Utah Utopia

Today (May 21 afternoon) I need to write a bunch of stuff just because I am so grumpy. I didn’t sleep well at all last night with the camper closed up because of the wind and the wind gusting occasionally rocking the camper a little bit. And I was trapped in the back of the camper. The only way out was to crawl over Don and disturb him which I didn’t want to do. No need for both of us to be awake. I’m whining, homesick…. What are you sick for when the only home you have is the one you drive around in. I’m home here in frigging Utah. There is nothing wrong with Utah. It is an amazingly beautiful state with incredible land to see and we have been to see much of it. It’s just that we have been on the move so much never staying for longer than 4 days in any one place. This is what I said that I didn’t want to do. But the other side of this is that we were parked in Wal Mart last night for the wind storm. And it was very comfortable. We walked over to Applebees for dinner and since we were right by Walgreens we took advantage and got our prescriptions filled.  We found that sitting on our bed to watch television is quite comfortable when the camper is closed up.  

So here’s where we’ve been since my last post.

Up where the snow is.

May 10-11 Beaver Canyon RV Park, Beaver, UT

Took a day to drive around and explore the area – drove over a high mountain top past a ski resort from Beaver to Parowan and across the mountains on Hwy. 123 to Panguitch and back to Beaver. We checked out routes to bring the camper across the mountains. That wasn’t it.

                                                                                                 

Our view in Red Canyon Campground

May 12-15 Red Canyon Campground in Dixie National Forest near Bryce NP.

Moved camper to Red Canyon Campround.

Getting back up out of the canyon

A day at Bryce – Hiked from Sunset point to Sunrise point down into the canyon around the hoodoos.

Hoodoos - the trail to the bottom

A kind hiker offered to take our picture
by this scenic hoodoo.

Driving down the wash in Capital Reef

A drive down Scenic Hwy. 12 to Capitol Reef National Park – drive down a wash into Capitol Gorge until the canyon walls were so close together towering over us we chickened out and turned around. Many times here in Utah we could use a good 4-wheel drive vehicle.

The Grand Staircase Escalante-National Monument and Kodachrome Basin State Park where we hiked up to Panorama point so we could take a panoramic picture.

Panorama - just like the sign said (Thank you google for creating this panorama from my photos.

Don with his favorite hoodoo.

It's called the Ballerina. I see an Orthodox Priest.

May 16-18, Zion Gate RV Park, Hurricane, UT

A day to do 2 weeks worth of laundry (almost had to buy more underwear) and clean the camper.

A day hiking and exploring Zion Canyon – Riverside walk up to the narrows

Zion 

Watchman Trail to overlook

A drive up Kolab Terrace Road for a different view of Zion.








May 19 Wal-Mart – Hurricane, UT

Shopping

May 20 Wal-Mart – Cedar City, UT

Kolob Canyon on the north end of Zion – Short hike up Timber Creek Overlook Trail

May 21-22 – Jones High Country RV Park, Nephi, UT

Sit on the couch and complain – try to wash diesel fuel out of sweatshirt. Make granola.

Normal life in the slow lane 

I had made reservations at Red Ledge RV Park in Kannaraville, UT for last week but when they called and said I couldn’t have a 50 amp site I changed my mind. I needed to get laundry done and wanted to run my own dryer. That was probably better because Kannaraville is a long way to the main entrance to Zion National Park. The thing was that I had our mail forwarded to us at Red Ledge and also had my brother send me my NOOK that I forgot at his house in Minneapolis along with some mail that was sent to him by accident. It’s complicated. Fortunately the lady at Red Ledge held our mail and we drove through there yesterday on our way north and picked it up. We would have spent the night there instead of Wal-Mart if she had any openings. As it turned out with the high winds we were just as well at Wal-Mart because we needed to keep the slides in on the camper and we were in a convenient place to eat out.

No wonder I’m tired of moving around. This is not the right way to do this but I’m not sure what would work better. We had good reasons for all of the moves. But here we are nearing the big city in anticipation of seeing Kelly and Jason on Friday. 

Newspaper Deprivation, Cell Hell and no God TV

Don has been suffering from Newspaper Deprivation for the most part since we came to Utah. We have our routines. One of Don’s is to head out first thing in the morning and buy a local newspaper, bring it home, drink coffee and read the paper. Even today in Nephi which is just down the road from Salt Lake City, the gas station had not received their newspaper at 7:00 AM. At least they are expecting a paper. For the most part there have been no newspapers, no television signal and no cell phone signal where we were staying. Not even God TV which we can almost always get in English and Spanish. When we were way South by St. George which is a sizable city or here near Salt Lake City, we at least get television on our antenna and can normally get a cell phone signal when we are along Interstate 15. Over by Bryce, we were the couple sitting over breakfast, our devices clutched in our hands, intently reading the small screen, getting what information we could from the outside world on the restaurant’s precious wi-fi signal. You know you would be judging us. Many of the small towns have a weekly paper that comes out on Wednesday in which you can find wedding announcements in which an invitation is extended to anyone who might not have been invited formally and down by St. George Don was able to find USA Today.

Shopping

We had been warned by people who know these things to stock up on any alcoholic beverages before we got to Utah and I did that but who ever would think there might be a place where you can’t get Miller Lite. Well here in Utah, you can’t. We did find a liquor store in Panguitch and they had a small selection of beer so Don settled on drinking Sierra Nevada Pale Ale in the green can for a short time. When we moved the camper over by Zion National Park (and that is another story), we had to take the long road which goes south into Arizona for a while and then comes back up into Utah. We notice both on entering and leaving Arizona that they had nice big liquor stores not far from the border. Well, we were driving the camper and it was never convenient to stop. When we got settled over in Hurricane we found a good size city, St. George just a few miles south and right on the Arizona border. We needed to do quite a bit of shopping so we set aside a day to do that. I said, “I bet we can just drive across the border and find a liquor store”. We decided to make that our first stop. It didn’t quite work out that way. Interstate 15 cuts across the northwest corner of Arizona for about 40 miles before entering Nevada. There was nothing out there. We drove long steep grades down through and up the Virgin River Canyon, with long sections of traffic reduced to one lane for construction. We finally stopped in Littlefield, Arizona where we asked someone. He said the nearest place to buy anything was 8 miles farther in Mesquite, Nevada. We had come that far. Eight miles was nothing. We headed down the road and crossed into Nevada. Everything changed. Mesquite is a thriving desert community with palm trees, a beautiful golf course, condominiums, casinos and the biggest most amazing liquor store I’ve ever seen. 

We found some Miller Lite and checked but they did not have Big Sky Summer Honey… I guess I’ll wait till we get to Montana for that. We passed another big liquor store on our way out of town. So we did make it to Nevada on this trip.

Traveling by RV
You would think we would learn…. When we left Red Canyon Campground over by Bryce to move the camper over by Zion, we took US89, a good two lane scenic highway as far as Mt. Carmel, UT. Don had done his research so he knew we needed to check before we went west on State Hwy 9 about the long tunnel in Zion NP where we found the height limit is 13’2” and if you’re that tall you need to pay a $15 fee in order to drive down the middle of the road. We are 13’4”. No way was that going to work. We didn’t try. But that meant that we drove an additional 100 miles down south through Arizona and back up north to Hurricane and then another 20 miles to the park. They have a first come first serve campground at Zion and for some reason we thought if we got there early enough, like before noon, we might be able to get a site. We took the camper up to Zion through the town of Springdale to the entrance. In Springdale, it was pouring down rain and cars were parked on both sides of the street for miles where visitors to the park left their car to take a shuttle. The streets were crowded with people and narrow. Needless to say when we arrived at the gate, the lady gave us a sticker for our camper that said, “No tunnel” and informed us that if we wanted the first come first serve campground we might be able to get in if we showed up at 7:00 AM. She also told us where we might be able to turn around in the park. So we ran the gauntlet through Springdale again and went to  Hurricane where we found Zion’s Gate, in time for our afternoon nap.

Zion

After we toured Zion's river valley we drove through the famous tunnel and that is where we saw the big horn sheep to finish off a really good day.

On every hike we take, there is at least 1 small lizard who crosses our path. We’ve decided this is probably the same lizard who is somehow finding a way to tag along with us, probably in the car somewhere. He is always with us. 

We’ve seen him in Texas at Palo Dura, in New Mexico in the Sandia Mountains, in Arizona at Petrified Forest NP, and of course in every place we’ve been in Utah.

Every park in Utah has it’s own unique land forms that define it’s character. In Arches it is of course the arches. In Bryce the road travels at the top of the canyon and you walk down to enjoy the thousands of hoodoos, these strange rock formations that jut up out of the landscape. In Zion, the road travels along the river valley with the canyon walls towering above you. My favorite trail was the one that continues where the road ends and follows the Virgin River up into the canyon until it reaches the narrows, the place where the canyon walls come together and encompass the river on both sides. In the high places, it is warm and dry. This is the desert. But down below on the canyon walls, it is cool and damp with little sunlight. Water seeps and runs out of the sides of the wall and plants that like that kind of environment have made this their home creating the hanging gardens of Zion...beautiful. At the bottom of the canyon, where it is always damp and cool, swamps have formed here in the desert. At the end of the easy trail where the narrows form is a more difficult trail that continues to follow the river with warnings about flash floods which have been known to suddenly raise the water by 12 feet and sweep away anybody in its path. Even though the danger was low that day, we weren’t ready to walk through cold water.

We've decided we prefer staying in lower elevations this time of year. It's cold up here. 

Lubbock to Utah by way of Minneapolis

 I last wrote at San Angelo…. A long time ago. I need to make a list of dates and where we have been in order to get myself oriented here.

We left San Angelo on 4/13

4/13-14 Lubbock  at Mesa Verde RV Park

   We went to some museum at Texas Tech

4/15 Lubbock at Lubbock RV Park

   Windmill Museum- no pics forgot camera

4/16-18 Canyon, TX at Palo Duro RV Park

    Palo Duro Canyon

4/19-27 Amarillo, TX at AOK Campground

 Left Camper in Amarillo 4/20-4/26 for road trip to Minnesota staying at Deed and Eileens on 4/20, Ludwigs 4/21-24, in Des Moines 4/25 and Perry, OK on 4/26

   Aleatha’s Wedding

   Visit Edie

   OK State Capital

   OK City National Memorial & Museum

4/28-29 Albuquerque, NM at Sandia Casino

   Shop

    Dinner with Rod & Judy

    Hike Sandia Mountains

4/29-30 Albuquerque at Enchanted Trails RV Park

   Laundry and granola

5/1 -3  Sun Valley, AZ Sun Valley RV Resort

  Petrified Forest National Park

5/4-7 Blanding, UT at Devils Canyon National Forest Service Campground

  Arches National Park – Hike to see Delicate Arch

  Natural Bridges National Monument and trip through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

  Glen Canyon National Recreation area

  Canyonlands National Park

5/8-9 Moab Rim RV Resort

The first thing I had to do was to reconstruct when and where we have been places. To do that I have a variety of resources on hand including my paper calendar, various brochures and RV Park maps and receipts but probably the most useful is Google which has been tracking my every move including the places we’ve stayed, visited and shopped. Rather than to try to recount all of that, I just layed it out above. Not for your benefit but for my own. It helps me to be a little grounded if I can review where I’ve been and what all I have done. So I will just write about those experiences we have had that might be of interest. 

One thing we talked about when we were in the middle of Texas was the kind of roads that Don prefers to drive the RV on. Texas has Interstates, US Highways, Texas State Highways, FM (Farm to Market) Highways, Ranch Roads and County Roads. The first 3 you can count on to have shoulders, be plenty wide and are acceptable. FM and Ranch can sometimes be acceptable. County roads avoid if at all possible. He is the driver and I am the navigator so my job is to do my best to avoid getting 

on bad roads. I have road maps and of course my Google to help me in this endeavor. But Don made clear what he wants and I agreed to make sure that we don’t get into a bad situation. So our next trip was to Lubbock, Texas. I selected Mesa Verde RV Park using my RV Parky App on my cell phone which has a link to Google Maps to get directions. The problem with Mesa Verde was that it was on the other major highway that comes into Lubbock. We were arriving directly from the south on US Hwy. 87 while Mesa Verde was on US Hwy 82 coming in from the southwest. Ursula, the name we have given to the voice on Google Maps, gave me directions to cut across the triangle south of Lubbock and it appeared to be the shortest way get to the Park. I studied my map and looked at Ursula’s directions and made the decision to take the long way and then at the last minute changed my mind to take the short cut. As soon as Don made the left turn, I knew it was a mistake. We were on a narrow, shoulder-less county road. There was no way to turn around. At least it was paved. I assured Don that it wouldn’t be too long. It didn’t let up. Don had both hands on the wheel and carefully moved as far as he could to the right slowing down to meet oncoming cars. Fortunately there weren’t too many. He didn’t say much but kept driving. There was nothing else to do. Even if we unhooked the car, turning the bus around was not an option and the farther we went the more I apologized. Don didn’t say much, just kept driving following Ursula’s directions. The roads we were no were not on the Texas State map and I couldn’t figure out where Ursula was taking us but continued to follow her directions until she directed us to turn down a muddy dirt road. Then I called the RV Park lady and asked her for directions. She asked me where we were. I said, “I don’t know where the hell we are!” and as we approached a corner with County Road numbers I gave them to her. She said she didn’t know where that was. She suggested that I should know better than to use GPS it just isn’t reliable. At that point, and I’m not proud of it, I shifted the blame for the whole debacle onto her. What could we do but keep driving until we came to a road that was on the map. Eventually we did and I was able to call the lady to get directions to the RV park. We had driven within a block. When we arrived, I suggested that she might tell people not to use GPS like some other parks we have gone to. She got defensive and who can blame her. We got into our site in the back of the park and that night on the other side of the fence the highway department was doing some construction using those blazing lights shining right at our camper and heavy duty machinery. I did sleep some that night using ear plugs. We stayed there another night in spite of it all because we were too tired to move though we moved to another park in Lubbock that was on the road out of town for our last night there. We toured the Windmill Museum and have no pictures because we forgot our cameras. It was one of the most interesting stops we have made along the way. I will try to include a link to their website here. American Wind Power Center at www.windmill.com

Scrub Jay - looking for crumbs

 Palo Duro Canyon near Amarillo, Texas was a surprise treat for us. Here we began our training for the Mystic Lake trip we have planned in June in the Montana Mountains. We hiked about 7 miles to see the Lighthouse which is a rock formation that resembles (you guessed it) a light house. The

brochure we had suggested that each person carry a gallon of water for the hike. We figured that it wasn’t too hot out and we didn’t want to carry so much weight so we threw 3 bottles of water along with some almonds into our pack and headed up the trail. We did okay though a couple more bottles of water would have been good in addition to a snack with more salt. I forgot my hat so my face got a little more color to it though not sunburned. It was a beautiful sunny warm day and we met some interesting people along the way and saw a roadrunner in some low branches in a tree. At the end of the trail we sat at a picnic table and rationed our water and shared our almonds with our newfound friends and they shared their cheese sticks. They had emigrated from England about 20 years ago and live in Houston. A Scrub Jay hopped around in a near-by tree waiting for us to leave some crumbs behind for him.

One of the great treats we have enjoyed in our travels is the opportunity to reconnect to friends we’ve made along the way who moved away. Back in 1994-95, my friend Judy Groves did her internship at Catholic Charities while she completed her Masters degree. Even though we only worked together for 6 months or so we formed a friendship and have exchanged Christmas cards every year. She and her husband Rod retired and moved to Albuquerque at about the same time that we moved to our house on Vigal Road. So several months ago I emailed her and gave her an approximate time that we would be in Albuquerque and Judy invited us to dinner at their house on April 29. We spent a wonderful evening with them over very good food and wine talking about our travels and their travels and staying connected with grandchildren over long distances. We were blessed with an amazing rainbow

framing the city of Albuquerque from the front of their house. Even though I worked with Judy a short time, I was reminded why I’ve kept in touch with her for over 20 years. Don had been concerned because he never really knew Judy or Rod that he was just have to sit through a social event. Turns out he enjoyed the visit as much as I did.

Resting on a rock in the Sandia Mountains

Don with his favorite cac

Our next opportunity for mountain hiking training was on the Sandia Mountains. Before we left the Sandia Casino parking lot, we headed up to the mountains for a 6 mile hike on some pretty steep terrain. We did manage to get lost and ended up walking through a residential area where we found someone to give us directions back to our car in the Tramway parking lot. It was a cool cloudy morning, unusual for Albuquerque. 

Aleatha and Kyle

We left the camper in Amarillo and took a road trip to Minnesota. It was time to see Edie again and we had the excuse that Niece Aleatha wanted us to be honorary grandparents for her at her wedding out on her husband’s family farm near Milaca, Minnesota. So on a beautiful April day, we had the privilege of being part of her small intimate wedding in a field with the wind blowing and the sun shining sitting on bales of straw as they said their vows with her new step-daughter 2-year-old Mia walking around her family. The family dogs watched over the proceedings. We then convened at the house to visit and enjoy a feast prepared by family members. Outdoor April weddings in Minnesota are always dicey. We’ve attended some very cold weddings up there and some that have been moved indoors because of the weather. None as nice as this one. I think that is a good omen for this marriage.

Edie - breakfast at Mpls. best
Victor's 1959 Cafe

The day before yesterday, we had our 3^rd opportunity for mountain hiking training at Arches National Park. We decided to take the hike to see the Delicate Arch about a 6 mile round trip with 480 feet elevation change. It was a very warm day with bright sunshine. The trails offer almost no places to find shade. The brochure recommend 1 qt. of water per person. This time we took 4 bottles of water and some granola bars with us and both of us wore our hats. Even with that we were challenged. Could have used more water. We know this because Don didn’t pee for several hours. It was a beautiful hike though and we walked over what they call open slick rock. It wasn’t really slippery but was smooth, and very steep in intense sunshine. We stopped many times to catch our breath and enjoy some breathtaking views. Good training and breaking in the hiking shoes.

At Natural Bridges

At Natural Bridges National Monument, we took a short hike (about .6 mile with an elevation drop of 500 feet) to see Sipapu Bridge with steep stairs cut out of the rock and at one point even a ladder. Probably the most spectacular road we’ve ever driven on was a car trip we took through Glen Canyon on Hwy 95.The drive coming down into the canyon and crossing the Colorado River was amazing. We took that drive to check it out and see if we want to go that way with the camper. While making the drive with the camper would be quite doable, we decided not to go that way but when we leave her later today, we’ll go north and stay at Moab a couple of days.

Just your average Utah road hazard