Wazzu doesn’t like it when we rush around. That has always made her nervous ever since we first got her. She sticks to me like glue during times like this. Once we were in the car together and the atmosphere was relaxed then she was okay.
So with dogs in tow we were off to Zion National Park again. There is one trail in the park where dogs are allowed. We parked at the Visitor Center and set off on the Pa’rus Trail which goes right along the water.
The trail is flat and paved so it is used by walkers, dogs, wheelchairs, and cyclists. With four dogs who want to investigate all sides of the trail at once it was a bit of a challenge to stay out of everyone else’s way even though they were all on six foot leads. We don’t move at a very fast pace with Boogie along so we didn’t get nearly as far as we’d hoped before we had to turn around and go back so we could continue on with the day’s plans.
There is a highway that goes through the park (it doesn’t go into the canyon where we went yesterday) and out the other side. We hadn’t done this yesterday so we thought it would be a pretty drive. However, we didn’t realize how pretty it would be. There were a lot of interesting sights to see right from the car and at the scenic view spots. We didn’t have time to stop though and immediately decided that even though we had planned a different route home we were going to change our plans and come back through the park so we could take time to stop and look at some the more interesting spots.
On the highway through the park there is a 1.1 mile tunnel that goes right through the red rock mountains. While it is a two lane road, they only let traffic go from one direction at a time. I think a lot of the reason for this is that the tunnel isn’t all that tall. So RV’s need to travel down the very center of the road in order to fit. In fact, all RV’s have to pay a special fee as they have to be escorted through the tunnel. As you might guess, this means that there are frequently delays as all traffic is stopped when RV’s go through the tunnel. And if they’re on that road they must go through the tunnel as that’s the only route.
We hit one of these delays. Here you can see the view from our car as we waited about 15 minutes for our turn to go through the tunnel.
It was a super dark tunnel too – it seemed pitch black until we came to a window. I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a tunnel that had windows! The view out of these windows was spectacular – but you had to look super quick as understandably there was no stopping allowed in the tunnel.
And as luck often has it when you’re in a hurry, we got behind a guy that was going excruciatingly slow. The scenery was beautiful so I can understand him going somewhat slow but a snail could have walked faster. Ah, but now we had a bit of good luck.
Bighorn sheep were an important member of the environment in Zion until poachers wiped them out. In 1973, eight bighorns were reintroduced into the park. The estimated herd size of their descendants now stands at about 70. They say only a lucky few visitors to Zion actually spot these shy denizens of the highlands – and we were one of those few. Unfortunately from the back of the car I wasn’t able to get a picture but it was still fun to see one. And, to top it off the slow guy pulled over to take a look.
Now we were off to the races. You see before we left home this morning I had called Best Friends Animal Sanctuary to see if we could take a tour (you have to sign up in advance). They said they had space on the 1:30pm tour. But as we talked it turned out that only one "people and dog friendly" dog is allowed to come on each tour. Oops, we have four dogs. At first it looked as though we were going to be out of luck. But the gal transferred me to another person who she said may be able to help me out.
The lady that answered the phone was very nice. I explained that we definitely had one dog that would be very polite on the tour but that we had a total of four and it was too hot to leave the others in the car while we went on a 90 minute tour. She then offered us a great solution. She said we could follow along behind the tour van in our car. Wow, good thing we had four dogs – I had no idea the tour was in a van, I had just assumed it was a walking tour. I wouldn’t have been able to do a 90 minute van tour.
So we were told to arrive by 1:00pm as they show a video presentation first. We were really scooting trying to make it in time. At 1:01pm we pulled into the Best Friends Visitor Center.
They are very prompt as the video had already started. The staff there was very nice and said all four dogs could go into the theater to watch the movie. I think we distracted folks a bit as all six of us got in and got situated. Mike and the big dogs all sat up near the front while Boogie and I laid on the floor near the back of the room. The big dogs were all just perfect of course. But Boogie had just been in his crate for three hours so he wasn’t real big on this idea of just going and lying down and being still and quiet. So I had to keep him busy by asking him to down and then treating him – fortunately I had lots of treats in my pocket. But that game only lasted so long before he was bored. I gave him a little slack in his leash so he could roam about two feet in any direction. This was good as I could now concentrate a little more on the movie. After a couple minutes it clicked in my brain that he sure was being good. I turned to look behind my head to find him in this huge pot that had a tree planted in it – he was excavating the tree. There was dirt all over the floor and in my hair. So now I’m trying to clean it up without drawing anyone’s attention to us. Leave it to a puppy.
The movie wasn’t very informative really but it showed a lot of nice pictures and was set to music. While it may not have told us much it did evoke a lot of emotions from people as I noticed many people wiping tears from their eyes. Don’t worry - they were happy tears.
Now it was time to get all loaded up for the tour. They gave us a walkie-talkie and the driver of the tour van had one as well. So we just followed along and Tina, our guide, drove the van and spoke into the walkie-talkie the whole time. How nice is that! We could hear most of what she said – sometimes her finger would get tired and come off the button and we’d have moments of silence but overall it worked great. We were very appreciative as we wouldn’t have been able to do the tour any other way.
For those of you that aren’t familiar with Best Friends, let me tell you a little bit about it. Best Friends is located in Kanab, Utah – which is close to nothing! Take a look at a map (Shawn and James ask your mom for a map) and look on the southern border of the state – you’ll see there is nothing else around there.
A small group of friends in Prescott, Arizona weren’t happy with their local animal shelter as too many animals were being euthanized. So they started going in and adopting some of the animals just to save them from certain death. As you can imagine you can’t do this too much as you run out of space very quickly.
One day one of the folks was driving on a trip and came across this beautiful country. He stopped and asked a realtor if there happened to be any property available in the area. It just so happened that a 3,000 acre cattle ranch had just been put up for sale the day before. So the guy went home and talked to his friends. They decided this would be the perfect place to set up a place for animals of all sorts to live out their lives. But they would need a lot of money to buy the ranch. So they talked to friends, relatives, and anyone else they could think of and they soon came up with enough money to purchase the property. Over time they also purchased another 800 acres. In addition, they now lease another 30,000 acres from the Bureau of Land Management. So as you can see, this is a HUGE place.
What they do is take animals that would be otherwise euthanized and give them a nice place to live out their lives. Of course they do adopt out animals – that is their ultimate goal of course, to find forever homes for all animals. The mission of Best Friends is driven by the simple philosophy that kindness to animals helps build a better world for all of us. Until all animals can find their forever home, animals of all kinds can call Best Friends their forever home. The day we visited they had 2,000 animals living there. Some of the animals that call Best Friends home are horses, mules, dogs, cats, rabbits, many different kinds of birds, as well as some wild animals that are being nursed to health so they can be reintroduced to the wild.
As you can imagine it takes a lot of people to care for 2,000 animals on a daily basis. Currently they have 400 employees and scores of volunteers. They get absolutely no assistance from the government – all the money to run Best Friends comes from private donations.
On site they have some cabins that volunteers can rent to live in during their stay. Newly added are two RV sites complete with all hook-ups for volunteers to rent as well. We stopped on our way out to look at them and they seemed very nice – and what a view. If we were to volunteer (which we are seriously considering) the dogs are allowed to hike anywhere on the BLM land that Best Friend leases. Hmm….30,000 acres – that should be just enough for Sparkie!
The first thing we came to were some of the horse pastures. Each pasture was huge and only had a couple horses in it. Talk about spacious quarters.
A little further down the road we came to the mules. They had as much room as the horses and also like the horses they each had a name. They were so cute!
As we were passing the Bird Sanctuary we saw some wild turkeys - certainly not a rare bird by any means!
After quite a long drive we came to the Cat Sanctuary area. There were many buildings in that section and each housed a different type of cat. Some of the various houses were for FIV cats, feral cats, elderly cats, kittens, intake and special medical needs cats. We got to go to the special needs building. (The dogs had to stay in car during this part of the tour – much to their dismay.)
The first thing that got our attention was how completely spotless the area was. There were close to thirty cats living here yet it was totally clean and smelled so nice and fresh. There was absolutely no cat smell at all. The indoor area was spacious and had many windows to let the daylight in.
The room was filled with a large variety of beds and nooks and crannies for the cats to choose from.
From that room, in addition to a door for people, there was a cat door so the cats could go inside or outside completely at their own discretion.
The outside area was completely enclosed with wire fencing. There were many toys out here, as well as fun things to climb on. The rafters in the outdoor room were left open so the cats could climb in the rafters. It must be very popular as we could see many cats climbing around up there.
One thing we found very interesting is that they free feed dry food and water. There was one bowl inside and one bowl outside – each had at least ten cups of food in it. Our cat would have eaten all that food at one sitting! Twice a day the cats are also given canned food.
One of the special needs cats, Charlie, came in with her whole hind end paralyzed. The vets didn’t think there was much they could do for the cat except to give it a good place to live out its life. They did notice that the bottoms of her back legs were completely raw from having been dragged on the ground. So they started wrapping her back legs. Over time she has slowly but surely started to use her hind end a bit. She is making progress and is just starting to build up her muscles a little. They change her bandages every two days and decorate the bandages differently each time. When we were there she had three leaf clovers on the bandages. She is a real sweetie.
We got to stay in the cat building for about 15 minutes. After the tour portion of our visit we were given a few minutes to interact with the cats. Most of you that know Mike probably think of him as a big dog lover…which he is now. But cats are really what pulls at his heart strings. Before he met me, he’d never had a dog, but he’d had many cats growing up. I really wasn’t sure we were going to get him to leave to cat building as he fell in love with one cat in particular.
And the cat fell in love with Mike too. When Mike tried to put the cat down, he dug his claws into Mike’s shoulder. He didn’t want Mike to leave….unless he got to go along.
As much as Mike loves dogs, I haven’t seen these true expressions of pure happiness until he was spending time with these cats. Later when I asked Mike what department he would want to volunteer in, he said “Cats” before I could even finish my sentence. I think those 15 minutes where the happiest minutes Mike’s had in years.
From there we continued on to the dog compound. As with the cats, there are many different dog areas – special needs, senior citizens, puppies, aggressive, intake, and just plain dogs. While there are different compounds they are all laid out the same circular format.
When you enter the building you enter into a circular area. From this center area, you can see four indoor dog runs.
Each run will have anywhere from one to five dogs in it. On the outside of each run are tags showing each dog that is in that run as well as a board that gives exercise information and any other pertinent information for those particular dogs.
In the inside area of each run are a couple raised beds – although all the dogs I saw were lying on the floor. Each run has a doggy door so the dogs can be in or out depending on their desire. The outside runs are pie shaped going out from the building but still contain the same dogs that were in that group.
Then there is an exercise run that goes all the way around all the runs. Dogs from all the runs can go into that area to exercise together – but all must return to their own runs as they aren’t allowed into other runs. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, all the outside runs have radiant heating underneath so that even when it snows the runs aren’t frozen or snowy.
The dogs are all fed twice a day in the exact same routine every feeding time. Each meal is prepared specifically for each dog so that they get the right amount of food and special food if they have any special needs. Each dog’s food intake is carefully monitored. When it is time to eat each dog is taken to the outside run and leashed to the exact same spot every time. When every dog in that compound is leashed up then they each get their food bowl. They are leashed up in the exact same order every time and unleashed in the exact same order every time. The staff feels routine is extremely important for these dogs so they try do everything just the same every day.
Volunteers also help walk the dogs. Since there is plenty of land, there is ample space for dog walking. I saw a number of trails marked as to length and difficulty. While the dogs do have nice outdoor space in their runs I think it is very important for the dogs to have time outside the cages and to have human contact. We were there on October 4th and I was disappointed to see on the kennel tags that the last time these dogs were walked was on the 2nd. But with over 600 dogs there on a daily basis, they definitely could use more volunteers.
While we were allowed to play with the cats, we weren’t allowed to touch the dogs in any manner. As you can imagine, most of the dogs here are large dogs – even more so than in your local shelter. They use a collar system so that you can immediately tell by looking at the dog what its status is.
A dog wearing a red collar can only be handled by staff. These are the dogs that are on the aggressive side. A yellow collar signifies this dog has serious medical issues. A purple collar means the dog is not good with kids and the green collar means this dog passed all the temperment tests.
In the building we went into, in addition to the dogs in the runs there was one dog that was loose in the middle circular area that we were in. This dog was free to do anything he wanted. He could come in the circular area or he could follow the people around or he could just wander anywhere in the wilderness as long as he came back by five for dinner. We decided that if Wazzu had to be at Best Friends this is the dog she would be. The good dog with all the special privileges.
Each animal, no matter what kind, has to go to the intake building for that kind of animal first. They’ll spend 10 – 14 days there under very special watch to make sure they are healthy and to evaluate their temperament. They’ll also be spayed/neutered before going to their new building with all the other animals.
Also on site is a rehab building complete with physical therapists and the latest in rehab equipment including an underwater treadmill. Everything possible is done here to help make sure that the animals are cared for at the highest level possible. Of course a forever home is the ultimate goal but having a safe place they can live out their lives is a much better alternative than what they may have had otherwise.
Each month, Best Friends receives over 2,000 requests for animals to come live there. Needless to say they can’t possibly take all those animals. So each request is carefully considered before a decision is made as to what animals are allowed to come live there.
As you can imagine, a number of animals spend the remainder of their lives here. When they pass away they are still treated with respect and never forgotten. Best Friends has a huge cemetery called Angels Rest where all animals are laid to rest.
Wind chimes are also hung around the cemetery – each with the name of an animal on it. It is quite a sight and a very emotional place on the Best Friends grounds.
After our tour ended we went into the Visitors Center to see what kind of things they had in their gift shop and to inquire more about volunteering.
As you walk toward the entrance of the Visitor Center there is a very pretty little pond with fish and some lily pads. I think a branch had fallen off a tree into the pond and Slugger wanted to get it out. The others just wanted to drink. It was very cute with all four dogs leaning over the edge.
If you look to the left just as you get to the door you'll see a very nice relaxing porch area. We didn't spend any time there but it sure looked like a nice place to sit.
We left the dogs in the car but were very highly encouraged to bring them in. So we went out and got Wazzu and Boogie. They were both extremely well behaved and were both very popular. The people that worked in the Visitors Center were the most caring, compassionate and kind group of people I have ever met. It was very clear that they had a deep true love for animals and really did want to do what they could to make this world a better place to live. We bought a couple t-shirts to help support their cause. Boogie wanted to buy many more things – especially this big stuffed cat that was bigger than he is. This cat goes in the microwave to get warm. Then you can cuddle with it and stay nice and warm – just like if you had a real cat. It seems like the poor lady had to put that thing back up on the shelf twenty times as every time she’d put it back Boogie would somehow climb up and take it again. The employees were all very amused by this and when I’d try to make him stop they’d tell me to let him do it as they thought it was so cute. We didn’t buy it for him much to his dismay!
If any of you are looking for a great cause to donate either your time or your money, you couldn’t go wrong with Best Friends. This is the largest place of its kind in the U.S. Unfortunately, we need many more places like this.
Now it was time to head home taking the route through Zion again. But now we had time to sightsee a little more as we weren’t on a time schedule.
We saw some very unusual rock formations. The first one was called Checkerboard Mesa.
If you look closely you can see the pattern in the rock is like a bunch of squares - like you would find on a checkerboard I guess. I have no idea what caused this pattern in the rock.
With the clouds situated where they are I thought this mountain looked like a steaming volcano.
This is one of my favorite pictures as it reminds me of a scene you might see in one of those old western movies I used to watch as a kid.
To me it looked like there was snow on these mountains - but it definitely wasn't snow at all, that was just the color of these rocks.
I don't know what the real geological story is about this rock formation but to me it looks like rocket ships.
This arch was a very popular sight amongst all the tourists - we saw more people taking pictures here than anywhere else in the park.
In this mountain is the tunnel. Here you can see a couple of the windows in the side of the mountain.
When we got back down to where we parked yesterday we got out to take the dogs on the Pa’rus Trail but from the opposite end we started at this morning. From this direction we crossed Oak Creek, the Virgin River, and Pine Creek, the slow but steady stonecutters of Zion.
To cross all this water we had to go over numerous bridges.
I was busy trying to look at scenery and watch for bicycles and joggers and walk two dogs. At the exact time I glanced down to look at Boogie, Mike yelled “Watch Out!!” My heart rate went as high as it could go as I saw Boogie’s back legs drop down through a hole in the bridge. He was pulling himself up as hard as he could with his front legs. I pulled as hard as I could on the leash pulling him up to safety. What?! Why would they build a bride with a hole in it large enough for a dog to fall through. And a nasty fall it would have been as we were at least 50’ off the ground. Due to the angle, this picture doesn’t show it well but here is what I’m talking about. Needless to say, Boogie was very careful on the other eight or nine bridges we had to cross.
The view from many of the bridges was very pretty.
From this trail, we also enjoyed broad views of the cliffs of lower Zion Canyon.
This trail is supposed to be excellent for plant and wildlife viewing although all we saw was one lizard. There were however splendid views of classic rock formations such as Moenave and Kayenta – although I couldn’t tell you which was which.
I was getting really tired and hungry as it had been a long day and we hadn't had any lunch. So we turned around before making it to the other end of the trail. It was a hot day so on the way back we went down one the river access trails to the river.
Wazzu immediately went to the middle of the river and just walked around to cool off. Slugger was doing his usual water activity of trying to pull sticks out of the water. And Sparkie was chewing on sticks. Boogie was hot but he didn’t want to get in the water. So Mike encouraged him and then he thought it was pretty fun.
Just upstream from where we stopped was a pretty and fast moving section of the river.
By now it was 7:00pm and we still had a couple hours before we’d get home. So we decided to stop in the little town outside of the park to grab dinner. Every time we’d go to or from the park we’d pass this café called “The Spotted Dog Café.” Mike loved the name so this is where he stopped to eat. Of course we just wanted take-out so we could eat in the car with the dogs. We went in to make our choice – gads this place was super expensive. I thought the word “café” meant casual, quick, inexpensive – well I was wrong! But we were very hungry so we bit the bullet and ordered.
While we were waiting for our food we noticed that the sun was setting on the rocks across the street. This made them even more striking.
Mike had ordered a pizza – which even though was a lot more expensive than a pizza at a pizza parlour, it was much smaller than a dinner plate. I ordered a Caesar salad. Mike hated his pizza and I hated the salad so we switched. We decided that if you see a spotted dog eating something….stay away!
What a great day. A special thanks to my friend Pat for suggesting that we visit Best Friends. She said it would be well worth our while and she was certainly right. Thanks Pat!
Here’s to all our best friends – humans and animals.
Debbie
10/4/07
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