Sun, Sep 23rd - Richfield to Glendale, UT

It’s Fall today and granddaughters' Cassie and Vicki's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, girls! We got up to a bright sunny day with blue skies and big fluffy white clouds. It was in the 50's though. We left Wal-Mart and headed down I70 for a couple more miles and then took the exit to Hwy 89 south to Glendale. This route first took us through a canyon with a lot of "S" curves and then through a lot of green valleys with lots of cattle and small towns, such as Panguich, Hatch and Long Valley. We noticed in Panguitch that there was a banner across the road announcing that there would be a "POW WOW" next weekend in that town. Hwy 89 was a rough bumpy road most of the way and we had a lot of wind. We arrived at Bauers Canyon Ranch about noon time and were surprised to find that we have Wi-Fi at this campground and can get Satellite TV but NO cell service!

Here's the GREEN Wal-Mart sign.

The store below this mountain was called "Big Rock Candy Mountain". It did look like rock candy.

Here's that yellow rabbitbrush again and ALOT of sage.

Here's a new house that is being powered by a windmill. I bet they have wind most of the time down in this valley.

Here's some fall colors for the first day of FALL.

Katherine: Thanks for the tip about "Ayr" for my dry bleeding nose. It's working. I picked some up at Wal-Mart along with some chap stick!


www.bauersrv.com/ Bauers Canyon Ranch RV Park

History of Glendale, UT: In 1862 ranchers came to Long Valley, the land east of Zion National Park, to graze cattle along the East Fork of the Virgin River. Robert and Isabella Berry named the area now known as Glendale, Berryville. In 1866 when the Berry’s were killed by Indians, the settlers left. It was in 1871 that the Mormons, from the Muddy River settlement in Nevada, came to settle naming the town Glendale. By the 1800’s the Mormon communities in the area had grown in the nearby towns of Orderville and Mt Carmel Junction., Glendale became part of the United Order. The United Order Movement was a program of economic and moral reform begun in 1874 under Brigham Young. On March 29th, 1935 Glendale became an incorporated town. Orderville was the most longest existing united order. Glendale is 95% Mormon.

Sat, Sep 22nd - I70 from Fruita, CO to Richfield, UT

We hit the road at 7:00 a.m. and soon crossed the Utah border. Boy, what a difference in terrain! Most of the trip down I70 today was thru BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land. There seemed to be no human inhabitation! We did see some exits that said “Ranch”, but where they were we couldn’t see. There was a sign that said “Eagles on the Road”, but we didn’t get to see any. I guess they keep the “road kill” taken care of. We did see a lot of large black ravens. And we spied a few antelope. They sure blended in with the terrain and that yellow rabbitbrush was all along the interstate. Later in the day, we did pass Green River, where some of the injured miners were taken to the hospital after the mine cave in. A lot of what we saw today seemed to have a “pink” tint to it. We filled up both vehicles at the Flying J in Richfield. Over the doorway going into the Flying J was a sign that gave the Terrorist Threat Level—Yellow. We had not noticed this at any of the other Flying J’s coming across the US. There were ATVs everywhere in this small town—on the main streets! When we had lunch at a local Family Restaurant, I asked the waitress about this and she said that they were having an ATV Jamboree here in town this weekend and yes they are allowed to use the town’s streets. We soon had rain coming down, which continued all night. We had decided to stay here in Richfield at the Wal-Mart because Chuck had checked the weather report for Glendale and the Zion area and they were supposed to have heavy rains and flash floods. This was the first Wal-Mart that we’ve seen that was GREEN and beige and had a green sign out at the road. We’re so used to looking for their BLUE sign! Here are a few pictures of the terrain that we saw on I70:

Doesn't this terrain look like the skin of an elephant? Very different from the rest of the terrain. This part of the country must be like heaven to a geologist!

The sky is beginning to look ominous here. We did get to Richfield before it rained though.

http://www.untraveledroad.com/USA/Utah/Sevier/Richfield.htm Pictures of Richfield, UT

For the Grandkids: What famous person invented the Frisbee and where was he from?

Walter Frederick Morrison, the inventor of the Frisbee - was born in Richfield, UT. Fred claims that the original idea came to him while throwing a popcorn can lid with his girlfriend, Lu, whom he later married. The popcorn lid soon dented which led to the discovery that cake pans flew better and were more common. The two of them developed a little business selling "Flyin' Cake Pans" on the beaches of Santa Monica, CA. During World War II he learned something of aeronautics flying fighter-bombers in Italy. He was shot down and was a POW at Stalag 13. In 1946 he sketched out a design (called the Whirlo-Way) for the world's first flying disc. In 1948 he involved an investor, Warren Franscioni, who paid for molding his design out of plastic. This was the world's first plastic flying disc, and they named it the Flyin-Saucer. In 1954 Fred bought more of the Saucers from the original molders to sell at local fairs, but found he could produce his own disc more cheaply. In 1955 he and Lu designed the Pluto Platter, the archetype of all modern flying discs. On January 23, 1957 they sold the rights for the Pluto Platter to the Wham-O toy company. Initially it was marketed by Wham-O still as the "Pluto Platter", but in 1958 Wham-O added the name Frisbee, a (probably deliberate) misspelling of the name of the Frisbie Pie Company.

Fri, Sep 21st - It's Wash "Everything" Day

Today, Chuck washed the car and the coach and I cleaned inside and did some laundry and ironing. After being on the road for almost a month, we needed one of these "wash" days! Of course it took Chuck awhile to get the coach cleaned because he had alot of "visitors" while doing it!!

Tomorrow, we leave Fruita and drive down to Glendale, UT and will stay at Bauer's Canyon Ranch. We may not have internet access except for phone up after 9:00 each evening, so I may not get any pictures posted until we get to Torrey, UT the end of Sep. While in Glendale before our Discover Rally starts on Sep 25th, we plan to drive down to the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

Thu, Sep 20th - CO National Monument

Today we drove up into the Colorado National Monument--more curvy "S" roads with few guard rails to get up to the top of the mesa. We stopped at the visitor center and saw two videos: one about the park and the other about the geology of the park. They had some nice displays and some stuffed (preserved) lizards and scorpions. I took a picture of them in their cases because I didn't think we'd get to see any--BUT Chuck did spy one lizard and got a picture of it that I've posted below. No live scorpions though; so the picture is not of one that's alive. It was a very hot day, but a bright blue sky with some nice white puffy clouds. It is SOOOO dry here and I'm having a little trouble with my nose bleeding--but not bad.

I've seen these yellow flowering plants all over Colorado along the side of the road but didn't know what they were until we went to this visitor center and they had all of the plant life labeled--its a "rubber rabbitbrush". Below are some of the rock formations that we saw:

This one shows the Colorado River over in the valley. We've seen a lot of this river while in CO!

Okay, enough with the rock formations. Here's the "live" lizard that we saw. His underbelly was a bright turquoise color.

www.nps.gov/colm Colorado National Monument website

Wed, Sep 19th - Ouray to Fruita, CO

Today, a nice warm sunny blue-sky day, was a travel day for us. We drove northwest from Ouray to Fruita, CO going up Hwy 550 to Montrose and then Hwy 50 up to Grand Junction and I70 to Fruita. After we got set up at the Monument RV Park in Fruita, we visited the Visitor Center just down the street and got some information about the Colorado National Monument, which we will visit while we are here. Here are a couple of pictures of the terrain that we saw along our trip up here today:

Tue, Sep 18th - 4-Wheeling Over Ophir and Imogene Passes

Today we rented a jeep from "Switzerland of America, Inc." in Ouray. We headed out at 7:00 a.m. for a day of 4-wheeling! We took two different trails: Up and over Ophir Pass (11,789 ft) into Telluride and up and over Imogene Pass (13,114, ft) back into Ouray. Here are some descriptions of how I felt: WOW for all the beauty, COLD as we encountered ice and SNOW, FEAR for all the sheer drop offs on these one-lane "paths" around the mountains, and white knuckle FEAR getting up to the top of Imogene Pass in 6 to 8 inches of SNOW, two jeeps had made it, but the jeep just ahead of us had turned around and met us as we got up to the last high climb. They said that they couldn't make it and had to back down to a turnaround and would have to go back to Telluride. They said they were slipping so much backing up that they were sliding close to the drop off! Well, as the first two jeeps watched us from the top, Chuck put it in low gear and was determined to make it so we wouldn't have to back back down. I was thankful that God wasn't ready for us today! This was the only part that I don't ever want to experience again! I'm sure it wouldn't have been quite so scary if it hadn't had snow on it!

Here's an early morning view of the aspen on the way up Red Mountain Pass on our way to the beginning of Ophir Pass Trail.

Ophir Pass - 11,789 ft

Here we are at the top of Ophir Pass. What a beautiful view, but wait until you see just what's around the corner! See below.

Here's picture of the entrance to the "Waterfall Ranch" in the small town of Ophir. We saw ranch entries similar to this one all over Colorado. Some of them were quite beautiful.

http://www.narrowgauge.org/4x4/html/ophir.html Additional pictures taken of Ophir Pass


Telluride

Just as we were about to drive thru Telluride again, we noticed a field of prarrie dogs AND a coyote trying to get some lunch! There were several Magpies flying around the coyote too.

I think I could watch these little guys all day. Of course they were making quite a racket with that coyote around!

Imogene Pass - 13,114, ft; the second highest vehicular mountain crossing in CO!

The aspen were beautiful along the first part of the Imogene Pass trail.

Hope you can make out the trail in this picture. This was the relatively easy part of the road. At this point we didn't know just where the pass was up there on that snow covered mountain so we didn't stop to think that maybe we'd be driving in it!

Can you tell where the trail is over against that rock wall? We couldn't either looking across at it, but it was there when we reached this area!

Sometimes we had to stop and get out and check the trail ahead because when we came up over a ridge Chuck had to maneuver around some big boulders so he wouldn't hit the bottom of the jeep.



Here we are getting up above the tree line and seeing more snow.

Half way up to Imogene Pass, we stopped at the Tomboy Ghost Town and ate our picnic lunch.

Tomboy Ghost Town - http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/co/tomboy.html I'm sure glad that I didn't see this website before we went 4-wheeling up this pass! This person has some wonderful pictures of the Ghost Town and the pass. Per this site "Imogene pass road is rated a 4/5 out of 5 as far as 4-wheel drive difficulty and danger and is also the second highest pass in Colorado."

A look back down at where we had come. Almost to the top and the snow!

This was the part of the climb that was so terrifying! If you look at a point almost in the middle of the picture, that is where, when we climbed up to this point, we had to pull in and then backup and turn around just to be able to make the last run up to the top because the curve was so sharp! This last climb had to be at a 12 to 14% grade.

Here's another look at the road we came up! It's like an upside down "V" with that stick being in the middle of it.

Chuck and I at the top of Imogene Pass--I may be smiling for the camera, but I was shaking inside! The gentleman that took our picture asked me if I was cold or scared becauce I was shaking so much! The wind had blown the snow off the very top area. We still had one more snow-covered road to maneuver before we headed down the other side of the pass. I'm lucky I didn't pee my pants!

A look back up to the top.

The road back down to Ouray. Here's where the box canon falls begins.

http://www.narrowgauge.org/4x4/html/imogene.html Someone elses Imogene Pass pictures

Mon, Sep 17th - Telluride, CO

Today was a rainy day, so we decided to drive over to Telluride for lunch and see if it was raining there too. We had some rain and sleet on the way over. We had lunch at Smugglers BrewPub, which is a microbrewery. So we sampled some of their brew! What we had was very good--Road Rash Red: a lightly hopped ale with a nice mellow malty body, 5.3% alcohol. Their Philly cheesesteak was good too! It had cleared up some after lunch, so we drove around town and out towards the mountains--they were all snow covered and beautiful.

Here is a picture of Smugglers Brewpub in Telluride, CO.

This is a house in Telluride with a beautiful flower garden in the front yard.

Here's one of the mountains with snow on it.

This is a picture of Bridal Veil Falls in Telluride. The road was closed up to the falls, so we couldn't get up to it to view it up close. Here are a few websites of others peoples pictures:

http://www.amazingcolorado.com/bridalveilfalls.htm; http://travel.webshots.com/album/40635707AEXnMS; http://www.jeffblaylock.com/window/2004/06/bridal_veil_fal/index.php