Posts for June, 2011

We got underway early afternoon yesterday and made it as far as a rest stop just east of Hood River, OR.

We were greeted by another beautiful sunny day which made for pleasant driving.

Before setting out this morning we visited the small museum attached to the Park. The displays and short video gave a good explanation of the choice of this location for the crossing.

Today proved to be a day of diverse experiences.

I cannot believe the weather. After a cool night with the temperature down into the high 30's we woke to another clear sunny day.

After the morning chores, which this morning included cleaning the solar panels, we set off down Cathedral Valley in bright sunshine and nice (moderate) temperatures. As you might have guessed from the name the road traveled down a valley between eroded rocky cliffs past a number of free standing rocky features that have been given names like Temple of the Moon and Temple of the Sun. One of the interesting features we passed was a large sinkhole carved by infrequent flood waters. At the southern end of the road the flat valley floor gave way to sandstone outcroppings and the road meandered through these for a number of miles before finally joining up with SR24.

Continuing south along the Notom-Bullfrog road this morning we had good views of Strike Valley, a distinct north-south valley formed by sandstone ridges on the east and west sides.

One of the things we really like about low-key RV travel is that days take on a life of their own without us really knowing in advance what will come.

Back in Natural Bridges National Monument this morning we walked the 0.6 miles and 500 ft up and down to view the Sipapu natural bridge. This is apparently the youngest of the three famous bridges seen from the road circuit in the park. The walk was amazingly strenuous considering its short length.

We spent a lazy morning at the RV park before heading to Blanding's visitors center to meet up with the group of ERs and the guide. Along the way we discovered that only the gas stations and the visitors center are open on a Sunday.

After exiting camp we took a short but rocky side trail into the Indian ruins at Mule Canyon. There were remains of ceremonial towers built of stones and mud as well as some remains of cliff dwellings. We spent a couple of hours there all in all climbing up and down the canyon.

We took a 15 minute walk to the end of the ridge this morning, what a spectacular view. Though not good for photographs as the light was into our face.

Today we headed down into Ruin Park and the beginning of the Needles district. From our camp the route took us along North Long Point Road to the junction with Beef Basin Road and thence a descent into the valley of ruin park. Along the way we had some fine views of Canyonland to the north and stopped at some small ruins.

By the time we were up and about this morning three of the ERs had already departed and a 4th (the one with Bill and Mike from the Earthroamer company) was about to get underway. that left only three ERs and Bill the guide.

A few miles to the blacktop of SR211, a few minutes to re-inflate our tires to highway pressures, and for a while at least our off-road adventures were over.

Today we undertook the typical tourist activities around Moab. After the usual chores we headed out to Arches National Park joining a large throng of US and foreign visitors crowding the parking areas within the park to get a good look at, and walk up, close to those amazing stone structures. We have been to this park a number of times but the grandeur never fails to captivate us.

Our plan for the day was an ascent into the La Sal Mountains on the east of Moab. These are in contrast to the red rock of Moab, The Arches and Canyonland. The La Sals which range up to over 12,000 ft are green and covered in pine and aspen. Our route took us south east of Moab and up a steep forest road with some impressive switchbacks. At about 9,000 ft we passed a car containing two WA tourists who were turning back as the road was too rocky for their hire car. We (unfortunately) continued. It was not long before we were passing small mounds of snow laying across the uphill edge of the road. This is a sign that you would think we would now know and take heed but no, we continued. After passing one particularly narrow section where we were squeezed between the snow on the uphill side and a steep drop and soft edge on the downhill side we came to a bank of snow completely covering the road. Progress was stopped. So we turned out attention to retracing our path. That is reversing as there was no possible chance of turning around. Our first attempt to reverse over the previously mentioned narrow section only succeeded in starting to collapse the downhill side of the trail. A new approach was called for - digging.

What finds and unexpected beauty and granduer we had today.

It was cloudy this morning as we left our camp beside the dam. However within an hour the sun had burned off the cloud and we had a fine day for our trip down the western slopes of the Rockies into the Denver area. Tomorrow we drop the ER at the Earthroamer factory for some repairs at their favourite Ford dealer.