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Photos from the 5 day 250 mile Bryce Canyon ride, by Karen Chaton & Granite Chief

The scenery on the ride is awesome

Chief cam shot.  Every year he gets more fleabitten, so his ears are starting to show more specks at each ride

Here is a butt shot for a change ( ha ).  I didn't even know I took this one, but since there are some fall colors off in the distance I left it in

Some of the pink cliffs ahead.  Not sure if they are really pink or sort of orange, but one thing is for sure - they are really beautiful to look at!

The rest of the scenery is pretty nice to look at too

The trail ahead, as we wind our way towards the pink cliffs

Chief cam shot again

Closer to the pink cliffs

Another Chief cam shot of the trail, it's narrow like this as it winds its way around the base of the mountains and the pink cliffs

Riders from Utah, John and Peter

Ride start one morning, the horses have to all go thru the gate and vet thru before the ride can start

Chief watches in between grazing on the grass as riders start

The second day, Don Funk on Geronimo, John Parke on Skoldjur and Les Carr on Tulip.  All three of them were involved in the

John closer up

Les and Tulip

John and Skoldjur from behind

Rebecca and Shari heading over to get their photo taken.

Here is the photo I took of them for a souvenir!

More great scenery of the rock formations.  It is such a beautiful place

Riding up switchbacks.  Looking back at Rebecca and Shari

Looking at more of the scenery.  We are often very close to the edges of these cliffs

The hosebag trail.  Notice the hose, and the bag.......

Chief cam shot, he's doing pretty good (better) at taking ride photos.  Not great yet, but luckily we can keep working on it!

Scenery thru the forest

I think we were waiting for Sue here, so I took another photo

This looks like some of the Blue Fly trail.  The photos are not in any sort of order.  The BF trail starts at the top and is a pack trail, narrow and steep going down the side of a mountain.  This is where the 7 horses became.....

More of the trail, we do a lot of winding around up and down

It's really pretty trail

Trail marker with trail ahead

Looking at more of the trail

It's narrow, but mostly good going

Looking ahead at the scenery

Sue leading down the trail

More of the trail ahead, it's still very narrow but plenty safe

Looking ahead at the trail, you can see where it is cut into the side of the hill ahead

Sue leading down the trail where I just was.

Some sandy sections

Looking back at the hillside, as riders above are on their way down.  It was the group of riders behind these that were involved in the accident. 

The good news is that all 7 missing horses were found safe, and all of the riders were also okay

Looking at more of the scenery

Singletrack trail ahead

Nearing the bottom

Rebecca and Shari at the bottom.  I stopped to empty sand out of my shoes before getting back on.  Now it isn't very much farther to lunch



Sue and her Rocky, grazing on grass

Trail marker.  the Forest Service has a lot of these permenant markers up on the trails now, so it's easy to follow as long as you know what trail you are supposed to be on (there are so many!!)

Looking over one of the edges, as the clouds roll in.  We got snowed on one day (really) :+}

Great scenery. The clouds always make for great lighting. Of course, in this country it might be hard to get a bad photo!

Chief cam shot after lunch, as we are heading down a long downhill

Looking around at the clouds and listening to the thunder and hoping the lightning doesn't get too close

Chief gazes around at the scenery.  We saw several deer during the week, lots of birds, rabbits, squirrels and a coyote

Trail ahead as we head down towards the edge of the cliffs

another shot of the trail

Forest scenery

Over there a few feet is the edge

Looking at the great views

More great scenery



Chief looking around, we are going to be going all the way down to the bottom of these mountains!

Great scenery!

Aspen trees.  In some areas they were starting to turn.  There were also maples with red leaves in some of the canyons



Chief grazes on his way down

Sue and Rocky stopping to graze

Chief munches.  He stopped and acted weird, when I tried to walk him he turned sideways and was standing funny.  His saddle had fallen over (oops).  I like to ride with a really loose girth and think I weighted down one side .....

Looking ahead at the trail/road as we continue downward

Chief's head and his newest ID tags.  He has one braided into his mane and one on his halter.  I got them from:  http://www.pet-tags-online.com/  for 3.49 each

John Parke and Laura Hayes finishing the last day on Remington and Skoldjur

Chief on the 3rd day.  As each day progressed I had to cinch him up on lower and lower holes on both sides of his girth, rather than making it tighter I had to let it out, as he is such a good eater and drinker he plumped up! 

Rocky after being tacked up.  Dave Rabe rode him on Thursday and Saturday.  Calina rode him on Monday.

Chief waiting for the start

Dave with Rocky

Rocky knows it's time to start! 

Chief is also waiting to go.  These two don't get to ride together though.  I was trying to ride Chief all 5 days of this ride and Rocky was only doing every other day and really didn't even need to do that.

Okay, we are bout ready, let's go!!!

Cruising down the Paunsaugunt trails.  Behind me briefly were Rusty and Brian from Canada.

Stopping to take photos

Some of the colored foliage, with Rusty and Brian

Looking at more cliff edges and views

the clouds are cool, it is like you can almost touch them!

Chief cam shot looking ahead.  One thing I noticed is that there are a LOT of trees that have been hit by lightning in the area.  Not sure if this was one of them ahead or not



Riders as we discuss being lost.  Which we were, but not too bad.  Luckily Joseph caught up with us and turned us around before we got very far.

Finally made it to lunch!  This is the day that it started snowing on us.

Lunchtime. They have everything for us, sandwiches, chips, cookies, candybars, drinks, on some days even bbq'd hot dogs and bbq'd beef sandwiches!

Laura Hayes feeding her horse at lunch

Horses with rump rugs on at lunch

Looking across the crewbag pile.  most of the riders don't have crews so send out a crewbag for their horse

Patty Danley and DeeDee

Chief in the foreground with his flag print butt rug.  The other horse over had a full flag print blanket on!

Sue and Rocky

Water troughs for the horses.  Lunch this day was on the top of a really big climb up

Riding thru the aspens

Elfta and Blayne behind us

More colorful scenery

Everywhere you look the views are awesome

I can't get over how the colors change so dramatically, from white to orange to pink to brown

Great views, it is said you can see California from here on a clear day

More of the colorful scenery





Chief gazes at the scenery



Chiefhead shot.  I don't think I meant to have his head in this, but sometimes he butts in!

Looking around and at where we are heading

Going into lunch, we ride right on the edge (literally)

This close to the edge!

I still had to stop and take photos even tho I am afraid of heights

Sue leading Rocky in to lunch

Cow trail ahead, we are getting really close to finishing

More of the scenery.  Each day we do a 50 mile loop out of camp and they are all on different trails

Looking ahead at where we are leading down.  Pam Netuschil is ahead

Leading down on foot

Looking back at Sue

trail ahead

Sue behind me, the trail is like this on the side of the mountains for most of the way to lunch this day

Chief gazing at some of the formations





We ride all the way around these mountains farrrrrrrrrrrr over to the right side of the pink cliffs in this photo.  It takes longer to get there than you'd think!

Trail ahead, as we approach the colorful rocks ahead





Chief cam shot



The trail is narrower in spots, but still plenty wide enough for a horse



The trail going around and back up, you can see the thin line of it going across the photo

More of the trail, we are on the opposite side of the canyon now but will wind our way down and then back up around to the other side

Then we go around again, canyon after canyon until we reach the last of the pink cliffs

we still have a ways to go from here

On the last day of the ride Calina rode my horse Rocky for me, and he reached 7000 miles on this day. :+)))

Cow trail again

Chief cam shot

Chief after finishing all 5 days!  He had a great week and so far has completed all of the regular XP rides this year

Rocky looking at me.  He did 3 days this week, and was very happy to get to go down the trail again rather than get ignored because I am riding Chief.

Chief after being washed down after finishing.

I'm trying to get him to pose, but of course he won't.

Skip in the foreground with Chief on the other side of the vet/finish area.

The last ones to finish (I think) on the last day -- John Parke and Laura Hayes.  The ride ended on a good note, with all of the missing horses found and many still able to complete rides later in the week (like John's Skoldjur).

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