Fri, May 6, 2011

Friday, May 06, 2011

There are always surprises on any road trip.  If you are lucky most of them will be good ones. - Donna Downey

We had pizza last night for supper so no one was particularly hungry this morning.  We also were enjoying doing nothing last night so we didn’t go into the park either.  The sun was up and it appeared it was going to be very pleasant so we decided to drive into the park and just hit maybe the first two overlooks.  We have been to Bryce Canyon many times and it is always crowded.  It is also usually cold and windy.  Add those three things together and I lose a lot of enthusiasm about my photography. 

So this morning I reluctantly put my coat on over my vest and prepared myself to maneuver the crowds and withstand the elements to get some shots.  That’s when the first surprise of the day happened.  We pulled into the Sunset Overlook parking lot and there was only one other car.  I was beginning to think maybe some earth shattering event happened and no one called us.  Charles grabbed the tripod and we started the short walk out to the canyon’s edge.  Still no one in sight!  And the wind that usually tries to take you down when you step out from the forest… nowhere to be felt.  And the temperature was already in the upper forties (warm for this place).  I was quite comfortable and surprised.  The parking lot at the lodge was fairly full and there were at least six or seven tour buses. Apparently they didn’t have pizza for supper and felt a need to have breakfast at the lodge… our good luck.

Sunset Overlook is on a point and has a number of places from which to peruse the beauty of the canyon. We were there a good while and had a nice short visit with a lady from Vermont on her first trip to the park and saw one other couple start down one of the trails into the canyon. That was it! I’m still amazed at our good fortune. 

Our goal for the day was to start working our way north toward Yellowstone and to try to find some roads we have never taken before.  This is not as easy as it might seem because the western states have so many mountain ranges and canyons that there are limited routes to take.  Another surprise, we found a neat looking road north out of Huntington UT.  If this road was open it looked to have great possibilities. 

As we left Huntington I noticed the road gates were open so at least one part of the drive would be available to us today.  It turned out to be a wonderful experience.  As we climbed in elevation (it would top out over 9,000 feet) we began to see patches of snow.  The pups love to play in the snow so as soon as we found an area with some pretty good patches we stopped and had a playtime in the snow.  But this was only the beginning of the snow.  As we continued to climb the snow grew until we were in the most gorgeous winter wonderland.  The road was completely dry so the drive was easy.  The skies were blue, the sun shining and there was deep snow as far as the eye could see (and from these elevations that is pretty far). 

Somewhere in the upper elevations we found our second road (appropriately named Skyline Drive) and continued our snow trek.  We met maybe four or five cars on the entire drive.  A few of the overlooks had been plowed but the snow was so deep that you could not see over it!  Even better, the temperatures were in the upper fifties and with our seat heaters on and the heater blowing we still had a comfortable ride with the windows down. 

All great things must end and soon we made our descent back to the real world and headed toward Provo UT and points further north.  We got out the Pet Motel AAA Book and found a Best Western in Coalville UT that took pets.  Coalville is not too far from Park City UT and Sundance UT. 

So were there anymore surprises today?  We had saved a couple of pieces of pizza from last night to have in the room tonight. Charles had picked himself up a burrito when he filled up the car that would need to be heated as well. I had already started working on the daily journal and photos so Charles volunteered to “prepare” our dinner.  Only the microwave didn’t work.  He fiddled with it and then I fiddled with it to no avail. Charles, in his usual, “I’ll take care of this attitude” gathered up our cold pizza and burrito and headed to the front desk for assistance.  In a few minutes he returned with the front desk clerk.  She had it working and we had a nice visit but as soon as she left we realized it still was not heating.  So Charles gathered everything up again and went to visit her.  He used the microwave in the breakfast area and she offered us some Spanish rice to go with it.  We turned it down, but what started out badly ended up fine. Add to that a Nascar race for Charles to watch while I write and all is okey dokey again.

Tomorrow we will head further north toward Yellowstone but will be in no hurry.  We are well tonight and hope that y’all are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger



Thur, May 5, 2011

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Somewhere between west Texas and southern Utah eggs are ordered “over hard” not “over well” as we say in most of the South.  Out here they just give you a blank stare as if you just spoke in some alien dialect.  – Donna Downey

One of the most pleasant places to wake up is overlooking Lake Powell.  If you’re lucky your thoughtful husband has already been up, fixed coffee, and opened the sliding door to the porch to let the cool dry breezes enter the room.  After “piddling” around for a while enjoying the weather and the view, we headed over to the restaurant for a hearty breakfast and a chance to enjoy the last views of the lake. 

Then it was off to the Burr Trail to travel a backcountry route from Bullfrog to Boulder, a distance of almost 70 miles.  It winds thru some of Utah’s most scenic country and a variety of sights.  We travel this route on almost every trip West.  It is just an area that we really enjoy and we always find something new to enjoy every time we drive it.  Of course it helps if you are easily entertained by just being “amongst” God’s gorgeous landscapes with an occasional set of old cattle pens thrown in for a change.  The view changes dramatically almost around each curve in the road.  One of the most colorful sections is the area known as the Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long bend in the earth where huge rocks were pushed up to form what looks like a long spine.  The area is full of cliffs, canyons, basins and colorful rock layers reaching into the sky.  It’s a treat for the eyes.  There’s a set of switchbacks that climb up thru the Waterpocket Fold that will take your breath away.

Unfortunately Charles began the day with a terrible headache… probably due mostly to the higher altitudes.  So we took a lot longer to take the trail with frequent stops where he would take a short nap and the pups and I would wander the countryside admiring the scenery and the perfect hiking weather.

Just down the road after climbing up via the switchbacks we spotted an old cattle pen so took the smaller dirt road over to it and found an old cow camp trailer there as well. We speculated about what happened to the cowboy that made his living from that camp. There was a snubbing post in the middle of the old corral so perhaps he spent his days catching wild horses and breaking them. It would have been an isolated existence so you would need to be happy with only yourself for company. 

The pups had been having playtime all morning in the dust and sand so they were in need of a bath but water is not in abundance along the Burr Trail.  We usually stop at small canyon along a large sandstone formation and at times it will have water flowing thru the sandstone bottom.  Luckily today was such a day so the pups had their bath although they were unaware that was the purpose and thought we just enjoyed watching them run, swim and play in the water.

We had planned to take the long dirt road drive down to Hole-in-the-Rock but we had killed most of the day just getting off the Burr Trail.  It is sixty miles down to Hole-in-the-Rock and the same sixty back out to since we were kind of tired, and the light was dismal for photography by then so we decided to save what would have been our second trip down there for another time.   Just past the turnoff was a new Heritage Center dedicated to preserving the history of the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition so we opted for a stop there instead. We love to read actual letters or journal entries from the pioneers so I have to share this one with you.  It is an exerpt from a letter Elizabeth Decker wrote to her parents on February 22, 1880: 

Coming down the hole in the rock to get to the river was ten times as bad. If you ever come this way it will scare you to death to look down it. It is about a mile from the top down to the river and it is almost straight down, the cliffs on each side are five hundred ft. high and there is just room enough for a wagon to go down. It nearly scared me to death. The first wagon I saw go down put the brake on and rough locked the hind wheels and had a big rope fastened to the wagon and about ten men holding back on it and then they went down like they would smash everything. I'll never forget that day. When we was walking down Willie looked back and cried and asked me how we would get back home.

It was a first-rate exhibit with plenty of information, some neat photographs, two huge paintings portraying the expedition and an old covered wagon. I included photos of the paintings as they depict what the descent thru the hole was like.  One man realized after helping what he thought was all the wagons down the mile-long descent realized his wife, children and wagon were not among them.  He went back up to find they had been overlooked.  With no other men to help, his wife stayed behind the wagon to guide the horse and they made it down alive although she fell as they began the descent and was drug some distance. 

Since we chose not to take the long side trip, we decided to drive on up to Ruby’s Inn at Bryce Canyon National Park for the night.  That would give us plenty of time to clean up the Jeep, do a load of laundry and still have time left to relax.  After almost a week in either drought or desert everything was coated in dust. 

We will probably ride into the park about sunset.  Other than getting a little too much sun today (it’s hard to remember you’re getting a lot of sun when the weather is so pleasant and comfortable), we are well and hope y’all are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger



Wed, May 4, 2011

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Happy sleep (sleep produced by a day on the road) is more restful than regular sleep (sleep that comes after a day at the office). – Donna Downey

We were up early this morning after a good night’s happy sleep and all four of us were feeling better.  It’s also easier to get up early since we gained an hour by moving into the Mountain Time zone. 

We headed around to the continental breakfast and met a couple of interesting people.  There were two Navaho women there when we arrived and they were cordial (i.e. they did speak when we spoke to them) but quiet.  We knew they had arrived at the motel the previous afternoon in a school bus filled with students from Chinle, AZ. We assumed they were probably ball players.  When I asked them if they had played a game last night they both looked a little puzzled and then one said, with a grin that she was their nursing instructor.  She lit up when she started talking about her kids though. Seems they were in Blanding all week at a rehab center doing their clinical training and testing.  Charles said he wondered why they were so well behaved and quiet… it was because they were tired after working all day!

Then a very friendly guy came in and he and Charles started talking about handball (he had on a handball t-shirt).  The conversation soon progressed to where we all were from and of course he asked about the recent tornadoes when he learned we were from Mississippi.  We asked him if he was traveling (he was from Salt Lake City) and he said he was returning to Blanding to put flowers on his wife’s grave and her family’s graves.  She had died a couple of years earlier and was from Blanding.  He said he comes back each year to place flowers on the graves.

Then it was time to head toward Halls Crossing.  It was another perfect weather day… cool and clear.  This would be a very short driving day since it was lesss than 100 miles to Halls Crossing where we would take a ferry across Lake Powell to Bullfrog Marina and our motel.  We had conflicting reports on the departure times so decided to get there early and the most we would have to wait would be an hour.  That meant there would be no time for side trips.  We arrived at the ferry landing at 9:00 am and sure enough it would leave our side at 10:00 am.  We just found an overlook with a good view of the lake and relaxed.  At about 9:45 we made the short trip back to the landing and after  a late departure (very unusual for this ferry) made the 20 minute ride aboard the ferry to the Bullfrog side of Lake Powell.  We arrived at the Defiance House Lodge and opted for lunch in the restaurant overlooking the lake.  The view is spectacular! 

We wouldn’t be able to check into our room until at least 3:00 pm so we pulled out our Utah back roads map and picked out about a 60 mile dirt road loop.  Once on the dirt road we found a nice place to park and Charles took a nap while the pups and I wandered the surrounding territory.  Paris spent her time checking every sagebrush after she stumbled upon several lizards to pursue.  The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around old cattle pens, canyons, and springs.  Just before arriving at Thompson Seep (an area we frequent to look for arrowheads) we were treated to some beautiful blue wildflowers I could not identify.  As many times as we have been to this area in the spring I don’t ever recall seeing this particular flower but this spring it was blooming in abundance. 

We spent about an hour at Thompson’s Seep an area where the early Indians camped and made arrowheads.  There is a spring or seep there and the area about the spring is just covered in chips (the remains of arrowheads).  The chips are beautiful themselves but we have never been able to find a complete arrowhead only the chips and a few rejects or broken pieces. 

We made it back to the room well before dark and Charles prepared us a picnic style supper to have in our room while enjoying a beautiful view of the lake.  The sun is just setting now so I believe I will go sit on the porch and enjoy it. 

Tomorrow we will head up the Burr Trail and plan to spend the night in Escalante, UT. 

We are well tonight and hope you all are too!

Peace,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger

Tue, May 3, 2011

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Nothing delights one more in the unplanned journey than to hear, “Yes, we have a room”.  – Donna Downey

After a few days on the road I fear my daily ramblings begin to repeat themselves… beautiful weather, beautiful scenery, good meal, etc… so I try to not think about it too much and just recount our day.  Today was a perfect weather day for us.  It began after a quick continental breakfast in the motel with crystal clear skies and a nippy 29 degrees.  We had a relatively short drive to get to our first destination, the Petrified Forest National Park.  Our first stop inside the park was the Visitor Center and Museum at the southern entrance and the ranger inside said the temperatures would climb slowly and top out around 76 degrees.  We knew then this would be a great day. 

Our first walk was a relatively short one on the Giant Logs Trail.  We visited this park on our first trip West which would have been about 25 years ago.  It turned out to be a good decision to include it on this trip for a repeat performance.  It was just as beautiful and interesting as our first trip, maybe even more so because there have been some improvements to the park and more information available as you stroll thru fields of petrified logs, Indian ruins, Petroglyphs and vast landscapes.  The park is also pet friendly and the pups were allowed on all the trails as long as they were on leash.  In the more crowded parks this is seldom the case and for good reason.   We spent a good deal of time on this short half mile loop admiring the petrified wood as Charles read the trail info and I tried to capture the beauty with my camera.  Then it was on to the Crystal Forest and Trail, the Jasper Forest, Agate Bridge, The Tepees, the Blue Mesa Trail, Newspaper Rock, the Puerco Pueblo, the Route 66 overlook and then our weary group enjoyed a restful picnic at the Lacey Point overlook.  By that time the temperatures had climbed to the low seventies and there was the most pleasant breeze to accompany us as we ate.  After lunch we made a few more quick stops at a couple of the Painted Desert overlooks and a quick stop at the park store to get some ice before jumping onto I-40 for less than twenty miles. 

Just as we got up to speed on I-40 we spotted what appeared to be an older model convertible ahead of us.  It would become one of the highlights of the day!  As we got closer we realized it was obviously a very nice and definitely older car.  It also appeared to have a boattail.  I grabbed my camera as we closed the gap and snapped a few shots, then we pulled up beside the couple and gave them the thumbs up.  They were happy to be see we appreciated their wheels!  For folks trying to travel Route 66 this portion of I-40 replaced the original road and so it is pretty common to see neat cars in the area.  This was truly a classic car but there was no sign of a model or badge that we could make out and Charles was not sure of the identity.  We looked it up when we got into our room tonight and decided it was a 1936 Auburn Boattail Speedster. 

The relatively short remainder of the afternoon would be spent driving north primarily thru the Navaho Reservation to reach our destination goal of Bluff, Utah.  The drive was very pleasant but unfortunately when we got to Bluff there were no rooms at the Inn.  This was a little discouraging because we were all tired and a little sun and wind whipped after the long visit in the Park.  We made the decision to drive an additional 25 miles north to Blanding, Utah in hopes that the only motel that took pets would have a vacancy.  Luckily, they did have two rooms remaining! 

We had a really great day today (all’s well that ends well when it ends with a place to lay your weary head).  Also, upon entering the higher elevations of northern Arizona it appears we are leaving the drought area behind us.  Tomorrow we will head toward Lake Powell.

We are well tonight and hope yall are too!

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger



Mon, May 2, 2011

Monday, May 02, 2011

One of my passions is landscape photography…but I have no desire to return to the land… I like to return to a motel room at the end of the day. – Donna Downey

We were up well before daylight and one of the first travelers at the continental breakfast this morning.  Walking out to the car it was cool crisp and clear morning with just a hint of the sunrise appearing on the eastern horizon. It also felt a little like the movie Groundhog Day as we left Alpine again headed out Highway 90.  We got a kick out of making the same comments about the scenery that we made the previous morning… obviously we find humor in very simple things.

Today would be a day full of vast landscapes and deserted or near deserted towns.  We do enjoy wandering around the small places easily found in west Texas and the remote areas of the southwest. 

Our first stop was an abandoned home sitting close to the highway yet seemingly alone on the high west Texas plain… its drooping porch roof just one sign of its obvious neglect. Just down the trail a ways was the small town of Valentine, TX so named for its founding date of February 14, 1882 by a railroad crew.  It is the only incorporated town in Jeff Davis County, TX and its claim to fame is its postmark which causes an influx of visitors who want their valentine to arrive postmarked from Valentine.  I’m seeing visions of that Goundhog Day movie again.

The drive thru El Paso was uneventful which is a good thing and the traffic was fairly light and soon we were headed up a short section of I-25N out of Las Cruces, NM to our next jumping off point where we would drive along the old road that parallels the Rio Grande river.  The river is the lifeblood of farmers all along its winding trail and after all the parched landscapes we have been witness to over the past few days, it was great to drive thru miles of pecan groves, and deep green alfalfa fields.   

After a delicious Mexican style Patty Melt in Hatch accompanied by highly seasoned pinto beans and amply seasoned fries we were ready for our desert of Tums!

From Hatch it was on to the remote ghost town of Lake Valley, NM.  Lake Valley, a silver mining town, was home to the most fabulous loade of silver the world has ever known.  Called the “Bridal Chamber” it was a hollow in the hillside with walls of solid horn silver and it produced silver so pure it was sent unsmelted to the mint.  It was discovered in 1878 by a local blacksmith who had leased the claim from the mining company that owned it.  The “Bridal Chamber” produced more than $2,775,000 worth of silver when silver was selling for just $1.11 an ounce.  The 1893 silver panic wiped out the town that had grown to over 4,000 folks, 12 saloons, three churches, a school, stores, hotels, stamp mills and smelters.  The post office closed in 1954 and the last residents left in 1994.  A few old homes, a chapel, the school, and other old buildings remain as does the cemetery.  With a beautiful sunny day and temperatures in the mid sixties we had a very enjoyable stop in Lake Valley.

From Lake Valley it was time to move on toward Silver City, NM via one of the curviest roads in New Mexico.  It is almost 60 miles of a very tedious curvy road that climbs up and over and down and up and over and well you get my drift.  When you finally arrive in Silver City you are ready for some easy driving which we got via Highway 180 which we took all the way to our destination of Eagar, AZ.

The landscape remained very arid today and many of the beautiful cool clear creeks we so often enjoy in this area were bone dry.  So we pushed ourselves toward the end of the day to get a little farther north.  Hopefully as we move into Utah and points farther north and west we will leave the drought conditions behind. 

A nice end to a long day can make everything better in a hurry however and that was just the case when to our surprise we found a nice looking Best Western in Eagar (the only brand name motel in town).  We opened the door to our room and found a quality room with a good arrangement, the usual coffee maker but the highlight was real coffee cups!  It’s usually the unexpected small things that make life on the road special.

Tonight we are well (drinking out of my real coffee cup as I type) and hope that yall are too!

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger