Thursday September 14th 2017

I’m glad I wasn’t moving the Motorhome today. The wind picked up this morning and blew strong all day. The wind combined with the threat of thunderstorms almost kept me at home today, but late this morning I set out for the Petrified Forest National Park. It is about 20 miles east on Interstate 40 from my campsite in Holbrook.

Painted Desert in the Petrified Forest National Park.

Painted Desert

Painted Desert

Painted Desert

I started at the north end of the park and traveled to the south end. At the north end of the park is the Painted Desert. This is an area that erosion over time and up lifting of the land has exposed many different layers of earth. Each of the layers are of different colors and shades. The result is an area with limited vegetation that has many different layers of color. The Painted Desert is interesting and certainly has many different colors. If this was your first exposure to some of the natural formations of the west it would be very impressive. Travelers coming from the east in the late 1800s on the railroad or later on Route 66 would be awe struck. If you are traveling from the west or northwest, as I am, you’ve seen areas like Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon and the Grand Canyon. I don’t think the Painted Desert compares well, but I’ve seen a lot of rocks lately.

The Painted Desert was an added bonus for me. I didn’t know it was part of the Petrified Forest National Park. It was not until I reached mile seventeen on the scenic drive that I saw my first petrified log. From that point south there were many areas of petrified wood. The color of the logs is dependent on the minerals they absorbed while buried under ground for 225 million years. The trees were part of a lush rainforest during the Triasic Period when this area of land was located at the latitude of current day Costa Rica. Continental drift and other forms of upheaval have brought the petrified forest here. As the weather and other events erodes and shifts the ground more petrified logs and fossils are exposed.

The “boulders” are petrified logs.

Close-up of a piece of petrified wood.

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The weather threatened all day. It was hard to hold the camera steady in the strong wind to take pictures. A couple of storms with lightning could be seen to the north, but all that I experienced were a few brief attempts at showers. The wind continued until darkness arrived. In this area that’s 7PM. Just another indicator of falls arrival.

Wednesday September 13th 2017

My week at Lake Powell was up today. I packed up and hit the road for Holbrook Arizona at 10am. After four plus hours of travel with a little bit of everything along the way I arrived in Holbrook. I had steep down hills and long uphills to navigate along with rain squalls with strong crosswinds to contend with. I even had a hard, not quite panic, stop that made a mess of some of the loose stuff in the motorhome.

Site 83 at the Holbrook / Petrified Forest KOA.

Holbrook is east of Flagstaff on Interstate 40 near the Petrified Forest National Park. I was surprised at how open the land is east of Flagstaff. It is all open range land. There is some higher ground in the distance, but most of the time all that you can see is low bushes, gravel and grass. You know you have to worry when you see wind socks along the highway along with the high wind and dust warnings.

After I got setup and picked up the mess inside from the eventful travel day. I tested the speed of the Internet access. I have been suffering with poor internet connections for the last two weeks or so. The connection here seems to be very good. I’m going to include some of the pictures of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that I couldn’t include last night in this blog. With a little bit of luck, I may be able to create some of the Google Photos Albums of my August and September tours.

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I’m only here until Sunday, so I need to get a quick start at touring in the area. It isn’t tomorrow yet, but as of right now, I think I’ll head to the Petrified Forest National Park tomorrow.

Tuesday September 12th 2017

Today I drove 130 miles to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s a long distance for a day trip, but this is the closes I’m going to get this year. If I were a crow flying it would only be about 64 miles, but the roads to get there follow a real sawtooth pattern. I also had to climb from around 3500 feet to almost 9000 feet at the north rim.

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With the altitude came trees. I was actually in a forest for a change. The desert of the southwest has many remarkable geology, but I miss the trees. The tall pines and Aspens in the Kaibab National Forest were a striking departure from the open spaces at the lower altitudes. I was even reminded that fall is approaching. At the highest elevation, the Aspens were starting to turn golden yellow.

Shortly after entering the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park area, I was greeted by a heard of Bison. The heard was not close to the road so it was not possible to get good pictures. I’m not sure if it is the season or the variety, but these Bison seem to be darker in color than the Bison in Yellowstone. Apparently these are decedents of Bison introduced into the area in the early 1900s in an attempt to crossbred them with cattle. There are currently about 600 animals that officials are looking to reduce to 200 in two to three years. A relocation and hunting plan has been approved to keep the Bison population from growing too big and further damaging the park resources. The official news release on Reducing the Bison population can be found here.

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My visit to the park began at the North Rim Visitors Center. The Bright Angel Point trail begins behind the center. It is half mile round trip walk on a steep paved trail to magnificent views of the grand canyon. At times the path is narrow as it works its way around large boulders or across steel and concrete bridges between boulders. I try to allow people plenty of room so neither of us feel crowded over the edge. It is very clear that some people don’t want to get very close to the edge even with guard rails. I sat on a rock at the point for half an hour or so admiring the view. I understand it is even more impressive at sunset.

After visiting the Grand Canyon Lodge and the gift shop next door I drove out to the highest point in the park, Point Imperial at 8,880 feet. You don’t have to walk far from the parking lot to enjoy more spectacular views. I must have had a sign on my back that said “photographer” today. I was asked to take peoples pictures four times today. It isn’t unusual to be asked by one or two people, but four times seems to be a record.

I drove back to camp at Lake Powell and found ninety plus degree temperatures and humidity. It had been in the low 70s at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Shortly after I got back, a series of thunderstorms passed through cooling things down a little.

Tomorrow I am moving on. My destination is Holbrook, AZ. This town is near the Petrified Forest National Park. I plan to be there through the weekend.

Once again I have had a hard time uploading pictures.  I have only been able to include a few of the images I prepared to include.  I may try again tomorrow or just wait until I get all of the images uploaded to Google Photos. 

Monday September 11th 2017

The events of my day began in Page AZ at 9:30 this morning. I checked in for my raft ride down the Colorado River at Colorado River Discovery. It is advertsed as a “15.5 mile smooth water rafting trip”. By 10am everyone was loaded into two buses for the five mile trip to the river.

The bus ride to the river is part of the adventure. To get to water level, 700 feet below the top of the canyon, the bus enters a two mile long tunnel down an eight percent grade through solid rock. The tunnel was built during the construction of the dam. It has portals that allow light in through the canyon wall. At the bottom under the bridge in front of the dam we unload from the bus and walk down to the rafts to meet our guides. Each raft takes fifteen to twenty people. Our raft had seventeen.

Glen Canyon Dam from river level.

One of the outflow tunnels

There are two stops on the journey. The first is at an area with ancient petroglyphs and the second is a sandy area they call a beach. Some people seem to think that taking a dunk in the forty seven degree Fahrenheit water is a fun thing to do. The actual purpose of the beach stop is to eat the box lunch provided. In reality most of us had already eaten on the way down the river.

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Other than the planned stops, the nature of the raft ride is very much dependent on the guide. The guide on my boat was an old hand on the river that was full of knowledge. He also tended to wax poetic on the glory of the river, the geology and John Wesley Powell. At one point he pulled the raft up to the shore, got out a guitar and started to serenade us. It turns out he is also a musician when not piloting a raft. Some of his characteristics went against my give me the facts attitude, but the scenery was worth it.

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The raft part of the trip ended at Lee’s Ferry after about four hours on the river. We boarded buses for the return trip. It was about an hour back to Page by land. I was back at my campsite before 4PM.

I had a lot of difficulties uploading pictures tonight.  I wanted to include several others but the quality of my Internet connection wouldn’t allow it.  When I get a better connection I will upload all of today’s pictures and provide a pointer to the Google Photos album in a future blog post.

Sunday September 10th 2017

It was a beautiful late summer day at Lake Powell. The sun was bright and the temperature peaked in the high 80s. I started watching the TV coverage of Hurricane Irma during breakfast. It really fowled up my day, but nothing like the people actually experiencing the storm. DirecTV has a special channel with rotating coverage from various TV stations in Florida. That coverage along with the Weather Channel made me feel like I was in the middle of the storm. I finaly pulled away from the coverage around noon to get the day started.

My original plan for the day was to drive one hundred and thirty miles to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Watching the hurricane coverage made traveling for five hours round trip for a limited time visit a non-starter. Instead I did a few things around Page, AZ. My first stop was at the Glen Canyon Dam visitors center. I watched a very interesting film on the building of the dam and walked across the bridge overlooking the dam. They offer a tour of the dam, but I wasn’t interested. I’ve taken the tour of the Hoover dam and don’t think this one would be much different.

Glen Canyon Dam and the Carl Hayden Visitors Center

Down river view from the bridge crossing the river at the dam.

The bridge across the river and a view of the raft trip boarding area.

Closer view of the raft loading area.

From the dam visitors center I drove southwest to the Horseshoe Bend trail head. A hike of a little over a half mile brings you to the rim of the canyon overlooking a horseshoe bend in the Colorado River. It was a very popular place today. A continuous flow of people were hiking out and back. The view is spectacular. The river appears green (probably from slime) about 1,000 feet or so below. Tomorrow I’m taking a raft trip along the Colorado river. I’ll have to check the water color through this area.

Sunday walk in the Park on the trail to the Horseshoe Bend overlook.

Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado River a thousand feet below.

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Brave or stupid? I can’t get close to the edge when there are people behind me. If I feel safe I can get within a foot or two of the edge.

On my way back from Horseshoe Bend I stopped at Walmart for groceries and other supplies. I was getting down on healthy food and junk food. My last couple of meals were from packages and cans. They were perfectly eatable, but have more sodium than I probably need. I now have fruit, meat and eggs on the healthy list and cookies, bread and cupcakes on the junk food side.

Back at camp for the late afternoon/early evening walk I saw a number of jack rabbits. On previous walks the smaller bunnies were more prevalent. These bigger rabbits are more skittish than the little bunnies. The setting sun also highlighted some nice colors on the mountains growing out of the lake.

Jack Rabbit about 20 feet from me.

Lake Powell in the setting sun.

Tomorrow I have to be in the town of Page to check in for my raft ride down the river. From the downtown office you take a bus to the base of the Glen Canyon dam through a 2 mile long downhill tunnel. That sounds like an interesting start to a boat ride. I should mention that this is not supposed to be a white water raft ride. You get bussed back to Page from the landing at Lee Ferry.

Saturday September 9th 2017

This was the first truly rainy day I’ve had since June. It started raining light but steady last night around midnight and continued through early afternoon today. When I got up this morning it was very foggy, but by late afternoon the sun came out and brightened things up.

Sightseeing was not in the cards for today. I spent much of the day watching the Weather Channels coverage of hurricane Irma. The combination of Information, Instruction, Warning and Reassurance is strangely compelling. Hopefully, people will be smart and safe. Property can be replaced.

I’m including more pictures of yesterday’s boat excursion on Lake Powell in this blog entry. I really enjoyed the trip to Rainbow Bridge. It is interesting to think what it would have been like before 1963 when the dam filled Glen Canyon to create Lake Powell. The fact that this massive body of water has been around for less time than I’ve been alive is hard to contemplate.

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Late in the day today I took advantage of the returned sunshine to walk to one of the boat launch areas. There were many people putting water craft of every type in the water. I saw everything from canoes and kayaks to high speed boats. The National Recreation area is definitely a draw for people wanting to play on the water.

Friday September 8th 2017

It’s been a long but exciting day. I got up early to check in for my boat to the Rainbow Bridge National Monument at 7am this morning. The boat left the Lake Powell Wahweap marina at 8am and returned at 4PM after 100 plus miles on the boat.

The weather was labeled as partly cloudy. As long as you recognize that partly cloudy also means occasional light showers, the forecast was accurate. The lack of a baking sun was a good thing. I road on the open upper deck most of the trip. I retreated to the lower covered area during one heavy wind and light shower on the way home. The top deck was ideal for taking pictures although I got a little carried away. I took over 900 pictures.

Rainbow Bridge

Path leading up the canyon to the Rainbow Bridge. Note the high water mark on the rock walls. In 1983 when the Lake reached its peak level for the first time the water was around 20 feet higher.

Narrow canyons on the way into the Rainbow Bridge National Monument

Another look behind the boat at the narrow canyon the boat passed through.

The battery in my primary point and shoot camera started displaying a warning when we were only three quarters to the Rainbow Bridge. I switched to my backup point and shoot that I brought along just in case. At the Rainbow Bridge National Monument I switched to my cell phone camera because it produces more brilliant color in the pictures. The cell phone started complaining about low battery a third of the way back. It was also difficult to hold onto in the wind on the moving boat. I finished the trip using my backup point and shoot camera. As I’ve been writing in my blog entries for the last month, I’ll post all of the pictures in a Google Photos album once I get a good internet connection. This blog contains a handful of nice pictures. When you take 900 plus pictures many of them are not the greatest. Taking pictures into the sun’s glare or completely in the shadows will cause “bad” pictures.

The Rainbow Bridge is an arch created by flowing water. It is located at the higher end of a series of narrow canyons in the shadow of 10,388 foot Navajo Mountain. It is only accessible by boat or very long hike from near Navajo Mountain. The boats tie up to floating docks that are adjusted periodically to account for the changing lake height. The first part of the half mile trail is along the floating docks followed by a trek along the base of the canyon wall.

This series of pictures are from the trip to the Rainbow Bridge.

House boat with extra water craft in tow.

Table butte.

Bad weather behind the boat. It never really caught up with us.

Fancy house boat with the water craft docked to the back.

It rained during the hike from the boat to the Rainbow Bridge. The rain was just hard and long enough to get you wet. It also made my pictures at the bridge a little duller. The sun was out in full force by the time I got back to the boat.

The trip back included a stop at the Dangling Rope Marina to give the store and ice cream stand run by the same concessionaire as the boat ride a little business. There was no narration on the return trip. It was generally a high speed run except when the captain had to reduce his wake to pass one of the many houseboats. Apparently, people don’t like their home rocking in the waves.

Thursday September 7th 2017

I was up early even by Utah time. Using local Arizona time it was absolutely ridiculous. Let’s just call it practice for tomorrow morning. I need to be at the Lake Powell Lodge at 7am to check in for my boat trip to Rainbow Bridge National Monument. It’s about a 50 mile boat trip each way.

Glen Canyon Dam

Colorado River looking down stream from the Glen Canyon Dam overlook.

Today was a potpourri kind of day. I started the day with a visit to the Glen Canyon Dam overlook. For some reason I thought it looked like a concrete cork in a rock bottle. There is no physical similarity just an odd metaphor that passed through my brain. Maybe from lack of sleep.

Back at camp I did the laundry. This was one of the cheaper campground laundries. A load of wash was a dollar and a drier run was only fifty cents for a 35 minute run. I probably should have coughed up another fifty cents, because some of the clothes weren’t completely dry. A couple of things are still hanging around in the RV tonight. I just didn’t want to hang around the laundry for another half an hour.

More house boats in Lake Powell.

It clouded over late in the afternoon. I took advantage of the filtered sunlight to take another walk around the area. I seemed to startle many little cotton tailed rabbits. One bigger rabbit that looked like it might have been a jack rabbit saw me long before I saw him. We had a staring contest before he hopped into the brush.

Jack Rabbit (?)

The cloud cover that made the walk comfortable was threatening to make the walk dangerous. A thunderstorm was moving in. Lightning was visible on the horizon, so I had to cut my walk short and return home. I was back only a few minutes before the sky opened up. It rained hard for a half an hour. It has rained a few more times for shorter durations since then. Hopefully the rain will wash some of the dust off my motorhome and car.

Wednesday September 6th 2017

I am at the Lake Powell Resort and Marina in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area for the next week. I departed Hurricane Utah at the 11am checkout time and climbed up onto the Arizona Strip section of the Colorado Plateau for the 130 plus mile trip to Lake Powell. The Colorado Plateau is the high ground surrounding the Colorado River. Over the last couple of weeks I learned that Zion and Bryce canyons are both in the Colorado Plateau. The Arizona strip is the name given to the part of Arizona north of the Colorado River that is somewhat isolated from the rest of the state.

Site D-75 at the Lake Powell Resort and Marina campground.

After the rather steep eight percent grade climb out of Hurricane UT onto the plateau, the trip was fairly easy. The weather threatened rain all day but the temperature still got into the high 90s. At one point on the drive a brief sprinkle of rain hit the windshield accompanied by a strong cross wind. The rain was inconsequential, but the wind caused me to tighten my grip on the steering wheel. I arrived at the campground on Lake Powell after a little over two hours of travel. It was officially 12:20 local time, but it’s very hard to know what time it is.

I’m in Arizona so it is officially Mountain Standard Time or 1 hour earlier than Utah which is using Mountain Daylight time. Trying to figure out the time is hard. According to the map, Utah is only a few hundred yards from where I’m parked. My cell phone seems to prefer a cell tower in Utah so it reports time in MDT units. If I walk toward Lake Powell, my phone picks up a cell tower in Arizona and reports time in MST units. To further complicate things, I have no local TV stations to orient my sense of time. My DirecTV satellite stations are all in Eastern Daylight time. I finally found a Page Arizona radio station that may or may not help. I’m not going to have a clue what time it is while I’m here.

Some of the larger boats at the Resort’s dock with house boats out in the lake.

Buttes in the lake. I don’t know which of the lines on the rock represent the high water line.

Wide view of this section of Lake Powell. The Glenn Canyon dam on the Colorado River is a mile or more to the right.

This Roadrunner (?) was very entertaining.

I have a good view of Lake Powell from my campsite. The lake’s water level is low, but I’m not sure how low. Unlike Lake Mead behind the Hoover Dam, Lake Powell doesn’t seem to have as pronounced a high water mark on the surrounding rock walls. I hope to learn more about the water level while I’m here. On Friday, I’ve booked a boat excursion on Lake Powell. Maybe, I’ll learn more then.

Tuesday September 5th 2017

The heat continues in southern Utah. Once again it topped out in the low hundreds. We may get a thunderstorm or two before morning. Right now, in the late evening, a light show of sorts is visible on the southern horizon.

I started the day with another attempt to get a reservation at the Corp of Engineers park near Fort Meyers. It is frustrating, because there are only a few sites available at the beginning of the reservation window 6 months out. Again this morning someone else clicked their mouse a little quicker than I did. Later in the morning I started looking into plan B. My overall goal was to be on or near the gulf coast of Florida during the month of March to attend a few Baseball Spring Training games. The months of February and March are the high season for Florida snowbirds. I’ve had the two weeks from March 10th to March 24th booked since April. I just needed to fill in before and after that reservation. After the 24th of March turned out to be fairly easy. Probably because Easter is early on April 1st, there is a lot of availability at the end of March. Many snowbirds try to be home in the north by Easter.

The gulf coast of Florida from just north of St Petersburg south to Naples is premium territory. It not only is in high demand it is also high priced. I could find two and three night stays at the state parks, but the weekends were booked solid. The one private campground I talked with won’t take reservations for under a month until November. I decided to look further inland where fewer people want to stay. I found ten days of availability at the Corp of Engineers campground beside the Ortona lock on the Caloosahatchee Canal that crosses the state from Fort Meyers to Port St. Lucie. So I’m set for the month of March in Florida. Now I just have to figure out November through January. February will be a cross country travel month.

A road passes through the break in the cliff shown in this picture. Tomorrow I’ll drive the motorhome through that break in the cliff as I start my travels to Lake Powell.

The planning exercise took most of the morning. This afternoon I started to pick up for tomorrows move to the Lake Powell area. I also made a run to Walmart for groceries. All of the Halloween stuff from decorations to candy is out. Pushing the seasons even more the garden area is cleared out and it looks like they are getting ready to put the Christmas stuff out. I know it’s after labor day but really.