Rocks and Water

Rocks and Water

Sand in your throat

Baby, do I feel gritty

I had a rhyme with throat, but forget it

On our last day at Lone Rock, we rented a 22 foot Cobalt. It did not come with the extra crew shown in the stock picture, but we made do. The high freeboard made the ride completely dry when the wind picked up and the waves were confused. We got too much sun, but we thoroughly enjoyed the day. We have been traveling for 11 years, but for some reason, this has been my second most enjoyable trip so far.

Dusk On A Cloudy Day - The Dinner Cruise Boat

The Rainbow Lasted Almost An Hour

The Full Moon Following the Rainbow 

Rocks And Water - Cruising on Lake Powell

Antelope Canyon

Tour Boat In Antelope Canyon

One Of The Thousand Houseboats. I Like The Name

Yes, You Will Go and You Will Have Fun Or Else

 Gunsight Bay

 Navajo Arch

What You Can Not See Are The Two Shelves In The Left Cave. Ideal Shelter

Headed Home

What We Found At The Dock

An Ambulance, Flashing Lights and A Dozen Park Police

The Park Police were having drills. One drill was a bad guy pushing a Ranger overboard. The Ranger lands on his back and draws his weapon.

Paria Canyon

Notice the gray hoodoo in the left foreground and the yellow in the background

Friday, May 12

We left Lone Rock and traveled 9.5 miles west to the Vermillion Cliffs. We had planned to tent camp one night at a remote site called White Pockets. We were there last year and wanted to take pictures at both sunrise and sunset there. It takes three hours to drive to the trailhead, so overnighting is the only option to avoid driving in the dark. However, the winds remain strong and sleeping in a tent in a wind storm is not all that much fun. We did that last year. 

We came here anyway and have taken some 2WD trails we have not been on before. Long Canyon was not scenic. While the road continued long past the place the maps and GPS showed it ending, it never got close to any good scenery. It skirts the wilderness and you sure don’t want any non-hikers to peek into the wilderness. No, that is reserved only for the physically able, most of whom wear REI apparel so they can be recognized as one of the clan.

We are ground zero for strenuous long distance hiking and the place is about empty today. Good for us. I talked with three tired young hikers, who had come here from Lee’s Ferry. That’s about 40 miles through some most unforgiving terrain, including cold water to your waist and quicksand. 

Most use the trailhead to hike to Buckskin Gulch. A few to The Wave.

We opened a bottle of wine that tastes like a cross between a sherry and Amaretto.

Our Parking Place

 What Came With Our Parking Place

Dorothy Was Not Pleased With Our Friend

Saturday, May 13

We drove to the place that was once a small town in the late 1800’s and then it was a western movie set. Floods took out both the town and the movie set. The end scenes of The Outlaw Josey Wales were filmed there. It was the last movie filmed there. Vandals burned the reconstructed set. Fantastic scenery, but I did not score a good picture there. 

After lunch and nap, we did the short hike to the Rimrock Hoodoos. Been meaning to go here for years. It was worth the short hike.

Sunday, May 14

We set out to see more hoodoos. We got four miles down the road to find a sign that said the road was no longer authorized to access the hoodoos. We went to another adjacent section where we found the gates had been replaced by fences. It may be BLM land, but Dorothy says it’s owned by REI shoppers. We pick on REI since they support making public lands into wilderness areas. It’s good for their business.

We returned to the camping area for lunch and found we are the only ones here. Perhaps because of Mother’s Day?

A treat here this year is cell phone service. Last year we could get one bar in only one inconvenient location on the side of the road. This year, we get three bars with the cell amp. 

It’s so great to get out the gravel pits of NM and AZ and into red rock country. We will trade pink dust for endless gray gravel any day.

Our daughter called this morning to extend Mother’s Day greetings. She asked Dorothy what we were doing today. Dorothy said Looking at rocks. Alecia asked What else? Dorothy said Looking at more rocks. Our daughter tires of rocks pretty quickly.

We took our last drive this afternoon up Kitchen Wash. Beautiful country. The only people we saw were cowboys branding calves. We got to the official geographic location for both the White and Vermillion Cliffs.

Utah Greens Up After A Shower

Dorothy Calls This Her Fav Volcano

Most of the wonders of southern Utah are in a circle. Roads run around, but none through the circle. I was reminded of this when we got to the end of the road at 6,200 feet and could see Bryce Canyon in the distance. 

We finished the third season of Bosch.

Monday, April 15

We want to see both Red Canyon and Red Cave. Both are a little north of Kanab. There are not many places to boondock here, for motorhomes anyway. Plenty of un-level places for trailers. Serendipity happens.  A friend is in the area and told us where she would be parking with the WINS group. So we are with them. No cell service on this side of the mountain.

The clouds increased in the afternoon and the temperature dropped. I checked the forecast and saw clouds, some rain and below 40 temps were forecast the rest of the week. To photograph slot canyons you need mid-day sun and dry roads. There was a light rain late in the day. Perhaps enough to make dirt road travel impossible. Lacking the requisites, we will head west Tuesday. Lone Pine awaits us. It will be 90 there, but in the 70's north of Bishop. You can't have it both ways.