Five Acres with a View

Canyonlands National Park

The showers and fog that we saw at Canyonlands the evening we went there made the area’s nickname “Island in the Sky” very appropriate.

Canyonlands National Park In the Fog

Devil’s Garden at Craters of the Moon

Formations at Craters of the Moon

According to the records we received when we adopted him on December 19th, 2008, Rion was born on October 20, 2008. He is now seven years old. Here is my first photo of the grubby scrap of black fluff and attitude that we brought home from the shelter. (He didn’t get his first bath until about a week later, because I was so worried about dropping him.)

Rion from this morning:

White Flower from Craters of the Moon

These flowers were spaced at even intervals on the cinder hills of Craters of the Moon. I managed to get this close-up without leaving the path. It irritates me immensely when I see people leave the path at National Parks, frequently right next to a sign telling them to stay on the trail.

Cinder Hills in Craters of the Moon National Park

Craters of the Moon is a National Park in southwest Idaho. It is a very striking place, and we were lucky that we were there on a relatively cool day in August, since the temperatures can get very high in the summer.

Dry Falls Park – Sun Lakes

Dry Falls Park

Dry Falls Park is a Washington State Park formed around the remarkable landscape left when a lake in present day Montana emptied catastrophically several times during the ice ages when a glacial dam failed. It’s almost half way across the state from Spokane, where we were visiting for the World Science Fiction Convention. Jack had camped there as a youngster with his family, but didn’t really remember much about it. The sky was almost white due the effects of another catastrophe: the wildfires consuming the Northwest while we were traveling.