Fri, Oct 22, 2010

Friday, October 22, 2010

From our motel room we had a beautiful view of Lake Powell. We were treated to just a little sunshine this morning after the sunrise before the drizzling rain began.  We enjoyed hot coffee, milk and cheese toast for breakfast as we watched folks preparing their boats for a day on Lake Powell.  We talked to the people in the room next to us as they enjoyed their breakfast on their porch as well.  They were from Spokane, Washington and she had made two mission trips to Biloxi to help after Katrina. 

The forecast still predicting light rain for the day we knew we could not take the Burr Trail dirt road.  But the paved road drive, although many more miles is still scenic from beginning to end… so much so that our eyes are usually worn out from seeing so much scenery by the end of this drive.

We made our usual puppy play stop at Trachyte Creek a neat rocky creek running thru the red sandstone.  Because it was raining lightly we only hiked a short way down the creek and back.  Flash floods can come on suddenly in any of the canyon areas and we didn’t really feel like trying to outrun a wall of water.

The rain continued so we pretty much just drove to the Capitol Reef National Park Area before making any more stops.  An interesting point was the cabin of the Elijah Cutler Behunin family.  This family was one of the first settlers in the area and the small single room cabin (it appeared to be about 12x16 at most) was built in 1882 on the Fremont River.  Small cabin equals small family… right?  No, it seems they had eight children (picture of the family is in my photos).  The cabin had a fireplace where the cooking was probably done but they probably ate outside according to the info at the cabin.  Mr & Mrs Behunin and the two smallest children slept in the cabin, the older boys slept in a dugout on the cliff behind the cabin and the girls made a bed in an old wagon box.  All I can say is these were tough tough people!

The next stop at the old school in Fruita (just down the road from the Behunin Cabin) was the “stop of the day”.  The one room schoolhouse served the community from 1896 until 1941.  Money, land, materials and labor were donated by the Mormon settlers as well as money for the teachers’ pay.  It also served as the community meeting place, Sunday school and Saturday night social center.  An additional treat at this stop was two beautiful antique vehicles parked there when we drove up.  One was a 1950 Ford Crestliner and the other a 1936 Ford pickup.  The two guys driving them had come from Sherman, Texas and were returning from a car show in St George, Utah.  Both were unbelievable but the Crestliner had won Best of Show.  So we had a great time visiting with them and looking at their cars.  Before long we got to the subject of where we were from and the guy driving the truck is the first cousin once removed of Melvin Boles (founding pastor of the Evangel Temple).  Not only was he familiar with Meridian but actually knew where Causeyville was as well… small world!

After that stop it was a nice stop at the Capitol Reef Visitor Center to look at the Indian artifacts displayed there and read about the history of the area.  Because of the extreme terrain, this area was one of the last to be explored and settled. This is not hard to imagine once you have toured the area.

After one of the best hamburgers we have ever eaten at Slackers in Torrey, UT we made the trip up, into, down and out of the Dixie National Forest.  We were surprised to still find colorful Aspens. The first town out of the Dixie is Boulder, UT and is where we would have come out if we had been able to take the Burr Trail.  Since several miles of the Burr Trail is paved outside of Boulder we made the trip down to our favorite puppy stop on the Burr Trail.  It is in an area of huge light colored sandstone formations that has a clear creek running through it at certain times of the year.  We made several stops there with our first road trip companion Truman.  We knew that after all the rain it should be flowing very well.  It was and we stayed there about an hour letting Dodger and Paris have a big time jumping the creek and playing on the slick rock (it’s not really slick to walk on just looks that way).  While walking out to the creek we were talking about Truman and Dodger looked up at us as if to say “Oh, is Truman going to be here?”  They had several great playtimes at this spot so it’s also nice to see Paris & Dodger carrying on the Truman Downey tradition.

Soon we were in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument area.  This is such a rugged area that is was the last place in the United States to be mapped! The monument spans almost two million acres but the highpoint of the area we went thru on our way to Bryce Canyon was literally the high point where the road runs a ridge between two huge canyons that seem to go on forever.  Far below us in the canyons you could see a river of cottonwoods snaking thru the landscape.  At one point the ridge is the width of the road with about two thousand foot drops on both sides with no guard rail.  It’s a real nail biter but the view is unbelievable.

From there it was a short drive to Ruby’s Inn at Bryce Canyon and our resting spot for the night.  Because we had eaten a late lunch we opted for a sandwich in our room. 

We had another really nice day on the road and are well tonight.  We hope you all are too!

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger