St. George

Just needed to get away.  Winter and January specifically get me down.  I went to St. George for a long weekend.  I wanted to go myself and just have peace and reflection.  I had a hard time settling down and spent most of my time kicking against the pricks, so to speak.  I had this ideas that I wanted to go to the ghost town of Grafton, but when I looked one the map I got somewhat confused and ended up going all away around the mountain.  It rained most of the time that I was there and the roads were very muddy.  I knew I wouldn't be able to make it back up the way I came.  After I took pictures, I noticed the road went down toward the river and what do you know there was a bridge across the river and I was on the main road.  Pretty much spent half a day trying to get to Grafton.

Grafton

I also went to one of the most incredible places I have been in a long time.  I think the thing that made it especially spectacular was the fact that I was by myself.  At one point I was so overwhelmed by the beauty and simplicity of nature

 around me that I dropped to my knees to thank Heavenly Father for creating such a beautiful world for us to live in.

I sat here for a long time just soaking in the solitude and peace.

This is one of the last pictures I took before I came home.  This quail was performing for me and sat up on this rock strutting around.  It was past dusk so the picture is kind of grainy.  This last picture was taken when I hit the Salt Lake Valley.  It took me twice as long to get home.  At one point I did a 360* turn on the freeway.  I ended up at the side of the road going the right way.  Pretty scary.  Don't know how I made it home without getting in a fender bender.

 Also did some muddy!!Quite by accident.