Tue, Oct 9th - Jeeping the Shafer Trail up to Dead Horse Park

Shafer Trail

Another day of jeeping up another trail. We just love it and are so glad that the Mertz' have included us in all the fun!

These petroglyphs were different than we had seen before. They kind of look like centipedes!

Remember the movie "Thelma and Louise"? Well it wasn't Arizona where they drove off the cliff. It was here in Moab and they catapulted the "stripped down to nothing car: over this cliff and into the Colorado River.

Dead Horse Point--This made a perfect, natural corral for horses as there is a narrow piece of land behind it (that you can't see in this picture) that they could gate off to keep the horses out on the point.

Here's a picture of the "Z" trail that we climbed up in the Mertz' jeep. Boy it was steep!

Here we are almost to the top of the Shafer trail having lunch with a view that looks down on the trail that we just drove up--see that light colored line almost in the middle of the picture--that was the easy part of the trail.

This is the view looking down from Dead Horse Point. Can you make out the white rock formation that is in the shape of a horse? It's legs are pointing toward the bottom right corner of the picture. The river is the Colorado River.

Pucker Pass--yes, we had to drive under this rock to get down the trail!

And Betty Mertz made it thru just fine alone with the rest of the group.

Dinner at the Moab Brewery

Linda & Bill Johnson

Neil & Marlene Elkins, Rally Masters

LaVerne & Bob Foerster

John & Judy Wittenberg

Sue & Bobbie Bryan

Junior & Betty Mertz checking out some pictures Junior took.

Lollie & Denny Kendrick

Violet & Bob Radd

Karen and John Didich

Gayelene & Jack Muckenthaler

Jim & Margie Madole

Some how we missed getting a picture of the Wagners, but they are in alot of our other photos as we did alot of sightseeing with them!

Tomorrow Oct 10th, we say goodbye to all of our friends, old and new and head for a Wal Mart in New Mexico! We will be heading back east via route 40 and then up I81 in VA.

Mon, Oct 8th - Arches National Park and Colorado Jetboat Tour

Morning, Arches National Park.

Delicate Arch, 45 ft high and 33 ft wide

Balanced Rock

Afternoon, Canyonlands by Day Boat Tour

Here's the jet boat we took down the Colorado River. It was a 4-hr trip down and back. Where are we? Taking a potty break part way down the river in an outhouse!

And here's our guide, Rory.

Here's the group (minus Neil and Bob Foerster) up the trail where we saw some petrified wood.

Here's one of the pieces of petrified wood that we saw imbedded in some of the rock.

One of the views going down the Colorado River.

We saw several rock climbers today.

Recognize this tall rock? Check out the commercial where a man walks out of his front door and parasails down to his car to go to work. Now do you remember what he drives to work! I don't either. They used a helicopter to get the fake house and picketed fence up to the top. Tourism is Moab's No. income maker, but films and ads are No. 2!

Sun, Oct 7th - Jeeping in Moab, UT

This morning the group got together for breakfast in a bag. This is where you put your name on a freezer bag, fill it with all kinds of things like onions, peppers, cheese, green chilies and then you had 2 eggs. Close it up getting all of the air out and then squishing the bag to mix it all together. Then it is boiled in a pot for about 12 minutes! Waa laa, an omelet with no messy pans.

About 12 of us (Linda & Bill Johnson, Neil Elkins & Bob Foerster, John & Judy Wittenberg, Bill & Judy Wagner, Junior Betty Mertz and Chuck and I) got lunches packed and headed out for a day on a 4-wheel drive dirt road up in the mountains. What fun we had!

Okay, who do we look at with so many of the guys taking pictures!

Okay, now which jeep trail do I take--the high road, the low road or the middle one!!

Here's our view from Hurrah Pass, just under 5,000 feet altitude. We met several men on mountain bikes here and they took some pictures of the group on a couple camera--I haven't gotten a copy of those pictures yet.

We also met several folks on ATVs and some on dirt bikes:

Kelly and Terry, just your kind of terrain!

Sean, you would have fun here!

On our way back to the campground from our day of 4-wheeling, we saw this older, jacked up GMC Suburban on it's side on one of the 4-1/2 rated trails (5 being the toughest). We couldn't believe that people drove up there, especially in a top heavy vehicle. Down on the other side of the paved road where this vehicle would have landed if he had come over the side, there was a memorial for someone who died there!

This evening Neil and Marlene prepared a Fish Boil for dinner.

Sat, Oct 6th - Monument Valley to Moab, UT & Canyonlands by Night Tour

We traveled from Monument Valley to Moab, UT today. We left all that red blowing sand behind--except for what got on our vehicles and coaches! It was a gray, overcast day and we even ran into a little rain and snow.

This picture is of the La Sal mountain range, and Yes, that is snow on the top of the mountain on the left.

This is an interesting business as it was built in a "Hole in the Wall!"

But as we got closer to Moab, the sun came out and warmed things up some for our arrival in the Riverside Oasis campground. We are camped next to the Colorado River.

At about 5:45 we had a wonderful BBQ dinner with all the fixings and then went on a tour boat up the Colorado River for a Canyon Lands Night Sound & Light Show after dark. We weren't allowed to take any pictures as flash pictures would have spoiled the light show! But you can go to the website below to see what it was all about. I don't think I've ever seen so many stars and the Milky Way was so bright. I even saw one shooting star!


http://www.canyonlandsbynight.com/ Canyon Lands Night Sound & Light Show
http://www.riversideoasis.com/ Riverside Oasis Campground
http://www.moab-utah.com/photo/canyonlands/ Pictures

Fri, Oct 5th - Goosenecks State Reserve & Valley of the Gods

The Mertz, Tolsons, Wittenbergs and Wagners headed out today to Goosenecks State Reserve and then to Valley of the Gods hoping that it wouldn't be windy and blowing red sand around there as it was in the campground. To get there, we drove back out thru Monument Valley and Mexican Hat where we got the picture below.

Mexican Hat stone in the town of Medicine Hat.

Here's a picture of Goosenecks State Reserve looking down at the San Juan River

"Great Goosenecks of the San Juan River—Geologists consider this part of the river to be one of the finest examples of 'entrenched Meanders' anywhere in the world. The meandering pattern originated several million years ago when the river was flowing on a relatively flat plain, much as the present day Mississippi River. The San Juan became entrenched when the entire Colorado Plateau was slowly uplifted. Cutting downward, the river followed its initial pattern and thus created the canyon you now view. The process continues to this day as the San Juan River cuts ever deeper into prehistoric geological formations."

Below are some of the formations that we saw at Valley of the Gods. We couldn't figure out how some of the stone where still on top and hadn't fallen down. Maybe God was holding them there!

Beautiful blue sky again!

Valle's Pizza and Beer--where we met up with Bob and LaVerne Foerster and Neil and Marlene Elkins and we all sat outside and had our lunch of pizza and frozen lemonade. Off the porch, we saw this lizard scurrying around.

In the afternoon, the girls (Judy Wittenberg, Judy Wagner, Betty Mertz and I) went jewelry shopping "again" down at the Navajo Market--just a row of small buildings where the Native Americans sold their jewelry or pottery that they make. We bought several pieces of jewelry and enjoyed dickering for them. When I got back from shopping with the ladies, Chuck and I went up to the Goulding Trading Post where he bought a beautiful silver watch with turquoise stones on it very similar to the one below.

We had planned to have a chili supper, as several of the ladies had made some in their crock pots, BUT the wind and blowing red dirt and no indoor facility made us decide to postpone it until we get to Moab.

Thu, Oct 4th - Monument Valley Tour

Today many of us went on a Goulding's Tour of Monument Valley. Here are some pictures of our tour.

Our transportation.

This is a Native American making yarn from sheep's wool. Their houses are called a "Hogan" where the door always faces the east in order to greet the morning sun. It is octagon shaped inside and covered with the red powder like dirt mixed with water and sun baked in the sun, so that the outside makes it look round. Our Native American tour guide is in red. See picture below.

Here's a picture of an arch OR the "Sun's Eye" with eye lashes.

Now this is called "The Thumb" OR:

"John Wayne's Boot"

Here's a picture of some of the Petroglyphs that were etched in the stone using bighorn sheep antlers or antlers from other animals, like elk. If the Petroglyph had alot of animals, it meant that there were alot of that kind of animal in the area and it was good hunting.

"Ear of the Wind"

This is a picture of Russian Thistle or Tumbleweed. When we had a windy day, you could see this tumbleweed blowing around.

Along the tour, many stands were set up so we could shop for Native American jewelry at a very reasonable price!

This rock formation is called "The Three Sisters-Faith, Hope and Charity".

Here a horseman is posing for us. Doesn't this look just like a scene out of an old western? Many movies were made here in Monument Valley.

This is the tarantula that we saw!

Can't you just see a western being filmed here!

Here we are in front of the "Totem Pole" rock. They have used a helicopter to put vehicles on top of the totem pole rock for commercials.

Now isn't this just a beautiful picture of Monument Valley!