Wed, Oct 3rd –Torrey to Monument Valley, UT

Wow, what scenery we saw today on our drive over Hwys 24, 95 and 191 to Monument Valley. We drove thru the towns of Hanksville (where we had cell phone service for a short time) to Glen Canyon where we drove over the Dirty Devil and the Colorado Rivers, to Blanding, then south to Bluff, thru Medicine Hat (there is a rock that looks like a hat there--see tomorrows pics) into The Navaho Nation Indian Reservation in Monument Valley. This reservation is in Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. They call this area "the four corners" and you can stand in one spot with your hands in two different states and your feet in the other two! After Happy Hour down at LaVerne and Bob's coach, 6 couples went up to the Lodge for dinner. Chuck tried their Navajo flat bread and a HOT green chili dish that was too hot for me! I had tacos on flat bread. Antacid here I come!

Here's another picture of that gray rock that looks like elephant hide!

Here's the Colorado River from my side window in the coach. Sometimes the light from Chuck's side window casts light onto my window and that is what happened here. We've seen a lot of this river, all the way from the Rocky Mountain National Park at its head waters down to Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam.

Here's the bridge over the Colorado River down in Glen Canyon. It's hard to capture the depth of some of these canyons in a picture because here the land looks kind of flat--but it's not!



I liked this picture because it reminded be of pieces of brown Play Doh stacked on top of one another.

This is close to Medicine Hat and looks like wind blown sand, but it's hard rock! This reminds me of those bottles that you can put different colors of sand in and make sand art.

This is the San Juan River and the bridge we crossed to go into the Navajo Reservation.

And here's our first view of Monument Valley where so many movies and commercials have been filmed, such as Forest Gump and John Wayne movies and the car commercial up on top of one of the small tall rocks.

Here's our view from Goulding's Campground. These rocks encircled our campsites. We are having 5:00 o'clock Happy Hour!

Here's the Bryan's and Wittenberg's coaches and our new Discovery flag.


http://www.gouldings.com/english/index.htm Gouldings Lodge and RV Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_Valley Monument Valley Info (great pictures here)

Tue, Oct 2nd – Backcounty Travels to Northern part of Capitol Reef Naional Park

Six couples in three vehicles drove miles and miles of backcountry unpaved roads to Cathedral Valley. This is in the northern part of the Capitol Reef Park and only accessible by this road. We rode with Junior and Betty Mertz in their jeep. Again the terrain was so diverse--beautiful aspen trees high up in the mountains in the Fishlake National Forest and then down into the Park valley of rock formations. We all had packed picnic lunches and we stopped and ate among the aspen trees. This trek was about 100 miles long--but we did make it back to the campground for happy hour--just a few minutes late!

There was one porta-potty up in the Fishlake National Forest that we stopped at and the Aspen trees there were beautiful in the COOL morning air.

Here we all (Wagners, Jim Madole, Wittenbergs, me, Mertz and new Discovery members, Linda & Bill Johnson) are looking down at the Cathedral Valley from up in the forest.

Here we are having lunch in a beautiful setting in the forest among the Aspen trees.

Driving down out of the forest area, we found this beautiful pond.

Here's the view we had of Cathedral Valley below.

And this is why they call it "Cathedral Valley!"

Here's Betty Mertz standing in front of the "Cathederals" next to their jeep.

Here we are taking a short trek in to see the Gypsum Sinkhole. Pictures just didn't show the depth of the sinkhole.

Grandkids and Nephew Mason:

Who is Kokopeli?





According to Hopi Indian legend, Kokopeli (the flute player and traveling prankster) was the symbol of happiness, joy, and fertility. He would visit villages playing his flute, carrying seeds in his backpack (the "hump" he is pictured as having). Everyone would sing and dance through the night. Then, while the people slept, Kokopeli would roam the corn fields, playing his flute. The next morning the people would awake to find the corn almost full grown and Kokopeli gone, and many of the young women of the village pregnant. One legend has it that he is responsible for the end of winter and the coming of spring. When, the story goes, Kokopeli comes playing his flute, the sun comes out, the snow melts, the green grass grows, the birds begin to sing, and all the animals gather around to hear his songs.

This design is on alot of shirts and jewelry here in Utah. And now you know what he looks like!

www.students.sbc.edu/hoover07/kokopellipictures.htm

Mon, Oct 1st - Capitol Reef National Park

Now here's our view out the front of the coach at the Torrey Campground!

Today a lot of us drove to the Capitol Reef National Park close by. We stopped into the Visitor Center and watched a video about the Park. While there, we took a group photo of five of the couples attending our Discovery Rally. See below.

Bill & Judy Wagner, Judy Wittenberg, myself & Chuck, Betty & Jr. Mertz, John Wittenberg, and new members from Virginia, Violet & Bob Radd (they only live about 30 miles from us in Warrenton, VA and we had to come all this way to get to meet them!)

Below are some of the rock formations that we saw. Several of us took a short hike into one of the canyons called the "Grand Wash" where we saw some unusual rock formations. It's amazing just how many different rock formations and colors there are in just this 12-1/2 mile stretch of road!

These rocks look like gigantic pieces of chocolate!

Here's part of the Scenic drive into the park.

Aren't these weird formations in this rock? Some were like seats and each couple sat in them and we took their picture!

What a sky! This area is called "Capitol Gorge." Kind of looks like the capitol building in Washington, DC, hugh?

This evening we had a wonderful meal cooked by the folks that run the campground! Chuck had a huge ribeye steak and I had ribs along with salad, potatoes, baked beans and scones with honey butter! Oh and ice cream and cookie for desert. We had enough steak and ribs leftover to have for dinner the next night!

Grandkids and Nephew Mason:

What are pictographs and petroglyphs and what did they depict? (When we get to Moab, we hope to take some pictures to show you.

Pictographs are painted pictures on rock surfaces and petroglyphs are carved or pecked pictures. They both are pictures of people, animals and other shapes and forms left on rock surfaces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroglyph

Capitol Reef: www.nps.gov/care

http://www.capitolreef.travel/

Fremont Indians:
http://www.thefurtrapper.com/fremont_indians.htm Great pictures

http://www.nps.gov/archive/care/petpull.htm

Sun, Sep 30th - Travel from Bryce Canyon to Torrey, UT

It got down to 23 degs F last night and everyone had unhooked their water hoses and brought in anything that would freeze from their coach basements. Today we drove in small groups of 2 or 3 coaches up Scenic Hwy 12 to Rt 24 to Thousand Lakes RV Park in Torrey, UT.

Irrigation is the main reason there is green grass in the valleys here in Utah! They seem to be spouting water somewhere all the time. Because it was so cold this morning, the water was making ice on the grass in many places.

This is such an unusual rock coloration with the stripes of brown in it.

Here's where the road got kind of curvy!

We followed this river bed for many miles and even saw some horses down in it out on the open range.

Out the front window of the coach. We were climbing up the side of a mountain with dropoffs on the drivers side and then we got to a place, which I think was called the Devil's Backbone, where the dropoffs were on both sides of the road as we rode along the top ridge of the mountain. It was kind of scary and I didn't get any pictures of that area!

After getting back into the forested area, we drove by an area that had these lava rocks!

Here we are heading down the mountain into Boulder, UT.

We have great fast WiFi here in Torry, but no cell service. We have a beautiful view out the front window of the coach. Check out tomorrow's pictures of the view!

Check out the pictures that I finally posted of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Mon, Sep 24th!


http://www.thousandlakesrvpark.com/ Thousand Lakes RV Park

Sat, Sep 29th - Bryce Canyon National Park

Today it didn’t get out of the 40’s—BURR—and the wind was gusting from 45 to 50 mph! No mule or horseback trail ride for us today! Our group of 3 couples drove back into Bryce Canyon to see more Hoodoo!

We drove to the end of the 18-mile Park road and started back, stopping at many of the overlooks where the men had to hold onto their hats and the ladies had ear muffs and gloves on or their jacket hoods up! Note the elevation in the picture above!

I think our favorite spot was the Natural Bridge formation above.

At a couple of overlooks, ravens greeted us as we parked the cars, looking for a handout. We got some good pictures of them.

And more Hoodoos!

Here's a neat single Hoodoo by itself.

This picture shows a trail that goes down around the Hoodoos. It's that light colored line about in the middle of the picture.

We had a late lunch at Fosters Steakhouse where I had a bowl of chili and a cup of hot chocolate and Chuck had a steak. After lunch, Judy, Judy and I did a little browsing at some nearby gift shops, while the guys went back to the coaches to watch football or the Busch NASCAR race. Needless to say, there was no Happy Hour this evening as everyone was “happier” staying warm in their coach. So I didn’t get a picture of that Stellar Jay! Maybe at the next campground. We did get together for a few minutes at 5:30 for a travel briefing for our trip up to Torrey tomorrow morning.

Did you know? An elderly Paiute named Indian Dick describes how Bryce Canyon was formed:

“Before there were any Indians, the Legend People lived in this place. They were of many kinds—birds, animals, lizards and such things—but they had the power to make themselves look like people. For some reason, the Legend People were bad, so Coyote turned them all into rocks. You can see them in that place now, all turned into rocks; some standing in rows, some sitting down, some holding onto others. You can see their faces with paint on them just as they were before they became rocks.”

Grandkids and Nephew Mason: I have gone back to some of the previous days and added some questions relevant to the Southwest Indians. I will go back and add some more as time permits and let you know which ones to go back and look at. I picked up the book, “101 Questions About Ancient Indians of the Southwest” by David Grant Noble, ISBN 1877856-87-8.

*I added some questions to Sat, Sep 15th--Mesa Verde.

www.brycecanyoncountry.com/bryce.html

Fri, Sep 28th - Travel from Glendale to Bryce Canyon, UT

Today we drove from Bauer’s Campground in Glendale to Ruby’s in Bryce, UT. Another beautiful sunny, blue-sky day and beautiful scenery. This drive took us north on hwy 89 to just south of Panguitch, where we turned east on Hwy 12 and drove thru Red Canyon with its beautiful red hoodoos. Panguitch is the Paiute Indian name for water or fish. After getting parked at the campground, we (Tolsons, Wittenbergs and Wagners) headed into the Park and stopped in the Visitor Center to watch the 20 min film about Bryce Canyon. The film mentioned “quaking” aspen trees, which I find a very fitting word to describe how they move in the wind. We picked up a few long-sleeve T-shirts so we can be walking advertisements for Bryce when we get back to Virginia! Being later in the afternoon, we just stopped at the Sunset Point lookout and walked “part way” down the Navajo Trail that meandered down thru the Hoodoos and then we walked along the rim back to Sunrise Point. Tomorrow we will go into the park again and do some more sightseeing.

We have seen several beautiful Stellar Jays, but never close enough to get a picture until tonight. We all got together for Happy Hour and then to finish up leftovers of sandwich meats, salads, etc. and then sat around the fire to get warm—it was earmuffs and gloves CHILLY! A Stellar Jay flew in and stayed close by for a long time to see if he could get a handout. Of course he did. I didn’t have my camera, but I’ll take it tomorrow evening to see if he comes back.

Here's the view of Hoodoos from Sunset Point.

And here are John & Judy Wittenberg, Bill & Judy Wagner and Chuck & I.

If you look on the bottom right of this picture, you will see part of the Navajo Trail at Sunset Point. No we did not walk it all! It was quite a steep incline going down and then coming back up to the top and meandered in and out of the Hoodoos all the way over to Sunrise Point.


For the Grandkids and Nephew Mason: What is a Hoodoo?

“Hoodoos–a pinnacle or other odd-shaped rock left standing by the forces of erosion. Hoodoo—to cast a spell. From voodoo: something which causes bad luck.

The colors at Bryce are the result of oxidized minerals—red, pink and orange from iron; purple from manganese. The whites are purer limestone.

Bryce’s climate is ideal for hoodoos. With freezing temperatures more than 200 days a year, a relentless cycle of freezing and thawing widens cracks in the cliffs. Runoff scours away the frost-wedged debris and cuts, narrow gullies between walls, eventually isolating pinnacles and exposing them to even more weathering.

To grasp the hoodoo’s giant scale and for closer views of hoodoos-in-the-making, take a short hike down among them on either the Queens Garden or Navajo Trails. In spring listen to Bryce Canyon eroding. Small pebbles bounce down as the sun warms the slopes. Large rockfalls usually occur at night, when they are not often seen or heard.

The Paiute Indians, who lived in the Bryce Canyon region when settlers and other people from the eastern states came to southern Utah, accounted for the hoodoos as the “Legend People” whom Coyote had turned to stone.” We have seen many large ravens and you can understand how they played such a part in Indian culture along with the coyotes.


www.nps.gov/brca Bryce Canyon National Park
http://www.scenicbyway12.com/ Hwy 12 is the road we traveled over to get to Bryce and will continue on to get to Torry, UT tomorrow, Sunday.
http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/paiute/paiutehistory.htm Paiute Indian History

Thu, Sep 27th - Cedar Breaks National Monument & Cookout

Today we drove over to Cedar City with the Wittenbergs and the Wagners to enjoy the scenic view along Hwy 14, to stock up at Wal-Mart, have lunch and then visit the Cedar Breaks National Monument on the way back.

There were lots of "HooDoos" here at Cedar Break and it was very cold and there was a little snow on the ground.

Here's the chicken!

The Bauer family (our campground hosts) cooked us dinner in large kettles using hot coals--chicken, potatoes with onions and bacon, baked beans, salad and peach cobbler, also cooked in a skillet over coals.

Here we all are enjoying the good eats!

After dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Bauer entertained us with local stores--true and the "pull-your-leg" kind! Tomorrow we round 'em up and head out to Rubys Inn and RV Park in Bryce Canyon, UT--no internet, I think!