OurTravels

It was a gorgeous morning, probably in the high 50’s when we started out for the park around 9 am.   The park’s west entrance station was about 4 blocks east of our campsite, so we were there in less than a minute, showed our pass, and without further adieu we were off.   We determined that getting to Ole Faithful early was the smartest move, hopefully prior to the hoards of buses I was anticipating.   That was a good call as when we left there close to noon, the parking lot was full and there were hundreds of cars cruising the lots looking for a spot.

When we arrived, we parked close to the lodge and hiked over quickly to see the geyser as we had no idea when it was going off, only that currently it was going off every 90 minutes or so.   As we were walking over, it blew; so the first pic is from the parking lot and I am running over there.  It was probably halfway done by the time I cleared the trees.   Once it was over, we started walking around, checked out the lodge where I picked up a nice Yosemite pint glass.  Now I have to figure out where to get my growler filled… oh, the problems we create!

The lodge was nice.   I took a picture of the fireplace in the main hall.  It was very big,  not the size of the ones in the Ahwahnee at Yosemite, but still very nice.

We headed over to the visitor center which was full of exhibits.   One of them was showing how the caldera changed during each of the last few eruptions, 2.1 million years ago,  1.3 million years ago and 640 thousand years ago.   Hmm, that’s a disturbing pattern.   Hopefully it doesn’t go off before you get to visit!

I had stalled long enough to where the geyser was supposed to go off in about 10 minutes.   We headed back there.  The crowd was enormous.   Of course it was late, and I think it blew about 10 minutes later than the signs had indicated.

 

But it was a great eruption and had a pleasing effect on the crowd.

Then we were off to West Thumb.  I had no idea what that was when I saw it on the map, but it was a long way away and we wanted to get far away from the crowds.   Turns out it was a small bay on Lake Yellowstone.   I hadn’t even realized there was a lake in Yellowstone,  and it’s huge.  I mean really huge.   What makes it more amazing is it’s close to 8,000 feet in elevation and a beautiful blue.   And right in the parking lot there was a small mud pot with a small wooden fence around it.

We headed just a bit further to Grant Village.  Lots of things to do there, mainly real bathrooms for Kathy.  [Very important!]

Our plan was to hit all the sites we bypassed on the way to O’F on the way back.   There were some spectacular sights to see.   Some amazing colored pools and smaller geysers that were terrific as you could get very close to them.  There were lots of small holes in the ground with bubbling water that would go unnoticed except for the sounds they were making.

Years ago I had been to a Mauri village on New Zealand that was smack dab in the middle of a similar volcanic area,  but there, the sulfur smell was 100 times worse than here.   That struck me as odd.   There was very little rotten egg smell at any of the sites we visited today.

On the way to and from the Thumb, we crossed the Continental Divide twice in each direction.  I  never realized Yellowstone was in the Rockies.

We stopped at a turnoff to have a picnic lunch and Kathy asked if there were bears.   I expect there are,  although we didn’t see any this day.   I was wondering if the rangers had to move these spots to keep the bears away,  although they looked fairly permanent to me.   One thing I noticed in this park, there are a dearth of signs.   Easy to miss turnoffs as it seems if there is a sign, you only see it as you pass the turnoff.   And the park map leaves off just enough info so reference points you do occasionally see a sign for are not listed on the map.  At least according to my navigator…

Enjoy the pictures.  The scenery in the park is just beautiful and changing around every corner!!

 

 

 

We used Salt Lake to refit and resupply.   On the way from Moab, heading up US 6 around Soldier Summit, we heard an earsplitting “THWACK”.    We looked around and didn’t see any rock chips, so I assumed it must have hit the front side of a mirror or it poked a hole thru the front fiberglass.  Those thoughts were incorrect as about 10 minutes later Kathy said she saw a crack.   When I looked over to my left, I could just see a little crack.  Stone hit the windshield. Bummer.

Coming down the other side of Soldier Summit toward Provo, I started calling windshield shop, found one that said they could drill the crack to stop it from getting longer.   In a bit we found the shop and circled it a couple of times to figure how to get into there.   On the second circuit, I saw a way to pull all 65′ into that small space.

The shop owner had a look and that 1″ crack was now 6″ long and growing.   He tried to drill it, but the crack immediately bypassed where he was starting to drill and he gave up,  told me I needed to replace it.   Oh, well, we reattached the car and headed toward the campground.

I was not aware how smoggy Salt Lake City (SLC) is.  It rivals the old days of LA.

The KOA in SLC was very nice,  much better than expected.   Lots of shade,  which is important where its painfully hot.

On Friday I took the coach over to a chain truck lube shop outside of SLC,  had them replace the 8 gallons of oil & filter, and I also had them replace both the fuel filters.   I figured the old diesel fuel must be completely gone now that I have run about 700 gallons of new fuel thru the tank.  I wanted the filters replaced prior to them fully clogging and leaving me for dead somewhere in the middle of nowhere.   I also wanted them to replace the air filter, but they didn’t have one to fit.  The manager mentioned it was an odd size and I would probably need to buy one online.  Getting online purchases delivered are not easy when your house moves often.

He mentioned there was a Cummin’s dealer and a Freightliner shop across the street from it on the way back toward Salt Lake.  As our coach is built on a Freightliner XCR chassis, I stopped there and asked service about getting one installed.  They said it would be about an 8-hour wait.   I walked over to the parts department.   $110 later I had a very heavy box with an air filter in it,  which felt more like it was filled with rocks,  weighed orders of magnitude more than any air filter I have ever purchased.

I opened it to see what the heck was inside that box.  Turns out it’s the whole thing, metal housing with the air filter mounted inside.  No wonder it was so heavy!   That’s when I realized it would be a bear for me to install it back at the campground.  I scoured the coach for the campground pamphlet as it had lots of ads on it.    I started calling the mobile RV mechanics listed.  Turns out, none of them work on the chassis,  just the house stuff:  appliances,  plumbing, electrical, etc.  One of them gave me the name of the diesel truck shop, where I called and talked to the foreman Ricky.  By then it was around noon and he didn’t want to get involved on some lengthy issue on a Friday afternoon.  I assured him it would be a simple job.   So he said his minimum was a half hour labor,  $45.  I said I would be right over.   I was currently in the queue at Blue Beacon for a wash of the coach.

Once that waste of money was done, I headed over and they had me pull it inside immediately.   Ricky had one of his mechanics crawl under it, and I pointed out it was easier to see what was needed from above thru back engine doors.   He looked and agreed.  Within about 20 minutes, he had the old one off and the new one installed.    I went back to the office to pay the bill.  Ricky said, “No charge.   The mechanic wasn’t doing anything anyway.”  Then he said to have a safe trip to Yellowstone.   I was shocked.   Can’t say that has happened to me before, unless they just looked at something and said they couldn’t do the work or it was a two-second thing.

After that I drove over and filled the tank, squeezing another 100 gallons in the tank for the trip to Yellowstone.  I asked Ricky if he knew anyone who would fix my windshield.   He gave me the name of the guy they sent glass work to.   Called him around 2 pm and he said he would meet me at the RV park when he finished his other jobs.   Around 6 pm I called to see if I should still expect him.  He said yes, that he was stuck at Guardsman Summit for a bit longer.    At 9:45 pm  he called and said what about 8:30 the next morning.   I agreed.  At 8:45 he texted to say he couldn’t make it as he was taking his dad to the emergency room.   What can I say to that?   So we battened down the hatches and left SLC.

We are in West Yellowstone now, and I am glad to see the crack hasn’t gotten any longer.   The insurance company is looking for someone capable of replacing that huge piece of glass.

Footnote:   Blue Beacon Truck washes…  a true waste of money.   The coach was still filthy after I got it back to the campground.  They just walk around the coach with spray wands like you see in those coin-operated wash bays.    No sponge or brush ever touches the vehicle.

I guess if you offroad in your RV, then it would probably get that mud off.

 

 

 

Canyonlands was the last park in Utah I wanted to see.  I still think, if there is only one you have time for, then Zion should be it.

This park is like a smaller version of the Grand Canyon, lots of jeep trails thru it.  One of them is 100 miles long.  The most interesting part to me was seeing what appeared to be Yosemite ‘s half dome lookalike, the other half of half dome,  except it’s a yellowish rock instead of the grey of Yosemite Valley.

The valley is very cool with all the winding canyons carved by the rivers. I think this is the last of the red rock parks we will hit this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow we start heading northward toward Yellowstone.

We arrived in Moab Sunday afternoon with enough time to hit the Moab Brewery for a late Father’s Day lunch with a bunch of tasters and subsequent growler fill.   When I asked about getting some tasters, the waitress mentioned that Utah law only allows two drinks in front of a patron at any time.   I was able to conjure three as Kathy only had a margarita, so one could be in front of her.   Utah is an odd place.   Maybe if I was wearing some secret underwear they would cut me a break.   Who knows.

On Monday early morning we headed out to Arches National Park.   We arrived too early to pay to get in.  Kind of nice…   But that also meant the visitor center was closed, so we proceeded into the park sans map.

We stopped and took a few photos at Park Avenue and then at the Court House Towers.      As of yet I had not seen an arch and was wondering if I had been sold a bill of goods.  Thankfully we  ran into a ranger who could give us a map of the park.   Google maps is useless inside a national park.  It shows the roads and that’s about it, so getting a map from that ranger was priceless.

Not far from the Court House was Balanced Rock.  That was and still is amazing to me.   You better come see that one quick.. I was thinking I should turn on the video recording as it looked like it should have fallen while I was there.

After we left there, we arrived at Sand Dune Arch and that was an awesome short hike to a narrow slot canyon between some huge rocks.  Lots of red sand  we hiked thru as the name implies and a small arch hidden inside there.   It was maybe low 90’s getting there, but once in the rocks it felt like mid -70’s and cool.  Could have stayed there all day!

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately Fiery Furnace was closed the day we were there,  That sounded like something to see.   I was not disappointed as I got to see lots of arches while there.

We arrived yesterday afternoon and this morning I drove over to the scenic drive entrance, paid my $20 to enter.   First thing I noticed was a lack of signs pointing me where the drive starts.  There was a large visitor center and larger parking lots full of buses, RV’s and cars.  I saw quite a few (many) tour vehicles.   They were pickup trucks with a bunch of bench seats replacing the usual truck bed.  There was a roof over the benches but no sides.  It was 95 degrees there at 11 am, so the lack of AC would make that 2.5 hour drive a bit uncomfortable.  So I drove the Equinox instead of taking a tour, and I was glad I did!   As I drove the circuit, I realized that the worst thing would be the dust, as I could see almost everyone on those benches had handkerchiefs over their faces.  The tour vehicles tended to drive in small packs of three or four, and the folks behind the first truck were in a dust storm.  I am not sure the passengers in the last vehicle could even see anything.

Enough of that,  let me explain the road.  I’ve been on some pretty rough roads in the past, but I had never traversed anything even close to this and there were 17 miles of it.   For $20 you would think they would occasionally grade it.  That was not part of the plan.  Some places I felt like I was rock crawling in a jeep.   Two miles an hour seemed like it might be too quick for the terrain, and this was supposedly a road.   There were many places to stop and take pictures and just gawk at the magnificence of it all.   After about an hour into the drive, I was ready to be done with the jarring and bouncing around, but it was a one-way road so I had to keep going.   

Kathy was the smart one today as she had begged off going.   I’m glad I did it though as you cannot see anything from the main roads.   This valley is hidden away.

 

In a few hours I will be able to say I have been to 4 corners.

 

While we were here, I wanted to see Durango.   Guess I had some picture in my head from an old movie.   We drove around the town for a bit.  Kathy had never seen a tree-lined street before in real life, you know the type where they make a canopy over the road.   After poking around for a while, we headed over to the historic district to park to find a place to eat.   Durango is not a pet friendly town.  Most joints with patios had signs on them saying “No Dogs.”   I finally had to ask a local and he mentioned a place about 4 blocks up the street.   We sat at a very small table that looked out onto Main Street at the Carver Brewing Company.   I had one of their craft beers and was underwhelmed,  so I wouldn’t fill my growler there.

We ended up at Steamworks Brewing Company on the way out of town and got a really tasty Belgian Ale for my growler.   Can’t wait to put some in my frozen pint glass! Heading to Monument Valley tomorrow!!!

 

It’s Wednesday morning and I am ready to climb down to the Cliff Palace and check the place out up close and personal.   Our tour was at 4 pm, so we had some time to kill,  drove in to Cortez to pick up a few things at WallyMart and find the post office to pay some taxes.   We headed back to the coach for some lunch and button up to leave the pups there while we head out for the long, windy drive to the Cliff Palace.

We arrived with about a half hour to spare and started reading about the history of the place.   As 4 o’clock approached, we headed out toward the overlook where the tour starts, listened to the spiel about how strenuous and steep the climb is, and how the high altitude can affect us.  There were about 50 of us standing out there.  Then we were off.

There were some steel stairs leading down to a locked gate where you had to hand your tickets to the ranger for admission.   Then the adventure began.

There were large rocks all around us and a narrow passage to the right with some jagged steps cut into them, very narrow steps, maybe a foot wide and all different heights, as if a blind man had carved them out of the rock.

Those steps probably went down about 120 feet.  Very cool and narrow.  Not many handholds, so the rocks filled in for that part.  The only adverse issue was the jarring shock as you stepped down and found it was closer to 18″ on some rather than 8 to 10″ steps.  

At the bottom was a narrow path that led off to the left toward the Palace.   It was a few hundred feet to the first 10′ ladder to climb.

 

After climbing that, we wound further down that path to a large nitch in the rocks where we all found spots to sit in the shade while Ranger Carol told us about the history of the people that lived here and wait for the previous tour to leave the Palace ahead.  The view of the ruins from there was terrific!   We were there at the perfect time for the sun to illuminate almost the whole Palace.    It’s really hard to imagine the people who lived here left over 800 years ago and moved south toward the Rio Grande.

After the previous tour group moved on, we descended more very uneven steps, but this time they were a lot wider.   As we moved closer to the ruins, we entered into the full sun and started to bake a bit.   Maybe 4 pm wasn’t such a great idea…  The ranger,  an archeologist by training, clued us in to how they figured out when the folks built the structures and when they left.   Apparently they only lived there about 100 years.   It is a grand structure.   The pictures don’t do it justice, you should just go there and see it for yourself.

After about 20 minutes baking in the sun standing around the actual ruins, the talks were over.   We got to look into one of the towers at some paintings on the walls, then it was time to climb out of there.   We determined it is truly harder to climb up the cliff than to go down..

There were some leisurely steps at first, then it got a lot narrower and steeper.  You have to see the crevice we climbed out of to believe it, maybe 18″ wide at spots, and three more ladders around 10′ each.  I had originally thought I wouldn’t like the ladders as they seemed to say they were on a sheer cliff with a narrow ledge, and I do not like heights.  But these ladders were in such narrow places with almost no way to see how high you were, I never even thought of how high we were.  But if anyone was claustrophobic, there would have been an issue.

Once at the top, I couldn’t believe we did it.   And Kathy, who was so cocky that morning about running laps around me, was quite a bit more subdued.   See the last picture, she could barely make it two steps from the last ladder… notice where i was taking the picture from.   [I think it was more from heat exhaustion, although the ladders climbing out were scarier than I thought they would be!]

Luckily the long walk to the car was on relatively flat ground.  And thankfully I insisted we pack some cold bottles of Snapple and fruit for after the trek.

Off to Durango tomorrow.