Week 18 - Utah - April 29-May6, 2024Left for Utah
MONDAY- I left Portland at 12:30 pm which was wonderful (didn't have to get up at 3am) Arrived in Provo and was at Ivan's house by 2:00. That was a total 5 hours from when we drove away from our house to arriving at Ivan's.......better than a twelve hour drive.
TUESDAY - April 30 - We left early, about 9 am and headed south toward Moab
First point of interest was the San Rafael Swell which is a seventy mile long patch of ground that "swelled up" out of the ground at a jaunty angle.
We're headed to the Black Dragon Wash
This is the Black Dragon. Someone, in times past, tried to help the viewer by outlining the dragon figure in white chalk.
After fanaticizing about the history of the Black Dragon (looks like a pheasant to me), we continued on our way until we came to the Crystal Geyser. This is a man made phenomena which occurred when some men, drilling for oil, it a big pocket of CO2 which started escaping, along with water, and made a geyser. In earlier years the erupted on a predictable time schedule, but now it just happens......
There's a big metal pipe stuck into the ground.
If you look inside the pipe, through a metal screen covering the top, you can see frothy water in the bottoms.
Onward to the Shafer trail which is a rugged back country road that was really fun.
After a lot of zigging and zagging we came to the Green River.
We came upon these big drying ponds of the Moab Salt LLC. They are for producing potash. There are many ponds which cover acres of land. The potash is dissolved in the water and blue dye is added which makes the water evaporate more quickly.
We were pretty close to the main highway that goes into Moab; we headed to Bruce and Vonda's house where we spent the night..........unfortunately I took no photos.
WEDNESDAY - May 1 - We left Moab at 6am and entered Canyonlands National Park, and headed for the parking lot for Elephant Hill off road trail. The trailhead for Chesler Park was at this parking lot.
Here we are at the trail head - clean, eager, ready to go!!
The trail is a lollipop trail - we started at the bottom used of the stick, "bouldered" up to the "pop", turned left and began to walk around the big valley which was for summer grazing of cattle up until about 1960. At he top of the pop was The Joint (which was fantastic), then back to the stick and we "bouldered" back to the car. Eleven miles in ten hours. I was exhausted!
The hike was really hard, I mean, really hard. Long steps up and up and crunching jolting steps on the downward step. I did pretty well on the first leg.... but the last leg.... I had to have Ivan help pull me up and help lowering me.........sigh.
But - the views inside the park were magnificent. Interesting formations and great flowers.
Then we came to The Joint which was so fun.
And, then we were out of The Joint
We ate lunch, rested up, and headed back. The bouldering we had to do..... to get out, and up, and over...... to get back to the parking lot was brutal. My legs were rubbery. Luckily Ivan's weren't, and his arms and hands were still able to assist me up and down the big steps.
It was a terrific hike!!! One of the best!!! Super difficult - like hiking the The Enchantments. Bev would have loved it: Jessica would not have liked it. I loved it.....but I wouldn't do it again.
Ivan had been able to get a reservation for a campsite. We set up and ate and then slept.
Bjorn's style of drinking his orange juice.
THURSDAY - May 2 -we left Canyonlands and headed for Monument Valley and to the Valley of the Gods on BLM land. First we stopped at Newspaper Rock Archaeological Site
Our plan for the day was to do car explorations. First Stop was Monument Valley. For those who have seen the movie Forest Gump, you will recognize these photos. Traffic slowed way down as tourists (including us) stopped along the road and took these iconic photos.
Monument Valley is a Navaho tribal park. It cost $8 per person to get in and then you drove around a big loop that passes all the scenic spots.'
Having taken a billion photos at Monument Valley we headed for Valley of the Gods which is on BLM land.
We were heading up to Cedar Mesa and drove on a really cool/bad/bumpy/pretty tough road...Ivan loves this kind of road.
And...we at the top.
Ivan has camped here often, and we drove around looking for his perfect campsite....which was on this bluff.
It was a tough place to pitch my tent ' the stakes went into sand and the wind was really strong. Three times during the night I had to get up and re-do the stakes....find rocks to put on the stakes - the flapping door flaps kept me awake much of the night.
And now....the Road Canyon Rim Trail....which took us to the Citadel!!!!
Four mile round trip.
This canyon is one of many in this area. At the bottom is a river/creek along which is a trail which Ivan hasn't done yet. The trail leads to The citadel which is at the far end of this canyon's edge. At the end is the Citadel which has a pointy top where are located Indian ruins consisting of several rooms under a ledge...and "official" signs saying to not enter the rooms.
So far the trail has been easy - yes on rocks but...no problems. The we came to the end of the spit of land and could see The Citadel in the distance.
We had to go down and then across.....and then up to the tippy top.
Looking back from the was we'd come.
Getting closer
There are some serous boulders ahead....and yes Ivan lent me a hand.
I thought this formation looked like a skull.
It was a great hike. We headed back to Orem for the night.
SATURDAY - May 4 - Oren - We spent the day in Orem. Went to Costco for lunch (I like the cookie). Renee too, me to a bunch of music stores to see if they had an assortment of lds sacred music for guitar - they didn't....amazon seems to be the only place. Went to Ivan's place of employment. Took a photo of cousin Percy.
SUNDAY - May 6 - Capitol Reef National Park = we all went Ivan, Renee, Magnus, and me.
When the national Park was created, the government bought the little town of Fruta and incorporated it into the park. Fruta was an LDS town made up of about 8 families. They grew lots of fruit trees and had a one room schoolhouse which functioned as a church building and a community center. In the park there is The Gifford House which is operated by the Capitol Reef Natural History Association. There is a little gift shop.....and individual fruit pies are sold for $8.50 each. Yes- expensive but very yummy. I got a peach pie.
We went to the visitors Center and looked around. Ivan got a Junior Ranger patch to 'fill in' his collection.
We hiked the Capitol Reef Gorge which has ancient Indian pictographs and modern day (1800's) graffiti.
Next we scrambled up to the "Tanks" which are carved out places in the rocks where water gathers.
Here's the schoolhouse, church, community center.
It was an easy trail up and up and over. We saw a snake along the trail.
Here's the bridge. You have to look carefully.
The weather was turning bad. Got really windy. Started to rain. Snowed all the way back to Orem. The day was a good one. You can't beat Utah for its red rocks, canyons, and prehistoric, ancient, and relatively new graffiti.
SATURDAY - May 6 - going back to Oregon.
Woke up to snow on the mountains to the east of Orem;
Great trip. I am so glad Ivan encouraged me to do it.
