And I mean the Really Big Boys!

We had a beautiful day today as we visited Mount Rushmore and neighboring Custer State Park. And it wasn’t only the bright blue sky that made it beautiful – it was a day spent with our good friends, John and Rosie!

Mt. Rushmore was quite fascinating. We enjoyed a couple of great “Ranger Talks” that helped us better understand this monument – it’s purpose, why the presidents that are there are there, and how this mammoth sculpture was actually accomplished.

It was a very interesting morning!

From there we headed a little south to take in some scenic drives through Custer State Park. We had lunch with the Bison -

Squeezed through some teeny-tiny tunnels -

and I mean really teeny-tiny -

We passed several beautiful lakes


and saw lots of beautiful scenery!

And somehow, before the drive was over, we managed to find some ice cream.

Yep, a pretty darn perfect day!

WOW – I am so glad that we saved Bryce Canyon for the end of our Rock Tour. All of our previous stops were EXCELLENT – but to finish off with something this unique, made a wonderful conclusion for a wonderful adventure.
We camped in a lovely state park not to far from Bryce that had it’s own Red Rock thing going!

How sweet is that!
Since we arrived in the area in the early afternoon, we didn’t do anything too involved that first day at Bryce. You know, it was kind of a “scope out the situation” kind of day. We did the visitors’ center, watched a wonderful video, and then took the scenic drive to the end of the canyon. And then, of course, we stopped at every overlook on the way back. I can’t say that Gary got out of the truck at every stop, but I wasn’t going to miss a thing! Here are some shots from that first day -


Those two are from the farthest overlook point – and what a vista! The ranger said it was a good 100 mile view – and I believe him!
And as we made our way down the road…..

We decided to come back to catch the sunrise the next morning, so after we picked our spot from the many wonderful overlooks (Bryce Point with its view into the main amphitheater) we headed back home. A nice hot dinner, some good reading and another lovely sunset completed our day.

We left the next morning at 5:30 (for a 6:30 sunrise) and waited with these other good folks for the sun to appear!

And let me tell you – IT WAS COLD! and WINDY! I can’t imagine what the wind chill was – but my 5 layers of clothes and jackets weren’t really enough. But enough whining! Ah, the sunrise ……

Well, actually what was spectacular was the rising sun hitting the canyon walls – my, oh, my, how it made them dance!



After my fingers thawed, we had a lovely breakfast at the Bryce Canyon Lodge before we hiked the Queen’s Garden and Navajo Loop trail – “The Best Three Mile Hike in the World!”



It took us right down (and I mean DOWN) to the canyon floor – so beautiful!



And of course, what goes down, must come up! And up we came -

THIS! There were about 4 more switchbacks before we made it too the top. We were certainly out of breath, but we were pretty happy with ourselves. What a beautiful (and heart pounding) hike!
I kept clicking picitures as we returned to the truck (’cause that’s what I do!)-

and I was very pleased to catch this little bird before it took flight!

I think it’s a female western bluebird – but I’m not sure. Anyone out there have a better guess?

After our hike (we did it in just under 2 hours – yes, we were feeling pretty proud of ourselves!) we returned to the campground, got packed up and hit the raod. Since we had such a “nice” early start we were on the road by 11AM! Over three hundred miles later we’re stopped at a nice picnic area and we’re both BEAT! Gary’s already hit the sack, and I’m following close behind. I have a couple of other stories from our Rock Tour, but they’ll have to wait.
Ta-ta!

So. Zion National Park. We’d heard rave reviews about this park – and it certainly was beautiful!

I wanted to give you a taste of this beautiful park, but since I think maybe you’re getting a little tired of rock pictures, I thought I’d go with a slightly different angle. So while there may still be some rock pictures in this post, there will always be at least something else going on!

Hardly a rock in view! We saw lots of wonderful wildflowers in this park. It was fun collecting pictures of them!
One of the hikes we took was the Emerald Pool hike. Oooooo – beautiful waterfalls!

And this park was much greener than the other parks on our Rock Tour. Probably because this nice river – the Virgin River – ran through the middle of it!

We also took the Riverside Hike – which was along side the (you guessed it) river. This hike eventually leads to the Narrows which you then get to hike through by actually hiking in the river. Since the water was still flowing pretty hard and the water temperature was about 47 degrees, the Narrows hike was closed. But it didn’t stop some folks from having a good time in the water -

(She made it to the rock, but we didn’t wait to see if she made it back. That might have been tricky!)
And speaking of people “playing” on the rocks -

Can you find the two people rock climbing in this picture? Ca-rA-zy!
Here are more flowers – probably not wild, but I do love these cactus flowers .

Although there was lots to like about Zion, the very best part of it was that we shared it with some good friends. We were delighted to be able to connect with some dear SOWER friends that we hadn’t seen in several years! It was great fun hiking and visiting and looking at rocks with them!

Stan and Carlie – thanks for joining us and making it such a special day!

We drove back to our campground in a round about way to check out Cedar Breaks National Monument. We had heard was a beautiful spot and were considering stopping there (with the rig) once we started heading west to our SOWER project. We’re glad we did a test run. Not only was the “scenic” drive it was on was not really suited for RV driving, but the park itself hadn’t even opened for the season. (Though we could have skied in if we had wanted to!)

It wasn’t even plowed out!
But we did enjoy a beautiful sunset -

So glad we did that test run!

Stay tuned – one park to go
Bryce Canyon!

We didn’t have too long of a drive Sunday morning to get to our next Rock Tour destination – Capitol Reef National Park. But the ride certainly was interesting getting there!

We did get an early start – when you’re parked in a rest stop, it’s pretty much a get up and go kind of morning!






Are those crazy colors, or what?

Just when I thought I knew what to expect (like more rocks) as we pulled into Capitol Reef NP, the scenery changed to this -

and we driving through orchards and green trees. What?????
This national park is an interesting mix of major geological activity and historic settlements. Now I didn’t know anything about Capitol Reef, did you? The reef refers to “The Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long wrinkle in the earth’s crust known as a monocline, [that] extends from nearby Thousand Lakes Mountain to the Colorado River (now Lake Powell). ” The Capitol part refers to rock formations that someone (on the park naming committee, I suppose) thought looked like the capitol building in Washington, DC.

And historically, this was the home to early Mormon settlers who had a small but thriving community here. They planted orchards, grew vegetables, and helped develop transportation routes through the “fold”. There are only a few buildings left, but many of the orchards are still intact, and producing!

In fact, our campground was right in the midst of one of them!
.
We started out with the scenic drive, took in a couple of hikes, and then I tried very hard to “catch” the sunset.




How crazy are those striped rocks?
Our main hike was to The Tanks – natural basins that collect rain water. The hike started town Capitol Gorge Wash

and then climbed to the tanks -


Gary did a little extra exploring and found two more tanks, and a natural bridge.

Very cool.
Another high point along this narrow canyon trail is the “Pioneer Register”. Now that is acutally just another name for old graffiti – but as they, perspective is everything!

Those names were really quite high -

and we were duly impressed!
Others were definitely a little less neatly recorded!


And the cursive – now that was impressive!

But the drive continued…..



We did find some additional graffiti – again, this was pretty special stuff (and trust me, we had lots of help finding it!)

And then there was the sunset adventure. Seems that even though the sunset was at 8:15, when you are driving through these big rocks, it actually happens much earlier. SO, while I didn’t get any shots of the sun actually setting, I did enjoy the beautiful light of the setting sun on the west facing rocks-



But for all of my mad dash down the scenic highway to capture that sunset, I think my favorite shot was right as I got out of the truck back at the campground -

So even though Capitol Reef might not be one of the Big Parks (like the Grand Canyon or Bryce), it still was a good stop. There were lots of great hiking trails and enough history thrown is so we weren’t O-D-ing on rocks!
And speaking of history -
Since today was mainly a travel day (and we even managed to travel through those snowy mountains!), after we got settled in our campground we decided to check out a national monument that had NOTHING TO DO WITH ROCKS. Yep, it was quite the nice change of pace.
Let me introduce you to the Pipe Spring National Monument, located back in Arizona on the Paiute Indian Reservation. This was originally a fort-home for a Mormon Tithe Farm. (Well, originally it was the homeland of the Paiutes, but the main focus here was the working farm.) There was an interesting guided tour of the house and a self guided tour of the grounds. I think this is a pretty new joint endeavor for the Paiutes and the Federal Government and we found it totally interesting!

Tomorrow we are meeting up with some SOWER friends we haven’t seen in several years at Zion National Park. We’re excited about the park (we’ve heard really great things about this park), and we’re excited about seeing these dear friends. The friend connection was an unexpected blessing!
But now, I have to get some sleep! I sense there is hiking in my near future!

Today we did Arches National Park. Well, maybe saying we “did” the park is a little of an over-statement. Let’s say we did some of Arches NP. I do think we hit the highlights, got in a couple of nice hikes, and was once again (of course) struck by the amazing beauty of this country.

The park doesn’t just have arches, it also has some amazing rock formations. In the group above is the Three Gossips, the Sheep, and the Courthouse Towers. Can you figure out which is which (even though they are small!)?

Those are the Petrified Dunes.

This is Balanced Rock. We actually saw lots of examples of balancing rocks, but this one seemed to warrant the name.
And we did see plenty of the beautiful arches -

The Cove Arch

The South Window

The South Window with perspective!

This is the Double Arch.

And this is NOT A TRAIL! There is this ancient,living dirt in the park (and all over the area) called cryptobiotic crust. And we had to be very careful not to step on it. This being a tourist is trickier than you think! Antique Dirt. Hmmmmmm.
But back to the sights -

These are the North AND South Window arches.

And that was the view as we completed our hike to those arches. Such expanse!

The Double Arch

More Expanse!

The hike to the Delicate Arch viewpoint.

And the view of the Delicate Arch – probably the most recognized arch in the park. It’s on many of the Utah license plates, and is the unofficial state symbol. We could have hiked all the way to the arch itself (like all those little people in the picture), but it was over 3 miles and according to the guide, considered “strenuous”. We decided that a good view was just fine with us!

That hike was under mile, but still “moderatly strenuous” – and well worth it!
Our final arch of the day was the Landscape Arch -

and that hike included this view -

This was a lovely park!
And after a full day, we hooked up the truck and headed north.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly the terrain changes out here?

The road dead-ended at those mountains, which is where I70 passes by (E-W). We are actually situated on the top of the mesa to the left, parked in a nice rest stop. Tomorrow we hop onto the interstate for an exit or two west and then head south to Capitol Reef National Park.
The Rock Tour continues!
OH – one more interesting sight from our day at Arches -

This is a German touring bus from a company called Rotel Tours. It’s a rolling hotel – get it, ROlling hoTEL! Here’s a link to their website where they describe the accomodations. Good thing they have lots of pictures, since it’s all in German.