Travels of Geo Nova: September 2016

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Arizona

Wedding and Beyond

We depart Torrey Utah and make our way to Las Vegas the place that will serve as our spring board to reach New York where we will attend my niece’s, Amy’s and Justin’s, wedding. The rest of our caravan is headed to Bryce Canyon NP and then to Zion NP while we are away. The plan is for us to double back when the caravan finishes so we don’t miss those spectacular parks. The trip to Vegas took two days the first was very scenic and the second was mostly no so nice.

Fortunately the RV Park in Vegas and our flights were perfect. The wedding was loads of fun, a great party. The best part was visiting with family including both Zach and Abe, a rarity for all four of us to be together in the same place at the same time. After 2 nights it’s back to Vegas so we can catch up with our Caravan at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

This is why we sold the boat! As I have said many times you can’t visit the Grand Canyon in a 48-foot sailboat! All joking aside the place is spectacular and very different from the South Rim in several ways, first there are far fewer people, secondly the rim has many side canyons that lead to the canyon proper and it is much higher than the South Rim. In two days we were able to squeeze in most all of the sights and a few short hikes as well. On the way to the Grand Canyon we stopped at Pipe Springs National Monument that in the day served as a Mormon Fort and Ranch. Their abusive land use practices, over grazing changed the landscape forever and lead to the demise of the local Native American People namely the Paiutes.

On to Page Arizona, a town I had very little prior knowledge of but judging by the number of tourist I was the only one that hadn’t heard of Page. The number of foreign tourist is about equal to the number of US tourists. Page came into existence when the Glen Canyon dam was built, before that there was nothing around for many miles. The story of the construction and operation of the Dam was fascinating. The dam was started in 1957 and finished in 1963. The town started as a trailer park for all the workers and has grown since. The Dam was built to control the waters of the Colorado River so that water will always be available for all of the western states and Mexico. The coastline of Lake Powell, named after John Wesley Powell is as long as the entire west coast of the US. Beside the dam and Lake Powell there are several other geological wonders. We had a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon, which is on Navajo land so our guides were Navajo. This is a very narrow canyon that has been cut by water and wind over the years. Last night we went to a colorful local establishment. Hoss is the owner and very much a character. His father was one of the first 100 people to go down the Colorado River. The family had a river rafting business until the father decided to sell it without telling anyone in the family. Hoss now uses the warehouse space as a ruff museum of sorts. He had an artist paint the walls from old pictures of rafting trips. He has a collection of old pictures and boats. After looking at everything we went out side for dinner. We had a singer entertain us while we ordered. It’s a simple menu, several different kinds of Navajo tacos. This is a first for us. It is a puffy round bread, almost like the fair fried dough but not crispy or greasy, with the taco fixings on top. While we eat an elder Navajo Gentleman takes the stage and talks about the Navajo culture. At the end of his talk he asked if there were any birthdays. Well there were 2 from the caravan, David and John’s. He proceeded to sing happy birthday in Navajo to them. He stayed on stage and introduced Navajo dancers and explained the dances before they were preformed. They do not do any of their traditional dances in public so they dance other tribe’s dances. The dance that everyone loved was when a young lady came on stage with a younger sibling that was only about 3. She was so serious and did a great dance.

Grand Canyon

The Window Grand Canyon

Alcove on seep spring hike

Grand Canyon

Horseshoe Bend Overlook of Colorado River

Canyon on Lake Powell

Lake Powell Canyon

California Condor On Navajo Bridge

Truck and Trailer crossing Colorado on Navajo Bridge

Zach,Diana ,David and Abe at the wedding

Pipe Springs Fort

Pipe Springs

Upper Antelope Canyon

Moon rise over Lake Powel

Glenn Canyon Dam

Navajo Dancers

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Hotter Than The Hinges of Hell

We got to Las Vegas today for our flight to NY for Amy's wedding. The thermometer hit 102 today with the sun seemingly penetrating it's heat deep down into my bones. We managed to get some things done today such as having the oil changed on the truck and getting most of the dust and dirt cleaned off of it.

Grand Staircase-Esclante National Monument

Esclante

Truck and Airstream at overlook

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

More Pictures

Capitol Reef NP

View of overhang in canyon

Poised to descend

Up Up and away the sky's the limit

$100,000 Jeep

Ledge and Craves Fiery Furnace. Note ranger deep in craves demonstrating how to transverse

Between the Fins fiery Furnace

MOAB AND TORREY UTAH

Moab is a desert town that has grown exponentially in the last several decades. It is home to Arches National Park. It is a good launching point for visits to Canyonlands NP and Dead Horse State Park but what really has put it on the map are the multitudes of both Jeep and Mountain Bike trails, in fact of the worlds 10 best mountain bike trails, 9 are here. People come from all over the world to ride these trails, most of which are far above my skill level. Moab is also home to my B and B, bakery and brewery. The Brewery is good and the bakery is only so so.

On our first morning we departed the campground before sunrise in an attempt to capture some photographs with that magical golden lighting that typically is seen at that time of the day. Unfortunately things did not work out but we still enjoyed the rest of the day in the park going on a few short hikes to see some of the many arches.

Another day at 4pm, along with 8 other caravaners I went on a Ranger Guided Hike in what is known as The Firry Furnace, a formation of rock fins that form a labyrinth of very narrow canyons that required straddling deep crevices and walking on narrow ledges. It truly is a magical place. The parks are great and I will let the pictures tell the story.

The owner of the RV Park we stayed at was a most interesting and nice person. He was drafted by a MLB team as a young man but never made it to the Big League. In addition to running several campgrounds with his family he is deeply involved in the Jeep scene. He offered to take anyone from our group for a Jeep Crawl, we took him up on the offer and it was fun and not quite I expected. The Jeep is not any ordinary jeep but a very specialized and sophisticated piece of machinery. I am told the price tag is around $100,000. The ride included drop offs of 4-5 feet and climbs and docents in the range of 60-70 degrees.

We managed to find a Nature Conservancy Preserve, 800 acres of wetlands in the desert, to go birding in. It ended up being right behind the campground but as in Maine “you can’t get there from here”. All of this land was between the road into town on one side and the Colorado River on the other; it is the great flood plain for the river.

Now we are on to Torrey Utah, home of Capital Reef National Park. Torrey is a very small town southwest of Moab. A classic case of you can’t get there from here. First we had to drive 50 miles north before we could go west and then southwest. The drive brought us through Green River, a very small town that boasted a world-class museum devoted to the life of John Wesley Powell, a very fascinating man who is foremost remembered for his exploration of the Grand Canyon in 1869. He also charted the Green River into the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. In Green River we also stopped at the melon stand. They are known for their outstanding melons. There were so many we never seen before and wish we could have bought them all but we settled for one new kind and a watermelon. YUM!

The next stop along the way was Goblin Valley State Park. Here when looking out across the desert we felt that we were in a Star Wars movie with different aliens. Tim Alan was in a movie filmed here, Galaxy Quest in 1999. If you want a laugh watch it. Again I will let the photos do the explaining.

Capitol Reef National Park is what is known as a water pocket fold, in scientific terms a monocline. Many million years ago there was a gigantic uplifting caused by colliding tectonic plates. This along with many raising and falling large continual oceans along with wind created these interesting rocks. Of historical significance the area was home to a small settlement of Mormons dating back to the latter 19^th century. Because of the river there is an oasis in the middle of this high desert. There is a restored farmhouse in the park from that period and Mormons now sell assorted crafts along with some fabulous baked goods! We hiked several trails and I even found time for a bike ride.