THURSDAY, May 9
...AND HOME TO BAKER CITY!
292 miles
This will wrap up our Spring 2013 Series of Blogs. This is the ....and Home part!! We are ready!
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| Sunset reflections in trailer windows. |
Pull out before 8am again, deciding to fix our own coffee and to gas up at the Flying J in Jerome, 44 miles away. It is a beautiful morning. Last night the storm clouds cleared, we had a beautiful sunset (unfortunately I didn't get down to the river to take some awesome reflection pictures), and today has dawned with the same crisp skies. Everything in eastern Idaho is green - rolling fields of irrigation farmland. Absolutely beautiful!
Another stop at the Flying J in Caldwell - our last tank of gas for this trip! The price is 3.43 ....which will look good when we arrive in Baker City and gas is 3.59 at the cheapest station! Prices for this trip have fluctuated from a high of $4.19 in Austin, NV in February, to $3.05 in Roswell, NM in late April. Wow...a pretty big range!! Most of the time we were able to buy for somewhere in the $3.40 to $3.60 range. We averaged 12.5 miles per gallon for the trip.
Over the Snake River again and we enter Oregon just before 12 noon! The balsam root are covering the hillsides of the Burnt River Canyon with yellow splendor. The hills are definitely greener than they were when we left! Back into Pacific Time Zone at 12:20.
For those readers who haven't ever been to Baker Valley, the following picture, taken from Interstate 84 as you past the crest of the hill at Pleasant Valley, is one of the reasons we come home. The incredible people who live here are the other reason! I was excited to see our Elkhorn Mountains today.
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| Elkhorn Mts. as found on I-84 about 10 miles from Baker City. |
FINAL TRIP FIGURES:
Total miles: 6850
Total trailer miles: 4277
Total truck only miles: 2573
Total Housing Costs: $856
Total Gas Costs: $1,792
Total Food Costs: $1,682
Total Misc. Costs: $1016
TOTAL COST: $5,346
Total Gas per Mile: $0.26
Total Trip per Day: $73.23
WEDNESDAY, May 8
TORREY, UTAH to RUPERT, ID
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| City of Trees RV Park in Rupert, ID |
386 miles
Click HERE for a few pictures
Well, the weather this morning has confirmed our decision to pull up stakes and head for home. The mountains are totally socked in. It has rained off and on during the night (quite hard yesterday evening at times). Fortunately we were able to finish breaking 'camp' this morning in a dry manner.
This is going to be a bit bizarre, but before we leave Wonderland RV Resort, I must comment on the unwonderful bathroom facilities. The bathhouse basically had 5 doors: men, women, shower 1, shower 2, and laundry. The doors to the showers were locked. You had to request a key from the office. I figure there were about 4-5 keys for each shower, so you had to be sure to draw the chain guard from the inside to be sure someone else wouldn't walk in on you during your shower! The shower facility was beautiful: sink, john, and a huge one-piece shower stall with installed seat. Lots of room, bench, hooks, etc. (OK, the fan didn't work that well.) However, the really bizarre part of the bathrooms were the men and women doors. When I opened the women door, I found two toilets, side by side. No privacy screens, no doors, just two toilets and a sink. What women go to the bathroom in pairs to actually SIT together??? So...once you locked the door, which everyone would do, the two toilets were as useful as one. The mens had a toilet and urinal - no privacy either. I just found it very unusual.
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| Snow on summit pass between LOA and I-70. |
Enough about bathrooms! We left Torrey around 8am to drive the next 60 miles through fog, clouds, snow, and rain storms! The snow level didn't get down to Torrey elevation last night, but it is just above us on the mountains! I wouldn't have wanted to be driving over Boulder Mountain this morning!
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Mountains near Idaho-Utah
border |
Overall, the day went smoothly. Scattered showers early and after lunch as we headed north out of Ogden. (Once particular storm was REALLY heavy! I was glad Rick was driving!) Everything was so green, particularly the rolling hills south of Salt Lake City. We could see snow on the mountains - mostly right at the level of the clouds. We stopped in Scipio for gas (frustrated that Gas Buddy told us that Flying J was about 30 cents less per gallon than reality). By 12:30 we were through the worst part of Salt Lake City and Rick could start to breathe again! We stopped for gas and he stated he was good to go into Idaho. So....a trip to McDonald's for lunch to scope out campgrounds in Burley area.
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Rick with winning
horseshoe form. |
City of Trees RV park at Exit 216, just west of the I-84, I-86 junction, is truly an oasis in the desert along the Snake River. For $31 a night, cable TV, wifi, and full hook-ups, we are nestled in a thick grove of trees surrounded by deep green grass! We took a short walk around the park, down to the river, and ended with a game of horseshoes, impressed that they leave the shoes available at the pits for anyone to use! (BTW, Rick easily won the match!)
Quiet evening, glad that we will have a shorter day tomorrow, PLUS we will gain an hour enroute home!!
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| Snake River reflections at City of Trees |
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| Hwy 24 and views toward Torrey in the morning light. |
TUESDAY, May 7
CAPITOL REEF NATIONAL PARK
Cassidy Arch Hike
Click HERE for more pictures (lots more!)
I can’t believe how fortunate we are!
Raindrops fell as I lay in bed this morning. A few more while we ate breakfast. By the time we were ready to leave at 8:30,
the sun was breaking through! To the
east, the Capitol Reef mountains are lined with dark clouds, but to the west
(or looking backwards this morning!) the sky is blue with puffy clouds! We could see a little more snow on the top of
the breaks in one or two places!
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| View from Panorama Point |
We drive
the short 8 miles back toward Capitol Reef, stopping first to squeegee the
windows so I could take pictures! Then
we pull over at Panorama Point for views, especially good again to the red rock
west of us and the Chimney Rock area of Capitol Reef. We drive out the mile gravel road to the
Goosenecks viewing area of Sulphur
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| Goosenecks on Sulphur Creek |
Creek.
A short trail leads to an overlook high above the creek as it winds back and forth through the red
rock.
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| Capitol Reef uplift along Scenic Drive |
Our goal
today is to drive to the end of the Scenic Road, and then evaluate the
weather! The road traverses the western
base of the high cliffs – Rick has good views up and I figure I will take
pictures on the way back. We drop down
to the end of the road at Capitol Dome Wash, but opt NOT to take the 9 mile
gravel road to a series of trails. We
backtrack instead to the Grand Wash area where the trail to Cassidy Arch takes
off.
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Heading back up from
Capitol Wash |
The arch is named for Butch
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| Another Scenic Drive vista |
Cassidy
who sometimes hid out in the wash canyons.
The arch is NOT easily seen from the road. It sits HIGH at the top of the cliffs, a
massive span with more red rock behind it.
We park at the end of the
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| Driving down Grand Wash |
drivable part of the Grand Wash road, and head
down the wash. The skies are iffy and we
decide to just go as far as we can and pray for the best. Of course we are in an area that has posted
warnings for Flash Floods in the event of major
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| Start of the Cassidy Arch Trail |
thunderstorms. While a few drops of rain fall as we prepare
to leave, we find sunshine soon after we take off. The skies again just got bluer as we
climbed.
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| The trail wound UP the side of the cliff. |
I was
leading and I have to admit I took as fast a pace as I could. I knew we were racing against the skies, but
gradually it got nicer and nicer!! The
trail goes down the wash for about 300 yards, then veers off to climb steeply
up the face of the cliff in a series of rocky switchbacks. Eventually we gain a good strata layer and
gradually climb as we traverse the cliff face.
We can see our truck parked far below!
Around a
large notch, we gain a view of the Cassidy Arch on the opposite side of the
canyon. Our trail will take us to the
TOP of the arch rock – we won’t even know we are on it!
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| We look down in Grand Wash from the trail. |
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| View from trail. |
We gain
the top with great views all around – Fern’s Nipple to our south, Boulder Mt.
(well, it was in the clouds!), and red, yellow, and white rock everywhere! The top of the climb is like a giant sheet of
solid sliprock. The entire trail was not
an area I would have like to hike during a storm – when wet the rock would have
been VERY slippery. Rick and I
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| First view of Cassidy Arch |
quickly
began the return trip when a few drops of rain fell while we were on the top,
but those clouds soon blew off and more blue skies and sunshine graced us. So nicely, in fact, that we stopped about
mid-way down at a good viewpoint and ate a little lunch.
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| Rick and Ginger on top of Cassidy Arch |
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| Broad flat top of arch |
Back to
the car by 12:45 ….more cars in the parking area and more people just starting
up. A little concern as it has really
darkened and more rain is coming.
We stop
and visit the Fruita Historical area – the Gifford House (Rick got a little
baby pie!), the old schoolhouse, and the petroglyphs on the canyon walls. Fruita was a very isolated Mormon community
of self-sustaining individuals from the late 1800’s until 1969 when the last
member of the community sold out to the park service. (The park was established in 1937.)
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| Petroglphs at Fremont River |
Back to the
trailer to pack outside things up while the weather was holding. Sprinkles of rain have come and gone. Tomorrow could be a stormy drive at
times! We ate dinner early so we could
clean up the dishes and then disconnect the water lines, drain, etc.
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| Fruita School |
While the
weather here in Torrey hasn’t been perfect, we feel like we have had a good
experience. There is always plenty of
beauty to draw us back!! In the
meantime, we are heading HOME!!
I shall include a few more pictures from our day:
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| Lunch vista point |
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| Trail vista |
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| Ginger in one of the super size hole along the wash. |
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| Storm clouds made the colors pop! |
MONDAY, May 6
GRAND STAIRCASE-ESCALANTE NATIONAL MONUMENT
Calf Creek Falls Hike and Scenic Highway 12 over Boulder Mountain
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| Gloomy skies over the mountains |
What a day
this has been! We awoke to overcast
skies – gray and gloomy. But the disk of
a sun could be seen trying so hard to burn through. Alas, by 8:15 when we were ready to go, the
first drops of rain started to splish-splash their way down from the sky. The forecast is for 70% precipitation for
today… NOT what we had hoped for! But we
decided to make the best of it (or FIND the best of it) and head south of
Scenic Hwy 12 toward Escalante, specifically Calf Creek Falls!
First a quick trip into ‘downtown’ Torrey to
check out the local gas stations. We
found…NONE! Guess the $3.79 across the
street is the best we can do, so we gas up, coffee up, and are on our way!
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| Ponderosa pines! |
The 30
mile drive from Torrey to Boulder is superb!
This high elevation section of Route 12, over the flank of the Boulder
Mts. and a summit pass of 9600’, was the last section of the highway to be
completed and link the remote Western town of Boulder with the ‘outside world’. (Fact trivia – Boulder was the last community
in the continental US to receive mail via mule train!) We quickly felt at home as we entered Dixie
National Forest and ponderosa pine trees.
As we climbed in elevation, we entered a thick aspen forest,
interspersed first with pines and later with firs. We stopped at Larb Hollow Overlook. In spite of the overcast skies and
intermittent rain, we could see SOME of the colors and landmarks of Capitol Reef to the east of
us.
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| Capitol Reef landmarks from Larb Hollow |
At the
top of the pass, barren of firs, but still with scattered thickets of aspens
(none of which are in bud, so lots of white sticks!) we found the rain had
turned to snow. Light and not really
sticking, but snow nonetheless! (Trivia
fact from Rick: Boulder Mountain is the highest timbered plateau in North
America.)
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| Aspen groves near summit |
Near
Boulder you drop out of the national forest lands and on the west side of town
you abruptly enter the land of rock, strata, canyons, juniper, and pinon
pine. The transformation is
amazing. Boulder itself is an broad,
green agricultural valley.
Between
Boulder and Calf Creek Recreation Area of Grand Escalante National Monument, you
travel over the ‘Hogsback’ – a tall fin of rock on which the road passes. Literally a ‘top of the world’ feeling –
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| Hogsback heading south |
the rock
canyons drop off abruptly on either side of the road. Not a place for those faint of heart with
heights! It reminded me of hiking up the
fin of rock at Angel’s Landing in Zion, only we were driving it! And then…. A sign announcing 14% grade, steep
curves, and 25 mph speed limit! Descent
OFF the top!
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| Hogsback descent signs |
By the
time we arrived at Calf Creek RA around 10:15, the rain had stopped and the
skies showed early signs of a little clearing.
We were encouraged that several other groups were
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| View toward Calf Cr Canyon from Hogsback |
preparing to take off
on the hike as well.
All I
can say is God blessed us ONCE AGAIN for our willingness to risk a lousy
weather day for the hike. Not only did
the skies clear, but for most of the hike we were in t-shirts, sunshine, and
BLUE SKIES! (OK, a few fluffy white
clouds in places!) SOOOO glad we
persevered and kept driving!
The trail
to Calf Creek Falls is 2.75 miles, relatively gentle uphill grade, up the
canyon. The creek was a constant source
of gurgling and bubbling music, the birds sang a beautiful chorus the entire
route, and the canyon walls were an ever-changing vista of strength, beauty,
and color. Plant life included Mormon
tea with tiny yellow blossoms, alders & cottonwood, sage, gambel oak (just
leafing out - sooo green!), false Solomon’s seal, orange globemallow, a forest
of horsetail ferns, and a tiny white daisy-like cluster. We saw four or five beaver dams and one
beaver house. No beaver. Lizards and chipmunks and squirrels though!
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| Life-size pictographs |
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| Rick heads up the trail |
In two
places old Anazasi ‘granaries’ were supposed to be in view along cracks in the
canyon walls, but Rick and I couldn’t locate them. We did find the three life-size pictographs
on the far canyon wall about mid-way through the hike.
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| Calf Creek Falls |
Calf Creek Falls, at 126’ high, is a
beautiful ribbon of water free-falling and cascading down a mossy covered wall
of stone. On either side of the falls,
hanging gardens descend from the overhang ledge. In the sunshine on the right we saw yellow
monkeyflowers, on the shady left maidenhair ferns. The pool was a blend of deep blue and
green.
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| Just to get an idea of size. |
We ate a bite
of lunch, gazed at the falls, and enjoyed the cool breeze created by the watery
mist. While we were at the falls, there were about 4-5 other couple
groups. I asked one to take our
picture. I don’t think he spoke any
English, but we got the picture taken! I
seem to make a habit of asking or talking to other travelers who don’t speak
English! (Earlier did the same with a
Japanese couple!) As we hiked out, we
probably passed 30-40 other people hiking in.
We noticed the clouds gathering in strength. Believe it or not, the rain started to fall
just as we were pulling out of the parking lot.
(I felt bad for all those just starting the hike….they got wet!)
Rain off and
on all the way back to Torrey – hard at times, and then nothing at others. We stopped in Boulder at the Anasazi State
Park, I got my passbook stamped, but we decided not to pay to go in to the
museum. Grabbed a drink at a little tiny
Country store and headed on up over the pass.
We found more snow! A light
dusting among the aspens all over the top plateau. Awesome!!
A few more pictures from Calf Creek Trail. Soooo beautiful.
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| We never figured out what this blooming yellow bush was, but it smelled wonderful!! |
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| This section of canyon wall was a favorite with its vertical stripes of many colors. |
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| The globemallow was in full bloom along the trail. |
Back to the
trailer around 4pm. A little down time
and then off to dinner at ‘Slackers Burger Joint’. A good little local dive, completed with
license plates on the ceiling! We
enjoyed some great burgers and
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| The Hogsback heading north. Check out the clouds! |
green bean fries! Over dinner we decided to give it one more
day…. Maybe we can tempt the weather gods once more and get enough clearing or
dry skies to take the short scenic drive at Capitol Reef and maybe a short hike
or two. So… when we get back to the
trailer, I go in and sign up for one more night!
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| Slackers licenses |
Catch up time
with scribbles, blogs, etc. We have the
heater running to keep the trailer warm.
Predicted low tonight is 25 degrees.
We will probably have a frozen water line in the morning! Brrr!!!
G’night!
SUNDAY, May 5
Bluff to Torrey, UT 218 miles
NATURAL BRIDGES NATIONAL MONUMENT
Click HERE for pictures
What
happened to the sunshine and clear skies?
We knew Sunday might be a little cloudy, but there was no blue sky to be
seen this morning! Everything was gray,
but it was the kind where you couldn’t really decide if it was dust, smoke, or
moisture. The wind picked up during the
night several times and we could tell SOMETHING was blowing in! When I checked the weather report for the
next few days, it was not encouraging….
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| We cut through a slot... |
So, we
packed up and took off shortly after 8am to ‘see what we could see’. We are on scenic highway today (and it proved
to be MUCH more scenic than said designation near Fort Davis, TX!) First stop is Blanding, about 25 miles north
of Bluff. We literally drove back to the
top of the mesa in coming out of Bluff and were on a large flat plain, jagged
canyon walls on either side (they call them Washes) and the higher ‘mountains’
to the north. We go into Blanding a
couple miles to gas up the truck. (Ten
cents cheaper than in Bluff!)
From
Blanding, we left 191 and headed west on Hwy 95. Up and down for the next thirty miles, as we
cut down into a wash to cross it and then up to the top again before dropping
down to the next one! The vegetation seemed
greener than in NM – more grass, sage, etc.
In one place we climbed up to find ourselves driving through a slot cut
in the canyon wall – around the corner and a vast new valley, lined on the east
with mesa red rock walls, greeted us.
Gorgeous terrain.
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...and were greeted with a
vast panorama! |
We turned
off at Natural Bridges National Monument, a little side trip for the day! We couldn’t imagine WHERE the park was
located as all we could see as we drove the 4 miles in to the visitor center
was flat juniper and sage covered mesa and rock. We discovered a magical land hidden in the
crevices of White Canyon, BELOW the visitor center! The nine mile loop drive takes you down to
the canyon edges – to a layer of white strata channeled by the meandering of
the White River (no water now!) into a labyrinth of canyons. Three of the world’s largest natural bridges
can be found here, all within a few miles of each other. The road takes you to viewpoint from the
rim. We found it was hard to distinguish
the rock bridge from above – it blended in with all the other rock colors. We took pictures of Sipapu Bridge from the
viewpoint, but we hiked to the bottom of Kachina and Owachomo Bridges. Kachina is the ‘baby’ of the family, with a
thick stone mass and smaller ‘hole’.
Owachomo is the grandfather bridge – a huge opening with a narrow band
of rock still connecting the two sides of the canyon.
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| Kachina Bridge |
The trail
down to Kachina was worth the hike! It
drops about 400’ in three-quarters of a mile, cut into the canyon rock wall. It was lined with stones or dead juniper,
marked by cairns of stone in another, and in many places the steps had been
carved from the rock. In one spot I
looked ahead and said, “What? Where?” because it appeared the trail just ended
at a large rock slab steeply angling down.
But when I got to the very end, I saw a neat little line of steps off to
my left continuing on down the cliff!
Pretty cool hiking (literally – windy and
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Ging enroute back up from
Kachina Bridge |
cool!)
Down at
the bottom of the wash, we hiked the last few hundred yards to the base of the
bridge. So quiet and tranquil among the
cottonwood trees, birds, and occasional pools of water. We found the petroglyph deer hike up on the
right face of the bridge, but never located the ruins to the left. We mostly wandered and explored in the
peace. Kachina is located on the main
White River canyon, but where the side Armstrong creek joins it. Our trail actually led us down the Armstrong
wash to the bridge.
Back UP (pant, pant!) to the trailhead and on
down the road along Armstrong wash to Owachomo.
From the viewpoint, you could hardly pick out the span – it blended into
the canyon so well. Down the trail, excited
because patches of blue are starting to
emerge in the sky and it is warming up!
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| Owachomo Bridge from distance |
The walk
down to Owachomo (which is Hopi for rock mounds, one of which is situated on
the top of the bridge) is only a quarter mile down 200’. It was hard to get any pictures from the
bottom, the bridge is so wide and tall.
I will add my panorama to the blog when I get it pasted together at
home! (Hug-in isn’t working well on the
laptop!) While Owachomo was formed by
the water flowing beneath it, the creek has long ago changed channels again and
the huge amphitheater below the bridge has long been dry. However, other forces of time was slowly
eroding the bridge away. You can see
cracks in the rock when you look up.
Will the bridge fall in on itself tomorrow, or a million tomorrows? Who knows!
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| Lunch spot with Bears Ears in distance. |
Time to
get on our way! We pull over at Bears
Ears viewpoint to eat a bite of lunch.
Another scenic lunch spot today!
This landmark is a major orientation point for all of the Four Corners
region. Evidently the ‘ears’ can been
seen from Mesa Verde east to Monument Valley in the west.
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| Typical vistas along Hwy 95. |
The sixty
or so miles from Natural Bridges up to the bridge over the Colorado River at
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Lake Powell were an ever-changing
vista of pinnacles, spires, massive cliffs, and wide mesa plains. It was beautiful. especially as we dropped
down to the Lake Powell area. Wow! The lake itself is low, very low here 200
miles up from the dam. We crossed the
river and another feeder ‘creek’, but they meandered a channel through the
flat, grassy plain that should be filled with water. The road cuts around the rock walls and
borders the lake for a short bit before cutting through a slot and climbing
back up to the plateau.
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| Bridge over Colorado River at Lake Powell |
We
stopped for a potty break at Hog Springs Picnic area – a lush oasis of green
nestled back in the red rocks. For the next
thirty miles the views were still mixed with buttes, but gradually we entered a
grassland area and…..what’s that?
Mountains, REAL mountains with snow on top? Peaks with summit elevations of over 11,000’
lined with western horizon until we reached the town of Hanksville and Highway
24. (End of 95.)
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| Snowcapped mountains! |
Hanksville must be located at the top of the Watermark Fold area of
Capitol Reef. That layer of rock was a
shale deposit, and everything here was black, with sculpted black dunes at the
base of gray rock cliffs. It felt like
we went from lush green and red to white and black….the scenery suddenly lost
its color!
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| Early Capitol Reef view |
The
fifteen mile drive through Capitol Reef National Park itself, however, was
gorgeous. An ever-changing vista of rock
walls with a rainbow of colors. We
followed along the Fremont River to the town of Fruita, which was settled in
the 1800’s where Mormons homesteaded a little agricultural community nestled
below the towering monoliths which protected them. The town is now vacated except for the
tourists and park employee who maintain much of its history.
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| Capitol Reef view from Visitor Center |
We
stopped at the Visitor Center to pick up some information and an up to date
weather forecast (not good – 60-70% change of rain, snow, and thunderstorms for
the next few days!) With that in mind, I only paid for two nights at the RV
park when we checked in. We shall see
what ‘shakes’ out. Our plans might be
changing!
All set
up at Wonderland RV park at the junction of Highways 12 and 24. Nice enough, but not quite the views I had
expected and we are right on the road.
Lots of phone calls to family, showers, and in celebration of Cinco de
Mayo, we defrosted Rick’s last burrito from Hobbs!! (I had suggested a walk over to the Taco Time
sign I saw, but it wasn’t open! L )
Goodness I have written alot (it is Monday morning!) and we only drove 218 miles!
SATURDAY, May 4
