We have two Mimis in our family. Which Mimi is running which business in her other life?
Suz: We like your title, literally or whatever. And we DO need to watch “Cars!”
Pete M: We look forward to following your recommendations. We’ll be in WY after we leave Portland.
MARCH 26, 2008
Today, we decided early, would be a day of reflection. Little did we know that the sights we’d see would lend themselves so readily to thoughtful consideration. Connie started the day with the best latte of the trip, not at a Starbuck’s but at a local, drive-through expresso stand. Anyway, we’d run out of adjectives and superlatives about everything we’ve seen; we even thought of accessing an online thesaurus! Then we entered Canyonlands National Park, once again saving the cost of the entrance fee and once again driving through a national park with the top down on another perfect day.
This park is the compilation of everything we’ve seen already in the Southwest. We drove through the high desert where cows were grazing on the grasslands right next to the road and where we could see snow-capped mountains a hundred miles on the horizon in all directions. There was the Colorado Plateau, river-carved red rock canyons, immense mesas, and sandstone buttes. Help! We need the thesaurus NOW!!! Canyonlands also includes the Colorado River to the east and the Green River to the west; the two rivers meet in the middle of the park at one of the greatest river confluences in the Southwest. One guidebook describes the park as “mesmerizing and nearly incomprehensible in its extent and complexity.” How can we compete with that description! Most of the park has to be explored in four wheel drive vehicles; there are over a hundred miles of back country dirt roads so we’ll have to return with our Jeep. We had thought it might be more of the same but little did we imagine that it would be more of EVERYTHING!
Throughout our trip we’ve seen contrails of jets flying at 30,000 feet some even crisscrossing each other. How many times we’ve seen America from one of those jets!!! It’s such a totally different perspective and so much more interesting to drive through all of the areas we’ve only seen from 30,000 feet. And we’re not even seeing anywhere near all it. We’ve also noticed lots of cyclists on the roads in the national parks. It looks like these would be great bike rides but, given the hills, pretty tough. Yesterday we followed one cyclist coming down a long hill as we left Arches. We were doing 45 mph and he was staying well ahead of us even in the hair-pin turns. It was his reward for having climbed that hill earlier in the day.
Another good way to see these parks would be on motorcycles. At the hotel this morning we met a group of motorcyclists from Canada—all men and all our age who were doing a 4000 mile tour of the Southwest. They had done many of these trips before and looked like they were good old buddies! We thought packing and unpacking our car every day was a chore until we witnessed how carefully each cyclist had to pack his gear. Peter especially liked them because they complimented him on his car and said that next to a motorcycle, a convertible would be the next best way to see the world.
Would you believe that the scenery completely changed again several times as we headed toward Bryce Canyon National Park on UT 24 to Utah 12? UT 24 was long, straight and pretty much lonely……..there were few vehicles and no towns!!! At one point Connie’s hat blew onto the road; Peter did a U turn, picked it up, did another U turn and continued on……….no one saw us and we saw no one for miles! The speed limit was 65 mph and as we came around a corner just after Hanksville (pretty grim), there were 5 or 6 big bulls walking down the road! We almost came to a full stop before they sauntered over to the side of the road! Between the rocks, the wildlife, the tumbleweeds and the cattle you really have to watch yourself on these high speed back roads. Every time we came around a curve we saw sheer rock canyons, mesas, buttes and sandstone rock formations. It turns out that Butch Cassidy and his gang hid in these canyons; it’s not hard to see why he hid here because without this road, it would be very hard to find anyone or anything. The road has sheer canyon walls on each side which we could see very well with the top down.
We approached Canyon Reef National Park and saw fruit groves that had been planted by the early Mormon settlers. We stopped to see the crude but interesting drawings that had been carved into the canyon walls by early Native Americans. Next to a carving of a big horn sheep, “Marie” had carved her name………more graffiti!!! We passed the remnants of the early Mormon settlement, everything fairly well preserved, and stopped at a historic farm where an ancestor of the original Mormon settler sold us some home made ice cream.
In Torrey we turned onto UT 12, aka Highway 12 Scenic Byway, one of 27 nationally designated All-American Roads. It starts at the entrance to Capitol Reef National Park, winds through the Dixie National Forest, over Boulder Mountain, through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and finally ending at Bryce Canyon National Park. We had both read about this road and had decided to do it regardless of its rigor. At the funky Flute Shop in Torrey, Peter told the proprietress we were “taking our time” on our trip. She said that was obvious, “You wouldn’t be on this road if you were in a hurry!” Again, we met a very nice young couple who had been canoeing and fishing at Lake Powell and we enjoyed exchanging travel stories. The vista where we had our chat was unbelievable……..8000 feet, snow around us and a view over the cliffs and canyons “to die for!” Traveling further, we reached 10,000 feet and saw snow covered meadows.
The most amazing sight in the Grand Escalante-Staircase National Monument was the road across the ridge at the very top of the canyons on both sides. It was very narrow and, once again, no guard rails. The wind was howling as we stood on the ridge on either side of the road looking down at least 1000 feet. Apparently as I took Peter’s picture, a raven was hovering about 2 feet above my shoulder………..good thing I didn’t know! Is that a sign of something? Further on, Peter spied a golden eagle feeding on some road kill at the side of the road. We stopped to get a picture, the eagle flew to a fence post as if he was posing and, as Peter was readying the camera, another car drove by and scared the eagle away. A school bus drove by and we wondered how far kids who live out here have to travel to get to school.
After meandering in and out of the Dixie National Forest and passing through the town of Tropic, we arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park. We had read that this park is particularly spectacular at sunset so, instead of finding a motel for the night, we entered the park and drove to Sunset Point. What we saw was an amphitheater carved into the face of a plateau and filled with hoodoos, “fancifully eroded pillars of rock.” They were every shade of red, pink, orange; it looked like a fairyland full of castles. Many people were sitting on top of rocks, meditating; we felt like we had to whisper! WOW!! So much to see and so much to say!
Back in Tropic we stayed America’s Best Value Inn and Suites, next to Clark’s Market, Clark’s Restaurant and Clark’s Gas………….we think Clark owned the motel, too. In any case it was great from dinner to the room to breakfast. Thanks, Clark!
Suz: We like your title, literally or whatever. And we DO need to watch “Cars!”
Pete M: We look forward to following your recommendations. We’ll be in WY after we leave Portland.
MARCH 26, 2008
Today, we decided early, would be a day of reflection. Little did we know that the sights we’d see would lend themselves so readily to thoughtful consideration. Connie started the day with the best latte of the trip, not at a Starbuck’s but at a local, drive-through expresso stand. Anyway, we’d run out of adjectives and superlatives about everything we’ve seen; we even thought of accessing an online thesaurus! Then we entered Canyonlands National Park, once again saving the cost of the entrance fee and once again driving through a national park with the top down on another perfect day.
This park is the compilation of everything we’ve seen already in the Southwest. We drove through the high desert where cows were grazing on the grasslands right next to the road and where we could see snow-capped mountains a hundred miles on the horizon in all directions. There was the Colorado Plateau, river-carved red rock canyons, immense mesas, and sandstone buttes. Help! We need the thesaurus NOW!!! Canyonlands also includes the Colorado River to the east and the Green River to the west; the two rivers meet in the middle of the park at one of the greatest river confluences in the Southwest. One guidebook describes the park as “mesmerizing and nearly incomprehensible in its extent and complexity.” How can we compete with that description! Most of the park has to be explored in four wheel drive vehicles; there are over a hundred miles of back country dirt roads so we’ll have to return with our Jeep. We had thought it might be more of the same but little did we imagine that it would be more of EVERYTHING!
Throughout our trip we’ve seen contrails of jets flying at 30,000 feet some even crisscrossing each other. How many times we’ve seen America from one of those jets!!! It’s such a totally different perspective and so much more interesting to drive through all of the areas we’ve only seen from 30,000 feet. And we’re not even seeing anywhere near all it. We’ve also noticed lots of cyclists on the roads in the national parks. It looks like these would be great bike rides but, given the hills, pretty tough. Yesterday we followed one cyclist coming down a long hill as we left Arches. We were doing 45 mph and he was staying well ahead of us even in the hair-pin turns. It was his reward for having climbed that hill earlier in the day.
Another good way to see these parks would be on motorcycles. At the hotel this morning we met a group of motorcyclists from Canada—all men and all our age who were doing a 4000 mile tour of the Southwest. They had done many of these trips before and looked like they were good old buddies! We thought packing and unpacking our car every day was a chore until we witnessed how carefully each cyclist had to pack his gear. Peter especially liked them because they complimented him on his car and said that next to a motorcycle, a convertible would be the next best way to see the world.
Would you believe that the scenery completely changed again several times as we headed toward Bryce Canyon National Park on UT 24 to Utah 12? UT 24 was long, straight and pretty much lonely……..there were few vehicles and no towns!!! At one point Connie’s hat blew onto the road; Peter did a U turn, picked it up, did another U turn and continued on……….no one saw us and we saw no one for miles! The speed limit was 65 mph and as we came around a corner just after Hanksville (pretty grim), there were 5 or 6 big bulls walking down the road! We almost came to a full stop before they sauntered over to the side of the road! Between the rocks, the wildlife, the tumbleweeds and the cattle you really have to watch yourself on these high speed back roads. Every time we came around a curve we saw sheer rock canyons, mesas, buttes and sandstone rock formations. It turns out that Butch Cassidy and his gang hid in these canyons; it’s not hard to see why he hid here because without this road, it would be very hard to find anyone or anything. The road has sheer canyon walls on each side which we could see very well with the top down.
We approached Canyon Reef National Park and saw fruit groves that had been planted by the early Mormon settlers. We stopped to see the crude but interesting drawings that had been carved into the canyon walls by early Native Americans. Next to a carving of a big horn sheep, “Marie” had carved her name………more graffiti!!! We passed the remnants of the early Mormon settlement, everything fairly well preserved, and stopped at a historic farm where an ancestor of the original Mormon settler sold us some home made ice cream.
In Torrey we turned onto UT 12, aka Highway 12 Scenic Byway, one of 27 nationally designated All-American Roads. It starts at the entrance to Capitol Reef National Park, winds through the Dixie National Forest, over Boulder Mountain, through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and finally ending at Bryce Canyon National Park. We had both read about this road and had decided to do it regardless of its rigor. At the funky Flute Shop in Torrey, Peter told the proprietress we were “taking our time” on our trip. She said that was obvious, “You wouldn’t be on this road if you were in a hurry!” Again, we met a very nice young couple who had been canoeing and fishing at Lake Powell and we enjoyed exchanging travel stories. The vista where we had our chat was unbelievable……..8000 feet, snow around us and a view over the cliffs and canyons “to die for!” Traveling further, we reached 10,000 feet and saw snow covered meadows.
The most amazing sight in the Grand Escalante-Staircase National Monument was the road across the ridge at the very top of the canyons on both sides. It was very narrow and, once again, no guard rails. The wind was howling as we stood on the ridge on either side of the road looking down at least 1000 feet. Apparently as I took Peter’s picture, a raven was hovering about 2 feet above my shoulder………..good thing I didn’t know! Is that a sign of something? Further on, Peter spied a golden eagle feeding on some road kill at the side of the road. We stopped to get a picture, the eagle flew to a fence post as if he was posing and, as Peter was readying the camera, another car drove by and scared the eagle away. A school bus drove by and we wondered how far kids who live out here have to travel to get to school.
After meandering in and out of the Dixie National Forest and passing through the town of Tropic, we arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park. We had read that this park is particularly spectacular at sunset so, instead of finding a motel for the night, we entered the park and drove to Sunset Point. What we saw was an amphitheater carved into the face of a plateau and filled with hoodoos, “fancifully eroded pillars of rock.” They were every shade of red, pink, orange; it looked like a fairyland full of castles. Many people were sitting on top of rocks, meditating; we felt like we had to whisper! WOW!! So much to see and so much to say!
Back in Tropic we stayed America’s Best Value Inn and Suites, next to Clark’s Market, Clark’s Restaurant and Clark’s Gas………….we think Clark owned the motel, too. In any case it was great from dinner to the room to breakfast. Thanks, Clark!
No comments:
Post a Comment