Preparing For Our Next Adventure

As we prepare for our next cool adventure, we thought you might enjoy a couple of pictures of how we spent our summer.  Used the Porta-Bote quite a bit, and got in a fair amount of fishing.

And of course some hiking and picture taking

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Oh yeah, did I mention wildlife?  Well this is about as wild as it gets around here.  That's a Blue Heron which was shot from about a hundred yards away. We don't see many of those.

So bookmark this address, and check back regularily, to follow our adventure.  Hope you enjoy it!

Lynn & Dan

Trip Summary - Final Thoughts

I've been delinquent in getting this done, no real excuses, although I thought I might try to post a slide show.  I decided the slide show will be later, otherwise I will never get this summary done.  Next question, what should be included?

Well, first I will give some statistics:
  -  Total travel 7502 miles
  -  Time driving - 182 1/2 hours, so average speed was 41 mph
  -  Gas consumed - 650 gals representing about 50% of our trip cost
  -  Travelled through 10 states, slept in 5 of them.  Not including home.
  -  Visited 9 National Parks, 2 National Monuments, 1 State Park, and
      slept at 3 Wal-Marts :-)
  -  Took over 2500 pictures and videos.  Glad I'm not using film anymore!

There were many cool things we saw and experienced.  It's difficult to pick one, but on our list is the thermal features at Yellowstone with the miles and miles of boardwalks.  The colors and smells encountered were very unique.  Our favorite geyser was not Old Faithful, but the Lone Star geyser.  The power of Lone Star was awesome.

The award for the visual wow factor goes to Bryce Canyon and its Hoodoos, Arches NP for the formations, and the Grand Canyon for its vastness.  As we viewed these natural phenomenons you realize how insignificant we really are in the big scheme of things.  It's really laughable for anyone to think that anything we humans do has an impact. 

Probably of all the activities we pursued, the Ranger led activities were our favorite.  Probably tops and most memorable is our hike through the Fiery Furnace.  Certainly it was the most challenging, but looking back we realize how unique that experience was.  Nowhere can you experience that as an urban hiker.

Our favorite towns were Cody, Wy and Moab, Ut.  Although littered with tourists, I guess the attraction was the small western town environment as well as the proximity to interesting things to do and see.  Speaking of tourists, geez they were everywhere, it was hard to find solitude anywhere.  Probably Ken Burns did lots to get people off their butts to see these wonders, and that will help to insure their future, but I was hoping to find places you might feel some isolation.  Maybe we needed to take some back country hikes to find that.

Some things we regret not doing, horseback riding in the Grand Tetons, and renting or taking a ride in a 4x4 into Canyonlands or other location near Moab.   And maybe trying some fishing in Yellowstone or one of the many rivers.  The price was somewhat of a deterrent though.

So, thanks for following our adventure.  When I get these 2500 pictures organized into a slide show I will post a link here so you can have a look.  I will send an email to let you know.

Dan & Lynn

Mesa Verde

Monday September 19, 2011
After last Blog update, as we sat in the rain in Moab, we decided to move to Cortez, CO on Sunday so we could visit Mesa Verde NP.  For those not familiar with this park or area, we are near the four corners, a spot where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado touch.  Mesa Verda, (Spanish for Green Table) is an area inhabited by Pueblo Indians from about 1 AD to 1300 AD.  They lived in these cliff dwellings from around 1100 to 1300 AD.  Originally they lived on top of the Mesa.  They moved into these cliffs for weather protection, but continued to farm on top. Their commute to work was a stinker!  We took the tours to Cliff House and Balcony House, and can tell you first hand getting to the ruins was tough.  And our route was easy compared to theirs.

Several things we found facinating.  The only water they had was rain and snow melt, no rivers, springs, etc.  Their skill levels with building was unbelieveable.  Our theory... they were taught by Aliens.  Ok, ok, just kidding.  There is much to tell you about their culture that we learned, but a mystery remains, they left suddenly in the early 1300's and migrated to New Mexico and Arizona.  Turns out that Pueblo refers to many different tribal groups, Hopi, Zuni, Cochiti, and some others. They left with only what they could carry, they had no burden animals.  So here are some pictures,

That last picture is a 70 ft ladder we had to climb to get up to Balcony House.
We took a lttle detour to Delores to see the Galloping Goose.  A light weight special gasoline engine powered locomotive constructed by Rio Grande Southern RR.  Its intent was to reduce damage on tresles and bridges.  It pulled freight cars and took passengers.  It was powered by a Buick V8 in one of its versions.  They still make a run with it today, 3rd week in August from Durango.  See following picture, pretty strange isn't it.

Tomorrow we start home, so this will be our last post until I do the summary at home.  Our total miles for the trip will come in between 7500 - 8000 miles.  Hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventure as much as we have had doing it!!

Canyonlands

Friday September 16, 2011

We returned to Canyonland NP today.  We got rained out on Wednesday.  During our travel we have encountered some unusual plantlife, unique to this desert environment.  Those reading this from the Southwest may say these are common, but to us they are very different than anything we have seen, so I have included some pictures.  They are so tiny and delicate to survive this harsh environment, and yet so beautiful in their tiny way.  Hope you enjoy them.

We hiked several of the trails, OK only a couple miles each, but that’s big for us.  Some of the pictures provided are from these trails.  A big part of this is not the destination as much as what you see along the way.  I will say though that the White Rim trail ends up with this collection of boulders, with big gaps that I guess you can walk out on.  You will not see us on those, one slip and you drop several thousand feet into the canyon.

We got another big rain storm after retuning “home”, so we are trying to decide if we should drive to Mesa Verde tomorrow.  Its ~300 miles RT, about 20 gals of gas @ $3.89/gal.  By the way, gas is an interesting commodity around here.  Regular is 85 octane.  The truck requires 87, as do most cars, so I am wondering who buys 85 octane?  Why do they even sell it?  So you pay 10 cent extra for 87.

Our trip is winding down as we’ll be leaving Moab on Sunday.  It is unlikely we will be in campgrounds after we leave here as we seek Wal Mart, Cabellas, or maybe Cracker Barrels for O/N on the way back.  We are figuring 3 days, with our first stop east of Denver.  We will be traveling I-80 after I-76 out of Denver.

After returning home, I will do a final post as we complete our adventure.  The things we have seen and experienced will be with us forever!

Fiery Furnace

Thursday September 15, 2011

Yesterday we went to Canyonland NP, but it started raining big time about noon, so we came home.  We are in a semi-desert and it rains!  Only I could have that happen.  We are going back tomorrow, so I will blog that later.

Today we went back to Arches.  We had a 2PM ranger guided hike though Fiery Furnace.  This morning we hiked about 1 ½ miles to Devils Garden to see Landscape Arch.  Landscape Arch had a big hunk of it fall out in 1991.  The arch is still there, just a bit thinner.

Our biggie for the day was our Fiery Furnace hike, 2 miles, 3 hours.  This hike was very taxing.  We jumped crevasses, climbed ledges, went through slot canyons, and other stuff I’m sure we will remember when we attempt to get out of bed tomorrow.  The scenery was spectacular.  Some pictures follow.

Being able to get up close to these rock formations is really special.  The color and texture, and shear size puts it all in perspective. 

OK, all for now, 2 tylenol and bed are next!

Arches

Tuesday September 13, 2011

We are in Moab, UT at the Spanish Trails RV Park located about 3 miles south of town.  Nice park, but being on Hwy 191 makes for lots of road noise.

The drive here was pretty nifty, the section of I-70 between Salina and Green River was beautiful, very surprising for an interstate.  There also were no towns or gas for that 150 miles.  It would suck going west through, lots of 5 - 6% grades, our side was all down hill fortunately.  I did hit a few 5% grades on Hwy 89, but as long as I got a run, I was able to hold 50 -55 in 3rd or 4th gear.  Seems that engine needs 3500 rpm to keep up.

Today we went to Arches NP.  Initially we were a bit disappointed compared to Bryce.  It is all sandstone; red and tan.  This area is part of the Colorado Plateau which was formed by an upheaval from a subterranean salt bed.  This upheaval was 5000 ft high and caused the stone above to crack forming fins (I call them wedgies, fins are for fish).  Water erosion caused the wedgies to crack creating windows, then arches.  Over time the arches cave in and only spires are left.  Some of these arches look really unstable.

Although not as jaw dropping as Bryce, Arches has a special beauty.  Hiking around some of the arches and wedgies was pretty awesome.  Some pictures follow.

One thing that made it pretty cool was hiking around these wedgies.  As you can see, they get pretty tight.  Thursday we are taking a hike with the Ranger to Fiery Furnace.  Do a search and you should get a video.  So, if you see a newspaper article on Friday about a fat guy stuck in the Fiery Furnace, it could be me.

We are going to check out Canyonlands National Park tomorrow.

The Grandest of Canyons!

Sunday September 9, 2011

As planned, we went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon yesterday.  It was a bit over 100 miles away.  Even the ride there was pretty neat.  At first look, my impression was, wow that's a big hole!

You really can't see clearly across due to air quality.  This was due in part to some wildfires, which actually had one view point at Imperial Point closed; also due in part to humidity as it did rain on us later; and finally just overall poor air quality.  There will probably be a time when you won't be able to even see the other rim, 11 miles away.  I waved, but didn't see anybody wave back from the South Rim.

The colors and texture of the cliffs and rocks was quite spectacular.  You can clearly see the layers of different types of rocks. The canyon was formed by water erosion, mainly the Colorado and tributaries.  A similar process as Zion and Bryce, freeze/thaw wash away.  Little or no wind erosion.

Again pictures just can't capture the immensity of it.  The last picture shows the Colorado River on the Unkar Delta.  Amazingly this area was inhabited by ancient Indians.  We wondered how they got there, and how did they get out?  Not sure how this all compares to the South Rim, but this side was pretty cool.  Some pictures follow.

From Bright Angel Point

The Colorado River at Unkar Delta

Well tomorrow we hit the road.  On our way to Moab, the Spanish Trail RV Park, to see Arches and Canyonlands.  If you are familiar with Aron Ralston's plight in the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Canyonlands is where he got trapped for nearly 10 days and had to cut off his arm to escape.  No, we won't be getting into any remote areas like that.