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Wednesday, December 3, 2014

BOULDER TO TORREY, UTAH

Mid October, 2014

What can be better than waking up to a beautiful sunrise peeking over the mountain top?  Nothing, as long as it follows a good night’s sleep.

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After a tasty meal prepared by my personal breakfast chef and traveling companion, we left this idyllic scene and continued our journey toward Escalante, Utah and the Petrified Forest State Park. 

Our route toward the Petrified Forest State Park, took us to the historic Elijah Cutler Behunan farmstead.  The Behunans were some of the first to establish their homestead in the Capitol Reef area, a rugged and unforgiving area.   
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Mr. Behunan was a farmer and tried valiantly to make a living farming the ground in the area around his home as he searched, as many Mormons, for a location to exercise religious freedom. 

The home had one window and door in the front of the cabin and one tiny window on the south side, opposite the stone fireplace. 




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The roof is composed of small bits of rock, pebbles and dust from the floor of the surrounding high desert.

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There are times that I am shocked to see how our ancestors lived and to what they endured.  This homestead family is no exception.  This one room cabin with a fireplace was the home for thirteen people.  In the first place, I cannot imagine parenting eleven children!  Can you imagine having eleven children in this home?  Talk about having everyone under foot while cooking! 

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Imagine trying to grow crops at the base of this mountain considering the lack of rain, the lava rocks, sand and boulders. 

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The volcano that spit out this bit of lava must have erupted a long time ago as the edges are smoothed.  If only rocks could tell the tales of their lifetime.
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We continue on our way and experience more lovely views that take my mind away from the struggles of the Behunans.
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Who knows the minerals that are in the blue rock? 
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Often, we think “can life get any more beautiful than this, God’s creation!”



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We follow the rim road and experience the colors of fall, once again.



We reach our destination.  The Petrified Forest State Park has no sites large enough to accommodate our fifty six feet of motorhome and Miata carrying trailer.







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Is it not a shame that we needed to pull into the overflow area beside the lake?  Look at that view!  If only we had kayaks! 

The water level was down about ten feet and moss was around the edges making it impossible to walk around the lake, so we walked out on the dock and took in the view. 



What a great way to end a beautiful day. 

Thanks so much for visiting and for shopping Amazon through this blog. 

God bless y’all. 

Thursday, October 30, 2014

WRITING ON WALLS? CINNAMON COLORED DUST STORM, AND GOBLINS!


Following a couple days of rest, we were, once again, on the road.  We drove highway 191, found Potash Road along the Colorado river in search of petroglyphs.  We found more than we imagined we would! 

Someone named this one “Paper Dolls,” do you see them? 
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Some of the petroglyphs were very light and a bit difficult to find.  We persevered.
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Big Horn Sheep, Lizards and human form.  Now, that was easy!
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This is a puzzler.  Do you have any ideas?
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Warriors?
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A lonely hand.  Is it old as the other petroglyphs?
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What do you think?
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We returned to our site as the sun was dropping toward the western horizon.  These clouds captured my attention because they were filled with dust from ATV and motorbike riders.  The lighter portions of the clouds is the dust. 
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Little did we know what the night was to bring.  The evening was accented with a refreshing, cool breeze.  We left our windows open as we went to bed. 

What followed during the peaceful evening was anything but peaceful.  Lying in bed sound asleep, I much too slowly became aware that the wind was blowing and the motorhome was rocking and rolling.

Then, the gale force winds of approximately fifty miles per hour struck.  We jumped up and pulled in the slides.  First the bedroom. Then as the large slide was retracting one massive gust hit us and we felt that the slide toppers were being ripped off.  The noise of the winds actually made me cover my face in fear.  

With the slides retracted, we closed the windows…..way too late.  The damage had been done, but we did not see the piles of “cinnamon” covering the interior until morning. 

The next two days were spent with the vacuum and a shop vac we carry in the basement.  We vacuumed and used the nozzles to suck that darned “cinnamon” from window tracks, counters, tables…..every flat surface.  We used attachments to clean the valences, curtains and blinds. 

Finally, we felt that we had sucked up every grain and that we could move to the Valley of the Goblins State Park. 

Guess what we found upon our arrival.  The movement of the motorhome released another dose of “cinnamon.”  I told John that I didn’t think I could bear to use cinnamon again.  That lasted until our next meal and cinnamon was part of the recipe.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we left the windows down on the night of the sand storm.  John vacuumed as much as he could and now we are waiting until we can put the top down and let the wind blow the rest out of the car.

The campground at the Valley of the Goblins was both full and the sites were too small for our forty foot Allegro Bus and the sixteen foot trailer loaded with the Miata.  Thank goodness we enjoy boondocking.

If you have a rig that is over twenty four feet in length, forget the campgrounds.  The view is much better in the desert, anyway. 

IMG_0914That evening, we heard the sound of a para-sailor.  This is our view of him flying past us and toward the mountain range.  Fascinated, we watched him maneuver closer and closer to the mountain.  He began to gain altitude, but at the last moment, turned and retreated. We think he was trying to go over the mountain and knew he would never make it. He turned in retreat and headed back to the campground.   I wonder what color his shorts was when he touched down. 



IMG_0928Walking the desert floor, John was on the hunt for pretty rocks.  I was on the hunt for a great hike.  We both were happy.  I took this photo with him looking at the ground, as usual.  I was climbing up from a ravine.  I think it makes an interesting photo.



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This was my view on my walk.  I tried to find a way down into the wash.  It was late in the afternoon and I was concerned about getting back to the coach before all light was lost.



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How do I describe the The Valley of the Goblins?  What can I say to do them justice?

Photos do not do justice to the Majesty of this area.  Make sure that you do not miss it as you travel Utah. 



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A Platypus?  A turtle sticking out his tongue?   It is fun trying to describe some of these rock formations that do not look like goblins.  






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As I walked through the valley, I began to see a mountain that looked blue!  I wanted to see more.

What appears to look close is not as close as it appears.  But I kept walking.
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The more I walked, the more I was intrigued.  Why that color in the midst of all the red and brown tints of the goblins and surrounding mountains. 

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Another twenty minutes or so, I am able to see more of the detail.
IMG_0966But there is one problem.  I know that I have been gone way too long, leaving John sitting on a rock in the sun.  I must turn back. 




IMG_0964But…..which way do I go?  I do not recognize much as I try to retreat, knowing that I am not following the path by which I came.


Uh, oh….I know I’m in the dog house!  But there he is!  He is walking back to the trailhead, I think.  Oops, his water bottle is empty.  Not good.


Thank goodness he still loves me, though he’s a bit irritated, hot and thirsty.  

IMG_0949Keep in mind here that we both purchased Camelback hydrating backpacks, but did not bring them with us.  Can anyone spell stuuupiddd? 








IMG_0971The next day is rest day and late in the afternoon, we leave our campsite and are on the road, once more.  This is the lovely campsite we had for our wonderful nights sleep.  Nothing like a running stream to sing you to sleep.
Looking left…..






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Looking right…..












And a beautiful sunset….
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When we have beautiful days like today, I can’t begin to imagine what God has in store for us in Heaven!  I pray that you will be there with us.

Thanks so much for joining us on this journey. 

And thanks you so much for shopping Amazon through our blog. 

God bless you all!

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

HOW TO DISCOURAGE NEIGHBORS FROM PARKING TOO CLOSE WHEN BOONDOCKING NEAR ARCHES NATIONAL PARK. ALSO, HOW MANY PHOTOS?


In my last blog post, I used fifty seven photos that covered three weeks of traveling.  That was a huge amount of photos.  Someone wrote in their blog today that fifteen photos should be the limit.  There are times that fifteen, twenty, thirty or more photos will not be enough to illustrate the story I am trying to convey especially if I am reporting over days or even a week or more.

My blog is for my blogging friends and family.  They want to know about our experiences and what we see and do.  Some readers will never travel to the places we visit.  This is their opportunity to go Trippin with the Talleys.

If I post too many photos to suit you, feel free to scroll right past them.  I use as many photos as it takes to tell my story/stories.  I will continue to blog in that format.

So, now here comes another saga that expands over our time in Moab National Park and the Canyonlands National Park. , and a mouse family while visiting Moab National Park.

First, how to discourage neighbors from being up close and personal.  We all like to have our space when boondocking.  Some enjoy living in a RV community. We can stand it for a short time, but just give us the open range.

Late one night, I thought I had heard some scratches. I asked John if he, possibly, had heard what sounded like a mouse.  “No” was his response.  I quickly abandoned the mouse thought.  Sometimes, we just want to live in denial, don’t we?
IMG_0772A couple of days later, I needed cotton balls to remove fingernail polish.  I went to the drawer and this is what I found!
 
Ah, ha!  I think we have a nest building mouse.  

A check in the cabinet revealed seven rolls of toilet tissue that had the beginnings of being shredded.  We needed to capture the guilty party or parties before they started to raise their family.  Our motorhome is a single family dwelling and we want it to remain that way.

It was time to declare war.  We won that war for now with the capture of mamma and poppa!  Our victory came early in the morning and the traps with mice still attached were set outside our front door.

What does that have to do with keeping neighbors from camping too close from us?  The saga continues…..

There was a knock on our door and a potential neighbor came to ask if they could boondock close by, but first the pointed out the mice by the door.  “Yes, we know they are there.  They were last night’s catch and we had yet to take them to the dumpster.”
 
How can you tell someone that you would prefer that they locate as far from us as possible. Well, we didn’t.  

Gee, I can’t imagine why those people did not park near us!  Actually, we could not see where they parked. That gave us a great laugh.

IMG_0792The next day, we were off to the Arches National Park.  We had to make it more a driving tour than a long hike tour.  John did himself in the previous day hiking in the desert.
 

Some points of interest that were a short walk were just fine, but no IMG_0785long hikes today.
 
The powers that be have called this formation the Three Gossips.

I prefer to call this the Three Sisters.  We have three wonderful daughters and when I saw the  stone formations, called Three gossips, my thoughts leapt to our three daughters, Karen, Nancy Jo/Jojo, and Holly. Not because they gossip, but because we have three great adult children.

Now, come along and follow in pictures some of the sights we enjoyed as I drove John through the Arches National Park.
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We enjoyed the above Raven as we did not find many birds in all of our time there. 
We often find rocks with different formations or the beginning of wind caves that are not mentioned on the brochures directing what to see and do. 

This formation is a prime example.  Thank goodness we have never encountered anything dangerous in our explorations...like snakes.
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It is formations like these that make me wish that I had studied geologyIMG_0791 rather than elementary education in college.

Is this a footprint?  A place were  another, softer rock was and then washed away?
 
The more we explore, the more questions I have.  I totally am in awe of God’s handiwork as he created the world we live in. 


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This was our one view of one of the Arches.  

Sherry and David did some magnificent hikes in this area.  You might want to check them out at “In The Direction of Our Dreams”














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John’s breathing became even more difficult and he was so fatigued that our trip through the Canyonlands National Park was, with two exceptions, totally a driving tour. 



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We discovered more beautiful wild flowers. 

IMG_0815                                                                                                                                                                                In the visitor’s center, there was a display showing a piece of ground that looked as if had bubbled tar was scattered about.

This tar-looking soil is actually alive. 

The link below is a great learning tool.  
Please take time to click on it and learn more about the world in which we live. 
http://www.nps.gov/cany/photosmultimedia/inside_soilcrust.htm

More photos of Canyonland National Park.  Most speak for themselves!
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As we were leaving we spotted a RV that is a rental.  Many were around Moab.  They come equipped with all the necessities.  What a neat way for someone to see if they would like the RV life.


I love the tenacity of the Juniper trees.  They seem to survive IMG_0843anywhere.  If there is a crack in the boulder,  a Juniper seed and the correct amount of moisture, this is what will happen. 

Thanks for joining me today as we ventured through Arches National Park and The Canyonlands National Park. 

Watch out for mice everyone, tis the season!
 
A special thanks to you all who make your Amazon purchases through this blog.  I would never use the link if it would cost you more for your purchases, and it pays us a very small percentage.
 
Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  One thing that is on my list to be thankful for is my faithful readers and commenters.  God bless your lives to the fullest.