Tuesday, September 21 - There is something about state parks that makes people do odd things. Yesterday, we saw a 70+ yo guy jogging in the heat. He looked miserable. Today, there is a 50+ yo woman making loops around our loop - jogging with hand weights. It's 89! And screw the dry heat.
I was outside from 8 to 10 using the vacuum to remove some of the four months of accumulated dust from the carpets in the Jeep and KoKo. I had to quit. Too damn hot in the sun.
We vegged and read the afternoon away. Dorothy was just too tired to do anything.
She cooked perfect eggs, with potatoes and English muffins for breakfast. She fixed my normal birthday lunch of meatloaf, creamed potatoes and English peas. And sweet tea - the first we have had the whole trip. [She also got bacon the other day - another trip first] For dinner she is making fish tacos.
I have lost 30 pounds in the last four months. Some due to diet. Probably more due to Leukemia. Had to punch a third extra hole in my belt.
Tomorrow, we will head north to Winslow and stay at Homolovi SP. We have not been there since 2008. This time we will go on the Indian Reservation looking to photograph some of the painted desert that adjoins the Painted Desert NP.
We have had hookups more on this trip than any other trip by a wide margin.
134 nights total - so far
33 nights in RV parks
68 total nights with electricity. (Includes staying with friends, COE etc)
It's been hot folks.
Wednesday, September 22 - I spent an hour this morning cleaning windows. Damn, they were dirty. The front window on KoKo was filthy in slant light.
The fire smoke was barely noticeable today.
We headed east to Winslow and Homolovi State Park where we stayed our second night in KoKo in 2008 on the way home from California. This time to try to get a few decent images of the Painted Desert.
We stopped along the way at Walnut Canyon NM. I had no idea what it was. It was another Indian Ruin as described much like Mesa Verde - farming on top with living below the rim. There were 267 steps, so we passed. We had lunch in the parking lot.
We have been watching The Sopranos, Southland and The Wire for the last month or two. One episode a night. This time we have subtitles on The Wire so we don't have to guess what was said.
Dorothy cooked a pot roast with carrots and potatoes. She had been wanting this dish for some time. It takes a while, even in the pressure cooker. The heat from the stove challenged the ac. I think the stove won. The roast was quite tasty.
Anyway, dinner put us a few minutes late getting to an overlook for the painted desert, 13 miles north of us. Still managed to get several images in the last minutes of the golden hour.
Thursday, September 23 - We did the tourist thing in the morning. We went into Winslow ( Dorothy did stand on the corner) and people watched. Had a lousy Tex-Mex lunch and came back to KoKo for a nap. At 4 we went back to the painted desert looking for mesas with some color. We found none and returned to the canyon we photographed yesterday. Today we were there at the start of the golden hour and got some decent images. A massive gray storm cloud then obscured the sun and that was the end of that.
UTAH
Friday, September 24 - We made it to Utah, barely. Lone Rock is just across the state line. The reports are true, there not much water in the reservoir.
We wanted to stay at an RV park on the reservation near Tuba City and photograph a canyon that was supposed to be Bryce-like but with different colors. The RV park must have folded. No signage. There was a nasty road. I did not want to take KoKo down it just for fun. We could see there was a canyon. But there was no place that I felt comfortable leaving KoKo while we explored. So we returned to US89 and returned to Page.
We got to Lone Rock around 2pm and it was not uncomfortably warm. By 4pm I was quite warm. The sun ball dropped at 6:30 and it was quite pleasant.
Saturday, September 25 - It was cool enough until noon, then quite warm until after 9.
We had a sunset that lasted an hour. First, it illuminated the clouds in the east - about 120 degrees of pink clouds. Then we got a light show in the west. I did not bother to take pictures since the colors the camera captures are never the same as what I see.
Sunday, September 26 - We headed west on one of our fav roads - US89 where it cuts through a portion of the Vermillion Cliffs. Some of the best scenery in the country. I gave up trying to take pictures of it because you would need a wide-angle lens - at least as wide as what the eye sees to capture it. And then print it about 12 feet long and 8 feet high.
We know every road that turns off 89 and call them out before we get there. All too soon you get to the sorry roadside town of Colorado City. Then Gooseberry Mesa comes into view followed by peeks of the towers of Zion.
Our destination was much less scenic - the sandhills of Sand Hollow State Park. This park must account for 25% of the state budget. It's a money machine. Thousands come on the weekends for the lake, several hundred more on all manner of sand vehicles.
We aired down to my normal 18 pounds. And quickly found that was too much pressure for the extremely fine and dry sand. So I went to 12 pounds. And that did the trick.
I am too much of a dinosaur to understand how to download maps so I can follow trails on the iPhone. There were no other vehicles to follow being late in the day. A few sand buggies and I know better than to try to follow them. So I winged it. Started out climbing the dunes. Got to the top, but I was chicken to descend as I might not be able to return up the steeper slope. So we found a few rock ledges to play on. Saw some that were for buggies only.
Monday, September 27 - Did the dunes again. Had a long ride on a sand road, but stayed away from the steep rock ledges. Saw one guy studying a way up one. He was still studying it when we came back a half-hour later.
My fav. I like the way the green bushes glow against the sand.
We ate lunch at a place we are familiar with Costa Vado. Then a trip to Wally World for provisions. Dorothy fixed baked chicken with asparagus for dinner.
Tuesday, September 28 - We made a trip to Costco. Then went an hour north to Cedar City to stay with friends, Geran and Patty, who we met in Silverton.
Mooch Docking
Cedar City is 3,000 feet higher than the lowlands of Hurricane and fall is here. It got to 42. And we are headed higher.
Wednesday, September 29 - Geran and Patty gave us a tour all around Brian's Head. I got some decent pictures of the Aspens sporting their fall colors.
Thursday, September 30 - Brrr. It was 35 this morning. We headed north to Beaver and then into the Tushar Mountains. We found a parking spot along Kents Lake Road. We drove a counterclockwise loop following Kents Lake Road back to 183. Partly scenic. Aspens galore.
Friday, October 1 - 35 again this morning. I had the furnace going, the Wave 3 on high, an extra blanket, and my long johns. Double Brrr.
We continued north on I15 and then turned back south on UT24. After driving two hours, we wound up about 30 miles from where we were parked yesterday. It would have been shorter to take the rough dirt road, but painfully slow at 10mph. We are parked overlooking Cathedral Valley (the seldom visited section of Capital Reef NM)
We are at 9,400 feet. We can see not only Cathedral Valley but all the way to I70 in the north and to the main area of Cap Reef on UT24 to the south.
We stopped for lunch at a rest area on UT24 and meet a Lazy Daze couple from Spokane - Pat and Maija. We jawed for an hour. Nice folks. The only problem is they choose the blue color and they make reservations. They even have a spreadsheet detailing their trips. I should work on converting them to No Reservations style.
Saturday, October 2 - It was warmer this morning, only 37. While I was chilly in my nest Friday, last night I was warm and toasty. What was the difference? I think it was me.
We descended to the valley, 2000 feet below. I managed a few decent images. This was our third trip. 2010, 2018, and this year. The first time we accessed the valley from UT24. Somehow we discovered the northern entrance. In 2018 we saw exactly one red truck above the valley. This time we have seen several rigs. There are only 2/3 places where you can park with a view of the valley. They were taken this year. But, we saw a dozen ideal, flat places with trimmed grass no less. It's been discovered.
Cathedral Valley - A place most will never see
California smoke - It was clear Friday when we arrived, but I messed around and did not try for a picture until the sun was less than ideal. I figured the next day would be good. Wrong! The valley was filled with smoke Saturday. I used two images from prior years to illustrate the area.
Sunday, October 3 - We elected to head south with no particular destination in mind. We had 1/3 tank of gas in KoKo and Rubi was nearly dry. I knew I was not going past Torrey without a fillup. We filled up with $4.09 a gallon gas and parked to surf. I found a boondock place just east of Torrey. It's been there forever, but someone has lengthened the road so there are a lot more parking places. We
parked in a u-shaped super-sized red rock place with a view of the red bluffs to the north. Dorothy said she would not stay for longer than a week or ten days here.
This is a good place to end this chapter.
