Sky Cloudster aka Mike Graves flying adventures (2001)

Mike Graves lived down the street from me for a couple of years, and was good to take me in his Cessna 180 out into the backcountry to do some adventurous flying, camping, and hiking. He is and was a great friend and guy.


Mike always took along gourment food like lamb chops and other healthy chow. Here is our camp at Boulder, Utah dirt airstrip. We biked and hiked to Upper Calf Creek Falls.









I am at the end of this dirt strip. Look how short it is! We had to land and takeoff above and around these cliffs near Mexican Hat Mountain in the San Rafael Swell.











A hike into the Lower Black Box.













These cliffs are appropriately called the 'little grand canyon'.










Mike and his friend Jim and I flew to Moab and mountain biked the famous slickrock trail.

Zion (Nov 2001)

For my birthday, Kim and I went and stayed in Zion Lodge and did some hiking. This was our first trip up the East Rim Trail to Observation Point.




Kim on top of Observation Pt.












View down canyon.














A picture of us on top of Angels Landing.

Zion Narrows (Aug 2001)

A hike with Mike Burkley upstream to Big Springs and back down through the Narrows.






















One of my all-time favorite pictures.

The Wave (May 2001)

My first trip to the Wave of Coyote Buttes was with Eldon Griffin in May of 2001.






Unreal swirls.













Eldon

Spring Creek in Kolob Fingers area (May 2001)

A massive arch forming up near the end of this remote canyon.

New Homes (Jan 2000 and Dec 2001)

Oh the adventures of building two homes in two years. Dealing with builders, picking out colors, styles, furniture, etc. We moved into Eagle Rock Jan 3, 2000, bought our Citadel Estates lot in April 2001, and moved into it on Dec 7, 2001


Eagle Rock home one month before completion.


















Citadel Estate lot looking east. We were the first home on the street.












A view from the "Eagle Rock" cliffs. Our home is white under construction in the center. Eagle Rock neighborhood on the left.
















Our finished home. Look how small the shrubs are.

Black Hole of Snow Canyon (Spring 2001)

In Snow Canyon I discovered a secret slot canyon that requires a difficult down scramble and several rappels to complete. I call it the Black Hole because from the top everything funnels down into it with redrock, but at the bottom all of the rock turns black and dark.



Kim rappelling off a tree 50' to the depths of the black hole. Note: this tree was washed over in the floods of 2005.
















At the bottom of the black hole. This shot was with a flash to light things up.

Gooseberry Mesa (Spring 2001)

Mike Graves and I drove east an hour to do the most technically challenging mountain bike riding in the area--Gooseberry Mesa. The views up here are in all directions, and there is a sea of white slickrock for miles. The quick ups and downs and trees and corners make things interesting and challenging.





Laying down on a sea of white with Zion in the background.













I posed by this bike for a photo, but Mike did a handstand next to the cliff's edge!