Welcome to Utah!

Driving west on Interstate 70 from Colorado into Utah we pass see high cliffs, mountains, plains desert, redrock, puff clouds, and wide open spaces.  Heading to Salt Lake City area to help Sraddha's nephew move into their new home closer to his work so he can reduce his commute by 2 hours per day.  This is important because his wife, Sraddha's niece, Lissel, passed away suddenly last December just before Christmas.  Leaving behind 4 little girls, oldest 9, it has been challenging for the family.

Welcome to Utah

When we attended the funeral we volunteered that, if nearby, we would come help them move.  That time has arrived.  We have really enjoyed the past 7 weeks of meandering around the southwest with no fixed schedule knowing we would end up in South Jordan, Utah on Friday May 9.

Wide open spaces

Meandering, or as friend put it "Roam with Om" has suited our current lifestyle and temperament.  For past 45 years I have been on a schedule.  It is nice to take a break.  Yesterday as we were walking in the campground I remarked that if feels a little strange to have to be somewhere at a specific time.

Attention to Detail keeps us mostly out of trouble

Not that we haven't made appointments here and there, however, this is a little different.  We are looking forward to seeing the family and helping out Tyler's mother and father who have moved in with them to help take care of the little ones.

Our campsite amidst the cottonwoods

We will be here in SLC area for 4-5 days then, since "nearby" drive 650 miles west to California to spend a week at Ananda Village in familiar surroundings, seeing friends, attending to medical and dental minor issues, getting haircut, etc. Then resume meandering on our northern migration to Oregon.

Fresh Snow on the Mountains east of Provo.

Since we arrived early we had 2 nights near Utah Lake.  The first night we spent at an RV park where we had stayed 6-7 years ago.  Set amongst the big cottonwood trees if offers a wonderful respit from the hot Utah sun.  Only problem is the temps were in the 60's with snow in the high mountains.  Quite a beautiful alternate to the desolate brown hillsides we have seen the other times we have been in area in summer, fall and winter.

Utah Lake State Park campsite

The next day we moved to the state park at Utah Lake.  Open, big, spread-out campsites, view of the lake, view of the mountains and easier on the budget too.  We drove up to NW Salt Lake City area to visit Natural History Museum on University of Utah.  Modern building with amazing exhibits on the geology, archeology and cultural history of Utah.  Really cool dinosaur exhibit.

My new friend.   I didn't invite him home

And an exhibit about Chocolate. Afterwards we went to cafe and drank a cup of Mexican chocolate.

Ah, Civilization

Late in the afternoon we took a different route home.  Rather than face the commute during rush hour, we headed east over the first big mountains to Park City, home of the 2002 Winter Olympics.  Walked around historic downtown and met an interesting photographer in his studio/shop, who has made some very inspiring photos and a business out of his photography.  We chatted a while about traveling as we do. Glad we are unencumbered right now and able to roam as we do.

Fun old engine.  I used to have a model of this one on my layout

Off to help our nephew now, move into his new home for a few days then head west.

Valley of the Gods, Cedar Mesa, Utah

Tucked away in SE Utah just north of Navajo Nation and Monument Valley is this little gem.  Valley of the Gods.  We drove the 17 mile dirt road across various washes and through the formation.  Some say there are gods in the rocks!  Not sure but quite beautiful

Over view of Valley of the Gods

one of the formations

Someone taking pix on her iPhone

Here is what we were shooting.  Some Flowers shooting up from some flavor of miniature Yucca plant

Looking the other way from the Valley of the Gods.  what the Gods see.

- blessings from the road

Escalante

Grand staircase Escalante is amazing place.
I haven't had cell service until now in Ely Nevada so am posting a few pix.
Oops, forgot to post this so now am catching up. S took off early to drive through Capital Reef NP and ended up over on other side of mountain.  So I drove over the 9400 ft mountain pass in storm conditions.  fortunately the storm was warm enough to not cause snow and hail to stick.  Was beautiful.  here are a few pix.

Driving over Boulder Mountain into teeth of storm en route to Escalante.  Aspens just budding out

Overlooking Grand Staircase Escalante looking south from north side

Looking east towards the Water Pocket fold of Capital Reef

After encamping in Escalante, we drove down Hole in the Rock road about 15 miles. (45 miles long).  Storm brewing and late in day.

Some hoo doos in Devil's Garden down Hole in the Rock road south of Excalante town

Another vision of the hoo doos in Devil's Garden

- blessings from the road

Capital Reef National Park

Driving in from the southeast we get a feel for the 100 mile long "waterpocket fold" that lifted up the land 5,000-7,000 feet about 65 million years ago.  The sun was hazy and cloudy so no good pics that day.  We camped in Fruita campground near visitors center fortunate to have arrived before noon and nabbed the last campsite in park.  whew.  Enjoyed the area and sat outside to eat our dinner that evening as the wind whipped up building up some fun weather.  next day found us with some sprinkles and drizzle which began to bring out the color. 

Me photographing Eaton's Penstemon (photo by Sraddha iphone)

I am sitting in an internet cafe in Torrey, UT,  typing as fast as I can because Sraddha headed out before dawn to drive the west side of the park and ended up 30 miles away at Anazazi Ruins state park in boulder, Utah where I am headed when I finish this blog post.  

Alive and well in south central UTAH (not LA,,hehe). Just departing Capital Reef National Park en route to Bryce Canyon NP. what a gem is Capital Reef and very secluded. The weather has turned cool and rainy with snow in high country. for a photographer, this has been a blessing as the colors of everything no longer washed out in the hot sun. here are some samples. This rainbow showed up in our back window and we immediately stopped to shoot the pic.

Rainbow looking south

Grand Castle

Golden Throne

No need for caption.  View says it all

Wildflowers just beginning to bloom in Capital Reef NP. Apparently there are some rare species in area. Not sure we saw any but we were fortunate to get a few photos. 2 different penstemons.

Eaton's Penstemon

Utah Penstemon

Valley of the Gods, Cedar Mesa, Utah

 Well this pretty much says it all

Valley of the Gods lies Northeast of Monument Valley, just over the Utah Border on the south edge of Cedar Mesa which rises up 1200 ft above the canyon floor

south edge of Cedar Mesa in Southern Utah

Valley of the Gods

Had seen a photo in Bluff coffee shop entitled House on Fire.  Very famous apparently so we went to track it down. Discovered it was in Mule Wash in northern part of Cedar Mesa, so we went looking for it.  Hiked about 3 miles up the canyon.   Ruins pretty cool. Photographed what I thought was the shot but was the wrong one.  Sigh.  Turns out the ruins I wanted was in South Mule Wash, not North Mule Wash.  Still a fun hike of 6 miles with only 2 blisters (need new shoes).

Anyway posting the shot I did get here and will have to return another year. 

Also saw this collared lizard peeking out of its hideaway as we returned to the car.

Collared Lizard

Hiking Zion National Park

One of the busiest parks. Shuttle system in effect April 1. I caught a bad cold and was not my normally energetic self so we did no hard hikes. Stayed extra night due to storms so we had 2 full days in park. Went up to Zion loge late both mornings for brunch then walked some of the easy trails in the valley. More like dawdled most of the time.

I also rested and slept in middle of day and we had to repair the slide out (see previous blog post) so our walks were limited. Still it was just the best place to R&R.

The family from hell (next door first night) was replaced by a very quiet couple on each side with rental RV's. Sweet! We have observed many many smaller rental RV units driving around. Mostly European couples from listening to them speak Apparently they rent from places in Las Vegas and drive around to all the national parks.

Great way to do it!

Yesterday, while I was resting, Sraddha headed up into park for a long stroll. I was to join her after 3pm and we would the go on up to Narrows. She calls me from canyon stop about 3 and we plan to meet there around 3:45. I was to drive keep into visitors center and catch shuttle. I

When I discovered park full I turned around raced back to camp, left jeep in motel lot and scurried to catch the town shuttle into the park. I scurried a little carelessly and, for the first time in many, many years, tripped and twisted my ankle real good. Ouch. Got up and limped to the shuttle. Wasn't hurting too bad. Figured it was mild sprain, not broken so kept going.

Arrived at canyon junction early, found Sraddha and we walked up to Pome creek bridge (see pics) which is where highway 9 crosses over on its eastbound journey through tunnel to the other side and Bryce Canyon park.

We poked around underneath Pine creek bridge and walked back to shuttle then road up to end and walked up the 1mile riverside walk. Ankle hurting pretty good now. Ok though as long as I stay on flat surface.

The walk was worth the effort as I captured the late afternoon light reflected off the running waters of the Virgin river. See the iPhone pic below.

The light was incredible all over the park as we returned to shuttle and road back to visitor center.

Due to my ankle, I had elected not to haul big camera. Just iPhone. Which was kinda fun since time was limited. I have to say it is handy in these situations and a lot faster when posting to blog. Will continue to use it more for blog posts.

Looking up Narrows of Virgin River

Pine Creek Bridge looking east up into Canyon

Valley of the Patriarchs with some waterfall in distance (center)

Poking around under Pine Creek bridge looking Westward back to main canyon

Oh no!! The Slide out broke in open position!

We arrived in our RV camp just outside of Zion National Park gates and scored a spot next to the Virgin River.  First we had to unhook Mr. Toad (no additional name yet) from Charli and found it to be quite difficult on a grade or when they are not parked straight so we walked around the camp to find a level spot.  We should have realized then and there that level spot means different things to different people.

We pulled head into our spot on a hot gusty day.  Had just driven 250 miles from GC through northern Arizona over some beautiful roads in windy conditions and were tired and over heated.  Narrow spot.  How are we going to store Mr. Toad and open the slides?  Pull forward, nope,  move left? nope, move right? nope.  ok, back to pulling as far forward almost touching the BBQ grill which we weren't going to use anyway.  Ok?  lower the automatic levelers.  ALL the way in front and still not level.  Hmm.  ok, almost level.  Let's try sliding out the front slide. 

YIKE!  About 6 inches out I noticed the back end going out fine but the faster and farther than the front end.  In fact, the front end isn't moving at all!  Uh, oh.  Retract.  Back end moves but front doesn't.  Now what do we do?  Ok stop.  retract levelers.  try again.  Nope.  Hmm.  Can I move the RV?  Start engine and yes, it moves.  Good news and bad news.  Meanwhile Sraddha looks at another spot 2 doors upriver and she walks 1/4 mile back to office to check availability.  She comes back and says we can move and it appears a little more level.

Ok, so we carefully back out of space, and move over 2 doors to the other space with the slide still extended.  We level it and it is better but not perfect.  Did I mention we were over heated yet? (body temp only).  We can live with this.  The firdge still works and the bedroom slides out fine.  What to do with "broken slide"? Ah Ha!  when we bought Charli the RV dealer threw in a 1 yr subscription to "Priority Care" an emergency road care service.  We had internet and cell service (not always the case on this trip) so I dialed up the phone number and eventually got a technician on the phone.  We diagnosed the problem which turned out to be a broken pin underneath the front slide.  Sigh. 

 "Can you manually pull in the slide", she asked?  

"How do I do that?" I answered.  

"It might say in the owner's manual", she replied.  

Zounds what a brilliant idea I thought.  We didn't get an owner's manual which the RV dealer promised us so we bugged the Tiffin Manufacturer who finally sent us one.  It arrived while I was visiting home for some work so I cleverly put it in my return luggage.  Open to page 8-4 and there it told me how to manually do it.  Except I was really tired and hot and we could live with the slide partially open today.  So she calmly said she would research someone to come out tomorrow if I preferred (they pay travel costs and I pay labor to repair) or I could do it myself.  The instructions were complicated.  Something about dismantling switches and sensors, etc, so I said, sure,  send someone out.  She said she would call back in the morning with someone who could come out.  "OK" I said.  

Meanwhile, the heat and wind were taking their toll.  The good news is that we remained even minded and cheerful and never got upset with the situation or each other.  We decided to table the whole thing until the next day.  Oh, yes, the water hose leaked a little and we had no extra seal.  We can live with this until the next day also.  However, the kicker was the neighbors with 4 kids from hell, who ran around and yelled and talked until 10:30 that night.  I almost said something but they finally quieted down.  We were both overheated so we decided to go to swimming pool to cool off.  We wanted to go into the river but the bank was too steep and long (good news when it floods though). 

We changed into swim suits and walked the 1/4 mile to the pool.  BRR!.  85 degrees air temp.  about 55 degrees water temp. Turns out they had just filled the swimming pool the day before we arrived.  We both dipped in for a few seconds.  It was ccccoooolllldddd, but did the trick of lowering body temps a bit.  Went back to RV and turned on the AC as interior temp was 91 and climbing.  Normally we don't like to run the AC but it was nice to have this day to both cool off and to filter out noise from the neighbors 12 feet away. 

Next morning we discuss our options. Can we manually retract the slide ourselves thereby saving a bunch of money?  Fortified with 2 cups of tea, I hauled out the manual and re-read the section.  Hmm.  this doesn't look that hard.  Let's crawl underneath and have a look-see.  Yep the bolt shear pin was missing on front end.  Where did it go?  drop off or break?  But I did have a wrench to twist the square rod to move the gear to bring it in. Would it break something if I did this?  Was there a sensor i needed to disengage or would the electric motor jam? I decide to risk it.  Turn turn.  It's moving!  A few more turns of the wrench and it was all the way in!  Woo Hoo! I get a call from RV repair guy about 30 minutes away who can't come out until next day to retract it for us.  and then I can drive it back to his place for repair.  Happily, I told him we got it retracted ourselves and made arrangements to drive it down to St George (one hour one way) next day to be repaired.  Whew.  End of tunnel in site.'

We drive up to the park and take shuttle up the Zion Lodge for breakfast, proud that we got the slide manually retracted. We took a walk because I wasn't feeling that good.  Not bad but just not tip-top-hike-up-a-steep-elevation-just-a-mild-stroll-good.  It had cooled down to low 60's and began to rain with wind so we hopped on shuttle back to visitor center and headed back to RV.  During breakfast we had decided to see if we could fix it ourselves.  We needed a new bolt and locknut.  Sraddha went back to our original spot (recently vacated earlier in morning) and found the old bolt!  Good news.  Now we just need a locknut so she drives down to Hurricane to Ace hardware store and gets one.  She also bought some extra washers for the water hose.  I remained home to rest.

Well, if you are still reading, we got back underneath and with a lot of effort, jiggling and turning, were able to put the bolt back through the rods connecting to the motor, tighten down the new locknut and extend the slide to full position!  Victory!  I called back the RV repair guy to tell him we would not be making a trip to St. George.  

We are staying here a couple more days.  That is another story.

Our view out the front window of Charli encamped just outside Zion Park

Breakfast view from Zion Lodge!  Is there a better breakfast place?  Veggie omelet good too!

Storm clouds incoming north of our camp!