Canyonlands and Bryce

As I mentioned, Linda did a great job of scheduling our time between all of the parks thus far. We spent Monday exploring Canyonlands....wow, was that impressive ! We went to the area where the filming of Thelma and Louise's final drive off into the sunset was filmed.....near Dead Horse Point. I do much better looking up at towering rocks than I do staring DOWN into a really deep abyss. Oh my ! Thank goodness there are railings at most of these overlooks cause it makes me pretty nauseous to stare down into some of these canyons. We hiked on two different trails for a total of about 4 miles.

 

 

 

The slick rock is pretty interesting to hike on. As long as you have decent sneakers or hiking boots, it isn't slippery at all. I would say that it's probably just the opposite if the surface gets wet. Trail markers or "cairens" are piles of rocks that show you the way. They are especially helpful when a large area is nothing but slick rock.....you don't see footprints in the dirt so you need the cairens to show the way. Here's a set in this picture on the right. It's important to not disturb these as you're walking.

 

 

Here the park ranger is explaining about the geology of the different layers and colors that you can see in the rock. The spires that jut up from the bottom have a cap on them, which protects them from erosion. They are called "hoodoos". She said that when the caps fall off, it doesn't seem to take very long for the hoodoo to collapse. Someone asked her about her background, since she knows so much about the make-up of the rock. She's actually a dance major, with a choreographer background from the Rochester,NY area. She shared some really neat info. It was a good thing we stumbled onto this pull off right as she was leading this activity. It was very informative although it made me super nervous with how close she was standing to the edge.

We finished up at Canyonlands and drove back into town to get something to eat. We stopped at the Moab Brewery and all had veggie burritos. They were huge. As an appetizer, Becky and I had jalapeno cornbread with honey butter....wow, was that delicious ! Becky tried out their micro brews and I sampled the margaritas.....a great time was had by all.

Tuesday was a driving day....we get on the road by 7 and we seem to arrive at our next stop around lunchtime, which is a great day of traveling in my book. Interstate 70 does not have a lot of options for fuel, if you're coming across Utah. There are no travel plazas on the road....you have to exit to get gas. In Richfield there is a Flying J so that worked out great as a place to get gas. We pulled in here at Ruby's Inn Campground at lunchtime, got set up and had our lunch. We spent the afternoon checking out the general store down the road (which is part of Ruby's Inn). They have a large gift shop/grocery store, etc that is connected to the motel. We also purchased tickets for the  Bar G Wrangler show that is held at Ebenezer's Barn and Grill. It was a cute show but the ones we've seen in Jackson Hole, WY are better.

Today we took in Bryce National Park, which is only about a mile from our campground. They have a free shuttle from the campground but it doesn't go to all of the stops in the park. The views are amazing. I thought that we'd get tired of looking at red rocks by now but how can you when the views are simply amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hiked two trails and took in all of the stops and finished up around lunchtime. We then drove a little ways outside the park to the Mossy cave, which depending on the time of year will either have ice in it or green moss. The trek up to that was pretty disappointing because it's more of an alcove that you can stick your head inside of. The more spectacular thing was the waterfall near there. The channel directing water through this area is part of what Ebenezer Bryce established in the 1800's when he first came to the area and set up waterways to be able to irrigate the land. It was like a little secret "find" or added bonus for our hike up to the cave. We drove back into Panguitch and checked out some of the stores and an ice cream shop that made their own ice cream. Yum ! Panguitch is pretty famous for Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall gang. As big a reputation as he had in the old west, he was also known as the gentleman bandit and he never killed anyone during his career of robbing. There was a really cute cowboy shop in town that had anything western....lots of neat things to check out, having to do with the old west.

 

 

 

That's the Hole in the Wall gang on the right and Butch Cassidy on the left. Linda thought about hitting the trail, with her trusty steed to check out where the outlaws used to hang out but her horse was having nothing to do with it. Becky found John Wayne hanging out on the corner, in town, and swapped a few stories with him. Tonight we're relaxing...tomorrow is a driving day. Headed to Zion....hope everyone is having a great week. We are having an amazing time, exploring this beautiful area. More later....

Windows Live Tags: Canyonlands, Bryce National Park, Dead Horse Point, Ebenezer Bryce, Zion, Butch Cassidy, Moab,

Moab, UT

We left Breckenridge, CO Saturday morning about 7:00; headed to Moab, UT to check out Canyon Lands and Arches National Park. Linda found us a great park, on the other side of Moab with a Passport America price of $20/night. Quiet park...nothing special but with a beautiful view of the rocks around us.

If I had a dollar for every time one of us said "Oh Wow !" since we've been here, I'd have a bunch of money in my pocket. We arrived at lunchtime on Saturday and that gave us time to explore the shops downtown and then go out to Arches and start checking things out.

 

See Becky at the bottom of the arch.....it's so huge !

The rocks here are amazing. Becky's friend Chris told us to be sure to drive out route 128 if we could so we were sure to make time for that and so glad we did. We drove out to Fisher Towers and enjoyed a picnic lunch there. There have been so many movies show in the Moab area....everything from John Wayne westerns to the famous final scene in Thelma and Louise. We're doing a bunch of hiking, which takes you out to neat overlooks and observation areas. The park maps are good about telling if the difficulty of the trail. The slickrock isn't necessarily slippery (unless it gets wet) but is a little difficult to get good footing on. The trees, lizards and plant life are so interesting to look at on our hikes. We always have lots of water with us because it's been in the mid 90's so it's important to stay hydrated.

 

 

 

Fisher Towers

It is so incredible here but we've done a great job of fitting in everything that we want to do. We spent Sunday at Arches and today at Canyon Land. Tomorrow we leave to drive to Bryce. I'll post more pics later about our day at Canyon Land. We have a slow internet connection here so takes forever to do something on the computer.

Odds and Ends

There have been a few items of interest that I haven't remembered to put into a post so that's what will be in today's post. When we first arrived in Breckenridge and were driving the back streets, working with our advertisers, we found an interesting cemetery. I know we've led a sheltered life and had never seen a cattle guard until we came to the west (still wondering why I've never seen them back east though) but  I've never seen a cemetery placed in the middle of the forest. It is a really large cemetery but think of the effort it takes to work around the root systems of all these trees. It was so interesting to see a haphazard placement when typically a cemetery is so methodical in how the rows are laid out an maintained in such a pristine manner. It would seem fitting that if you were to find this type of cemetery anywhere, it would be in Breckenridge. A "Live and Let Live" type of town....breaking the norm.

 

Linda and I eat some type of fruit each morning for breakfast and most days it's two kinds, along with our eggs. It's usually bananas, oranges, blueberries or strawberries. Lately it's been oranges and we've been saving the orange rinds because I love the smell of fresh oranges. So we've been amassing this large bag that has taken up space in the freezer and making less room for other things (like real edible food). The other day I searched on the internet for uses for the orange rind that we have. All of this coincided with my find at the thrift store, the other day, of this jar set. We got these three cobalt blue jars, of varying sizes, for $3. They have a tight seal with a snap ring. So my first project was making citrus salt scrub and that went in the middle size one.

It's sea salt, olive oil and zest of the orange. For the large container, I'm going to make body butter. My skin gets so dry (especially here where the humidity is so low) and I'm not a fan of all the chemicals and scents that are in many of the lotions that you buy in the store. I've ordered the items I need (shea butter and almond oil) so that will be my project next week. Earlier in the week, we started another "orange" item.....household cleaner. It's just white vinegar and orange rinds. The orange smell eventually saturates the vinegar and we'll have a fresh smelling cleaner.

 

 

 

 

I also have essential oil of orange started.

 

 

 

 

 

Today's project is making vanilla. I bought some Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla beans, from Amazon, to make some home-made vanilla. I didn't realize how easy it is to make till I read about it on-line. It's just vanilla beans, soaked in vodka for a minimum of 8 weeks. We've got all the ingredients here so as soon as I finish working on this post, that's my next task. As our friend Bobbie pointed out, the vanilla beans will displace some of the vodka so some of the vodka will have to be removed to make room for the beans. Hmmm....what to do with that excess vodka ? Pray tell, I do have some orange juice in the frig. Haha.. What projects do you have on your "to do" list ?

Breck

We took a walk tonight, through the RV resort we're working on here in Breckenridge. Look at this pretty RV site that sits next to the stream that runs through the resort. A hammock or swing on that little landing next to the water would  be really sweet. The snow is melting big time on the mountain so all of the streams are really rushing.

There's a nice foot path that goes from the resort to downtown Breckenridge. We took a stroll, with Boomer to check it out. We're really careful to have our SPF 50 and our hats on up here. Most days the UV index is 10...it don't get any higher than that on the scale..folks.

Look at those gorgeous mountains in the background. Does that make for a pretty walk or what ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last weekend we found the dog park for Boomer in downtown Breck. A good sized park, where he could frolic for a little while. He doesn't do his figure 8 romps for as long as he used to and when he gets home, he seems a little gimpy....the next day too. Guess that's what happens when you get to be 94 in dog years. I think I'd be gimpy too if I ran like that when I'm 94. While we were looking for the dog park, we  discovered this neat train collection. It's the No. 9 train that ran in Breck from 1884 to 1937. See the "butterfly" plow on the front ? Betcha can figure out what that was for. If the snow was really deep, they brought out this big daddy. This rotary snow plow would churn through the snow and shoot it 30' into the air, off the train tracks. The information board said that many times cattle would get killed in avalanches that would cover the tracks. When this monster would come through, there'd be steaks flying through the air as it cleared the track. Ewww....This apparatus is so heavy that it took 4-6 steam locomotives to push it down the track. Here's the kind of snow that it had to clear. Growing up back east, stuff like this is amazing. I can remember, as a kid, snowstorms where the snow would drift up to the bottom of the windows but they get serious snowfalls out here. It was a neat exhibit and interesting information.

On another day, as we were driving down a back road to find a business, we came across another neat exhibit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This ancient relic is a dredging boat that was used during gold mining days. It would act like someone panning for gold, by dredging up rock and separating the rock from the gold flecks. We've been wondering why we've seen so many rock piles clustered throughout the area...the leftover product of these rock chewing machines. We love wandering down back roads, in search of neat little discoveries....whether it's from a modern day chewing machine like a beaver dam or these ancient relics, from days gone by. A beautiful place to do some exploring...

Weekends are for Friends and Fun....

We love the RV lifestyle and being able to see our friends as we travel around the country, doing our jobs with AGS, and being able to play on the weekends. Last weekend was our first weekend in Breckenridge and our friends Larry and Nancy (also AGS reps) invited us over to their lot in CORA (just past Fairplay) for a cookout. They are taking the summer months off from work and will start in again this fall. The development, where they have their lot, is surrounded by hiking trails and awesome fishing and that was the draw for them to purchase this lot. They both love to fly fish and hike so it was a perfect match for their lifestyle. The park is divided into several different sections and levels. Before lunch we hiked two miles back into the canyon behind their place.

These two huge gashes in the ground were from a sudden downpour that dropped water right at these precise locations and created these gullies. They said that from the looks of the storm clouds, they knew something mighty would come of it.

 

 

 

I got to try out the timer on my new camera (with some help from Larry) to get this picture of the four of us back in the canyon. We hiked back to a meadow, with an awesome view of Bear Mountain. Since Linda and I had only been at the new, higher elevation for about 48 hours, out lungs were still trying to get used to the altitude. We had to stop and catch our breath pretty frequently during the hike.

 

 

 

After our hike, we had lunch. Nancy made some awesome burgers of ground chicken, cherries, walnuts and blue cheese. Larry cooked them over the grill and they were amazing ! Linda and I had brought a salad and some fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and our espresso and 18 yr balsamic. Nancy was in heaven as she hadn't had mozzarella in a long time and she loved the balsamic. We finished the meal with low fat brownies....yum !

After lunch, they took us to a friend's lot on the "upper level" of CORA (stands for campground of the Rockies association...in case you're wondering). Wow....million dollar views !

Fabulous views in all directions. His 5th wheel is perched on the side of the mountain with 180 degree views of the mountains, the river below, distant lakes and the meadows for as far as the eye can see. Larry said that many times a storm system will drop rain on his friends, up top, and they will be dry down at their lot. They are also in a prime vantage point to see the storms as they roll in. We had a great time visiting with Larry and Nancy. Larry is getting ready for a rafting trip down the Colorado River that sounds like an awesome trip. We might be able to coax Nancy to come to Breckenridge for Sunday brunch and a trip to the Breck farmer's market before we leave here.

Fast forward to this weekend when our friends Bobbie and Jim came to see us and also had their friends Heinz and Angela with them.

It's so great to have them only 90 minutes away from us so they could drive up and spend some time with us. We met up in Silverthorne and then Linda and I drove them around Lake Dillon (which is where this picture was taken) and then down to Frisco. We walked around downtown Frisco, checking out the cute shops. Linda found a hat to buy to protect her from the sun. It will come in handy when we go to the national parks in Utah, in a couple of weeks, so she doesn't get burnt again. Her nose is still recovering from the bad sunburn she got last week, while we were out hiking with Nancy and Larry. We stopped to eat at the Lost Cajun.  The owner is formerly from Louisiana and moved to Colorado after his business in Louisiana was impacted by hurricanes so many times. He slow cooks all of his sauces to give it authentic Louisiana flavor. As he likes to say, "come and pass a good time".

Linda and I had lunch there last week. I had a bowl of the shrimp and lobster bisque, which was so rich and delicious. Linda had the catfish, which was really good. Sometimes we've had catfish and it has that dirty taste to it. Yesterday, Linda asked one of the cooks why theirs didn't have that dirty taste to it...it was so good. He said it needs to be washed really well plus you have to marinade it to get rid of that. Hmmm....While we were there, they baptized us with beads and Heinz got the cute hat that he's wearing in this picture. We finished our meal with beignets....messy eatin' with all that powdered sugar but a nice ending to our meal. Fun times and good food.

After lunch we drove everyone down the road to the resort that Linda and I are working and showed them the chalets and RV lots. We said our goodbyes and Bobbie and Jim headed back to Granby, CO and Heinz and Angela drove back to Alamosa. Today, we're not sure what is in store. We might take the bike up to Swan Mountain....it looks like a pretty drive. We'll see how the spirit moves us to go exploring....What do you have in store for the rest of your weekend ? Make it a safe and fun day !