Utah, Part 4, July 10-14

Sunday, July 10

We got up and headed to town for breakfast (not anywhere near the good breakfast we had yesterday). As we ate, I proposed Plan J. We had given up doing Capitol Reef National Park this trip, but yesterday as we toured the 2 parks, we drove through the campground and wished we were camping there. I proposed that instead of touring southwest Colorado (we would never have enough time to do all we wanted there), we should get up tomorrow and take the trailer to Capitol Reef, camp there and tour the National Park, then leave from there the next day. That would mean going back Rt. 70 through the Colorado Passes and Denver (ugh), but we would accomplish our goal. We pondered that option the rest of the day.

We headed to Arches National Park, just 4 miles north of Moab. Arches, as the rest of the area, lies atop an underground salt bed that is responsible for the arches, spires, balanced rocks, sandstone fins and eroded monoliths in the area. While Canyonland National Park, just 30 miles away, is formed by the water erosion from the Colorado and Green Rivers, water and ice, extreme temperatures, and underground salt movement are responsible for the wonderland that makes up Arches National Park. Arches contained over 2000 recorded arch formations, but that number changes constantly as older arches fall and newer arches are formed.

Arches and formations were named mostly on initial appearances - The 3 Gossips, the Organ, the Tower of Babel, Balanced Rock, Ham Rock, Delicate Arch are just a few of the ones we saw. Landscape Arch, perhaps one of the most famous in the park, was more difficult to get to, so we skipped that one.

One of the treasures we encountered was Sand Dune Arch, a 3/10 of a mile hike into the fins of one formation (it was short, but in deep sand, so yes, it was a hike!) took us to an arch that is hidden from the outside. What an amazing feeling.

The tour of the park took most of the day, and we stopped to eat a very late lunch on the way back to the camper. I did laundry, and by the time it was almost finished, the week caught up to me. I went back to nap as Rick finished up laundry, and was asleep by 6:00. Sometime later he woke me up to see if I wanted to do something about dinner or just keep sleeping. I ended up crawling into bed a little later, and sleeping 12 hours! By the time I got out of bed at 7:00 am I was refreshed and ready to hit the road!

Monday, July 11

Happy Birthday Abbie!

I got up and showered and prepared everything as I normally do for a travel day. As we ate breakfast, I checked mapquest and saw that Capitol Reef was 3 hours, conflicting with the 4 hours the GPS told us. That was more in line with what someone had told us 2 days ago. We continued to debate, and decided to do the trip as a day trip, not taking the camper. Plan K!

We registered for another night at the KOA and hit the road, traveling the 150 miles to Capitol Reef in 2 1/2 hours. Part of the Colorado Plateau, this was again different scenery than anything we've seen. The park and area we traveled is in what is known as the Waterpocket Fold and Cathedral Valley. This is a giant buckle in the earth’s crust, which stretches across south-central Utah, created by the same great forces later uplifting the Colorado Plateau. The area is a jumble of colorful cliffs, massive domes, soaring spires, stark monoliths, twisted canyons and graceful arches. The Fremont River winds through the Waterpocket Fold, and desert lies beyond. It was home to Mormon pioneers for many years. Fruita Historic District is contained in the park. Fruita was a Mormon settlement dating from the late 1800s. Still standing is the 1-room schoolhouse which was used until the 1940s. Apple, peach, cherry, pear and apricot orchards grow in the Fruita orchards. Historic and heirloom varieties of some of the fruits are still found here. Ripe fruit may be picked and eaten free, and there is a small fee for taking some along. The Historic Gifford Farmhouse is not only a glimpse into the past, but it sells home made ice cream and fruit pies and products. I bought a freshly made sour cherry crumb pie that tasted wonderful!

Indian Petroglyphs are evident on the sheer monoliths along the drive through the park, and we explored several along a walkway. It was beginning to drip a bit as we returned to the truck, and as we headed to the Visitor’s Center, the rain started in earnest. We watched 2 youngsters receive their Junior Ranger Badges (something our kids loved doing when they were younger). We watched the movie about the park, and as the movie ended and it talked about the influence of water in the park, the curtain above the screen opened to a view of the surrounding mountains – and a downpour!

We headed for the 16 mile round-trip Scenic Drive as the rain was picking up. A day or two earlier, Rick mentioned that he would love to see a flash-flood in the desert. The road itself was pretty much empty, so we pulled over to watch a dry creekbed (well – it was wet from the rain, but not with running water) as the flash flood formed and the creekbed became a raging torrent of water. Very exciting! Around us, waterfalls began pouring off the tops of the monoliths where they had been dry before. We continued on the Scenic Drive, crossing road level bridges where water was rushing underneath. A mile or two down the road, we were stopped by a Ranger who told us to turn around –the road was washed out ahead. We turned – and prayed as we crossed those same bridges with water rushing OVER them now, instead of under them. We made it out safely, and passed the entrance as they were closing the entire road.

We only say a mile or two of the scenic drive, but the experience of the flash flood made missing the rest of the drive worth it. We continued on the through road through the park before turning and going back the way we came (the through road, with no fee for driving, is about 12 miles long). We saw several places where the road had been underwater, now covered in sand and mud.

On the way back through the desert, we watched 2 storms develop around us. We had some sprinkles, but no major rain. We stopped at the Sunset Grill for dinner, on the north end of Moab. Known as Dining with a Million Dollar View, I had earlier made fun of it, sitting on top of a cliff. This area is known for the erosion of the rocks. Who would build a restaurant on the top of one of the cliffs?! It was originally built by Charlie Steen as his home. He came to Moab with others in the 1950s when the government offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could fill a dump truck full of uranium. Many miners were able to find small amounts, but Charlie was a geologist and knew there was much more than what they found on the surface. Just as he was about to give up, with his family nearly destitute, he found the vein in the earth that would set the world on fire. The uranium in the first mine was worth over $60 million. Moab changed from a small agricultural town to a major mining hub overnight, and Charlie was the king. He built his mansion on the top of the cliff, and when he moved just recently, the home became a restaurant with an amazing view of the Moab valley. The home itself, called a mansion, is pretty underwhelming by today’s standards, but the view is worth a fortune,

As we were eating dinner, I wandered through the Moab tour book one more time, and found that there were Petroglyphs and Pictographs very close by. The Pictographs were in Arches, and I was upset that we missed them – didn’t see anything in the Arches literature about them – and we were so close! The Petroglyphs were on a road just across from Arches, which I had been wondering about anyway, so we decided to go explore before going back to camp.

Within the first 5 miles of the 16 mile road, there were several places where we saw Petroglyphs. One was a 125 foot panel of Petroglyphs! In one area, we saw dinosaur footprint fossils on a slab of stone. Thank goodness for zoom on cameras, as we could not get up close and personal to the slab.

By now it was getting dark, and we needed to rescue Haley. We took her for a walk around the campground, amazed at the number of people out playing catch with baseballs or footballs. We finished packing up and got ready for a travel day tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 12

We headed out early, going south on 191 to 491 toward Colorado. We stopped at Wilson’s Arch along 191, and waved at Four Corners, Hovenweep National Park, Mesa Verde National Park and other places we will visit next time. We ended up at Alamosa KOA, where we had stayed 2 years ago. As we traveled, we were hoping to find a nice rest area with a picnic table, perhaps a stream, to pull over to have lunch. We traveled down 491 to 160 and headed east, and for over 2 hours did not see any place to pull over, even in the little towns we passed through. Finally we saw a pull-off (just a gravel half-circle on the other side of the road that was large enough for our rig), so we pulled off there and ate a snack – by now it was almost 4:00. No sooner than we were back on the road then there were picnic areas and beautiful pull-offs mile after mile after mile! As we left our stop, we noticed a significant crack in the windshield, extending toward Rick’s side of the glass. Another vehicle repair coming up! We stopped in Alamosa to camp, and Rick found an auto glass repair place that could fix the windshield first thing in the morning. We enjoyed an evening overlooking the Great Sand Dunes National Park and the mountains – and an amazing storm to the east with lots of lightning.

Wednesday, July 13

Rick went to get the windshield replaced while I blogged part of our trip. Then we were back on the road heading to Colorado Springs and out the east side of the state. A pretty uneventful day today, we stopped at Camping World in Colorado Springs, a mile from where we camped 2 years ago, then continued on to Goodland, Kansas, to the KOA where we camped 2 years ago (there is a theme here!)

Thursday, July 14, 2011

We headed up to Rt. 36, which is a 2-lane highway parallel and in between Rt. 80 in Nebraska to the north, and Rt. 70 in Kansas to the south. A beautiful drive through Kansas farmland and prairie, with small towns dotting the way, we enjoyed 65 mph most of the way – a nicer drive than the interstate, but almost as fast! We stopped in Lebanon to stand in the geographic center of the contiguous 48 continental states! Toward the end of our day, Rick noticed that the emergency trailer brake cord had disconnected from the trailer – not good. We now have no trailer brakes! He says the truck can handle the braking, and we only have to worry about the mountains at home, not the passes we went through in Colorado, so the trailer is looking at a major brake repair when we get home. We are camping in a cute little campground behind a hotel, overlooking a small lake in Seneca, Kansas, The temperature is very HOT, and we are thankful for air conditioning. This is one of the first days we have not had rain of some kind, and the first day we have been bothered by the heat.