Namesake

The Wildcat Canyon Trail got it's name from these:

Bobcats...who leave their prints on the trail itself....along with bobcat scat, of which I will spare the vision of what is hairy doo-doo.

Cindy, Nick and I started early yesterday morning, high on the west side of Zion National Park with temps in the 40's.  We hiked the Wildcat Canyon Trail and Northgate Peaks Trail for a total of 8.2 miles.  And then we crashed through a-mile-round-trip field of brilliant golden oats to explore a cave.  Easy terrain on Wildcat, but some very foreign plants that Nick thought looked suspiciously like cannabis, leaving a stinging and throbbing sensation in Cindy's hand after she touched it to investigate what it was.

While hiking through a meadow, I thought, "If I were a deer or an elk...this is where I would sleep at night."
And about two minutes later, we found a bed...while investigating a porcupine that turned out to be a skunk!

(flattened, grassy area on the left)

After finishing up our adventures in Wildcat Canyon, we made our way through the field of sunshine to explore a cave.

The best part about this part of the excursion is that I've been dying to get into that field of gold since we moved to Dixie!  I vowed a year ago that someday we would take our family picture here. But the bonus is....there's a cave too!!

Which turned out to be totally awesome....to the point that it couldn't even be photographed properly.

I like these namesake trails.