Southwest Continued -Saturday, September 11 - Tuesday, September 14

Monday, September 13, 2010, Sunset Campground, Bryce National Park

I am sitting in the campground… it’s dark, dinner is done, the dishes washed sufficiently for stowage, the trash away, safe from bears or raccoons… the camp fire is blazing, the Colman lantern is providing illumination, and I am writing on my computer… powered by the jump box from the car… The mix of technology and fire is not as great a conflict as I expected…

Richard and I have covered a lot of ground since the last blog post… so I will try to pick up where we left off… Mexican Hat Utah, last Saturday, 9-11-2010…

After checking in to the Motel, we showered, washing off the grime of two days of camping, and an 18 mile hike… I checked my emails, found I was once again over quota, and cleared out quite a bit of junk. We headed uptown (uptown being 3 blocks, with a gas station, two motels, and an abandoned store front… Mexican Hat isn’t a big place) to the Swinging Steak… it’s a restaurant, a bar, a hotel, and an institution… Alton Brown visited on Feasting on Asphalt…

We sat down, I ordered a beer, Richard a “pop” (there have been academic studies about who calls “soft drinks” “pop”, “soda”, “soda pop” among other names… at the Swinging Steak it is pop…)

We both wimped out and ordered the 12 oz sirloin, rather than the 18 oz rib eye… The house band started to play… an old guy on a steel guitar, a woman on bass guitar, and a drummer… playing old country western honky-tonk bar music circa 1980… they weren’t bad, (in fact they were pretty good, the bass player did a great Patsy Cline) but most of the crowd didn’t get it… the crowd, in this small town in far southern Utah were speaking French, German, and who knows what… This is the reality of Utah’s canyon country and the Arizona strip… many (most) of the visitors are from very far away…

We finished dinner, returned to the motel, and went to bed…

The next day we set out for Cedar Mesa… we tried to locate a petroglyph panel, but found a ghostly abandoned two lane road instead… it was the old road across Comb Ridge… disconnected at both ends…

We passed through Bluff… and found the ruin near the cemetery…

On to Blanning… where we discovered the local grocery is closed Sunday, so ended up at the Chevron station where we could get gas, ice, and some badly needed first aid supplies… The mix of goods was weird… local history books, some fruit and veggies… (Richard got a banana, who knew they sold bananas on Sunday in Blanning) school supplies and Colman stove fuel for only $18.00 per gallon (the gallon I am carrying cost $6.95, but it is old, very old…)

Westward from Blanning we stop and hike the ruins at Butler Wash… If you ever visit the ruin (the first ruin, there are many ruins in Butler Wash) you need to hike past the fence to the left… if you do you will discover a small natural bridge… and a much better view of the ruin… We had planned to try to find Wetherill’s cave 7, but having dealt with the local roads the day before waved off… we had maps to other Butler Wash ruins, but instead headed further west to Mule Canyon, and its ruins.

Again we had maps, instructions, and GPS coordinates… It was a mile up canyon floor to the first ruin, an easily accessible site called “house on fire” then a mile further to a second smaller site, an half mile to two more high on the wall, then another half mile to a ruin with a collapsing room and a tower, that is supposed to be accessible, but we couldn’t find a route… beyond were larger ruins, but the route along the canyon bottom was getting confused, clouds were gathering (this brings the danger of flash floods) so we retreated to the train head and the Escape. The canyon was not what was expected… this is the desert… a dry place… the canyon floor was damp, vegetation lush and surprisingly riparian.

Again we headed west… pausing at the road side “Mule Canyon Ruins” then further west to Natural Bridges National Monument… We checked in at the visitor center, showed the magic National Parks Pass then went in search of a camp site, which were scarce… we prevailed, and got the second to the last site in the park… made camp, and were cooking a pizza (in a dutch oven) when cute ranger chick stopped by to tell us about tonight’s ranger program…. (previously known as campfire talks, but sadly lacking a campfire so just “ranger programs”) We attended the program (Indian stories) then returned to camp, wasted some time and went to bed… we did take a walk about the camp ground… It was a bit strange… we had the only camp fire… It appeared that for our fellow campers, camping is not a social activity…

Sleep came easy. We both slept in a bit…

The next morning we got up, I made coffee and we took our time as we broke camp… We visited the visitor’s center… books and tee shirts for all… checked road conditions and ferry schedules and made a decision to drive around Lake Powell rather than taking the ferry across the lake at Hall’s crossing… No one knew if Burr Trail was open (it turns out it was) and we would have ended up on the 2:00 ferry, resulting in a very late arrival at Bryce…

The route took us north to Hanksville… where the local gas station had a “Goliath” for sale, a weird German car, circa 1960… “it runs!” Look for it on EBay motors next week… We turned west across the top of Lake Powell, crossing the Colorado River. It was stark and beautiful country… big country with few inhabitants or facilities… traveling through which we saw many bicyclists… really crazy bicyclists… with a long way to go, and few support services.

Leaving Lake Powell we continued west through Capital Reef National Park… where we found more petroglyphs, really good petroglyphs… stopped at their visitor center, then headed west again… through Dixie National Forest and Escalante Staircase National Park (run by the BLM, not the National Park Service?) then through Escalante and Tropic Utah, to Bryce National Park.

At Bryce (free, we have the magic card) we went in search of a camp site… the first camp ground was full, we tried the second, where the sign said, “tent sites full, tents may use loop A” (the park service thoughtfully segregates those of us who chose to camp in tents from the heathen hoards from the Winnebago tribe, aka the “turtle people” who travel and live in their shell like oversize mobile homes… ) but today at Bryce, there were more tent people than turtle people, so they let tent people invade the turtle people’s territory…

We claimed a camp site, then went to see the canyon… It is spectacular… fairy like… we looked, we went “awe”, we dodged German and French tourists… then returned to camp, cooked dinner, and are now sitting by the fire with computer and Coleman lantern… Now, fire dying, batteries dying, legs getting cold (we are at 8,000 feet) I am about to shut down the computer and go to bed…

Tomorrow we will drive home, first south, then westward through Zion Nation Park, the onto I-15, through Las Vegas and San Bernardino, to Pasadena… I will pause in Pasadena… off load Richard… shower, sleep, then head north towards home and family…

Tuesday Evening, Pasadena California…

This morning we again arose… (the alternative would have been messy) a bit later than planned, but this is vacation damn it! We made coffee and broke camp, loading the Escape for the last time this trip… We explored the lodge… a nice, typical park service lodge of the mid 1920’s, saw deer, then checked out the visitor center (they have wifi, but the computer was dead, and I would have needed to find a power source… I didn’t take the time to try.)

Bryce was worth more time, but we had far to go, so headed westward (well first north they kind of south-west…) across Utah… This is funny country, originally settled by Latter Day Saints (aka Mormons) generally a conservative traditional bunch, but with a recent influx of nature lovers, more likely to be liberal and more outward looking… Strangely, there seems to be less conflict that one might expect.

We stopped to photograph a dead coyote, hung from a barb wire fence… This is old school… coyote’s are varmints, and can be hunted if they threaten livestock… some believe that hanging the bodies on the fence drives away the rest of the pack… but its not PC, and rarely seen anymore… It didn’t bother us as much as remind us that this is an old place full of old ways and traditions.

A few miles later in Mt Carmel, we stopped to tour Maynard Dixion’s home… Maynard Dixion was an artist, active in the late 1880’s and early 1900’s, painting scenes of south west scenery and life… His home is preserved privately as an art studio, gallery, and seminar space…

Beyond we paused again to photograph the “The Rock Stop”, a rock shop, shaped like a rock, much as Randy’s Donuts is a giant donut, or the little orange juice stands once found along Hwy 99 were shaped as giant oranges… but “The Rock Shop” took it one step beyond with a copy of Fred Flintstones food powered car… Of course, in addition to rocks and fossils, the also have Espresso.

Just beyond we turned west again to cross Zion National park via the tunnel route… the magic card used once more… It was a slow drive, with lots of road construction. Emerging on the other side.

We stopped for Mexican food outside the park… a rare restaurant meal… first since Mexican Hat, last Saturday, then down to the Interstate, I-15, and the high speed run south and west and home…

We got to Richard’s about dark… Adam and Jenny got hugs, while I played with Sparky the wonder dog…

Now showered, and relaxing… I will post this and go to sleep.