July Fourth was a red-letter day not only because of the celebratory events but also because we had rain! For the first time in at least six weeks. It broke the heat wave and, while it's been hot since, we haven't had the sustained high temperatures of late June and early July.
Last Sunday, Parry Lodge was a-buzz about a wedding reception held the previous evening at Angel's Landing on the Best Friends property. Since it sounded so lovely and is only two miles north of our RV site, we drove there after dinner on Sunday. What a magical place! A tall sandstone cliff curves around an oval lawn to create a natural amphitheater looking out to the Kanab Creek watershed and red rock mesas in the distance.
Driving through Angel Canyon, we saw lots of places which deserve further investigation but we didn't know if Best Friends permits hiking on their land. I called on Monday and learned that they not only allow access but provide a map to Hidden Lake and some Indian ruins. We picked up a map and searched for a set of petroglyphs (hard to find, hard to see and difficult to photograph) near the Visitor Center.
Yesterday evening, we made the trip to Hidden Lake, a pleasant mile-long walk on a dirt road ending at the mouth of a huge opening in a rock wall. To see the 'lake', which is actually a pond, you must step ten or twelve feet into the cave where it's cool and dark and rather creepy. Going back to the car, we took the spur to the Indian ruins: slabs of flat rock set vertically in the dirt to create square and rectangular spaces under the protection of a huge rock alcove; a pictogram of a human (?) figure on the wall; and pottery shards in the sandy floor.
Business at the Lodge has been slow--typical for July, when hot weather and afternoon monsoons keep tourists away. Management decided that we aren't needed on Friday so we'll have two days off this week instead of one.
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