Best Friends

Memorial Weekend, May 25-28, 2012.  The title "Best Friends" has multiple meanings in this post.  I would be camping and hiking this long holiday weekend with my best friend of 10+ years, Suzanne and Hazel Doggie would be camping and hiking with her best friend Dooley.  Together the four of us would be camping near, and hiking through, the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary near Kanab, Utah.  It is "the nation's largest no-kill safe haven for displaced, homeless or unwanted domestic animals." It's where the TV show "Dog Town" was filmed. Please take a few minutes to check out their web site at    http://www.bestfriends.org/index.htm

The sanctuary is over 3,000 acres dedicated to the well being and rehabilitation of dogs, cats, horses and many other unwanted animals.  Once the animals are ready they are adopted out to qualifying people.  The people who work there are very dedicated and many of them are volunteers who spend their vacations helping in any way they can.  The sanctuary also leases the surrounding 30,000  acres from the Federal government to insure that no development takes place and to provide additional wilderness for wild animals to be safe in.  This is the view from the main parking lot and you can see how wild it is kept.

There are a lot of trails throughout the property for hiking and all dogs are walked on them twice a day by the volunteers.  Suzanne and Dooley are walking along a two tracker on our way back to my truck after hiking down to the river.

Also on the sanctuary property is a huge pet burial plot called Angels Rest where thousands of pets were laid to rest.  There are lots of chimes hanging in it and the music they constantly play is beautiful.

We spent a whole day touring and hiking and petting.  We plan on spending a week or two volunteering as soon as it can be arranged.  Not far away Suzanne is getting the tent ready.  The wind was making it difficult by somehow we managed.

The views in Southwestern Utah are spectacular.

The rock formations have some strange shapes.

The colors and lines make them picture worthy.

Next we go hiking at the Parowan Gap Petroglyphs near Little Salt Lake.  Petroglyphs are etchings in rock that native people made to commemorate events or to represent calendars or for a variety of reasons.
Here are some of the ones we saw at Parowan Gap.

Here you can see some strange looking people and snakes and many mysterious things.

Next we went on a four mile hike through the desert mostly to give the doggies some much needed exercise.  Afterwards we commemorated our "Best Friends" adventure with this group picture before heading home.