yee-haw!

Hi friends and family. No animal encounters to speak of as I start this blog (unless you count the 5 whitetail deer grazing about 20 feet away – I think they live in this campground). But stick around to the final paragraphs, you never know what’ll happen before I finish it!
It’s pretty darn cold as I write this and my fingers are numb, so if I bjabcnoil a few words, forgive me.
First, a correction in my previous posting – I looked at my notes and it’s ‘Woman HOLLERING Creek’. Even funnier that way…
After posting my last blog in Durango, Colorado, I proceeded to Mesa Verde National Park about 50 miles away. This national park is home to the famous ‘cliff dwellings’ of the Anasazi, which were mysteriously abandoned about several centuries ago. They even left food on the table, they left in such a hurry, and no one knows why. I took a ranger-guided tour for $3 that go you up-close-and-personal to the dwellings – very interesting how they’re built, and much of it has not needed restoration. I also did a 2.5 mile hike to view some petroglyphs on the nearby cliffs. The weather was starting to look a bit iffy as I completed my hike, and it was just in the nick of time because thunderstorms started roaring overhead, along with torrential rains. As I was driving out of the park along the ridge, it was blowing out of the canyons so hard that it was raining UP. Never seen that before, but I would again before the week was out…
I wasn’t going to be too thrilled to camp in that kind of weather, so I hoped I could outrun it b y heading west through southern Utah. I’m sure most of you have seen or experienced the unusual rock formations and cliffs and weird boulders that populate this area (and many old Westerns were filmed here) so you have an idea of what I was driving through – literally 100 miles of this beautiful countryside before I had to stop for the day. I had intended to get as far as Capitol Reef National Park, but had to stop and help some people who’d had a blowout on their trailer. That consumed precious daylight hours as we tried to get the wheel off while supporting the trailer, since their jack wouldn’t slide under the right point. We finally got it done; I’m not sure how it all ended because the nearest place to fix a trailer tire would have been 50-100 miles away – we were truly out in the middle of nowhere (just like I’ve spent a good portion of my trip!) But finally I was on my way with a few minutes of daylight left. Fortunately all of the land I was passing through was under some sort of public domain, so I knew I could simply pull off the side of the road and pitch my tent anywhere. When it got too dark to see anything – and I didn’t want to miss any of this gorgeous scenery; I could have take a week to do this drive – I stopped at a spot where I could see a couple of porta-potties and a few cars. I was inside the Glen Canyon Recreation Area and just past the bridge over the Colorado River and drove down a short dirt road to a flat spot where the cars were parked. I assumed I’d have company that night, but as it turns out, this was a place where rafters (and rafting outfitters) put their boats into the river and left their cars there. There was only one guy in a camper across the way and he was being pretty furtive, so I pitched and made dinner and stared at the Milky way for the longest time. Oddly enough, I didn’t hear much of any animal noises throughout the night. It seemed a perfect spot for coyotes, which I love to hear ‘singing’ at night, but there were none there. In the morning I snapped a few photos of the surrounding rock formations, wandered down to stick a toe into the Colorado, and headed west again. I stopped at a nearby rest stop which had a good hiking trail and rocks to climb on, and also stopped in Capitol Reef to do a quick-but-intense 3.5 miler. I also checked out the historic fruit orchards in the area – I guess the weather is pretty mellow in that area and the Indians had been irrigating their crops with the nearby river for centuries. The first Mormon settlers in the area a century ago found most of the irrigation ditches still intact and used them to ranch. So many of the still-bearing fruit trees are 80-100 years old.
I’m glad I grabbed that quick hike because the weather turned bad once again. My goal was Bryce Canyon National Park, and just past the town of Boulder, Utah, the road went uphill along a knife-edge ridge – a steep dropoff on either side of the two-lane road, with no guardrails. I stopped to take a photo and once again, the rain was blowing UP into my face. And the weather would get worse – as I drove through the Dixie National Forest (Dixie? In Utah?) I went over a 9600 foot pass and it was snowing. Not much built up on the road but still, not what I was expecting on this trip! There were even a couple of trees down in my lane. I rolled into Bryce wondering what I was up against, weather-wise. It was still early afternoon and time for a hike, so I pitched my tent and staked it down and headed out on the trail. Everything in Bryce goes downhill first (since you’re at the canyon top) and I got about 1.25 miles into this trail, just starting uphill, when it really let loose. Hail, driving rain, and it chased me back to my car. The trail was extremely slippery, but goopy at the same time (I guess it was adobe; it was sticking to my shoes) so I was a mess by the time I got to my car. And my one and only light jacket was now soaked inside and out. Not a pretty picture with the temperature falling.
I found the showers and luxuriated in a 10-minute hot shower. (About 5 minutes longer than I’ve ever showered before, but hey – it was $2 for 10 minutes, whether you used them all or not. And I definitely needed to warm up!) I wandered over to the campsite next door where they had a roaring fire going. It had stopped raining by then but the guy gave me a garbage bag to use as a makeshift poncho. We stood around and talked for a while; he was a minor-league baseball player in the White Sox organization. I found out the forecast was for snow that night, which I was definitely not prepared for! I got as warm as I could in my tent (without my wet jacket) which wasn’t very warm, and in the morning it was 25 degrees – but no snow. I wasn’t going to try another hike as it was probably still wet, so I headed down the road to Zion National Park, which was just 80 miles away and at a lower elevation. The ranger told me the forecast was a low of 37, which I could handle with my now-dry jacket. It was Saturday and the campground was filling up fast even though it was only 11am. I grabbed one of the last 10 spots and headed out on the trail with good, but pretty chilly, weather. I did an awesome 10 mile hike with 2500 foot elevation gain and great views of the valley, and also included a secluded canyon. The canyon trail had some sections that were along a sheer drop of a few hundred feet and they had chains to hang onto, so that was a little exciting. I took the shuttle back to the lodge and had ‘dinner’ at the snack bar there and then walked a couple of miles back to the campground along the Virgin River. There was quite a bit of interesting plant and bird life along the way, along with three Belgian women ‘admiring’ a large tarantula. I tossed a penny down next to the tarantula so they could get a photo with some size perspective.
The weather wasn’t too cold; I didn’t check my car thermometer when I got up but I would guess the forecast of 37 was accurate. I broke camp and headed out for the ‘signature’ hike of this park, called Angel’s Landing. It’s a 5 mile round trip with 1500 foot elevation gain, so not that physically challenging, but the last half-mile is a steep clamber up one butte, across a ridge and up another butte. The ridge portion of the trail is 3-4 feet wide with an immediate 900 foot drop on your left and a 1200 foot drop on your right. There are chains to hold onto while walking over this saddle but it’s still pretty intimidating if you look down. There isn’t much more room on the other portions of the trail but at least you can only fall off one side or the other! To give you a feel for the technical difficulty of this section of trail, I did the first 2 miles in 37 minutes, and the last half-mile in 29 minutes. Definitely a good waker-upper! I’m glad I went early, too, because the trail up the chains quickly gets crowded and, of course, most sections are one-way so someone has to step aside. Going down was almost as exciting as going up…
After the hike I headed towards Nevada, stopping in Cedar City, Utah to do my wash and write some more of this posting. And bonus – they had access to the KOA campground’s wireless next door, so I’m posting. This may be my last post before I get home, as it’s Sunday and I intend to be home by Wednesday. Thanks for reading!