Southern Utah

There are a few things about Southern Utah you might not know. Chances are if you are reading this blog you know them, but I'll share anyway.

1.There's a mini monsoon season every year; usually it's a week and a half the back half of August, but this year some of it came a little early. It rains some places, hard, and not in other places. (See left.)

2. There are lots of sheep here. I was surprised how big they were. Look at the size of that thing's head! I was surprised to glance out the window and bam: SHEEP FACE, right in my face. (Okay, a few feet of air and some glass and some metal separated us, but I think that is the closest I had ever been to that many sheep.) Except maybe last year at the Puyallup fair, but most of those were lambs. By the way, people who take care of sheep dominate Southern Utah. Sheep peeps rock. (I come from a long line of sheep peeps.On both sides. And yet I don't like mutton...)

3. If you drive down the road, the scenery changes. If you start near Salt Lake, and go south for a couple hours, you see what's left. And then if you drive for another little while ("How long is a little whiiiiiile?") you see something like what's  right.

4. And then the scenery really changes a couple hours after that - from regular colored mountains to red plateaus and piles of rock. Southern Utah is like a geological paradise. Maybe that's why my grandpa, who grew up in the area, decided to pursue geology as a course of study and then, later, his career.

5. And this is a beautiful, typical Southern Utah in August cloud. Look at the height,  the variation of color...it's "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" at its finest. It was a lot more impressive in person, I assure you - but I couldn't resist sharing it just to preserve the memory.