Sante Fe, NM and South - Oct 25 - Oct 30

Driving towards Sante Fe, we had our first New Mexican meal in Cuba. Red chili or green, enchiladas, tacos, sopaipillas (fried dough w/honey J) – excellent! Up to Chochiti Lake (an Army Core Property) before getting to Sante Fe the next day. Great spot except that their water main had broken so we didn’t get the showers we’d hoped for. In fact, the forecast was for a hard freeze so we dumped our water to winterize.

We treated ourselves to a trailer park for several (that’s 3!) days so we could get in and out of the historic area of Sante Fe more easily. Couple trips in to shop, eat, tour around, farmer’s market, flea market and trip up to Taos and back on the high and then low road along the Rio Grande. Great Whole Foods shop, more eating at Cowgirls and then time to move further south for a little warmer weather. Dan Prigmore had told us about a must see cavern to the south a mere 297 miles! Why not? We had the time . . . 

We traveled down along the Turquoise Trail through mining, artist and ghost towns to Valley of Fire State Park near Carrizozo, NM. This is a lava flow in the Tularosa Valley that originated from a vent called Little Black Peak that contains many square miles of buckled, twisted basalt lava. The vegetation was lush with mule deer, rabbits and lots of birds. There we also met a guy who had published his theories or findings on UFOs and told us about the crashes in the area and the government cover-ups. More hikes we should take – perhaps another time!

More travels through towns – Lincoln (home of Billy the Kid), Capitan (home of the original Smokey the Bear), and Roswell (yes, home of the UFO Museum and Research Center). We ended up in Brantley Lakes State Park notable for our first and only sighting of a roadrunner! Really cool! And for the asphalt smell from the oil rigs nearby!

Tomorrow we are headed for the Carlsbad Caverns National Park to see the caves. We never planned to go this far south and some would ask, why stop! Continue on to Big Ben, TX! Not this time!

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Chaco Culture NHP - Oct 23 - 24

We came up from the south to go to Chaco which meant driving 20 miles of unpaved, wash board roads. Long and dusty but fun with cows all around the van who moved just about as fast as we did. Chaco was like entering a different time and space. We loved it! Nice campsite, ranger talks, hikes, great houses and dogs are allowed on the trails – yes! The only reason we left after a couple days was that the wind was really blowing 20+ and we were dusty, dirty and ready for a shower and clean laundry.

We also needed to retrieve our absentee ballots that my sister in law had forwarded to the Nageezi Post Office. On line, they will tell you that General Delivery will hold mail for 30 days but we got a telephone message that said the letter would be held for 5! It’s a bit difficult arguing without a cell phone connection and this time around, every vote counts so off we went!

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Hovenweep and beyond - Oct 19 - 22

Time to move on to Hovenweep. To get there, we traveled the northern route through the Navajo Reservation. It was strange because there was an enormous amount of trash and broken bottles along the side of the road along with many signs that were shot up w/bullet holes. There was plenty of space when we arrived at the campsite and Hovenweep gets a “thumbs up” for being dog friendly. Nina was allowed on all the trails just not in the sites which is fine!

The next day we took a more southern route through Aneth, Montezuma, Mexican Hat and along the San Juan River. This was totally different from the day before. This area is pretty and much more prosperous as the area is rich with oil. Martin had said the Valley of the Gods (BLM  land) was not to be missed so this was our destination. This area is a miniature version of Monument Valley with a 17 mile loop over unpaved roads. The brochure said that the road was fine for 2 WD vehicles (unless there was a recent storm) with some sharp turns and several washes. A wash is a dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain. They dip down steeply and come back up the other side. The problem is that our clearance is about 6.5” with an inflexible length of 19”. Harry and I had had previous discussions about the definition of “several “. A couple is 2 and several 3 or more, so I thought. By the time we hit 12 going on 20 washes, I googled “several” to clear the air. Several is more than 3 but not “many”! Clearly the brochure needs to be updated!  I was clearing rocks out of the way when possible so we wouldn’t ground out.

We had hoped to disperse camp along the loop and break up the trip but there just wasn’t a place that jumped out and seemed warm and cuddly. It was a bit spooky to so we continued on and ended up at Gooseneck State Park instead. This was an odd but nice spot on a Mesa looking down on the San Juan River. We parked right on the lip of a very steep drop off! The camping was primitive w/pit toilets. There were meteorite showers that night which made it a perfect spot for a night sky.

Onward to Canyon de Chelly the next day. Chinle, the town outside the park took a bit of getting used to. There were many stray dogs everywhere with several (actually 4) who had been hit and killed along the road as well as one horse. We secured a campsite first and then drove the scenic drive returning to find someone in our campsite who admitted their mistake but also refused to move! We had picked the site for shade (for Nina) leaving the option open to go down into the canyon with a guide the next day. Goat head thorns were everywhere getting Nina and tracking into the van. Nothing felt right this time around so we decided to move on the next day.

We went down to the Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, a great spot for art, jewelry, history and learning how to prepare and eat pine nuts the native way! We ended up at Red Rock State Park in Gallop, NM for the night. It was a great spot.

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Blanding, UT - Oct 17 - 18

Blanding has a wonderful museum, Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum, that Tom had told us was a “must see”. This museum is also a research facility and repository for archaeology finds of the Ancestral Puebloans in SE Utah. The pottery collection is probably the most extensive around. Definitely worth the stop. 

We also stopped by the BLM Field Office to ask about camping as well as the locations of ruins that we could hike to. There are an enormous amount of ruins in this area with some sites still being excavated. She told us about a BLM primitive campground off Rte 95 just after you pass over/through Comb Ridge (the road cuts right through the ridge). This turned out to be a great spot with some tables, fire rings and toilets. No charge.

With map in hand, we headed off the next morning to hike into Mule Canyon looking for the House on Fire ruin that Dave had told us about. What he hadn’t said was how the ruin got this name. When we arrived, there were others there along with a photographer, Martin who had his tripod set up. He had been there since 9 a.m. (it was now about 10:30) and he explained that sometime between 9 and 11, the sun hits the rocks in front of the ruins at just the right angle that then reflects off the ruins creating this “fire effect”. Turns out he and his wife, Gay, were camped next to us. We stayed for a little while taking some pictures but the sun was so strong, you really couldn’t see through the lens what was happening. We continued to head down the canyon looking for more ruins. It became hard to stop because around each corner there might be one more ruin. We found 4 before heading back. When we got back to the House on Fire around 4 p.m., Martin was still there waiting for the perfect shot. In fact he planned to stay until sunset and asked that we let his wife know. I took a couple more shots and off we went. We didn’t get back to the van until 5 after hiking 7 hours. I need to get one of those eTrek machines that Steve has so I know how far we’ve gone. We had to have hiked better than 6 miles and all of us including Nina were dragging getting back.

The House on Fire shots came out pretty good. Take a look.

Martin and Gay are from Victoria Canada but spend almost all of their time traveling in their Airstream. Martin was originally from Scotland. Fun couple. We hated to leave but still wanted to see Hovenweep before heading down through Arizona.

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Arches National Park, UT - Oct 15 - 16

By luck, we got a really nice campsite at the end of the loop up in Devil’s Garden Campground at Arches. At this point, we both were getting a bit “rocked out” and got off to a casual start. The next day we hiked part of the Devil’s Garden Loop, Landscape Arch being the most impressive. Harry headed back while I went a bit further. A number of people had said that we must hike to Delicate Arch for the sunset so somehow I convinced Harry that this would be a good evening picnic hike later the same day. Actually I had some help from our next door neighbors, Dave and Ava from Bend, OR. Dave was a helicopter pilot who did two stints in Nam then flew for the Florida Police and now is retired doing photography on a professional level (as opposed to my point and shoot!). He gets out for the sunrise and sunset photos while lazing out middle day. It became pretty clear that the only way to really get dramatic photos of the arches was to follow this schedule. Only problem was that it really interfered with sleep and dinner!

We headed off for the Delicate Arch hike around 4:30. The hike was mostly up slick rock for a mile and a half with the last 200’ or so walking around a 3’ wide ledge that drops straight down. This is the part I wasn’t quite sure Harry would do but I had the dinner so he followed. For those that have never been there, you come around the ledge to the top of what almost looks like a big stadium. The rock pitches down and around in bowl the center of which drops down about 100 or more feet and the arch is across the way. That day, the wind was whipping and blew my hat off as I came around the corner making me want to get down on all fours and crawl! There must have been about 60 – 70 people up there. We stayed for a while but decided that making our way back in the dark wasn’t for us. It was beautiful and worth the hike.

The next day, we drove around parts of the park we hadn’t seen and then headed south of Moab to Blanding. Dave had given us a map with some ruin sites that were worth a hike on BLM land.

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Goblin Valley State Park and Days Before Arches NP - October 12 - 14

Time to leave Capitol Reef and the van battery was dead again! We got a jump start from a fellow camper and headed east towards Goblin State Park. The skies continued to be dark and stormy after raining the night before. We planned on doing some quick provisioning along the way stopping at a store in Hanksville. The shelves were half empty and I was only able to find 4 out 10 items on the list. Nothing was terribly important that couldn't wait except coffee and there was none. We were in Mormon country and they don’t drink coffee but who knows if this was the reason or the store simply ran out. Regardless, we decided to drive about 36 miles beyond Goblin Valley SP to Green River to try another store and then come back. The drive was worth it because we returned with a new battery, a battery power pack to help Harry sleep, coffee and the rest of the groceries as well as great burgers for lunch. 

This also meant we had to drive back into the nasty storm that we had run parallel with getting to Green River. We hit thunder, lighting, high winds and torrential downpours. Then the temperature dropped 20 degrees in a couple minutes from 60 to 40 turning the rain into hail. We could see waterfalls of water coming off the cliffs, washes full and the Fremont River racing fast and high. This was the flash flood conditions that they warn you about when hiking the slot canyons and washes.

Perhaps it was the storm, red clay mud, many vacationing families or the tent that rolled 600 feet before planting itself on our hood bending the antenna that soured us on our choice of Goblin Valley SP. The valley was really cool with the ghoulish hoodoos and being a state park, Nina could hike with us but the mud was caking to everything and the trails through washes were not safe and in some cases closed because of the rain. We headed off the next morning passing again through Green River, picked up some melon and squash just picked from the Vetere farm and continued on to Moab, UT making a bit of a detour through Thompson to see some pictographs and petroglyphs. These were the best we've seen so far, some over 4000 years old!

We still had two nights before our reservations at Arches NP. There are many BLM campgrounds in and around Moab particularly along the Colorado River (bright red by the way from all the rain). We didn’t think it would be a problem trying to find a spot but we were wrong! After driving through at least 10, we gave up, tasted wine at a winery along the river, bought a couple bottles bypassing the state liquor store police and then headed back north to see if we could find the dispersed camping spots we had read about. This time we were in luck and found a great campsite along Willow Spring Road. Lots of space for Nina to run and a couple buddies she could play with. We also met a couple folks who were with a jeep club. They were doing a lot of backcountry driving up through Arches and back over to the La Sal Mtns. This is definitely the land for off road vehicles. Tempting!

Sunday was a day for exploring Canyonlands NP just to get a feel for what was there and then back to Willow Spring for the night. We probably could have found a BLM site this night but we really enjoyed where we were, more space with the bonus of another free night.

Tomorrow Arches!

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Capitol Reef National Park, UT - Oct 6 - Oct 11

Leaving Bryce behind, we headed out along Rte 24, a scenic road up to Capitol Reef. Capitol Reef is a giant buckle called a waterpocket fold extending for 100 miles. There is nearly 10,000 feet of sedimentary strata with 17 layers. Because the fold tilted the layers, the west end of the park has the older rocks while the east is younger. Interestingly, one of the oldest layers here, Kaibab Limestone, is the youngest layer at the top of the Grand Canyon.

Unfortunately, we dallied too long, it was the beginning of Columbus Day Weekend and the campground was full when we arrived in the afternoon so we spent the night disperse camping on BLM land off Notom Road east of the park. There is also dispersed camping allowed on the west end in the National Forest. We had the stars and skies to ourselves and it was very quiet! The next day, the 7^th, we got a campsite and have been there since.

This was a beautiful, relaxing spot to spend some time. The temperatures were nice in the high 60’s to 70’s in the day and 50’s at night. The campground is in among the orchards of Fruita Historic District planted by Mormon settlers in the late 1800s. They built an elaborate irrigation system bringing water in across the fields and orchards from the Fremont River and then the overflow is directed back to the river. During harvest season, campers can pick from the open orchards but unfortunately we missed the last crop, apples. There are over 3100 trees including cherry, apricot, peach, pear, apple, plum mulberry, almond and walnut. We were tipped off that there was a “pick your own” apple orchard east of the park at Notom Ranch so we headed out to pick a ¼ bushel of Fujis. Did I also mention there is a bakery at Gifford Farm, about a 500 ft walk from our campsite that sells fresh pies and scones! Steve has been raving about the blackberry pies. So much for willpower!

There is no cell or Internet coverage here so we went to the nearest town, Torrey, to check on campsite availability at Arches NP and other parks along the way as well as emails and phone calls. Although this area is getting ready to close down over the next several weeks, there were no sites available at Arches until the 15^th. Even where we are is full every night but because this campground is 1^st come, 1^st serve, once you have a spot, you are good! We decided to stay put for several more days although I had to swear off the pies and scones!

We drove the scenic route and did some hiking in the Grand Wash, Capitol Gorge, Cohab Canyon and out to Hickman’s Bridge and even got some painting and writing in. Now if I can only get Internet access, I’ll get the blog up to date!

The last two nights that we were at Capitol Reef, the campground got incredibly busy with family and lots of kids. Even the camp host talked about how the grandparents come to secure a site and then their kids and grandkids all come in later. Next to us, we had 7 kids, 6 adults and a couple dogs along with the big groups across the way. We later found out that fall break in many school districts was that week. Groan!

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Bryce Canyon - Oct 3 - 5

Bryce Canyon National Park is another world with the hoodoos and all the colors. It totally made a believer out of Harry for hiking! One day, we had a great hike down the Wall Street side of the Navajo Loop over to the Queen’s Garden, back up to Sunrise Point and then over to Sunset Pt. The second day, we hiked down the other side of Navajo Loop to the west  side of Peekaboo and back up to Bryce Point and shuttled back to the campsite.

This time we picked an end campsite right where they had closed off the rest of Loop C. The gamble was that it was a double site and we didn’t think anyone would want to park next to us setting up a tent right in front of our van. Wrong! The first night, 5 adults, 2 kids age 7-9 and one newborn unfolded from a car and set up their tent in front of our van. Amazingly, they were so quiet and spoke in whispers. Second night, we had the option to move but were settled. 3 college kids from Holland moved in and now we were getting into it. They were pretty cool. Next night, a family from France who were living in Houston, Tx for 3 years came for a 4 day weekend. They flew into Las Vegas, rented a car and came to Bryce just as the weather was getting colder. They brought out a new tent and were trying to put it together for the first time.  Harry jumped in to help, then I tried while the two boys who were just learning English played with Nina. 

Finally succeeding, we headed off for a pizza dinner and ranger talk on bird migration. We didn’t get back until after 9 p.m. and were a bit afraid our headlights would beam in on our neighbors but they were awake w/lights guiding us up onto our ramps. Next morning, we awoke to Mom and the two boys in the car getting warm while Dad poked his head out of the tent vowing to get a bigger tent! We left that day cheering them on saying that exploring Bryce would brighten their day. 

We also had trouble with our van battery going dead. Suspicion pointed to a dome light that wasn’t going out. The ranger was very helpful giving us a jump start, but the problem continues to haunt us. 

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