The Adventures of T&A

It rained a little last night and again this morning.  We’re concernedabout the roads only if we get a a heavy rain.  The roads we came in onthru national forest had plenty of gravel and rock, so we had a way out, but theroads down in the valley were more clay.  We had the campground toourselves except for two guys that chose a site quite a ways from us.  Wegot an early start to try to beat the afternoon thunderstorms.  We stoppedalong the drive at an old cabin once used by cowboys tending cattle in thevalley before it was a park.  The cabin was small, but very neat. It’s hard to imagine real cowboys using this tiny cabin, tending herds of cows,in the 1930’s and 40’s.  

We continued to the Gypsum Sinkhole.   I wasn’t sure what made thissinkhole special… it’s just a hole, right?  When we saw it, it was prettywild.  This sinkhole, perhaps 50 feet deep, is at the base of, and evenUNDER a rock wall, a couple hundred feet high!  I wouldn’t want to be herewhen this thing falls!

We have rain clouds chasing us, even sprinkling on us from time totime.  We are trying to see this area without becoming part of the scenery,with our truck stuck in the mud.  So far, we’ve been able to outrun therain.  I think we got some nice photos with the rock formations in the sunwith dark clouds behind.  I hope they turn out well.  It was magnificentto see it live!

We continued the drove to the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Moon andthe Glass Mountain.  The Glass Mountain is actually made up from crystallizedgypsum, which is clear, white or sometimes tinted.  Gypsum is a form ofsalt and is formed as minerals in the rock are leached out in water, dried and crystallized. Somehow, this was piled here (perhaps by glaciers) and erosion has uncoveredthis mountain.  The Temples of the Sun and Moon are photographed for manypostcards.  Beautiful!  

It looks like the rain cloud has passed us by, so we can breathe a littleeasier.  Bu we still have a love of driving ahead of us today.  We finishedthe drive and saw several spots on the road that would not be fun to drive in withheavy rains.  We stopped briefly to fill our water and headed out towardsthe Great Basin National Park.  

We drove across Utah and Nevada, thru some of the emptiest land ever! One 80+ mile stretch, we saw only 5 cars, all going the other way.  There’sa whole lot of nothin’ out here.  While driving, sometimes I’d see a carbehind us and a few minutes later, it would be gone.  There are no sideroads… where did it go?  Did the aliens pick them up?  Why were werejected? … Or were we?  How would we know if we had been abductedby aliens?  (insert theme song to "TheOuter Limits" here)

We thought we’d be too late to catch the Visitor Center open in Great BasinNational Park, NV, but as we passed from Mountain Time into Pacific Time wegained an hour.  Isn’t time travel wonderful?

We talked to a ranger to find out what was here.  Neither one of us isfamiliar with this park.  We knew that the Great Basin is one of the fourmajor desert regions in the U.S.  We’d already been to the Chihuahuan,the Mojave and the Sonoran deserts, so it just made sense to finish our desert tour. We found out that this area has a glacier, the southernmost glacier in the lower48 states and the only one in Nevada.  There are also Bristlecone Pines,some of the oldest living things on the planet, trees over 4,000 yearsold.  And Lehman’s Cave, a very highly decorated cave.

We found a campsite to call home for the night.  We’ll check it all outin the morning.

We did the scenic drive thru the southern end of the park.  We did a 41/2 mile hike up the Grand Wash.  One point in the canyon, the walls werevery close, but not quite a slot canyon.  The steeper canyon walls gave ussome welcomed shade.  It was hot, but beautiful and nice to getout.  

We checked out some of the historic buildings near the Visitor’s Center,mostly buildings from the Mormon farming community that was here in the1800’s.  The Gifford House is a historic farmhouse that they now use as agift shop that also sells homemade fresh pies and ice cream from the seasonalfruits.  We "researched" the peach pie and both the cherry andvanilla ice cream.  They all passed inspection with flying colors(burp!)  

We caught a ranger guided talk about the petroglyphsand pictographs in the area.  The rocks are falling awayin some areas, so they are slowly loosing them.  We also saw evidence of graffition some of the rock art.  I haven’t figured out why people would want todeface rock art hundreds of years old for the sake of "Mary LovesBobby".

We headed out to the north end of the park to an area called Cathedral Valley.  We were cautioned about the roads, so we took the longway around, out west and then north of Capitol Reef, thru some national forestland.  Some of the most beautiful areas of many parks cannot be easilyaccessed, thus making a long journey worth the trip.  We drove down nearly30 miles of dirt roads, dodging cows in the road along the way, until we got toa free campground overlooking Cathedral Valley.  This area is overlookingan area called "The Monoliths" and … WOW!   We’re up on amesa, looking down on a flat desert floor with these huge… well, monoliths,jutting up hundreds of feet into the air!  We’ll drive down theretomorrow.  

We slept in, despite the light rain shower early this morning that forced us to close up some windows.  I talked to a lady from Lakeland, FL this morning from a nearby camp and she mentioned that she and her husband have made 2 trips up into Alaska.  George and Barbara Coffman had lots to say about the beauty of Alaska.  They gave us several tips on what to see, including getting the book called “Mileposts” that gives lots of information about what’s in an area.  

We continued to the Visitor’s Center at Colorado National Monument and stumbled upon a ranger program on the geology of the area.  One of the rocks he had in his collection caught my eye.  I found a rock with similar patterns on a bike ride years ago in North Carolina (I think).  I just thought it was a cool rock.  It turns out to be a fossilized palm tree relative about 300 million years old!!  And to think, some people laughed at me for storing a box of rock!  (You know who you are).  

We stopped for gas at a place called Hollow Mountain.  It was probably once an old mining claim, but it’s now a convenience store that is carved into the mountain!  Parts of the interior looked like an other convenience store, but when you went back to the bathroom, you could see the carved rock hallway leading to a pretty normal bathroom.  You know, I’ve peed on many mountains, but this is the first time I’ve peed IN a mountain!

We continued west to Capitol Reef National Monument, UT.  We were here a few months ago, before visiting Moab, UT, but we had to cut out visit short.  Capitol Reef has within it a historic Mormon Orchard that is maintained by the park service and has fruit that can be picked in season.  We had just missed the cherries (a ranger said they are gone in a couple of days) but we were in time for apricots.  I love fresh apricots!  50 cents per pound… all you want to pick.  But they don’t stay fresh long.  We got 3 pounds for $1.50, (what a bargain!) and snacked on then for the next couple of days.  We stayed at the campground in the park (and right in the apricot orchard).  We would have boondocked on a back road, but just as we got into the park, it started raining heavily.  The dirt roads in this part of the desert are made up of a very gooey, slippery form of clay.  This is the desert, and for most of the time, it’s not a problem.  Except when it rains.  They have lovely old photos of cars being pulled out of deep mud by farming tractors.  They caution heavily about flash floods and how you should never go into a wash when rain is threatening.  Many of the washes serve as roads here.  So tonight, we stayed at the campground with a large family group with loud children right across the street.  The apricot orchards are all around the campground, so we ate all the fresh fruit we could stand.

Andrew and I went across the street to have breakfast with Jay, Kim and Kim’shusband, Will.  Claudia was already at work.  Jay’s a great cook,making us his special breakfast burritos.  Andrew and I finished washingthe sheets and the last of our laundry and we hit the road.  

We drove to Colorado National Monument, outside GrandJunction, CO.  Wedrove thru on the Rim Rock Drive and saw some beautiful hoodoos and mesas in thecanyons.  We got to the campground and found a spot looking down on thetown of Fruita (froot-a).  A small rain cloud passed over and cooled thingsoff a bit, but not enough to slow down the gnats.  These gnats don’t seemto bite, but they are very annoying,  staying in front of your face andbuzzing your ears.

We packed up the truck this morning and this afternoon, we went over to EllenArnovitz house in Avon.  Andrew’s mom, Ellen, flew in yesterday withEllen Arnovitz.  Later this evening, Andrew’s mom went to the Eagle airportto pick up Andrew’s dad, Jack, and their friends, Andy and Carol Shovers. They took a commercial flight into Eagle and will be staying here over thefourth of July holiday.

Andrew’s mom, Ellen, is coming in today with her dog MeeToo.  She is flying into the Eagle airport on a friend’s private plane.  We went down to pick her up and we all drove out to Spruce Basin.  Ellen wanted to check out our property.  She enjoyed the beautiful drive along the Eagle and Arkansas Rivers.  She did agree that it’s quite remote and very beautiful.  And we have a lot of work ahead of us.

We got out this morning to meet up with Jay and Claudia from across the street for a hike.  They are camping about an hour from here, so we headed up to meet them for a hike to Missouri Lakes.  The trail starts at 10,000 ft and goes up to 11,500 or so.  The trail followed a beautiful creek forming some spectacular waterfalls.  As we neared the top, we went thru some lingering snow patches.  When we got to the lakes, the sky was getting dark and it looked like rain.  Instead of rain, we got something of a cross between hail and snow!  We ducked under a tree and waited to see if the clouds would move on, but it looked like it was here to stay for a while.  We headed back and we took Jay and Claudia back to their campsite.  Since it’s still raining, we may see them back at the house tonight.  

Andrew and I took off and stopped along the drive back to photograph a cool bridge over the Eagle River and an old mining ghost town.  After dinner, Jay and Claudia came over and we talked about houses and alternative construction methods over a glass of wine (or two).  

We ran some errands this morning and by afternoon we were back at the house, cleaning up, washing floors and vacuuming.  Andrew’s parents are coming in this weekend and we’re heading out to resume our traveling, so we are preparing for departure.  Jack just got a DSL modem for the  house ad Andrew got it hooked up.  We were both up way too late with a high speed connection.

We spent this morning unpacking and doing laundry.  We packed some ofthe stuff back into the truck.  We had taken everything out of the truckbecause we were leaving it at the Denver Airport (Park & Ride) for a couple ofdays.