Bryce Canyon UT to Kanab UT

Sunday October 2, 2016

This day did not go exactly as planned but it was a very good restful day – we are on vacation after all.  There was about 30 minutes of hard rain last night right after we went to bed.  Ben did not hear anything but I heard the rain hard on the metal roof of the Sprinter.  We were nice and cozy warm inside with the temperature dropping to 40 during the night. 

During breakfast this morning we were discussing the next few days of our trip.  With the temperatures this low we were concerned about camping in the campground at the North Rim of Grand Canyon with no electricity – I had been considering what I could easily cook on the gas stove but had not thought about the temperature….good thing Ben did.  We called and got a reservation in the National Park Lodging – in a motel room with heat!  Also got part of our fee back for canceling the camping spots.  Good decision and maybe someone can use our spots!

Huge Camp store

Entering Bryce Canyon

We had been to Bryce Canyon once before – on the 2002 trip but liked it so were going back this morning.  We again waited in line to enter but when we got to the Visitor Center there were no parking places and it was a zoo with people everywhere.  3 Tour Busses and ever so many vehicles and people…we did not want to be fighting for parking spots to view the hoo-doos so turned around and left.  I have said before there is certainly no shortage of people almost everywhere we have been. 

We continued on our westward journey on UT 12.  We were now in a red rock area and we got a few photos of some “almost” hoo-doos as we journeyed west. There were also several tunnels cut through the red rock.

almost a hoo-doo

After about 30 miles we came to the terminus of UT 12 and were on US 89 south to Kanab.  For the record we saw two more presidential political signs today – a Gary Johnson yard sign and a hand painted billboard for Jill Stein.  Interesting – no others for any recent days.  Lots of local candidate signs but not presidential ones.

We continued south through beautiful farmland, areas being developed as second home sites, and small towns with Mormon churches, a few businesses and neat homes. We saw the first red trees and the yellow at this elevation is cottonwood instead of aspen.  

Nice Color

We got to Kanab about noon and got one of the few sites left in the RV Park Jane had selected - Kanab RV Corral.  After lunch we got out the maps and reviewed our next week or so of travel.  Changing from two nights to one at Grand Canyon meant we had an extra day before our hotel reservation at Monument Valley. A phone call confirmed we could not move the reservation up a night so we will plan two nights in Page or somewhere else in that area.  And we rerouted ourselves to visit the Indian Ruins in Aztec instead of going to Gallup. 

The internet here is relatively good, the campsite is quiet, and we are well pleased with our selection. So we had some time to rest and clean up the Sprinter. The elevation here is back down lower - about 6,000 feet.  The sun is shining and it is in the 70’s with no wind.  Felt good to sit in the sun.  Jane has no breathing difficulty at all now.  Even with the medicine for 5 days – the 10,000 feet at times yesterday caused some issues but nothing like in Colorado. 

Middle of the afternoon we thought we would explore Kanab.  This town seems to have lost some of its luster and vibrancy.  Along with Moab, it was a favorite movie location in the years past.  Don’t believe Kanab has been in the game in recent years.  We visited their “Little Hollywood Museum” which is mainly a collection of buildings from movie sets of past years.  It really looks a little sad.  There was a write-up on a stunt woman who had been very active – we wondered if she were the driving force behind the place and died – then no one cared.  They had a lot of Route 66 materials to sell and when we asked why – they said it was not “too far away” and that Kanab had been one of the towns used as model for the movie Cars.  We visited the town in TX with the restored gas station used in the film.  Kanab they say has the tee-pee used in the movie.  Can’t say I recall a tee-pee but perhaps there was one.  We looked around in several galleries and gift shops – some nice things but nothing exciting and not very many people.  Of course we realized it is Sunday afternoon. The hotels do not have no vacancy signs as the ones did in Bryce last night! 

For dinner we made a short 2 block drive to Nedra 2’s.  Ben had been wanting Mexican food and we have visited Nedra 2’s on both of our previous visits to Kanab. It continues to be good although not as outstanding as we remembered.  Taco Salad for Jane and Machaca for Ben.  The Machaca is a northern Mexican dish with shredded lean beef cooked with tomatoes, onions, green chilies, cilantro and egg.  We both thought it was very good.  For the few people we saw shopping at 4:00 the restaurant was full at 6:00!

Machaca

Back to camp and hopefully post the blog and watch a movie.  There is a movie house here showing old westerns – but not on Sunday night!

 photos later  

Utah State Route 12 Torry to Bryce

October 1 2016

Lazy morning – slept until after 8 and decided to make the pancakes I brought.  Add water, shake, and pour!  They were good and we packed up and left about 9:30.  This was a simple nice small campground run by a lady who was jeweler.  She had lots of neat stones and she and Ben discussed tumbling stones for some time.  She had some really lovely turquoise but we restrained ourselves.

We drove back east through Torry to the eastern terminus of Rt 12.  This was our adventure for the day Utah Scenic Route 12.  We began at altitude 6,811 and would be all over a range from 5,387 at the lowest to 9,560 at the highest.  We had driven part of this road in 2002 but today we would make nearly the entire route depending on where we stay overnight – finishing on Sunday. 

Soon after leaving Torry we began to climb and were back in fir and aspen covered mountains.

Not sure how they can be more beautiful than the Colorado Aspen but we were closer to them and perhaps they were a bit more peak.  We continued to have vista after vista with both of us exclaiming over the views.  Our photos will have to tell the story but they really do not begin to show the majesty of these mountains.

After about 90 minutes we came to Boulder Utah.  This is the northern terminus of the Burr Trail. In 2002 we took the Burr Trail from Boulder through the Waterpocket Fold and came out near Capitol Reef.  It was the trip we took in a 4 wheel drive jeep.  At a backcountry road junction you can continue south on the Burr Trail and come out at the far eastern end of Lake Powell.  The Burr Trail is not paved and is what is known as a back country – dry weather road.  I am sure it is beautiful but a bit more adventure than we are up to today in our Sprinter!

In Boulder we visited the Anasazi State Museum which was an excellent stop.  Lots of good information on the ancient Puebloans and a wonderful gift shop where I could have easily spent $1,500 on a rug and pot!  Settled instead for a couple t-shirts.  Really nice ones.  They also had some ruins and a good film.  

At the Museum

Right down the street was Hell’s Backbone Grill – a 4 star New York Times rated restaurant so we stopped for lunch.  They grow most of the produce served in their facility, are only open 7:30 to 2:30 serving lunch and breakfast for these hours.   Ben had the soup of the day and a biscuit.  The soup was southwestern vegetable and the biscuit had sage butter.  He gave both a thumbs up!  I had a BLT – made with heirloom tomatoes, bacon, and lettuce on a special baked bread- super good!  With my sandwich was a small leaf lettuce and peach salad with pine nuts and a wonderful vinaigrette dressing.  A super good stop!

After lunch we continued west.  The topography changed.  This was the way I remembered Route 12 – we traveled along the backbone of the mountain – called Devil’s Backbone.  There was a huge drop off to miles and miles of the Escalante Badlands on either side of the two lane road.  Again no guard rails but there was a small shoulder.  Some of the grades were 10% and others 14%. 

  The views went on forever and my photos again do not do justice.  The view was similar on both sides of the road. Several places there were pullout spaces where you could park and take in the vistas.  One of the signs said we could see into Arizona.

We continued down through the town of Escalante where we had considered stopping but we decided to press on towards Cannonville and Bryce.  We continued seeing NO VACANCY signs on hotels and campgrounds but were lucky to get one of the last spots at Ruby’s Campground about 10 miles from Bryce Canyon.  This is some place – 2 hotels, a 240 site campground, several teepees, some cabins, a pool, hot tub, 2 or 3 restaurants, a cowboy show, and who knows what else…we are settled in and I am cooking after eating out last night and lunch today.  We have been surprised at the numbers of travelers everywhere.  There are lots of families traveling with children – wondering why they are not in school. Of course today is a weekend but we have seen lots of children all along.

We are certainly glad we bought that heater since it is expected to be down about 30 tonight.  Ben is watching a movie from his collection on his hard drive and I am catching up on this blog….got photos to transfer but my hope is the internet here will be good enough to at least post the narratives…if we have to do the photos later that is just the best we can do!

 Woo Hoo I am up to date with this blog!!!  The internet here at Ruby's is fantastic - it could be because we are parked right under the router!

Moab Utah to Torry Utah

September 30, 2016

Wow today was some out of this world type scenery – what I think the moon or another planet might look like.  We headed north on Utah 191 to I 70 and then drove west across the Green River to Utah 24 which we too south west to Hanksville. We were traversing what is known as the San Rafael Desert. The landscape was primarily rolling hills with some high cliffs here and there.  Most were a grey and green color not the red of the Moab area.  There were a few small rivers and of course the Green River is large and continues down to Canyonlands area west of Moab where it joins to Colorado for the journey on towards Page and the Grand Canyon.

Unusual Green Rocks

Crossing the Green River

We were on interstate highway for about 40 miles.  Ben did not recall ever seeing an 80 MPH sign. There were also no services for over 100 miles!

Our goal for the day – Torry Utah – which is the eastern end of Utah 12 – a very scenic highway.  We had visited this area in 2002 when we flew to Las Vegas – rented a Jeep and drove over much of southern Utah in about a 10 day period.  It was when we really fell in love with this area.  We had not however been in the area around Hanksville or at least we did not think we had been in the area – we had to wait until we got to the campground to get out Jane’s computer and find the log written on that trip.  This was way before blogging but we have kept a written log since our first trip together in the 60’s.  It has come in handy for settling arguments more than once!  The restroom break in Hanksville was interesting.  First service station – closed on gas until next week after delivery – down the road was a service station built into a solid rock mountain.  One of the walls in the bathroom was rock.

The scenery was bleak but beautiful – all I can say is it looked unworldly.  We began climbing and headed nearly due west towards Capitol Reef National Park and finally Torry.

I considered Capitol Reef a not very much visited park but today there was traffic – all parking spots filled, lines in the restrooms, and a crowd in the visitor center.  There are many scenic drives – one that actually traverses the Waterpocket Fold  - fold in earth crust that produced a mountain that is 100 miles long and is only crossed by roads in a few places – one being Utah 24 which took us across to Capitol Reef.  When we were here in 2002 we were in a rental jeep and took one of the back roads across the Waterpocket Fold. It was beautiful – none of these backroads are passable in wet weather and the area had a rain storm last night.  The Fremont River was running fast and muddy red and out of its banks.  It was obvious it had been across the road in some places earlier today.

Fremont River

 At the park we watched the film telling the geologic history of the area as well as the settlement of the area by Mormons in the early 1900’s.  A large white dome type formation resembling our national capitol was the reason for the name.

Capitol Dome

 We stopped by the picnic area for a quick bite before driving through the orchards with trees heavy with apples and perhaps pears.  The settlers here had gown many fruits and the park service continues to plant trees and visitors are welcome to pick and eat the fruit.

West of Capitol Reef is the small town of Torry. The campground that Jane had selected was full to the brim and referred us down the road about a mile to the Sand Creek Campground and RV Park.  It is small but clean and the power works so we are happy.

Our camp looking out at Red Rocks

 We had stayed in Torry in 2002 and eaten a fantastic meal at Café Diablo.  Turns out Sand Creek Campground is right across the street from Café Diablo…so we called for a reservation.  

Jane downloaded 2 days-worth of photos to the computer and sorted out photos for the blog.  Ben watched a couple TV shows from his hard drive and maybe took a little nap.
   

Our dinner at Café Diablo was excellent.  We planned to order an appetizer, main course, and dessert and split them all – perfect.  We had Empanadas stuffed with cheese and sweet potatoes – they were served with a black bean sauce, sour cream and tiny fried onion rings.  Excellent!  Then our main course was Rosemary and Pine Nut encrusted Sirloin with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Zucchini Fritters with a Cherry Tomato Sauce.   Then we topped the meal off with some of the best Carrot Cake ever.  Ben even had a scoop of Salted Caramel Chocolate Ice Cream.  Somehow we managed to get ourselves out of the restaurant and back across the road to our camp!  The walk over and back maybe was our saving grace!

Empandas

Sirloin

Carrot Cake with Ben's Ice Cream

Moab Day 2

September 29, 2016  Moab Utah

Up and gone from camp by about 9.  It rained during the night and looked very cloudy and like it could rain again at any moment.  Weather said clearing by noon so we headed for a couple indoor activities.  First we drove along the Colorado about 15 miles north east of Moab to the Red Cliffs Lodge.  The facility is a very high end resort right on the Colorado with hotel rooms, cottages, and a nice restaurant.  It is also a working ranch.  The owner was very interested in the film industry – in particular the films made in the Moab and Monument Valley areas.  When he bought this ranch in the 90’s he included a museum to tell the story of the films.  There were memorabilia from many of the films, commercials, and TV shows – some from the 40’s and including much more recent ones. Playbills from all had been framed and most of them signed by the stars.  In addition he made a 30 minute film that included clips from films, comments from several of the stars, and narrative by 3 or 4 local individuals who had worked to scout locations, recruit and hire extras, and recruit the film industry to this area.  Moab was used because of the magnificent red cliffs, the Colorado River, and the many other local areas – canyons, plains, etc. that gave numerous locations for westerns, space films, and others.  The film says there were many lean years in this community before the tourist influx of the past 30 years or so.  The money from the films saved the Moab area in the 40’s and 50’s.  It was a very interesting museum – gave us ideas for several old movies to view.

Red Cliffs Lodge

One of Many Playbills

Stunt Dummy from "Thelma and Louise"

Along the Colorado

When we got back to Moab the skies looked like they were clearing so instead of going back to Moab for shopping we headed to Arches National Park.  We had visited twice before – once in the 80’s with the Holland family.  I remembered the location where the 4 boys climbed in the arches!  We also visited sometime later but all either of us remember is waiting in traffic while a car commercial was being filmed.  This time we really enjoyed the scenery – the overcast sky stayed but we were probably able to take better photos than during the bright sun of midday.  We particularly liked the double arch, the windows, and the fiery furnace. 

Long Line to enter Arches

Park Avenue

The Gossips

Balanced Rock

 We stopped for lunch looking out at some fantastic red rock scenery!   There were fascinating clouds rising from along the Colorado quite a few miles north – looked like smoke from a huge fire but we knew it was clouds over the river.

Lunch near Balanced Rock

Double Arch

Clouds over the Colorado

Fiery Furnace

When we finally arrived back in Moab we stopped at a City Market (Krogers) for a few groceries, bought gas, and then strolled along one block of shops looking at all the jewelry, crafts, painting, shirts and such.  Returned to the Canyonlands RV Park which has been a great location.  To get to stay a 3^rd night we had to swap sites but this one has much better internet.  

Quickly connected with my Kindle but when trying to connect with my computer to finally post the blog – somehow the Airplane Mode had been switched on so it could not or would not connect to the internet – after Ben and I both trying for 30 minutes Ben called Dell and was on the phone with them for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  They tried everything – Ben connected remotely with his computer – they downloaded drivers to his laptop – Ben put them on a jump drive and ran them on my computer….seems this is a common issue with Windows 10.  Still not working so we are trying some other things the technician suggested and in the mean time I may try to post from Ben’s computer….what a pain but also what technology can do remotely amazes me!    

Moab Day 1

September 28, 2016  

Got up and debated what we would do today.  We really needed a catch-up day.  When we came in last night they could only give us 2 nights and we wanted to stay 3 nights – one day to catch-up and a second to go to Arches and several other places.  

This morning Ben was able to negotiate a 3^rd night for us by changing camp sites.  No biggie for us and it will be better situated than this one we are in now – so we got our catch-up day. 

An interesting thing about the folks camped around us – there are a large number of CruiseAmerica and RV 4 Rent  vehicles as seen in photo below.  Today I spoke with our neighbors – the group of about 40 individuals in 20 rented RV’s are on a 3 week trip around the southwest.  They are all from Denmark – arrived in Los Angeles about 2 weeks ago and have one more week of their tour.  They seem to be having a great time.  Tonight they have put all the picnic tables from all the sites together and are having a big group dinner.  Ben just went over to take their group photo for them.

Our campsite at sunset

The Danish Campers 

Now back to our day – laundry too up most of the morning.  First time I ever saw washers and dryers with credit card machines on them!  I had emptied all our quarters into a bag before we left home and used nearly $8 in quarters to do two loads of laundry!

My goal for today was to catch up on writing the blog and transferring photos to the computer.  It is not a big job when done 1 day at a time but I was 3 days behind….first evening in Durango we were out with our friends, second day in Durango I was not feeling great, and third day we did not get here to Moab until 6 after a long day and I was lazy… so today I spent a few hours catching up. Got it all done but we have not been able to get the internet to work…tomorrow since it is all written and photos ready I can post in less than an hour if I can get logged on!  If we traveled more I would invest in a personal hot-spot.

Ben read a lot and took a nap.  He said he did not feel bad just was tired out….by the end of the afternoon we were both feeling ready to get out a bit and headed into Moab for dinner.  We chose Singha Authentic Thai Cuisine.  Wow did we choose a winner!  For my foodie friends and my poor memory – we had Tom Kha (coconut) Soup; and 3 appetizers – Satay, Crab Rangoon, and Seafood Dumplings with Ginger Sauce.  All were outstanding and filled us up.  Then because they had an extensive tea menu and an entire wall of glass bottles of the various teas – we tried Mangosteen with matcha tea – it was served in a beautiful cast iron pot!  To accompany the tea Ben had Coconut with Almond Ice Cream and Jane had Sticky Rice with Mango in a Coconut sauce. It was super great dinner!

Coconut Soup

Satay and Crab Rangoon

Seafood Dumplings with Ginger Sauce

Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango 

Beautiful and HEAVY cast iron tea pot

Tonight I am writing the blog so I do not get behind again!