Thursday, September 30, 2010

Not much happening today.  We drove from Page, AZ to Zion NP, Springdale, UT, only 120 miles.  Once we got into Zion NP we had to prepare for 12 miles of road construction and a mile long tunnel.  We are too long to go through the construction with the car attached, so we disconnected and Connie followed me.  The road was dirt in spots, very narrow, lots of switch backs, and pylons taking up the space in the middle.  The tunnel was a neat experience.  Our MH is 12’6” tall, we only had a little clear space and had to drive in the middle of the tunnel.  All went well and we got through the park and into Springdale to our RV park. 

 

These are three photos taken from our RV park.  The top photo is cropped from a shot similar to the lower right.  It a Political Year and, you guessed it, Connie is on the ‘stump.’  If elected, her first action would be to get rid of the junk concrete plant next to the RV park.

More from Zion NP later.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The first photo today is the boat we were on Monday night for the dinner cruise.  Nice boat.

We started our day with a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam.  We scheduled the early tour at 8:30 A.M. because we thought it would be the coolest time of the day.  It was a very informative tour.  Interestingly, the first thing I found out was that the dam wasn’t built for generating electricity.  It was built to control the flow of the Colorado River.  By controlling the water, agriculture benefitted downstream, and California, Nevada and Arizona have an ample supply of water.   The electricity that the dams generates is a nice benefit that has brought in billions of dollars in revenue for the dam.

The town of Page was established when construction of the dam started.  There was no town prior to 1956.  The entire area was undeveloped prior to building the dam.  The bridge was also built while the dam was being built.  President Eisenhower pushed the button, in Washington D.C., that set off the first dynamite blast at the dam site.  That was in 1956.  On June 17, 1960, they began pouring concrete, and it was a continuous pour 24/7 until September 13, 1963.  The dam contains 5,000,000 cubic yards of concrete.  The dam is 710 feet high and has 8 turbines that generate power for many western states.  Lady Bird Johnson dedicated the dam on September 22, 1966.  Once the dam was completed, it took 17 years to fill. 

Lake Powell, behind the dam was named after early explorer John Wesley Powell.  Powell was a Civil War veteran who lost one arm in the war.  Powell was the first to explore the Colorado River.  He took eight men in three wooden boats down the river in 1869.

In 1972 this area was established as the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and is managed by the National Park Service. 

At 10:30 A.M. we took a boat tour and saw that portion the lake above the dam, and we went into Antelope Canyon.  In the afternoon, we visited the Powell Museum in Page.

 

 

Above is the dinner cruise boat and the sign for the Glenn Canyon Recreation Area.  Above is one of the views from the campground and a shot of our MH.  

Our tour guide is Curtis, a Navajo who is studying to be a civil engineer, who also speaks Italian. Go figure! The bridge is the Glen Canyon Bridge.

  

Curtis is telling the tour about the eight intake tunnels on the dam.  There is one intake tunnel for each of the eight turbines you see in the generating room.

The photo above shows the bridge, the power lines, and the Visitor’s Center.

Above is the tour boat for the lake tour and a photo of the upstream side of the dam.

These are two views of Antelope Canyon.  We went as far back into the canyon as possible for the size tour boat we were on.  The canyon gets very, very narrow further in, and that’s where there are some really nice pictures taken.  Goggle Antelope Canyon, Page, AZ for pictures.

There are lots of small boats on Lake Powell, but this might be one of the largest collections of house boats that I have ever seen.  There has to be hundreds at just this marina.  With over 1,900 miles of shoreline and many other marinas, there are many, many more house boats.  Lots of these house boats are very high-dollar boats.  Oh well, back to the confines of our modest MH.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The photo of the dinner cruise boat will have to wait until tomorrow.

Today we visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Lee’s Ferry/Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center and stopped and bought a Navajo vase.  The trip to the North Rim is all scenic highways with lots of mountains and high forests.  The temperature today in Page, AZ, is 93 degrees and the humidity is 7%.  It is unseasonably warm in this area of the country.  Not complaining because even though the daytime temperatures are warm, the evenings cool down to the low 60’s-high 50’s.  I had thought that by traveling in the fall of the year the temperatures would be more moderate. 

The first photo is of the changing color of the Aspens in the high mountain meadows. The highest elevation we reached today was 8,420 feet.  The next photo is the usual.

    

These photos are on the Bright Angel Trail to the major view point on the North Rim.  This is a spectacular view of the canyon.

Look at that table and the view!  You can have a burger for a couple bucks more than at McDonalds and have a view of one of the Seven Wonders of the World!  How great is that?  There’s only one lodge on the North Rim and this is a photo of the dining room.  All around the lodge there are cabins and many are sitting right along the rim with million dollar views of the canyon.  How great is that? 

We have the greatest National Park system in the world!  We have seen people from all over the world visiting our National Parks. 

As seniors, we can buy ($10 for life) the Golden Age Passport and visit any national park or monument for free.  Free, no fee.  How great is that?  Now that’s a great value or benefit, and I think that seniors are entitled to some benefits, but this one might be going too far; it’s TOO generous.  I would like to see an annual fee for national parks and monuments because the park system needs more revenue to maintain and modernize all of the parks.  We have seen historic buildings that are in desperate need of repair, and there aren’t funds available to restore them.  

On our way to the North Rim, we stopped along the highway and looked at the Navajo jewelry and pottery.  On the way back, we stopped and bought a beautiful horse-hair vase with a picture story painted  around it.  In 50 years we’ll take it to the Antiques Road Show and see if it appreciated in value.

Below is the view from behind the tables of Navajo wares.  How great is that?

Monday, September 27, 2010

We didn’t blog yesterday because it was a day of rest.  Traveling is hard work and sometimes you just have to say, “Stop!”  Besides, sometimes you have to do the wash and clean the RV.

Today we drove to Page, AZ, home of Lake Powell, Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area, and Rainbow Bridge National Monument.    

We’re staying at the Wahweap RV Park on Lake Powell.  It’s an excellent park.  Tonight we took an upscale dinner cruise on the lake.  (I’ll show you a picture of the boat tomorrow.)  It was an excellent meal and the views were beautiful. The weather was perfect. That’s pretty much it for today.  Tomorrow we’re going to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon NP.

This was one of our first views of the lake.  In the distance you can see the marina and all the house boats. 

These three pictures are from the dinner cruise.  There has to be better pictures of the lake, but I just haven’t taken them yet.  The cruise left at 5:00 and the sun set at 6:15, so most of the shots were near sunset.  We were back home by 7:30.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Today we moved from Moab to Blanding, UT. It was only a 77 mile driving day. We got to the RV park and took the toad out for the afternoon. First, we went to Natural Bridges National Monument, then Moki Dugway, and then Valley of the Gods.

(Today admission to all national parks is free. Hope you took advantage of the offer.)

Natural Bridges is a National Monument, not a National Park. But, it is the first National Monument in Utah. President Theodore Roosevelt, with the stroke of a pen, made Natural Bridges a National Monument in 1908. Theodore Roosevelt created a lot of national parks during his presidency, probably more than any other president. He created bird sanctuaries and national forests also. Interestingly, Natural Bridges is a small park. It is only 7,637 acres and the park ‘loop’ is only 9 miles. A natural bridge is different from an arch. Natural bridges are created by moving water and an arch is created by erosion.

Moki Dugway was the end of the paved road on State Highway 261 south of the park. The paved road comes to an end and becomes gravel. It’s narrow, steep, and has lots of switchbacks. The vertical drop must be over 1,000 feet and the road is at a 10% grade.

At the bottom of the mountain, we took County Road 242 through Valley of the Gods.The attraction is that the area is similar to Monument Valley, but on a smaller scale. THIS is not a county road as you might think of a county road- it’s worse, much, much worse! This is the WORST road we have been on for a long, long time. The road cuts through lots of dry-washes, and they just had a rain within the past few days. After we were on the road for over an hour, Connie read that we should allow 3 hours for this trip. Neither one of us wanted to spend another two hours on this road and the views were just more of the same. Fortunately, we weren’t as slow as the average traveler, and we got to the next road, a state highway, in less than two hours.

Here’s the photos of the day:

First, where we are today and the Natural Bridges story.

Sipapu Bridge

Kavhina Bridge

Owachomo Bridge

Above is our first view looking down from the top of Moki Dugway and here’s a shot of one of the switch backs. Goggle ‘moki dugway’ and look at some other photos. Quite interesting.

These are photos of our trek through Valley of the Gods. I think Connie is giving me ‘that look’ in the photo above. Is she saying, “Why are we doing this????” The next photo is the road. You’re looking at a slab of rock that is the road. The last photo is an above average photo of the road and the views in the background.

We finally made it to Bluff, UT for a nice dinner! We will have better travel days and better roads from here on out!

Friday, September 24, 2010

 

Today we weren’t sure if we were going to take the time to drive to Capitol Reef NP or skip it.  It is one of the 58 NP’s, and we are both a little crazy about getting stamps in our National Parks Passport Book, so we drove the ‘toad’ and visited the park.  Once we were in the park, we couldn’t understand why we even thought about skipping it.   Capitol Reef compares to Arches and Canyonlands in its beauty.

Here’s a little history about the park.  It was created 50-65 million years ago when the area warped and created a ‘fold.’  This shift created a barrier, or reef of rocks.  The rocks looked something like the US Capitol and hence we get the name Capitol Reef.  Everybody’s favorite president, Richard M. Nixon, signed legislation that made Capitol Reef a National Park in 1971.  The park is about 250,000 acres.

Every park we have visited has been a great experience and this didn’t disappoint us at all.  The park is rugged, the roads sometimes turn to gravel and are rough.  Most of the park would be unfriendly to 38’ motor homes, so we were glad we left the RV in Moab and drove the toad.  This park also had some interesting history of the people that lived there and how they survived.  Surprisingly, they had large orchards and grew apples, pears, and peaches.  As a Mormon community, they had their own school until 1941.  These few things made Capitol Reef NP different from Arches and Canyonlands.

Here’s the ‘where we are’ shot  and one of the layers of rock in the mountains.

Rain is infrequent, but when it comes, the run-off causes many wash-outs.  We also visited the farmhouse and were able to find pie and ice cream.  Both were delicious.

The school house that they built in the 19th century, still stands and is staffed with a NPS ranger.  Connie really enjoyed this stop.

Here’s a progression of shots. After the hard surfaced roads stopped, the road turned to gravel.  Then the sign at the start of the Capitol Gorge trail, a shot of the trail, and a picture of the rock wall where some pioneers registered their names in the 1800’s.  The last is a shot of Connie examining some of the holes in the walls.

Driving the 2 hours back home (back to the motor home), we both agreed that visiting Capitol Reef NP was time well spent.