Saturday, June 21, 2008


Highway 12 from Bryce Canyon north to Capitol Reef National Park in Torrey, Utah is designated an “All American Scenic Byway,” which is an understatement. Each turn of a corner on the somewhat winding road brought about a new vista of beauty we had not seen before, from box canyons to sharp outcroppings reaching to the sky; the pictures simply cannot do it justice, but they are still better than words can describe. The area called “Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument” is along this route, as is the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The walls here are multiple shades of red, from an intense dark brick color to tan and every hue in between. The striations in the rock walls are so precise they look as though they were machine-made, and giant, black balls of lava rock seem to be everywhere. The landscape along the route changes from red sand and rock canyons to desert to green pasture lands with grazing cattle followed by a pine and aspen forest rising from fields of small, yellow flowers. The scenery along this highway is an incredible sight to behold.

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Torrey, UT is a one mile strip of motels, cafes, a grocery store and a couple of gas stations, all of which service the tourists who come to see Capitol Reef National Monument. One of the areas in Capitol Reef rises up out of the valley and looks like a capitol building; the reef name came from the early pioneers who had to take their covered wagons around this area of jutting rock and limestone. The Navajo called this area “the land of the sleeping rainbow” – a strange, beautiful landscape of multi-hued rock in the heart of Utah’s canyon lands.


Connie and I drove to the end of a paved road in the park and continued on a dirt road to its end. We then hiked into a canyon that took us into an area filled with prehistoric history. Petro glyphs carved into the rock made me wonder about the people who took such time to make these curious figures that have lasted such a long time. They called these early people the Anastasie which when translated means “original people.” The Anastasie were here prior to all others. Other lasting remains of these people are their rock houses built under overhanging rock outcroppings, which we have seen on trips to other areas, including parts of Arizona.







After an extended stay near Capitol Reef National Park we traveled north through more of Utah’s differing geology, although a lot less colorful than what we had already driven through. Dinosaur National Monument was a total disappointment. The main visitor center was closed due to extensive structural damage. The ranger we talked to said it would be many years before funds were available to build another visitor center equal to the one that was originally built but is now damaged beyond repair. There were no dinosaur discovery sites to see unless we wanted to go on a lengthy and strenuous hike. We are still at the easy/slightly moderate hike stage, so we felt that our visit was a total bust.


Northern Utah and Southern Wyoming are home to Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, which includes a lot of steep climbs and downhill grades at eight and ten percent. Grades like that are not a lot of fun when you have a motor home and tow vehicle at a combined 35,000 pounds wanting to do the exact opposite of what is required to keep life and limb safe. But our coach is sound and the beauty of the surrounding area is well worth the trip. We spent two days without hookups in one of many wooded campsites in Flaming Gorge.


Pushing further into Wyoming takes us through Rock Springs, famous only for the fact it has a new Wal-Mart and a Flying J truck stop. The next part of our journey took us through sagebrush and tumbleweed, but we were fortunate to see herds of antelope along the way. We did have one close encounter with a male antelope, but a combination of my good brakes and his quickness saved the day. Connie said she saw a Momma and two baby antelopes nearby. The antelope are magnificent animals and had us singing strains of “Home, Home on the Range . . .”


As we traversed the land, the Rocky Mountains started exposing their rugged, white snow-capped tops. The blackness of their barren rock is a striking backdrop to the green of the plains and the jagged edges rising vertically out of soft turf. This area is a land of extremes.

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The small town of Pinedale is home to the Museum of the Mountain Man. The size of the museum and the scope of its exhibits surprised us. This museum is a real gem and not to be missed. Would you believe the Mountain Men were brought about by fashion? At the beginning of the 19th century the beaver hat and men’s best suits made of beaver fur were supreme in the world of fashion, so popular in fact that the poor beaver’s skin became very sought after and expensive. As the supply of beaver in Europe dwindled, a group of frontiersmen, trappers and entrepreneurs set out to make their fortunes by traveling to the new frontier to find beaver and bring back their pelts. They brought with them skills learned in the East and adapted those skills to the rugged environment of the Rocky Mountain area and learned to survive in the harsh western environment.


What was known as the mountain man “rendezvous” grew out of necessity. Rather than having to travel the great distances required to bring their pelts to market, the mountain men would gather together and sell them to agents from the various fur traders. At first only a handful came to the rendezvous, but when somebody had the idea to bring liquor to the rendezvous, the number of attendees swelled into the hundreds. The Indians also came to these gatherings to trade what they had trapped.


Unfortunately, many of these men were never heard from again, but those who survived the weather, Indians, bears and other predators became known as Mountain Men. Their ability to hunt, trap and stay alive made these men into a legend, and they planted a firm American claim to much of the territory of the American West. Alas, another fashion whim – the silk hat and clothing – ended the demand for beaver in the 1840’s. Many of the Mountain Men subsequently became the scouts who led wagon trains to the West. The museum houses an extensive collection of artifacts and memorabilia of the Western fur trade, and chronicles the travels of such Mountain Men as Jim Bridger and Kit Carson, along with many others. The museum also chronicles John Jacob Astor’s formation of the Pacific Fur Company to conduct fur trade in the far West, and his plan to send ships around the horn to the mouth of the Columbia River to establish a trading post called Astoria, which we now know as Astoria, Oregon.

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Yellowstone National Park! Everyone the world over knows about this land set aside long ago as a place people can go to see what wilderness looked like before man left his mark. Yellowstone was the world’s first national park, established in 1872. It is one of the largest national parks in the United States at just over 2 million acres. A giant caldera, the entire park is alive with volcanic activity from “Old Faithful” to fumaroles to pots of bubbling mud, all smelling of sulfur. The park is also home to aqua blue lakes, thundering waterfalls, beautiful vistas, and one of the world’s foremost wildlife sanctuaries.





We discovered that Bill Joyce and Diane Melde, two of our full-time RVing friends, were also staying in West Yellowstone. Together we set out to see the sights, sounds and smells of this fantastic landscape. Of course the first thing we had to see is “Old Faithful.” Every 90 minutes or so this geothermal geyser erupts with plumes of steam and hot water about sixty to seventy feet in the air, and this show is the main event at Yellowstone. The Old Faithful Inn is almost as legendary as fascinating as the geyser. It is said to be the world’s largest log and wood structure, and inside it looks like a giant tree house. We ate lunch at the Inn; the food was very good and not too pricey.


Throughout the day we stopped and walked the many other geothermal areas of hot, bubbling, boiling water with the most brilliant colors imaginable coming from bacteria. These bacteria thrive in this most hostile environment. Steam is everywhere and adds to the mystical aura of this land of enchantment. We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs to check out the visitor center and to see a couple of videos about the park and its inhabitants. We had planned to take a walk around the area, but black skies and raindrops quickly changed our plans.


The buffalo are everywhere in Yellowstone. Twice we have had a slow escort as these shaggy behemoths walk onto the roadway and proceed at their own pace which is always S-L-O-W, but who cares since we were not in a rush! Several herds wander here without a care in the world. Numerous elk roam the area also and they, too, seem unaware of our presence.

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

From Surprise, AZ to Zion National Park in Utah.

To view pictures click on a picture and then navigate
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I think I am beginning to hear old Willy Nelson extolling the virtues of being “On the Road Again.” We have been so busy with our new casa that heading out in our old home on wheels is going to feel like we are on vacation. Yeah, they call it retirement but it has seemed a bit more like work these past few months with all that we have had to do to furnish our new home. But it truly is worth the time and effort. We have a very comfortable place to be in the winter, and having all of our family history around in a permanent setting gives us a sense of well being. I know now that Mom is happy that her stuff is all snugly and warm. Every once in a while the people in those old photographs seem to smile just a little more, and that old steamer trunk that my great grandfather brought to America from Sweden eons ago seems to like its new home. Life is good and we are very fortunate.


After having waited four months for two leather chairs to be made and delivered, the furniture store again promised that they would be arriving sometime “next week,” which was three weeks after the last time they told us that. After telling the salesman where he could put them when they came (literally), we said enough is enough, we are leaving town and the chairs will have to wait until our return. We will head north to Mund’s Park, which is just south of Flagstaff. The best part of Mund’s Park is the six friends from Happy Trails RV Resort that greeted us on our arrival. They are all working at the RV Park for the summer and they showed us all around the campground and later showed us around Flagstaff. In the evenings we played Mexican Train and had a lot of laughs. We are very fortunate to have friends like these.


Mund’s Park is at 6,700 foot elevation, which means cooler weather for folks from the Phoenix area trying to escape the heat. Just about anything you could want is here, a small grocery store, a very large hall with a stage, tables and a complete commercial kitchen. The pool and spa were not open but looked to be very nice. The park is mostly park models (12’x40’ manufactured homes); you can buy one of these for between $40,000 to $85,000 with porches and an attached family room. Open from May to October, the park models are summer quarters only due to the heavy snows in the wintertime. They are small but complete with everything one needs to live. You own the park model but not the lot it sits on – that comes with a yearly lease which currently runs around $3,000 for the season. There are no property taxes or other expenses associated with ownership, but not knowing from year to year how much the lease is going to be is not something I would do. There are also leased sites for those who want to bring their own RV for the season, and regular nightly rental RV sites like the one we are in.


The City of Flagstaff started out as a pole with a flag attached and it has grown a bit from that day. The University of Arizona campus sets the tone for this still small town, lots of young person hangouts, hippy shops etc., but there are also some very nice shops and art galleries to keep an old downtown area thriving. Anything and everything you could want is here also. We plan to come back some day when we have more time to visit the museums, art galleries, etc. but for now the open road awaits us -- after all, we have to be patriotic and spend our Government rebate check. We also must keep the oil companies from going under. Hah! Luckily I have some oil stocks which are doing quite well these days, so I think everyone should get out there on the road and put the pedal to the metal.


Driving past the road to the south rim of the Grand Canyon was difficult but thanks to a certain furniture company, we do not have reservations there ^%$#&*!! We hope to visit the Grand Canyon on our way back to Arizona in the fall.


Highway 87 winds through an area with some remarkable geologic formations. During a millennium of time, different layers of earth settled at different times, with very different colors -- red, white, brown, grey and everything in between. At some point all of the canyon lands were under a great sea, and the terrain was as flat as a pancake. Then somebody pulled the plug and drained the sea, leaving all the sediment to become land, and then came the rains which created rivers which eroded away and made canyons, including Zion and the Grand Canyon -- wow!

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The Canyon Lands we saw yesterday were just a hint of things to come. Zion National Park is one of the most remarkable places I have ever seen. We entered the park from the east side and made our way down a road some thought would be impossible to build. Hanging tenuously to the vertical faces of sedimentary rock, the narrow, steep and winding road traverses most of the park, but not before it runs thru two tunnels dug into the rock mountain, one of which is 1.1 miles long. Unfortunately these tunnels were built in the 1930’s and are only 13’6” at the crowned top. Our motor home is 12’9” so we must pay an extra fee because the park rangers have to stop all traffic going the opposite way while we drive down the center of the two lane tunnel. I loved blasting my air horn inside the tunnel -- I guess I am still a kid at heart.


After finally reaching the other side of Zion National Park, we checked into Watchman Campground. We have electric hookups here and being inside the park is great, especially having views out our windows that any artist would envy. Just a short walk away is the visitor center where shuttle buses pick up visitors and ferry them throughout the park. Some of the best hiking trails anywhere are just a shuttle ride away, and in the morning we have tickets for a shuttle ride and interpretive tour led by a park ranger.


We saw a movie about how the canyons came to be - 600 million years ago sand began creating dunes, one upon the other until weight and moisture cemented them into rock miles deep; then geologic forces (tectonics) pushed them up thousands of feet, creating what is called the Colorado Plateau. About 160 million years ago rain began falling and created rivers that cut their way down through the sedimentary rock to create what we see today.

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We are up early the next morning and arrive at the visitor center for our interpretive tour of the park. The only problem is that we did not realize that Arizona and Utah are in different time zones, so we are an hour late and the tour has left without us -- rats. So today we take a shuttle bus on our own. The shuttle is the only way to get to many areas of the park. It is convenient, extremely efficient and free, something we tend not to think of with a government run entity. Traveling up Zion Parkway brings to mind words like monolithic, grandeur, incredible, holy ____, and oh my God! This place defies logic. How could all this have at one time been at the bottom of the ocean and now be at 10,000 feet? Most of all it reminds us of just how small and insignificant man is with a life span of just 100 years. These rocks towering thousands of feet in the air used to be a desert that would put the Sahara to shame, then they were under the sea and now they reach up to the sky and they are 600 million years old! It is difficult to comprehend.




We traveled to the end of the shuttle road and then hiked for a little more than a mile into an area known as “the River Walk.” The canyon walls are separated by the Virgin River, which gets narrower with each step. At the end of the paved walkway along the river we reach the beginning of the area known as “the Narrows” where our trail ends. The past winter brought lots of snow so to continue our trek we would have to wade in chest-deep, 48-degree water. We decide it’s time to turn around and go back. A few brave, young souls don waders and other gear and head into the water, but they quickly return.


It feels good to be once again hiking in an area full of nature at its finest. On the way back from our first hike we stopped at the famous Zion Lodge and had a terrific lunch. Our waitress was from Poland. We see a lot of foreign-born workers in our travels through national parks. We are hopeful tomorrow we will be able to do more hiking if our bodies are willing. We have not hiked in some time, and this area is truly a hiker’s paradise. Zion is the opposite of the Grand Canyon as here you are at the bottom of the canyon instead of the top. Zion was named by a Mormon, and according to scripture the name means quiet sanctum. Massive canyon walls ascend toward a brilliant blue sky. Sheer, vividly colored cliffs called “the Great White Throne, “the Court of the Patriarchs” and “Angels Landing” tower above as you follow the road along the floor of Zion Canyon. It has been said one can worship here without any temple. This does indeed feel like a sacred place.







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Kolob Canyon is reached by going outside Zion Park and driving 45 miles north. Although not as large as Zion, Kolob Canyon is an incredible sight. More colorful earth shoved thousands of feet skyward into fanciful shapes of monolithic rock. Here we took a hike along a ridge to the edge where you can see forever, almost 360 degrees. On the way up I stopped and took pictures of some desert plants giving birth to beautiful bouquets of bright, colorful flowers, a stark contrast to the prickly skin of the plant and drab brown of the earth. Our bodies are telling us we should have kept ourselves in better shape. There is a lot of climbing on the trails here, and some trails are beyond our capacity. George Burns said it best: “If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.”

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All the towns along our way have visual reminders that this is Mormon country. Most towns have a statue depicting a man, woman and child representing the early settlers of this land. Our first outing to get some groceries was quite a surprise. We stopped at a gas station that had a mini mart and I asked the attendant if there was a ‘regular’ grocery store nearby; he said the closest was 18 miles. Disappointed, we bought some bologna, milk and a near stale loaf of bread from the mini mart. On the way back to the campground we happened to look to our right and there was a new looking grocery store that we could have walked to from our camp!!!! Grrrrrrr!


It has been very warm here, in the 90’s, so it will feel good to get to Bryce Canyon where the temperatures are about 15 degrees cooler because it is at a higher altitude.

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Leaving Zion with lots of good memories and pictures we head to Bryce Canyon. Ruby’s is the place to be whether you stay at Ruby’s Inn or Ruby’s RV Park. Ruby was a man (Reuben). He and his wife started the place about 90 years ago and, today, Ruby’s has everything -- grocery store, restaurants, Laundromat, RV Park, arcade, ice cream store, western art gallery, horseback rides, helicopter tours, and a rodeo that runs five nights of the week.


Zion was hot, about 90 degrees. A mere 75 miles north, Bryce Canyon is a chilly 40 degrees; it’s raining and blowing 20 to 30 mph! What a shock! It will be good to sleep with the blankets on. I am sure we will be kept even warmer with our furry friends, Harry and Poco, snuggled up close. From our front windshield we can see open meadows and green stands of pine trees. It is very quiet and our motor home surrounds us like a cocoon; this is the life, old Riley would have been envious.








I am at a loss of words to describe Bryce Canyon

so I will let the pictures above and

below speak for me.