MONTICELLO, UTAH

If you look closely, there are 5 or 6 climbers spread across this cliff

This girl was free climbing-notice the only rope is below her. The others had safety ropes from above

She's 60-80 feet above the bottom here

Newspaper Rock

Views in the Needles area of Canyonlands National Monument

We moved down the road from Moab on Tuesday and ended up in a great little campground on the way into Needles Overlook in Canyonlands National Monument. The campground, Windwhistle, is actually on BLM land and $12 per night. There were large trucks hauling past during the day but there was absolute silence all night. Six miles from the highway so no noise from there and no traffic went by after dark. The clouds were building so we went and looked at Needles Overlook in the afternoon. The next day dawned very cloudy and our batteries were in need of charging so we had to move on. There were too many days of maximum 7 hours of sun and most days were less than that; some days only had a couple hours of good sun.

On Wednesday, we moved a few more miles south to Monticello and boy was it cold when we arrived. 9C (48F) and the wind was howling. Of course it is nearly 7,000 feet elevation here rather than the 4,500 we are used to. We went to the Needles area yesterday which is only a few miles south of the Needles Overlook area but approached from further south. We took a road right from Monticello and went up to nearly 9,000 feet this morning and saw some nice scenery while working our way to Canyonlands. I was finally able to get some Fall colour shots today which I was beginning to think wasn’t going to happen. I had expected to get some good shots in Colorado but we didn’t go far enough into the state to get to the areas where there might have been colour.

We had beautiful weather most of the day and were able to find a quiet spot away from the road to have our lunch. We were amazed at how many rock climbers there were along the way. There were dozens of them inching their way up sheer cliffs and both genders were well represented. We had stopped at Newspaper Rock in the morning and were surprised how close to the road it was. It seems so many of those things require a hike to get in. One hike I would like to have done is the Confluence Trail which goes in to a point where you can look down 1,000 feet to where the Green River and the Colorado join. It was late in the day (5PM actually) and it is 11 miles return! Maybe another year if we happen to be lucky enough to snag a campsite right at Needles.

Today we plan to move a little further south somewhere west of Blanding, UT. I’m hoping to find some free BLM camping away from the hustle and bustle of highways. A lady at the local BLM office gave me some tips and ideas so we’ll have to see how they work when we actually get there. We may be without internet for a few days unless plans change. Well, no, I don’t actually have any plans; what am I thinking?

EXPLORING NEGRO BILL CANYON

This rock is right above our camp. Can you see the climber half way up?

Well here's two of them

This is the second group that made it to the top

Lots of Poison Ivy in this area

Rock texture

Tree and rock up Negro Bill Canyon

My first view of the natural bridge - not much to look at

See the human fly - rappelling down

It was this lady's second day ever rappelling

Morning Glory Natural Bridge is fairly large - that's me at the bottom

Along the trail on the return

Some of the rock along the way

After doing our in town stuff I had intended on a quiet afternoon sitting in the sun while Aileen napped but then I had the bright idea of hiking up Negro Bill Canyon to Morning Glory Natural Bridge. Well, that was the longest two miles I’ve ever hiked, I think. Not bad returning but going in had lots of up and down, many creek crossings and some sloping and shelving rock. I made it worse going in by having my camera on the tripod so I didn’t have use of both hands. I put the camera and tripod in the pack on the return. When I first saw the bridge, I thought, I came all the way here for this? Fortunately, I decided to go all the way and good thing. First off when I got there, is a guy rappelling down from above the bridge. Then down comes a lady on her second ever rappel so I took a bunch of shots which I’ll send her. I was amazed how big the bridge was when I got underneath it. The other highlight was two groups of climbers who scaled the tower right above our campsite this afternoon. They went right up the shear face of the high cliff by following a crack, it looked like. It was scary watching from way down here!

DEAD HORSE POINT AND CANYON LANDS - ANOTHER NEW POST BELOW THIS ONE

These images are all taken along the Colorado River north of our camp.

Fisher Towers

Not quite where he wanted to land his powered sailer!

Dead Horse Point - the Colorado River

Utah Juniper leads a tortuous existence

Shafer Canyon Road - they used to drive cattle up and down in the early 1900s and hauled mining equipment down and uranium up until the 1960s! There were quite a number of vehicles using it when we were there.

The high plateau country

Another Utah Juniper

Views from Grand View Point in Canyon Lands National Park

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.