Adventure to Utah

Welcome to a page for family and friends of our March trip to Utah where I’ll share a few of my pictures as we travel

Updates will be a bit erratic and depend on access to wifi during the trip. I’ll try to upload whenever we get access.

Monday March 29th

It’s been a while! Lots has been going on though. Alan has flown home and I have a new travel companion. The weather has warmed. Finally. Which means camping is now underway again. I haven’t had internet for days to post anything and most of my pictures are still in the camera. But here are a couple of snaps from “boondocking” (free and legal camping) near Capitol Reef National Park Utah.

sunday march 20

Saturday march 19

Thwarted. Plans were forced to change as we headed to our hiking trail for the day. The tire sensor pinged on the dashboard that we had a deflating tire. That necessitated a trip to the gas station to reinflate and then a 100km run to a tire shop. A tiny nail had done us in. Ah, well such is any travel tale. And for $25 the tire was repaired, reinstalled and off we went back 100kms.

Six hours later….and we were on a short hike up a lightly traveled river wash in the afternoon sun. Wind was picking up and dust devils would emerge from the fine silt in the wash. As always, there were lots of oddities to notice and discuss why they might have occurred. Some scat that was nothing but hair caught our attention for a moment. But, don’t judge us, it has been a long two years and new topics to discuss are rare.

Below are a couple of snaps from my phone while waiting for the tire repair and one Alan took of me when we were hiking.

Friday march 18

Moon setting as the eastern sky coloured with the rising sun. Sunlight caught the ridges

Last night’s full moon was a bust. The moon did rise, the moon was full, but clouds rolled in and snuffed out the view of the moon when it was rising over the high butte. Ah, well, this morning we got up at 4:30 and drove an hour to the lunar landscape just outside of the park.

When we got into the car the temperature was +2C. By 7:00 it had dropped to -5C. BUT we got the shots. Last night’s moon set as the sun rose which was perfect timing. And the clouds had thinned an played nicely over the landscape.

Back in the car, we raced to the hotel. It would have been a terrible thing to miss breakfast.

Thursday march 17

Early morning with backlit scenes that showed spring’s sap is running. Brush is gaining colour.

A wander today up a canyon wash. A wash is a dry water course, usually flat and sandy as it was this morning.

In the late afternoon we are planning to get into a good spot for sunrise. As the sun sets, a full moon will rise. Time will tell if the weather is going to let us have a good shot of these events. Cheers all from Anne + Alan here in Capitol Reef National Park.

Wednesday march 16

A weather meets geology and a few trees sort of day.

Tuesday march 15, the ides of march

An early start as we left Monument Valley well before sunrise. Driving east through the valley, we pulled off the road to take a picture of the night sky. The camera often sees more than our eyes, and this morning it revealed a Milky Way above one of the “mittens”. Snow lingered on the large butte to the right of the mitten. Both rise at least one thousand feet above the ground.

moki dugway

In early light, we climbed the switch back road up 1,200 feet of cliff. Apparently, a “Dugway” is a track dug into a cliff. This drive is not for those scared of heights.
Wait, scared of heights, that’s me! As we snaked higher there were times I put my hand up so I couldn’t see the sheer drop.
Alan’s careful driving had us on top of the butte safely And then we went to see the morning light from a great outlook.

An attempt to get into Leprechaun slot canyon was fun but judgement prevailed and we abandoned the quest eventually. We should have waited for St Patricks Day perhaps.

nooooooooo

After our tour through the more inaccessible parts of Monument Valley, this was the state of my camera gear. Fine red dust had come into the open bus we used on the sand roads.
I did carefully clean everything, but the next day one camera made a terrible shriek and died in my hands. I hope a camera shop will be able to revive it.
Can you tell which is (was) my brand new camera?

monday march 14

Watching the light vanish in Monument Valley and the sunset put soft light into the clouds, we watched the cars zip along with their headlights sparkling.

Sunday march 13

Monument Valley, Utah aka John Wayne country

A tour by horse to see the sights. We had opted for the open sided bus.

Snippets from our tour

Thursday march 11

Entry to Sandstone Arch, Arches National Park

A sunrise shoot for Anne in Arches National Park. Then after a bit to eat and frankly a dawdle, we took a delightful walk through “Park Avenue”. The beauty of the vegetation is a complete surprise after expecting everything to be rocks and sand and orange. We took our time and examined all sorts of details all for no particular reason. We walked below the towers I had photographed at sunrise (photo below).

Afteer a chicken sandwich in the car we had energy to go see Sandstone Arch. The arch was lovely, but the surprise was to find it in a slot canyon. And I got my favourite photo of the day (above). It is a bit too soon for trees to have leaves and the bare branches have a glow from the light reflecting off sandstone walls.

First light from the Park Avenue overlook, Arches National Park

Wednesday march 10

Sorry for the silence for the last couple of days. We were camping at Dead Horse State Park, Utah. It is near Moab and most significantly, it is up high. That meant it was cocococold! Nights were -5C and days were only up to 8C. That is about 12C LOWER than seasonal norms. Instead of balmy 20, we were shivering. But the forecast said night would drop to -15 so we packed up and moved to a hotel.

We spent a delightful afternoon doing a scenic drive through the jaw-dropping Arches National Park.

More pictures to come from the last couple of days. I will add them below.

The master of tough climates and harsh landscapes, the raven is unconcerned about the wind ruffling his feathers. We were shivering and having trouble walking.

One of the must-see arches is Delicate Arch. And you can see from the photo below just how popular it is.

Wednesday march 9

Probably the most perfect campground we have ever seen. It is like camping in a botanical garden.

Green River, 2,000 feet down from the overlook. Canyonlands National Park, UT

Tuesday march 8

Off to our first four days of camping! Moving NE through Utah to our destination of Dead Horse State Park located next to two national parks.

monday march 7

In love with this place. It is Factory Butte in pretty much nowhere Utah. The scale is unbelievable as you can see from the car. But this image is probably only 10% of the total height of the butte.

And what a day it has been! We’ve had our eyes stretched with the huge landscapes.

All about the rocks until there is some early spring colour

sunday march 6

A long day of driving, but a fun one. The highways we chose were empty, desolate to be accurate. We traveled the Great Basin of Nevada. It is wide sweeps of flat land running North - South, probably 60 kms across. The flats are bordered by a line of low mountains that we drove up and over. It is like waves, a valley, followed by a pass. There was snow on almost everything except the roads.

And the road was highway 50 with signposts reminding you that it is the “Loneliest Highway in America”. Because of the long drive today, the opportunities for photography were limited. So I’ll just post one image

Saturday march 5

Another long day of driving through amazing central Oregon. After yesterday’s thrill of the Painted Hills, it was hard to imagine today could be even a dab as good. Then we discovered we were near the Alvord Desert. Though a mere 60 square miles, this area and the drive to it was delightful. What kind of magic has a desert that looks like an ocean but with towering spirals of blowing sand, surrounded by snowy peaks?

We drove about 300 kms of our nearly 600kms today on empty roads. And the highlight was seeing for our first time a Golden Eagle. This huge bird lifted out of the sage with wings banded in pure gold. Some days really are better than others.

Top Left: The Alvord Desert Right: A detail of the surface of the Alvord Desert
Bottom Right: Steens Mountains south of the Alvord Desert. Left: Hello from Frog Springs by the desert

On Sunday we head due South to connect to Highway 50 in Nevada. Highway 50 is called the Loneliest Highway in America. It will take us further east towards Utah. Thanks for following along and stay tuned for the next update. Cheers from Winnemucca NV where they are holding a big rodeo this weekend.

PS. It is now Sunday morning 6:30 am. We have woken in our motel to the sound of spurs jingling with the heavy clomp of cowboy boots. People are heading to the last day of the Winnemucca Ranch Hands Rodeo

Friday March 5

After the most wonderful visit with my sister in law Elaine in Portland, we headed east along the Hood River, then down a delightfully empty road to Painted Hills Oregon. Below are a few photos of this remarkable place.
Today we plan to head pretty much due south and reach northern Nevada, town of Winnemucca. The forecast for the entire SW US is for cold weather. Northern Nevada has a snow warning. We are staying in hotels on the way to Utah as it is too cold and too much work to camp, Cheers!

PS Keep the link I sent. We will post updates here.