Current camper total: 11,508 miles, 248 nights
FOUR CORNERS, U.S.A. VACATION
UTAH, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, COLORADO
Friday, August 28
Left home at 9:30, a surprise as Sue had not planned to get home from work until around 1:00 or so. As it turned out, she got all of her work done by yesterday and did not go in today. So, the early start.
We are camped for our first night of vacation here at Clark Canyon Reservoir, about twenty miles south of Dillon, MT. and a mile off of I-15. This is an organized campground with shelters and picnic tables, and fire rings, at each site. And, there is no fee. We are right on the lake. The only drawback is that there are CLOUDS of little gnats, sand fleas, bugs, or whatever that this just swarm you. When you open the door of the camper, right there they are, even after dark.
Called Sis as we had romping, stomping cell phone signals here, surprisingly. Asked her to e-mail Shawn and tell him where we were. Our watches and clocks are reset to Mountain Time as we will be in this time zone for a month.
Tomorrow we head on south to Salt Lake City, probably stopping just short, but who knows. There is no screaming rush to be anywhere at any specific time. We are on vacation.
Saturday - Got up at 8:00, due to time change. Got to knock this off and get adjusted. Sunrise is at 6:00 and that is when all the marvelous, award-winning photos are there for the taking!
A very pleasant drive through southern Idaho today, and a rather early stop this afternoon at 4:00PM. This being Saturday, and the end of the camping season for the masses, a camp spot might be a bit hard to find. We are at a delightful spot near Logan, UT called Hyrum Lake State Park. $16 per night, no hookups, so tomorrow we will have to look for a dump station and fresh water Clean, spacious, breezy, and a camp spot thirty feet above the lake. We sat at our picnic table for maybe two hours this afternoon, talking and watching the boaters and water skiers before preparing supper. Gave Mom a cell phone call from here.
After dinner we used the campsite virgin fire box/grill provided for the first time. Tomorrow morning showers for us before heading in to SLC, and Costco and Cabela’s.
Sunday - Up at 7:30. A bright, sunny, breezy day ahead. Left the park around 10:00 and stopped at the local Sinclair station for fuel, the dump station, and fresh water. We’re good to go for about four days, now.
Cruised down I-15 through SLC, looking for the exit for Costco. Missed it; haven’t a clue where it was dueto the numbering and street identification system in use in this area, something like 9600 5000 North or 10250 380 West. Hell, I’m looking for Spencer Blvd exit off I-15 in Murray, UT. Is that hard? Yes, if they don’t identify it that way. Oh, well, on to Cabela’s in Lehi, another ten miles down the road.
This Cabela’s is much bigger than the one in Post Falls. In fact, it has two elevators to take you and your shopping cart up to the second floor where all the camping gear is, along with a restaurant and the home and cabin furnishings area.
We were quite successful here. Purchased much needed items like shorts, jackets, barbecue aids, etc. for only $210.
Back on the road mid-afternoon, in 90° heat. Left the freeway at Spanish Forks and took SR89 south. We are now camped at Palisade State Park near Manti, in the geographical center of Utah. Another $16, no hookups. Don’t need them, though.
Windy today on our drive, as it was yesterday. When we got to the camp area tonight at the lake, the wind was really whipping up. In fact, too much wind to do steaks on the barbecue. If the fire would have stayed lit, the wind would have kept the barbecue too cool to do the steaks. We will have warmed up barbecued baby back ribs, instead, done in the oven. The steaks will have to wait until tomorrow at Bryce Canyon.
It is nine o’clock and the temperature is still at 80 degrees. Forecast calls for very low humidity, wind, and high fire risk tomorrow. Bugs are plentiful - gnats, sand fleas, whatever they are. Same as we had last night up at Logan. I’ll be glad to be rid of them.
Called Paulette tonight as we had good cell phone coverage. Tomorrow, SR89 on in to Bryce Canyon, about four hours distance.
Monday, August 31 - The last day of August. Temperature last night dropped to only 71° but the wind made it bearable. Topped off with fresh water here at the park, and emptied the gray tanks, so we are good to go. Fought a stiff headwind most of the way today, as we have for the past two days. We have now driven a thousand miles and purchased one hundred gallons of gas. That is a 10 mpg average.
Arrived at Bryce Canyon at 3:30PM and secured a camp site in the Sunset campground. My ‘olde farts’ parks pass got us into Bryce for free (vs. $25 for the youngsters) and the campsite fee is $7.50 per night, no amenities. I bought four night’s worth.
Checked out the views at sunset and with the moon for our photography shots. A lot cooler here at 8,000 feet - temperature is already 62° at 10:30. And that reminds me, it is bedtime.
Tuesday, September 1 - Yep, it is definitely cooler here. Temperature dropped to fifty last night and here we are, with all the windows hanging wide open. Had to put the wool blankie on the bed. In fact, it was cool enough that I didn’t get up until eight o’clock this morning, Miss Sue at eight forty-five. The Hoodoos at Sunrise has been reprogrammed for tomorrow morning!
Park elevations range from 7,894 feet at the visitor center to 9,145 out at Rainbow Point, eighteen miles south. And, it is noticeable when walking uphill. At these elevations only seventy percent of normal oxygen is available, and we get winded very easily.
Took a short drive to Cedar City today to get a), a lawn chair to replace one that broke yesterday, and b), to get a propane distribution mast for the cooking propane bottle as the old one is leaking. We left at 11:00, but that “thirty mile run” to Cedar was in reality a five hour, one hundred ninety mile drive. It was further than it looked!
The refrigerator quit working this evening. Either not getting gas, or not igniting. Checked everything I could. Tomorrow at 8:00AM I will start the generator and see if it works on AC current. At any rate, it has to be repaired. That means, at best, packing up and pulling the camper to where it can be repaired. Hopefully Ruby Inn will have a repair facility at the edge of the park. Otherwise, a run back to Cedar City with it. I’m not a real happy camper at this point.
Wednesday, Sept. 2 - Generator fired up precisely at 8:00AM. Turned refrigerator on and determined that it is functional in AC mode. Half-good news. Called Nick Tareski at Blue Crick RV in Spokane and discussed the problem with him. He said it sounded like a plugged orifice in the burner unit, and said that with a crescent wrench and a screwdriver I could remove and clean it.
Good news, but easier said than done. Crescent wrench too big to get in that tight area. Needed an open end wrench, 10mm to be exact. Had everything around it, 8mm, 12mm, 7/16, 3/8, but no 10mm. Finally, got the fitting out, and it was clean; nothing plugging it. Well, I thought maybe if it had been plugged, the plugger dropped out when I removed the orifice. What a dreamer!
Reassembled everything, turned on the refrigerator, AND IT WORKS! I learned a lot about the refrigerator this morning, I am a happy camper once again, and I will buy a 10mm wrench at the next Wal-Mart we come to.
Drove over to Ruby Inn to send and receive e-mail, as they offer wi-fi internet access. Was able to receive one from Sis but could not, for some reason, send anything out. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.
Drove out to the rim to check out moonlighting on the hoodoos. We will be doing moonlight photography tomorrow night. Back to camp, a campfire started for only the second time so far on this trip, and supper of grilled pork loin and rice.
Thursday, Sept. 3 - We planned on getting up at 7:00 to photograph the horse strings as they started down into the hoodoos with paying riders. However, Miss Sue developed a severe headache during the night and took two Tylenol tabs. This morning at 7:00 it was just as bad. She took a fiorinal tab, sent me on my way and went back to bed.
I wandered by the corrals at 7:30 and saw all the animals, saddled up and ready to go. The great majority of them were mules. Picked a spot at the start of the trail to photograph them. At 8:00 the first of three strings of ten animals each appeared. Hopefully I captured a couple of decent shots, but may try again tomorrow morning.
Sue and I have decided to stay here another four days, and leave next Tuesday for Page, AZ. That gets us through Labor Day weekend and there will then be less pressure on campsites. Also, we have barely scratched the surface of what we want to do here in the area of Bryce Canyon.
Tried a bit of the easy Queens Garden trail down in amongst the hoodoos this afternoon and got the surprise of our lives. We ain’t in the same condition that we were in four years ago when we were here. We went several hundred yards down, turned around and struggled back up to the rim, sucking wind. Might have to re-think this part of the activities.
And we did, this evening around the campfire. We decided to get up early tomorrow, do some sunrise photography, and then take a leisurely hike down the Queens Garden - Navajo Loop trail, about a two mile hike. If it takes us all day, so be it. We will have backpacks, with sandwiches, water, and rain gear on board so should be in good shape.
Friday, Sept. 4 - Up at 6:00AM, both of us. Drove over to Fairyland Canyon for sunrise photos at 7:00, then to Sunrise Point by 8:00 to photograph the saddle horses and mules taking tourists down amongst the hoodoos. A two hour ride goes for $50, while a four hour ride is $75.
Back to the camper at 8:30 for breakfast. Dropped off an envelope with a check for another thirty dollars in it at the fee station for another four nights here in Bryce. The plan is to leave here next Tuesday morning for Page, AZ.
A change of clothes from sweats and jackets to shorts and tees. Temperature was 41° this morning. We are going to do our hike of hikes today. Backpacks are out, filled with bottled water and sandwiches. We both are tightly lacing our Hoodoo Hikers around our Hoodoo Dogs in preparation for the 1.3 mile Navajo Loop trail hike down among the hoodoos. The trail is short, but the elevation change of 550 feet makes up for it.
On the Navajo Trail at noon. The hike down was simply beyond description; grandeur beyond belief. We hiked through an area called ‘Wall Street’ as the canyon walls were separated by twenty feet and were hundreds of feet high. Passed by an area called ‘Two Bridges’, thin stone arches connecting two hoodoos. On the climb out, hiked by a hoodoo called ‘Thor’s Hammer’. The hike took us two hours, and by the time we got back to the rim my shirt was dripping water and we both were sucking wind. At sixty-seven years of age, this is our last hike of this type.
Back to the camper for a two hour nappie after this event. A heavy rain shower passed overhead, lasted briefly, but dumped a quarter inch of rain. We are glad we weren’t down in the hoodoos when this happened.
Tonight at 8:10 we are going to try for the moon shot. Don’t know, though, it is still quite cloudy. We are surprised; it has been cloudy every evening since we arrived last Monday. Unusual for the Bryce area. Oh, well, we will deal with it. At least, there are no bugs here to bug us. Oh, sorry….
Cloudy again tonight - no full moon to view. Drat! This is disappointing. No decent sunrises or sunsets, and now no full moon to do photography by.
Back to the camper. Each of us poured a toddy, sat down, turned on the TV monitor and reviewed the photographs we have taken so far, and severely edited them. No sense keeping the obvious trash, and a lot of ours seemed to be in that category.
Saturday, Sept. 5 - A rain shower at 5:30AM, followed by five more before 8:00AM. No real screaming rush to get out of bed. I finally did at 8:00, turned on the water heater, started the generator, turned on the furnace, and made coffee. The temperature is in the low fifties and the furnace heat feels good.
The sun is trying to break through the clouds, but is not entirely successful; just an area of lighter clouds tells where it is. Don’t yet know what we will do today. Maybe the drive through Escalante and Torrey over to Capitol Reef N.P., one hundred twenty-four miles distant. This route is over National Scenic Byway 12 which runs from Red Canyon over to Capitol Reef and provides breathtaking views across the Grand Staircase and into the Escalante Canyons. The Federal Highway Administration designated this route an “All-American Road,” having one-of-a-kind features so exceptional that it qualifies as a destination “unto itself.” Only a very few byways achieve the status of an All-American Road, making Scenic Byway 12 one of the twenty-seven unique roads in the United States.
Evening - We did head over toward Capitol Reef, but took a side trip to Kodachrome Basin. That, combined with the fact that we left at noon, didn’t give us a lot of time. We did drive to just on the other side of Escalante, then turned around and came back to camp. This was a one hundred forty mile drive. We will try again tomorrow, leaving much earlier.
Coming back to the park, when we made our stop at the park entrance fee booth, I purchased a lifetime National Parks Pass for Miss Sue for ten dollars. She now has her very own lifetime pass. This card is actually quite valuable. It is now called an Interagency Senior Pass, is available to anyone aged sixty-two or older, and admits the holder, the vehicle, and all passengers to any national park. For example, without the card, the entrance fee for Bryce would have been twenty-five dollars; with it, free. I have saved hundreds of dollars with that ten dollar card I got years ago (well, five years ago).
At a gas stop in Tropic this afternoon, just down the road eight miles, Sue walked into the Ace hardware store and found a plastic, white, six and a half gallon water can for just ten bucks. Being camped here eight days, with no water available at the site, we have to do something, thus the water can, which we can fill at the fresh water tap at a nearby outhouse. The can has a self-venting nozzle, something that don’t work worth shit, so I had to cut a small vent in the top of the can. The nozzle is a rigid, angled plastic thing which is absolutely at the wrong angle to get any water in the vertical fill cap on the back of the camper. The fill cap off the generator gas can is flexible and will work, so out with the soap and water and bleach to clean the gas off of it so it can be screwed onto the water can. Finally, all that remains is to lift and hold the fifty pound can of water until it empties into the fresh water holding tank. The tank will hold eight of these cans of water. Piece of cake. I hope I get to do this every day, it is so much fun!
Sunday, Sept. 6 - Had a tent camper with California plates on the car come in late last night and squat right next to us. Didn’t have the heart to fire up the generator at the 8:00AM approval time for my coffee. Finally, at nine o’clock, I said ‘the hell with it, they’re either Californians or Germans in a rental car, who cares? I’m now happily downing my first cup of coffee!
The rather thin air up here has made me light-headed on occasion. When bending over or squatting, and then standing up, I have to be VERY careful. Also, any climbing at all has me huffing and puffing, and Sue has had the same effect on her. I think after eight days, we may be glad to get down lower, at Lake Powell.
Left at 10:45 for a drive east over Hwy 12 to Boulder. A beautiful drive, as we knew it would be. East of Escalante we climbed up on the ‘Hog Back’ and drove for miles. This stretch of Byway 12 follows a narrow ridge, a two lane road with precipitous drops on either side. I love this kind of driving!
Just before Boulder there was a sign for a road called ’Hell’s Backbone’. The map showed it to be a two lane gravel road, and signs at the beginning mentioned ‘Hell’s Backbone Bridge’. Before I could activate my turn signal we were on this ‘road’ from hell (or maybe to hell).
Before we got two miles down the road, we rounded a bend and found a rig in our lane smack dab up against the inside bank, the left front tire looking very damaged. A guy, a gal, and an Alaskan Husky. Stopped and asked if he needed help? “No, wellll, maybe.” Turns out he was driving too fast and lost it rounding the curve. I broke out the 25 foot choker cable and dragged him out of the ditch and away from the bank, then pulled him forward to level road where he could change the tire. I looked at the tire and thought, only the outside bead is broken. With luck, we could pump air in the tire and get the bead to pop. Drug out the air hose, connected it to the air bottle I carry on the truck, put on the air chuck, and PRESTO! the bead popped, the tire held air. They thanked us and were on their way. If I was a Mormon I would have got double points for doing this good deed on a Sunday!
This road is a loop off of Byway 12 that runs from near Boulder back to Escalante thru the Box-Death Hollow Wilderness area. In spite of the severe wash boarding on most of the road, it was thirty-five miles of pure driving hell! A magic moment to remember, as it were.
Got back to the park in time to drive up to Rainbow Point, sixteen miles distant, to watch the sunset. Back to camp at 8:00 after a two hundred mile drive today. An easy meal of spaghetti with a white sauce and clams, and a tossed salad left over from last night.
Monday, Labor Day - Our last full day in the park. A very kick-back day for us with nothing planned. We left camp at 1:00 after a breakfast of steak, eggs, and potatoes. Decided to do the little bit of laundry that we had, as tomorrow we are heading further south and into the land of few services and little water. Drove in to Ruby’s Inn facilities and used the Laundromat. Took an hour and a half. About six bucks worth of quarters got our clothes half clean and half dry. Hey, what do you want for six bucks?
Left Ruby’s and drove about four miles outside the park to a pull-off called Mossy Cave. It involves a half mile streamside walk up to a mossy overhang and a small waterfall. This short, delightful little hike provided some of the most spectacular photographic opportunities we have yet had here in the park. The sunlight, the angles, the compositions were just right. We were both very pleased.
Stopped at Ruby’s around six o’clock and called Mom. No one has heard from Shawn, but expect to either tomorrow or Wednesday. Sue called the Murrays and talked with Madesen for a short while. I have been unsuccessful in sending e-mail out of Bryce. Don’t know what the problem might be.
When we leave here, we will be leaving behind the majority of German, Belgian, Japanese, Indian and Spanish tourists that have been descending on Bryce in hordes. And the rigs they drive all show it. All the cars are small compacts with California plates. The campers have 1 (800) RV4RENT or SEEAMERICA.COM written all over them Probably one in every fifty tourists here is American.
While camped at Bryce Canyon for eight days, we managed to put seven hundred twenty-eight miles on the truck! Lots to see in the area.
Tuesday, Sept. 8 - Left Bryce at 11:30 and had a nice, leisurely, four hour scenic drive down to Lee’s Ferry, Arizona. The scenery here is absolutely grand, and I am surprised that Shawn didn’t emphasize the beauty and photographic opportunities here. He has put in here before for Colorado River raft trips, including the twenty-one day trip he took in May of this year.
The temperature here is also grand; 97° at 5:30PM, but the relative humidity is only ten per cent. So, when you sweat, the low humidity and the breeze makes it feel like freezing rain is hitting your skin. Sort of.
Too hot to cook dinner. We will wait ‘til near sunset at 8:00 before doing some steaks on the grill. Shortly we will drive down to the dock area to do some photography where Shawn’s group put in in May .
We are camped here at the Lee’s Ferry N.P.S. campground. I think there is one other camper in the entire campground (he’s at the other end) and the fees for us are only six dollars per night. We have decided to make this our base of operations while in the area, and have paid through Friday.
Wednesday, Sept. 9 - A miserable night of sleeping last night. The low this morning was 71° and no breeze. By 8:30 it was up to 80, and 94 at 11:00. The high for the day was 98°.
Two groups of rafters were due to put in at 10:00AM for a seven and a fourteen day float, so we went down to Paria Beach to photograph them as they came around the first turn and hit some white water riffles. We were on location by 9:30, at the river’s edge, when I realized that Arizona remains on standard time the year round. It was only 8:30 and we had an hour and a half to wait! Sue took the wait in stride - she stretched out on a rock and sunbathed. I wandered around the beach and baked in the ninety degree sun for an hour. It was during this wait that I realized that I was wearing some hillbilly cologne; I believe the fragrance was Essence of Armpit.
Finally, the rafters showed, and they were twenty minutes late pushing off, so all told we had a couple of hours to spend at the edge of the Colorado River. Should have some good raft pictures to show for it.
Today we drove in to Page to purchase our Lake Powell Rainbow Bridge cruise tickets. We depart from Wahweap Marina at 12:30 tomorrow for the half day cruise up to Rainbow Bridge and back. The two tickets totaled two hundred eleven dollars.
Next task is to stop at Wal-Mart for a few groceries. I bought a set of Chinese metric wrenches for eight bucks. I’ll throw them in the truck tool box. While in the beer section, I found, much to my surprise, that liquor is sold in these stores in Arizona. And, it is inexpensive, relatively speaking. A half gallon of the least expensive vodka in Washington state costs about $23.50; in Idaho, $12.25; here, it is $9.85! Talk about Wal-Mart rolling back prices!
Thursday, Sept. 10 - A few raindrops around 5:30, and now at 7:30 it is cloudy and very breezy. Another miserable night last night; no breeze and a low of 74°. We both have had showers, the backpacks are packed with snacks and photo equipment, and we are ready for a pancake and sausage breakfast. Then, a trip around Lee’s Ferry area and a drive back to Page for the boat trip.
The boat left on time at 12:30. A tour boat with a main deck and a top deck; we chose the top deck for openness and height for photography. About twenty people on the top deck, that many or slightly more on the main deck. The boat has a pair of Cat diesels turning twin screws, which push the boat at about 22 knots. It was about a two hour run up to Rainbow in bright sunlight. The scenery and the shoreline was just awesome. I guess I was equating Lake Powell with Lake Roosevelt, but they have nothing in common except water. Lake Powell consists of a maze of side canyons jutting off from the main channel everywhere. Ninety-six of them are named. The shoreline totals almost two thousand miles.
Rainbow Bridge is located about thirty or forty miles up this one hundred eighty-six mile long lake and is in Forbidding Canyon. The boat entered areas in this canyon that looked like dead ends, just sheer rock wall ahead, but gaps in the rocks of as narrow as thirty feet allowed the boat to slip past and twist, turn, and creep through more of the same ahead.
After about four or five miles of canyon creeping we turned a corner and saw a floating dock and walkway which twisted and turned down the center of the canyon for a quarter mile before it reached land. The boat turned around, backed stern end to the dock, tied up and shut down. We departed the boat for the almost two mile hike up to the bridge (it cannot be seen from the boat), each passenger being given a bottle or two of water from an ice-packed cooler as he stepped off. We all had an hour from this point until the boat would depart on the return trip to Wahweap marina. The captain said if we were late and missed the boat, not a problem; there would be another one along in three days.
The hike was actually fairly easy, and the views were awesome. Right after stepping off the long, floating dock/walkway Rainbow Bridge came into view. Rising over three hundred feet above the canyon floor and stretching nearly three hundred feet wide, it is the largest natural bridge in the world. A beautiful sight, and Sue and I took many, many photographs. There will be long hours in front of the computer editing these photographs when we return home. That’s the problem with these digital cameras. With a film camera, you compose and click a picture here, compose and click a picture there. With the digital, it is so easy to compose, click-click-click-click, and then do the same thing all over again. Many more photos to choose from, but only one will be chosen. Thankfully, I have the heavy hand of an editor.
The trip upriver was sunny, but high overcast by the time we got to the bridge. Made it nice for hiking, but I was hoping for sunlight on the bridge to accent highlights and shadows. Didn’t happen; we had to work with what we had.
The two hour return trip was just as impressive as the one coming up to the bridge. The trip was well worth the $99/person price. This was the half-day trip; the full day trip wasn’t offered today, but just as well. We were quite happy with the half-day ride. Got back to camp at Lee’s Ferry after sunset at 8:00. Burgers and baked beans for supper, a little star gazing afterwards, then bedtime. Put about two hundred twenty miles on the truck on this stop.
Friday, Sept. 11 - On to Monument Valley, an easy, one hundred fifty mile run. The only thing happening here is the Navajo Nation Headquarters, through which you must pass to have access to the seventeen mile drive through the valley. Oh, the entrance fee is five dollars per person. Oh, you want to camp? That’s ten dollars per night. Camping is up there on that hill. It is unimproved, no site is marked. Camp where you want. No water, no electricity, no sewer. No open fires, they must be in a fire ring. But there are no fire rings. When you leave, no fresh water or dump station is available. So, thirty bucks for two days here in Monument Valley.Oh, I forgot - if you want to take a picture of an Indian, you must first ask permission. Then, you must pay a gratuity, somewhere around five bucks. Sue and I don’t need no Indian pictures.
We took the seventeen mile monument drive just before sunset, for a few photos and a feel for the drive and the landscape. The road is unimproved dirt, consisting of red powdered sand, ruts, and lots of rock, both Navajo sandstone slab rock and regular rocks. There were several times when I had to use FWD to keep the rear axle from wrapping up in the four to six inches of sand and dust on the steep grades. All the tourists in their little rental cars had lots of fun on that road. And, there was no shortage of class C motor homes down there, either. All rentals, of course.
The scenery was as we expected it to be, only better. We shot a lot of photos before running out of daylight. About a dozen of the monuments are named and marked with signs on the drive. At each sign there is a pull-off to take pictures. Also, at each pull-off, there are Indians selling hand made jewelry to the tourists. That set me back. Rather degrading to the site and to the locals, I thought. That doesn’t happen at a national park or national monument run by our government. But this is all Indian reservation land, under control of their own government, and they despoil it as they see fit. And, there are homes scattered about at the bases of the monuments. Oh, well.
I called Ken Tarrell this evening, as we had cell phone coverage in the campground and I figured Ken and Linda would be standing around their bonfire back in Springdale, WA. Ken seemed happy to hear from us, and I’ll try to call them again next Friday night, if we are in cell phone range.
Saturday, Sept. 12 - We got up, both of us, at five-thirty, in order to catch the sunrise over West Mitten and East Mitten. Looked outside and saw that all the other campers in the campground were also up and out with their tripods and cameras. Well, that is what this area is all about.
At six-thirty we got into the truck and again did the drive down amongst the monuments. The truck now needs a bath to get all that red dust and dirt off of it, but I don’t know when or where it will get one.
After a late breakfast we drove three miles down the road to an Indian arts and crafts flea market, which gave Sue the opportunity to whittle on some of those $100 bills she is carrying around! One of the vendors there did indeed confirm that there was a campground at Canyon de Chelly, our destination tomorrow.
The guy camped next to us is a professional photographer for National Geo, so I had some interesting conversations with him. Turns out that this is one of only two times a year when, for two or three days at sunset, West Mitten casts its shadow on East Mitten. I was invited to join a large group of photographers up on the ridge with camera and tripod to photograph this event at sunset tonight, around six-forty PM.
Sue and I drove back into the canyons for more pictures and to check out the Navajo vendors set up at the points of interest. Sue was once again successful in utilizing, this time, her Cabela’s credit card for some local, hand-crafted Navajo items.
Back to camp in time for sunset, but it never happened. A cloud cover prevented photography of the Mittens. So, we got our chairs out, poured drinks, sat down and proceeded to rest up from a very busy day of doing nothing! It is now dark, and the nightly lightening displays are spectacular. They are occurring in all four directions of the compass simultaneously and are quite pretty to watch. The wind is blowing, as usual. It hasn’t stopped since we got here.
Sunday, Sept. 13 - After a leisurely (and beautiful) 150 mile drive from Monument Valley thru Mexican Hat and Mexican Water on Hwy 191 we have arrived at Canyon de Chelly Nat’l Monument in Arizona. This is about a mile out of Chinle. This Monument is administered by the Nat’l Park Service. A very nice campground is provided, and water and a dump station is available when leaving. And, THERE IS NO FEE FOR CAMPING. And, I haven’t found the catch. Who says there is no free lunch?
Less than an hour after arriving, we decided that instead of staying overnight and then moving on, we may just stay three days. There is a lot here to see. And, we have the time. We’re not quite halfway through our vacation yet. George and Robin Beck, you might not know what you missed by not coming to Canyon de Chelly! There are tons of Indians around us, but then, we are still on the Navajo Reservation. I might point out that the Navajo reservation, the largest reservation in the country, covers twenty-seven thousand square miles, most of them in northeast Arizona. Since arriving in Indian country, we have seen dogs everywhere. What do the Indians do with these dogs? Raise them for food? Also, this is open range country. Coming through Chinle, we saw and photographed cows walking down the hundred feet of sidewalk that the town has. We have been in a water conservation mode, probably ever since Bryce Canyon, where we stayed for eight days with no hookups. We have saved a couple of plastic gallon drinking water jugs and refill them every chance we get. One is used for cooking and coffee in the kitchen, and the other is to flush the toilet. This, along with showering every other day, if possible, really does save on the water in our fresh water tank.
When we arrived here and got set up in camp, Sue walked over to the campground water faucet to refill the water jugs. She returned with two jugs full of yellow-orange water. Looked to me like straight piss. I wouldn’t use it for my coffee, but we decided we could wash dishes in it, and it certainly would work for the toilet. When we leave here, we will drive into Chinle to fill the fresh water tank with clean, clear water.
Tonight I will be grilling a prime rib eye steak for dinner. Sue will make spaghetti tossed with garlic and parsley in olive oil to go with the steak, and we will have a tossed salad, using the last of the tomatoes out of our garden.
Monday, Sept. 14 - Didn’t do much of anything today. While Sue was fixing breakfast, I walked over to the Thunderbird Lodge to check on canyon tours. Gringos are not allowed into the canyons unless accompanied by a Navajo guide. The guided tours consist of a group of up to twenty-four persons riding on the back of a chassis-cab one ton truck. Chairs are bolted or welded to the flat bed and the tourists ride out there, in the sun, and eating dust. For that reason, these tour trucks are called ‘shake ‘n bakes.‘ I guess I’ll have to get a picture of that tomorrow.
Other visitors have told us that we would be remiss if we did not take the guided tour through the two canyons, Canyon del Muerto and Canyon de Chelly. There is so much to see, and close-up views of the cliff villages which are dominant (about ten village ruins exist) are provided. So, we are now signed up for a day long, sixty mile shake ’n bake tour of Canyon de Chelly tomorrow at nine o’clock , returning at five. Roast beef sandwiches are provided for lunch; we bring our own water. All this for only one hundred sixty dollars U.S., the only wampum the Navajos would accept!
By the way, Canyon de Chelly is pronounced Canyon ‘dee SHAY’, a corruption of a Spanish and Navajo word meaning ’canyon made of rock,’ or something very similar. So, the translation is, Canyon of Rock, or Rock Canyon. The word chinle, from which the town got its name, means ‘water flowing from mouth of canyon’, or something like that. No wonder the WWII Navajo Code Talkers were so successful - NOBODY could decipher their language or it’s meanings.
Left the campground and took the thirty-seven mile round trip south rim drive at noon, returning at five o’clock. For some reason, just this activity tired us out, so we are now back in the camper. Miss Sue is reading a book; I have spare camera batteries on charge to take with us tomorrow, along with spare memory cards and lens cleaner. We have a backpack on the sofa, ready to be packed with bottles of frozen drinking water and windbreakers. No question at all about taking a cooler of cold beer with us; we are on the reservation and alcoholic beverages are forbidden. Sue and I noticed on our drive today that the roadsides are littered with beer cans and whiskey bottles. Wonder where they came from?
Looks like we will be here three nights; last night, tonight, and tomorrow night after the shake ‘n bake tour. Then, on to Chaco Culture Nat’l Monument in New Mexico.
Sitting out in our chairs in the dark nights, looking at the stars and awestruck by the brightness of the Milky Way, we have been planning our next vacation, next year. It could possibly be to Alaska, and it COULD be done in three weeks. Or, we might drift south again, through New Mexico and maybe into Texas and up through Oklahoma. Or, maybe North and South Dakota, through the Badlands and down through the Missouri Breaks, then west through Scottsbluff and home. Who knows? Between now and then we will probably come up with more possibilities. That’s the fun of sitting and thinking and sharing ideas.
Tuesday, Sept. 15 - Up at six thirty to prepare for our tour today. No coffee, nothing to drink or eat in order to avoid use of the porta-potties or other outhouses that MAY be available along the trail.
Got to the parking lot staging area at 8:45AM, right on schedule. Watched the half day group load up on the back of a Dodge one ton chassis cab. Moooo…. Then our ride pulls up and stops in front of us. Its an army troop transport. Flat bed, no roof, twelve school bus type dual seats bolted or welded to the floor, six on either side of the bed. Twelve seats times two per seat equals twenty-four cattle. Load ’em up and move ’em on out. Moooo…. There were only twelve in our group, so four of us took the back four seats, one each per double seat. Gave us a lot more room. No seat belts - grab on to the seat back in front of you or the side rail. This is a fifty-seven mile ride into the canyon, a canyon whose walls are thirty feet high at its mouth, but rise to almost one thousand feet at the far end, where we are going. The ‘road’ is through dry river beds and dry washes, in and around trees and brush, through and across creeks, and over rocks. I should describe our troop truck in detail. It is a 1952 GM 2-½ ton truck, commonly called a six by six, or a deuce-and-a-half. It was bought by the lodge from Fort Bliss in 1958. Has a 302 cu. in. straight six truck engine, converted to use propane fuel. On demand automatic six wheel drive. Split windshields swing forward and out, winch and cable on the front bumper. More gears available than a driver knows what to do with. A cushy ride? Right. Sit down, shut up, and HANG ON.
This tour was the right decision for us. We got to see some of the ruins up close, along with petroglyphs and pictographs. and working examples of current Navajo life here in the canyon bottoms. Every few minutes the driver, a Navajo named Ron, would stop the truck and describe to us what we were seeing, along with some history. Told us early on we could take his picture all we wanted to. He has been doing this job for seventeen years.
We had a fifteen minute break around ten thirty, then just past noon we stopped for a sack lunch, provided by the lodge. Roast beef sandwich, barely edible, a bag of chips, and an apple and a cookie. A five gallon jug of the weakest lemonade I ever tasted was available. Two outhouses owned by the lodge were nearby. Sue needed one. She told me they were so bad that she pissed (scratch that, ‘tinkled’) in the urinal, and advised me to go catch a tree.
Another break around three o’clock at Spider Rock, where our driver pulled out another cooler and removed a watermelon packed in ice. He unsheathed a two foot long scalping knife and proceeded to whittle that watermelon down to eatable slices for us gringos in only seconds. An unexpected and welcome treat.
At five twenty we rolled back into the parking lot, having got our money’s worth on this tour. We recommend it as a must for anyone visiting Canyon de Chelly.
To cap off our punishing day, we decided to treat ourselves by driving into Chinle at six thirty to use the local Laundromat. Found out immediately that no Navajo family does laundry at home; they all use the Laundromat every Tuesday at precisely six thirty. And, there were big signs posted on the doors; “WARNING - The water IS yellow.” Other signs said, “Washing whites not advised.” Well, there goes my idea of filling up with clean, clear water in Chinle when we leave tomorrow. From the Laundromat to the supermarket, located next door. Needed eight or ten items, and we were betting on whether or not beer was sold in the store, this being reservation land. Plenty of soft drinks, plenty of bottled water. No beer. Good thing I have plenty of my own with me. The wait in one of only two checkout lines was twenty minutes. We both left there with headaches and in a foul mood. A quick supper of grilled cheese sandwiches.
You know, this ‘no alcohol on the reservation’ policy got me to thinking. What if it was that way in Springdale, WA? What if beer was prohibited? What if we all drank bottled water? I can imagine the scenario. I’m standing at the campfire with Tag, drinking a bottle of Arrrowhead. I offer him a bottle. He says, “No thanks, I don’t drink that rotgut water. I’ll stick with my Back Forty Branch.” Or, we are all over at Ken and Linda’s on a Saturday night, standing around the fire. Of course, we all have our own coolers with us as we each have our own brand of water that we drink. Kenny drinks Back Forty Branch, same as Tag. Linda occasionally drinks a bottle of it with him. George and Robin have their own cooler, filled with Saline Springs. They don’t have to worry about anybody drinking their bad water. I have my cooler filled with Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water. Pat Mooney shows up with a cooler of Aquafina. Barry drinks Gushing Geyser by the gallon, and has a load of it in his truck. Dave and Georgia are rather sophisticated; they prefer either Dasani or Costco’s Kirkland brand. Little Dave and Dan don’ have a preference; they’ll drink anybody’s water if it is offered. Or not. The Mouth would tell you that she couldn’t imagine drinking anything other than Perrier Water, but no one has ever seen her with a bottle of it. She drinks what we drink, whatever she can get her hands on, free. If too much water is consumed and the party really gets out of hand, people may start throwing water balloons at each other. That’s why most of us up here are all wet. But we all do indeed enjoy our water. Once yearly, Barry takes our orders for bottled water and picks it up with his gooseneck triple axle trailer down on the reservation, in pallet sized units. And, there is no sales tax on the reservation.
Wednesday, Sept. 16 - About half way through our vacation. Today we pack up and move on, to Chaco Culture Nat’l Monument in New Mexico. Canyon de Chelly was a very pleasant three day stay. Before our vacation started, George and Robin graciously loaned us four of their photo books of the Four Corners region, including Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruins, and Chaco Culture. We have been reading them daily on the trip. Thank you for your kindness and thoughtfulness. 12:30PM. Got an extremely late start today due, I believe, to the fact that we started extremely late! And the day went downhill from there. We wanted to top off our fresh water tank with something other than water with orange and yellow sediment in it, so we could keep the tank clean. Arrived at Window Rock, sixty miles down the road. Could not find water available anywhere. One gas station attendant suggested the local car wash. Tried that, got hung up behind and between the car wash and a sheltered drying and cleaning area behind it. Clearance too low. Had to back up under the shelter and snake our way back out the way we came in. no water there anyway, that we could use. Stopped at one final gas station; no water available there, either, but they did have a Domino’s Pizza take-out. As it was already two-thirty, we ordered a large one and ate it in the camper. From the camper I could read a road sign saying “Welcome to New Mexico.” I decided then that the half of us who was extremely worried about getting a shower in the morning could stop worrying. My goal now was Chaco Canyon, water or no. Roads are not well marked, and next thing I know, we are in Gallup, N.M.; not exactly where I wanted to be, but not the end of the world, either (that was coming up). Took Exit 53 off of I-40E between Gallup and Grants and headed north to Chaco Canyon. Very dark clouds, lightening, showers in a wall across our path. Sixty miles later, we came upon the dirt road turnoff for Chaco. Sign posted there; “Campground Closed.” Shit. Nothing to do but forget Chaco and proceed east. It is six o’clock, dark, and stormy. We’re headed right into this stuff. Nearest town about one hundred miles east. Cuba, N.M. No campsite in mind. None of us are thinking about showers now. Good, that subject put to rest. Just worry now about the amount of gas we don’t have in the truck. There is NOTHING out here. Finally, the town of Torreon. It consisted of a quick stop and a single gas pump, nothing more. The gas pump intrigued me - it was open and it worked. Topped off, Cuba another twenty-seven miles east. Clerk at gas station said Chaco campground was closed due to the heavy rains they had been having. She said we could bet that the park was closed, too. Back in the truck. A fresh beer. I’m less tense now. The road was extremely rough; humps and swales in it. Felt like the camper had come off the ground at a couple of points. I had been meaning to check the contents of the rear bumper. I am carrying the generator, two two-gallon gas cans for it, and a full six gallon water jug we bought back at Bryce. Before it was totally dark and the storm hit us, I pulled over and walked to the rear of the camper. The water can and its tie-down strap were missing. Gone. Lost somewhere in the hundred miles behind us. A hundred miles to Farmington, far to far to drive tonight. I’m looking for a road to turn onto and find a spot for the night. We are now on the Jicarilla Apache Indian Reservation. Sue says, “I just saw a sign for a casino ahead.” If she really did, and it wasn’t far, we were in Phat City. We’ve slept in casino parking lots before. Sure enough, appeared in the middle of nowhere, alongside the road, nothing else around, a large air supported building labeled ‘Casino.’ We have a home for the night. Over two hundred fifty miles driven today, and not much to show for it. Sort of a wasted day.
Thursday, Sept. 17 - Cloudy and cool this morning, scattered raindrops. When we get to Nageezi, fifty miles up the road, I shall inquire as to the status of Chaco. Fresh-baked cinnamon rolls (from the blue Pillsbury can) for breakfast. Out of here at 9:45AM. Turned onto the Chaco road, but eight miles in the road turned from pavement to dirt, rough and wash boarded something severe. After a couple miles or so of this I told Sue, “I’m not tearing this rig up for any amount of Indian culture.” We turned around and came back out. Thirty miles on up Rte 550, another turnoff for Chaco. Same thing. I guess we will not be visiting this national monument until such time as the road at least gets graded. Tonight we are camped at Navajo Lake State Park, nineteen miles east of Aztec, NM. Water faucets available throughout the camping area, electricity in our spot. Don’t have to use the generator for coffee tomorrow. We are isolated, however; a forty mile round trip into Aztec, the nearest town. Spent the afternoon cleaning cameras, downloading images to the computer, and backing them up. I’m outside, thinking about how I will add additional tie-down brackets to the bumper shelf on the camper. That’s when I realized that the right support and retaining bracket for the sliding bumper was broken off. Missing. Gone. Don’t know when that happened, but now I am goosey. I’ve got to get the generator and gas cans off the bumper shelf and get the bumper slid back into place, hoping that the remaining bracket will hold ’til we get back home. Didn’t accomplish anything today. Another wasted day, I guess.
Friday, Sept. 18 - Both of us up at 7:30, even though Miss Sue was snuggled in her operational electric blankie. We need to beat feet up to Mancos, CO to see if we can get a camp spot for a few days, either at the state park, or at the Forest Service campground. Mesa Verde is a busy area with few campgrounds, and this is Friday. Any vacant spaces will be taken rapidly. It was nice to make coffee this morning without having to fire up the generator. I turned on the electric heater when we got here yesterday and plugged in the razor and cell phones to charge. The computer has also been plugged in, so it’s batteries are up to snuff. Spare water jugs are filled, and I will top off the fresh water tank and dump the others when we leave. We are good for a four to six day camp out in the boonies, if need be. If we can find some boonies. Got camp set up at Mancos State Park at 1:30. No services, but they want twenty bucks a night. Guess we will go down the road seven miles tomorrow to Target Tree NFS campground, for seven dollars a night. Did laundry in Mancos this evening. Third day in a row that we did nothing, saw nothing. Another wasted day. Is tomorrow going to be the same?
Saturday, Sept. 19 - Up at 7:45. We are packed and ready to roll to the new campsite. Picked spot number two, a beautiful, large, level, private campsite with table and large fire ring close on the right side of the camper. We couldn’t have gotten a better spot. Paid for four nights, a total of twenty-eight dollars. After setting up camp and having a shower and breakfast, we got underway at noon, this time for an initial foray into Mesa Verde to get a feel for the place and to get our bearings, as it were. Mesa Verde is fourteen miles down the road from our camp, so it was an easy choice for a visit this afternoon. My national parks pass again saved us $$$ on the entry fee (free). It is a steep and winding fifteen mile drive from the park entrance up to the visitor center. My first impression is that this mesa is BIG and that it is HIGH. Mesa Verde, which includes Chapin Mesa and Wetherill Mesa, encompasses over 52,000 acres, about eighty-one square miles, and towers above the Montezuma Valley, 2,000 feet below. Its elevation tops out at around 9,000 feet. This afternoon we took the Mesa Top Loop road, a six mile scenic drive. The many cliff dwellings to be seen included Square Tower House and Cliff Palace. On Monday, after the weekend crowds, we will purchase $3.00 tour tickets for ranger guided trips to Cliff Palace and Balcony House. Mesa Verde, located on the Ute Mountain Tribal Reservation, preserves over 4,500 archeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings! These site are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States. One site we won’t get to visit is Long House on Wetherill Mesa, as the mesa closed for the season on September 8. On many of the stops this afternoon I used the long lens and the tripod to do some window peeping at the cliff dwellings across the canyon, but didn’t see anything exciting going on. On the way back to camp, we stopped in Mancos to quick dry a load of laundry Sue forgot yesterday, and to visit the local grocery store. They had a fabulous meat department, with two butchers working seven days a week. Their beef is delivered in quarters after hanging for two weeks. One butcher that we spoke with said that most of the chuck and shoulder cuts were ground into burger, which made an instant hit with me, as the absolute best hamburger is ground chuck, extremely lean, but try to find it in a store. We bought two pounds of it for dinner tomorrow night. The store doesn’t sell beer, but two liquor stores close by do. I visited one out of curiosity. The clerk there told me that yes, grocery stores can sell beer, but it is 3.2%. In Colorado, only liquor stores sell 7% beer. OK, I snagged a 30-pack of 7% Pabst Blue Ribbon for about fifteen dollars. Tonight I built a fire and we sat around it, talking. I called George and gave him a ‘Howdy’, then called Roy to get all the latest. Then, I called Kenny and talked with him a while, and Sue talked with Linda. They were standing around their fire, drinking a beer. Imagine! So, to recap; George is scheduled for back surgery next week. He was lifting some large tamarack blocks and did his back in. Dan and The Mouth have separated. Dan may live in Loon Lake. Kenny is moving The Mouth to Portland to live with a friend of hers and look for a job. Roy has offered to buy their sixty foot trailer for a thousand dollars. He wants to move it out to the point as a hunting lodge. For who?
A large choice rib eye steak is on the grill for dinner this evening. Sliced, fried potatoes with onions will accompany the steak. The stars are brilliant; the Milky Way is a band of light across the sky. Total silence here in camp, a perfect evening.
Sunday, Sept. 20 - Left camp at 9:45 for the drive to Hovenweep Nat’l Monument, located on the Colorado/Utah border. Hovenweep is a Ute/Paiute word that means ‘deserted valley.‘ While hiking the two mile trail around Little Ruin Canyon we pass from Colorado to Utah and back. There are a lot of ruins to be seen just in Little Ruin Canyon, and you can get right close to most of them. Even though this is a lesser known Nat’l Monument, and located far out in an isolated area, it is well worth the visit.
The round trip drive from our camp and back was about one hundred thirty miles, so we did not get to Aztec, N.M. today. As we approached Cortez from the west we could see a fresh dusting of snow on the mountain peaks around Telluride. We noted that Cortez, CO was big enough to have a Wal-Mart (we stopped there), and that liquor stores are open on Sunday in Colorado. We are sitting in the camper at 6:30PM as a thunder shower is in progress directly over us. Oh, just saw a shot of lightening and the rain is increasing. Have to indulge in indoor activities until this passes. Had grilled hamburgers with melted cheese and sliced, sautéed mushrooms on them for supper. They were the ground chuck we bought yesterday at the Mancos P&D Grocery, and they were the best burgers we ever had. The meal was by candlelight, two of them on the table. The burger comes in one and a half pound packages, and one of the two we bought is in the freezer. We just may buy some more of that burger. What a treat.
Monday, Sept. 21 - Down to 45° last night; good sleeping weather, but I do turn the furnace on for a short while in the mornings to warm up the camper.
Long pants for us today, as we are going to do the ranger-guided tours of Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde’s largest cliff dwelling, and Balcony House, an adventurous cliff dwelling tour. This tour involves climbing a 32 foot ladder, crawling through a 12-foot long tunnel, and climbing up a 60 foot open cliff face with stone steps and two 10 foot ladders. We scheduled this activity for today when, hopefully, the tourist activity is low. We may stay in this camp until Thursday or even longer, as we still have to visit Four Corners, Aztec Ruins, Mesa Verde’s Spruce Tree House hike, and do the San Juan Skyway Loop drive, which is a two hundred thirty-six mile, all day drive through Durango, Silverton, Ouray, Telluride, Cortez, and back to camp. Out of camp and headed for Mesa Verde at 11:00AM. It just doesn’t seem possible to get around and out of camp before noon, or slightly before, try as I might. I’ve given up on sunrise photography. Stopped at the visitor center and purchased two tickets each for the Cliff Palace and the Balcony House tours, scheduled for 1:00PM and 3:00PM, respectively. The tickets are reasonably priced at three dollars each. These tours are led by a ranger, and the maximum group size is probably around fifty persons. Anyone with any kind of a medical problem, respiration problem, or heart problems is advised NOT to go on these tours. When we got with the tour group, I looked around and thought, “With what I see here, I’m not going to have any problems. A piece of cake.” There was one lady on the tour that had an ass three axe handles wide, and weighed probably two fifty plus. I thought, if she can make it, so can I. The entire hike was only a quarter mile long, but it immediately dropped one hundred feet to the ruins, leveled off, then we had a twenty minute break for photography at Cliff Palace. Then, a hike through a crack in the sandstone cliffs up one hundred feet via several ladders and steps carved into the stone walls to get out. Fat Chick did it; I did it. Like I said, a piece of cake. We had about forty minutes to rest up before the Balcony House tour, so I had a half a sandwich and a half can of Pepsi. I didn’t want to overload myself. When we parked at the Balcony House overlook, I recognized about half of the people there as ones who were with us on the Cliff Palace tour. Including Fat Chick. The ranger for this tour/hike explained that this was a little different from the Cliff Palace tour, and that it should peg my ‘fun meter.’ It was also only a quarter mile long, but… We initially dropped down a little over a hundred feet and were actually on a stone ledge about thirty feet under Balcony House. After a fifty yard walk on this sandstone ledge, there was a ladder leading up to Balcony House. It was a wooden ladder, with side rails the size of mini telephone poles, and cross rails, or rungs, like baseball bats. There were three side rails, making the ladder maybe five feet wide, so two persons could climb side by side. At any one time there were maybe ten persons on the ladder. The ladder was standing slightly less than vertical, and rose, three feet from the edge of the ledge, thirty feet up to the cliff dwelling proper. Don’t sound like no big thing, but you try it, sometime. If you turn and look down, it is a five hundred foot drop. That’s when you start hugging the ladder, one rung at a time. Now these rungs on the ladder looked like toothpicks. You wait for the crack or snap, the last sound you will ever hear. Fat Chick made it.
OK, we’re in Balcony House. The ranger gave a lecture on the lifestyles of the residents seven hundred years ago. After fifteen or twenty minutes, we all headed from one half of Balcony House over to the other half, up and over a sixty foot rock slope with toe holds chiseled in it and then through the back portion of the cave. Now, to get out of this place, we had to crawl through a twelve foot long tunnel through the rock.
I’m not all that big, but with a camera case on my belt, and a back pack being pushed in front of me, I had some difficulty getting through. My shoulders were hanging up on the walls. The tunnel was maybe twenty-four inches wide by thirty inches high. Even Miss Sue had trouble getting through. Sue was next-to-last in the group; I was last. My thought was, Fat Chick made it. Through the tunnel, then immediately up a twenty foot ladder, not to a nice flat area to rest, but to a sloping sixty foot rock wall with toe steps chiseled in it, and log chains to hang on to. I did hang on to them. Otherwise, if I slipped it would be ‘Gooood Byeeeee… One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, Splat.’ Fat Chick made it, I can. Finally, we are out on top of the mesa once again. At the parking lot, we see Fat Chick put on a helmet, kick start her Harley, and ride off. We got in our truck, hit the starter switch, and drove off. If Fat Chick can do it, we can do it.
I later described this to the clerk in the museum. She said that fat women can mold, manipulate, squeeze, and move their blubber around to accommodate the situation, like squeezing through the tunnel. To get up that ladder, though, you just had to haul ass.
Actually, these two tours were fascinating. We got to see, close up, just how these cliff dwellers lived, seven hundred years ago. The ranger explained to us that water was a scarce, but very necessary, commodity for survival. It was used for two purposes, and two purposes only; drinking, and cooking. The mud plaster that was used to cover the walls and protect the mortar joints was mixed in urine, which for that application worked as well as water. A good recycling practice. We took photographs of the ceremonial kivas, the smoke-stained ceilings, and balconies supported by the original juniper logs, bark, and mud utilized in their construction seven hundred years ago. The individual rooms, the rock walls with precise corners, straight edges, and building blocks the size of shoeboxes. We touched the blocks, walked the paths in front of the rooms, and in some cases, entered individual rooms. It gave us an awful lot to think about. We won’t be able to do this again. As you look at the photographs of these dwellings, imagine yourself being there.
Tuesday, Sept. 22 - A day of driving ahead of us. First, down to Aztec, New Mexico to visit Aztec Ruins. Then, west to Four Corners monument, to say that we have been there. Also, Miss Sue needs to buy some jewelry from one of the many Navajo traders sure to be there, hawking their wares.
A surprise for us. We were cold in bed last night - couldn’t keep warm any way we tried. This morning when I got up I turned on the furnace and discovered that the low temperature last night was thirty degrees! The low inside the camper was forty degrees. An ice cube from what remained of my drink last night was still in the sink this morning. A weather alert out of Albuquerque has a freeze warning for all of northwestern New Mexico for tomorrow morning. That be us, too.
We left at 11:00 and took the scenic route down to Aztec, arriving there a little over an hour later. The Ruins was quite interesting, not in the same sense as the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde, but they stand on their own merit. These structures are built on reasonably level ground, and visitors are permitted to closely approach, and in some areas actually enter a series of interconnected rooms. The West Ruin is the most well known, containing about four hundred rooms. The north wall rises three stories high. The interconnecting walls are surprisingly thick - about two and a half to three feet thick! Some of the rooms still retain their original roof beams and coverings, over seven hundred years old. As with other dwellings in the area, the Anasazi people lived here between the years one thousand and the late twelve hundreds. Motoring on, we departed Aztec and headed west, toward Farmington, Shiprock, Teec Nos Pos, and the Four Corners monument. Four Corners is a national monument, but is in Navajo hands, it being on their reservation. As a result, we got dinged six bucks for the privilege of seeing the bronze survey marker at the intersection of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. And, it is somewhat questionable just how accurate the location of that marker is. Flags of the four individual states were flying in their respective quarters of a fifty foot diameter circle inscribed in a concrete pad, plus a U.S. flag, PLUS three Navajo Nation flags, one in each of the three states in which their reservation lies. No part of their reservation is in Colorado. The monument is out on flat desert land; not a tree to be seen. And the wind does blow. But all was not lost. Navajo vendors had their booths set up and were selling their wares in a circular flea market surrounding the monument. By the time we left, Sue dropped eighty bucks for gifts. It was a good day for us, and a pleasant one hundred ninety-seven mile drive in four states.
On return to camp I gave Pat Mooney a call. He and George Beck were sitting out in his shop, talking and having a drink. After I told Pat where we were and what we were doing, he put George on the horn. George reminded us not to forget the San Juan Skyway drive. I told him that was coming up tomorrow.
Wednesday, Sept. 23 - I’m having my coffee, Miss Sue is having hot chocolate with brandy. A long day of driving ahead of us. We may not get back before sunset. We are leaving camp at 11:00AM, and it takes about seven hours to drive this two hundred thirty-two mile loop.
Later…. Ah, it is six-thirty, fifteen minutes before sunset, and we are back at camp after an awesome two hundred thirty-eight mile drive on the San Juan Skyway loop. Most impressive scenery, and this highway is also an All American highway. 
We started out with sandwiches and chips for lunch, and a full road kit. Our first town was Durango. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad begins in Durango and travels sixty miles up the Animas River valley to Silverton. As we crossed Molas Pass at 10,900 feet and started a descent, we could see the town of Silverton far below. As we got lower and closer to the town, I could see a train sitting at a siding. As the road had been paralleling the tracks through the valley and canyons on the way up, I had been hoping to get a glimpse of the train for photographs. This was even better. As we drove into Silverton, we headed straight for the train and pulled out our cameras. The train was stopped on a “Y” turnaround, blowing a little black coal smoke and letting off steam now and then. It was noon, lunchtime, and no one was around. I photographed the engine up close, and then the passenger cars. I climbed into two of them for pictures of the interiors. Lo and behold, there was another train down at the station. After lunch they swapped places, so we got to see both of them huff and puff and blow smoke and change direction and blow their whistles and clang their bells, and watch the conductors, engineers, and firemen do their thing. Neat. The Million Dollar Highway section of the Skyway between Silverton and Ouray is one of the most scenic and spectacular mountain drives in North America. This famous section of the Skyway winds through the iron-colored Red Mountains, along the sheer, and I do mean sheer, sides of the Uncompahgre Gorge, through tunnels and past cascading waterfalls. We went over Red Mountain Pass on this stretch, topping out at 11,100 feet! It was windy and rather cool, at 48° Next in our sights was Ouray, the “Switzerland of America.” Leaving Ouray, we passed through Ridgway, across Dallas Divide at the puny elevation of 8,970 feet, through Placerville, and on to Telluride. This is a Victorian mining town founded in the late 1800s, and is now an international summer festival and ski resort. The town is very ‘yuppie’ and fairly drips money. The residents have continual nosebleed from sticking their beaks up in the air. The town is built along one long street. The speed limit is 15 mph, and they have several of those radar signs that say, “Speed Limit 15 MPH. Your Speed Is xx MPH.” Don’t know why they wasted their money on those signs; the street is so rough you can’t go over 15 mph.
We started out with sandwiches and chips for lunch, and a full road kit. Our first town was Durango. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad begins in Durango and travels sixty miles up the Animas River valley to Silverton. As we crossed Molas Pass at 10,900 feet and started a descent, we could see the town of Silverton far below. As we got lower and closer to the town, I could see a train sitting at a siding. As the road had been paralleling the tracks through the valley and canyons on the way up, I had been hoping to get a glimpse of the train for photographs. This was even better. As we drove into Silverton, we headed straight for the train and pulled out our cameras. The train was stopped on a “Y” turnaround, blowing a little black coal smoke and letting off steam now and then. It was noon, lunchtime, and no one was around. I photographed the engine up close, and then the passenger cars. I climbed into two of them for pictures of the interiors. Lo and behold, there was another train down at the station. After lunch they swapped places, so we got to see both of them huff and puff and blow smoke and change direction and blow their whistles and clang their bells, and watch the conductors, engineers, and firemen do their thing. Neat. The Million Dollar Highway section of the Skyway between Silverton and Ouray is one of the most scenic and spectacular mountain drives in North America. This famous section of the Skyway winds through the iron-colored Red Mountains, along the sheer, and I do mean sheer, sides of the Uncompahgre Gorge, through tunnels and past cascading waterfalls. We went over Red Mountain Pass on this stretch, topping out at 11,100 feet! It was windy and rather cool, at 48° Next in our sights was Ouray, the “Switzerland of America.” Leaving Ouray, we passed through Ridgway, across Dallas Divide at the puny elevation of 8,970 feet, through Placerville, and on to Telluride. This is a Victorian mining town founded in the late 1800s, and is now an international summer festival and ski resort. The town is very ‘yuppie’ and fairly drips money. The residents have continual nosebleed from sticking their beaks up in the air. The town is built along one long street. The speed limit is 15 mph, and they have several of those radar signs that say, “Speed Limit 15 MPH. Your Speed Is xx MPH.” Don’t know why they wasted their money on those signs; the street is so rough you can’t go over 15 mph.At the far end of the town’s one main street, over three or four BIG speed bumps (they pissed me off), we came into view of Bridal Veil Falls, Colorado’s highest waterfall. From Telluride, we crossed Lizard Head pass at 10,222 feet and continued south through the old mining town of Rico, to Dolores, and across Rt. 184 to Mancos and back to camp. A wonderful day, a wonderful drive, and many thanks to George Beck for reminding us to take this drive.
Thursday, Sept. 24 - Today we are going to hitch up the team of oxen and continue our trek up the well-worn, well-marked wagon trail. We have been camped here in southwest Colorado at Target Tree USFS campground for six days and have visited the major attractions, traveling seven hundred ninety-six miles. It is time to move on. Instead of going up through Colorado, as I had planned, we will instead swing slightly west and head to Moab, Utah. That way, we can avoid grinding up those passes that we did yesterday, not something I want to do with the camper. The route to Moab doesn’t have any passes like that and will be much easier on the equipment. Also, another slight change to our plans. We will pull into a campground just south of Moab, along the river. Then, a visit to Arches Nat’l. Park again for a day, maybe two days. I hate to pass up an opportunity for good photography. Hot fresh baked biscuits with butter, honey, and strawberry jam for breakfast. Something to fortify us for this long trip across the desert wastelands of southeast Utah, under the hot, baking sun. Feel sorry for us. Arrived at Ken’s Lake BLM campground about six miles south of Moab this afternoon after an easy, one hundred thirty mile drive. We had stayed at Ken’s four years ago on our trip down to this area, and remembered it as a good stop, so are here once again. I paid for two nights ($12.00) but we may stay for four. The scenery right here at camp is simply awesome. When we were ready to head into Moab this afternoon, the first thing I did was take the jeep trail climbing up the hills out of camp. The scenery there equaled anything we have seen, and we used our cameras non-stop. Sunset is approaching. Not wanting to waste it, we drove up to Arches N.P., about eight miles north of camp. Free entry once again, of course, with my Golden Access Pass. The only change in the park since our last visit here was that Wall Arch collapsed on August 5, 2008. Not having a lot of time, we drove up to Balanced Rock for sunset photos, knowing there was absolutely NO chance we would get any sunrise shots of anything but pillows tomorrow morning. On the way back to camp we stopped at an Italian restaurant in Moab for dinner, our first real meal out on this trip. Seated up on the second floor at a table for two, by a window. A glass of burgundy wine for Miss Sue, a bottle of Michelob for me, and manicotti for both of us. A treat, not having to cook at camp late in the evening. This, however, was a forty-five dollar treat, which is why we don’t do this very often. The diners next to us ordered Coronas. Waitress (waitperson?) told them the restaurant was out of Corona. They then ordered Coors. Waitress called down to the bar, “Do we have Coors?” “Sorry,” she told the diners, “We are out of Coors, too. The liquor delivery was supposed to show up today, but didn’t.” The third try, with Michelob, worked. Life in a small, remote town. Our thoughts of September fourteenth on vacation plans have now been solidified. Next fall we will head once again to Alaska, our second and last trip up there. Have to go while the equipment is still good and functional; arms, legs, eyes, brains, etc.!
Friday, Sept. 25 - I got up promptly at 8:00AM, just as soon as I heard the neighbor’s generator fire up! A beautiful day ahead. Pure blue skies, brilliant sunshine, no clouds yet. Temperature climbing steadily from 62°. A lot warmer here than at Mancos, CO only a hundred thirty miles south. There we woke up to frost yesterday morning at Target Tree campground. We do have cell phone service here at Ken’s Lake (strong signal) and in Moab. Arches N.P. I don’t know about. I’ll check that out today when we go up there.
Our goal today is to hike up to Delicate Arch for some sunset photos. Sunset is around 6:45, so we will probably start up at 5:00. ‘Til then, we have a day in the park. Sue packed four bottles of water and some granola bars for the hike, plus sandwiches and a full road kit for lunch. We each are wearing our Arch Hikers. And yes, we have no cell phone coverage in the park. Entered the park just before noon. First destination was the road that terminates at lower Delicate Arch viewpoint just to see what kind of pictures we could not get, and weren’t disappointed. The arch was a good mile away and required a telephoto lens for any kind of picture. The hike to the arch is definitely in the cards for us. A short drive out the 4WD Cache Valley Wash road to get away from people and have a tailgate lunch, Miss Sue handling the rig, the gears, the four-wheel drive, the rocks, and the sand. Then, we headed for the other end of the park to the Devil’s Garden area to see what was happening out there. What we found was that there are a whole big bunch of people who are not working today, and they all seem to be right here, around us. Sue filled the gallon drinking water jug here. So, back into the truck and down the seven mile long Salt Valley 4WD trail out toward Klondike Bluffs, Miss Sue still navigating the rig. It is sort of nice to occasionally sit over here on the right side and be able to look around at the scenery. Finally, we turned around and headed southwest toward the Delicate Arch Wolfe Ranch parking lot, arriving there around four fifteen PM. A bit early, but that’s OK. My photo vest has two bottles of half frozen water in it; Sue has the backpack with another two bottles of water and the energy bars. Hats, sunglasses, hiking boots, shorts, and cameras complete the preparations.
We can take our time hiking up to Delicate. This is a three mile round trip hike, with an elevation gain of five hundred feet. It is considered a strenuous hike, taking two to three hours. It is out in the open, no shade, and over open slick rock Navajo sandstone with some exposure to heights. The first half mile is a well-defined trail. Upon reaching the slick rock, we follow the rock cairns. The trail climbs, and climbs, and climbs, and then levels out toward the top of the rock face. The stream of people reminds me of what it must have been like for people to climb Mount Sinai to hear and see Moses deliver the Ten Commandments! Just before we got to Delicate, the trail traversed a rock ledge for about two hundred yards. Took us an hour and forty-five minutes to get up here. 
As we turned the last corner, there it was, right in front of us. Delicate Arch. And, this is the only way to see it. The light opening is thirty-two feet wide by forty-eight feet high. This is the inside ‘hole’ that light comes through, and all arches in the park are measured by their ‘light opening’, ‘LO‘, by the Nat’l Park Service. The arch sits at the far edge of a huge sandstone bowl and is positioned perfectly for evening photography. The near side of this ‘bowl’ provides an area for photographers to sit and to set up their equipment. And there were a lot of them here; probably over a hundred. I turned around and took a picture of some of the people on the rock ledges behind us. Sue and I probably took at least fifty photographs of the arch. At least one of them ought to turn out. Sunset for the arch was at 7:00, and it was real quick, like someone had turned off a light. The arch was in full sun; I turned to say something to Sue, and when I looked again, the sun was gone and the entire arch was in shadow.
We started back down, and arrived at the parking lot an hour later, in total darkness, and totally beat. We’ll not be physically able to do this again, but certainly will have the memories and the photographs.
The low temperature this morning was a pleasant 50° and the high today was 82°. And, the sky was absolutely clear - not a cloud all day long. No complaints at all about the weather.
Saturday, Sept. 26 - I paid for another two nights here, as we are having so much fun. After an eleven o’clock brunch of grilled sausage links, blueberry pancakes, and eggs, we are going to do something. What, we don’t know yet, but possibly a short, easy hike out to Landscape Arch. No sandwiches necessary today, just a road kit.
Our third trip into the park. We are going to hike out to Landscape Arch for some photography. This is an easy trail starting at the Devil’s Garden parking lot, up at the far north end of the park. When we got there we found another several hundred people who were not working today. Who is left to support and pay for Obummer’s recession recovery program?
Sue found water taps there in the parking lot, so we rinsed out and filled two Pepsi bottles with water for the hike. My inquiring mind determined that there is a well up here at Devil‘s Garden, 1,200 feet deep, with a single pump delivering about a gallon or so (0.3 cu. ft.) per minute. Solar panels on site provide enough pump power through batteries and an inverter to run drinking fountains, but not enough for the faucets. So, the park service has generators to power the pump long enough to fill a storage tank above ground. The rangers tell me that when the pump fails, it fails big time, and it is a major production to pull the pump from that deep well.
Another warm day today, clear skies, and 87°. The trail is an easy one, 1.6 miles in length over a relatively flat gravel-surfaced trail, but we had not fully recovered from yesterday’s hike up to Delicate. That, coupled with the hot sun, required us to put some effort into this hike.
We got to the arch, found that it was still there, and was still gracefully beautiful. At this time of day we were shooting directly into the sun, but were able to position the arch between us and the sun for a silhouette photo. This arch has an extremely thin span stretching more than a football field in length. It could collapse at any moment, or stand another thousand years.
On the way back to camp at 5:00 we were forced to stop in Moab so Miss Sue could do some light shopping; a good sized coffee mug for Dan, and gifts for all the people doing her job for her while she is on vacation. The shopping urge didn’t stick with her all that long, and we were soon on our way back to camp. Another beautiful sunset, a balmy evening, a campfire going. Later, I will grill a choice rib-eye steak for us.
Sunday, Sept. 27 - Time is flying. Less than a week of vacation left. However, we both need to get back to work in order to rest up from all of these travels. This is not easy, to be on vacation like this, but somebody has to do it!
Today we are going to drive thirty-five miles up to Island in the Sky Visitor Center and take the Shafer Trail down to the bottom of the canyon, in Canyonlands Nat’l Park. That is, the truck will hike down there and back up, with us on its back!.
It turned out to be about a fifty mile drive to get to the visitor center. Our next door neighbor in the campground told me about this drive, and said that it was even more hair raising than the Muley Point Overlook switchbacks we took four years ago. I heard enough. Here we are, at the start of Shafer Trail, a half mile from the visitor center. The elevation is 5,920 feet but will drop two thousand feet, to 3,920 feet at the Colorado River.
A half mile into the dirt, rock, and gravel trail we hit the switchbacks at Shafer Canyon. The ‘road’ at this point is a ledge in the rock; vertical rock wall on one side, ten feet away on the other is a vertical drop of five hundred feet or more. Exact height makes no difference, dead is dead. The pucker factor was high. The leather driver’s seat in the truck was pretty well pinched at this point, and stayed that way during the descent. Occasionally, a wide spot on the ledge allowed vehicles to pass. We had to watch for them and plan where we would meet so one or the other of us could get to a wide spot and wait. Going down, we passed one couple coming up who stopped and said, “We are all out of ‘Wows’ and ‘Golly Gee’s.” They were from Florida, where the highest elevation in the state is only three hundred feet! I had reset my Fun Meter at the start of the drive, but the pointer was already starting to edge toward the peg! There was a fair amount of traffic on the trail, more than the one or two vehicles I expected. Most of the rigs were rental jeeps from Moab, plus a couple of dirt bikes. (Note to the wise: don’t ever buy a used rental jeep).
We finally got off the switchbacks and reasonably leveled off at the floor of the canyon, still a thousand feet above the river. We caught our first glimpse of the Colorado River and a couple of tour boats on it at Gooseneck Overlook.
Our goal (our ONLY choice) was to follow Shafer Trail out to Potash boat ramp on the Columbia and drive home from there. Potash, however, was sixty-three miles ahead of us over some of the roughest road I have ever had a full size truck on. It was almost as bad as the North Rim drive we took at the Grand Canyon. We were creeping along at about three miles per hour and being thrown around in the truck in spite of our seat belts. The ‘road’ was mostly rock, with a little dirt and a lot of wash boarding thrown in. I did pick up a small slab of Entrada sandstone while we were eating lunch under a rock wall overhang.
Had a couple of rock ledges to climb over; I could see scrape marks on them from differentials, transmissions, oil pans, mufflers, and bumpers. At one of these ledges we talked to a couple of older women in a CAR who were headed up. They wanted to know if it would get any worse. I told them that if they had plenty of beer with them, it would be OK. (Note to the wise: don’t ever buy a used rental car).
We went in at 12:30. After hours of creeping over seemingly endless, seemingly directionless, out in the middle of nowhere, going nowhere trails, we ended up at the Potash boat launch at 5:00PM. Hooray! Civilization! And, I still had cold beer left! As a bonus, we saw a Bighorn sheep a hundred feet off the road.
When the truck finally hit pavement again, I expected it to shiver, shudder, and slowly dissolve into a little pile of nuts and bolts on the road, with an occasional fender scattered here or there. Four-wheelers, had they been permitted in the park, would have been an excellent vehicle of choice for a trip such as this as they would have handled the rough roads and rocks with ease.
The rest of the day was an anticlimax after this exactly one hundred mile run. We headed back to camp to rest up and sit by the fire. Dinner tonight of deep fried fish and potatoes.
Monday, Sept. 28 - I paid for another two days here at Ken’s Lake campground as we are having SO much fun. Today we will do the fifty-six mile La Sal Mountain loop drive which is paved and starts right here at the campground.
The campground is empty this morning, except for us and one other camper over on the far side of the camp. I gave Mom and Sis a quick cell phone call while Sue packed sandwiches for our drive today, and we left camp at our usual time of around noon, or slightly before.
The La Sal Mountain drive was beautiful. It took us high up over the top of the range, and all the aspens, scrub oak, and ground cover were changing colors. The drive brought us out east of Arches and along the south side of the Colorado River for about ten miles before returning to Moab. Quite delightful.
After refueling, another short drive up Kane Creek Road took us along the north side of the Colorado and to a rock covered with petroglyphs. The rock wall was shaded, which made it very difficult to get photos with any contrast in them. Still, the drive was nice.
Next stop was back at Arches N.P., our fifth trip in. We photographed the Windows, then drove to Double Arch for more photography. This is an arch we missed seeing four years ago when we were here, so can now add it to our collection. This arch, with a light opening (LO) of about three hundred twelve feet high, is the highest arch in the park.
It is now five o’clock, the time when most old people eat supper, so on our way back to camp we stopped at Miguel’s Baja Grill in Moab for a Mexican dinner. This is the second time on our vacation that we had dinner in a restaurant, and both times were in Moab. And, the out-the-door price was the same, $45.00. The way we think, that ninety dollars could have gone into the gas tank and taken us another three hundred plus miles on our travels. But, it was a nice treat for us, and especially for Miss Sue, who didn’t have to cook.
Another relaxing evening by the campfire. This imported Washington State firewood we brought with us on the truck is holding up remarkably well. We have enough for tomorrow night, and maybe one other night, yet. Not bad for over a month on the road.
High today was 90° and it is now 83° with a light wind at eight o’clock, total darkness. Well, not total. The moon is coming up on being full, and is wiping out a lot of stars, including the Milky Way. Can’t see much, star-wise, until early morning, after the moon has set.
Tuesday, Sept. 29 - Our last day here at Moab. Tomorrow we will point the ox team and covered wagon north toward Washington Territory.
Sue fixed a simple lunch of cheeses and crackers, with hard salami and pepperoni thrown in, and we headed for Arches for the sixth and final trip. Managed to leave the camper at 10:00 this morning. First stop was Double Arch, where we had the sun at our backs this morning. Next on our list was Window Arches, where we did a mile hike up to North Window, South Window, and Turret Arch. Then, a stop at Wolfe Ranch at Delicate Arch parking lot. Here, we took a very short hike to a sandstone wall that had excellent petroglyphs on it, very easy to photograph.
Needing some shade in which to partake of a tailgate lunch, we left the park, crossed the Colorado River and turned left on Hwy 128. Drove a mile up the river and found a nice pull-over for lunch, in the shade. Watched a pair of kayakers work their way down river while we ate.
At around four PM we returned to Ken’s Lake and, as I wanted to get a slab of Navajo sandstone slick rock to go with the Entrada sandstone I had in the truck, we drove up the jeep trail behind the campground. When I got to a sign that said, “Steelbender Pass, Keep Right,” I presumed they knew what they were talking about and I turned around. We did take a few photos there at the sign, though. Oh, and Miss Sue found a slab of slick rock for my collection.
We are back in camp, in an empty campground, at five o’clock. A very laid-back evening ahead of us. Drinkie-poo time. Very windy, as it was most of the day, and as it was last night. Bedtime (for me) at 9:30.
Wednesday, Sept. 30 - Very hard to get a good night’s sleep last night. The wind was vicious. The entire camper was blowing from side to side, things outside were clattering and banging around, the chairs were over on their sides. A few sprinkles of rain during the night, enough to put red splotches on everything. A couple of times during the night, in the distance, I could hear peals of thunder. The entire inside of the camper is coated with a true grit, red colored. For once, I’ll be glad to get out of here. As Sue says, “This is a beautiful area, but I wouldn’t want to live here.”
I think we will take Route 191N to Green River, Price, Vernal, and on to Flaming Gorge in Wyoming, just to see what is there. I don’t know how far that is; we might not get there today.
The wind did not let up at all, and it was, for most of the day, directly at us. We ground up only two passes, but they were high ones. The first, just outside of Helper, UT, topped out at 9,100 feet, was windy, temperature of 31°, and snow flakes. We left Moab this morning in 70° weather. What a change in a couple hundred miles and a few hours.
The second pass, between Vernal, UT and Flaming Gorge, WY was 8,914 feet, even more windy, and had snow on the ground in spots. This was a long pass; we had to grind up in bottom gear at times. These are the only times we would have benefited from the additional torque of a GM Duramax diesel engine on this trip. Arrived at Flaming Gorge at 5:30 and found a Forest Service campground. Setup consisted of firing up the generator and jumping into the camper. The wind slammed the door shut for us!
As I sit here at the dining table typing these notes, the temperature is already down to 34°. The furnace will be on a bit tonight, and we will wear our sweats to bed. Sue has lasagna in the oven for supper, as I certainly do not want to try going outside to set up the cooking table. Showers for both of us this evening as I topped off the fresh water tank at a Shell station in Moab this morning.
I think that tomorrow we will head up to Rock Springs WY, Bear Lake ID, Soda Springs, Blackfoot, Arco, Missoula, and be home by Saturday. Sue was in favor of heading up through the Wind River range toward Jackson and the Tetons, but I think that would be pushing our luck, weather wise, driving distance wise, and mountain pass wise.
Thursday, Oct. 1 - Last night was another windy night. We are camped in a spot up on a ridge, which is part of the reason there is so much wind on us. I did not unhook the camper from the truck, nor did I put down the stabilizer jacks when we got here (it was just too damn cold out there). As a result, the camper bounced around in the wind all night long. The furnace ran a bit (quite a bit), too. The temperature this morning was 32°, but no snow.
Miss Sue has fixed herself a cup of hot chocolate, and on cold mornings like this she puts a little nip of brandy in it. And sometimes even on warmer mornings!
Traveling gear for the day will be long pants and flannels, and I am sure that they will feel quite good. I don’t know what to expect, weather wise, as we drive up through central Idaho today.
I am digressing here, but this is the first long trip or vacation we have taken since I bought a little Acer Aspire ten inch laptop computer last November to replace my handwritten camping and travel notes that I have compiled for the last twelve years. And, this laptop is a delight to use. I can easily make corrections and add or delete thoughts, anywhere in the material, by the click of the mouse. Many times I go back to previous material to change a word here, a word there.
The computer battery doesn’t last all that long. It is advertised as a three hour battery, but doesn’t come anywhere near that. Not a problem, though, as almost every morning I have the generator on for coffee, so can run the computer on AC. Mornings, just before Miss Sue gets up, are when I do most of my writing. Also, if push comes to shove, I have a small 400 watt inverter I can plug into a 12 volt cigar lighter outlet in the camper and have sufficient 110VAC to run the computer. These computers are retailing at all the big box stores like Costco, Wal-Mart, Staples, etc. for three hundred dollars, a real bargain in my estimation.
When I get home, I will load this program into the printer, press the button, and have an immediate printout of these vacation notes, all thirty-some pages. Wow!
It is now 7:30 and we have stopped for the night. All day today as we drove north and west we were surrounded by snow-covered mountain peaks, an early winter dusting. At times, driving through small towns, we could see snow lying in shaded parts of yards and rooftops. Temperatures hung in the mid-forties all day.
We have had very little hope of finding a campground other than private ones, which we do NOT do if we can possibly help it, ever since we left the vicinity of Rock Springs, WY. It is not our first choice, but we discussed a Wal-Mart parking lot, the back lot of a truck stop, or a casino as a place to park for the night.
We had a burger and fish & chips in Soda Springs, ID at 5:00PM, and then headed out again, towards Pocatello and Blackfoot. Arco has a public campground at Craters of the Moon, but that is one hundred fifty miles away, unreachable tonight.
As we hummed up I-15, we flashed by a sign saying ‘ENTERING FT. HALL INDIAN RESERVATION.’ A half mile further on was another sign advertising the ‘FT HALL CASINO NEXT EXIT.’ Our problem is solved. Hit the binders and make a hard right onto the exit ramp. We are out here in the middle of nowhere, between Pocatello and Blackfoot, in a casino parking lot. We will spend the night here.
Friday, Oct. 2 - I really don’t understand this cold weather, all of a sudden. When we left home, it was warm. In the Four Corners, it was hot. In Colorado it went cold and stayed cold ever since. This morning I woke up to thirty degrees and ice on the water puddles in the parking lot. What’s it going to be like at home, tomorrow? LaRae hasn’t answered or returned Sue’s phone calls for over a week, so we have no idea what to expect.
At any rate, it is eight o’clock, or is it seven? There may be a time zone change somewhere around here. The sun is just now rising. I am ready for my first cup of coffee. I am doing it in the percolator on the stove this morning as the generator is on the truck, and the camper batteries would protest at running the furnace AND the twelve volt coffee pot at the same time. Miss Sue’s hot chocolate water is also warming up on the stove.
The drive up Hwy 93 from Arco through Challis, Salmon, Darby, and Hamilton to Missoula was beautiful. The first section took us along the Salmon River, then over Lost Trail Pass on the continental divide at 7,014 feet. The road then continued on northward along the Bitterroot River through Lolo and into Missoula. There were many old buildings and homesteads along this route. Mud-chinked log cabins dating from the mid to late 1800s, and homesteads from that same time period. We drove by two roundups in progress, both utilizing cowboys on horseback. The small town of Darby was early Americana, and we want to go back and spend a day there, roaming around. In fact we are, sometime, going back to Hwy 93 and spend a week to ten days camping along the route and taking pictures.
Its been a long run today, of four hundred thirty miles. We were ready for a camp spot for the night just south of Missoula, around Hamilton, but that never panned out - either closed for the season, or they didn’t exist. It is now nine o’clock and we are at a parking area across from the Conoco station/casino at St. Regis. Just as well, as we are now facing a much shorter drive home tomorrow. After the summer camping season ends, we know how to find truck stops, Wal-Marts, or casinos. They all work for overnight stops, and they never close, day or night, summer or winter.
We ran into our first serious rain in five weeks at Superior, and it continued on our drive to St. Regis and lasted for another hour.
Saturday, Oct. 3 - Seven-thirty, overcast and dark. Temperature is ten degrees warmer at 43°. Should be an easy run home this morning. A light mist all the way to Lookout Pass and Coeur d’Alene. We arrived at home at 11:00AM after being away five weeks and driving just short of six thousand miles.
A few stats are in order, here. I spent $1,347 for 494 gallons of gas. This averaged out to 11.9 miles per gallon for the entire trip, at an average cost of $2.72 per gallon. The Golden Age Access card saved us $223 on park entrance fees and camping fees. The fifth wheel coach was pulled a total of 3,458 miles on this trip, and we spent a total of 36 nights in it. Total camp fees were $240.00. All in all, it was a rather economical, VERY enjoyable, vacation. Next year, Alaska.
Camper total: 14,966 miles, 284 nights
