Yea, though I walk thru the shadow of the valley...

It's been an exciting 48 hrs. After leaving Vegas early we went to where it can actually get worse....Death Valley! Wanted to see it. Wanted to say I've been there. Wanted to sleep under the largest clearest night sky possible. We drive into the park along with tour buses and Germans. We visit the visitor center and book store. We check out the campground. On a bluff overlooking a vast expanse of nothing there is only one other vehicle there and it's 103 deg. We go to the Inn near by to have a beer, sit on their porch with misters dropping the temperature to an acceptable level and discuss there rationality of camping out. By 3pm it's 113! We figure it's pretty crazy to attempt to camp waiting for darkness and a not guarentee drop in temperature. So we drive west assuming we'll get out of this valley and find a nice camp someplace not so inhospitable. Going from 127 ft below sea level to 4500 ft in second gear at 25 mph had me concerned that my transmission would blow. Then discovering this is not out but just a mountain range within, we had to stop 3 times going back down to sea level to cool breaks. White knuckled and sweating from stress in addition to heat we limp in to Panamint Springs gas/restaurant/motel/RV camp. We take a campsite with a view of a flat shimmering plain surrounded by blue mountains. Our life saved, with sun setting we stare in awe from the veranda savoring a cold beer and the best pizza ever. At first light, Sarah is up, trailer is packed, breakfast is declined (coffee at the gas station) and we are out of there..........

More later but as an update........we are now on the beach about 20 miles north of L.A. and Island Brewing Company is with in walking distance of the state park where we are camped.........

Towers for towers....

Las Vegas........we have traded the spectacular imposing sandstone monoliths in Zion for just as imposing yet oppressive and obscene towers of Las Vegas. Our serene tree lined campground inhabited by mule deer is now a huge asphalt parking lot behind Circus Circus populated by tourists in rented RVs. The sun coming up over the Sahara (casino not desert!) is spectacular but we will get out of this town as soon as I get off this computer. I don't gamble, can't afford the shows and don't have "proper attire" for the good restaurants....there isn't much for me in Vegas. Sarah and I walked the strip for an hour yesterday afternoon and partook in the culinary wonderment of the all-you-can eat buffet along with bus loads of French and Asian tourists. Altho night is when the strip supposedly comes alive, we went to bed in the heat counting the hours until we could leave this hell hole!

Zion: Time & Space

Zion........the full moon has just crested the Wachman to the east. The cliffs in that direction remain black walls while the cliffs over my shoulder to the west are a pale gray. The trees now display shadows and flashlights are not needed. Water for tea has been boiled on the coleman stove (we have yet to use the trailer stove), Herman has gone to bed. He has had a busy day. After arriving at South Campground around 11am, we scored one of the last spots of about 120 sites. Not your usual RV park here. Camp sites scattered in a grove of trees surrounded by 2000 ft cliffs on two sides, the valley extending north and south. The town of Springdale is close enough to hike to but a shuttle bus will take you there for free. Mostly tents and small campers. Don't miss the huge motorhomes. After the obligatory visit to the visitor center and book store we hiked the Pa'rus trail along the Virgin River that flows the length of this valley and that, besides the fault line that runs thru here, is at least partially responsible for the formation of this truly remarkable landscape. By the end of this 1 1/2 mile wheelchair acceptable trail with Sarah on her little Burning Man bike and Herman pulling excitedly on the leash, we were all ready for a break from the noon sun with a rest in the shade and a dip in the cool green waters of the river. Herman, usually actively cautious of any water, willingly and enthusiastically entered and would have promptly floated down stream if it wasn't for the leash securely connected to his collar. 

After naps all around we head in to town for the Zion Music and Art Festival. Acceptable blues band playing on stage and the usual pop-up shade structures protecting vendors of pottery, jewelry, jams, and clothing (even tie-die). Bought Sarah some miniature basket earrings from a young Indian gal and when we inquired about the pinon nuts she had for sale she poured each of us a generous hand full. Popping them into our mouths and chewing she laughed and instructed us that they are to be eaten "like sunflower seeds". Somewhat embarrassed we advised her that the extra fiber of the shells will probably not hurt! But what made this event so remarkable is it's location. Nestled in a natural amphitheater of rock rising 1000 feet over head it is surrounded by the red cliffs that make up this area. Truly one of the most spectacular locations for an outdoor festival I have ever been to.

Plan to get up at dawn to hike up the Watchman trail............

Up at 6:15am and on the Watchman trail in the dark. As dawn breaks I can see the worn path snaking up 2.7 miles thru gully. After about 45 min. and 400 feet elevation I reach the vista of sandstone above a layer of something much harder. Across the valley the sun is slowly dropping a brilliant curtain of light down the sides of Mt. Kinesava nd The West Temple. In the still dark valley I can see the entire campsite, the visitors center, employee's residents and the bus barn with the shuttle buses getting fueled for their day. To the south is the town of Springdale and Hurricane Mesa in the distance. To the north the valley with it's red park road disappears between The Sentinel and The East Temple. Two things has impressed me on this trip: size and time. Gazing below it is all too obvious that we insignificant beings can have very little impact or influence on this rock we call Earth. It is clear to me that all we know and have can be so easily erased with just a flick of a cosmic finger. And with time, all our existence, all our presence will be erased. In the past 260 million years this land has been flooded multiple times, compacted by pressures, shifted by quakes, rearranged by continental drift. And the Earth is still here. And will be still here long after we are gone. There is something reassuring about that.....

View Road tirp 2012 in a larger map

Kanab and out of touch

Sitting in the deepening darkness at Crazy Horse RV Campark in Kanab, UT. Watched the golden sunset illuminate the clouds as the red cliffs glowed crimson. Near full moon shining brightly thru the trees. We have marked time by it's change from a sliver crescent. Every night the sky has been brilliant with stars. Altho we have been going to bed early I can certainly see why primitive people took such an interest in the night heavens and composed so many stories and fables in an attempt to explain what they saw. The Native Americans here have done the same with distant monuments of rock and geology as they incorporate these unusual landmarks into their own legends of genesis.

We may need to develop our own legends of the world around us as well. We have not seen a TV (other than thru windows of some large RVs), read a newspaper, or listened to a radio news program since we left Eugene. Today, at a visitor center I joked with the volunteer about this, asking if we still have a country out there. She grinned and replied, "Barely!" I told her she was scaring me. Looking briefly on-line it appears the world has not ended but if any of you want to email me with the highlights, (international, national, or local) I would appreciate it. When Sarah and I floated the Colorado River in 95 we discovered upon coming out of the canyon after 18 days that Super Man (Christopher Reeves) had broken his neck!

The Grand Canyon.......Sarah has seen it from the bottom up but not the top down. I was there 40 years ago. Altho the canyon has changed little, the visitor center and tourist circuit has changed a bunch. Paved and wheelchair acceptable, the South Rim area is busy with tourist. Absent of all the kids (they are back in school) the shuttle buses are standing room only with gray hairs (us?) and foreign visitors. But despite all the people, the scenery and the landscape is no less awesome or impressive. Photos will not do justice. Even in person it is difficult to comprehend the scale. When the first white explorers came to this region they were not impressed believing the river in the distant at the bottom of this canyon was on six feet wide! Today, before leaving Page, we drove 30 miles to Lee's Ferry. This was a nostalgic trip for me and Sarah as it is the put in for Colorado River floats. A commercial trip was rigging rafts to begin their 18 day 270 mile journey into the beginning of time. Mr Lee, after apparently being a participant in an earlier massacare, had established a small town there and ferried pioneers and Mormons who were on the Honeymoon Trail as they traveled to Salt Lake to have their recent marriages sanctified in the Temple. Building this community with the 17th of 19 wives he was eventually found and executed for his prior crime. Rock ruins of the post office and fort is all that remains today.

Taranturala at last campsite--Sarah not thrilled!

Condors in the Canyon

The Colorado River

Sunset across the parking lot

Tomorrow we plan to get up early and go to Zion. Hopefully we will find a comfortable camp and maybe hang out for a day or two. Would consider doing that here but there really isn't much in Knab but this camp site is pretty comfy. Not the usual busy over light RV park with rows of huge motorhomes and yappie little dogs. Folks here are sitting around campfires collectively battling mesquitoes and telling stories and, I suspect, lies. Laughter floats across the area like a soft wind as newly arrived bike travelers set up camp by head light chattering in a language I can't identify.

Creation...

"you shall top a rise and behold creation but you will need the voices of angels to tell you what you see....."

Four Corners and more rocks....

SKA B-Q at SKA Brewery, Durango

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde

Cliff Palace from across the canyon

Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah

Four Corners

Petrified logs----still more rocks!

Sitting at the KOA in Holbrook, AZ. Half moon playing hid and seek behind the first clouds we have seen on this trip. Not packed in here as we have been at previous RV parks. Kind of nice not looking into windows of someone's Monarch coach parked 15 ft away. Had a fine Italian meal at Mesa Italian Restaurant. Who would have guessed. Fractured hip waiting to happen as I watch grandpaw play with 14 yr old granddaughter on merry-go-round in the playground near by. 

We toured the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest today. I'm getting tired of rocks!! Even the trees here are rocks! The mesa are rocks on rocks. There's balancing rocks, canyons of carved rocks, piles of eroded rocks, structures of building rocks. And ironically, all of these rocks that have been etched, changed and moved over time by the action of climate, pressures, people, and even rearrangement of land masses are now being enjoyed by a multitude of tourists because they have been so well preserved by the local dry environment and conservation of people......

I had thoughts of excessively long philosophical discussion about rocks and the future of the world as we know it but was interrupted by a fellow camper from Milwaukee who is a dune buggy enthusiast who has been to Winchester Bay in Oregon and is now on his way to Coral Reef Park to ride the dunes, who's wife is a nurse (2nd nurse in 2 days), who doesn't want to vote for either candidate, who doesn't understand some folks at these RV parks who won't even come out of their rigs to visit, and who is getting tired of the rain and cold in the north and want's to move to the desert. Now I've lost my philosophical mojo.....

Oh yea.......we made it to Four Corners, our metaphorical destination. Forty years ago when I was last there, it was simply a marker in the middle of the desert with arrows denoting the four states. Now, the Navaho whose land it is on, have built an impressive monument surrounded by stone (more rocks!) covered stalls from where they sell jewlery, beads, pottery and sand paintings. The monument it's self is impressive with, of course the obliglorory brass benchmark at the intersection of Arizonia, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico but also has engraved state names in the surrounding concrete and state flags around the peripherie. Four raised platforms allows good vantage point to take pictures of friends and family as they pose in various  stances attempting to stand or lie in four states at once. The things we tourists will do at the cost of $3 each! We picnicked lunch as we stared off into the distant desert of Arizonia, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Get your kicks on Route 66....

Want to get a quick brief note out so folks won't worry. In Gallup, NM at the USA RV Park on Rt. 66. You know those folks you've all seen, the older couple at camp grounds with their little dog. Always friendly with a "howdy" or a quick chat. We  are they!! Yep, only with a little size envy. Our little Chalet is consistently the smallest rig parked.  We have joked that it's smaller than many of the slide outs but today we discovered it is smaller than some under carriage storage areas!

We arrived here from Cortez after spending the night at Sundowners (or something like that) RV park. Visited the Anasazi Heritage Center in Delores. Very informative about the history of the people, ancestors of the Pueblos, that have populated this area for thousands of years. Originally hunter/gatherers they started growing corn and beans in the valley and lived in pit houses. Observing more precipitation on the upper mesas they moved up there. Becoming more cooperative they began to group their homes into villages and learned to build above ground square rooms of mud supported by rocks and poles. In the 12th century, for unknown reasons, many dropped over the edge of the mesa and built complex communities in the natural caves that are common along much of the sandstone cliffs lining the canyons. (pictures  to follow later). Then, again for unknown reasons, they gradually migrated out of this area in the 1300's settling in the Phoenix area. Their architecture has withstood the ages in the Mesa Verde region. This we spent the better part of a day touring. 

With much study and debate, we have decided to drop south to Gallup and then we'll turn west toward north rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce. 

The pics in this post are of Canyonlands, our camp on the banks of the Colorado River near Moab and the long ribbon of highway.