dj.

with the cast of being human (a sci fi tv show which i've never seen but recognized the actor sam huntington because of the movie detroit rock city).

on main street in park city.  feels totally different during the film festival.

back to our roots in ogden seeing a couple of films.

skyler joined us and it made his mom and my day!  we love when he's not too cool for us and will hang out.

the citadel ruins, cedar mesa utah - part six the finale

the finale.  and boy was it a finale indeed.

we traveled some pretty awesome roads to get to our last stop.

in the end there was seven of us.

once again, we had to reset our mile counter in gordon truck so we knew exactly when to stop, pull over and begin walking in a wash to find the last ruin of our trip.  i'm always impressed at the skills gordon has to find something with no marker what so ever.  he's the best captain this adventure girl could ask for!

yoga all day!

ruin number one.  pretty awesome and very much intact.

view from the top looking in.

the roof.

CORN!

and then we reach this...

and it must be crossed to get to the citadel ruin.

and at the end of the peninsula is by far the coolest ruin i have ever seen!!

you could live here now, it is so intact.

except they ask you not to, so we respected the forest service.

and the view coming back.

this trip was short, but we saw SO MUCH!  

history right in our backyard (if our backyard was 7 hours away).

utah is rad.

bluff international hot air balloon festival bluff, utah part five

i have always had a love for hot air balloons. i have never been this close to them and watched them fill up with air from start to finish. it was magical!

glow in the dark!

we stayed in valley of the gods so we could wake up and be right in the middle of the hot air balloon festival.

i can't think of a better background than red rocks for these vibrant colored balloons.

next time i'm that close to a hot air balloon i'm riding in it!

monarch cave cedar mesa utah part four

but really, each stop on our adventure seemed better than the last. i don't think we actually met to do that but looking back that's exactly what happened.

when looking for Indian ruins, it's important to look up.

hidden away a top a curve in the mountain was the monarch cave.

pictographs and petroglyphs led the way to the cave.

just a couple of pair of salomons standing around a petroglyph. 

more pictographs.

POTTERY and CORN!  These are real artifacts people!

i may have added a little more flavor to my language and panicked a bit coming back from the cave.

that narrow edge got to me and i thought i was going to tumble to my death!

ruin with a view!

how they shaped or sharpened stuff?

part of the roof still intact.

close up.

and me.  pre-panic.