The Utah Frenzy

Cyndi enjoying Utah

After we left Hovenweep and got back on the road, we first had to stop for lunch. Cyndi found we would be passing within 4 miles of Natural Bridges National Monument at noon, so that was our first destination.

Natural Bridges

After lunch, we took a quick tour accompanied by a half-dozen middle-aged Russian tourists on Harleys blaring hip-hop at 110 db. And by about too many other tourists also interested in a quick view of the wonders.

This was said to be the world's largest natural bridge and "still getting bigger"
Hmmm ... I never heard of a natural bridge "getting smaller"

The scenery was nice but when we got back on the road, the scenery became amazing. For over a hundred miles our jaws were hanging open and, as we rounded another curve or crested another hill and thought "this must be the end of the great views", the scenery became even more impressive.

No pictures, tho. There was no place on the road for an RV to pull over. Not really any place for even a motorcycle to pull over.

For those of you playing along at home, here is a map of the entire trip. We are now traveling from Cortez--point C to Capital Reef--point D.

When we arrived at our RV Park in Torrey, we pulled in just behind this RV Bus filled with almost 30 German tourists.

Each of those windows is a sleeping berth.

Oh, I hear a distant voice asking But Paul, how could the tourists get into those berths?

Good question, distant anonymous voice. Turns out the other side of the sleeping box folds down to form a platform about 4 feet above the ground and ladders are placed on the platform so people can ascend to their berth.

But ... but ... do they fold up the wall at night?

No, they hang a canvas wall around the platform. The sleepers can then enjoy the fresh outdoor air while sleeping (it only got down to about 35 that night) and they can share their night time noises with each other. They can even attract flying insects.

The tourists genuinely seemed to enjoy this. The moment the bus stopped, they all swarmed out and got busy setting up the platform, unfolding dining tables and chairs, opening the communal kitchen built into the side of the bus and started preparing the evening meal of schnitzel and dumplings to be served promptly at 7 pm. To the minute.

The tourists took orderly turns visiting the rest rooms and taking pictures. All with lots of energy and discipline. They ranged from their early twenties thru their fifties.

I'm pretty sure each of the German tourists took this picture from the RV campground parking lot.
Just like I did.

The next day in Capital Reef we saw the RV bus head for a viewpoint that had a parking lot too small for the bus to turn around. No panic. Everyone just piled off the bus, grabbed a corner, picked up the bus, spun it around, pointed it back out, got on and left. We did not see the bus again.

Capital Reef

Cyndi reports that Capital Reef National Park has the world's largest monocline, which is interesting except that I don't know what a monocline is. But that didn't stop me from enjoying the scenery, along with several thousand other tourists. Frenzied tourists, all rushing to gaze for a millisecond or two at the next scenic viewpoint.

This was kind of a theme in Utah. The fall is the prime Utah tourist season as the summer is unbearably hot and the rest of the year sucks. And, according to locals, this is the first year Utah has aggressively marketed tourism. It worked. At all the National *'s, the rangers were so tired of the tourists, all of whom wanted directions to the most accessible, most beautiful, fastest to get to scenic viewpoint. Kind of like me. Exactly like me, actually.

Here are a few pics ... of course I took many more and after discarding most of them, I still had way too many ... but don't despair, you can find extra pics at the link near the bottom of this post.

Cyndi examines something fossilized in the rock.
The remains of an ancient many legged sea creature?
Crystalized salt deposits?
Slime mold?
Explosive diarrhea from a dinosaur?

Rocks are fun. And pretty

Petroglyphs

Vandalism
Six surveyors playing a prank

We took the RV down here

to walk in this canyon

I'm pretty sure I'm not really this tan

Rocks are fun. And pretty

Escalante

After we left Capital Reef and got back on the road, the first thing we did was stop for lunch.

Lunch Spot

We were now entering the Grand Staircase -- Escalante National Monument, which was the main purpose of the trip for me. This fairly new NatMnt is almost 3,000 square miles of pretty much wilderness north of Lake Powell / Colorado River / Grand Canyon. And while the literature speaks of thousands of miles of roads professionally maintained, the roads are not RV suitable. So we ended up skirting much of the area. Next time I'll bring the truck and bikes and backpacks.

Never-the-less, we saw a lot of great scenery again. Here are a couple of examples

Cyndi rarely takes pictures of me while we are traveling, so I have to resort to selfies.

Oh, now I see why Cyndi refuses to take my picture

Kodachrome Basin

Our journey took us within 12 miles of Bryce National Park and while it wasn't on our agenda, we decided to stop in. We had visited Bryce in January during a snow storm and, even tho I hate snow, it was beautiful and tranquil. And cold.

Hoodoos in Bryce, Jan 2001.

We got to Bryce at 8am and found it swarming with frenzied, frantic tourists and found access was restricted to shuttle buses. We said "Oh Hell No", turned around and headed back the way we came and instead visited the very scenic and tranquil Kodachrome Basin State Park. Here the tourists were smiling, calm, enjoying themselves.

Enjoying Kodachrome Basin

We even had a view of Bryce from the Basin.
The pink stripe in the distance.
You can even make out hoodoos.

The park had something like 17 of these stone chimneys.
The origin of these is interesting
Hint: they are an inverted landscape

Mossy Cave

After we left Kodachrome and got on the road, the first thing we did was stop for lunch at the Rustler's Restaurant in Tropic, Utah. There we found a group of amiable tourists from Eau Claire who griped about the Federal Diary Price Supports, said the weak coffee was too strong and ordered extra fries with their burgers (I guess one pound of fries wasn't enough for a single Eau Clairian). I didn't recognize any of them.

We then took the short Mossy Cave hike at the edges of Bryce. Nice scenery, and, to our delight, happy tourists.

A few hoodoos

Toadstools

Our last day in Utah was overcast and rainy and a perfect day to go hunting for toadstools.

So after walking for a few miles and collected these toadstools, we got back on the road and left Utah, immediately stopping for lunch in Page, AZ. That night was Flagstaff and the next day the too-often traveled trip from Flagstaff back to Santa Fe.

So while in Utah we saw bridges, reefs, basins, waterfalls, mossy caves and toadstools.

Hard to believe Utah is a desert.

For more pics, look here

Ruins, Art, Nature and Us

On our way to Utah we stopped in Cortez for a couple nights to view some of the many ancestral pueblan ruins in the area. The best known of these is Mesa Verde, but the largest and largest number of ruins lie scattered across the high Coloradan plains.

Anasazi Heritage Center

The visitor center for the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument sits on the flank of a small hill that has a small ruin on top and a view of the McPhee Reservoir.

As always, Cyndi acted as my enthused and eager model.

Cyndi wondering if she could hide my camera so that she could enjoy the trip.

The center has a great view of Mesa Verde, maybe 15 miles away.

While we were reading the informational signs telling us to look at the scenery, Cyndi said "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah ... what is it?"

"Oh look, it's a rattlesnake"

There, at Cyndi's feet, was a 3 foot rattlesnake rattling, coiling up and preparing to strike. So I rushed over quickly so I could get a good close up of the strike but the snake saw me coming and thought "The hell with this" and SSS'ed into the underbrush faster than my camera could focus, so all I got was this blurry picture of the snake's tail.

The snake was about as long as my arm.
Cyndi insisted it was 4 feet long.
And she tells people it was 5.

The Center had a nice little museum and at the museum they had an exhibit of contemporary baskets made in the traditional fashion with a mix of contemporary and traditional patterns. Quite nice. Here is an overview with one example basket. More baskets can be seen by following the link at the bottom.

The snake motif made this an easy choice for "typical basket".

Sand Canyon

McElmo Canyon is a well known name in southwestern archaeology, being the site of many important discoveries and now the home to well respected research institutes. Sand Canyon is one of the more popular hiking spots along McElmo Canyon, with probably about 20 miles of trails giving views of many ruins.

On our way to Sand Canyon, in the middle of nowhere and the middle of McElmo Canyon, we passed a dry ice plant near a rise and twist in the road and it seemed rather random to us. But we found the rise was part of the McElmo Dome, which holds one of the world's richest underground deposits of CO₂.

Question: If you are mining already sequestered CO₂, are you for or against global warming?

Answer: There are dollars to be made, silly person. And this de-sequestration is not nearly as harmful as the Farmington methane hotspot just 20 miles to the south. You know: Your worser wrong makes my wrong a right. Right? Right!    Right Power !!       Rights Only !!!

... oh, sorry, got carried away there .... kinda like we did in the RV ...

... so when we arrived at the parking lot, we breathed deeply, OM'ed a bit and went on to enjoy our 5 mile walk into Sand Canyon.

As we left the "parking lot", we saw this nice Colorado home. Would love to live here.
Except for that winter bit.

We saw several ruins in caves, this being one of the better preserved.

And walls in unexpected places

And "fortresses" atop mesas.
I love the little balcony.
But I have no idea how anyone got up there,
little less carrying rocks with them.

"Are you taking more pictures?"

But Cyndi was nice enough to pose for me,
pretending to inspect these juniper berries.

Which was just a cheap excuse for me to show this picture

And as long as I'm in 'nature photography' mode ...
Just playing with "microscope mode" on the camera.
Usually it doesn't work but when it does, it's cool

Cyndi's given up and is just going to head back to the RV.

Over Here !!!
The RV is this way !!!

There are a lot more photos to see ... too many, I suppose ... I guess I can understand Cyndi's point of view. But you want to see more ... check out the link at the bottom.

Hovenweep

If you walk 5 miles west from Sand Canyon ... 5 miles of difficult terrain ... you come to Hovenweep.

Or you can drive 40 miles across rough road to Hovenweep.

After an hour of bouncing, clattering, rattling, CLATTERING, RATTLING, I think Cyndi was wishing we had walked.

Hovenweep consists of about a dozen stand-alone (I'd say 'single familly') buildings scattered along the rim of a small canyon. The views from the homes across the canyon must have been very nice and I got the distinct feeling of some ancient Hovenweep Estates. And the varied and impressive construction does make it look like an elite settlement, but of course, no one knows what was going on here.

The site was chosen in part because there was a spring at the head of the canyon. And the site was apparently occupied for only a single generation. No one knows why.

So you get to make up your own story.

I like this one
Built inside a rock, you only need to construct 3 walls
And don't have to worry about the roof

The buildings ran along either side of the canyon

On the west side of the canyon we saw red lizards

And on the east side we saw green ones

Close up of construction details

And a last one showing three ruins on the canyon edge and the one in the rock part way in the canyon.

Believe it or not, there are again more photos ... which you can see here.

So, next stop and next blog is Utah.