Bryce Canyon

We are staying at Kodachrome SP, a stunningly beautiful hideaway amid the sandstone cliffs.    This is the view as you approach the park.   

And this is the view from our campsite....of course, the colors shift with the sun.   

    We have full hook-ups, we have a large site, we are the only Class A among the 31 sites, the ranger is very informative, the weather is perfect, we get satellite, we can have a wood fire and the beer is cold.     BUT....................there is no cell, no wifi, no 4G, no payphone.    We are 11 miles from Tropic, Utah which is the first blip on the cell connection and another 11 miles to Bryce Canyon and the restaurant we are sitting in, and eating the best fruit pie I have ever had !!  And the 2nd BUT......

 are miserable tiny black gnats that zip in your ears and nose and hair and make being outside mostly impossible.....the 40% Deet is worthless.   The ranger said its the only biting bug they have and only last a month.!!

 The weather is ideal......in the 50's this morning and near 80 in afternoon.   There have been very strong winds.....probably related to the same winds  that are decimating Colorado with the fires.   Today we went to the highest point at 9100 ft.  

And surprise, surprise, we got an email from old friends Cay and Ron who wrote that they are currently at Bryce !!   We met up with them in Canada last summer.   We made plans to have dinner tonight and then ran into them in the parking lot here at the Park this morning.   They've given us some good hints.  We'll look forward to catching up........Dean and Diane, why aren't you here too???

We leave Kodachrome on Monday and as yet, have no idea where we are going.......  But will try and check in again when we can.........

One more dusty trail in Moab ......

We had a good plan for our last day in Moab.    Head up a canyon jeep trail to Canyonlands and return via another jeep trail, making a large loop.    We headed up the Shafer Trail, which followed the Colorado River for awhile.

Then if opened up , rough but easy.  

At about 11 miles up the trail, we came to the scenic point where Thelma and Louise vaulted themselves into fabled history.    Very pretty up there. 

And behind us, on the middle high mesa, is Dead Horse Point.

The road narrowed and we climbed on................

And then, we came to this barricade just as we were to enter Canyonlands.   You'd think they could have put the sign further down and saved us a lot of dust.    Luckily there was room to turn around.

In this area, is a large potash producing plant.   Potash is potassium chloride and is used in fertilizer.   The settling pools are a brilliant blue edged with the white sand-like substance....assume the water evaporates and the scoop up the residue.  

After making the long trip back down to where we started, we opted to go up Long Canyon Trail and then come down again......it's relatively short but very scenic.  

At Pucker Pass, this large boulder makes for a Kodak moment.  

Easy to see our route from high above.   The Colorado is down there in the faint green area and beyond is the LaSal mountain range.    We came back to a car wash.   

That evening we joined Joe and Gay for dinner and to get helpful hints for our next adventures in Kodachrome State Park.       It's about a 6 hour drive down there and we look forward to meeting up with Cay and Ron......old friends that we met up with last summer in Canada.    

Still making plans for the days and weeks to follow.................stay tuned.  

PS:    I put an email subscription box for the blog up at the top.....have no idea how it works but others use this so thought I would try it.        

Petroglyphs

The elusive bull frogs are hard to capture but this one got a bit too comfortable in the clover .   

 We took a late afternoon drive up the canyon along the mighty Colorado River to search for petroglyphs.   In some remote areas there are also pictographs but they have mostly faded away.   The difference is the pictographs are painted on the rock and the petroglyphs are 'pecked' into the varnish layer .... presumably with a sharp stone as they had no Dremels or sharp pointy metal objects.   These are dated anywhere from 1000-2000 BC to 1400 AD....as far as anyone can tell...who really knows.

 I like the small person and the large jackrabbit.    About a foot tall on the rabbit and high up on the wall which makes you wonder how they did it.

 This is the" birthing rock", right beside the road.    It has details on all sides but the most interesting one

 is of a birth....awfully big baby and the literature says it is feet first....sounds impossible but their sense of scale seems a bit off on most things.

 This one has various sizes of feet and a horse or deer or something.   Didn't the Spanish introduce the horse, so guess that's not a horse.

 This is supposed to be a bear.

 Relaxing outside the house in the beautiful evening glow.    Mornings and evenings are perfect.

This morning, I was able to register for the 3 classes that I wanted at Denver Botanic Gardens.....yippee.     It was stressful as registration started at 9 and classes fill fast.    Two of mine sold out shortly after I got in.    I'm so thrilled.     Paul successfully  did his thing and got us camping sites back in Denver in July and August.    And he's anticipating his return to the Parkers Picklers......!
And now, it's off on one more trail ride and then tomorrow we pack up and head south to cooler weather.    (yes, you read that right.....higher elevation......)

Arches National Park and Dead Horse Point

To try and beat the heat, we were out the door by 7 for the short 5 mile drive to Arches NP.   And already, the crowds were filling the parking lots of the various trails.   

 This is the Courthouse formation.....very imposing.

 The Window Arch Trail is short and gentle and perfect for the old and young.   For little effort

 we were able to see 3 different arches.    It was very tricky and annoying to try and capture the colors of the sandstone in this early hour.    The shadows were deep and I tried different settings with limited success.

 In the midst of the scrubby landscape, this large jackrabbit appeared, seemingly undisturbed by the humans.    I can't imagine how it survives without obvious water or succulent plants.

 This is the base of one of the windows.....without a person for perspective, it's hard to visualize its quite delicate size for holding up the top.  

 That is me and my shadown and the arch's shadow.    It started to get warm about this time.

You can see the size of this one with the people at the base.

 Despite the climbing temps we were undeterred and armed with plenty of water, we headed over to

 Devils Garden Trail.   The Japanese in their tour bus got there first.    You can pick them out long before they become recognizable as they come covered from top to bottom to ward off the sun....even wearing white gloves.    I'm sure their melanoma rate is a lot less than us uncovered wanderers in our shorts and tanks.   The trail was also gentle but had some steep ups and downs and was about 30 min one way.

 Not a collared lizard but colorful in it's red  dots.

 Our destination was Landscape arch and it was very hard to get a picture of it.   It's sort of like taking a picture of the Grand Canyon, which you see in 3D but just can't capture on film.     This was as close as we could get as parts of it fell off and it is now very thin at the top.   It happened in 1991 when some hikers were relaxing under it and heard loud cracking and managed to escape just in time.    One of them did capture pictures of it falling and they are posted on the signage.   Knowing that it actually did happen makes me reluctant to get under those arches and balanced rocks....I'm basically not very brave.

 Not sure what these very pale lavender small flowers are.....could be some type of aster.   My book didn't have them or at least in a form that I recognized.    Coming back to the entrance, the canyon provides very welcome shade.

 We were out about 4 hours in the heat and it became quite unbearable as we headed back for showers and lunch and maybe a siesta.........

 Later, we headed over to Dead Horse Point, a popular destination ...... legend has it that horses were rounded up on a peninsula over the Colorado River.....their exit was blocked and they all died.    I think they should have named it Pretty View or something that leaves a better image.

 If you look at that grey flat mesa in the center, at the  left base is Hurrah Pass, then go right to the taller redder mesa and on the other side is where Chicken Corner ends.  

 This is the majestic view from the overlook on Dead Horse Point.   The muddy Colorado River winds it's way thru the 2000 ft canyons.   Again, I had trouble getting the color I wanted.   You'll just have to come out and see it for yourself.

Here is the Prince's Plume......The bushy plant  puts forth many of these long spikes.

I enjoy several blogs of wanderers like us.......They share campgrounds and restaurants and must see sights along their travels.    It is a great resource.   One that I've followed recently is Joe and Gay's travels.   They are especially generous, giving great descriptions , excellent pictures and mileage and signage.    And then I discovered that they are camped in our CG !!   We were able to meet up and share tales of the road.       They will be here most of the month so we'll look forward to more catching up.   Thanks Joe and Gay for stopping by.!!