Weather Changes Plans

(Travelog Sept-Oct 2019)

Our drive across Wisconsin and Minnesota takes only a day, but arriving at our planned stop in North Dakota we discover a tornado warning. The park ranger asks us to move into the bathroom if the siren sounds. The warning includes baseball-sized hail. 

Icelandic State Park ND

The thought balloon seems to hatch simultaneously over both our heads as we imagine hail shattering the solar panels on top of the van. 

 We decide to drive west away from the storm until the tornado warning expires. On the way back to the campground a quick Internet search reveals that solar panels can withstand a lot more than a little hail.

The storm clouds make dramatic scenery in the sky.

Our first exploring destination was to have been the Missouri Breaks in Montana. Was to have been changes because eastern Montana has been getting lots of rain. The roads in the breaks are one-lane dirt roads. Even as we attempt to camp on the edge of the breaks, we are slipping around as if the steering wheel is disconnected. 

 Alex positions us on a scrap of prairie grass that provides some grippiness for the night. The first exit from the van reveals…that we are parked more-or-less parallel under he huge arc of the Milky Way. There are no city lights out here to dim its brilliance.

Yellowstone River

On our way to explore a couple of lovely canyons in the Beartooth-Absaroka Wilderness, we are able to confirm that grasshoppers are still hopping.

We spend a week Q-camping, hiking, fishing and just breathing the gorgeous mountain air.

Rosebud Lake

View from the campground (where we are the only campers).

From our camp near Rosebud Lake, we hike to Elk Lake and see one of my favorite birds, the Water Ouzel.

Photo credit: Big Sky Journal

Water Ouzel (Follow the link to see this delightful bird in action.)

Photo credit to Alex for mountain goating to get this amazing photo a waterfall on Rosebud Creek. We laugh remembering one comment we read about Michigan’s 200 waterfalls, “…some are no more than rapids.”

Q-camp on the Boulder River (MT)

Elk Creek near Independence

Here we are again the only campers in sight - and grasshoppers all around!  This canyon is a little west of the one from which Rosebud Creek flows.  The top of this canyon (Boulder River) is Independence, once a mining site.  The canyon was once devastated by mining.  It is now gorgeous.

Weather warnings encourage us to change plans to find our way further south.  

After a soak at Chico Hot Springs we head to camp at Bear Creek Campground where the elevation of 6350 feet is enough reason for it to be chilly.  Not visible in the photo is the drizzling rain.  

As a crow flies we aren't very far from Redbud and Boulder Creeks to the east and right over there (south) is Yellowstone National Park!

In the Land of Manabozho

Our goal is to be in Montana and Idaho while the grasshoppers are still teasing the trout. We head north to our cabin in the northern peninsula of Michigan. It isn't far from the eastern edge of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

The cabin is a little one-room without electricity or water. It is a wonderful place for a peaceful stay – if you stay long enough to make the clean-up of mousie messes worth while.

Since we are staying just overnight and planning to sleep in Q and skip the major cleaning effort, staying at the beach is an option. The shore of Lake Superior is a mere 5 miles from the cabin. The views are amazing.

We drive west across the UP stopping to see waterfalls that neither of us have visited. There are 200 waterfalls in Michigan, most in the upper peninsula.  We camp, hike and appreciate the beauty of the Black River Falls: Rainbow, Sandstone, Gorge, Potawatomi, and Great Conglomerate.

Potawatomi Falls

The land has beautiful contours that provide us with a good work out...and an opportunity to be silly.  

Honey, I shrunk you into a selfie-sized spouse.

Travels with Quigley

Road to Ruins: September-October 2019

We traveled this fall with the addition of a signal booster to make connection easier/better. It worked somewhat, sometimes.  It is in reality an improvement. And yet this is blog-catch-up from home.  Sometimes it is best to neglect details and dive into the fun.

It's December so for context consider Sept - Oct of 2019.  Early snow in the north and less than usual rain in the southwest.  Muddy and dusty everywhere we traveled.

In blog comments that follow, Q = Quigley. There is a company in PA that does 4-wheel drive installations/conversions on ordinary work vans to allow people to convert them into camper-vans that can go almost anywhere.  In this photo Q is camped in the hills above the Extraterrestrial Highway in Area 51.

Do you remember Harvey Korman’s character in Blazing Saddles? He had to keep reminding people that his name is Hedley not Heddy. So we call Quigley, Quiggy just to remember the silliness of Blazing Saddles. And because it is so urgent to return to having fun, Quiggy is often shortened to Q.

Q has solar panels on top, so we have more than enough power for lights, refrigerator, etc., when we are on the road. And last summer when a big storm knocked out power at home, Alex ran an extension cord from the van to the house. I mention that only because it is funny. There wasn’t really anything that was urgent, it was just because we could.

Big Bear & the Birthing Rock

[Mid-late September]

While we wait for our next entrance into the back country of Canyonlands (hard-to-get camping reservations on the White Rim) we go in search of rock art around Moab.  We read that some of it is >2,000 years old.  A handy guide to finding various sites is available at the visitor center.  The guide includes mileage and directions, history - and photos of the art work. 

It is a beautiful blue sky sunny day to be out exploring.  And the landscape is dramatic.

In a voice that must sound like a real know-it-all I explain that the directions that say 200 East 100 North clearly mean that we should go east.  Not so!  Moab, like other cities and towns in Utah is laid out on a grid with the temple at the center of town.  The visitor center is just off main a little north of the temple.  Ah-ha.

And that is the starting point for the guide that will allow us to see the rock art (and dinosaur footprints) in and around Moab.

On Kane Creek Rd we find the famous birthing scene.  Experts disagree about whether it represents a single event or if it is a metaphor for the birth of a clan.  That is one huge baby.

The birthing scene is on the east side of a huge boulder that sits just to the side of the road.  There is rock art on all sides.

Footprints and other anthropomorphs decorate all sides of the huge boulder.

At the Potash Rd site we find the big bear.  The guide book explains that the bear represents cultural vandalism because it is carved over more ancient petroglyphs.  Still the bear is here to be appreciated because it is also very old.

Another sort of vandalism happened in 1980 when a visitor to the Courthouse site self-assigned the cleaning and near destruction of the ancient works.  It remains impressive.

D-Stretch filters reveal more:

Each time we pass Arches National Park on our way to/from Horse Thief Campground we see many cars waiting to enter the park.  

Today the line is just a couple of cars deep.  There are just a few others parked by the entrance sign so that travelers can pose for photos at yet another magnificent national park.  Today seems an opportunity to see the big arches without masses of people competing for parking spots.  Wrong again.

←Here is what the road sign says - just in case you can't tell from the photo.  We read that by next year the number of cars entering the park will be limited because the traffic is negatively affecting the park experience for everyone.

So we exit the park and go in search of rock art that is plentiful in and around the rest of Grand County where fewer people go.

We're seeking rock art, but find some that probably was inadvertently created in the course of daily life so many years ago - dinosaur footprints - photo by Alex, as are most of the rock art photos from our travels, BTW.

As Alex climbed the steep rocky trail in 90 degree heat to find these footprints, he shared the trail with a local hiker who observed, "Those are some delicate slippers you're hiking in."  Well really, they are pretty sturdy flip-flops - a reasonable balance between hot weather foot wear and foot protection.

At Sego Canyon north of Moab we find a few other rock art viewers/photographers.  One of them offers to mark up our map to be sure we don't miss anything.  "Oh," she says, "I see you already have it all marked."  We hope our sighs aren't too obvious.  It would be a choice between being rude and a long delay if our map hadn't been already marked, such is her enthusiasm.

The rock art panels line both sides of the canyon.

Wow!

Horse Thief Redux

[mid-September]

Returning to the BLM Horse Thief Campground is sweet. 

It is a big clear sky as we go gaga over the sunset. At one point we see Venus in the west and Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars in an arc across the dark sky.  And gazillions of stars.

Here's a benefit of tiny house living.  A middle off the night trip to the vault is prime opportunity for meteor sighting.  Whoosh.

We have 2 days until our next camp reservation inside Canyonlands.  When you go, start the campsite reservation process a full 4 months and you might get your favorite backcountry spot.

Ah well.  Horse Thief is a really lovely spot to spend some time.  We'll resupply and do a little maintenance work on the Q.

Quig is well equipped with a pull-out drawer under the pillow end of the bed.  The back doors open and the drawer pulls out.  Here Alex prepares to tighten all the bolts that hold Q's top rack in place. 

The Island in the Sky mesa in Canyonlands National Park is the most visited part of the park.  Paved roads and lots of pull-outs, hikes, and amazing views make this an efficient way to see the park.






The views are big and small.  Alex captures a snake or lizard trail in the soft sand.

And he manages a photo of Mesa Arch that nicely captures its beauty - and makes it look like no one else was there.  He waited a while for the shot.



























It is 90 degrees of warmth for this 2 mile hike to Grand View Point. At several points we thought we could see the convergence of the Colorado and Green Rivers.  We may not have been high enough to confirm our view. 

We find a scrap of shade for a rest mid-point.

White Knuckled Horse Thief

[September 14-15]

The big blue sky extends beyond Colorado into Utah.  I knew that.  But now I know that. As we head for Canyonlands we're also scoping out potential campsites. As it turns out Horse Thief Campground  (BLM) is very close to the Island in the Sky east entrance - and handy for our later drive to the west entrance.

Moab is a first stop for groceries and water and all the fuel we'll need for the first section of the White Rim Road. You can imagine the white knuckle part if you know that we will drive from up here down a narrow squiggly road that leads to the long stretch below.  Steep drop-offs.  No safety rails.

We have all day to reach our assigned Airport campsite.  That means that we can take time to explore on the way there.  What i didn't know, but now know: There isn't really an airport inside Canyonlands.  There is a gigantic rock formation that looks a lot like an airport tower.  The funny guy to whom i'm married exploited my ignorance by hinting that our sleep could be interrupted by the noise of airplanes landing and taking off.  Wild back-country humor.

It is a slow drive down to the White Rim Road.  The info sheet from the ranger station tells us that we are seeing several geologic layers evident in a variety of rock formations.

The one-lane dirt road that you see here is also in the photo below.  

The top of the photo is the Island in the Sky - the top of the canyon.  The Colorado River flows through the bottom of the canyon.

See that last canyon edge?  We'll be driving down to spend the afternoon at the edge of the Colorado River...well we won't drive straight down.  There is a more gentle drop coming up. And we survive.

Borregos of Canyonlands

Can you spot the bighorn sheep in the photo?  We almost miss seeing them in their desert camo.

From the river's edge  we look up to see the top of Airport Tower.  It is the shadowy, blurry square-topped rock formation.  It doesn't look all that huge from here.

This seems so civilized.  A riparian picnic table. To cool off we walk just beyond the palo verde trees to swim in the river.  It is a surprise to see a group of kayakers along the opposite shore.  

We think they are part of a guided trip.  For kayakers and bicylists  in Canyonlands, there are guides and SAG drivers carrying everything for trips that last 3-5 days.

The angle of sunlight on the river tells us that it is time to get Quiggy to drive us back out of the lower canyon to our campsite at the Airport Tower.

The first few bends in the road foretell the adventure awaiting.  We move from long shadow to bright sun in the eyes.  "Can you see?"  

"No, can you?"

Fortunately we are in one of the long shadows when the bend in the road is also a steep turn up hill.  It is when we need to reverse to make the turn that we find ourselves on three wheels.  A few moves alternating wheels brings us around the bend before the next blinding splash of sunshine.  In reality, it isn't scary - just a confidence booster for Q's agility.

Airport Tower Campsite

Hovenweep

[September 13]

The destination now is Canyonlands National Park, but on the way we see the opportunity to visit  yet another part of the Canyons of the Ancients.  The land encompassing the national monument is huge (176,000 acres) and has been inhabited by people for 10,000 years!  The ruins here occupy 76,000 sites, but we'll stop by to see two.  Hovenweep (means "deserted valley") is an amazing collection of buildings in a shallow valley -  and, well, a beautiful place.  It is hot - in the 90s, but the hike is easy.

The masonry here is as beautiful as in the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde.  Some buildings have perfectly square corners on one side and beautifully rounded turns on the other, a D shaped building.

It is thought that these buildings date from about 1200-1300.  They may represent building styles and skills shared across the miles.  

Archaeologists' findings show extensive trade routes (copper and sea shells, for example).

I guess I remain ready to be surprised by the all that was accomplished here - and by the size of the civilization because I wasn't paying attention when this ancient history was taught in school?  One of the rangers mentions that in the Four Corners region the population exceeded (2x) that of London in the 10th - 11th centuries.

Here at Hovenweep there are buildings standing as they were constructed along the curve of massive boulders and still hanging on 700 years later.

As we head north to see the Lowry Ruins we notice that several of the back roads are marked closed with a red danger warning sign.  The ranger tells us only that it involves a "threat to personal safety."

But it seems so very peaceful out here in the desert.

At the Lowry site we are happy to find that we can enter one of the big kivas and descend in to peek through the doorways.  Now this is a peaceful place.  Another kiva is open to the air though it once must have been similarly enclosed.  The uses/meaning of the stones in the floor aren't explained.  Any guesses?