Southern Utah & NV, 12 days & 1825 m. Days 10-12

Day 10
Good sleep and up and rolling by 10:30am (chk out was 11am). We headed out of Zion and west to I-15. Funny thing is there is another part of Zion 45 miles away just off of the interstate. Kolob canyon is beautiful with clear bluebird skies and, oh yeah, all the roads in Zion are paved red. It's really pretty cool.

There is a 5 mile drive to the Kolob Canyons overlook and apparently very little of the tourist crowd bothers to visit.

The hanging valleys were intriguing and there are several hiking trails but we were headed home.

We wanted to skip Salt Lake City so after some map study we saw Great Basin National Park just inside the Nevada border. We headed north on Hwy 130 and turned west on Hwy 21 at Minersville. There is nothing out here. The couple of towns have warning signs that there are no services for the next 1000 miles so we fueled and went looking for a place to fill our fresh water tank. Minersville is a little podunk town with a big ass Mormon church and while I was turning around in the church parking lot I saw a faucet on an exterior wall so we pulled up and filled up. Guess I owe the next pair of 20 yr olds that ring my doorbell in white shirts and ties 5 minutes of listening. 

Pretty long day but we wheeled into Great Basin NP about 6pm and backed into our campsite w/ a stream right behind the camper that we listened to splashing down the mountain. We even had a campfire and enjoyed a nice grilled chicken dinner in the fire light.

That evening we read in the park brochure that there is a cave there and they have tours. Now I have never  been much of a cave person but what the hell, we're here. Lehman cave is a natural cavern formed by a bunch of different erosive forces.

Day 11

Next morning we headed to the visitor's center and signed up for the 90 minute, 0.6 mile guided tour. It was really cool. We were both stunned by the amazing formations. We took a lot of pictures but later when we were editing, the pics looked like stills from someone's colostomy. 

We had a couple of good ones. This formation is called popcorn.

There were all the stalagmites and -tites and shields and a bunch of other ones.

                                                     The coolest one was cave bacon.

After we did the cave tour we took the 12 mile scenic drive up to Wheeler peak. This is high country, the summit on the drive was 10,800' and the surrounding peaks were 13,000'+, beautiful alpine ecosystem.

We broke camp and hit the road heading north. Not much on Hwy 93 through here. A long way between towns but we did find this guy. Guess he's the last pony express rider that never made it to the barn.

We kept heading north on Hwy 93 and on the map we found a forest service CG about 8 miles outside of Wells, NV. It was a bit of a hump driving to it, but Angel Creek CG was gorgeous. We literally backed into and aspen grove and set up for the night.

Day 12
The next morning I took a walk and admired the view. I've never seen aspen with so much orange and red fall color.

The CG is right at the foot of the Ruby Mountains that go up to 10,000 ft. I wanted a couple of more days to explore.

We hooked up and pulled out. West on I-80 and then north on NV Hwy 225 which turns into ID 51 at the border. Not much out here except the Duck Valley Indian Reservation that straddles the NV-ID border. We stopped in Riddle at the reservation store, fueled up and bought some piñones in the shell.
When we were down by Manti, UT we passed a guy set up on the side of the road with a hand painted sign advertising pine nuts. A mile later we wished we had stopped. That was our only regret on the trip; we hadn't stopped at the pine nut guy.
Anyway I'm wandering around the Duck Valley store and I see a sign listing lg and sm bags of pine nuts. They only had sm bags left so I got one and gave it to Jennifer.
Kept going north on 51 and turned west on I-84 and made it home to Eagle by about 6:30pm. Tired and happy.
It was a trip of a lifetime. Loved traveling with my wife and best friend. We were both filled with amazing visions and memories and we had our pine nuts.

Southern Utah & NV, 12 days & 1825 m. Zion NP

Day 8
We broke camp and rolled out of Kodachrome by 10:40. Crack of dawn for us. We headed west on Hwy 12 past Bryce and into Red Canyon. All of this is scenic byway stuff.

After Red Canyon, hwy 12 tees into hwy 89 and we headed south. We stopped in Orderville, UT at a 1950's grocery store and resupplied. We came in the east entry on highway 9 and the senior pass was golden again.
About 2 miles into the park you come to a 1.1 mile tunnel that was built in the 30's. If you are pulling an rv you have to pay $15 and they stop the oncoming traffic and then you drive down the middle of the tunnel. It's really narrow and dark and way cool.

                                           As you emerge the view takes your breath.

We headed to Watchman CG where we had reservations for 2 nights. FYI they only have electric at their hookup sites, no water or sewer. The CG was full and we reserved the last site available next to the bathroom but it had plumbing so it didn't bother us. The drive from the entry was so beautiful we decided to drive back w/out the camper and stop at the viewpoints. Below is a view back toward the tunnel and a view portal that was cut into the side of a 1000' cliff.

Everything there is so vertical we were taking pictures out of the truck's sun roof. The scale is absolutely incredible.

One of the stops was by a formation called Checkerboard Mesa. It was formed by erosion, freezing and thawing, and humic acid leaching from decaying plant material.

What a great day. Each park we have been to has been unique and the awesome size and scale of Zion absolutely blows you away. We ended the day watching the sunset over the camper.

Day 9
Some of the busiest NP's no longer allow private vehicle traffic on their scenic drives. Zion is one of them and has a shuttle system that stops at every viewpoint. You can get off and on as you choose and another shuttle will come by in 10 minutes or less. I thought this sounded cheesey but I really liked it. I didn't have to drive and worry about traffic or a place to park. After morning coffee we walked to the shuttle stop by our CG and off we went.

                                                Every stop, absolutely stunning views.

                                        Even the not-so-grandiose nooks were beautiful.

Our plan was to ride to the end of the 15 mile shuttle route and hike to the "Narrows". The Virgin River runs down the canyon and at the end of the pavement there is a 1 mile trail that takes you to where the canyon narrows.

                       The canyon keeps closing in until it is just cliff walls and the river bed.

          To keep going you have to wade in the river, which we did. The water was really cold.

It was a real life experience. You can keep going for 8 miles but we only went up until our feet were totally numb.

We hiked back to the shuttle stop and sat in the sun and warmed up. Big Bend is a shuttle stop where the Virgin River does a 180° surrounded by 2000' sheer cliffs. Scanning the cliffs we saw these totally crazy people 3/4 of the way up.

At our next stop we took a loop trail to Emerald Pools and then tied into Kayenta trail, about 3 miles total. The foliage and sandstone forms were almost magical.

I'm fairly certain when we get home I am going to need to see a chiropractor and get my neck adjusted. You spend the majority of your time looking up and just gawking.

Couple of miles down the trail you come to an open ended slot canyon.

Pretty cool. Jennifer walked behind a waterfall and I stayed back and a took a picture of her through the mist.

What a magical day. We were pretty weary when we got on the shuttle and headed to our camper.

Southern Utah & NV, 12 days & 1825 m. Days 6 & 7

Day 6
Great sleep and 30° this morning at Kodachrome. Our plan today is to leave the camper parked and take a tour of Bryce Canyon NP about 20 miles to the SE. The senior pass was a score again at the park entry. Bryce is a one sided canyon. You drive along the top on an 18 mile scenic drive and look down into the park at 14 viewpoints. It is recommended that you drive 18 miles to the end at Rainbow Point and stop at the view areas on the way back so you don't have to cross traffic, so that's what we did. We took a hike on the Bristlecone loop trail and stopped at Yovimpa Point. The word scenic used in reference to Bryce Canyon is an immeasurable understatement.

The vertical rock formations are called hoodoos, different from spires due to their varying thicknesses. The scale can't be captured in a photo. The trees in the picture are 40-60' mature spruce.

We had lunch on this sawn log bench with views 1500' down and 100 miles out. Munched our sandwiches and stared in awe. Oh, BTW the weather was perfect as it was for our entire trip.

We stopped at every viewpoint. Bryce is different in that you look down into it. It is much harder to interact with as there are few trails and they drop hundreds of feet into the canyon so the hike out is brutal and more than Jennifer or I wanted to attempt.

                                Inspiration Point is well named and absolutely incredible to see.

We headed out of the main park but we had one more stop on the way back to the camper. Off of Hwy 12 there is a trail to Mossy Cave which is not that special but the waterfall a little farther up the trail is spectacular.

Now sometimes the viewer may not see the effort that goes into a postable picture so here is a little behind the scenes look at "getting the shot."

Jennifer kept saying I was crazy and that it was a 100' drop. I didn't really listen and I was pretty sure the drop wasn't much over 40'. But I got the shot that I wanted showing the water falling.

 

 Day 7

 Great sleep. 30° this morning so I turned the furnace up and made coffee. Our plan for the day was to hike in Kodachrome on a loop trail. It was the type of hike I like because we were constantly in new terrain with different stuff to see around every bend. The spires are almost unbelievable.

It was a great trail about 4 miles total and not much elevation change. A couple of miles in was the spot labeled "Indian Cave". At 1st we thought, "Wow thousand yr old hand prints", but when we placed our hands in the prints we realized the rock was very soft and the prints were made by hikers like us.

A spire is smooth and cylindrical and a hoodoo is like a spire but with varying widths and in Kodachrome there seems to be hybrids.

All of these formations are huge. The juniper in the background is over 30' tall. A loop off the loop we started on took us to the secret passage. It's a really cool slot canyon that dead ends.

On the way back to the main trail we came across the narrowest slot canyon we'd ever seen. The chunk of rock on the left is the size of a 747 and the other side is a solid cliff. The opening is maybe 3" wide by 15' tall. I didn't fit.

We hiked up to Panorama Point and you could see Bryce Canyon to the west and into Arizona to the south. We came across this guy looking south. He was pretty serious looking.

On the way back  we saw different formtions yet. These mounds/ petrified teepees were pretty neat.

We got back to the truck and drove out of Kodachrome and into the GSENM down Cottonwood Canyon road to Grosvenor Arch. Pretty good place to have lunch.

Back at the camper we ate a great spaghetti dinner sitting outside as a full moon rose. The international space station orbited by, brighter than the brightest star and 3 minutes from horizon to horizon. It was a good day.

Southern Utah & NV, 12 days & 1825 m. Days 1- 5

Day 1
We always wanted to see the national parks in sw Utah so on Fri 10/05 we decided to do a road trip and left Eagle the next Weds. Our plan was to take 3 days driving down so we camped our first night at Hyrum State Park, http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/hyrum, which is a few miles SE of Logan. Nice CG w/ hookups and showers on a small reservoir. Rained a little that night. Up bright and early the next morning and on the road by 11am.

Day 2
We drove a couple of hundred miles and the traffic and construction through Salt Lake City on I-15 was horrible. We finally bailed off the interstate at Nephi and headed SE to Palisade State park, http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/palisade. This was another Utah state park and was very nice with a lot of new facilities. There is a beautiful 18 hole state golf course that is part of the park. Jennifer and I actually hit a couple of buckets on their driving range. Great sleep and since we only had to drive 110 miles we got on the road about noon.

Day 3
The drive south was uneventful and we stayed on the back roads. We were headed to Capitol Reef National Park and our plan was to stay at Fruita CG in the park. After we went through Torrey the scenery dramatically changed. Our senior pass is great, you hand it to the person at the entry gate and instead of paying a $25 entry fee they hand you back a map and tell you to have a nice time. Camping is also 1/2 price in NP's.

The Fruita  CG in Capitol Reef NP is in an old homesteader's orchard. You can pick apples from 120 yr old trees which we did. The CG is a first come first serve situation and we got there before 3pm and there were only 4 open sites.

We took the scenic drive loop through the park that evening and it was breathtaking. At the far end of the loop you can take a nearly 4wd track down the Capitol Wash. It was amazing. It's a slot canyon formed by millennial erosion. We were surprised you could just drive down it as most NP's are much more structured. 

At the end of the 4wd track there was a footpath and about 1/4m down the trail were petroglyphs estimated to be 3000 yrs old.

It was a great day. My mind could hardly process that what my eyes were seeing.

Day 4
After a relaxing night and great sleep we planned two hikes. The first was to Hickman bridge. It's a natural sandstone arch at the end of a 2.5m walk. We had a picnic with apples from the orchard and cheese.

That afternoon we hiked into the Grand Wash from the Hwy 24 side until we reached the "Narrows". It was a slot canyon no more that 30' wide with 1500' sheer cliffs towering up on both sides. This went down as a once in a lifetime experience.

We got back to the truck and drove to Panorama Point near the park entry. After a short walk to Goosenecks Overlook we looked down on to Sulfur Crk and you could see where the overlook got it's name.

  We walked a little further and sat and watched the evening shadows from Sunset Point.

Back at the CG we had a great supper with white chicken chili we brought from home. A hot shower in the camper was really sweet.

Day 5
We broke camp and headed south on Hwy 12 which is a classified as a scenic highway. The aspens at the 9600' summit of Boulder Mtn were turning and we even ran into some snow bermed on the side from the snowplow.

We stopped at the Anasazi St Park Museum, http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/anasazi, a partially excavated Anasazi dwelling with artifacts that were carbon dated to more than 10,000 yrs ago. Made us wonder what life was like back then.

                           The smaller rooms were probably used for grain and food storage.

The rocks in a square enclosed their fire and the rock with a depression was probably used to grind grain, mainly corn, and to cook in. They would put super hot rocks from the fire into a liquid in the depression heating it to boiling.

They lived in these below ground pits. The wood of course was recently added to define the structure. In the enlargement you can see a chimney vent at the back for smoke egress. People actually lived here 10,000 yrs ago, more than twice as old as the steps we walked up in a Mayan ruin in Cozumel years ago.

We continued on hwy 12 and turned due south in Cannonville heading to Kodachrome Basin St Park, http://stateparks.utah.gov/parks/kodachrome, our CG for the next three nights. Kodachrome is a huge natural amphitheater surrounded by the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, (henceforth GSENM). GSENM is a multi-hundred thousand acre wilderness with only a couple of dirt tracks.

There are a bunch of formations called spires that were geysers that laid down much harder mineralization than the surrounding sandstone. The softer sandstone eroded leaving the very unique spires as seen looking west from our camp site.