To-hell-an-back

Yep I can cross this one off my bucket list been there done that, all though at the time I did not know I was going there or I may have had second thoughts. I have not been on a horse now for over six weeks so over the weekend Dennis and I headed off to the mountains. The usual place up to Pretty Valley sounds pleasant right? Well once in Pretty Valley the next question is to you want to go the Hells Hole? I told Dennis I didn't like the sound of it, but once again I put my big girl britches on and away we went. It was not to bad till we got to a steep trail that had slippery wet dirt , very tight sharp turns and exposed roots that you needed to maneuver over. Well I watched Dennis go down and I thought NO WAY! I know - I KNOW - I KNOW horses are like a four wheel drive, they have four legs to balance on but at the time it did not matter. So I chose to dismount then tried to get out of the way of the horse in case he went tumbling down. I gave Dennis the lead rope so he could pull my horse behind him then I slid down the rest of the trail on my butt holding on to what ever little brush I could grab to keep me from tumbling down into back-end of my horse. Of course I have no pictures to prove just how scary this was for me. One day I would love to take pictures of some of the scary situations I have been in but for some reason I think holding onto life is far more important than pictures of probable death. Once down the trail onto some flat land I got back up on the horse then the next thing to come out of Dennis's mouth was "Do you want to got see the waterfall? "

Well of course who does not like a picture of a water fall until I seen the trail that led to it. Cowboy boots are not the best thing to hike in is my opinion, but one more time he talked me into following him down this trail which was pretty steep , then this green rope appears ( not a good sign) so the next task at hand is to grip onto the rope , hold on for dear life and slowly but surely move on down. Yes the waterfall was nice but by the time I got down the trail I was shaking so hard from the effort it had taken me to get there that the picture was a disappointment, and I am not going back. They say when you come close to death and your life flashes before your eyes you see the world differently. As we came down the mountain I was feeling lucky that nothing had happened. I could not help but notice all the wild flowers were blooming so I stopped along the way to snap pictures, usually by this time of year they have dried up, but due to the longer than normal wet summer they were still beautiful.

Yes life is good!

When one of my sons found out that Dennis had taken me there he wanted to know if I had been taken to Prayer Rock?

No I told him, but why on earth is it called that?

JD's reply

"You need to say one before you go over it".

I think I will skip that one.

Do not know what these little bugs are but they looked like a black ladybug with heads that looked they they were made of gold.

Does this not look like a Tiffany glass lamp shade?