A new adventure

So, I picked up some great advice about the Needles area at the picnic table hanging out with the Hostel crew.  Apperently there are three main areas to the imense national park known as Canyonlands.  One is the Isle in the Sky, which I had driven through and seen the vast canyon area from above.  Another is called the Maze because of its crazy terrain and hopless amounts of dead end canyons.  The third is Needles and is named after the formations that Powell first noted on his adventure down the Colorado (Grand River during his time) River. I chose a 6 mile hike to get the the main needles overlook and was not disappointed.  The hike was amazing and it seemed like every half mile or so, the look and feel of the terrain changed.  Here is a nice slot, here is the top of a butte, here is a lush canyon, here is a hot dry area, here are formations that look like mushroom houses, here are cool spires, here are the Needles.  So awesome!  As luck was o...

Had a great day at Arches.  Did several small hikes to see many arches and overlooks.  Then took on the Delicate Arch hike.  There was a ton of people, but most were considerate about trying to take pictures and taking turns. I also opted for another hike down by Devils Garden.  It was a fun hike going up a "fin" and was a little scary.  But there was lots of people doing it, and even one girl was there in flip flops.  I made her go in front of me, you know, just in case she slipped. The stay at the hostel has been interesting.  The first night I kept to myself.  There was a very drunk couple in the camping area.  Loud and fighting and drunkenness.   Ugh.  They were puking and then cracking beers again at 5:30 am.  I decided to make dinner in the kitchen last night and socialize with the others sitting around the picnic tables.  Much better experience.  The drunk couple had been kicked out during the day....

Took a break after sleeping in my car and stayed at a hotel last night.  Yay for hot showers!  I took three 😁  the hot tub felt good on my knees and back. After driving around Moab for over 2 1/2 hours, I finally found a place to put my tent.  Hotels average around $200 a night, so camping in Moab is high on my list.  I found a hostel, which is a new experience for me.  So far so good.  But it is close quarters in the open tenting area, so hopefully I will have good neighbors.  I tried to get into Arches NP around 11 this morning, but the line was way too long.  So I flipped around and headed over to Canyonlands NP.  Good hikes there today.  Wow.  This place is BIG!  Beautiful and VAST. Feels like you can see almost forever.  Tomorrow I will try and get up early and hit Arches NP.  I stopped by the visitor center on my way back into town, and noticed one of the main areas is closed for road constructio...

Sleeping in the back seat of your car is not comfortable.   To work out a few kinks I stopped by this state park (which I have seen pictures of before) what a fun place!  The hiking is thru the formations,  and you can go any when you like and wander at your leisure.   I spent about an hour and a half wandering and climbing and enjoying each and every turn.  You really can imagine some of the bigger structures being homes for goblins or fairies.  And I even found one that looks like a goblin face!

Calf Creek waterfall was on my "to do" list.  Unfortunately,  I didn't gauge how long my river hike was and the drive time to the falls.  Ended up taking a lot longer than I thought, and the campground was full.   Luckily I ran into the campground host and he said I could sleep in the parking lot for a fee.  Since I knew the next closest campground was over 30 miles away.  I told him I was tempted to stay. He advised me that I could make the 3 mile hike up to the falls and likely make it back before sundown at 8:30.  I will admit I was pretty nervous starting a 6 mile round trip hike at 5pm.  It meant I had to keep on the move and get distance covered.   So, I put my head down and pushed myself up to the falls in about an hour! Way faster than I anticipated.  So, I took a longer break and relaxed and drank a bunch of water, then started my stroll back down. A lovely falls, and a lovely hike.  But, I was pooped when I go...

I did something spontaneous.   When I stopped and the visitor center, there was a local hike that was suggested.  I went for it.  "You can cross the stream up to 60 times, but you should be able to jump over it most of the time" Wrong.  The hike was a beautiful canyon hike as promised,  but the stream was way too wide to jump over.  Luckily I talked to a couple on the way in, and they forewarned me that I was going to get wet up to my knees.  I reminded myself that hey, clothes dry.  And a nice dip once in a while will help me cool off. I think I went down the canyon about 1.25 to 1.5 miles.  Wow.  Sheer cliffs and beautiful spring flowers.  I ran into one other couple the entire hike.  Such a change of pace from the busy Bryce area.  It felt good to relax and slow down.  And the total number of stream crossings?  26.  My feet barely had a chance to start drying, then another one would hit.  It ...

I arrived at Red Canyon mid afternoon and stopped in to look for a camping spot. As I was speaking with the campground host, she informed me she thought they were full.  As we were standing and talking about forest and BLM camping options, lo and behold a camper pulled out of a site and left.  I rushed back to my car and took the spot.  Whew! A place to sleep for the night. I feel like I have been rushing thru the parks, so I decided to slow down a little and spend two nights at the campground.  Very glad I did.  I feel like I got to see a lot more of this park than I did of Zion.  I took the shuttle service and saw the main areas on day one, and on day two went to the far south end of the park for a hike and worked my way back up to the lodge. I signed up for another ride based on the recommendation from a fellow traveler at the North Rim.  The ride did not disappoint!  Such a beautiful place, words can't even begin to describe the layers of ...

A whirlwind day at Zion.  Did a nice hike with a 850' vertical in the mile up.  Holy buckets!  It was like two hours on a stairmaster!  But, my lungs survived the up, and my knees survived the down.  Ibuprofen helped with the achy knees.  I ended up also hiking out to the famous Narrows trail head.  The water flow rate was too high for hiking in the river, so just took a few pics instead.  I also visited the Emerald Pools, pretty cool little falls you walk under and the upper pool was a nice oasis from the heat. Found a nice state park to sleep in last night and do a bit of work.  Finally warm enough that I stayed up and had my first campfire.  Was nice and relaxing with good, friendly neighbors.

Bit of a change of plans coming out of Canyon De Chelly.  Decided I should swing by the north rim, because well, when will I ever be in that area again? The canyon was as beautiful as ever, but there was no place to camp or stay.  So after touring for a bit, I signed up for the morning mule ride and then headed out of the park to find a camping spot.  Demott luckily had a spot for me.  It was cold so I went to bed earlier than usual, which was ok, since I had a 45 minute drive back up to the rim in the morning. The ride was great and our wrangler Kitty had been in the park for 27 years. My mule, Tom, was obviously not afraid to walk close to the edge!  A little nerve wracking at first, but I learned to trust him. It was a very cold night.  I packed up my tent with a lot of frost on it.  My car read 26 degrees, but at least there was no snow!

Ok.  I am over the snow from the last two days.  It ended up snowing quite a bit in Cortez, but I was able to drive out of it within about 15 minutes.  I had flurries on and off all day while I was driving and visiting the south rim of the canyon.  Another "Wow" location. I also made a quick stop at Four Corners today.  Kind of fun to stand in four different states at the same time.  I won't even get into how bad the original survey was, but it is an interesting history if you feel like googling it.  I am cozied up in my tent tonight.  Looks like another low around freezing, so hoping to not wake up to snow tomorrow morning!   Glad I have practice with winter camping 😀 Tomorrow I will visit the north side of the canyon, then plot a route to Zion NP while eating a nice hot breakfast at Denny's.  P.S.  had problems posting last night so am posting th is a.m.

I left Durango early this morning and made my way to Mesa Verde.  I was not thrilled to see snow for about a half hour of the drive, but since it was never more than flurries, decided things could be worse. The visitor center was a beautiful building, and I got informed of many places to visit.  I opted to pay an extra $5 (a bargain really) and get a 1 hour tour of the Balcony House ruins.  Lots of crazy ladders to climb and etched out steps made for an exciting edge on the tours.  Very interesting history of the area.  I also visited an area that had a really spectacular hiking trail with some petroglyphs.  One of the more enjoyable short distance hikes I have been on in quite some time.  I managed to find some beautiful flowing plants and a few animals to photograph as well.  Fun time! The weather was not too bad around 4pm when my touring was done, but I was on the far south end of the park, and needed to drive to the campground and see if ...

After a couple days of working, I decided to take a break and enjoy one of Durango and Silverton's main tours.  The D&SNG railroad was a blast! Temps were great on Monday (70's) and by Tuesday, things had cooled down by 10-15 degrees, and most of the day was overcast.  I checked the weather and it said Silverton would have a high of 47, so lots of layers, but laziness kept me from digging through my car to find a stocking cap and gloves. Imagine my surprise as I was wandering through Sivlerton and realized it was lightly snowing!  Ahh, mountain towns.  Needless to say, the ride back was a little chilly, but I survived.  If you are ever in this area, I highly recommend the rail trip.  VERY beautiful, and the ride next to the gorge was a very "Wow!" moment.  I am working on striking up conversations up with strangers, and had a nice talk with the couple next to me on the train.  More rain and cold weather is on its way.  I may even get i...

My first National Park of the trip!  Really beautiful here but WINDY!!  Luckily David and Lindsey invited me up to hang out with their group.  After the wind died down around sunset,  I was able to set up my tent without worrying it would be blown away. Today's big discovery?   It is really,  really hard to walk in loose sand.  I skipped the big dune climb and opted for a 5 mile hike along the creek bed and up into an overlook amongst the pinion pines.  I have a long way to go to get into shape if I want to do some bigger hikes in the Tetons later this summer.  Tomorrow I am hitting a nearby waterfall, then off to Durango to work for a couple of days

For the weekend anyway! I have had two amazing hosts this week. Thank you Lani and thank you David for helping me though this first week.  It was nice to have some place to work with out having to worry about electricity and cell availability.   I got three good days of work in, and a full day of driving to get to Golden, Colorado.  That town is addictive!  I didn't want to leave.  But also, it is time to start my true adventure and fly by the seat of my pants.  Around 5 this evening I started looking for a campground about halfway between Golden and my first state park choice,  Sand Dunes.  It was about a 2.5 hour drive with some really stunning views .  I nearly ran over some pronghorn and some cattle to get here, but was rewarded with a beautiful sunset, so I didn't even mind setting up in the dark.  I can feel the temperature dropping, so time to snuggle into my sleeping bag and call it a day.  It was good!

First off, I am employed!  My office decided to offer me part time employment while I am traveling this summer.  So, I will be working about 30 hours a week and traveling and enjoying my 3-4 day weekends.  Takes a load off of the worries of financing my wanderlust. It was a busy week getting the condo cleaned out (and cleaned), packing up the last of my stuff, getting my car cleaned out and ready to go.  Then realizing I still had WAY to much stuff to fit in my car. Let the packing, re-packing and re-packing begin!  Things are finally thinned out and I have a comfortable amount of free space in the car.  I am even managing to bring a few of my "luxury" items.  With the car packing under control and the condo ready to go, I managed to get some good family and friend time in this week also.  I am so greatful for the support, and as my leave day is looming in front of me, I realize how blessed my life truely is.  Saying goodbye to everyone has...