Night and Day

Julia is reading “The End of Night” by Paul Bogard, which is described as a hymn to vanished darkness. Between the full moon at Bryce, light pollution at rv parks, and cloudy nights, she hasn’t had much success in viewing the Milky Way.After leaving Moab, we went to Dead Horse State Park, which is about 45 minutes west of Moab and next to Canyonlands National Park.

This area is supposed to be a great spot for looking at darkness.  Unfortunately, even though it was clear for most of the day, clouds moved in at sunset, leaving no stars to be seen.  Then when Julia got up before sunrise, the half-moon spoiled the view.

Fortunately, the trails and daytime sights at Dead Horse State Park made up for the lack of true darkness. We hiked the East and West Rim Trails, along with a few shorter side trails.

This morning, we were off to points south.  My plan was to take Julia to Navajo National Monument, but she opted for someplace new.  We ended up at Monument Valley in the Navajo Nation.  We were going to stay at the View Campground, but no dogs were allowed.  Instead, we went to Goulding’s Campground.  Julia appreciated the hot showers and electrical hookups.  It’s been getting colder, and my $15 ceramic heater has been keeping us toasty when we have electric.  Solar doesn’t work for producing heat–at least not my 100 watt suitcase solar kit.

I had low expectations for Monument Valley, especially after the $20 entrance fee, but it was a very beautiful place.  We drove part of the gravel loop road before deciding that was enough potholes for one day.  Then we hiked the Wildcat Trail (about 4 miles looping around West Mitten). Despite the crowded parking lot and visitors’ center, we saw only a couple of hikers past the first mile.  It turned into a great afternoon.

Julia has one more chance for dark skies before we return to Vegas for her very early morning flight on Sunday.  We have no reservations but will making our way west.

Arches National Park

After Zion, Julia decided that she wanted to see Arches National Park.  We did the tow/drive in one day, and it was a very long day, pulling into Moab Valley RV Park($42/night) just north of Moab on Sunday night.  The RV park is well-run with nice showers, swimming pool, hookups, dump station, and conveniently located.

The entrance to Arches is only five miles from the rv park, but the drive through Arches to get to the trails that we wanted to hike was about 40 minutes.  We rose early Monday morning and were at Devil’s Garden Trail by 8:30 a.m.

I’ve given Julia the new trail name “See it All” because she is dragging me to every arch she can find in the park.

Devil’s Garden was an 8.3 mile hike after taking into account all of the side trails to named arches and completing the entire primitive trail loop, which had some really ice arches, including my favorite “Private Arch.”
On Tuesday, we hiked a series of smaller hikes including the Delicate Arch trail, the Park Avenue trail, the Windows trail, and assorted viewpoints.

Tuesday afternoon, Julia went shopping in Moab, while I attended to a few things in the Brew Hut and took Elvis for a walk.  Tonight, we’re going out to dinner, and then we’ll be offline for a bit, heading to Dead Horse State Park and points south.

Zion National Park

On Thursday morning, we hitched up at Bryce National Park and drove to Zion National Park.  After camping in the cold without hookups at Bryce, Julia figured that we deserved three days of full hook-ups at Zion Canyon Campground a private RV park within walking distance of the visitors’ center inside Zion.  I’m not crazy about spending $54/night for camping but it was really convenient; the sites had great views of the canyon; and it was a really well-run RV park.

We didn’t get into our site until early afternoon, so we spent the rest of the day walking up and down the streets of Springdale, eating pizza at Zion Pizza and Noodle Company, and having a bonfire at the campsite  We turned in early because a big hike was planned for the next day.

We rose at 5:30 a.m., took care of the dog (I walked him down to the visitor’s center and back), and walked down to the visitor’s center (again) to board the Zion Park shuttle bus at 7:45 a.m.  We made it to the Angels’ Landing Trailhead by about 8:15 a.m., well ahead of the rush that would occur throughout the day.  Julia called Angels’ Landing her death march, but the first half of the hike was just a cardiovascular exercise of switchbacks on mostly paved trail.  At that point, the pavement ended, and about a third of the people either returned to the trailhead and waited for family and friends to make the final ascent.

At that point, the pavement ended, and it became a rock scramble ascending a knife-edge and hanging on to dear life to the guide chains that led the way to the top.

A 1200 foot drop awaited anyone who wandered too far from either side on the narrow trail up.

We made it to the top and also back down.  To celebrate, I bought a t-shirt and coffee mug commemorating the hike.   Julia celebrated by taking us out to dinner at Meme’s Cafe where we ate burgers, fries (for me), salad (for Julia), and strong beers for both (double IPA and double bock).

On the next morning, we repeated our early shuttle ride to the end of the line at the Narrows.  The water was frigid, and I vetoed a nine mile hike up the river.  Still, Julia took off her shoes and managed to taste the experience for awhile going upstream.

Later, we hiked the Watchman Trail, which delivers views of the Canyon below and Springdale.

On Sunday morning, we hitched up and made the long drive to Moab.  We are headed to Arches National Park.

A Bryce Canyon Adventure

When we left Valley of Fire, I had a pretty good idea that our weather would be changing because Bryce is at 8000 feet of elevation.  The weather forecast was for lows in the mid-40’s.  We could deal with that.

In St. George, Utah, we stopped at an information center, and the nice lady at the desk suggested that we take a scenic route to Bryce by taking Hwy 14 out of Cedar City and then getting on Hwy 148 to Cedar Breaks National Monument and then Hwy 143 to Panguitch Lake and eventually connecting up with Hwy 89 and then Hwy 9 into Bryce Canyon National Park.

She promised that it would be scenic, and she knew that we were towing a trailer.  I didn’t think to ask her about elevation or snow, but it turned out to be quite relevant.  We climbed all the way up to 10,500 feet in elevation on our route, and we saw snow along the road and in the parking lots and occasional ice on the road. Julia says that the route was quite scenic.

I’m pretty sure that my steering wheel has permanent marks from my fingers holding on for dear life.  The road was basically empty for the entire route until Hwy 89.  We didn’t see another vehicle towing a travel trailer.  I was very glad to make it to Hwy 89.  I just noticed on google maps that part of the road is closed from November until spring.

We drove the rest of the way without event and then easily found a campsite at Sunset Campground within the park.  From our campsite we could walk to the canyon rim and the Sunset Point viewing area.  From there, we could walk hike along the rim or down into the canyon.

On the first day, we took long walks along the rim with Elvis (hiking with dogs is permitted between Sunrise Point and Sunset Point.  That night we built a fire, but retreated to the Brew Hut when temperatures began dropping rapidly.  We were prepared with a heavy zero bag and a comforter, but it got cold that night.  With the body heat from the humans and dog, the BrewHut only dropped to 34 degrees, but a hard frost was occurring outside.  I was glad that we didn’t freeze our water or waste tanks.

On our second day, we hiked down into the canyon in the morning via the Navajo Loop Trail and then back up via the Queen’s Garden Trail. On that afternoon, we entered the lottery for the Full Moon hike.  Over 100 people were in the room, and only 35 were selected.  With Julia’s good luck, there was no doubt we were going to be winners.  The moonlight hike was interesting, but I probably wouldn’t do it again.  The ranger-led tour provided lots of information about the formation of the moon(s), the interdependence between the moon and the earth, the protection that the moon has provided over the years to the earth in absorbing asteroids and planetary debris, and much, much more.

But the bottom line is that we were hiking in the dark most of the time, even though the full moon provided light in places.  The trail was challenging especially going down, and we were both glad after we made it to the top after the 2-plus hour hike. The highlight of the hike was at the beginning when we watched the moon rise.  Although the low lighting prevented decent photos from our limited cameras, it was spectacular!

On the second night, the temperatures only dipped to about 40 degrees inside the Brew Hut.  We were much more comfortable.  After a tortilla omelette, we hurried to catch the sunrise at Sunrise Point on the rim.

Then we hitched up and headed for Zion National Park.

Moab to Monticello, Utah

Sandy Flats was a great campsite, but I was ready for a change.  The “Alcove” campground was busy, and most of the people were there to ATV or do motor sports.  And everyone seemed to have an off-leash dog that wanted to compete for Alpha designation with on-leash Elvis.

Plan one was to disperse camp along Potash Road west of Moab about 50 minutes.  That plan didn’t work out.  The pavement turned to gravel and then to dirt.  Then the dirt road climbed steeply enough that I began to spin my wheels in two-wheel drive.  Okay, four-wheel drive would work.  The next big problem is that the few dispersed sites had steep drop-offs on the side of the road.  Although the Nissan is four-wheel drive and relatively high-clearance, the Brew Hut is not.  I wasn’t going to make it safely over that gap without scraping the bottom and my waste tank outlets.

The next problem was turning around because there were no turnarounds.  I walked ahead a mile and saw a couple of chances.  I took one of them, but as I backed the trailer, it tipped precariously at the edge of the drop-off.  I got it back on the road and did about a 50 point turnaround to get back headed the other way.

The very first spot had a minimal drop-off, and a big flat wide area to camp, but there was a huge motor home already there who had staked out the area for himself, including some huge foreign (Scandinavian?) flag on a big pole, establishing sovereignty.  I moved to the other side of the flat area and began setting up.  As I was leveling up,  Mr. Motorhome came out and asked why I had to camp so close.  I explained that I had been unable to cross the road gaps to the other sites.  He was having none of it.  “There are all kinds of sites up there,” said Mr. Motorhome who took the easy site and hadn’t been up the road, except in his tow-behind jeep.  I gave up easily and left the scene of Mr Motorhome’s claimed territories.

I drove back to the pavement and pulled in to a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campground across from the Corona Arch Trailhead.  It was a nice 7-site campground with a host who kept the place clean and quiet.  The rate was $15 that day, but going up to a new rate of $20 the next day.  The host advised me to pay ahead if I wanted the old rate.  I paid for one night and kept the Brew Hut hitched up.

Speaking of the Brew Hut, my trip into the gravel and dirt roads, along with the precarious turn-around, trashed everything.  Screws and hinges came undone.  Granola cereal spilled from the pantry all over the floor.  The small amount of water in my kitchen washtub landed on my sleeping bag when the washtub decided to jump out of the sink. Sorry, there are no pictures.  It was not a scene rated for family viewing.

After cleaning things up and screwing things back in, Elvis and I sat outside the Brew Hut, sipped beverages, and took it easy.  I actually wanted to hike the trailhead across the road, but the temperatures were above 90, and it didn’t seem like a good idea.  The plan was to hike it early in the morning.  Then we woke to rain on the next day, so it was time to go.

We drove back to Moab and then south to Monticello, Utah, where we checked in during the rain at about 8:30 a.m.  I don’t know if I’ve been slumming it at other rv parks, but the Mountain View RV park in Monticello had the best bathrooms I’ve ever been in.  Private, clean, large, heated, and with unlimited hot water for the shower,  I think I was in there for at least an hour, washing away the hot, red dust from four days in Moab.  I did chores, cooked a medium-rare New York strip on the cast iron skillet, along with onions, mushrooms and sourdough bread., and had a couple of glasses of red Zinfandel.

My site was far enough from the road to be relatively quiet and  backed up to horses grazing.  Speedy wi-fi, good water, and a place to dump tanks.  The town of Monticello didn’t have a lot to offer in terms of looking around, but Elvis and I walked from the north end of town to the south end of town in between rain showers.

Rain and cold are forecast for the rest of the week.  We are going to continue south to the Arizona border and perhaps beyond before circling our way back into southern Utah.

Lizard, Snake and Wet Feet, Oh My

My campsite at Sandy Flat has been amazing, but like anything else, positives and negatives are part of life.  It’s been really hot with temperatures around 90 (and warmer in the Brew Hut) until about 7 p.m when it finally starts to cool down. Last night, it only cooled to 74, which was comfortable sleeping weather with just a sheet, but warmer than I’ve experienced for most of this trip.

Hiking is not ideal at Sandy Flats.  While there are many trails for bikes and atv’s hiking consisted of jumping up on the rock and following it to see where it goes.  Today, I stopped in at the Forest Service and Park’s information Center and asked for dog-friendly hikes.  The gentlemen immediately gave me a brochure with several choices but recommended Grandstaff Trailhead for today’s hot weather, based upon the gentle ascent through the canyon and the ample supply of water for Elvis in the creek at the bottom of the canyon.  That was a great recommendation.

Elvis and I hiked about 6.5 miles round trip.  We aren’t sure if we made it to the end because the trail just seemed to vanish in an area of hard flat rock, but we got lost a few times so we figure we made up for the lost mileage if we didn’t make it to the conclusion.
 

The title photo for the hike shows one of the dozen of lizards that we saw crossing the trail.  Elvis was curious about the first couple, but then lost interest.
The snake caught my attention. It didn’t have any rattles.  There were several people around who had checked their guidebooks and couldn’t identify it.  I just knew it was big.

Most of the the hike consisted of crossing the stream dozens of times, which gave Elvis lots of opportunities to drink and cool off.  I kept my feet dry for the trip out, but managed to give myself wet feet on the way back. By noon, the temperatures were hot enough that I didn’t really care about wet feet.  Lots of dogs were off-leashed, some well-behaved, some not.  Elvis received one nip and one pretty good bite on the shoulder from a pit bull.  It didn’t break the skin, but I could see the slobbery indentation.   The owners seemed embarrassed, but not enough to put their dog on a leash.

We are going to lay low this afternoon with cold drinks and do some research about where to go tomorrow. Probably south or west.

Moab–Sandy Flats Recreation Area

When I arrived in the Moab, Utah area, I tried several recommended campgrounds, which turned out to be fully occupied by 1:30 p.m. Moab is a very busy area. Continued efforts paid off though when I scored a really nice campsite in Campground A of the Sand Flats Recreation Area.

The site has views of red rock for 360 degrees. Between campground A and B, there is the world-famous Slickrock Mountain Bike Trail. There is some road noise, but not terrible and it quiets down at night. I have full solar throughout the day, and I finally figured out the art of setting up the Brew Hut so that I get maximum shade in the afternoon when temperatures reach the high 80’s (and 90 in the Brew Hut). With the low humidity, high 80’s is actually very comfortable in the shade, reading a book and drinking a beer.

This campground was also nearly full by dusk. The one empty spot was across from my site. Several rigs passed it by because the site was very small, and the pavement drops off on one side. I’ve told my kids a thousand times that nothing ever good happens in the early morning hours. And that was certainly true last night.

A threesome of twenty somethings arrived at 3 a.m. last night in a small car and figured that spot was just the right size. Unfortunately, they failed to see that the pavement dropped off on one side, and the car fell off into the deep sand. I saw their brake lights flashing for about 30 minutes, and heard the tires spinning. They were still sleeping when I snuck this photo.

They finally woke up an hour later when Elvis and I were hiking high above their campsite on the slick rock. The “amazed that this happened to them” group went from campsite to campsite, looking for help. Ironically, no one who was awakened  at 3 am. was sympathetic. They did find some further-away campers with off-road vehicles and then a big truck with a tow strap to pull them out. The young adults paid for multiple nights, so while they’ve left for the day to go sightseeing, they will be back tonight.

I’ve paid for 3 nights here ($15/night), which includes an outhouse with no door, no hookups, no water, and garbage.

Still the views have been priceless.  I love walking in the pre-dawn  until the sun is up when it’s still cool, and the air is so clean.

Price, Utah

After discovering low air pressure in my problem tire while camped at Tibble Fork, Google recommended Burt Brothers Tire and Service in Highland, Utah.  Google isn’t always right, but that turned out to be a good one.


Service was polite, fast and cheap–it doesn’t usually work that way.  They found a screw in the problem tire, did a full synthetic oil change, and replaced my wiper blades for about $100.  I needed the oil change anyway, and now I should be set until I get back home in November.

Feeling much better, I drove to Price Utah and filled out the paperwork to stay at the Legacy Motel and RV Park for $38/night.  It had everything I needed:  hot showers, laundry, sweet tasting water (I had last filled in Thermopolis, and the water was horrible), electric and wireless.  A week had passed since a real shower, so I took several of them, and the hot water felt great.  I downloaded a bunch of Netflix shows, caught up on blogs and comments, and took a night to recharge.

For supper, I went to Grogg’s Pinnacle Brewing Company.  It was ok.  The Hefeweizen was thin, without flavor and served with a slice of orange.  Next, I had a black lager that was pretty good, but maybe that was in comparison to the hefe.  They do not brew their own beer, but offered others’ brews.  My Baja burger was messy and just ok.  The homemade chicken noodle soup was really good and saved the meal.  Service was prompt, but if you are going to call yourself a brewery (really a craft beer bar), the staff should understand the styles of beer. Not the case, but a helpful customer steered me to the black lager.

After doing laundry, dumping tanks, and refilling with water,  I drove to Moab, Utah, where I plan to stay for a few days in a Bureau of Land Management Campground.  There will be photos from the Moab area.  I considered taking photos in Price, but no wants to see a parking lot or a laundry room, I hope.

Tibble Fork, Utah

After leaving Rock Springs, I made several changes in plans. Once I left Wyoming and entered Utah, I started looking for places to camp. Rockport State Park looked interesting and close to Interstate 80. Unfortunately, the State of Utah wanted $30 for a crappy little site without showers. If I can’t take a real shower, I’m not willingly paying $30.


I was now in prime T-mobile country, so I pulled over to look at my options. Antelope State Park had showers and a camping fee of $20. Unfortunately, as I approached Salt Lake City, the realization hit that I was going to have to drive north through Salt Lake and backtrack when I left the park. I’ve driven in a lot of big cities, but I was not having fun driving with a trailer in five lanes of interstate when they kept deleting my lane as the exit lane. When I should have gone north, I opted to go south.

After driving through most of Salt Lake, I pulled over for gas and looked at my choices. If I headed straight east from Lehi, I could drive into the Unita Wasatch-Cache National Forest, where there were several public campgrounds. I set my sights on the Mt. Timpanogos campground. As was getting close, the road started to steepen and narrow. A sign said not recommended for vehicles over 30 feet. I figured that neither my Scamp nor my truck was over 30 feet individually,but it was getting a little hairy. Rocks slides leaving debris in the middle of the road weren’t making it any easier.

When I arrived at the campground, they wanted $34 or some ridiculous amount, and it was for dry camping. I didn’t see any good campsites available so I drove up into a trailhead parking lot and talked with a young Forest Service employee who was writing tickets to people without user fee permits. She was apologetic about it, but she was still writing tickets. I had my America the Beautiful Pass so I wasn’t going to get a ticket.

I told her that it was my first trip up into her forest, and did she have any recommendations for campsites. She asked did I need a campground or was I looking for dispersed camping. I said that dispersed camping would work fine, especially given the camping fees. She explained that the campgrounds are run my an outside private company, and that they set the rates. She then offered two suggestions for dispersed camping; one was higher elevation and close; the other was lower elevation and a few miles away. Given that our conversation was taking place at 75000 feet in elevation, and that there was a crispness in the air that promised freezing temperatures that night, I chose the lower elevation.

To get to my site, I backtracked on Hwy 92 and turned off on Hwy 144 north to Tibble Fork. Where the pavement ends, the gravel begins. A short time later, a sign was posted indicated that dispersed camping for up to 14 days was permitted. I found my creekside campsite almost immediately after the sign. Normally, I would have driven further in, and I did walk the road later to see if there were better sites. However, this site ticked all the boxes for me. I could hear running water from the Brew Hut, and it wasn’t from my faucet. A beautiful mountain stream was less than 20 steps from my front door. The site was so level that I didn’t even need to unhook. I put up my rear stabilizers and was good to go.

I spent the afternoon taking walks, collecting solar power, reading, and preparing supper of leftovers (beef curry with noodles). Because my campsite is in the bottom of a narrow canyon, the sun set quickly behind the mountains, and the temperatures plummeted. I watched some downloaded Netflix after supper and had a glass of port. By nine pm, I was buried underneath my heavy sleeping bag, which kept me quite warm. The one negative to the campsite is that I am close to an atv and dirt bike road. I was amazed that they kept driving by well after dark. But by ten pm, they had either stopped or I simply fell asleep.

I woke at 7 am to the sound of Elvis doing his early morning shake to awake. 35 degrees in the Brew Hut. Not cold enough to freeze the water tanks, but that set a new record for this trip. After eating hot oatmeal and making coffee, Elvis and I took to the trails. A trailhead for the Mill Canyon Trail (#040) was less than 100 yards from our campsite. We ended up hiking beyond the end of the Trail on part of the Ridge Trail for a total of 8.5 miles and an elevation gain of 1500 feet. At 7500 feet in elevation, we found patches of frost. At the beginning of the hike, I had several layers of clothing on and wished for a hat and gloves (that I didn’t bring). But the steep ascent quickly warmed things up, and I was back to a t-shirt by the time we arrived back around noon. We saw deer, turkeys, and vultures.

We passed the afternoon blogging, reading, and enjoying the sound of the creek. I could easily stay here for a week. But there is so much to see and do in Utah.  In the morning, our problem tire was giving us more problems.  We are headed for tire service and an oil change.