Friday June 26 – today was a travel day. We went from Hurricane to Las Vegas. A whole whopping 120 miles. We pulled into the Las Vegas Thousand Trails around 9:30 in the morning and the Thermometer was already hitting 91. The forecast for tomorrow is 104. I think we will get up early tomorrow and do our site seeing while it is the coolest part of the day. Ya right. It is supposed to get all the way down to 79 tonight. Burrr I think I better put on a sweat shirt. Anyway the schedule for tomorrow is to go to Hoover Dam. The Dam thing is 726.4 feet high 1,244 Feet long and cost $175 million to build. If it was being built today it would probably $175 quad trillion with all of the $1000 toilet seats and $500 hammers that the government buys. We need to find a geocache so we can add Nevada to our list. That one and California will mean 9 states down and a lot of traveling to go to get all 50.
Did I say yesterday to send money? I need to revise that to “Send lots of money”. You see we were in Las Vegas for about an hour and Dianne was hearing the casinos calling her. The economy has caused slot machine payouts to be cut back and it took all of about two hours for the two of us to drop the social security check and three and an half house payments. And we still have three more days down here. We’ll take Visa, Master Charge, Personal checks, IOUs and of course CASH. Please send ASAP……
Something good did happen today. You know that hour that we lost last week and I have been turning the motor home upside down to find. Well when we pulled into Las Vegas that sucker was back. It wasn’t lost after all. It must have been just playing hide and seek and got tired waiting for me to find it. Ollie Ollie Oxen Free.
We are staying in a Thousand Trails park here. It’s okay but not as nice as the ones we have stayed in. Doesn’t even have the nice view of the cows and the wonderful aroma we had in Lind. Just the smell of slot machines. The good news is we didn’t have to pay a fee to get in the gate and this is the first place that has had a pool. Went over about 6:00 this evening and had the whole thing to ourselves. Helped cool us off a bit. The nice lady who checked us in assigned us a spot with late afternoon shade from some trees but by that time of the day the damage has been done. Most of the parks we saw while we were out and about this afternoon had no trees whatsoever so guess we should be grateful for any help we can get.
Nothing to take pictures of today. Not much more for now. I think my brain just melted.
Keep cool…
Las Vegas – Day 1
June 25 – Today was a fairly easy day for us. We left around 8:30 to head southwest across the border into Arizona to Pipe Springs National Monument. Pipe Springs is where Brigham Young (those of us who are in the inner circle refer to him as BY) and his followers commandeered the only spring for miles around and built a fort over the top of it to protect the water from those nasty Paiute Indians-even though the Paiutes had been using the water for years before ol’ BY came on the scene. Once the Paiutes converted to Mormonism (and traded their horses for bicycles to ride through your neighborhood and knock on your door) they were allowed to have some of their water back. The people at the fort had large herds of cattle and with cattle you get a lot of milk. Since Frigidaires were a few years away from making the scene they made butter and cheese from all the milk. They wrapped the butter in paper, packed it in flour barrels and shipped it to Salt Lake to sell to the other pioneers. With the heat down here that may have been how soft spread started.
Found several geocaches in Arizona so get to add another state to our list.
Bidding adieu to pioneer life we headed north back into Utah to Coral Pink Sand Dune State Park. According to the brochures this is a unique place where there are miles and miles of Pink Sand dunes. There were lots of sand dunes all right but they were more of a tanish orange than Pink. All the person at the Ranger Station would say is that there are many shades of pink and the dunes get pinker when they are wet. This is the desert for crying out loud-how often does the desert get wet? She must have had pink eye. Most of the park is full of ATV trails. It didn’t look like most people stayed on them very well, ruining the vegetation instead.
Tonight is laundry night. Tomorrow is a travel day to Las Vegas. There is no way that Dianne will be willing to do laundry while there are casinos to visit. So many Casinos, so little time.
Will write more tomorrow from the poor farm. Send money!!!!!!
BTW I briefly saw that missing hour today when we were in Arizona -they are not on Day light Savings time. But by the time we got back to the motorhome that sucker was gone again…. I’ll keep looking.
The Fort at Pipe Springs National Monument
Pipe Springs
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park
6/24 – Today we were up at 6:15 AM and on the road to Bryce Canyon National Park at 7:00 under beautiful blue skies. We headed east through a 2 mile small, dark tunnel in Zion National Park. It is so narrow and low that many larger vehicles are required to pay $15 to be led through by an escort vehicle while everyone on the other end waits until they have used both lanes to make their way through. We were in our pickup so were waved on through without any wait. Sometimes our little truck has an inferiority complex but this time being small paid off. Our plan to be at the park by 9:00 didn’t include sharing the same route as a large antique car caravan. The top speed of these guys is about 35 MPH. Putt…putt…putt. (Pretty to look at, lovely to own, but don’t ever get stuck behind around 350 of them on a two lane mountain road). These guys must not like being behind one another either because many of them broke down and had to pull off the side of the road. All of the rest just kept on going and did not stop to help. Not many passing places but we finally left them behind us and got to the park at 9:30.
We also figured that the main industry of the real Podunk towns around here is the revenue from speeding tickets. You see once you get around the Putt Putts the speed limit is 55. And before you know it your go around a corner and there lies a Podunk. The give you about 20 yards warning before the speed limit changes from 55 to 35. And of course right behind the 35 MPH sign is the local donut eater (AKA Sheriff, Cop, local yokel, the fat guy in a uniform that could not out run a slug in a foot race, etc.) with a great big smile on his face
There is an optional free shuttle system at the park but they don’t run as frequently as the ones at Zion and they don’t go to all the viewpoints in the park. We opted to drive ourselves and saw a deer beside the road (no disease ridden rodents begging for nuts this time) as we set off for Sunset Point. The view was so incredibly beautiful that Dianne kept saying “Can you believe this?” There was a 1.8 mile trailhead here that we had talked about taking but once Dianne saw we were at 8015 ft. elevation and the trail was downhill going and uphill coming back, she decided we wouldn’t have enough “time” to hike today anyway. Going down would only take 30 minutes or so but coming back up would have probably take 30 days or so. So we set off for Inspiration Point where the view was even more incredible.
We also saw a feature called The Natural Bridge. Kind of funny that The Natural Bridge was named that by someone unaware it is really an arch instead. You see by definition a Natural Bridge must have been made by some sort of water and by the looks of this place there has been no water here since Noah parked the Ark.
The entire Canyon is breathtaking and we finally reached Rainbow Point at the end of the road at 9115 ft. elevation. We ate our picnic lunch and left the park about 2:00 headed for home by a different route than we came. The map showed we would go by Cedar Breaks National Monument but we ended up going through it instead. Stopped at their visitor’s center and were surprised to find out we were at 10,350 ft. elevation. Gasp, gasp – hard to breathe two miles up. I was about ready to start sucking the air out of the truck’s spare tire. The good thing is I think we probably got 347 miles per gallon going from Cedar Breaks (10,350 ft. elevation) to Cedar City (5000 ft. elevation). It was a 5000 foot elevation drop in less than 20 miles. Put it in neutral and let it rip. The only problem is by the time we hit the bottom we were going roughly the speed of light.
Finally got back to the motor home at 4:30. Saved $58 today using Dianne’s LOLP. Had dinner, logged our pictures and did the blog thing. Tomorrow we sleep in and take a leisurely drive southeast of here to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes National Park.
I’m still trying to find that *&^$ missing hour.
The Silent City at Inspiration Point
Bryce Point
The Natural Bridge (Not..)
Cedar Breaks National Monument
June 23 – Up early and into Zion National Park a little after 8 AM in an attempt to get out sightseeing done before the afternoon heat. Was 101 degrees again today. Nice breeze as we entered without paying the $25 fee using Dianne’s LOLP (Little Old Lady Pass). Cars are not allowed on the road that runs along the canyon floor unless you are driving in just far enough to be a paying guest at Zion Lodge. The Park used to have 3600 visitors a year but it now has over 3 million. There had to have been at least 1.45 million visitors there today. We haven’t been able to keep up with the news this last couple of weeks but they must have moved the United Nations to Southern Utah. At least half of those 1.45 million people that were at the park today, (on the same trail we were on by the way) spoke something else besides English. Come to think of it that is no different than down town Seattle.
The shuttle system they have worked great with propane powered buses arriving at each stop every 5-7 minutes-usually just about the time we got sat down in the shade at the shuttle stop. They figure each shuttle replaces 28 cars. This is good because there are probably only 27 parking spots in the whole park. We hiked a total of 4+ miles at different stops. This area is much greener and wetter than Canyonlands and Arches but the sign on the back of a shuttle said “Got Water? Drink it. You are in the desert”. By 1:00 we had finished our last hike which was 2 miles round trip up into the narrowing canyon when the road could go no further. I amost ended up converting the lizard dance into a squirrel dance. We were eating a granola bar when one jumped up on our bench right behind me and wanted us to share. All I could see is that squirrel climbing up my leg looking for some peanuts. I will say no more. If you know what I mean. Coming into the park there is a large picture of a hand with 13 stitches in an ugly wound and a warning that squirrels bite and I didn’t want my picture in the paper next to that. So..we let the squirrel have our bench-but not our food. Got some cute pictures of the disease ridden critter while it followed us for a bit up the trail.
Back to the air conditioning of the motorhome, lunch, a nice nap, a trip to Wal-Mart, dinner, doing this blog, showers and bed. Up early again tomorrow to go see Bryce Canyon National Park before it gets really hot.
And that is the way it is….
The Virgin River
Court of the Patriarchs
Zion National Park
June 22 – Traveled 327 miles from Moab to Hurricane Utah today. We started out at around 4000 feet elevation and as we traveled we crossed 5 summits at 7270, 7886, 7130, 6600 and 6500 feet above sea level. It felt like we were on a roller coaster. Slow going up one side and going like hell down the back side. Up and Down, Up and Down, Up and … I think I am going to be sick….uurrrpp….
Anyway we got into Hurricane around 2:30 in the afternoon. All along we have been waiting for warm and sunny-well today we got it. As we were pulling into Hurricane I saw a sign saying it was 101 degrees. And the hottest part of the day was still to come.
After we got settled in the RV Park we headed a few miles south to St. George to find a Rite Aid store so I could refill a couple of prescriptions. We just started off blind with no address, map or anything else to tell us where to go (except the navigator in the right seat-she is very adept at telling me where to go-if you get my drift). After all, how big could the little Podunk town of St. George be? Well excuse me St. George, I’ll never call you a Podunk again. After driving around for 30 to 45 minutes and not finding anything close to a drug store we decided to ask for directions. (Dianne made me do it. After all, if I asked for directions I may lose my Man card). We happened to stop at a medical center, who would know better, since they administer drugs all the time. I don’t know why they looked at me so strangely when I walked in the door and starting yelling “Drugs, I Need Drugs”. Those security people are sure nice people. Anyway we were directed to the nearest Rite Aid and then made it back to the motor home for dinner.
Tomorrow’s schedule is up early, take a nap, drive to the Visitors Center at Zion, take a nap, get on one of the Shuttle busses, take a nap, take a few pictures, take a nap, go on a couple of hikes in the park, take a nap, take the shuttle back to the truck, take a nap, drive back to the motor home for lunch and a nap. Oh ya, there may also be a nap or two thrown in there somewhere.
Will write more tomorrow after (if) I wake up and/or don’t melt.
On the road from Moab to Hurricane
On the road from Moab to Hurricane
On the road from Moab to Hurricane
June 21 – Left camp about 10 AM to go back to Canyonlands National Park with much better weather -high puffy white clouds and wind. There are 3 sections to this park and we went to Island in the Sky section. Today was hot and the wind helped made it pleasant. This was good because we hiked a total of 3 miles to different viewpoints. We met lots of nice people from all over the world while hiking including a couple vacationing from France. (The question of the day is. If a person for Australia (Down Under) is up here on vacation. Will he have to take pictures upside down so that he can see them correctly when he gets back home?) We took their picture and then they took our picture at the edge of a 2000 foot drop into one of the canyons-waaaaayyy too close to the edge for Dianne. She has to get up her nerve to move slowly close enough to the outside edge of the viewing platform on the Space Needle so she can see the ground. One couple from Michigan promised to say HI to the lighthouses for Dianne. After all Michigan has more lighthouses than any other state. This was one of 3 weekends this year that entry to National Parks was free. The people we met and the license plates we saw indicated the people in the park had come from far away and would have been in the park even if they had to pay the $10 per car entry. That’s cheap. At Bryce and Zion it is $25 per car. Good thing we have Dianne’s LOLP (Little Old Lady Pass). Took lots of pictures today-mostly of canyons but also saw one arch, Mesa Arch. Encountered more view hoggers. You would think that when this couple saw 10-12 people lined up at a distance waiting with their cameras ready to shoot, they would have figured out they had spent enough time taking each other’s pictures, looking to see how the pictures turned out and repacking their camera bag and moved out from in front of the arch. Eventually they did and all of us got pictures of the arch without them. After leaving Canyonlands we stopped at Dead Horse State Park. Horrid name-beautiful scenery. Legend says that at one point wild horses were rounded up and corralled, only to be left with no water and all died of thirst. The main viewpoint looks down 2000 feet onto “The Gooseneck” which is a hairpin turn in the Colorado River-the same river we are camped next to. Back to the motorhome, air conditioning and dinner (after a quick trip to the store in Moab for teriyaki sauce). No nap today .. darn… Blog writing, showers and bed. Long trip tomorrow down to Hurricane (pronounced Hur I cun).
Tomorrow’s Weather Forecast – 96 and Sunny
Here comes the sun..
Living Life on the Edge
The Gooseneck
The Mesa Arch
Saturday June20 – Well remember yesterday when I said to put away the umbrella’s. Well I lied. Today we got up early. No, not the retirement early as in 9:00, but like 6:15. Before you start getting the straight jackets out and making reservations for us at Happy Acres, hear us out. We did that to get an early start at Canyonlands National Park so we could take in the sights and get some pictures before the weather turned south on us. The problem is that Mother Nature has a sick sense of humor. It was sunny at the RV Park when we left but by the time we got to the park roughly 30 mile away the wind came up, the clouds rolled in and dropped little wet presents on our heads. Being true Washingtonians we battled the elements and forged on. Enough with the whining.
Canyonlands is a beautiful park. Huge massive canyons and lots of colors everywhere-that I’m sure are much prettier in the sunshine. Personally I think it is more impressive that what I remember of the Grand Canyon. We did take some pictures and hiked up the side of Upheaval Dome-200 ft in elevation in less than one half mile. Inside of the dome was a huge crater with 2 theories as to how it was formed. One is a meteor impact and the other has to do with the area once being covered by seas that evaporated leaving a thick layer of salt. While we were stopped in a parking areas to eat some lunch from our cooler a big black raven landed on the tailgate of the pickup. It must have known we had food because it didn’t even flinch when I got out and took a picture of it. It is hard to distinguish between a raven and a blackbird but it did say “nevermore” as it flew away. Since it was raining and we plan to return tomorrow (with a forecast of better weather, I think 90 degrees and windy is better anyway) we decided to leave the park and go hunting for dinosaur tracks. Found tracks from two different species that were make about 150 million years ago. It is nice to see something that is older than us. There were 8-9 tracks from a 20 ton brontosaur that were about 2 feet in diameter and 10 inches deep. The other tracks were from a 3 toed Allosaurus which weighed 4.5 tons. How they know that I have no idea. The Allosaurus was at the top of the food chain in this area. I’m sure glad that we are there now and not have to worry about being an entrée for some lizard. You can see the deep claw marks in the picture of the 15” long footprint below. Met some people from California who told us about a site with petrified dinosaur bones so we set out to find that. Very interesting place-lots of bones with signs telling about what part of the body they were from. Don’t know how they tell a femur from a fibula but wasn’t going to argue with them. Interesting that there are no signs on the highway telling of these locations. Found out about the tracks when I inquired at a Visitor Info Center and they had the brochures under the counter-not out on the racks. The CA couple had a LA newspaper article about dinosaur information.
While we were out and about we did a little rock hunting to bring back for the garden. I started to pick up a rock and this little lizard (not of the dinosaur variety thankfully. I could just picture being invited for dinner and supplying the main course.) ran out from underneath it. I’m not sure who was the most startled by this, me or the lizard. I was trying to get away from it and it was trying to get away from me but every time I zigged he zagged right where I was standing. We did that for what seemed like an eternity. Dianne got a kick out of my lizard dance.
Headed into Moab for dinner as we were too tired to cook. Only the third time we have eaten out so far so have done well on not blowing our vacation money in restaurants.
To bed early tonight and tomorrow back to Canyonlands, but not so early.
Nighty night and don’t let the bed bugs bite (nor the lizards either)
The Canyonlands
More Canyonlands
One of the Allosaurus Foot Prints
Friday, June 19th – “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition” I don’t know who is old enough to remember that quote but the new quote is “Praise the Lord and put away the umbrellas” We woke up to clear sunny skies (AKA no rain clouds for the first time since we left Lind almost a week ago). We left about 8:45 AM to return to Arches National Park. The entrance is only about a mile from our campground. We got in for free this time since we got to use Dianne’s Senior Pass (AKA the “Old Lady Pass”) that we bought yesterday. Got pictures of many things we chose not to photograph while there yesterday evening since the cloud cover and rain sprinkles didn’t show the colors and provide the textures we were looking for. After all if we wanted to take pictures of rain clouds and puddles we could have done that at home. Took lots of pictures today but were glad for the hikes we took and few pictures we did take yesterday as today was very crowded-even at 9 AM. At the Devil’s Garden, where we parked and went on a hike last night to photograph two arches, there were people and vehicles everywhere today. We drove through the loop and kept on going. I think the population of Utah more than doubled overnight. Today we hiked to a small, low arch and found a woman sitting right under the arch in the sand as if everyone would want her in their picture of this little arch. We waited quite awhile for her to move so we could take a picture and finally asked if she was waiting to have her picture taken. She said no and finally it dawned on her- “I’ll bet you would like me to move so you can take a picture of the arch without me in it”. Well duh… When we said we would appreciate it she got up and moved – no problem. Her reasoning for not moving was that there were a lot more people under the arch when she first got there. So what does that have to do with anything? People are interesting.
After leaving the park we went back to the motor home for more bottles of water and to check on Missy. Thanks to the nice shade we are parked in, it was very comfortable in the motor home. We are camped next to the Colorado River and it is running very high for this time of the year. Then off to Moab, about a mile away, where we had some lunch and looked around in some of the shops. We drove a bit further south to a tourist trap called “The Hole in the Rock”. At some point a couple carved a 14 room house out of the rock and then collected all kinds of stuff and “decorated” the yard. A 10 minute tour of the house was $5 each so we said no thank you and looked around in the Trading Post. At the prices that they charged for their tourist crap the place should be called “The hole in your wallet”. The good thing is that we found a geocache on the grounds. Just on the other side of the “Rock” we found another geocache in a rest area.
Back to the motor home to catalog the photos we have taken so far so when we get back home we won’t wonder which arch was which. After all one big red rock with a hole in it looks like all the other red rocks with a hole in it.
We found one more of the state license plates we needed plus one from Quebec so now have found 46 states and 4 provinces. The most unusual license plate was from Germany on a small motor home with German writing on the sides. Not sure how they got it here from there but I am betting they probably drove it here over the polar route.
Well tomorrow it is supposed to be cloudy and with a possibility of rain showers. Summer was sure nice while it lasted all one day of it. However , on the news tonight we heard that it is supposed to be up in the low 100’s in St. George Utah later in the week. St. George is only 20 or 30 miles away Hurricane where we will be going next.
Tomorrow is off to Canyonlands.
Good night all and don’t let the bed bugs bite..
North Window Arch
Balanced Rock
Turret Arch
On the Way to Sand Dune Arch
Sand Dune Arch Sans the Woman that wouldn't move
Well, it is Thursday, June 18 and this morning we were up at at ‘em and on to another adventure as we set off for Moab after filling up at Flying J. We had thought sunburn was going to be the painful part of the trip but so far gas stops have that honor (see Weather below). We’ve encountered a lot of road construction and an unbelievable number of trucks-seems like as many trucks as cars. The good thing about trucks is they have license plates from all over the place. At this point we have seen license plates from all but 5 states. Lots of CA, TX and Fl. Now for the weather. So far we have had some amount of rain every day since we left home. Sometimes rain and sometimes RAIN!!!! Saw at least 25 lightning bolts as we drove into and through a huge thunderstorm today. The desert on either side of the road had huge puddles on top of the sand. Looked like we were traveling at the ocean instead of the desert. Driving into the huge dark black storms seems like entering the mouth of some kind of monster. Amazing when we come out on the other side and all is dry like nothing ever happened. Our highest elevation today was 7,477 ft at Soldier Summit. Arrived in Moab at a nice shady RV park – which was very important when we made reservations but not so much as the raindrops fell on us through the trees. Tomorrow is supposed to be better with improvement in the weather through the weekend. Good thing we made reservations as most of the camp sites here are not big enough for our rig but they had an appropriate sized one waiting for us. The interesting thing about the weather is that so far we have been able to do what we wanted to do without the rain interfering. Once we set up camp, we left for Arches National Park, just a mile up the road. Dianne purchased her Golden Age Pass for $10 as we went in so we won’t have to pay to enter a National Park ever again. Having an old woman along can occasionally be beneficial. We checked the place out and took a few pictures but will go back tomorrow hoping for more sunshine for better picture opportunities. Will also check out Moab tomorrow since by the time we dined in the motorhome, we were too tired to do so tonight. Showers and bed are next on the agenda–night-night.
Delicate Arch
Skyline Arch
Pine Tree Arch
We set out this morning to visit the Bingham Canyon Mine and were successful on our second attempt. The first time we pulled up to the visitor’s entrance to pay our $5 entry fee, they told us to go away and come back in about half an hour. One of their gigantic haul trucks was headed down the 4 ½ mile road from the mine and another was waiting to go up. These trucks take up both lanes of the road and carry up to 320 tons in a single trip. We sure didn’t want to be responsible for causing one to be damaged since our insurance would probably balk at paying the $3.5 million for a new one. We drove to a nearby town with many housing developments that advertised “bench views” and pondered why anyone would pay a premium to look at the benched scarred sides of the mountain containing the mine. The mine is so deep you could stack two Sears Towers (now called the Willis Building) on top of each other and still not reach the top. By 2015 it will be more than 500 feet deeper than it is now. Found it interesting that this is such a low-grade deposit than a ton of ore contains only about 10.6 pounds of copper. The mine is successful only because they mine 150,000 tons of copper ore each day. Following lunch and a nap (I could get used to this!) at the motorhome we went back down town to do a little more exploring and geocaching.
You know we came down here to get a little sun but it has rained every day so far.
Tomorrow we head for the sunny south(?) in Moab.
Keep those cards and letter coming.
Bingham Canyon Mine
Haul Truck
