Colorado National Monument (08-22-22)

 

Colorado National Monument literally juts straight up just outside the small town of Fruita, Colorado.  We have driven past this monument several times, and I was thrilled to finally be able to explore it.

It became a national monument in 1911, mostly through the efforts of one man- John Otto. John arrived here in 1906 and found the area so stunning that he decided not to leave until it was turned into a national park.

As a humorous side note, he was married at the base of one of the spires, but the marriage only lasted a week, because he insisted on living in a tent so he could be close to his animals.

He was a self proclaimed trail builder and helped build the original road into the park.  Apparently it was quite and adventure to drive it, since it had over 50 switchbacks going up a steep hill.  Eventually a new road was built and the original one was turned into a hiking trail called Serpents Trail.

This park sits on the Colorado Plateau, which is also home to all 5 national parks in Utah. We only had two days to explore, so we tried to get the most bang for our buck.  There is a scenic drive that goes through the whole park.  We did half of it the first day.

Of course, we are driving on the “new” road, but it is still an impressive drive up the hillside.

There were several short trails we walked- Otto’s Trail had awesome views of the valley.

...and the Window Rock Trail (It’s hard to see the “window” in this picture).

Partway through the scenic drive we left the park and entered Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness.  Our destination was Rattlesnake Arches Trail- a trail that leads to 3 arches.  Visitation to these arches is kept to a minimum due to the “4 wheel drive/high clearance required” designation on the road there.

The beginning of the road was misleading, and didn’t prepare us for the last half mile.  A couple of times Paul had to get out and figure out which way he wanted to attack the obstacles.

When we made it to the trailhead we discovered there are two trails- an upper and a lower. We chose the upper trail, which was 3 miles and of course we were above the arches.

We both said we would love to come back and do the lower trail, and see them from below.

Our second day we woke up to the pitter patter of rain on the camper roof.  It was a slow start to the day because the rain didn’t let up for a couple of hours.  Eventually it slowed, and we figured it might not even be raining in the national monument, so we ate lunch and took off.

We stopped first at Dinosaur Hill, which is a one mile hike around a hill where dinosaur bones were discovered.  The recent rain had turned parts of the trail into a sticky clay mess.  In between bouts of laughter (what else can you do?) we had to constantly scrape 2 inches of muck off the bottom of our boots. Of course, it was too late to turn around, so it was slow going slogging along. To make matters worse, there are no dinosaur bones here anymore- they were all taken to Chicago!

We continued on the scenic drive in the park stopping at all the overlooks we hadn’t seen the day before. 

The scenery  was amazing, the colors brighter due to the rain.

The road landed in the town of Grand Junction, which is bigger than Fruita and has a Sam’s Club and an REI.  We bought fuel at the Sam’s Club, and I bought new hiking boots at the REI.  This is my 3rd pair of Merrell Moab Ventilators.  I like them because they are NOT waterproof, so are lighter and cooler to wear (I know no one cares that I got new boots, but writing it in my blog is the best way for me to remember when I got them!).

The Road to Lake City - Part 1 (8-20-22)

 I’ve been sitting here for 15 minutes, trying to organize my thoughts into blog posts that at least somewhat make sense.  I have changed the name of the post 3 times.  Here is my dilemma-  when Paul and I charted a course, so to speak, back to Lake City CO, we made sure there were things to see and do along the way.  In the middle of our trek we stopped for several days at a place I have wanted to go for a long time- Colorado National Monument.  But it needs it’s own post as far as I am concerned.  So, here we are with Part 1 of the Road to Lake City:

From the Dixie National Forest, we headed straight into Manti-La Sal National Forest.  And as I found out recently, if you want to sound like a local, you say “Man-Tie” not “Man-tee”.  Who knew?

We drove up into the national forest from the small town of Ephraim Utah, headed to a very small national forest campground.  We perhaps should have checked ahead to see whether the truck camper would make it down the entrance road.  It did, but not without some anxiety on our part.

 

The one car we encountered had no choice but to bury his car in the bushes, or back up (when we were leaving, I went ahead in the Jeep to make sure the coast was clear). It took some work but we fit the camper into one of the larger sites. The perk was that the deer would feed on the bushes under our slide- pretty cool.

We had one day to explore, so we drove the Jeep in a 36 mile loop around the top of the mountains.  We were surprised to see informational plaques along the way.

In 1912, the Great Basin (research) Station was established atop this hill with the purpose of studying the national forest watershed, including the effects of grazing and climate on the forest. The station has lodging, laboratories, and greenhouses.  The families of the scientists would move up here with them for the summers, making it essentially a small town.

It is still in use today, and more than 47 scientists have published papers with their findings. and supposedly you can tour it, but the gate was locked when we were there.

Of course, much of the research involves water- and the information discovered here has had a positive impact on ranching and water usage.  One favorite bit was that they discovered that the day of snowmelt varies from year to year, but knowing when it takes place helps a rancher figure out when to plant seeds, and when they will ripen into feed.

We stopped at the top where we had a view of the town, and ate our picnic lunch before moving on.

The second half of the loop was completely different.  There were no plaques, and the road was not quite as nice. In fact, we almost turned back at one point, but managed to persevere.

We c

We came across a sign  that said “Ephraim tunnel” and pointed to a side road.  Well, Paul never wants to miss a chance to see a tunnel, so off we went.  It turns out it was one of many tunnels that funneled the water from the mountain down to the town of Ephraim.

One of the cool things we realized is that Paul’s great grandparents were from the nearby town of Manti, Utah.

After our short visit there, we headed to the small town of Helper Utah, to visit our friends Dave and Nancy, who are there for the summer.  We stopped at a farmers market and grabbed some fruit and veggies that were literally being walked in from the fields while we were there.

Dave and Nancy have made a lot of friends in this small town, and we were introduced to several of them as we walked around town.  After eating dinner at a local pizza place we headed to this gas station.

Now, obviously most people head to a gas station to get fuel. Not us, not this time.  We came here for the carrot cake. Yep, this place has the best carrot cake Paul has ever had- excepting his own (my aunt Tish’s) recipe of course.

It didn’t hurt that you could buy extra frosting- which he did.

We took our cake back and ate it at the RV park.

It wasn’t long before we were back on the road, headed to Lake City- next stop: Colorado National Monument.

Bryce Canyon Area (08-17-22)

 After a week near Cedar Breaks, we moved about an hour or so down the road, still in Dixie National Forest, but just 12 miles from Bryce Canyon National Park. Our intent is to boondock in this area for a few days but we needed to dump our tanks and water up.

We stopped at Red Canyon campground, a USFS campground that had plenty of room. They charge $10 to use the dump station, or $10.50 with our senior pass, for a site for the night. We took the site, which had beautiful views, and went off to explore, looking for a place for boondocking starting tomorrow. Once we found several good spots, we went into Bryce Canyon City and found some ice cream.

Before moving to our new spot, we hiked the Buckhorn Trail, which starts and ends in the campground....it connects to longer trails, but we didn't have enough time to do any more than that.

The trail leads to a ridge, and has great views along the way. Good thing, because although I made past one area with steep drop offs on both sides, I couldn’t make it past the second one. I sent Paul to take some pictures and waited for him. While I was waiting, another couple came along and I had to find a spot to squish in, so they could pass me on the narrow trail. They ended up turning back as well.

Once that hike was done we moved the rig to our new boondocking spot and left to explore some more. We checked in at the nearby visitor center, and hiked the 1 mile interpretive trail. It was getting a bit warm to do the extra 1.5 mile we had planned on doing. Instead we drove a scenic route through the national forest, past a (boring looking) reservoir.

Our "big" hike was a 6 mile hike using a combination
of trails- Cassidy and Rich trails, with a stop over on the Ledges trail. The scenery was interesting, and we only saw a couple of other hikers on the trail.

We reached our first overlook about a mile and a half in.

I was glad I had downloaded the local hiking map since there were several combinations of trails , and I had to check to make sure we were taking the one we wanted.

About 4 miles in we came to the ledges... they are literally ledges, where you can look over and see for miles. From there it was just walking, to finish the trail.

After hiking in the heat for 6 miles, the next day we were looking for something shorter so we headed first to the Tunnel Trail.

I am not sure why they call these tunnels, they are the shortest tunnels I have ever seen, but it is neat to drive through them.

The trail was under a mile, but it seems to go straight up, so its a good, if brief, work out.

Our next hike that day had the name of Mossy Cave. It isn't really a cave, its more of a grotto, but the trail also includes a waterfall and a stream, and they were pretty cool.

If we had brought water shoes it would have been fun to walk the trail in the water.

After the hike we went to the Escalante Visitor Center and had our picnic lunch.

By then the storm clouds in the distance looked pretty serious, so we decided to "chase" them and explore at the same time. We never did catch up to the rain, but we saw a sign for Kodachrome Basin State Park, so we made plans to visit it the next day.

Kodachrome Basin State Park isn't huge, but its very well laid out and taken care of. The Rocks are what you would expect to find in this area although not as colorful as some. We started by hiking the Angel's Castle trail, which was almost entirely a rock trail, my favorite.

Whenever the trail got too narrow for me, I sent  Paul out so I could take his picture.

Once that hike was done, about a mile and a half or so, we headed back to the visitor center where the rangers were busy cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for all the guests.  We had brought lunch but we decided we could save it for another day.  I asked how often they cook for visitors and he said “once a year”.  Guess we were just lucky. It’s Military Appreciation Day in the park, and everyone gets a free lunch.

Letting our lunch settle, we drove the scenic drive before hiking our second hike of the day.  The dirt road led to Chimney Rock.

The park was named Chimney Rock State Park at one time, but when National Geographic was filming here in the 1940s, they noted that the colors were as vibrant as Kodachrome film- and with permission from Eastman Kodak, the name was changed to Kodachrome Basin State Park.

Our second hike, the Panorama Trail was longer, at about 3.5 miles.  It is a loop that passes by several “named” rock formations, such as “the Ballerina”.

On the way home the distant mountains were lit up by the sun!

When I read my blog post about our first and only visit to Bryce Canyon National park 12 years ago, my last sentence said I was glad we saw the park but I won’t hurry back any time soon.  Well, I guess I meant that, because although we debated going into the park for a hike, we left the area without doing it.

Cedar Breaks National Monument (08-11-22)

 After a week in El Paso with Paul's mom we deemed her sufficiently recovered from Covid and an infection, for us to move on. Instead of going straight back up to Colorado, where we were before, we headed home. Our Router, and therefore our cameras etc stopped working and we didn't want to wait another 2 months to get home and get it fixed. We stopped on the way there and bought a new router and modem, just in case that was the issue.

Part of what made our decision to go there easier is that the weather forecast called for temps in the high 90s instead of 115-120. In fact- it rained every day we were there  (3).

It worked out well that we went- our hitch for the Jeep is faulty, and the company is shipping us a new one, under warranty- but they were supposed to ship it to our friends in Colorado so we could get it sooner. Unbeknownst to us, they had erroneously shipped it to our house....and it was on the porch when we got there. It could have been annoying if we hadn't decided to come home at the last minute, but it actually worked out well- Paul was able to use his tools to weld some parts on to the new hitch.

I took advantage and used my elliptical and swam in the pool, and we also dropped off some stuff we don't need and picked up some stuff we could use.

From Havasu we headed north to St George, UT where we spent a couple of nights reconnoitering and deciding what to do.

With highs sitting at about 100*, we weren't interested in hanging out there too long. Instead, we drove "up the hill" highway 14, near Cedar Breaks National Monument. We found an awesome boondocking spot at 10,000 ft- which means the highs are in the 70s, lows in the 40s-much more comfortable. In fact, we like this area so much we quickly decided to stay as long as the tanks held out (a week).

Our first day out and about, we drove through Cedar Breaks National Monument just to orient ourselves. The weather wasn't perfect, but the scenery was spectacular!

This national monument is kind of a cross between Bryce and Zion National Parks and isn't too far from them, really. It sits, however, 2000 feet higher in elevation than Bryce, and about 5,000 feet higher than Zion-which makes it much cooler, but also means its pretty much closed in the winter.

Our first hike was a short one to Cascade Falls.  This is a popular trail for families.  The trail is cut into the side of a hill, and of course, ends at Cascade Falls.

One thing we discovered about this area- its home to a LOT of sheep. 

Why did the sheep cross the road?

Sheep don’t know what a road is, people!

The following day we started with a little bit longer hike- 2.3 miles around Alpine Pond. 

We were entertaining ourselves by using an app to identify plants- and this one is a Silver Spruce!  That’s the color of our truck (we waited almost a year for it because we wanted that color).

We hiked this trail partly because it was on the way to our destination-the town of Brian Head. This town is known for its family friendly skiing and outdoor sports.  Even the benches and swings are ski themed.

The tip that is called Brian Head sits at almost 11,000 ft- and you sure do feel like you are on top of the world up here. 

The views go on for miles and miles.

There aren’t very many hikes actually IN Cedar Breaks National Monument, but the most popular one takes you past several spectacular viewpoints, and ends at a double arch.

 

Many people just hike part way, to one of the views, but we elected to go the full 5 miles.

Cedar Breaks is actually a natural amphitheater- I thought it was cool how visible it is on my hiking app. 

The blue is the hike we took along the rim.

On the days we didn’t hike, we took some scenic drives.  One took us up the top of a big hill where we could see far off into the distance and also got a good view of a lava flow.  There is a lot of lava rock around here.  In some places it is right next to the road.

Another outing almost got a little too exciting.  As we were driving around the back roads looking for a lava flow, the rain got very heavy, making the driving difficult in some spots.  This puddle was so deep, the dirty water came very high up on the Jeep.

Of course, there are always housekeeping type things to do, in between exploring.  We actually had ordered new glasses at Costco in El Paso, and had them shipped to the Costco in St. George, so one afternoon we traveled down the road to get them. We also discovered that since we are boondocking so much, it is a little challenging to keep our electronics charging (the 12v ports are all in the bed area), so Paul bought some parts at the store and installed a 12v inverter near the dinette.  We are much happier now.

Our final day in this area we hiked 8 miles around Navajo Lake.  The lake is pretty, but the weather was warm, so we were happy to be done.

Well, I know this has been a super long post, and I didn’t even mention everything we did, but I do have to add that August 10th was Paul’s mom’s 92 birthday.  We understand she had a great day, and we are very happy to see her back to her usual self.