On Saturday, May 3, we left Zion National Park.  We drove through the hairpin turns and the tunnel and finally got to a normal road.  The trip to Ruby's Campground, at the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park was reasonably short, but we went from the Zion campground at about 3,600 feet to Ruby's elevation of about 7,750.  We had trouble getting level and getting the satellite TV working, so Shelley was sort of cranky when we finally got settled.  But fear not!  We packed up our stuff and went to the indoor hot tub at Ruby's Best Western Hotel.  While we soaked and unwound, we met two other couples in the hot tub.  One couple from Seattle, WA had, about 15 years ago, biked from Seattle to Halifax, Nova Scotia!!  The other couple, from Ottawa, bikes about one hour to work 7 or 8 months a year.  Both couples were between our ages.  We sure felt like a couple of couch potatoes.  We had a buffet dinner at Ruby's Inn....not very good. 

On Sunday we drove the 15 miles through the park.  At Rainbow Point, the far end, the elevation was 9,100 feet.  It's strange--we weren't in the mountains, just a very high plateau.  These strangely shaped objects eroded by the wind are called hoodoos and they are everywhere.  As we stopped at the different way points on our way back from Rainbow Point, the vistas were more limited, but the hoodoos were more spectacular - that's what Bryce is known for.  After dinner in the coach, we went to a ranger program at Bryce Lodge, concerning Bryce Canyon and its history.  The speaker has been at Bryce 23 years, and the program was excellent.  Monday morning was laundry day, but we left the coach at 11 AM ready to tackle Bryce.  We took the Rim Trail for a short distance just to warm up, and then stopped at the General Store for a quick snack.  We drove over to Sunset Point to begin our serious hike.  It was 2.9 miles long and descended 580 feet into the valley floor.  Of course, that meant we had to go back up 580 feet also.  It was like a fantasy land down there.  We walked between pinnacles of rock, through arches and along the valley floor.  On the trip down, we followed the trail through a series of switchbacks (maybe 10 to 15 of them) across an open slope.  We descended through a series of hoodoos, windows, slot canyons and through some open archways to the wooded valley floor.  After some time, the trail started a long, gradual ascent.  There were fallen trees strategically placed for us to rest as we were so out of breath from the hike and the high atmosphere.  We met a number of people on these trees and had conversations with several.....as we all tried to get out breath!  Finally, we reached the parking lot at Sunrise Point and still had to hike along the Rim Trail back to our car.  We were amazed at the people we met along the way.  A fair number were much older than us, and many were from overseas.  There was even a single woman with a 2 year old.  The baby got carried most of the way, but she also toddled her way along the trail at some places.  Some of the hoodoos had names...one had to use their imagination to see ET and also Queen Victoria.  As we neared the end of our hike, we noticed 2 rangers heading back down the trail, apparently with first aid kits. It turn out that a woman broke her ankle about 2/3 of the way down into the valley, and they had to bring her up to the parking lot with a gurney.  Those rangers had to be in great shape; we were both beat after coming up the hill without having to push a gurney. 

A few interesting fact about Bryce.  When last surveyed a few years ago, 42% of visitors were from outside the US and the average length of stay here was three hours.  Also, precipitation that falls on the west side of the park road flows into a stream that eventually ends upon in the Colorado River and the Gulf of Mexico, while precipitation on the east side runs off into the desert where it evaporates.   [Ruby's Campground - Bryce Canyon, Utah - 37.40 N / 112.10 W ]  

Fairyland Canyon	Another view of Fairyland Canyon	Vista from Rainbow Point	Another beautiful view!	We're as high as the bird	Natural Arch
Hole in the wall	Norm on Fairyland trail	Hoodoos	More Hoodoos	Navajo Loop switchbacks	Norm at bottom of Navajo Loop
View from bottom of Loop looking up	Shelley in an arch on trail	Queen Victoria Hoodoo	ET hoodoo	Norm & Shelley going through arch on trail	Jay bird we saw on bottom of trail

 

We left Bryce on Tuesday morning, May 6 (Happy Birthday Janice) heading mostly north to Salt Lake City.  It's the most northern point on our trip until we get back to the northeast in June and our first time in a major city in a week and a half.  We stayed in the northern suburb of Bountiful at an Elks Lodge parking area with hook-ups, but the RV spaces were very poorly placed.  We had trouble figuring out how to park so that we could take advantage of the water, power, and sewer, but we finally figured out how to make it work.  We went to dinner at China Star, the first non-buffet Chinese food in a long time and it was a nice treat.  On Wednesday, Norm took the coach to a nearby Camping World for a very minor repair while Shelley wandered through some of the nearby stores.  She was very glad to be in a "shopping area" instead of all the National Parks - it was a nice break!  We were so close, we were able to walk to Costco for their gourmet lunch of a Hot Dog and soda!!  We could walk to the Petco (Shelley's already shopping for Sammie, our new puppy that we will get in Lexington, KY around Memorial Day).  Norm was overjoyed to find a New York Times at Barnes and Noble - he had been NYT deprived!!  We were also able to walk for a haircut, a Dollar store, Michael's, Starbucks!! and several other stores.  We took care of some of those housekeeping chores still have to get done.  On Thursday, after some food shopping, we drove into Salt Lake City.  After a short stop at the Visitor's Center, we went to the Mormon Tabernacle for a free lunchtime Organ Concert.  The Tabernacle was built in 1867 and is 170 feet long and seats 3,500 people.  The acoustics are unbelievable.  We were seated close to the rear, and yet we could hear the sound of a pin dropping and newspaper tearing when they demonstrated the acoustics.  The place is awesome.  The organ itself is world famous, with 11,623 pipes and was originally built in the 1860's.  We then took a tour of Temple Square, an area of about 4 square blocks, totally owned by the Mormon Church.  Inside the square, there are hundreds of Mormon missionaries (most of them young women) from all over the world who volunteer 18 months of their time to the church. Some of them acted as tour guides, and the tour was partially telling us about the beliefs of the church and how they differed from mainstream Christianity.  The square is beautiful with the Tabernacle, a cathedral, a smaller chapel, and church administration buildings contained inside the walls.  The area was full of very colorful flowers in beautiful beds. 

Our next stop was the Genealogy Center, run by the Mormons, with lots of volunteer staff.  We spent a few hours on the computers accessing websites that the normal individual at home could not access.  Shelley was really successful, while Norm seemed to be blocked most everywhere he tried.  Shelley even found a picture of the boat that her great grandfather came over from Europe!  We kept calling our parents and Norm's sister Barbara to get more information that we might be able to search.  It was great fun!!

We wandered around the streets of downtown Salt Lake City for a short time and then went to Buca di Beppo, a nice Italian restaurant (and part of a chain) for a wonderful dinner.  We both even used our will power to save half of our dinner for another time.  (That was because we had to save room for the chocolate cannolis for dessert.) We returned to the Tabernacle to see the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse.  The choir has 360 unpaid volunteers, and in addition the orchestra has about another 75 people.  The sound was awesome, and we stayed for about 45 minutes.  Both the rehearsal and the organ recital were free of charge.  The weather was not too nice on Friday, so we drove to a nearby RV dealer who fixed our satellite TV that had been acting up.  On Saturday morning we drove a little east of Salt Lake City to "This is the Place" and "Heritage Village".  The former purports to be the place where Brigham Young told the migrating Mormons that they had arrived at the place where they would settle to avoid religious persecution.  [Note: Someone mentioned to us that it was very similar to the Jews coming to Israel to avoid religious persecution.]  Heritage Village is a collection of 40 buildings representative of a community in the area between 1847 and 1869.  The staff is dressed in period attire and tries to talk with you as if we were back in that time.  While similar to Williamsburg in concept, they can't quite pull it off.  The staff is just not trained well enough, the time there was just OK, although we did learn some things.  By the way, on the way, we passed a BAGEL place, and couldn't resist stopping and buying a few.   [Elk's Lodge - Bountiful, Utah - 40.54 N / 111.54 W]

Mormon Tabernacle Organ Recital	Formal gardens at Temple Square	More formal gardens	Gorgeous spring flowers	Jewish star on Mormon church!!	Meditation garden at Temple Square	Mormon Church	Mormon Cathedral
Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice	Statues inside Temple Square	Tulips planted along street in Salt Lake City	View from This Is The Place (TITP)	TITP - Barber talking to Shelley	TITP - old cabin	TITP - Milliner showing off her hats	TITP - Shelley wearing a "tea" hat

 

On Sunday, May 11, we headed south from Salt Lake City to Moab, Utah, in the far southeast corner of Utah.  After going south on I-15 for about 60 miles, we turned southeast through the mountains.  The going was slow, as the road wound up the hills and down through the valleys. We got as high as 7,477 feet and often dropped down to just under 5,000 feet.  We arrived in Moab in mid-afternoon, and got the impression that it was a cutsie, artsy, fartsy town.  After setting up the motorhome, we drove the short distance to the visitor's center of Arches National Park.  We got some information that allowed us to plan the next day's trip to the park and also saw a short movie that described the formation of the arches.  At the movie we sat next to a woman from East Brunswick, NJ who grew up in New Brunswick, NJ and knew Shelley's mom when they were both in high school!!!  What a small world!!  We spent most of Tuesday at Arches.  We drove the 18 mile park trail, stopping whenever something seemed interesting.  There are 2,000 arches in the park, and many are visible from the road.  We stopped at a parking lot and took the short walks to both Double Arch and the Windows.  We then continued into the park toward the Delicate Arch, the symbol that appears on the Utah license plate.  We took the upper path from the parking lot to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint.  The trail was 1/2 mile each way, and increased about 200 feet in elevation.  Even though the arch was some distance away, it was really neat to see it.  Erosion here in the park is still going on at a rapid rate.  In 1991, a rock slab 60 feet long, 11 feet wide and 4 feet thick fell from the under side of Landscape Arch, virtually doubling the size of the open arch.  It is springtime here, and while driving along the road, we saw white, purple, red and yellow wildflowers.  The yellow ones were the most common, and long rows of them were along the road, bobbing and weaving in the breeze. 

Three Gossips Arch formation	Balanced Rock	Sign saying "Congested Area"!!!	Delicate Arch - State Symbol	Norm & Shelley at Delicate Arch	Double Arches	Shelley resting during hike	Beautiful Arch
Tower of Babel arch formation	Utah license plate - Delicate Arch	One of the Arches incredible vistas	Another beautiful sight	Daisy type wild flowers	Flowering cactus	Red wildflowers	Yellow wildflowers

On Tuesday morning, we let most of the bad weather pass by before leaving for Canyonlands National Park.  This park is unique in that the Colorado and Green Rivers flow through the park and divide the park into 3 areas.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to get from one area to the other.  The area we drove through is called Island in the Sky.  A good bit of the drive is through rolling countryside, but frequently there was a view point with ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE views.  You could look down into canyons that had sides containing rock layers of reds, oranges, browns, grays, greens and whites.  We both agreed that the vistas were the best we had seen yet.  At the Grand Viewpoint Outlook, we could look down about 2,000 feet to the floor of the canyon and also look out many miles to see smaller side canyons and the other 2 regions of the park. Unfortunately, the weather was cool and windy, so we didn't take any hikes.  But we did stop and gape at every opportunity.  For dinner, we went to the Moab Brewery.  The food was just OK, and the waiter kept bringing Norm the wrong dinner, so we got his meal for free.  [Moab Rim Campground - Moab, Utah - 38.33 N / 109.31 W ]    

Buck Canyon Overlook	Candlestick Tower Outlook	Another view of the Canyonlands Candlestick Tower Outlook	Candlestick Tower	Green River Overlook	Holeman Spring Canyon
Norm standing by overlook	Shafer Canyon Overlook	View from our campsite	Vista	Another view	and another view

 

On Wednesday, 5/14 we left Moab and drove SE to Cortez, CO.  This was our first time in Colorado with the RV.  After getting settled in our campground, we went to visit the Anasazi Cultural Center.  The Anasazi are a group of Indians that settled in this area, which they inhabited off and on until the 1300s.  We both were so impressed by the still beautiful pottery recovered from archeological digs and such in the area.  On Thursday, the weather forecast was iffy, but we took a drive to Mesa Verde National Park anyway.  From the time we entered the park, it seemed as if the roadway went straight up.  We started at about 6,000 feet, and reached a top of 8,572 feet.  Along the way, we saw 4 deer crossing the road and climbing up the side of some cliffs, and one coyote that disappeared before we could get a picture - that is the sum total of the wildlife we've seen on this trip, other than squirrels!!  The trip to the visitor's center was about 15 miles from the park entrance, and most of the ancient ruins were another half an hour deeper into the park.  At the visitor's center, Norm started worrying about our gas supply for the CRV, so we reluctantly turned back to Cortez.  Tomorrow is supposed to be much nicer, so we'll try to explore Mesa Verde again.  On Thursday evening, we went to the Cortez Cultural Center to hear a presentation by Dr. Floyd O'Neill, Director Emeritus of the American West Center at the University of Utah.  He discussed the treatment of the local Indians by the federal and state governments.  There were about 25 people in attendance, and they all seemed to be very sympathetic to the Indian cause.  This compares with what southerners from Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana would think about treatment of the blacks in the South. On Friday morning we moved the rig to the nearby Elk's Lodge and then drove back to Mesa Verde.  We took the tour of the Cliff Palace and it was quite awesome.  These cliff dwellings were discovered in the late 1880s by cowboys.  The dwellings, primarily made out of sandstone and mud, were inhabited by the Anasazi Indians (now called Ancestral Puebloans) from the mid to late 1200s.  The ruins are much as they were when they were discovered, except that debris from collapses has been removed.  Its really hard to believe that the buildings are 700 years old.  With our modern technology, how many things made today are expected to last that long?  Mesa Verde is one of the few (if not only) National Parks that specialize in archeology.  We noticed many acres of dead trees while driving on the park road at Mesa Verde.  A ranger told me that 2/3 of the park had been burned by forest fires during the last 20 years. When we took some hikes, we felt excessively tired...more then we felt that we should be.  So I took a list at the last places that we've been along with the altitude. Here is what I came up with and it is no big surprise that a little bit of exertion really knocked the heck out of us!! 

We went to the Elk's Lodge for dinner.  The setting was really nice, the price was right, and the food was okay...nothing great, but okay.  On Saturday morning, the muscles around Shelley's knees were hurting so we got in the car and took a ride to Four Corners, the only place in the US where 4 states meet.  They are Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.  Don't know what I expected, but there was nothing much there.  A brass circle in the ground surrounded by a circle of concrete about 40 feet in diameter indicating where each state was, the flags of each state were flying, and there was a 5 foot high viewing stand.  That's it!  Of course, there were little sheds where about 20 Navaho craftsmen were selling Navaho jewelry, pottery and Indian memorabilia.  There were also 3 stands where they sold burgers and tacos on frybread.  The trip back was interesting.  We had found a loop road on the map, and off we went.  I had estimated that the trip back should be about 50 miles, and that's what our friendly GPS showed.  However, the further we drove, the further Gina (the GPS) told us it would be to get back to the rig.  She really wanted us to make a u-turn and go back, which made me feel that we were on the wrong road.  Shelley had the map, and she kept insisting that we were going the right way and that I should just relax and enjoy the scenery....not going to happen as the farther we drove, the more mileage Gina said we had to go until we got back to Cortez!  Finally, Gina got with the program and agreed with Shelley and the map.....so now I could relax....but I had to eat some crow!!!  [La Mesa Campground and Elk's Lodge - Cortez, CO - 37.21 N / 108.33 W] 

Formation we saw along highway	Four Corners stone	Close up view of Four Corners Stone	Center of Four Corners stone	Norm standing in 4 states