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COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD | THE COLONY NEWS | MAY 2021 | 19 – I don't think anyone in their right mind wants to be out in those canyons in the summer! Besides the off-roading and the wonderful eroded canyons, there are ranger walks, horseback riding, campground, miles of hiking trails, Native American petroglyphs and paleontology exhibits. Red Rock Canyon is actually a paleontologist's dream as the erosion has exposed many bones and artifacts. What a perfect day we had! The sky was a vivid shade of blue, studded with fairy duster clouds. My grandsons, Conner, age 12, and Ronin, age 10, are avid climbers. Watching them hike up slippery talus slopes, jump from rock to rock and stand on the edge of huge drop-offs made me cringe. There is no way this old body could make it up those cliffs to "save" them if they fell, so I just closed my eyes and offered up silent prayers. That evening we were gifted with a brilliant sunset over the canyons. What an end to a perfect day! If some of the photos look familiar, many movies and commercials have been filmed in these canyons. Since the campground was closed, we spent the night parked along one of the dirt roads in Jawbone Canyon, the next canyon south of Red Rock and the Visitor Center (also closed) for off- road activities in the area. My boys were skeptical about pulling off a dirt road on a very dark night and just camping with no one around, so we drove on until we found other campers and bedded down within sight of them. I love "boondocking" (free camping without a campground on a flat area of the desert or forest). Unless posted "no camping," all national forests and Bureau of Land Management lands allow boondocking. The next morning, we drove through Jawbone Canyon and were delighted with a desert studded with mounds of unexpected colors. My van is not 4wd, but we had no problems driving the main roads. There are plenty of small side roads and hillsides that are for 4wd only. We saw old mine activity in quite a few areas of the canyons. As we approached one of the mounds, we thought it was a pile of turquoise. The color of the sedimentary stones went from light turquoise to deep green. What caused those colors or the white rock from the mine hole? Did some type of plankton deposited millions of years ago stain the sand these colors? I particularly find the desert interesting. If I had my life to live over, I would study geology. Places like Red Rock Canyon, Bryce, Zion, Arches and Big Bend National Parks leave me astounded at what nature has accomplished with the visual reminders of the power of wind, water, heat, cold and time.