Pipe Spring National Monument

I have never been so interested and depressed about a national monument.

I am camped at a nice rv park owned and operated by the Kaibob Band of Paiute Indians. I was running out of coffee, so it was time for electricity hookups to roast coffee, and to take the opportunity to do laundry, shower, etc.  I’ve discovered that rv parks in the west are parking lots, but some are better than others.

This one distinguishes itself by the lack of lights in the campground, which I appreciate greatly, making for better sleeping at night. Of course, the absence of lights did not help when someone activated their vehicle alarm at 1:30 a.m.

As at most national parks and monuments, dogs are not allowed on the trails at Pipe Spring National Monument. Elvis appreciated the nice footpath going out to the convenience store in one direction and  to the Head Start school building in the other direction.

After duly exercising Elvis, I let him nap in the Brew Hut while I checked out the National Monument, took a tour, and hiked the short trail.  Everything about Pipe Spring is about the water.  I talked to a local Paiute in the gift shop, and she told me that her people had lived in this area since the days of the mammoth.  They were a nomadic people, and moved from place to place, putting little strain on the natural resources.

Then the Mormons came in the 1800’s, and decided that the spring made a perfect place for a cattle operation.  The native rice grass produced flour and sustenance for Paiutes for hundreds of years. The Mormons and their cattle destroyed the native grasses in little more than ten years, according to our ranger guide.

The Mormons produced cheese and butter in great quantities and built a fort around the spring, preventing access to the Paiutes unless they converted to Mormonism or worked like slaves in support of the Mormon operation.

This did not go over well. The Paiutes resisted, driving off the Mormons livestock.  The Mormons formed a militia.  Lives were lost on both sides.  The Paiute’ population was decimated by starvation. After about forty years of overgrazing, the Mormons abandoned the property. Today, about 300 Kaibob Paiutes live in the area.  However, this isn’t the end of the story; the tragedy is still unfolding.  Agricultural and development interests continue to tap the aquifer.  A  hydrologist informed the Park Service that the spring will soon go dry.  The aquifer has maybe 20-30 years left before it’s gone.  Then the farmers, park service, developers, and Paiutes will all be up the dry aquifer without a paddle.

Elvis and I enjoyed a colorful sunrise before the rain clouds moved in.

It’s raining as I write, and more rain is predicted tomorrow when I leave this area and continue to head west.  I would like to disperse camp near Hurricane or Virgin, but we will see what the access roads look like.

Navajo National Monument

After leaving Monticello, Utah in the rain, I drove through Blanding and Bluff, two areas that looked worth exploring if the weather had cooperated.  I kept driving until I passed the Arizona border  I knew that I was in Arizona because the roads immediately turned to crap.  Hwy 191 in Utah had been very good, but the same highway in Arizona possessed holes, dips, and bumps.  Additionally, I sat for thirty minutes waiting for my turn to cross a one lane bridge on a two lane highway with traffic backed up for miles in both directions.


Oh well, what else was there to do in the rain?  I stopped in Medicine Hat for cheaper Arizona gas at higher octane.  Most of the “regular gas” in Wyoming and Utah was 85 octane, compared to Wisconsin’s 87.  I drove past all the fast food restaurants in Kayenta without stopping and continued another 20 miles to Navajo National Monument.

The weather was still dismal:  rainy and cold.  I put on my fleece sweater and cooked up some hot split pea soup, ham and a refried bean burrito.  Then I sat at my dinette with a glass of wine and watched a downloaded movie on Netflix.
On the next morning, the potential for solar power and topping off my battery did not look promising.

However, by ten a.m., things were looking better.

In fact, it warmed up enough that I ended up sitting in my folding chair in the sun and reading for most of the morning.  I also met a fellow camper “Joe” whose base is Harlan, Iowa.  Small world, as my mother grew up in the same small town.

In the afternoon, I hiked the 3 short trails at the Monument.  Although the views are spectacular, what i like best is the wonderful fragrances in the pinion and juniper forest. With a high of 65 degrees at 7200 feet in elevation, the wonderful smell of mountain air (without any smoke), and the promise of more sunshine, this was a place that I could stay for a few days.

It also didn't  hurt that camping is free here for up to 14 days:  paved Rv campsite, flush toilets, garbage services, and running water.  I didn’tt stay for two weeks, but a few days sounded nice.

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.