A Little Scenic Nudity and Some Cows

This past weekend I went to a few different spots to go hiking.  The weather was wonderful and with winter quickly approaching I have to take advantage as much as possible before it’s too late.  One of my friends had read about some natural hot springs about 15 minutes from where she lives so we thought we would check it out.  I had no clue there were hot springs in the Utah valley but apparently there are.  Anyway, we make our way to the trail and are ready to start our trek upward when I notice this sign at the foot of the trail:

In the first paragraph is says that we may have to yield to cattle.  Really are you serious?  Cattle up here hiking?  Uh…that’s weird.  And would be scary because the trail isn’t that wide and has drop offs so I’m not sure how you would yield and/or maneuver to get out of their way.  And scary because I’m not a country girl and am not sure how I would do being so close to apparent wild cattle.  I don’t even like milk for heaven’s sake.

But it was the last paragraph that really caught my attention.  Nudity is NOT prohibited on Forest Service Trails.  Again I ask, really are you serious?  So theoretically I could strip down and hike the 5 miles round trip nude?  Isn’t there some law about indecent exposure in public?  Are the Forest Service Trails not out in public?  So I realize that we were hiking to some hot springs and there may be people that would prefer to swim in their birthday suit but honestly people, just don’t.

We begin the hike and about a mile into it we start seeing a lot of boyscout groups coming down and I was glad they were going in the opposite direction as we were.  I wasn’t in the mood to follow 10-12 year old boys on  5 mile hike.  As we are nearing the end, we pass one of the boy scout leaders that informs us that yes, we are almost there and that at the very top it opens up to meadow/field area that’s pretty cool.  This was a surprise to us because nowhere in our reading mentioned an open area.  Sweet.  We pass the last group of scouts that are still playing in the water and head for the final spring and open field.  Only thing is that a couple had beat us there.  And they were enjoying the springs naked.  Whoa! Whoa!  My eyes…my eyes!  I have to say that even though there was a sign that indicated the possibility of nudity I was surprised.  Mid-afternoon, on a public trail, with boyscouts about 50 feet away, and they were without a care in the world.  The whole point of the hike was to take pictures up in the canyons but that wasn’t exactly the subject I had in mind.  So rather than continuing we turned and headed back down.  Regardless, I did manage to get some great pics so click here to view.

As we drove down the road a few miles away from the mouth of the trail we saw our wild cattle roaming freely across the street.  Not quite ferocious beasts but I still wouldn’t want to see them on the trail.

A picture is worth a thousand words…and then some

                                                                                 

My job consists of scanning slides/negatives/photos for a well established, internationally known corporation. I’ve been here at this job for 2 1/2 years and other than the typical office politics I like it. I pretty much set my own schedule and manage my own area. I get great perks and bonuses from the company – everything from free products to extremely discounted prices. However, over the past couple of years I’ve been “privy” to a not so great perk. Nudity in images. Yes folks, I said nudity. And in the case of slides/negatives (which is my main work area) the images are only visable AFTER they’ve been scanned. I honestly do not know what possesses people to take nude photos of themselves and send them in to be scanned and preserved forever. Since we are an internationally opterating company, I can bypass photos taken in Europe at beaches where the women go topless. To me this is a part of their own culture and lifestyle that while I may not practice, can still understand and tolerate. But I’m talking about full nudity shots while in the shower or walking around the bedroom. A while back I was scanning some negatives of a couple that looked like they were on vacation. Right in the middle between snapshots of the local historical buildings and an amuesment park were pictures of the two of them doing the deed in their hotel room! DOING THE DEED!!! Um, hello I don’t work for the porn industry! And while we do have a strict no scan policy on these types of images, the damage had already been done. I send a plea to all those contemplating photographing this type of extracurricular activity….DON’T DO IT or at the very least DON’T SEND IT TO ME!!