Windy and Free

Posted on April 25, 2012 by TheJessicaness
tree on Harpers Corner Trail

tree on Harpers Corner Trail

Up at 5:00 am to high winds and a sky that is on fire. It seems we may be the only people in the park today – or ones that like to get to places before they open. It will take us at least an hour to get to the entrance of the park some 16 miles away. I slam on the brakes when I see the first elk cross the road. He looked both ways and made sure it was safe for the three ladies following him – very polite animals. We will see about 80-100 more.

Then I see what appears to be a fox with a jacket on, but the fox’s coat is just that bright orange naturally with a smoky gray tail about as long and as thick as its body. It looks to be carrying a gray ball of breakfast or offspring. We decide to drive to the end of the road and work our way out. Our first hike will be Harpers Corner Trail, two miles round-trip, in and out. We will see the Green and Yampa Rivers and Echo Park that is 2,500 feet below.

dinosaur on display outside of the Quarry Visitor Center

dinosaur on display outside of the Quarry Visitor Center – by Caleb

I love the twisted trees and purple flowers. The rivers look like snakes being electrocuted as they wind their way through the hills. It’s enough of a climb to raise my body temperature and I unzip my coat. It’s not as windy here, but a bit overcast. Halfway back we pass another couple and I contemplate their arrival. We were doing 30 mph or less in a 45 zone and were more than alone yesterday. They are in a Camaro from Nevada. Where did they sleep? How fast were they driving?

I will have two donuts for breakfast and skip the coffee that I ruined by adding too much raspberry syrup. Our next hike is a short one, for us, since we won’t hike the eight mile length. I put a jacket on as the day warms up. We go far enough to find some gopher trails among purple and yellow flowers. Then to finish our visit on this side of the park, in Colorado before driving to Utah, we walk the Plug Hat Trail on top of a butte.

149 million old dinosaur skull

149 million old dinosaur skull

Ten o’clock finds us at the Fossil Bone Quarry with 30 minutes to explore the museum in the visitor center before the next tour. It explains how the bones were found and how some of them were shipped to other museums worldwide before it was decided to leave the rest in the mountain. We follow a pilot truck to a large enclosure where they have a wall of bones locked away to help preserve them. We are allowed to stare and ask questions for an hour before returning to the visitor center to swear me in for my paleontologist badge.

We explore the Sound of Silence Trail and then drive around the Green River campsite where it looks like the mountains have fallen over and are slowly sinking into the water – I’m sure that’s how a scientist could describe it in layman’s terms. Down near the river we get to see a water snake and a two-toned lizard. We will drive through a private ranch before reentering the park to see rocks covered in petroglyphs – new shapes we haven’t seen before and some in large sizes.

dinopet

At the end of Cub Creek Road is Josie Morris’ cabin where she lived and ranched independently until she died at age 89, living in the cabin for fifty years during her many marriages, the first being when she was still a teenager. It would be a different husband though that would help establish a homestead 40 miles from the family ranch. Josie was a bit of an outlaw – accused of stealing cattle and making wine during prohibition.

We drive through the Ashley National Forest and by the Flaming Gorge Reservoir into Wyoming. We stop in Green River at Cubby’s Pizza for dinner. $10 will get us a 12-inch with pineapple, jalapenos, and tomatoes. It has been a long, cloudy day and we have a stack of pizza boxes in the back. We saw six antelope, one prairie dog, and 64 train cars. We are setting up camp across the street from the Historic Quarry Trail of Fossil Butte National Monument because the next lodging is 15 miles away and I’m tired at 9:00 pm.

Piggy was ready to jump in the tent from the back. It’s 54 degrees out. Once she was let in through the front by Caleb she was disappointed to find a lack of sleeping material because it hadn’t been set up yet. We have covered 3, 364 miles so far on this trip.. We detoured around Yosemite because of the snow, but didn’t let the bit we saw in the hills today slow us down as we are again headed north.

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North in Colorado

Posted on April 24, 2012 by TheJessicaness
six climbers on Independence Monument

six climbers on Independence Monument

Showers and laundry are done by 8:30 am. I had some cini-minis from Burger King. Utah is such a beautiful place that doesn’t require music to keep you going and has a very high mule deer population. We get to Colorado Monument around 10:00 am. We will come in the west entrance and take Rim Rock Drive through to the east entrance. This park was made possible by the Redlands Fault zone – a major break in the earth’s crust. There are expansive views, winding roads, and balanced rocks with smooth layers and rough edges.

The visitor center teaches us about the history of the rocks, the eating habits of pinyon jays, and the resilience of the Utes as they were moved to reservations. On Otto’s Trail we learn that John Otto would be the first person to summit Independence Monument as a way to celebrate President Taft protecting the park in 1911. We take the trail leading to Half Tunnel – one that runs under the road and happens to have the words ‘San Diego’ spray painted at the end where it seems others have partied before us.

In Grand Junction we picked up donuts, bananas, and a 32-GB memory card. We stopped at Giovanni’s in Rangely for pizza, cheese sticks, and bruschetta with pita chips. North of there on our way to Dinosaur National Monument via County Road 1, I ran over a prairie dog – my first live animal hit. He was standing next to the road, seemed to be praying, and when I drove by he jumped out in front of the tire. It may seem like a typical story from my point-of-view, but I would’ve swerved had I been given the chance.

rabbit at Dinosaur National Monument Canyon Area visitor center

rabbit at Dinosaur National Monument Canyon Area visitor center

As I broke down for the life I just wasted Sparky jumped out the window and took off. Luckily this time the ground was covered in dirt mounds and dry grass, not gravel. We called him back to the car and then chose to sit outside of it for a while, but had better luck of getting pictures from inside the car, so there we sat. We got to a visitor center that is closed for the season so we parked to readjust our schedule – Caleb looked for a brochure while I took pictures of a rabbit.

We had planned on camping at the little triangle on the map that lives inside the park, so we started up the 161 in hopes of finding somewhere to sleep along the way and then we can wonder if we can visit the park in the morning. Eleven miles later we would turn on CR-16 and set up the tent near some dung and bones. I let the dogs run around while I watched the sunset behind the hills – a great setting to take notes about the day.

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A Sixty Degree Jump

Posted on April 23, 2012 by TheJessicaness
cowboy camp with hitching post

cowboy camp with hitching post

We woke at 6:30 am and walked all the short trails in Canyonlands National Park before the visitor center opened. The temperature will climb 30 degrees in that time, a low of 34 to 64, with a high of 94 by midday. The Cave Spring Trail has evidence of the early Puebloan residents and a camp from the cowboys that stayed here too. We get to climb a wooden ladder that is chained to the rocks for another view. Pothole Point Trail offers us a glimpse at the importance of rainfall and the life cycles it helps to complete for a variety of invertebrates emerging from dormancy or being hatched from eggs.

A sign at Wooden Shoe Arch teaches us how these arches, spires, knobs, and fins were formed from over 300 million years ago and how they are continually being worn down by water, wind, and gravity. At Roadside Ruin we get to walk on a large rock trail to a granary hidden under a ledge. There are plenty of storage structures, but few dwellings. It seems the Puebloans were able to farm the land plenty, but only lived here seasonally. We stop at the Needles Outpost for breakfast where they operate on solar power and will power.

looking down the ladder

looking down the ladder

The food from there will give us the energy we need to stay in the hot car for hours with the AC blowing while we make three stops before Arches National Park to look at all the trails we could hike and all the formations we could see if we didn’t have the dogs with us. The first will be Newspaper Rock – a petroglyph panel that tells 2,000 years worth of stories that historians have yet to decipher. There are lots of animals, footprints, people, and symbols. Either the animals went extinct because of all their hunting or this is an ancient graffiti wall and their ‘gangs’ were obsessed with killing mammals.

We make a pit stop in the road to get a closer look at a checkered garter snake and Caleb gets too close, but is fast enough to lift his boot to take the snake bite he has coming. I’m glad to get him safely off the road and giggle as Caleb and the snake move around each other. The snake will go under the car and then into the grass. Our second stop will be a trek up to the Wilson Arch with the dogs. Cracks filled with water, froze, melted, and the loose particles got blown out with the wind leaving a big hole in the rock.

yellow flowers in Canyonlands

yellow flowers in Canyonlands

Speaking of holes, our third stop is a 5,000 square foot manmade hole where Albert Christensen built a home for his family. While excavating 50,000 cubic feet of sandstone he also painted Sermon on the Mount and sculpted the face of President FDR on the rock above his home. Inside the gift shop are dragons, clocks, long-billed hats, and a Betty Boop collection. Outside is a variety of sculptures and a general store that sells ice cream.

Into Arches and it’s different than I imagined, but that happens for every popular park that gets described through someone else’s eyes. There is more up and down driving, not just flat desert, and there is plenty more to see than just a few arches left to erode on top of red rocks. The earth has done a great job of expressing itself artistically here. Arches come in different shapes and sizes and even clouds are stacked in this park. At the 5,000 foot elevation marker set in 86 degree rocks I look to the snow-capped mountains in the distance and wonder what the temperature is there.

Arches National Park with the La Sal Mountains in the background

Arches National Park with the La Sal Mountains in the background

We did manage to get out of the car a time or two and spend over three hours in the park. On our way out, we stop at the visitor center again, this time to ask about Edward Abbey’s book Desert Solitaire. The ranger said she was on her third read of it, me on my second, and that either things have changed drastically or he was off about mountain height and campsites. I would love to attempt the park through his story. After this park we will make our way to the northern end of Canyonlands – Island in the Sky.

I set off on the Upheaval Dome hike and tore my leg on a stick but not my pants – that’s quality. Caleb got to hike part of the Whale Rock Trail and we both went to see the granaries on Aztec Butte Trail. I parked the car at an angle and put a blanket in the window to shade the dogs. At the Green River Overlook we learn about John Wesley Powell’s mission to study the Colorado River in 1869. The water is just as dangerous today, but trips are offered by very skilled boatmen with floatie and helmet requirements.

a granary on Aztec Butte

a granary on Aztec Butte – by Caleb

At the Grandview Point Overlook the view is as wide as the Grand Canyon is deep. We meet two brothers from Illinois, balding men who we seemed to share a lot of opinions with. It’s nice to meet friendly people on our travels, even if they do look like badasses. Evening starts to arrive as we make the walk out to Mesa Arch. I’m not usually afraid of heights, but looking down to the trees below made me feel light headed – and that wouldn’t be the bottom of the steep fall if I slipped.

What’s left of the sun above the horizon is hidden behind blue clouds on our return to the car. We drive to Green River, Utah in the dusk with a sliver of moon in the sky in search of a cheap place to sleep. We find a Super 8, and though it’s 17 miles in the wrong direction it’s the nearest motel we could find for $64 – and we are in need of washing. We get our room at 8:30 pm and as it nears 10:00 pm I am ready for sleep.

steps to Mesa Arch

steps to Mesa Arch

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On the Beaten Path

Posted on April 22, 2012 by TheJessicaness

View from Chimney Rock Loop Trail

Up at 6:00 am, we stop at the intersection of Hwy’s 12 and 24 to get coffee at the Subway gas station, walk by the closed visitor information center, and get a huge cinnamon roll at the café. After some sugar and caffeine it’s time for our first hike of the day up to Chimney Rock at Capitol Reef NP. The parking lot upon return seems to be filled with the same cars that followed us into the gas station. We are but moments from a crowd; I can appreciate the small parking lots more when I realize the sounds they help to reduce.

We are able to see a few more viewpoints and trailheads, but the heat of the day is only increasing. Had some other cars not been there, it crossed my mind, for only a second, to maybe let the dogs see some of this beautiful country with their feet in the dirt. They will have to see what they can with the windows rolled down and wait for the grassy area in the parking lot of the visitor center – one of the three places they are allowed out of the car.

We take the scenic drive – 8.2 miles one-way. We are tempted to take a dirt road detour that would take us further into Capitol Reef and over Bullfrog Bay in Glen Canyon using the JAB Ferry, but decide to head east and take Hwy 95 down to Glen Canyon. This way will take us through Hanksville and allow us a stop inside Hollow Mountain Gas & Grocery. The visitor center near Hite is closed – ensuring that we miss plenty that is sight-worthy indoors and out at both parks so far.

riding around Hanksville

Lake Powell is beautiful though. The rocks and water go up and down and around each other. We are able to see a lot of this from the curvy road and dusty stops. I can just imagine the view from on the river. We continue to Natural Bridges and are able to drive the nine-mile loop and do some hiking while the dogs wait in the shaded car hiding from the 84 degrees of heat coming from the sun. We refill two water jugs at the visitor center while eating mangoes for lunch – a juicy, messy treat on a hot day.

a bridge-less part of Natural Bridges National Monument

We stopped in Monticello, UT to visit their Frontier Museum and get some information from their Southeast Utah Welcome Center. It was an interesting look into the past and at the skills of the people who lived off what the land had to offer hundreds of years ago. An hour later we are roughly 35 miles from Canyonlands National Park when we notice an empty, possibly free, campground. We pick a spot in the middle and then cross the street to wonder on the trails over there. Either the trails weren’t clearly marked or we got lost.

Frontier Museum artifact

We end up leaving that spot to put less distance between us and the park. We pass many opportunities to park for the night but keep on going until we hit the entrance of the park; camping is full. We turn around and park at the next closest spot – Indian Creek BLM Area. We are a few spots down on the left with a tree and a flat rock, for cooking and sleeping, so we aren’t able to stake the tent. Caleb says we should be fine as long as the wind is calm. (For those wondering why I would worry – tents have been known to blow over cliffs and into rivers or collapse and suffocate people.)

photo by Caleb – his dream home

Luckily we are in a dome tent which is better built for wind and far from any threatening rivers or cliffs. We are able to unpack, set up, and enjoy a hot meal during sunset. I start to see stars and the bright sliver of the bottom of the moon. The sky is still orange and yellow where the sun is going on to light other parts of the Earth. I get my tripod out to get one a spectacular photo of the cosmos and with the excitement, all the settings, and the smoke from the fire I’m left with – something less.

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A Late Start

Posted on April 21, 2012 by TheJessicaness

“Silence alone is worthy to be heard.” – Henry Thoreau

With the time change, Pacific to Mountain time, we will wake at 7:00 am. We drive to the southern end of Bryce Canyon and hike the Bristlecone Loop Trail – 1 mile. We stop for a few more pictures and then drive to Ruby’s Inn, in Bryce Canyon City, where we have been told we can find a memory card for my camera. The only one they have available is an 8GB class 4 card; not the best quality but it will have to do for Caleb as I take his. We get back on Highway 12, an All American Road, and drive to Cannonville to a ranger station.

The ranger gives us a description of the Willis Creek trail. I feel like we are going out into wilderness and will have to look hard for a space in the trees or rocks that marks the trailhead. The directions say drive 2.9 miles down paved road and turn onto dirt road and drive six more. I really should pay more attention to mileage. I miss the turn, we turn around, and are soon on Skutumpah Road. We have to deal with a fork in the road and then we see a flat spot with tire marks. We get out.

look for 3 red people

Across the street is a path that soon leads to a rocky cliff. I tell the dogs to get back in the car as it seems we are lost and forgot our rock-climbing gear. I pull out at another smooth spot just to take a picture and we watch a pile of dust drive by. I wonder what kind of suspension they have? We follow and another mile is a parking lot with a sign. This is no wilderness. This time across the street there are two paths, one that goes straight into the canyon and another on the left that leads down into it; we take the one on the left.

We pass only a couple of families and some day-hikers. There are plenty of low-water crossings in this narrow slot canyon which helps to keep the shade even cooler. I feel like I could hike for days here, and then we hit the wash fully exposed to the sun. We hike until the end of the watery trail and the return trip offers us another view of these rock walls standing at least 50 feet tall. Erosion is a beautiful and wonderous occurrence.

Fifty miles east on Hwy 12 brings us to Calf Creek Campground where the trailhead for Lower Calf Creek Falls is located. We arrive at 4:00 pm and hike, in sun and shade, the three miles to the 120ft waterfall. We are able to see pictographs on the other side of the canyon. Upon reaching our destination at 5:30 pm there are five other dogs playing in the water and muck. I take my photos, take the dogs while Caleb takes his, and then we walk upstream a bit and toss the dogs in there.

Sparky is ready to play and quickly finds a stick. I figure they will be able to dry in the sun, but the hike back is immersed in shade. I forgot we are down in a canyon and lose the sun’s light more quickly. I expected a slow return with a tired Piggy, but she stays motivated to try to keep up with the other dogs as they pass us on the trail. We will camp at Oak Creek, not necessarily in a designated spot, but we are tired and RVs are parked on all the dirt roads.

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