Nat arrived with the van and we took off from Hikertown heading to the Mojave Nat’l Preserve Desert. We stopped at Barstow for lunch and groceries. We stopped at Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve to check out their campground and the visitor center. The visitor center was closed, but the guy opened it just so we could check it out. They only had one tour daily, from the visitor center, which had already finished. The guy gave us a brief synopsis of the tour there on the spot. In fact, he sat there and rattled off the entire geology part of the tour in 2 minutes. He said “that was the geology tour – want the history?” So we got the history tour in 2 minutes. Very interesting. That guy was just hilarious.
We camped at Midhills Campground. We were at about 5500 feet. There were beautiful, huge campsites at that place. There was 1 other camper in site 6 and we were at site 24.
We left Mitchell Caverns Mojave Natural Preserve and went through a regular forest of Joshua Trees. Amazing! And all around us were mountains.
We arrived near Las Vegas and decided to go to Hoover Dam first because it’s early (10 AM). It is very hot. Lake Mead is beautiful, Hoover Dam is awesome and all the construction for the new highway is completely new to us since last we were here (2 years ago). Plus the tours at the dam were different from the last time.
We went to the Holiday Inn and Nat and I went to the pool. Then we drove to Old Town and ate at Tony Roma’s and gambled. Nat won. I lost. We left around 8 PM and as we wandered back to our car, we stopped and looked at the band playing (looked like the Blues Brothers). We saw a guy on super high stilts and a juggler. As we slowly walked out to leave they had the most incredible light show beginning on the ceiling. It was like a 6 block long IMAX. You’d look way down at the one end, then way up to the other end, and there were different things going on, over the entire screen. But it was about aliens attacking (the aliens were green Martians) and the U.S. is fighting them and in the end the Martians come to Las Vegas to gamble. However it was totally spectacular.
We went back to the Holiday Inn (at 9:50 PM) to find out that the Belagio had their water shows every 15 minutes; but they start at 3PM. That would mean we would have to spend an extra day in Las Vegas if we waited until tomorrow to see it. We found out that the last shuttle would leave our motel at 10 PM so we ran down to the lobby to wait for the 10 PM shuttle. It was well worth it because we saw the most beautiful water show. Actually we saw 3 of them. Each one was choreographed to a different song. The first one was by Celine Dion, the 2nd a classical piece (my favorite) and the 3rd was “All that Jazz”. The water choreographed to the music was amazing. Then we ran back to the Belagio where we waited for the last shuttle to take us back to our motel. We fell into bed and slept like a rock.
We got up, ate the continental breakfast, and decided to drive back to the Strip to see the Botanical Garden at the Bolagio. It was absolutely, incredibly beautiful, very similar to Bachman’s show at Daytons over Xmas. This wasn’t as big as Bachman’s but it was breathtaking. We also saw the flamingos and penguins at the Flamingo and all of their beautiful swimming pools. We saw the Caesar Forum Shops. Nat put $2 in a nickel poker slot, bet 5 (nickels) and got a straight flush and won 580 nickels. We left and she got $26 back! We had parked (free) at the Barbary Coast, got back into our car and were on our way.
We left Las Vegas and went back through Hoover Dam and had lunch at Kingman, AZ. We took Route 66, an extremely curvy road, and saw beautuful rock outcroppings, went past some old mines and saw maybe 10 – 15 gravesites of people who apparently went over the edge of the road.
We stopped in Oatman and got to see the wild burros (that are really quite tame) and the burros live in the town. Nat fed them carrots. We went to the Oatman Hotel where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard had their honeymoon. Also saw the room of Oatie, who is supposed to be a ghost now, and we saw the area in the bar and restaurant where everyone put $1.00 bills on the wall and signed them.
Back on Route 66 we saw the Black Mountains and those beautiful rock outcroppings. It’s pretty deserty here, rocks, cholla cacti, creosote bushes.
We camped at Island River Campground on the Colorado River. It’s an overflow campground of Bearskin Campground. There was only one other family here. We stayed up until 10 PM looking at the stars because it was too hot to get into the tent.
Got up – it finally cooled off last night. We drove to Quartzite, AZ and looked for rocks in the wash. Saw lots of quartz, no crystals. Then we drove on to Prescott. On the way we stopped at a place where there was a big Joshua Tree to shade us and we took out our lawn chairs and had a picnic lunch. It was even cool in the shade.
We stopped at Prescott (pronounced Preskitt) and sat around in their city park. We camped in an RV Park that was nearby and then went back to the city park to watch the cloggers – some regular people doing international dances; with audience participation. We ate dinner at Murphy’s - a very nice restaurant.
We drove the twisted, winding, corkscrew 89A to Jerome. Beautiful scenery, except I was driving and almost killed the brakes. I’ll wait for the freeways before I drive again. We stopped at the Jerome State Park – a museum, to learn about the city and the mining that took place there. In 1929 they had 15000 people living in Jerome; now there are 300. In the early 1900’s Jerome was the 3rd most populous city in AZ.
We drove through the beautiful mountains. Whatever they were called, they were RED and we went on through Sedona. All of the buildings in Sedona are reddish or bluish. McDonalds was red with a red sign and blue (golden) arches. We went onto Flagstaff and stopped at a scenic overview and it started to rain and thunder.
We ate at a Chinese Buffet at Flagstaff and Nat got a charger for her phone and we drove to our campsite at 10-X where we had camped when we were biking 2 years ago. It was a beautiful spacious campground with huge sites. We set up our tents and went and got our annual National Park Card so that tomorrow we wouldn’t have to wait in line to get into the Grand Canyon. We went to the IMAX and saw “The Grand Canyon” It was pretty good.
We got up and drove to the Grand Canyon and took their blue shuttle bus and stopped at Bright Angel Trail and hiked down a short ways. Then it was back to the shuttle. We stopped at one of the points and saw 4 condors flying all around. They got so close you could hear the sound of the wind going through their wings and John saw the # on one of the condor’s tag.
We went to the Grand Canyon Visitor Center which has a huge amount of information readily available. It rained for a couple minutes. We got back in the car and took the Desert View Route out of the park but stopped to climb the tower (76 steps). Once outside of the Grand Canyon Park the scenery was outstanding. Within the park boundaries there were so many trees on either side of the road that you couldn’t see past the trees. When we left the Park we were able to look way out again and see the scenery.
We stopped at Glen Canyon National Recreation Center and camped at Waweap Campground. It was a very big campground with not too many people, and it was very nice. We went down to the Lake Powell boat ramp. It was absolutely huge – 150 feet wide and ¼ mile long. There were boats and trailers everywhere.
There are still many beautiful cliffs, but interspersed now with some flat areas and we are beginning to see more and more trees and grass and chapparel. The elevation is now up to around 5 to 6000 feet.
Upon entering Hwy 9, heading toward Zion Nat’l Park w saw no more cliffs, only mountains with trees. However as we got closer, we started seeing cliffs. The strata on one of the huge monster white cliffs is unbelievable. It was like a checkerboard. It’s true of the red mountains too. Then we moved onward and saw just fine lines on the mountains; the lines only going in one direction. Then we saw some straight lines and checkerboard lines that are the same color and substance of the mountain, only they are slightly raised. We saw great massive beautiful mountains of red, white, some black. We went through a small tunnel – in preparation for the huge tunnel (that is more than a mile long and is right smack through the middle of one of those huge mountains.) The tunnel is not very wide; it is OK for cars, but not for RV’s. The RV’s have to pay an extra $10 because when an RV is in the tunnel, it rides in the middle of the road so the other lane has to sit and wait.
After leaving the park we saw mostly trees, or scrubby plants and it’s more flat. There are some cliffs (tan, orange, white) in the distance.
We stopped at Cedar City, Utah, for lunch at Subway and then we bought some groceries and headed onto Cedar Breaks Nat’l Monument. We had to look at it from the visitor center because there were lightning strikes and the Rangers wouldn’t let us go outside. Cedar Breaks was like a small Grand Canyon; but since it is smaller there seem to be more colors. It was impressively beautiful.
We drove through the Red Canyon. It had 2 natural tunnels that we went through. Still driving and upon entering Bryce Canyon it was raining like crazy. We only stopped at the visitor center and saw the 22 minute movie. We didn’t bike through Bryce when we were on out bike trip, nor did we go through it this time. However from the short movie that we saw, it looked like it could be a really cool park to visit.
We drove through Escalante and stopped at the Escalante Petrified Wood State Park to camp for the night. They had a neat hiking trail – Petrified Wood Trail. The Indians used to call petrified wood “sleeping rainbows”. So then we went on part of the Rainbow Trail. It was a beautiful trail and we did it at sunset so we saw a beautiful sky too. We got to see the incredibly gorgeous colors of the sand – sort of like the Painted Desert. We went up when the sun was shining and came back when it had set and noted the difference in the colors of the sand. Plus when you were up close you could notice the difference in shading – white to grey to dark grey; same with the greens and the dark colors. On top of all that we got to see petrified wood.
We drove over to Calf Creek Campground, not to camp but so we could go to Calf Creek to see the spectacular waterfall. We had hiked the Calf Creek Trail last time 2 years ago when we were biking, and it was scorching hot then – it was fairly cool this time. The waterfall was as beautiful as before. When we came back to the area where our car was parked, Nat went swimming/wading/sitting in the freezing cold, clear creek.
As we drove through Boulder (Utah) the huge white rocks had fantastic swirls all over the side of the mountains. Traveling onward on highway 12 there were no more cliffs or rocks; as we climbed to 9000 feet we were in a green area – trees, grass, shrubs. Near the top we could look down and see gorgeous cliffs of white, way off in the distance.
We entered Capitol Reef National Park, going past incredible reds, browns, oranges, purples, greens, and whites and all kinds of various hues mixed in between. Right ahead were strata lines going horizontally and hoodoos (great tall skinny spires) everywhere. As we drove on, there were just massive walls of rock with some loose rock, some hoodoos, some just great and flat and high. The colors just change and intermix right before your eyes. As we went onward there was just more and more of the same. Plus the sides of the mountains had all kinds of holes in them and many caves.
We left that area of extreme beauty and found another variety of smaller mountains and spires and colors. We stopped at Hanksville for lunch and saw a gas station where the store itself was inside the mountain.
We headed toward Lake Powell on Highway 95. The land was more flat but still there were mountains all around, though not as spectacular as Capitol Reef. After about 10 miles we were back into predominantly reds, great massive walls, some carved out amphitheaters, some areas of strata, some loose rock, some with desert varnish (we’ve actually seen this for some time). Desert varnish is color streaking on the rock, the streaking being a different color from the rock itself. The streaking is usually vertical and probably caused by the leaching of the colors out of the rocks.
We stopped at the Lake Powell Lookout we looked out and saw no water!! This drought has been very hard on the Hite Marina Area. When John and I were here 2 years ago there was water everywhere. Now the only water was the small amount in the Colorado River and a few pockets of water here and there. There is no (Hite) marina at this time because there is no water.
We went onto Highway 24 heading North and then we were in the San Rafael Desert. As we started out we saw brown mountains near the road with what looked like black horizontal striations. When we got closer we saw that the lines of striation were actually erosion. That area lasted a couple miles then it turned flat to the east with a few mountains to the west. There were no cacti, just grass and a few scrub brushes and a few trees in the wash area. The road was straight as an arrow and way way way in the distance were high mountains.
We went to Dead Horse State Park looking for a campsite – none available. We went to Canyonlands – no sites available and Canyonlands had 2 campgrounds (although both were quite small). We hiked out a short ways in Canyonlands and it was spectacular. But we got tired of that place since there was nowhere for us to stay. You could do disperse camping (camp wherever you want) but you are supposed to have a toilet. Give me a break.
We drove to the Arch View Resort/RV Park and we spent the night in a (basic) cabin for $29.99. I always wanted to stay in a cabin; in Oregon they are called yurts. Our cabin had 2 double beds, 2 chairs. Outside was a porch with a bench, a picnic table and a grill. Bathrooms and showers were a short walk away. It was quite nice.
We went to Arches National Park – all the way to the end and then backtracked. We went on some short neat hikes. We got to walk in supersoft sand, walk in between some narrow canyons and climb all over some slickrock. The slickrock is not at all slick, but actually very easy to walk and climb on. We saw lots of arches, caves, canyons, hoodoos. Most of the mountains in the Park are dark brown color. The park was beautiful, so much to see. We arrived before 8 AM to avoid the rush. They have parking for only so many cars at each of the trailheads and if there is no space – too bad – you can’t stop.
We went on to Mesa Verde. That place had like 420 campsites and the guy said it has never been filled in the 10 years that he has worked there. We went on 2 ranger tours. The Balcony House Tour included climbing a 32 feet ladder, a few smaller ladders, walking in some tricky footholds and going through an 18 inch tunnel. We were on the side of a mountain in the houses that the ancestral Pueblans, or People from the North, or Anasazi lived. Very interesting.
Then we went on the Cliff House Tour; in thunder and lightning, I might add. There was some rain at the end. We climbed some more ladders, these only 10 feet in length. Again we were in some more cliff houses.
A fire had started in the park while we were there and they had put it out before we left. They have a helicopter sitting and waiting and a fire truck always on the ready.
We left Mesa Verde in the rain, drove in to Durango and stayed in a motel.
After leaving our motel early in the morning, we picked up the roundtrip train tickets (for the narrow guage railway trip from Durango to Silverton). We zipped to the grocery store for snacks and when we got back we were able to board the train. Our traincar was an outside car (per request). The seats were such that they all faced looking outward. There was a roof, but otherwise we could stand up or sit down and see everything. The trees could hit us in the face while we were standing, if we didn’t back up. Before we left our Porter told us it was going to be cold if we wanted to go get more clothes; John went and got us blankets.
The tracks followed the Animas River up to Silverton and the river changed sides of the railroad tracks about 4 or 5 times. The scenery was unbelievable. There were rock faces, then trees, waterfalls (many), and that awesome Animus River.
We stopped in Silverton for 2 hours and had lunch and walked the streets. Did I mention it was really cold on the way up? Drizzling too. It was a good thing John brought those blankets. It started out to be colder on the way back, leaving Silverton, but luckily it slowly warmed up and everyone started taking off jackets. We had reserved seats, so on the way back we got to see the stuff on the other side of the train that we missed on the way up.
Besides being cold, the other bad part about our gondola car is that we got all full of soot, since our car was open and the train burned coal. But it wasn’t so bad until it flew in your eyes.
After the trainride, we got back in the car and drove quite a ways. They were doing road work in the pass so we thought it’d be better to go through the construction area at night, to avoid the huge delay that happens during the daytime. In construction areas they frequently have only 1 lane open which means the cars can sit for as much as 30 minutes before moving. That evening we went through at least 3 different construction areas. At one area we had to wait 20 minutes because they were working at 9 o’clock at night with bright lights everywhere. At some times, it was raining, pouring, hailing – what a mess.
We stopped at Leadville and went to the National Mining Museum. We also went to the library, ate some lunch and went to a really neat rock store.
As we traveled onward we got on highway 50 by mistake and went to the top of Monarch Pass. We passed 2 bicyclists. When we got to the top we turned around and went back down and found the correct road. Our destination that day was a forest road that would take us to the Trailhead of Gray’s Peak. It was not paved and it was 3 miles long and it went uphill. We were off-roading it in a minivan. Going over rocks and bumps and ruts. It was a real challenge. At one point we hit some major ruts. Nat got out of the car to direct. After removing some big rocks that were in the way and backing up and trying a different rutted area, we made it! We were the only car at the trailhead parking lot at about 4 PM. We did pass 2 cars that were leaving.
We set up the tents in the light rain and mist, put up a tarp and John got out the stove and we had hot soup and hot chocolate. Shortly after we got the tent set up, we heard a rock slide! It lasted at least 30 seconds and was pretty scary. We were never able to see it because the ceiling was so low, we were almost sitting in the clouds. In the evening we walked up that Forest road a ways; the road also went alongside a stream. It was very beautiful.
The cars started rolling into the trailhead parking lot at about 6:30 AM. We started hiking around 8 AM. There were about 15 cars in the lot. We hiked from 11230 feet to 14230 feet in a little less than 4 miles. It was very hard and there was even a defined path the entire way. The first 2000 feet were very hard. The last 1000 feet were nearly impossible. It’s so steep and so hard to breathe.
We walked up to a given point and there was a fork in the trail. Left went to Gray’s Peak, right went to Torrey’s Peak. We went right, partly because this one guy was bugging us. He was slightly ahead of us at the time and he went left, so we went right. We had to walk through a snowfield for about 400 yards. There was only about 6 inches of snow and it was very wet and packed down where people before us had gone. I thought it was still scary and I was the one with the trekking poles. Were one to fall, it would have been a long fall. John and Nat thought it was fine. There were people after us who were pretty freaked out because the first person was down on all 4’s crawling. But they made it.
We got up to Torrey’s Peak. Nothing to sign, no register book. In the California mountains they always have some kind of register to sign if you make it to the top. There were incredible views. We walked down Torrey’s Peak and up Gray’s Peak and had lunch up there. Observed the views and headed back down to the trailhead. We finished around 3 PM. The GPS showed 8.2 miles total. We were all quite exhausted. Plus when Nat woke up in the morning, her eyes itched and she rubbed her eyes and apparently scratched her left eye. It teared all day and hurt. Plus by the time we were done she could hardly open it. She had drops in the car and so John put drops in and she just laid back and rested. We were supposed to go to Rocky Mountain National Park, but instead went back to Fort Collins. This was on Thursday night. I’m writing this on Saturday and her eye seems to be about 100% better Saturday morning.
We still had to get out on that Forest Road. Going out – downhill – down a bumpy, rocky rutted dirt road is easier than going up. We made it with no problems.
At Fort Collins the van had an oil change, we had lunch with Nat and Andy, walked the dogs and talked to Tracey late afternoon. She was very uncomfortable, she had lost her mucous plug, the baby had dropped more and she was at 4 centimeters. At 10 PM her water broke, they went to the hospital and she had Aythan at 11:50 PM on 7/2/04.