A Reputable Journal

According to KDVR TV:

This storm could be among Denver’s largest May snowstorms in history

When we stepped out of the camper in Green River this morning, it was sunny and 60. It remained sunny all the way through Vail. Although starting in Grand Junction we started seeing the warnings of a possible winter storm. By the time we entered the Eisenhower (Johnson) tunnel the temp had dropped to 40 and there were flurries in the air. When I checked the Denver news, I saw the headline above.

When we exited the tunnel it was full on snowing and 35! We drove in snow all the way down. By the time we reached Nebraska it had climbed back to 46. The original plan was for us to stay at a KOA in Ogalala, but we decided that getting down the road another two hours today would make tomorrow much more bearable. Besides in this cold weather we would have just set up camp, turned on the heat and read a book. So we continue to drive.

Just now we drove past a rest stop where a semi-trailer was raging fire and smoke! The tractor was detached and there were police on the scene. But we wonder what happened!?

This is starting to feel like a “live blog” but now we are sitting in the camper in Kearney Nebraska. The heat is running. The floor is cleaned up. Why do I mention the floor? When we pulled in and I opened the door, I could see that the refrigerator door was open and stuff was all over the floor. The terrible roads through Denver are surely to blame. So we spent the first 30 minutes cleaning up beer from a crushed beer can, and melted ice cubes literally everything from the fridge. Yes, we use expansion bars as an extra precaution to keep the doors closed but sometimes these things happen. Luckily, as I already mentioned, it was very cool outside, so the food stayed nice and cold as well. You can see it is all closed up now.

And here is the rest of our camper. The couch folds flat and the wall behind it is a Murphy bed. So it’s very space efficient. We love it, it’s perfect for two.

Since we are back in central time zone it is now a late dinner, so it’s leftovers. We’ll want to be on the road early tomorrow for the last 9 hours of the drive home. We are hoping to be at our lake house by dinner time, but it is an easy drive I-80 to I-35 to US-8 and we are almost there.

Today we did a nice scenic drive in Capital Reef National Park. Why is it called Capital Reef when it is in the middle of Utah? Early explorers who were also often mariners saw the rock formations in the area like they saw reefs at see. As barriers that were difficult to get across. The capital part of the name comes from the domed sandstone formations that looked like the US capital dome.

Today was not an ideal day for touring as the intermittent showers - sometimes heavy - kept us mostly in the car. This picture pretty well illustrates the beauty (and the frustration of the showers)

We were told multiple times not to hike routes by a wash if there was even a chance of rain. We did one small hike anyway to see the registry. A place where early explorers carved their names in to the wall of the canyon, often standing on top of their wagons to ensure the names would not be washed away by the floods.

Right now we are at the Green River state park in Green River Utah. Just off of I-70 a few miles. It’s a nice quiet area.

The plan had been to drive to the Great Sand Dunes tomorrow. Unfortunately the forecast is for snow and freezing rain starting late tomorrow afternoon and going through the night. We decided to forgo the Dunes as well as the side trip through Oklahoma and Kansas (just so we could check those states off the list) and head over the mountains to Ogalala Nebraska. We’ll stay at a KOA there and then head on to Wisconsin in a long day on Wednesday. It’s been a great drive home, but we both know that once we start getting close we get anxious to get there.

“You are here to cleanse your mind….” said the older brother to his obviously grumpy younger sister! Oh the things you overhear on the trail. But I like the sentiment. “I’ve never been more okie dokier” was the response from one older dude when I asked how things were going?

The hike today was another six mile hike out to a beautiful waterfall. This brings our total hiking distance for the week to just over 30 miles. We have seen a lot of great scenery.

We arrived at the waterfall, and just had to sit around and enjoy the view and the mostly peaceful surroundings. It was also a great chance to empty the sand out of our shoes and socks. The trail is about 30% sandy and the sand is so fine it just gets into the shoes and even through the socks!

After we completed the hike, and once again emptied our sandy socks we headed back to the Kiva Coffeehouse (the best coffee in Utah). It has an amazing view of the canyon.

I didn’t need any afternoon coffee, but it was pretty tasty. We had an early dinner reservation at Hell’s backbone Grill and Farm. But we still had plenty of time before dinner. So we headed toward the restaurant in Boulder, but stopped at an overlook where we could see the top of the falls.

We stopped for a pre-dinner drink next door to the restaurant at the Burr Trail Grill. We ate there a couple of years ago after driving the Burr trail.

For dinner we split some Queso Fundido, Lollipop Chicken, and Enchiladas. Everything was delicious and local and a bit unique. I had to buy a couple of spices, especially after talking with one of the servers about their “We believe” sign (Science is Real). And they order spices from Penzey’s.

Now we are back at the camper, the wind is gusting to 30 and it just rained for a few minutes, so no campfire tonight. We have five more nights before we are back home, so the pace will begin to pick up tomorrow.

To drive 26 miles on washboard road, or not to drive… That was the question we posed to the rangers at the Escalante visitor center this morning. The answer was that there are plenty of satisfying hikes that do not require such a drive.

There are loads of slot canyons in the area, but most of them require some hiking to get there. Such was the case with the Zebra slot canyons. But the hike there was beautiful with waves of color layers of sandstone of many colors.

It was a little over 2.5 miles to get to the slot canyon. It was a bit of a slot through the wash where we were hiking through deep sand. And although the canyon was pretty, it got super narrow very fast. So much so that we ended up turning back when the actual floor just turned to a point and it was only about 10 inches wide at my waist.

We headed back from the car and met up with a couple who thought they were on a completely different hike! Thankfully we set them straight only about half a mile from the trailhead.

We drove a little further down Hole in the wall road to Devils playground where we had a picnic lunch and then checked out the playground. I think the grands would have a grand time climbing around here!

Today was mostly a short moving day, from Zion to the Petrified Forrest State Park near Escalante. We had a leisurely morning, doing puzzles, reading some news, and we made French toast and little smokies outside on the flat top. After cleaning up camp we departed through the soon to be closed to campers tunnel. As we were leaving Zion we saw this guy:

After leaving the park we drove to Red Canyon, near Bryce, but much less crowded, and did a 2+ mile hike. The contrast between the greens of the fir trees and the red of the rocks was really stunning.

We arrived at the Petrified Forrest campground and got set up. It’s really nice and quiet and we have a beautiful site with a view of the reservoir (which is low like all southwest reservoirs)

The plan is to head into town for some pizza in a little while, and then enjoy our evening. We’ll base here for another 3 days doing some hikes in the area.

We failed in the lottery again today! But once again we had a good backup plan. So this morning we took our bikes over to the shuttle stop, put our bikes on the shuttle and road out to the furthest stop. From there we biked (well coasted) back down the canyon to the trailhead for the Emerald Pools. Along the way we stopped to appreciate yesterday’s destination from the canyon floor. Yep, we were way up there!

The Emerald pools hike makes a nice triangle, from the trailhead to the upper pool to the lodge and then back to the trailhead about 3.5 miles in all. So we locked up our bikes and headed up the trail. The hike to the upper pool was beautiful, and the pictures just don’t do justice to the views of the canyon. I even took some photos with my iPhone in spatial mode hoping that one day I’ll buy a headset or glasses and can appreciate the 3d view of this place.

The hike back down took us directly to the lodge, where we decided to grab some lunch. We kind of wanted to eat at the restaurant, but when it was our turn they said there was a wait (even though half the tables were empty). So we decided to just do a grab and go instead. After enjoying a burger and fries, we completed the triangle. We then biked the remaining 8 miles back to our campsite just enjoying the beauty all along the way.

Back at camp we have the afternoon to relax, and think, I like these vacations where I have some time to think about projects like Runestone without the ability to do. It’s good to step back and gain perspective from time to time without the temptation of putting my hands on the keyboard.

Last night we had a nice dinner at Thai Sapa in Springdale. It was just a short walk from our campsite. Tonight is campfire night, probably just brats for dinner, and I’ll break out the guitar to do some playing. My fingers are starting to get calloused again so I want to keep up the habit!

We failed in the lottery for Angels landing, but Jane had an even better plan. We will do the Observation Point hike. Of course she failed to mention that in order to do this hike we would need to go on one of her crazy off road vehicle expeditions. It was an hour’s drive to the trail head, but it was the last mile that was really exiting. The road to the parking lot was so deeply rutted that it looked sure to break an axel if you made one tiny bad turn.

Of course we did make it to the parking lot where there were only a few cars parked, and we headed down the well marked, well traveled trail. I had no idea of the views that were in store for me when we arrived at the point 3.5 miles later.

Truly the most spectacular view in all of Zion. With an extra bonus of looking down on Angels Landing. There are so many great views here in Zion, but this one really is the best.

After seven miles of hiking and a couple of hours of driving we were both tired and hungry. So we had a late lunch and agreed that an afternoon of hanging around the campsite was just fine. Jane had found a hot spring spa that we could go to but it was another 30 minutes of driving and neither of us seemed too excited for that.