It was pretty late in the day and my legs were tired. I'd just whipped the girls in some two-on-one soccer drills, so I was moving slowly. I was in a small, dry wash just up the Second Left Hand Road from the ford. I had noted the wash the day before because it had at least one bristlecone pine in it and I wanted to see if there were more. There weren't. But, on the theory that there is always something interesting to see in these little washes, I continued my slow hike. Finally, I decided that there was nothing, that I was bored with pinyon, juniper, and Douglas fir, and that it was about time to turn around.
I was in a little bowl at the top of the wash where the main stream course split into two or three little rills. I could see the top of the bowl not too far away and, before going down, I decided to push up to the top of the saddle to see if there was a view. And there was. I found myself atop the broken red cliffs to the west of Bowery Creek. It was spectacular. I've always liked that spot and have stopped to make pictures of it many times. (See the lead-off picture, above.) I've sometimes thought of scrambling up one if its gullies, but they are steep, loose, and manky, so my thinking has never progressed much beyond wishing I were younger.
Surprisingly, on the top of that ridge, I found that my legs were not quite so tired anymore and I made my way along it, peering off all the ledges. Much to my delight, I discovered a second bristlecone (pictured), as well as a lone limber pine there on the wind blasted ridge. To see each of southern Utah's four native pines in one day is note-worthy in any case, but to do so on a used-up afternoon, when I had already (mentally) started for home was a big bonus. It all just goes to prove my theory that there is always something interesting to see in these little washes. Unless there isn't. And, then all you've got to say for yourself is that you've just had a walk in the woods and have smelled the pinyon and heard the chickadees.
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