Dave and Jan enjoyed a trip to southeastern Utah in celebration of their 51st anniversary between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The area involved is vast, and the signs of civilization are few and far between, so they knew they would need several days just to get an idea of what there is to be seen in that corner of the state. Canyonlands National Park was the focus of their interest, and it is well-worth seeing! So, even though snow was falling in Cedar City, and it was forecast to fall throughout the region, they made motel reservations in Moab, Utah and headed out for a great adventure. Along the way to Moab the road into the Island in the Sky area of the park was shrouded in clouds, so that area awaits another visit. After their stay in Moab, Wilson arch (south along highway 191) was the first hint of things to come.

A drive of around 22 miles from highway 191 is required to take in the scenery from the Needles Overlook in the Needles area of Canyonlands, but the area is full of beautiful scenery – even under somewhat cloudy skies. Highlights of the Needles Overlook in the park cover vast stretches of the colorful terrain through which the Green River and the Colorado River flow.

The other area Dave and Jan had the time to visit was the area where the Needles Visitor Center is located – 35 miles west of highway 191. Views from the Big Spring Canyon Overlook were well worth the drive.

With only small towns in the area for many, many miles, Dave and Jan stayed overnight in the colorful little town of Mexican Hat at the only motel which was open for the season. Thankfully, the motel also featured a restaurant where the anniversary dinner was the tasty but simple fare of (for Dave) a hamburger and fries and (for Jan) a Navajo Cowboy Hamburger on Fry Bread and a salad. Breakfast fare the next morning was a very tasty bowl of oatmeal (with brown sugar, raisins and walnuts) and toast.

The return drive home passed by Monument Valley on the way to Page, Arizona and Kanab, Utah.

The drive west over 10,000 foot Cedar Mountain took place through blizzard conditions, so Dave and Jan were glad to have acquired an all wheel drive Subaru before their move to Utah from Southern California. The trip was another revelation of the Lord’s creative genius in forming our planet – and then re-forming it by means of the waters of the Flood of Noah’s day. Enjoying, as we do, the beauty so abundant on our sin-cursed earth makes us wonder what the perfection of heaven will be like. But Dave and Jan are very grateful for the joy they have experienced during their fifty-one years of “heaven on earth”!

Dave and Jan are very grateful this Thanksgiving season for the Lord’s leading and provision for their son Stephen and his family (Meagan, his wife, 7-year-old Ryan and 4-year-old Erin). When Stephen’s employment with Zeiss Lens Company in Germany as a cinema technical sales specialist at the cinema lens demo center in Sherman Oaks, California came to an untimely end, he applied for many positions in his field of specialty. After months without any job prospects, Stephen and family visited Dave and Jan over the fourth of July weekend in Cedar City. Liking what they saw, Stephen checked for jobs in Cedar City and found a restaurant for sale, so he decided to check on it. When the owner (who built Dave and Jan’s house) spoke with Stephen and made the connection with his parents, he invited Stephen to visit the restaurant to check it out. He did check it out, and is now in the process of taking ownership of the iconic Top Spot Restaurant and Gas Station in a prime location on Main Street in Cedar City.

Finding housing in Cedar City is a stiff challenge. Places which are up for rent typically have lengthy waiting lists, and potential renters have to pay a fee to get placed on the list. But Stephen found a property management company in nearby St. George, Utah which had a listing in Cedar City with only one other person in line to rent it. So Stephen applied and was given the opportunity to rent the house beginning November 1st. The house is large (4,000 sq. ft. – including an undeveloped full basement), but located in a fairly new housing development in a good location and well-suited to the family’s needs.

After living in a big city townhouse for the past two years, with no yard, Ryan and Erin are really going to enjoy their spacious new “digs” with its fenced yard and its lawns in both the front and back.

And there are nearly unlimited opportunities for adventure in the beautiful area around the city!

Dave and Jan are very thankful to the Lord for His direction and provision in all of these details. The Balsley families are trusting in the Lord to make paths straight for Stephen as he learns the myriad of details involved in running a restaurant and gas station business – seeking to trust in the Lord with all of his heart, not leaning on his own understanding, but acknowledging the Lord in all his ways (Proverbs 3:5-6)! You are welcome to pray as well for the Lord’s direction and rich blessing in this new adventure.

An annual event Cedar City citizens look forward to each fall is the Cedar Livestock and Heritage Festival. For Dave and Jan this was the second time to experience the event. It began on Friday evening at the Cross Hollow event center (which Dave and Jan did not attend), but Saturday’s parade down Main Street, with the sheep parading through town, is an annual highlight of the event, with many other activities taking place at the Event Center. Decorations in town anticipate the event for the weeks leading up to it.

The parade features many indications of the region’s agricultural and animal heritage. Antique tractors not only participate in the parade, but compete at the Event Center in tractor pulls which test their ability to pull heavy loads as far and fast as possible.

Other vintage vehicles participate in the parade as well.

Among the farm machinery appearing in the parade are steam machines which add moisture to downed hay in a dry climate.

The sheep in the 2021 parade had apparently not rehearsed their part sufficiently. The crowd waited a while for the sheep to appear. When they did appear they seemed intent on traveling in circles rather than the straight line intended for them by their shepherds. Dave and Jan didn’t witness it, but they learned that late in the parade route the sheep headed by the hundreds into someone’s back yard to add interest to the event! Their behavior called to mind the Bible’s comparison of sheep with human beings when it says (Isaiah 53:6) “All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him [i.e. Jesus].” How loving of the Lord to bear the burden of human wanderings!

At the Cross Hollow Event Center, after the parade, tractors and horses pulled their loads, shepherds showed the trailers they live in during their attention to the sheep during summer pastures in the mountains, and vendors displayed their wares.

The Cedar Livestock and Heritage Festival is a very interesting event – one of the many things Dave and Jan enjoy about living in Cedar City.

Dave and Jan have been really enjoying the fall colors the Lord has put on display again this year. Cedar Mountain, visible from their house, was once again showing its colors for all Cedar City residents to enjoy.

Adding to the color of the season was a very fun visit from John and Linda Luginbuhl. John has served as pastor for more than thirty years now at Grace Bible Church in Gallup, New Mexico – formerly known as Gallup Baptist Church, where Dave and Jan served for eleven years decades ago. So the Balsleys and the Luginbuhls enjoyed several days of exploration in the color country of Southwest Utah – including visits to Kolob Canyon (Zion National Park west) and Zion National Park (proper).

Driving between Cedar City and Bryce Canyon via Highway 143 provided some brilliant color displays.

A drive along the road to Yankee Meadows included both colorful trees and fascinating rock formations.

It also provided an interesting encounter with some of the many sheep which spend their summer months on the mountain before heading down Main Street in Cedar City’s heritage festival in late October.

Beautiful Bryce Canyon National Park is always a fun place to introduce to visitors from out of the area.

And not far from Bryce Canyon is Kodachrome Basin State Park with its own unique features.

This morning (October 12) delivered eleven inches of fresh snow, so there is lots of variety in God’s handiwork for our enjoyment – and Dave and Jan are definitely enjoying it all!

It was while Dave and Jan were camping at Duck Creek Campground in the mountains east of Cedar City several weeks back that they took a drive on dirt roads to view Cascade Falls – a small but interesting waterfall which flows under ground through lava tubes from Navajo Lake to an exit in a rocky wall along the Virgin River Rim. In the same area where the trailhead leads to Cascade Falls are trailheads going east and west along the Virgin River Rim Trail. Since that discovery there have been several hikes (and, in Dave’s case, bike rides) along various portions of the rim trail – with quite a few miles of trail yet to be explored. So on the last day of summer, thinking they might see some fall colors showing up among the aspen trees, the Balsleys hiked the section of the trail between the road from Highway 14 to Webster Flat and the site of the Dear Haven Campground (now closed for the season).

Though the aspen trees have only begun to turn to fall colors in the area, there were some beautiful hints of things to come at various places along the trail.

Along the trail there were distant views of the rocky features of beautiful Zion National Park.

The trail led to the Deer Haven campground, now closed for the season, but designed to host not only family campers but larger groups and organizations with as many as 250 campers.

Though the campground was closed, Dave and Jan made use of a picnic table to enjoy a picnic lunch. The knapsack on the table, by the way, has been hiking with the Balsleys for all fifty years of their marriage!

There were more trees in the area anticipating the fall season with beautiful displays of color.

The return trip provided some very nice views of the red rock formations beneath the rim, visible from the drive up highway 14 from Cedar City to the Markagunt Plateau some four thousand feet above the city.

Across the road, where the car was parked, is another section of the Rim Trail which Dave began to explore last week on his mountain bike until he had a flat tire, then another, around a mile and a half or two along the trail – so his bike ride turned into half a hike back to the car! So there is still much more to explore on another day. But Dave and Jan are very grateful for the ability and the many opportunities they have to be enjoying so many examples of the Lord’s creative genius in their part of the state of Utah.

Dave and Jan enjoyed another visit to Kodachrome Basin State Park in south central Utah the first week of September – this time with their trailer for a three-day, two night stay in the park campground. Kodachrome Basin State Park is just east of Bryce Canyon National Park, with views of Bryce from many parts of the state park. Rated as one of the best dark sky locations anywhere in the world, they enjoyed nighttime views of myriads of stars and the best look at the Milky Way they have seen in decades. It was a camping experience to be repeated!

Kodachrome Basin differs from many other parks by the presence of many rock pillars standing tall above the basin floor. Many pillars are well over fifty feet tall – some cylindrical and others pointed like a pyramid, some rising up from the valley floor and others rising above mesas and ridges. Where they are grouped fairly close together they create quite an interesting skyline.

The first evening’s outing led to Chimney Rock, a thick pillar structure standing alone on the basin floor.

There were many places where the basin floor was beautified by fields of colorful flowers.

Even the campsite where Dave and Jan were staying was quite scenic in its own right.

The longest hike for the trip was on the Panorama Trail – with three mile and six mile loop options and a side trip to Panorama Point. The three mile loop with the two mile side trip to Panorama Point and back was the choice for the day.

Dave and Jan are very grateful for the many fascinating places not far from “home” to be explored and enjoyed in Southwestern Utah – and for the time and resources the Lord has blessed them to enjoy in these “golden years” of their lives. With the Psalmist David they can say “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me . . . In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever” (Psalm 16:6,16).

When Dave and Jan arrived at the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage in December of 2020 it was Jan’s hope that they would enjoy a cruise to Alaska, but the Corona Virus pandemic had most cruises on hold. So, as an alternative, they decided to go to Kentucky where Answers in Genesis developed a creation museum some years back and then, more recently, the Ark Encounter. They decided to drive to Kentucky, pulling their Kodiak Cub trailer behind their Toyota Highlander. The dates they settled on for their trip were August 9 (Jan’s birthday) through August 21 of 2021.

Because an avalanche in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado closed portions of I-70, the most direct route to Kentucky from Cedar City, Dave and Jan chose to drive I-80 on the trip east, returning on I-40 for the trip west. Stops along the way east included the KOA in Rock Springs, Wyoming; Buffalo Bill Ranch State Park in North Platte, Nebraska; a motel stay in Platte City, Missouri; and O’Bannon Woods State Park in Indiana.

Arriving in Kentucky, Northern Kentucky RV Park in Dry Ridge, KY became their “home away from home” for the next three nights.

After arranging lodging for Jan’s dog, Lola, the first visit to the Ark Encounter occurred on Friday afternoon/evening, August 13. In addition to the ark itself, a gospel concert series lasting forty days and nights was occurring on the premises, so the 2500 seat auditorium was humming with activities throughout each day. The ark grounds are beautifully landscaped, and they include food services, a zoo (with a petting zoo section), a large zip line, and a colorful playground for children.

The ark, the largest all-wood structure, was built according to the dimensions revealed in Genesis 6:15 (450 feet long; 75 feet wide; 45 feet high), using the expertise of Amish carpenters because of their experience with wood construction. The ark is filled with informative exhibits on each of three decks, envisioning every conceivable angle of the experience of Noah and his family and the animals. The first deck included storage options for food and water for the ark’s inhabitants, and features for waste-removal. The second deck featured wooden cages with life-sized examples of the animals which would have been on the ark. The third deck included living quarters for Noah’s family, along with numerous exhibits explaining the exit from the ark and the expansion of the human family on the refashioned earth. Dave and Jan stayed through the evening concert, making Saturday a full day.

Following a Sunday morning worship service with Dry Ridge Baptist Church, and dinner in the trailer, it was time to take in the Creation Museum further north about 40 miles near Kentucky’s northern border. Like the Ark Encounter, the museum is filled with exhibits detailing the scientific case for special creation and explaining innumerable details which demonstrate the credibility of the Biblical creation account. High-tech animatronics and artistically arranged dioramas make the museum a work of art, and beautifully landscaped grounds provide a beautiful setting for the museum and all the detailed information which it contains.

The trip home included stops at Piney River RV Resort in Tennessee; Lake Dardanelle State Park in Arkansas; Foss State Park in Oklahoma; and the KOA in Grants, New Mexico. Dave and Jan are very grateful to the Lord for their fifty-plus years of happy marriage, and for the opportunity to celebrate their relationship with such an interesting and informative road trip and their museum experiences at both the Ark Encounter and the Creation Museum.

Among the many things Dave and Jan enjoy about Cedar City is its proximity to so many beautiful places. Just east of Cedar City is Cedar Breaks National Monument. Though the Balsleys have visited Cedar Breaks numerous times, they only recently took the hike from the normal visitors’ center (currently under re-construction). It was definitely a hike to be repeated.

Among the interesting features of the area is the presence of many Bristlecone Pine trees. Some Bristlecone Pines have been around for up to 5,000 years (according to the “experts”), and the park service indicates that Bristlecone Pines in the Cedar Breaks area are up to 2,000 years old.

Of course, there are also many beautiful flowers to enjoy at the monument.

Another nearby area of interest to Dave and Jan is Kolob Canyons – the western portion of Zion National Park. But just across the highway from the canyons is a country community, New Harmony, backed on the west by an interesting looking range of mountains. So a drive to New Harmony led to the New Harmony Trailhead with its picnic area and a series of trails – some of which lead up into the mountains which await discovery at another time in cooler weather.

And the view of the Kolob Canyons area from New Harmony is something to enjoy on its own!

Dave and Jan have been enjoying short (three-day) camping trips to various points of interest in Utah’s southwest and even into eastern Nevada. But it is very nice to have some beautiful areas to explore with only a short drive. In all of it the truth of the second verse of the hymn “I Am His, and He Is Mine” resonates for the Balsleys – “Heav’n above is deeper blue; earth around is sweeter green! Something lives in every hue Christ-less eyes have never seen”!

Dave and Jan enjoyed a week-long visit with Stephen, Meagan, Ryan (7) and Erin (4) July 2-13. It was the best chance they have had to spend time with Stephen and family for some time, and it was nice that it began over the 4th of July week-end because Cedar City is a very patriotic community and Meagan loves fireworks. The families (along with Pattie Shew, Dave and Jan’s former neighbor from Brea, CA) took in two city fireworks displays – one in St. George on the 3rd of July and one in Cedar City on the 5th. And Ryan enjoyed using grandpa’s small camera to take pictures of the 4th of July parade (on July 5th in Cedar City).

Ryan also took some interesting night-time pictures of the Cedar City fireworks display at the airport.

Stephen’s family enjoyed Cedar City’s Aquatic Center on some of the city’s warm summer days. And they also enjoyed cooling down in the water of Coal Creek which flows through town not far from Dave and Jan’s house.

Because Ryan and Erin like to climb rocks, Dave and Ryan hiked to the top of a red rock ridge close to the house.

What summer visit to Cedar City would be complete without a visit to beautiful, nearby Cedar Breaks?

A more recent discovery for Dave and Jan is the interesting trail to Cascade Falls – formed by a stream which flows for a mile or two from Navajo Lake through lava tubes to the place where (when water flows) it falls into the canyon below the colorful and beautiful Virgin River Rim. The cascade was dry, but the hike was invigorating!

The final scenic outing took the family to Kolob Canyon where a short hike provides views of the amazing rocks.

Dave and Jan were happy for the opportunity to share the patriotic atmosphere of Cedar City and some of the scenic beauty which surrounds them with Stephen’s family during the fourth of July holiday season – and they look forward to more opportunities to introduce family and friends to the beauty of “color country” in Southwest Utah. If the Lord can use the judgment of the Flood of Noah’s day to create such beauty, what will the perfection of heaven be like?

Dave and Jan had a conversation with a local man in Cedar City some time back in which they first heard of the Tushar Mountains east of the City of Beaver – just over fifty miles north of Cedar City. His reference to Mountain Goats which can sometimes be seen in the area with binoculars was particularly captivating, so the day came recently when they decided to do some exploring in the area. What a pleasant surprise to discover, just over sixty miles north, an alpine environment – including another ski lodge area at around 10,000 feet elevation. The area has been described as one of Utah’s best kept secrets – so don’t tell anybody!

A sign on the skyline trail told of the presence of Mountain Goats in the region – though Dave and Jan were disappointed not to have seen any during their hike on the Skyline Trail.

On a day when temperatures in the valleys of the area were typically in the 90’s, it was very refreshing to enjoy cooler temperatures which almost called for long-sleeved shirts or other warmer garments. Jan was well prepared for the cool air as she searched in a mountain meadow for Elephant Head Orchids.

U.S. Forest Service information on the area stated that the best time to see wild flowers in the region is late July or early August, so Dave and Jan were happy to find some very nice displays of wild flowers as they hiked.

A picnic lunch is always most enjoyable in a flowery mountain meadow along a crystal clear stream.

Dave and Jan are not down-hill skiers, but for those who are, the Eagle Point Ski Resort welcomes winter visitors.

There’s far more to explore than a day’s hike can begin to reveal, but it is great to know that such amazing scenery is revealing the creative genius of the Lord only an hour or two away from home for Dave and Jan – and for those who come to visit Dave and Jan in southwestern Utah’s “color country” (as their former neighbor Patty Shew from Brea did in recent days).