The sun is intense and the bright gray siltstone that makes up much of the canyon wall creates a huge reflecting funnel.  This afternoon after a day of touring, we sit in our air-conditioned  motorhome.  It it were not windy, we might make do by putting out the awning, but today it would blow away. 

Yesterday, our first day here in slickrock desert, we hiked up Calf Creek Canyon to see its magnificent waterfall and thousand-foot red canyon walls.  The trail stayed close to the stream and  passed over rock and through groves of box-elder and Gambel oak.  Yellow-breasted chats, common yellowthroats, and yellow warblers serenaded we hikers. 

This morning we drove up onto the top of the plateau to walk across a high basin in search of dusky grouse and greater sage-grouse.  At almost ten thousand feet elevation the walking was cool there, but a half mile stroll along the edge of spruce/fir forest failed to flush any dusky grouse.  We gave up on that and walked down into the sagebrush basin.  Four pronghorn approached to within fifty meters and stopped.  They and we studied each other, and then they bolted off at a right angle across the high plain. 

We made our turn and assumed we would no see sage grouse  wondereing how these near turkey-sized birds could be concealed in the low prairie.  Then, as we walked and chatted, three birds exploded into flight about twenty feet to our left.  We brought up our glasses and watched them fly and finally soar to a landing a few hundred meters away.  We followed and flushed one a second time.  It flew to the edge of the forest and perched on a boulder.  We watched him for a few minutes, cheered, and continued toward our car.  We concluded that the grouse were the rocks that took off before you stepped on them.

Otherwise the birding was uneventful.  We have already seen most of the birds of this region and didn't spot any rarities.  We lunched at the Escalante town park and decided to drive to Boulder to visit the Anasazi State Park Museum.  There we saw ruins of a pueblo built in the mid 1100's AD. 

The village consisted of masonry mostly square town houses.  Most were about four meters square, but one was twice as large.  The chief's no doubt.  Still, the dwellings suggested that their purpose was to provide modest comfort and little show.  These people were poor.  Many of the early indian hovels, I can not call them houses, were accessed by a ladder through the roof.  I joked to Anne that Grandma was finished when unable to climb up the ladder.  Sadly, that was probably not a joke at the time.

The drive between Escalante and Boulder is grand.  The two-lane first climbs out of the river valley and crosses barren desert.  Then it drops back into the canyon to cross the river.  On the east side it turns and climbs up the wall of the Calf Creek canyon.  At the top this section of the plateau becomes a fin between two canyons.  The shoulders drop off about a thousand vertical feet.  The Utah DOT waists no money on guide rails there, but does post the speed limit at 35.  I was at first surprised at this remote speed zone, but soon was having trouble keeping up 30.  I told Anne to direct my steering as I could not keep my eyes open.  She laughed, but I drove with two hands firmly on the wheel and my eyes bolted to the winding roadway.  This may be a scenic highway, but the driver can't look.

We will celebrate Independence Day here before moving on to Torrey and the parks there.