Sugar 'N Bliss: February 2013

Over Presidents Day we went to Moab with some good friends. We rented a condo and then enjoyed. We went 4 wheeling, hiking, eating and just relaxed. We saw some wind caves, sandy roads, large rock escarpments that were amazing, awesome arches and we hiked along snow and ice covered rock and ridges. It was a lovely weekend.

We rode out to an obscure tunnel in the rock one day. We had to hike in about 500 feet. Steph and I were ahead of our husbands. We came to a place where we had to crawl over some rocks when we heard a strange "gurgle gurgle blurp" sound coming from above us. Neither of us had ever heard the sound before. We paused to listen. . . "gurgle gurgle blurp." Just as we decided it was ok to keep going, we saw the bush where the sound was coming from start to shake. We paused again . . . "gurgle gurgle blup," louder this time. We decided not to go further. Then the bush started shaking harder and we could hear footsteps! What animal was up there?! It sounded huge! My heart was thumping, my imagination running. I imagined a large type of rodent . . . no, that sounded more like . . . a raptor! There was raptor in the bush and it was going to attack us and then. . .

Our husbands came around the bend and it was their footsteps we heard. My heartbeat slowed and Steph and I laughed at ourselves. When we got up to the offending bush and critter we found it was a raven making the odd noise. I had never heard Ravens make that noise before. I am much more accustomed to the obnoxious "Caw! Caw!" Anyway, we gave ourselves a good scare and a good laugh (my imagination jumped to a raptor since I was reading Jurassic Park on our trip).