It SNOWED !!!!!!

What could be more magnificent, awesome, beautiful..............than snow at Bryce Canyon.It Happened!  As forecasted, we woke up to 4 inches of snow.  Take a look........ WOW ~~

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce is even more awesome than we remembered.  After setting up camp, we headed to the rim.....What a view!  We hiked the Queens Garden and the Navaho Loop, five miles of beautiful views.

Today we hiked 10 miles with the Fairy Land Trail being the absolute highlight.  We came across Dannys tooth deposited 29 years ago, now a huge spire (How things grow!)  Also saw all of the other hoodoos created by the tooth fairy.....AWESOME.

Pictures just don't do this place justice, but here are a few attempts.....

The Best Bike Ride ever................

 

Here in Capitol Reef National Park, with our bikes, we set out on the Scenic Byway.  The first 8 miles were paved but steep.  What views of the vertical rock faces and sandstone formations against the totally blue skies, wow!  After cresting the hill at the slick rock divide, we swooped down to the end of the pavement.  Then it was 2 miles on sand and gravel on the only road through the San Rafael Swell until 1965.  As we pedaled along, wer were thinking of the Model Ts...we had more horsepower?

On our return trip, it happened.  After pausing to catch our breaths at the Divide, we remounted our bikes and GO...What a ride.  Over 2 miles we glided down the road with magnificent scenery and not one pedal rotation.

PS  We're camped in a old orchard planted by Mormon settlers over 150 years ago.  Arrived in time to still pick some apples which we are enjoying in our pancakes, pies, and just good eating!

It's Spooky !!

We returned to Goblin Valley after 8 years.  The campground was still a wonderfully situated campground protected by some Utahish formations.  The "goblins" were all still there....except for the one that was knocked over by some alleged Boy Scout leaders a day earlier -- made national press.  As promised to our friends traveling with us, Ray and Ann, this stop would be the strangest, weirdest, and most unique walk.  And it was.

Also hiked through Little Wild Horse Canyon, world renowned as one of the primo Slots.  Seven miles we hiked in the San Rafael Swell, through the shoulder width seam, where "powerful erosive forces have buffed, fluted, fanned, and pocked the red Navaho sandstone walls."  This claims to be for families; we saw a family with a 2 year old -- but don't believe it, it's arduous when you hit the water pools that forced us up and out of the slot, and began cairn tracking along the narrow canyon ledges.. All worth it, beautiful!

 

The Moon over Canyonlands and the Lasalles

Adventure into the MAZE, Canyonlands National Park

The good news, we didn't get lost in the Maze.  We did have some thoughts.......

We took a 4 day Navtec adventure trip - off roading in a Toyota Landcruiser (and we mean off road), and hiking 3 of the days.  The Maze is the wildest part of Canyonlands; just to access the area, you need to drive hours off road through canyons and washes.  All worth the travels for the awe-inspiring landscapes!

Day 1: Off road drive to Horseshoe Canyon (Glen Canyon Recreation Area) where we hiked down to the dry river bed and followed the wash to incredible petroglyphs. After the first 3.5 miles, it was then time to get out and back to the Landcruiser. Rich, our guide, met us at the petroglyphs and lead us out and up the canyon on Deadmans trail (definitely the correct name). We then off roaded to our first night's campout at High Spur. A great dinner, great sunset, and then tucked into our sleeping bags for a cold night.

 

Into the Slot

The Slot, yes we hiked thru

Day 2:  Started the day with our hike in Blue John Slot Canyon, made famous in the book and movie, "127 hours",.  Remember the story of the hiker who got trapped in this slot canyon when a rock trapped his left hand, and he eventually saved himself by cutting off his hand to escape?  Yep, this is the canyon... We walked, crawled, and squeezed for over 2 miles through this slot canyon; all incredible!  Then around 1pm, it was time to continue our journey, so Rich had us climb out "Rich's Out", a 1500 foot climb on his unmarked and never done before trail. 

Then we drove until dusk over a trail that we would have been concerned to hike.  Narrow, rocky with boulders and slick rock, rough, and some shear canyon dropoffs -- and then the loss of our power steering 10 miles before our destination, all added to this adventure.  Set up camp for the next two nights at Standing Rock Campground in the Maze section of Canyonlands.  Enjoyed another great dinner and to bed with the cold wind ruffling our tent.

 

 

 

Day 3:  We got out the map and chose a 7.5 mile hike down into the nearby canyon.  Set out on the road, then the trail following the cairns as we descended almost 2,000 feet to the canyon floor.  After some narrow ledges and rock scrabbling, we reached the dry wash and started walking.  Got to the end of the canyon and needed to make a decision as to which way to proceed.  We headed left on a totally unmarked trail, and counted the canyon entrances and watched for rock formations to find our way out.  Luckily, we came across two sets of footsteps coming toward us; we followed and they lead us to the climb out trail which fortunately was marked with cairns. PHEW!  We got back to camp at 5pm, 7 hours of hiking.

 

Camped at Standing Rock

 

 

Into the canyon

Do we go right or left?!

Climb out....

And by the way....Jason the mechanic, arrived to repair the Landcruiser.  He spent the night, shared dinner with us, and started the repair of the steering .  He replaced the gearbox and joined us the next morning on the way home.  Now, that's called service!  He drove the 7 hours to get to our very remote location.





Day 4:  Now it was our turn to reverse our tire tracks, drive back across Devils Wishbone, and then back to Moab, 7 hours later. 

What an adventure!!

Ruthie holds up the Arch.....

Good thing that Arches National Park reopened today; thanks to the state of Utah funding the parks.  We got in line with all of the other shutouts from prior days, and beelined (a Utah expression as noted on their highway signs) to Delicate Arch.  We heard it was threatened with collapse - sometime in the next few thousand years. Ruthie, having eaten her Wheatabix was able to add support to the Arch.















On the way to the rescue, a day earlier, we stopped at the trail for Negro Bill Canyon, and hiked to Morning Glory Arch; the sixth largest Arch in the world.  We hiked 5 miles, enjoying the great weather and the many stream crossings and rock formations.

 

Tomorrow, it's into the MAZE at Canyonlands State Park for us.  Four days of 4 wheel off roading, hiking, and camping.  NO LOAFING!

In UTAH, the shutdown is over !!

While congress is fiddling to get our government re-opened, the state of Utah takes action.  Utah will pay the National Park employees for the interim.  So tomorrow the parks are open...........
Our Navtec adventure trip to the Maze, in Canyonlands National Park starts Sunday.

Attack of the Fruit Flies !!!

But before we explain the attack, thought you should know how we got into this predicament........

Camped in Telluride planning our date night out to the Johnny Cash concert-play at the Palms Theatre, we thought we better check the weather.  Well.....the storm was coming early.  Do we stay for the event, wake up to 6 inches of snow and temps dropping to the low 20s....Or do we head for the hills...errrr, the valley.  We headed for the valley.  (Johnny will have to wait for another time.)

The Grand Mesa, a tapestry of colors

Drove back out of the box canyon where Telluride resides, drove through Montrose and took the scenic highway 65; up, across, and down the Grand Mesa (the worlds largest mesa).  Very scenic views as we topped out at over 11,000 feet.  You could feel the incoming snow and cold weather.






And now, the attack.  We arrive at James Robb Colorado River State Park, on the edge of the Colorado River, and back at a low elevation under 5,000 feet (rain, not snow).  Set up camp, and celebrated our escape with a bottle of La Finca, a Malbec given to us by Joe (thanks!).  No sooner than the bottle was uncorked..........WHAM............an aerial attack!

Turns out, we are in the Palisade-Fruita area.  This is a major fruit and winery area. And with the early cold weather, the fruit flies were looking for a warm home [or RV].  We battened down the hatches, chased out the little buggers, and relaxed.

Today we headed out of the campground and drove the wine trail, stopping to do some tastings, [Canyon Winery was our favorite] and in the process have purchased a special selection of wines for Thanksgiving.  Also purchased some peaches, pears, apples, and melons.  Our few remaining fruit flies are also enjoying our selection.

What a place to live.....................

Surrounded by mountains on three sides, and with the Uncompaghre River flowing by, Ridgway Colorado is quite a place to camp.

To Telluride via Ridgway

We spent two days at Ridgway State Park.  Surrounded on three sides by mountains.  With a lower elevation, and electricity we kept warm after the snow in Ouray.  A great SP with hiking and bike trails, and a reservoir reflecting the mountains to the south.

We took advantage of the mostly paved bike trail into the town of Ridgway (roundtrip 13 miles).  Not a too exciting town, but we did manage to locate an ice cream store before heading back to the campground.  Great views while we biked the trail.

 

With warming weather (night time temps over 32), we drove to Telluride and camped at Town Park.  Just on the edge of town, the sites had no water or electric, but made up for this with views of the snow covered mountains.  We're now taking advantage of all that Telluride offers.  Free "Galloping Goose" bus transport, free gondola rides over the mountain to Mountain Village, free movies at the library, and tomorrow night a Johnny Cash Ring-of-Fire concert-play.  Ruthie says Telluride is like our home in Avalon; lots of real estate offices, coffee shops, restaurants, nail & hair salons, and art galleries -- although Telluride has mountains and no ocean.  Both offer great city services with the business tax income.

 

 

Some great hiking and biking here in Telluride also.  Hiked the 2 miles and 1,500 foot climb to Bear Creek Falls.  The fall colors and the wind blowing the leaves in the sunlight was awesome!  But we needed a rest when we reached the end of the trail.