MOAB AREA EXPLORATIONS

Along the Colorado River

Contrast along the Colorado

Castle Tower on the right

Looking down into Castle Valley

Castle Valley

There was a large forest fire through here recently, those are oaks in the foreground.

Some high country colour

Small owl that Aileen spotted beside the truck

This will be short as I’m sitting in the library lobby on a slatted bench which is not comfortable and my battery won’t last too long. We went to Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands on Thursday. Some fabulous scenery again. Yesterday we took a loop trip north and east of Moab seeing some more neat country. We got up to about 8,000 feet and found a little Fall colour. We have decided to stay at the Big Bend camp through Monday now as this is a holiday weekend here. Several events happening over the weekend including a 24 hour mountain bike race. Quite a few individuals entered but mostly teams – over 400 teams in fact. The race started at noon today and ends at noon tomorrow.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

Our very tight parking space in Grand Junction. Thats a fence on the right. We couldn't open the door fully!

Driving south west on highway 128 in Utah along the Colorado River

A view from the trailer door looking south west at Big Bend BLM campsite

The view east from our doorway

Mostly vandal proof picnic tables? Solid rock

Hwy 128 along the Colorado River

Along Park Avenue in Arches

Any idea why this is called Sheep Rock?

The Balanced Rock

Skyline Arch

Sand Dune Arch

Broken Arch

Delicate Arch from below

Some of the crowd at Delicate Arch

The north and south windows in an area of several arches

Sunday Aileen wasn’t feeling too chipper so she missed going to church with Ken and Marie. We did make it to the Gospel Fest later which included lunch of barbequed pork and beef, beans, coleslaw and bun. There was lots of dessert, too. The entertainment was very good. The first group was a ma and pa family with kids from 12 down to 4 months on stage. The second and third were mature groups while the last was a family again consisting of 4 girls and 2 boys ranging from 11 up to mid 20s. The last group was the most professional of the day. One of the guys in the third group used to play with Bill Monroe years ago and he was a banjo picker extraordinaire.

We left Grand Junction on Monday but first Ken guided me around town to do some last minute errands. We washed the truck too as when it rains in Grand Junction, it rains mud. Really! I think the wind must blow dust off the high ridges which mixes with the rain because after just about every rain, things are covered in mud. We found a place to fill our propane on the way out then when to Fruita, which was along our way west, to dump the tanks free at the visitor centre. We had a late lunch there. We turned off I-70 at Cisco and took Hwy 128 down along the Colorado River toward Moab. We tried to get in a BLM campsite close to Moab but the two closest were full so we had to backtrack about 7 miles. We are in the river canyon with towering red walls on all sides. While the road is fairly close, there is little traffic after bedtime.

After many years of seeing pictures of Arches National Park, yesterday was finally the day we got to go there. The weather was gorgeous although the temperature was cool for the most part. I was amazed how busy it was though. The summer season must be insane. We couldn’t find any parking up at the end of the road so couldn’t check out any of the features there. I did walk in to several of the arches. I went to the lower viewpoint for Delicate Arch. Maybe another time I will do the trail up to the arch. It was so crowded up there when I was shooting from below and when we were driving along we could see all the people strung out across the slickrock part of the route.

Today has dawned cloudy and I think it will be a day of some rest and hopefully, we can find WiFi in town to catch up on emails and post this blog. Today is our 42^nd anniversary.

GATEWAY, COLORADO

Along the road to Gateway

Gateway area scenery

A local resident

Modern Gateway

At 7,000 feet looking back to north of Gateway

Scrub Oak at 9,000 feet

Turkey Vulture disturbed from dining on dead coyote

Buck and doe Mule Deer

Three point Mule Deer buck

We went to Gateway yesterday and more great scenery awaited us. We again packed our lunches and found a picnic table alongside a little creek to sit at and eat in the sun. The rocks seemed to have more colour than the monument did the other day and were much different in design and shape. Gateway is an old village being rejuvenated by John Hendricks, founder of Discovery Communications (the parent of Discovery Channel). Everything he builds is done with the southwest architecture style and looks very nice. He seems to be putting lots of money into the project. It seems some of the longer term residents aren’t impressed with his methods so the community is somewhat divided.

To take a different route home, we took a side road which took us from 4,400 feet up over 9,000 feet elevation. During the day we saw a turkey vulture, several coyotes, a flock of wild turkeys (12-15) and over a dozen deer. I was glad I had purchased a Colorado atlas the other day as we consulted it extensively to find our route. Ken had been through years ago from the other direction but things didn’t look the same today.

This morning we went to Caliente friends, Doug and Corrine’s, for brunch and visiting. Late afternoon and evening I showed pictures to Ken and Marie, mostly of our recent travels.

COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT

Can you spot the sheep's head?

Close up of sheep's head

Close up of balancing rock

All pictures taken today at Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction

We arrived at our Caliente friends, Ken and Marie’s, in Grand Junction, Colorado on Tuesday after overnight stops in Pocatello, Idaho and Price, Utah. Marie’s directions were very good so we had no difficulty finding their place. The real difficulty came when it was time to back in beside their house! There were only inches to spare between the trailer and the eave which we had to crowd as much as possible since we still couldn’t open the trailer door all the way when parked the best possible way. We enjoyed a potluck barbeque for supper.

Ken and Marie came along and gave us a tour of the Colorado National Monument today. We took a lunch and enjoyed it in bright sun but a cool wind. Up at 6400 feet, it was fairly nippy but the air was nice and clear. We were very impressed with the beautiful colours in the cliffs as well as the height of them. We stopped at a winery on the return but I thought their product wasn’t nearly as good as BC wines.

Last night another couple from Caliente, Doug and Corrine, came to supper with the four of us here and we had a great evening visiting. It will be fun when we all get to Caliente again and resume our socializing. The plan is for the four of us to go to a ranch restaurant for supper tonight so I will keep this short and see if the internet signal is strong enough to post my blog from here.

We did get to the Texas Steakhouse for supper. Good food at $7.99 each and the ladies both brought some home. We played Mexican Train tonight. Aileen was the big winner. Another exploration trip is planned for tomorrow but not decided where yet.

LEAVING YELLOWSTONE

Maples at the bottom of Targhee Pass

We slowly packed up this morning. We had a good visit with several of our neighbours as we worked. Some of them were departing also. I found our original spare tire bracket was about to fall off so I removed the wheel and put it inside the trailer until I can buy a replacement. That would be pretty nasty for someone following behind, if the wheel fell off! The weather in Yellowstone has been so phenomenal for us but the forecast is saying that will change. They say 39/29 F on Wednesday with rain and snow. We’re getting out just in time!

We took Hwy 20 west from West Yellowstone over Targhee Pass. There were lots of yellow poplars glowing in the sun but the amazing thing was seeing red maples just as we approached the bottom of the pass. We made that our lunch stop so I could take some pictures. We didn’t see maples anywhere else. We only made it to Pocatello, Idaho today before looking for a spot for the night. I feel a little tired after my week in Yellowstone and we’re in no hurry for the next while.

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