Because It's There

Why would someone want to climb up a shear rock wall?



Because it's there.

As we drove to our hike this morning we saw dozens of climbers ascending shear rock walls of the canyon.  We stopped and watched for a while and I can assure you I have no interest or courage enough to ever think of trying such a thing.

Nice rock....I'll let someone else climb it.

Now the ancient Indians must have liked to climb also because a little further down the road we came to petrographs carved into the face of the cliffs.

We didn't know any of this was along the road we were on but it's nice to be surprised.  We were headed toward a hike of 2.5 miles that would take us to Corona and Bow Tie Arches.

The switchback trail gained about 500 feet of attitude right away.  After that it was a combination of desert floor, climbing over slickrock (the name for the flowing sandstone), and cliff edge trails.

The desert floor may look plain until you get up close.

Even though it's Fall there are wildflowers in the desert.

Here I am standing on slickrock. 
The problem is it's usually not flat but rather slanted toward the edge of some drop off.

Terri is walking along slickrock that has a cable to grab as you slide by.
That was good for that 100 feet, the rest of the time you were on your own.

After an hour or more of hiking we made it to Corona Arch.

In the same valley was Bow Tie Arch.

We could have gone further to be under the arch but that required climbing a sandstone wall that had toe holds cut into it and than climbing a ladder to get over a cliff edge.  We might have made it up but the down part would have been the real challenge.

As we left the arch we added our rocks to a cairn wall to follow tradition.  The wall is about twenty feet long and has thousands of rocks carefully stacked.

How do you know which way to go?  There are cairns (Small stacked rocks) along the way.  You look ahead until you find one than walk to it and repeat.  Easy.

Terri trying to tip over a balancing rock with her hiking stick.  Not really she says.

And the last shot of the day was of an arch called "Jug Handle".  I was right under it and I couldn't see a thing because the sun was shining right in my face.  I couldn't move anywhere else so I just clicked a few shots and left.  When we got home this is what came out of those shots.

Cool photo, huh?  Gotta love my cell phone camera.



A More Laid Back Day

It rained and blew hard last night.  The temperature dropped to 39 degrees and it was COLD this morning.  But the sun came out and it warmed up to short sleeve weather, so we started our easy going day.

We are down in this valley somewhere.

Terri had a chiropractic appointment this morning at 9:45 so we drove into town.  She was happy with the results the doctor made with her back.  He advised her to walk for an hour before getting back in the car, so we walked a mile around downtown Moab.  We were busy being tourists in a town that is badly effected by the government shutdown.  There are no crowds like we saw on the first day of October, people have left town.

After our downtown walk we took a break and went home for lunch and a short nap.  I believe that is how it's supposed to be done by retirees.  When we woke up it was bright sunshine and time to do a little driving and hiking.

We have been looking at a mountain range out the front window of our motorhome and it was time to go exploring.  We hopped in the Fit and drove on small roads in the direction of the red mountains.  Pretty soon we hit dirt roads and started climbing the switch back gravel path into the canyons.

Up and up and up the windy dirt road until we were above the waterfall.
And then we kept on going.

The switchbacks lead us to a waterfall that again came out of an area that should not have water coming through it.  I was curious so we kept driving until we hit the end of the road.  It wasn't exactly the end, but if you didn't drive a Jeep it was the end.  So we got out and started walking.

Terri looks back toward civilization.  Time to go further the other way.

So we are on a go nowhere road of no special note and yet what we were seeing was amazing.  The rock formations, the canyons, the flowing stream from nowhere and mountains as far as we could see.

Big rock...little car.

It's better to hike up this area. Leave the Fit where it won't get stuck.

What's up that dirt path?  I could hear running water.

The stream that fed the waterfall.  Where does all this water come from in the middle of all this rock?

Now even I can't balance a rock like that.....yet.  I'll keep practicing.

The view you see in the photo below is as we drove back into the valley we are staying in this week.  We checked into staying at a BLM campground we saw on our drive today.  The camp host told us it was officially closed so we could not stay there Saturday and Sunday, so we are going to spend two more nights where we are.  It's very nice where we are so we don't mind.

Home is somewhere down there.

Compared to yesterday this has been a laid back relaxing day.  Maybe we'll go into town tonight to listen to some Friday night bar music.  I promise not to get into any bar fights and I will keep my drinking to a minimum.

I think this wagon wheel may be beyond repair.



Fixer upper?

A Canyon Hike

Not all arches are within the boundaries of the Arches National Park.  Today we drove to BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land and did a 5 hour hike up Negro Bill Canyon to see Morning Glory Arch.

The arch is at the very end of the canyon and is not visible until you have trekked through about a dozen stream fording's. The trail follows a course through many canyons before reaching the headwaters of the stream which begins right under Morning Glory Arch.

In many places the canyon narrowed and we were walking under the shear cliff walls following the course of the stream. The stream had large pools and many small falls and rapids along the path.  One of the best features of the hike was the constant sound of running water.

In many places the trail was wide enough for us to walk side by side.  But the majority of trail was single file and some was narrow enough that you had to turn sideways to pass through tight sections.  There were times we were walking across sandstone that slanted down to shear drop offs.  We walked carefully and paid attention to the more dangerous parts.

A nice sandy section of trail.

Terri in front of one of hundreds of caves cut into the sandstone.

 Finally Terri could wait no longer and climbed up the canyon wall to claim her 3 room cave condo.

There were 3 rooms in this cave.  Terri made herself right at home.  That's her walking stick leaning at the mouth of the entrance.  I had her move out to the edge so she could be seen in the photo.

Each corner we turned in the trail provided another amazing view up a different canyon branching off the main canyon.

Every once in a while the trail would climb out of the stream bed and we would get a panoramic view of what was ahead.

After two and a half hours of great hiking we reached the end of the canyon.  The walls of the canyon extended hundreds of feet above us on three sides.  There was no way to go but straight up.  This was the location of Morning Glory Arch.

Now the problem with being at the end of a canyon and having a 234 foot arch is that there was no way to get the whole arch in a single frame of a photo.  Here I was standing directly under the arch shooting straight up.

Only a portion of the whole arch.

Looking into the end of the canyon at a portion of Morning Glory Arch.

One end of the arch connecting to the canyon wall.

So where does a stream begin?  As we walked along the stream today I asked myself that question many times.  As we approached the very end of the canyon I got my answer.  Flowing out of the solid rock under the arch was a stream that was only a few inches wide.  There was a crack about 3  inches wide and the water flowed down that crack to begin the stream.

A stream begins out of solid rock.  WOW!

What goes up must come down.  We began our 2 hour decent after a nice lunch sitting under the arch.  We sat at the edge of the pool of water that flowed from the rock and soaked in the wonderful place we were in.

Our view up and out of the canyon from our sitting rock during lunch.

The lighting and views changed as we walked out with the sun setting.

Reds, browns and even blues in the sandstone.



And finally a photo of me.  If you look close you can see that I am using oxygen.  I have had some lingering problems since my August hospital stay with the lung infection.  When we were in Yellowstone at the beginning of September my oxygen levels dropped to the point that we had to make a trip into Cody, Wyoming to get set-up for oxygen tanks.  Since that time I have been improving slowly.  My hope is that I will be off oxygen before Mexico in November.

One of the many stream crossings.  The walking sticks really helped both of us with our balance as we used the stepping stones to cross the stream.  The walking sticks also help with all the other challenges involved with old people walking in uneven terrain.

Life is good and a little oxygen problem isn't slowing us down much.

Down the Mighty Colorado River

We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning, that's how it is supposed to be in life.  I puttered around the motorhome until we were ready to go.  I still wake up to a "To Do" list but now days it's a short mental list because I don't have that much to get done.  It was a relaxing morning with all the windows and door open.

We were off to our river rafting adventure around 10:30.  We were shuttled in a van to the "put in" point on the Colorado River.  The drive up through the canyons was amazing and we will be driving back through this area again soon.

Beginning our float trip in the bright sunshine.

We were in a rubber raft that had a total of 10 people plus the guide who did all the rowing.  The group was from all corners of the country.  We enjoyed talking with all of them.

Chris rowing us all down the Colorado River.

A small marker along the river.  I did not stack this pile of rocks.

We floated for about an hour and a half before beaching the raft to have lunch on a sandy beach.  Our guide laid out a nice buffet lunch and we all made our own wraps and sandwiches.  There were plenty of large rocks to choose from as our seating. 

A nice backdrop for a lunch.

We enjoyed several rapids and were both soaked several times over.  Terri managed to be the wettest person in the raft, guess she's just lucky.



Happy campers.

The walls of this canyon looked dark blue against the red rocks.

At our final take out point for the trip.  Looking down river through more canyons.

We really enjoyed our nice warm day on the river.  We both are happy that the government shutdown caused us to consider different options for our time here.

Tomorrow we will be doing some sightseeing and hiking in areas not in the park.  The places we are going usually don't get as much use but they receive great reviews as areas outside the National Parks boundaries.

The digital thermometer had a high reading of 105 degrees when we got home today.  I know that is not an accurate reading and the sun must have been shining on the digital reader, but still it was in the 80's for sure.

All is well with us and we are having a fine time being retired.  Life is good.

We're in Moab - Politicians are Idiots

We completed or trip to Moab/Aches National Park this morning.  A few thousand miles of wandering and we are here.  We've made reservations to spend a week here.  We're all set to go.  So what could go wrong, it's been a great adventure so far.

On the road to Moab.

The brilliant politicians in Washington D.C. seem to have forgotten that I have been planning and looking forward to this portion of our journey for months and months.  They closed all National Parks.  What?  The idiots don't seem to want my vote in the next election.

So here is my wish for each and everyone of them:  May their Federal Retirement Plans all disappear.  I hope they all get a big pimple on the end of their noses.  May they each lose their house keys and maybe their car keys also.  I hope that the next dog they walk by pees on their shoes.  And last but not least I hope that in the next election they each receive only one vote and that is because their mothers still like them.

So we are not going to sit around waiting for the idiots to do their jobs.  Tomorrow morning we will be taking a raft trip down a chunk of the Colorado River.  They can't stop Terri and I from having an adventure.

Still on the road to Moab.

The weather here is sunny and in the mid eighties.  Terri is very happy.  I'm a little warm.  I miss last weeks snow.

Still on the road into Moab.

We will probably extend our stay here in Moab, Utah until we can see Arches and Canyonland National Parks. We went to the visitors center today and put together a plan of thing to see and do during our wait.  We won't be bored.

In what generation will the children no longer know the term "telephone pole"?

So if any of you personally know a politician let them know that Russ Ranger is not happy with them and that they should not get close to any dogs this next week.

I want to go on record saying that I am an experienced river rafter.  My brother Dave and I could tell stories about that rubber raft.  Not only did it serve as a swimming pool, it once went down the Wenatchee Gorge with us in it.  My front tooth did not make it home but we were both happy to be alive.
My brother and I are the studs on the right side of the photo.