Last of Utah, for now (07/10/24)

 Leaving the heat of Salt Lake City, we headed to nearby Uinta National Forest. We had a spot in mind where we thought we could park- the only issue is we took the wrong road to get there. Partway down the “Left Fork Hobble Creek Rd” we dropped the camper and continued in the Bronco, to check it out. It wasn’t long before we knew we could never make it. So, it was off to the Right Fork Hobble Creek Rd, which got us to the spot we wanted.

It wasn’t as cool here as we were hoping, but we did hike one trail in the national forest- Monks Hollow- a 4.5 mile loop with 900 ft of gain. Unfortunately I started really feeling the heat too much, which didn’t make for a fun trip during the last mile or so.

Resting up the following day we drove over to Strawberry Reservoir.  It is a beautiful lake, but we could have left our swim suits at home. The water temperature was on the frigid side. Oh Well, the Bronco has air conditioning and it was a fun drive.

Both Paul and I commented that his whole area is very green and healthy looking.

Scrambling for a place to be on July 4th can be stressful, but we had already made arrangements to visit our friends Dave and Nancy, in Helper Utah. It was less than two hours from our location, so the drive was easy.

Dave and Nancy used to be RV friends but they are off the road now, and bought a house in the small town of Helper.

Naturally, there are many projects that need to be done, and Paul was ready to jump in with both feet. Unfortunately on one of those jumps he impaled himself on a rusty tomato cage, which, after some calculations(when was his last tetanus shot???) resulted in an Urgent Care visit to get a shot.

On the plus side, we really enjoyed reading the “ pain chart” in the exam room. The nurse said he put it in there because people always said their pain was a “10”   and he would say…well you are conscious. sooooo… then they would say a “9” and he would say, so, like being mauled by a grizzly bear?  Eventually he would get them down to a reasonable description of their pain level.

We had an awesome July 4 with Dave and Nancy, and some of their friends, and took off the following day for our next destination.

Everyone we have talked to who has been to Dinosaur National Monument, on the border of Utah and Colorado, says it is a “must do” so we headed there to do it. We were originally planning on finding dispersed camping, but in keeping with this summer’s seesaw theme, we ended up booking a KOA that had a cancelation. Temperatures were in the mid 90s during the day. The day we arrived, at 3:30, we decided there was no point in sweltering while listening to the air conditioner, so we headed to the visitor center.

We spent an hour or so gazing at dinosaur bones. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure they are important, but they don’t hold much interest for me.

We decided we were better off being on the water, so we booked a one day rafting trip down the Green River for the following day. We were a group of 4 boats, and we shared our boat with a family of 4.

Charlotte and her brother Adrian were the lead paddlers who were responsible for following what our Trip Leader, Sanders, told them to do. The kids did a good job. All we had to do is paddle when they did. Charlotte (age roughly 12) was sitting in front of me, and we chatted quite a bit.

My biggest stress was that she said she had a premonition that she would fall in- so I was holding on to the boat for dear life the whole time, just in case she did. She didn’t.

Our final day in the area was spent hiking and exploring by Bronco. Reading some of the signs at the turnouts on the road can be interesting and entertaining. This area of Utah was explored by Spanish explorers who “discovered” this area for Europe. 

The expedition was called the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition, and many things are named after them…Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, Escalante State Park, the town of Escalante, etc.

But that wasn’t his name! His name was Fray Velez, and he was FROM Escalante. Too funny- I never knew that.

What we discovered that day is Mormon Crickets. If you don’t know what they are, they are actually not crickets, but a type of Katydid. I don’t care what their name is, they were pretty gross. They covered the roadway- thousands of them.

Turns out they are cannibals, so when a “friend” gets run over by a car, they all chow down, but guess what happens when the next car comes along? 

I was just happy they don’t fly!

Our hike took us out on a ridgeline, Harper’s Corner, that got narrower as we went along. The end section had fences to make sure no one fell off. Here we could see both the Green River, and the Yampa river.

The views were pretty spectacular.

Hike done we headed down the dirt road that we had seen from the ridgeline. It led to an area at the confluence of the two rivers. Here we could see the confluence of the Green and Yampa River.

S ‘23 Ep. 4–Salida, CO (07-19-23)

 After a week in Pagosa Springs, it was time to move on to our next destination, Salida.

We pretty much exchanged one river for another- but this time our campsite was right on the riverbanks –The Arkansas River.

We spent several nights sitting outside enjoying the river, and the wildlife in the field across from us. We originally thought they were elk but now think they might be deer.

Either way they were fun to watch, as were the rafters and tubers floating down the river.

Our first day started out lazy, and we didn’t even get dressed until lunch time. Feeling guilty, we got moving after lunch and headed up the nearby mountain to hike a short 1.2 mile hike to Agnes Vaille Falls

This hike falls into the “exercise” category.  There were some nice views of the mountains, and once in a while, a view of the water. Nearby Mount Antero is the highest gem field in North America.

As for the waterfall, we aren’t sure if you can actually get close to it or not because the trail turned into boulder hopping, and I wasn’t up for that. Paul went ahead without me for a bit, but came back without having gotten close to the water.

Hike done, we continued up the road and ran into the ghost town of St. Elmo. We came across “St. Elmo’s Fire” although it has nothing to do with any other St. Elmo’s Fire- the movie or the phenomenon. By the way, I did a search on “St. Elmo’s Fire” and it is essentially a weather phenomenon created by a corona discharge from a pointed object such as a mast. It creates a blue or violet glow, usually accompanied by a hissing or buzzing sound. It can be a warning sign of an imminent lightning strike. I guess prior to my search, I associated the name with the movie.

Anyway, the town is a typical abandoned mining town, but it has an active general store that sells ice cream.

On the hiking front, our next choice was the trail “Waterdog Lakes”. It is 3.5 miles with 1100 ft of gain, and we were passed by many water dogs, who were rushing to the lake to go swimming.

The trail was a little challenging with some boulder/rock fields, but overall pretty nice, with a few water crossings, which is always nice as long as there are bridges or rocks.  

Originally we were planning on tubing the Arkansas River, which runs through Salida. Two things happened- Paul popped his tube in Pagosa (and we hadn’t replaced it) and the river is running too high to tube.  Our plan B was to raft the river, which we did.  

We chose Noah’s Ark, a nearby rafting company for our excursion.  Almost all of their reviews are 5 star, which made me think twice, but I can’t say enough good things about this company, and our guide Kohl. After the trip I wanted his name so I could write a really nice review, and that’s what he said. Kole, with a K. He could have just said Kohl, like the store.

Anyway, he was fantastic. Our raftmates were a family of 4 with two young girls, so Paul and I got the rear “interesting” seats. Kohl said there would be times when he would essentially yell HOLD ON, and were we ok with that?

I told him I was nervous but would be ok. From then on he was careful to let me know what was coming up and what to be aware of. As he said to me, paddling is important, but staying in the boat is more important- so, focus on that.

He taught us the lingo of what we should be doing, such as GO TWO- that means paddle twice, forward. GO BACK 1 means paddle backwards once.  “Bump bump Bump bump” means we are going to hit an obstacle hard.  He spent a fair amount of time having us practice things like “HIGH SIDE”. That means the raft is going to flip over unless we all jump to whatever side he calls out- such as “HIGH SIDE RIGHT” . We were all pretty well prepared for whatever laid ahead.

 

As it turns out, we didn’t have any issues of our own, but a raft in front of us (different company) flipped- spewing people into the frigid water.

Kohl guided our raft over to a teenage girl who was in the water. As we were taught, the mom sitting in front of me pulled the girl into our boat, and we headed to a calm spot in the water.

 

Unfortunately, where they had flipped was a very difficult section called the Toilet Bowl. You get the idea. Having picked her up, we were situated in a perilous position just before the toilet bowl, with no room to maneuver safely. Kohl made the decision to offload all of us onto the rocks nearby, and drag the boat back far enough to be able to maneuver the rapids.

Paul helped him pull the boat, which was no easy task.

We made it through with no issues, thankfully, and the teenager made it back to her own raft. Kohl, who was the head guide on our 5 raft flotilla, was very impressed with one of his other leaders who had pulled his boat off to the side and walked up the rocks, looking to assist as needed.

Whew, after that, the rest seemed easy.

The river calmed down over the next few days and Paul and I wandered downtown to watch the tubers and surfers.

Yes, surfers. Salida has created several artificial waves that people use to surf. It’s quite a sight to see- and the lines of surfers actually moves pretty fast.

After watching for a bit, we headed to a restaurant on the water where we watched from the vantage point of our table at the restaurant.

Our final hike before moving on was a 6 mile hike, 950 ft of gain, to Browns Creek Falls. The hike itself was nice, crossing several streams before finishing at the falls.

Once we were done, we continued on down the forest service roads, just to explore, but ended up having to turn around after too many “dead ends”.