RoadTrek OK—On the Road Again

June 1-2, 2013

Saturday

We stayed an extra night in Green River due to the RoadTrek needing new brakes. When we awoke this morning we weren’t sure whether our new best friend, Russell the Mechanic, was going to be able to get the parts he needed to do the job today. Sure enough, the parts he had been sent were the wrong ones, but he offered to drive all the way to the next town that had a parts shop (an hour’s drive one way) and get the right ones and repair the RoadTrek this afternoon—on a Saturday, no less. What a guy!!

Leaving the van in Russell’s capable hands, we had pancakes for breakfast at a nearby café and then walked back to our motel (worked off the pancakes) and stayed on our computers most of the morning. I made a lot of progress on my book editing project and Jack got a lot done on his book too. Russell called us in the afternoon, saying the van was ready to pick up! Yay! It only cost $257, including his two-hours-plus on the road to get the parts. That’s a relief—now our van is ready for those mountains ahead of us.

Baby's got new brake shoes.

After picking up the van, we ran some errands at the little grocery store and hardware store, and then visited the John Wesley Powell River History Museum across the road from our motel. It’s a nice museum, surprisingly nice for such a little town. The introductory film about John Wesley Powell was great. He was a teacher who distinguished himself as an officer in the Civil War, losing an arm in the process, and after the war he became a noted explorer and natural historian. He organized an expedition in 1869 to chart the last unknown section of the map of the United States, the Green and Colorado Rivers in southeastern Utah. With his group of nine men and four boats, he set off into the unknown, encountering some major, dangerous rapids and grand adventure in the process. (He lost 3 men and two of his boats.) This trip took him through the Grand Canyon, and he became pretty famous. Afterwards he was appointed the second director of the U.S. Geological Survey. Interesting guy.

Back at the motel, we had supper in the room and a quiet night. We did some planning for our drive tomorrow down to Moab, UT, to visit Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.

Sunday

I woke up really early and didn’t seem inclined to go back to sleep, so I got up and worked some more on my book project. (Almost done, just waiting for the authors to answer a few questions for me.)

We checked out of the motel about 10:30 am and started our drive toward Canyonlands National Park. This part of Utah is filled with National Parks, and the two we’re visiting today are way up on the list of “most spectacular scenery.” It takes only a little over an hour to drive from Green River to Canyonlands, and the scenery starts getting wild way before we get to the park itself. Lots of “Wow!” “Gee, did you see that?” “Whoa!” Etc., etc. Soon we get to the park gate and hand the attendant Jack’s Golden Age park pass, for free entry. (This $10 lifetime pass has sure come in handy on this trip…)

The Green River Canyon overlook. The Green meets the Colorado River about 20 miles off to the left. Together they pass through the Grand Canyon. Click here for panoramic view.

 

Carol takes in the view. Just in front of Carol is a 1,000 foot drop to the upper canyon floor. As I take this photo, a woman behind me says, "Look at that woman out there on that ledge, she makes me feel faint."

My main goal for today was to visit Arches National Park, because I had visited it way back in 1972 when I was just out of college and I wanted Jack to see it. Our trip to Canyonlands was supposed to be more of a side trip, just to get our National Park Passport stamped to prove we’d been there. We should have known that it would be way more than that. Canyonlands is a HUGE wilderness of rock, where two giant canyons come together, one carved by the Green River and one by the Colorado. The confluence of the two rivers happens in Canyonlands Park. I guess we’ll just let the photos speak for themselves. Very amazing place; we were there for hours driving to different overlooks.

Finally we tore ourselves away and continued on to Arches National Park, which has always been one of my favorites since visiting it so many years ago. This park is a red rock wonderland, having 2500 or so (but who’s counting?) natural stone arches, in addition to thousands of stone spires, towers, plates, domes, giant balanced rocks—pretty much any shape you could make out of massive rock, it’s here. Fantastic! I found the most impressive sight to be our short walk through deep reddish sand, to “Sand Dune Arch,” which is hidden inside huge flat plates of stone, like a red Stonehenge. It’s cool and shady and sound echoes there, like in a cave. It was like something from a dreamscape (or maybe Disney…) Again, we’ll let the photos tell the rest of the story. 

Arches are everywhere.

Here's Carol with "Delicate Arch" behind. That arch is 45 feet tall inside by 35 feet wide.

Here's Jack standing inside the 'Sand Dune Arch." Jack is about 5 foot 8 inches tall.

To get to the Sand Dune Arch, we had to pass through some incredible formations. I shot this photo of Carol as she worked her way through a narrow passage between rocks that were about 500 feet tall.

 Click here for a panoramic view of "Park Avenue" in Arches National Park.

I think we’re both kind of numb after our day of mindnumbingly fantastic sights. We’re camped at a Motel 6 again (another one of those Scandinavian upgrades), and staring off into the distance…

Where we are:

Bird species count: 
Vermilion flycatcher, turkey vulture, Bell’s vireo, *golden-fronted woodpecker, Say’s phoebe, northern cardinal, greater roadrunner, house finch, common raven, *northern rough-winged swallow, *summer tanager, *prothonotary warbler, *yellow-breasted chat, *yellow-rumped warbler, northern mockingbird, mourning dove, cliff swallow, Mexican jay, black-headed grosbeak, black-chinned  hummingbird, Wilson’s warbler, *Scott’s oriole, chipping sparrow, house sparrow, lesser goldfinch, black-crested titmouse, acorn woodpecker, scrub jay, *western kingbird, white-winged dove, *canyon towhee, *Grace’s warbler, *zone-tailed hawk, *curve-billed thrasher, Bullock’s oriole, Gambel’s quail, great horned owl, black-throated sparrow, *cactus wren, ladder-backed woodpecker, white-crowned sparrow, brownheaded cowbird, Brewer’s blackbird, *pyrrhuloxia, hooded oriole, verdin, crow, Anna’s hummingbird, dark-eyed junco, white-throated swift, Steller’s jay, mallard, common egret, brown pelican, western bluebird, loggerhead shrike, robin, Canada goose

State count: 13 [Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah] 
         

Odometer count:

Surber, VA: 107,435

Green River, UT: 113,769

Accommodations avg cost: 
56 nights, avg $13.81/night