A Beautiful But Stormy Drive

We got on the road about 8 AM, and headed east on Utah Highway 12, a National Scenic Highway. It lived up to its reputation. The driving was slow, twisty, up and down, but often very beautiful. At one point we were going up a ridge, with a dropoff on each side, and we could not see very far in front of us; we both wondered where we were going. We ran into some light snow, especially on the 9200 ft pass, but the roads were good.

We had a lunch stop in Cedar Breaks National Park, near the orchards which are part of the park. That park deserves a future visit.

Much of the drive was plagued by wind. We spent perhaps an hour going 50 mph bucking a headwind and a crosswind, no fun.

We stopped about 5 PM, tired and glad to get off the road. We camped in Rabbit Valley, just south of I-70, just east of the Utah-Colo line. It is beautiful in its own more modest way, as the photo below attests.
When we got up in the morning, it was clear and 22 degrees. I called the road information line, and there was chain law at the Eisenhower Tunnel. We proceeded, expecting conditions to improve.

The Grand Junction valley area was very green and beautiful. The Colorado River was running big. We ran into some snow on Vail Pass and at the tunnel, but the roads were wet and good. We were surprised to find the Boulder/Denver area very dry and brown.

A good trip, we saw some new places that we would like to go back to.

Kodachrome Basin

After the long day to see Zion, we got a kind of late start on Saturday. It was raining on and off all day. Luckily, we had less than 100 miles to go. Our destination was Kodachrome Basin State Park, as beautiful as you might expect from the name. Hard to take a bad photo. National Geographic visited here in 1948, and gave the area its name.

Richard went for a hike up to the rim, an overlook from which he took some of the photos. He also met a recently retired couple from Washington state.

On Sunday, we woke up to a cold, rainy day. The photo shows the snow at higher elevations. We drove 50 miles to Panguitch, to the closest Catholic Church, St. Gertrude. The place was packed, with about 60 people in the small church. A 75 year old retired Irish priest said the mass, he had a great sense of humor. We ate Easter dinner at a cafe promoting its soup and homemade pies. There were plenty of cars outside, and the food was good.

Monday was a nicer day, partly cloudy, and warmer, up to the 60s. Bryce Canyon National Park was reported to be snowy, so we took a hike to Shakespeare Arch in Kodachrome Basin State Park, where we were camped. The paw print that we saw on the hike was identified as a bobcat by the park ranger. He said that there are many bobcats and mountain lions here. We watched some Mountain Bluebirds, and later a Raven turning over cow pies, looking for insects.

We are pretty much out of communication here, since cell phones don't work, and we have no internet connection. We will post this when we can. We did read the Sunday paper from Cedar City, so we sort of know what is going on in the world.

Zion

On Good Friday, we drove to Zion National Park. Very impressive. Most of the photos I took do not do justice to the place. The visitors come from all over the world. Very popular park, you have to take a shuttle bus up the canyon. We came in from the East, so we drove through the one mile tunnel, and got to see that part of the park from our own vehicle.

It has been wet, so the falls are running and the river is high, much too high to hike in the riverbed at the Narrows. The photo below does not really capture the 900 cubic feet per second (cfs) flow. They close the Narrows to hiking at 150 cfs.

Phoenix to Zion

On Wednesday, Krista came by in the morning. Charley, Aracelli, and Bridget came by in the evening. Good to see them all. Richard went to the Phoenix Art museum and the Heard museum, while Eileen and Marianne went shopping.



On Thursday, we left Phoenix behind and headed to Utah. The photo below is of the valley below Glen Canyon Dam; the crack in the earth is the canyon of the Colorado River.

Our destination was a commercial campground near Zion National Park, from which we are sending this email.

As an aside, the cats seem to be adjusting to life on the road, which is good.

Visiting Eileen

We enjoyed Palm Sunday mass at the Casa Franciscan center, a big production, with choir and even dancers.

On Monday, Marianne and Richard went to the State Capitol museum, in the old state capitol, as well as the Mining and Mineral museum. The Mining and Mineral museum is a good one. Copper is a sizable employer in Arizona, which makes sense, given the record high copper prices.

We have been enjoying Eileen's loveable dog, Boo. Her back yard is an oasis, complete with a pond with Koi and turtles.



We plan to leave Thursday for SW Utah, Zion and Bryce National parks.

Sedona to Phoenix

We got up in the morning and went into town to walk around. Lots of gift shops and tours, as you would expect of a tourist town. Marianne bought a mobile of paper cranes, and Richard bought her a pair of titanium earrings.

Sedona is the home of so many new age beliefs, but I chose one of them for your amusement.

We made it back to the campground in time to check out and head down the road to Phoenix. Eileen was happy to see us.

Monument Valley to Sedona

On our drive south, we drove through Monument valley, always impressive.

We decided to add one more day to our drive down by stopping in Sedona. Richard walked and visited art galleries, including talking to an artist. We had a good dinner in the Javelina Cantina.

The campground has internet access, hence this posting.

Tomorrow we head on to Phoenix.

To the edge of a canyon in Utah

On Tuesday we got up, ate breakfast, and headed over to the visitor center to buy an Aspen Age Colorado States Parks pass. Only $35 for 64 and older, free admission, and savings on mid-week camping. Should pay for itself in three nights.
We headed towards Moab, on the old road that parallels the Colorado river. We drove by the now burned out Dewey Bridge, an old suspension bridge with a wood deck, that we remembered crossing years ago. A very pretty drive.

We bought a few groceries and gassed up in Moab, and continued south. After a lunch break at the rest area near Hole in the Wall, we headed on to Gooseneck State Park. Quite an amazing view of the switchbacks of the San Juan River. No admission or camping fee, primitive camping. We camped a few feet from the rim, what a view! One of the dots in the photo below is our camper.

Marianne cooked pasta for dinner, and then we took a shower and headed for bed. Marianne is not inclined to drive 350 miles to Phoenix tomorrow, so we may stop in the Flagstaff or Sedona area.

On the road to Arizona

On Monday, April 11th, we headed for Arizona. We were a little slow getting underway, partly due to a low truck battery, low from being parked for months. It was a beautiful blue sky day, so we headed West on I-70. We stopped for lunch at a rest area outside Eagle Colorado, and ended up at Highline Lake State Park, near the Utah border. Highline Lake was listed as one of the top 100 campgrounds in the state of Colorado. We are not sure about the top 100 rating, but it is nice, an oasis in the desert. The campground has about 30 sites, and it is quiet. We did a little birdwatching, a little walking, and then cooked up dinner. A good day, we got about as far as we planned to get today. On Tuesday, we plan to head for southern Utah, perhaps Bluff. We will drive to Phoenix on Wednesday. Three days from Boulder to Arizona is a pretty relaxed schedule, but that is the way we planned it.