Roadwarners

Rain, lovely rain.  Not the most ideal weather for visiting a national park but perhaps it is ok today.  It did enable us to have a lazy morning and go to a ranger led geology talk which most parks we’ve been to lately have zero ranger talks this time of year.  Which really is a shame for how many people visit the parks in the off season.

There are only 2 paved roads in Capital Reef National Park and 1 was closed due to flash flooding. The other roads are dirt roads so it didn’t leave much for us to explore and none of us were in the mood for a rainy weather walk.  So we went to the off the road Petroglyphs site and the old Fruita school.  Because of the site the kids had falling rock drills.  

Now we are driving on towards Bryce, the not as scenic way, because it is snowing the southern route. We stopped by this cute double decker bus for a tasty mac n cheese burger.

Bryce Canyon National Park. 14th National Park.

The visitor center is closed Tuesday and Wednesday.  Let me tell you how sad the girls were they couldn’t pick up a junior ranger packet this morning…but it was host to 2 pay phones, the only other pay phone I know of is in Redwood Regional.  No dial tones, but it was fun to watch the girls try and figure out how it would work.  

There are 3 main natural bridges here.  They were once named President, Senator, and Congressman.  Then renamed to Augusta, Caroline, and Edwin.  In 1909 they were renamed with the Hopi names Sipapu, Kachina, and Owachomo.

Natural Bridges differ from Arches in they way they are formed.  Arches are formed by frost action and seeping moisture. Natural Bridges are formed by the erosive action of moving water.  To be called a bridge flowing water is required to carve a hole through a rock wall.  The streams/river are big looping meandering streams.  As the water continues to flow, it breaks through and takes a shorter course and creates a “bridge”.  An arch is freestanding and does not span a water course.  

They are also from 2 different geologic time periods.  Arches from the “Estrada Sandstone” formation and Natural Bridges from the “Cedar Mesa Sandstone” which is an older formation.

We walked down to the Sipapu Bridge, the 2nd largest natural bridge in the world (biggest is Rainbow Bridge in Glen Canyon).  In Hopi mythology “Sipapu” is a gateway through which souls may pass to the spirit world.

It was a fun little hike down rock faces and natural ladders.

We are heading to Capital Reef National Park but its a pretty drive as we go through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

And we were told to make a detour to a must stop in Goblin State Park.  Which was worth a little detour to climb around the “goblins” for an hour or so.

We entered Capital Reef National Park with enough time to pick up some maps and find a nice spot in the empty campground.

Capital Reef National Park. 13th National Park.

After getting our B U double T’s kicked by the girls in canasta the other night, Edwin and I made sure we did the same to them in return. Success. Girls not so loud right now…

Wow, what a fun and beautiful day so far.  We woke up early to catch the sunrise at Mesa Arch in Canyonlands.  Its so hard to get out of bed while its still dark, but once we’re outside the fresh air and feeling of dawn is so energizing.  Even though I felt like we got there early, we were not early enough to beat the 5 photographers that got there at 5am to get their shot.  So no we didn’t have the place to ourselves but it was still super beautiful.  

We didn’t realize until yesterday that there are 3 sections to Canyonlands and Island in the Sky and Needles are inaccessible to each other via the park.  We would have to drive back out, through Moab, and enter the park from the South entrance.  Or continue to Capital Reef back up through I-70.  It kind of worked out because Edwin had wanted to go back into town to get an oil change on the RV so we decided to check out the southern part of Canyonlands and on the way into Moab, Edwin dropped off me, Isabella, Vera, and Daisy at the Moab Brands bike trails so we could ride bikes while Edwin went into town.  What a great way to keep both me and Edwin happy.  Edwin felt good about the RV maintenance and I had an amazing ride with the girls.  We had ridden the trail a few days before, but it was getting dark so we had to cut the ride short.  It was nice to return and finish the whole trail and the girls have improved so much even in the last week of actual mountain bike riding.  Riding over obstacles and everything.  It was really fun and it was also a very awesome proud mommy morning for me.  It was a really satisfying ride and its so fun to ride behind them and watch them actually doing it. 

Moab Brands is about 8 miles from Moab up a large hill with the Arches visitor center about halfway.  I was happy when Edwin wasn’t answering his phone so we had time to ride down the hill instead of him picking us up at the trailhead.  We knew we had to take it easy on Daisy running down hill (it was an 8% grade) so we didn’t go super fast and took 3 water breaks for her.  Daisy is such a little rockstar dog and has been a great RV traveling dog as well.  There is a giant sand dune right across from the Arches entrance so we stopped there and played on the hill and within 5 minutes of getting there Edwin was done and was on his way to pick us up.  We couldn’t have scripted a better morning timing wise.  

Giant dinosaur gumballs

We said goodbye to Moab and entered the Needles section of Canyonlands.  It was such a pretty drive in.  Climbing paradise. I kind of wish I realized the differences between the parts of park because I would’ve chosen to spend a full day down here and a 1/2 day up top instead of the other way around.  Oh well, that’s why we are exploring it all. 

In the Needles section of Canyonlands, you are down in the canyon around the needles or the eroded rock.

Oh and here’s more about Biological Soil Crust

We just did a mellow little hike around pothole point.  How do potholes form you may ask?  Weakly acidic rainwater collects and dissolves the rock’s material.  Microbes in the water then produce a thin film that lines the rock surface that prevent the water from soaking into the sandstone.  What are these potholes good for?  They provide for a whole ecosystem. Even the oils from your fingers can change the chemical balance in the water and harm the algae, shrimp, and insects that live in these puddles.  Some animals lay eggs in the water than can be dormant during dry periods and then come to life during the next wet period.  As our climate gets warmer and drier…what will this mean for the life that depends on the potholes?

We had seen the Green River up in Island in the Sky, we can see the Colorado River down here in the Needles and we could’ve walked a 10 mile round trip to see the Green River / Colorado River confluence. We debated for awhile to do this hike tomorrow morning, but decided against and instead to drive down into Natural Bridges National Monument. We also decided that we would come back and camp down in the Needles part of the park. It had a nice campground, we liked it better than Island in the Sky, and I think it would be neat to go see the confluence.

Since we decided we weren’t going to do the hike we decided to drive south little bit and camp out in natural bridges national monument so we could be there first thing in the morning. The stars tonight were incredible. The moon is finally waning and there are more stars than you can imagine

Other than the Moab Brands everyone in Moab was recommending the bike trails in Dead Horse State Park.  So happy we went for a morning ride here.  I can see why Moab is a mountain bike riding Mecca.  The trails are awesome, really fun.  Not too hard, but enough to increase your heart beat and plenty of rocks to maneuver around.  I also really like the big slabs of sandstone you ride over.  I usually get scared mountain biking because I don’t like just the straight up hills and then worrying about having to go down them.  The beginner/intermediate trails we are going on here are all relatively level with short spurts of uphills and downhills making it a perfect place for us to teach the girls and increase our own confidence.  When I’ve gone in Tahoe, maybe I haven’t found the right trails yet, but its all about a workout…riding uphill for 20 min straight etc…  The trails here are just plain fun.  We are really liking the area here and Edwin and I have already discussed coming back here for bike riding trips.

Canyonlands National Park.  12th National Park.

Canyonlands is separated into 3 large canyon areas created by the Green River and the Colorado River.  Island in the sky (the north) is where you are up on top of the canyons looking down.  The Needles (in the south) is where you are down in the canyon, and the Maze (to the west) is where you are also down inside the canyons but it is only accessible by 4-wheel drive road or by foot.   Edwin is really appreciating the vistas. The canyons are nice for a view, but I don’t know, its not really doing it for me here.  I think its mainly because we came here after Arches…Arches feels very cool.  To quote one of mine and Edwin’s favorite movie quotes in circulation… “I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?”  That’s about how I’m feeling here.

We did climb around whale rock which was a basically a giant sandstone rock to climb around.

We drove to the Grand View overlook where you can see where the other 2 parts of the national park are.

We then drove to the campground to settle in and went to to the Green River overlook and watched the sunset.  I remember listening to the Creedence Clearwater song Green River when we drove by the start of it in Wyoming.  It ends here as it flows into the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park.  

We returned to hang out and read in the RV as Vera had some of her journal to catch up on.

Good morning Arches

We couldn’t leave Arches without doing the Delicate Arch hike. Our plan was to get there early to beat the crowds because it happened to be Saturday, but we enjoyed our morning a little bit too much. Delicate Arch is very neat but I think we had more fun on yesterday’s hike. The Double -O hike had significantly fewer people compared to Delicate Arch and it was a more fun hike with obstacles, but I think it had more to do with walking on the trail in a line of people more or less.

Edwin’s hair is too good to not post both…

Petroglyphs on the way down.

Nefertiti

The amount of people is a bit of a bummer but as we talked to the ranger down at the visitor center and I was telling her how many people were there and she said this is nothing, the park feels empty.

We went into Moab to walk around for a bit.

And then went up to the bike trails just a few miles north of Moab for an early evening ride. What an awesome trail system at “Moab Brands”

The girls were very satisfied with themselves that they kicked mine and Edwin’s butt in canasta.

We woke up, played in the sand a bit, but wanted to spend the day inside Arches National Park.  Arches has only 1 campground at the very end of the park so we decided to drive straight there to ensure a camping spot.  This time of year we haven’t (knock on wood) had any issues finding camping anywhere…even in these popular parks.  

We decided to do the longer hike out to Double-O arch near the end of the park.  We rode our bikes from the campground to the trailhead.

Still a popular hike, but nothing quite like the Delicate Arch.  It really was a beautiful hike walking through what is called the “Devil’s Garden” passing through many famous arches like Landscape Arch, the largest arch in the world spanning 290 feet, and not as well known arches like Navajo Arch, Partition Arch, and Double-O arch.  We were often by ourselves at these arches which I didn’t realize would be as much of a treat as we did the Delicate Arch hike the next day.  The hike was great!  We walked through sand, on top of sandstone boulders, and even on top of fins with drop offs on either side.  We are really liking this hike.  Makes you want to run through the trail not, just walk, skipping from rock to rock, scrambling up the face of boulders.  Totally my kind of hike.  Usually the absence of water is very much on my mind when I’m in the desert, but there’s something about Arches that you don’t miss it in the scenery.  It’s jaw droppingly beautiful.  

On the way back we stopped by a few other smaller arches, but we found a home in Partition Arch

We went back to the campground and to hang out and enjoy the afternoon for a bit.

Then we went to do a sunset walk at Double Arch. One thing that came back to us as we were driving through Arches today is we came here back when Isabella was 1 year old. I’m pretty sure this was her 1st National Park and I specifically remember doing the short walk to Double Arch with her when she was a baby. Here we recreated her on my back 🙂

Edwin ran into Pandilea a globe-trotting couple he’s been following on facebook for a number of years.

Even though it was such a nice day and long day we still had a campfire that was really nice. The moon wasn’t out for quite awhile and stars were amazing!!

We left Grand Junction and decided to head West to Moab and Arches National Park and get Utah’s Mighty 5 in on our way home for Thanksgiving.

We drove through Castle Valley on the way to Moab/Arches and it was so pretty.  We decided we were going to drive into Arches today, but camp along the river.

Arches National Park. 11th National Park.

Arches National Park.  These famous and not as well known arches (there are over 2000 in the park) are created from the forces of water, but not a stream or river.  Instead its the freeze/thaw cycle of water or “frost-wedging”.

From the weight and pressure of some 5,000 feet of sedimentary rock, a large layer of salt buckled and thrust upward layers of rock also creating “vertical” faults. The formations visible today are from the salmon colored “Entrada Sandstone” (140 mya) and the “Navajo Sandstone” (210 mya)

Biological Soil Crust: Everywhere in this high desert area of Utah & Colorado we are taught about Biological Soil Crust. What is it??

Biological Soil Crust is made up of algae, cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, liverworts, and fungi. It forms a dark lumpy surface that absorbs rainwater and holds sand grains together and can turn desert sand into soil. It takes decades for a thick crust to form. Up to 250 years in its mature forms. One step can harm/kill the biological soil crust. Biological Soil Crust has many uses.

It prevents erosion. The crust stabilizes the sand and soil. Cyanobacteria has sticky filaments which hold sand and soil particles together.

Helps retain moisture. The crust expands with rainwater and can hold water better than soil after a rain.

Adds nutrients to the soil and makes the soil more fertile. Some Cyanobacteria and lichens fix nitrogen from the air and make it available in the soil in forms that plants can use.

After a stop at the visitor center we went back up the valley to camp along the Colorado River. Which is green by the way compared to the brown of the Mississippi.

Edwin wanted another day to play with Omar so he went to work with him and helped him clean out the catch pits in his car wash.

Thanks Che for playing tour guide and taking us to Colorado National Monument.

We then hung out with Omar’s parents Theresa and Walid

Edwin went golfing with Omar, Che, and their dad Walid.

The girls and I spent our day going to thrift shops, grabbing lunch and walking around a bit before we picked up Owen from school and got some ice cream.

Oh and great RV news, just the screw holding the motor in place came loose so it was an easy and quick fix so Edwin was able to pick the RV back up today.

Che came over for dinner and it was really nice to have a nice, at home, family dinner.

Owen was scared of Daisy at first, but their friends now

And the girls having fun playing with real toys. Mr. Potato head and magnatiles were the crowd favorite.