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).

Dave and Jan enjoyed a visit during the third week of May with their daughter Alissa and her husband, Dr. Andrew Crandall, and their four boys – Levi (10), Elijah (8), Silas (6) and Ephraim (4). They arrived from Huron, South Dakota on Tuesday evening, May 18, having stopped overnight at a Presbyterian camp in South Dakota (because Andrew is a Presbyterian pastor and had access to the camp), followed by a long day on the road on Tuesday. There were many things to enjoy with family the next few days – including visits to local parks, like the Main Street Park just a few blocks from the Balsleys’ house where Ephraim and his brothers enjoyed the spider web.

A visit to St. George the next day included a picnic in a park where an artist had created a very large guitar.

Next came a visit to a display of dinosaur tracks at the Johnson Farm Dinosaur Discovery Center.

A visit to the Thunder Junction amusement park was a fun experience for the boys – and the adults as well!

Friday, May 21st, was a good day for a visit to the Valley of Fire in southeastern Nevada because unseasonably cool weather made for a good experience in a beautiful and increasingly popular location which can be very warm in spring and summer and early fall months – which explained a trail sign which warned against the advisability of a hike!

The Crandalls started toward home in South Dakota via Yellowstone Park and other points of interest in Wyoming on Monday, May 24th. Because they were pulling the tent-trailer Dave and Jan gave to them after purchasing their Kodiak Cub trailer, the Balsleys traveled north with them one day to help with any questions they might have about camping in the tent trailer. So both families enjoyed an overnight visit to Rockport State Park north of Heber City, where everyone spent part of the evening riding on the historic Heber Valley Railroad between Heber City and Vivian Park.

As Dr. James Dobson observed years ago, “No one comes to the end of their life saying ‘I wish I had spent more time at the office.'” Dave and Jan are grateful for the children and grandchildren the Lord has placed in their lives, and they enjoyed spending time with Andrew and family exploring so many fun and interesting places in the Cedar City area!

“Behold, children are a gift of the LORD” (Psalm 127:3), and “Grandchildren are the crown of old men” (Proverbs 17:6).

Dave and Jan enjoyed a visit from Dr. Carl and Nancy Laney, friends from seminary days, in mid April. When the Laneys headed back to Oregon they drove west from Cedar City to Panaca, Nevada, then headed north where they passed Cathedral Gorge State Park. Because they sent back a picture of the gorge, reporting on the facilities available for campers at the park, Dave and Jan headed for an overnight visit to Cathedral Gorge with their curiosity aroused.

The park was well-worth a visit, with nice camping facilities and interesting geological formations around most of the perimeter of the gorge – created largely by the impact of water on the fine soil of the gorge over the passing years.

A four-mile hike takes the hiker around much of the perimeter of the State Park with many interesting views.

Some of the most unusual geological features of the park include the narrow “slot canyons” in many park locations.

Some of the slot canyons go back into the rock walls for one or two hundred feet and tower high above the hiker for many feet as well, creating the sense which many people have told of experiencing during their visits to some of the cathedrals in Europe – which may be the reason for the word “cathedral” in the name of the gorge and the park.

From the canyon floor there is also a trail which leads up to the Miller Point Overlook – an overlook which is also accessible from the highway north from Panaca, providing a very nice bird’s eye view of most of the gorge.

We are grateful to Carl and Nancy Laney for the heads-up regarding Cathedral Gorge State Park. It was a nice find! As Dave observed to a hiker we met along the way on one of the park’s trails (and he agreed) – “The Lord does nice work!”

Because Dave and Jan’s California grandkids have birthdays just a week and a half apart in April they drove to California to take part in the joint birthday party for Ryan and Erin at the home of Dr. Bruce and Connie Seymour (the other grandparents) in Long Beach. Those in attendance included the Seymours, Ryan and Erin’s parents, Stephen and Meagan, Meagan’s sister and family (Chip, Heidi, Zerlinda, Benjamin and Amos Clampitt). The Seymour’s back yard became the party scene.

Ryan had just turned seven, and he was happy to be reunited with Jan’s dog, Lola on the occasion of the party.

Erin, who turned four a few days after the party, was quite enthralled with a bubble machine on the day of the party.

With two birthdays to celebrate a little creativity can make the birthday cake serve for both of the celebrants.

And with two birthdays to celebrate there was an abundance of birthday gifts to be opened by both Ryan and Erin.

And what kids’ birthday party would be complete without a chance to hit the pinata, so cousin Benjamin took his turn as Stephen looked on and Benjamin’s father, Chip, made the process more challenging by keeping the target moving!

On Sunday evening, the day following the birthday party, Dave and Jan joined Stephen and family for a visit to the Glendale Galleria, a popular shopping center in Glendale, not far from Stephen’s family’s home in Burbank.

It’s fun to watch grandkids as they develop over the passing of the years. What directions will their lives take in the years ahead if the Lord’s return is delayed long enough to see them into adulthood? Only the Lord knows, but perhaps Ryan will turn out to be another famous artist in view of his re-creation of one of the works of Picasso!

Dave and Jan met Carl and Nancy Laney over fifty years ago when Dave and Carl were students together at Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon. Carl went on, after earning his M.Div. degree at Western, to earn a Th.M. degree there and then a Th.D. degree at Dallas Seminary. He has spent the past 40 years teaching Bible and other subjects at Western, and has authored numerous books (15-20?) and led many study tours to Israel. Though the Balsleys and the Laneys have lived in different states since seminary days, they have kept in touch over the years. So it was a pleasure to have the Laneys pay a visit to Cedar City for a few days of great sight seeing and hiking and fellowship in the Lord.

Bryce Canyon National Park is one of Utah’s national treasures only around 70 miles from Cedar City. Filled with multi-colored “hoodos,” the park stretches for many miles and includes many vista points for those who wish to view it from the top – but it also includes numerous trails for those who want to hike down into the canyon for a closer look.

The following day the drive went north through the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument to the Capitol Reef National Park – with great scenery all along the way through many miles of amazing rocks and beautiful forests.

The final full day with the Laneys was spent driving through the amazing rock formations of Zion National Park, then hiking at Kolob Canyon (which is Zion National Park West) – located just 20 miles south of Cedar City.

As you can clearly tell, the Balsleys and Laneys had a great time exploring the beauty of southern Utah – both families deeply grateful for all the evidence of the Lord’s amazing creative genius so evident in the region.

Dave and Jan have enjoyed camping since the beginning of their marriage. They purchased a Western Field 8 by10 foot tent with wedding gift money and camped in it for 33 years – until a horse ripped the top open at a Kampgrounds of America campground at St. Mary’s Lake in Montana’s Glacier National Park. For the next ten or fifteen years they enjoyed a used tent trailer they purchased in Pomona, California. In their senior years they have purchased a “camping trailer” – a Dutchmen Kodiak Cub to make “camping” more comfortable.

Snow Canyon State Park would probably be a national park in any other state than the state of Utah. Located in the red-rock country near St George, in southwestern Utah, this park enjoys mild winter weather and seldom receives snow. The park was named after early Utah leaders Lorenzo and Erastus Snow.

Dave and Jan have always enjoyed exploring the Lord’s creativity on their camping outings – and exploring Snow Canyon just 45 miles south of Cedar City near St. George, Utah was another great example of the Lord’s creativity!

Jeremiah 10:12 (NASB)
¹² It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.

One of the many things Dave and Jan enjoy about their move to Cedar City, Utah is the variety in the weather with the changing of the seasons. Southern California’s mild climate allowed for outdoor activities almost every day of the year, but frequent winter temperatures in the 80’s hardly felt like winter (though, of course, there were cooler and sometimes rainy days along with the unseasonably warm days). Cedar City’s winter days are considerably cooler, so they call for different kinds of outdoor activities (or different kinds of clothing at least), because sometimes it snows!

Dog walking in snowy weather is a little more challenging than dog walking on a warm dry day. Jan’s dog Lola doesn’t object too much to walks in snowy weather, but her fur doesn’t take too kindly to accumulation of snow on her legs.

Some new friends, planning a move from California to Dave and Jan’s neighborhood when their house in Cedar City is completed, invited the Balsleys to join them at their rented condo at the Brian Head Ski Resort on March 12th, which turned out to be one of the snowier days in the Cedar City area this winter season. There was plenty of snow on the mountain, but Dave and Jan’s Subaru Legacy (with all wheel drive) proved sufficient for the drive up to Brian Head.

One of the winter activities Dave and Jan enjoy is cross country skiing. Though heavy snow prevented a cross country skiing adventure with their new friends the day they visited them in their condo at Brian Head, Dave and Jan drove to the area a week earlier to check out the cross country options and found them ideal for winter recreation.

The Apostle Paul reminded the Athenians, as he addressed them at the Areopagus on Mars Hill, that the Lord gave witness to His goodness by providing rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17) – and He is still doing the same today by His provision of snow in Cedar City!

On a cool and very windy day in Cedar City Dave and Jan decided it might be nice to take a drive to the south into southeast Nevada for a visit to The Valley of Fire State Park. It turned out to be a very good decision!

The state park included a number of rock formations of amazing beauty and variety.

A hike of around a mile at Rainbow Vista included an amazing array of colors – as the name implies.

The next hike of around a mile and a half loop is called White Domes because of the large domes of white rock in the area – but the white was definitely surrounded by a great deal of color as well.

The day’s final hike of around a mile round trip was the trail known as Fire Wave

After scanning the peaks in the park all day in search of some Long Horn Sheep, Dave and Jan were pleased to find some of them grazing peacefully near one of the park’s campgrounds!

Dave and Jan never fail to see the creative genius of the Lord as they continue exploring the beauty and variety which surrounds them in Southwest Utah.

Among the changes Dave and Jan are experiencing this year after moving from California to Utah is changing seasons – including snow. It has been over thirty five years since they lived in snow country (though there were occasional snowy days in Tucson), so they are enjoying the beauty of the snow.

Something Dave and Jan have looked forward to with the arrival of snow has been cross country skiing – something they first enjoyed while living in Gallup, New Mexico over forty years ago.  They were able to purchase skis, boots, and poles from someone who has a large collection of them, having taken large groups on cross country skiing outings over the years.  One of the many nice things about the location of their house is the existence of the city’s golf course right across the street – a great place to do some cross country skiing when there is enough snow in the city, as there was just recently.

When there isn’t enough snow in the city, or a change of scenery is desirable, there is plenty of snow up Highway 14 on the Markagunt Plateau.  So Dave and Jan headed up the mountain for some great scenery and large fields of snow suitable for cross country skiing.

The man who sold them the skis also grooms the cross country ski trails at Deer Hollow on the plateau where there are miles of trails with signs at every intersection in the system to help skiers know where they are and where they might want to go.

The Clarion Trail loop leads to a viewpoint which looks down on Navajo Lake – frozen and snow-covered during the winter season.

The family (including Stephen, Meagan, Ryan and Erin) enjoyed watching even a team of Huskies pulling a dog sled during one of their visits to Deer Hollow on the Markagunt Plateau around Christmas.  And, more recently, Caroleen Suzuki (who lived with Dave and Jan for six years after her arrival from Japan to pursue her college studies in Fullerton) tried sledding at Deer Hollow during her brief visit to Cedar City.

Dave and Jan are very grateful to the Lord for the variety of the seasons and the beauty of the snow during the winter months – and for the opportunities and the ability they still have, at their increasing ages, to get out and enjoy what God has done!