Part 3 - 2023 Spring Western US adventure - Wyoming & Montana

Part 1 - 2023 Spring Western US adventure

Part 2 - 2023 Spring Western US adventure - Nevada, Arizona, Utah

Wyoming & Montana

Leaving Dinosaur National Monument

Dinosaur National Monument was the last stop to make before making the decision of either continuing to head north or to turn left and head through the nothingness of the Nevada desert. 

Putting a lot of miles on a vehicle while towing a trailer, even a smallish one like ours, can be pretty hard on it. There is a need to frequently monitor the all the moving parts of the truck as well as the trailer. Craig does a great job keeping up with the maintenance on the road but things still happen. On past trips we've dealt with cracked leaf springs, delaminated trailer shells, loose lug nuts, engine noise, refrigerator malfunctions, 

So, with that in mind Craig was extra cautious when there was strange engine sounds coming from the truck. After some research and thinking we decided it would be best to continue the trip and actively monitor the engine noise. So far so good.

• Animal encounters
• Coyote
• Pronghorn 
• Elk
• Rattlesnake
• Black bear
• Yellow belly marmot

 Wyoming - Montana

Flaming Gorge

From Dinosaur we headed to Flaming Gorge National Recreation area. As the names sounds, it's very red and it's a huge gorge. The areas elevation is about 7400 feet and covers about 42,000 acres with some beautiful sweeping views. There are plenty of forested areas and quite a bit of wildlife. Spring seemed to be just starting and you could still see the remnants of winters snow melt leaving some of the fields will shallow flooding.

We camped at Red Canyon Campground near the gorge and the Red Canyon Dam. The dam is holding back the Green river that flows to the Colorado. Our unofficial camp host was an adorable Yellow Belly Marmot about 100 feet away from where we camped. she/he had a home under a large flat cut stump that they used as a throne or lookout for part of the day. This adorable rotund little critter was very busy for most of the day. We enjoyed watching it gather mouths full of pine needles to pad an underground nest. At first, I thought it was strange that they decided to live right in the middle of the campground but then we realized that it was an easy trade off to avoid predators that are much more dangerous than a bunch of noisy humans.

Our camp host - A yellow belly marmot

View of the Green River from the Red Canyon visitor center trail

Sun setting at our camping area

Sinks Canyon, Lander Wyoming

A friend loaned us a book for rock climbing in Lander Wyoming so we decided go!

Sinks Canyon near Lander Wyoming sits at about 6,850 feet is, as you would expect for Wyoming, full of hiking, backpacking, mountain bike riding, and etc. The name comes from the Popo Agie river that runs through this canyon (created by a glacier). The river flows into an underground limestone cavern, named "the Sinks," and emerges a quarter-mile down the canyon in a pool named "the Rise." This was  confirmed by adding dye to the water and waiting for it to come out at the other end. The dye was expected to take only a few minutes to show up at the rise but it actually took over two hours. It's unknown exactly why the water takes so long. Another interesting observation by researchers was that  more water goes into the tunnel than comes out, but they don’t know where the other water goes...yet.

The landscape is interesting in that the glacier that carved this area left boulders large and small, strewn all of the hillsides of the area. The glacier also carved out the steep cliffs that now make up an excellent climbing area.

Rock Climbing Notes: Sinks Canyon area is also very well known for climbing. I’m told that there is a yearly international climbing event here in July. The climbs are on a series of cliff faces that require a steep approach up to the base of the climbs. Once up, there is a decently good trail that will take you to any climb you desire and there are over 300, mostly sport climbs rating from 5.6 to 5.14c (I did not notice anyone doing trad climbing in this area, but it's seems perfect for trad). I hiked up to scope out some climbs for us and was lucky enough to see some guys doing some of the 5.12+ climbs on an area called Moss Cave. The easiest climb on this “bulge” is a 5.12d. Very impressive to watch. 

What’s interesting about the climbs here is: 1. All of the harder climbs are well bolted with quickdraws already attached. 2. The bolts seem very close together on all the climbs (no complaints from me). 3 I didn’t notice many multi-pitch climbs.  4. This place is finger pocket city (finger tendons beware).

Craig and I found some EASY 5.6-5.7 climbs on a wall called “More Fundy Than Junky”. Most of the climbs were no more than 35 meters but my favorite climb was a long route named “Zozo’s Dance” (FA Lightners 2015) that required a 60 meter rope and nine quickdraws.

Craig standing below several 5.12 climbs

wooly mule's ears

Oregon swallowtail

Shooting Star

pulsatilla flower

pulsatilla flower

fringed puccoon

An argument for Yellowstone National Park

I know, I know, ug Yellowstone it is so touristy! But really, it's worth it. It would have been very easy to by-pass Yellowstone. Out of sheer laziness and not wanting to drive an hour out of our way, we decided to drive through Yellowstone. There were reasons to NOT visit Yellowstone. 1. We've been there before and 2. We are trying to stay away from the big parks and copious amounts of humans. We're so glad that we decided to visit because we were there at a time when we were lucky enough to capture many more geysers than we expected. We camped in a painfully overpriced campground the night before so that we could catch Old Faithful before the crowds and then walked for several miles on the boardwalk to see the other smaller geysers and boiling pools. There seemed to be a lot more activity than we remembered so we found ourselves captivated by it all. I tried hard to capture the amazing colors but you really need to see it in person. Oh, and there were tons of buffalo.

Old Faithful

Whitefish Montana

After visiting Yellowstone we made our way to Whitefish Montana where we stopped for a few days to stay in high style with Craigs friend since fourth grade, his partner, and their super happy pup. They showered us with amazing meals and the finest accommodations. We shopped and hiked and had a great time just hanging out and catching up.  

Glacier National Park, Going-To-The-Sun-Road

The most memorable part of the trip was a bike ride up the "Going-To-The-Sun-Road in Glacier National Park. This road is closed to traffic part of the year for plowing but is open to bicyclists. Six of us started up the hill early in the morning to beat the Memorial day crowds. We all rode up up and up a 2,022 ft elevation gain and a total of 24 miles round trip. What an amazing ride with amazing friends. The scenery was stunning at every turn and it was the perfect bike riding temperature. By the time we made it to a good turn around point, the weather had turned wet making the ride down a little challenging. It rained pretty hard  on the way down and we were all soaked by the time we made it to the bottom. 

The girls waiting on the boys

Stunning view on Going-To-The-Sun-Road

Banana slug

Part 2 - 2023 Spring Western US adventure - Nevada, Arizona, Utah

Click here for Part 1 - 2023 Spring Western US adventure

Nevada, Arizona, Utah

Craig and I started coming to Utah when we first met. Our first trip was in Craig's TransAm. I remember it was so hot that Craig was worried that the car would overheat. We rolled down the windows and kept the AC off ha ha, what great fun! We both fell in love with the desert as well as with each other and have made it a point to visit the Utah desert almost every year for more than 20 years. 

The desert is all about drama

There is something very special about the Utah desert. There are so many contrasting things about it that fascinates me. The desert is rugged and raw, beautiful and soft, brutal and unforgiving. We've found the most beautiful glowing pink flower on the most prickly of cactus. We've found petrified wood by chance on hikes. We've found ancient sea creatures in the bottom of creeks. We've seen tarantulas and rattle snakes and thousands of lizards. We've seen hundreds of petroglyphs and pictographs from long gone humans. We've seen huge cliffs that rival Yosemite and colors of red, pink, yellow, orange...in hills that are unbelievable. We've crossed rivers and climbed mountains and could spend the rest of our lives exploring this beautiful place and we've just scratched the surface. 

• Animal encounters
• Black tail jack rabbit and a brown desert rabbit (not sure of type)
• hundreds of lizards (blue belly, ??)
• Several Mule deer
• Wild burrows or donkeys
• Wild horses
• Wild cows j.k.
• Birds (road runner, say's phoebe, house finch, spotted towhee, black throated gray warbler, house sparrow, yellow warbler, western kingbird, blue gray gnatcatcher, black headed grosbeak, and yellow breasted chat. (thanks to theCornellLab Merlin Bird ID app). Also golden eagle, two osprey

Lake Mead NV and Virgin River Campground, AZ

After exploring the beautiful desert at Hole in the Wall for four nights, we headed north past Las Vegas with the goal of eventually reaching Valley of Fire State Park. We have been there before and were hoping that wouldn’t be too busy. We headed towards Lake Mead just East of Las Vegas and landed at Stewarts Point on the North West side of the lake. Lake Mead was low (still) and the dispersed camping was OK for the night (sorry, no pics). We decided to stay there because we arrived later in the day on a Friday and we were concerned that there wouldn’t be any camp spots at Valley of Fire. In the morning we made the decision to ditch our plans to go to Valley of Fire and continue North (due to our burning urge to get away from the crowds) 

Nevada > Arizona

After leaving Lake Mead area we ended up in a beautiful canyon at a rest stop/campground called Virgin River Canyon Campground in Arizona for the night. This campground is just in the town of Littlefield, AZ. The campground sits on a plateau just above the Virgin River. There are a few hikes there but it seemed that they had all been flooded out. We spent the afternoon walking around the area and exploring the river banks. 

There isn't a trail now! - Virgin River Canyon Arizona

I think during normal times this is an easy river crossing 

to the trail on the other side - Virgin River Canyon Arizona

Buckhorn cholla - Virgin River Canyon Arizona

Yucca Joshua Tree - Virgin River Canyon Arizona

Creosote bush - Virgin River Canyon Arizona

Beautiful view across from our campsite at
Virgin River Canyon Campground Arizona

Arizona > Red Canyon Utah (just outside Bryce Canyon

Our next stop was Red Canyon. This is a favorite stop just outside of the chaos of Bryce Canyon. The rock formations are a smaller version of what you see at Bryce Canyon, it's a mini Bryce. We stayed at Red Rock Canyon for two nights so that we could hike a bit and drive into Bryce for some sightseeing. This area is beautiful red rock surrounded by a contrast of green Forests that include rare Bristlecone pine trees. I took in a nice long hike while Craig hopped on his mountain bike at rode the mountain bike trail at Thunder Mountain.  

Hoodoos at Red Canyon Utah

Buckhorn Trail - Red Canyon Utah

Overlook - Bryce Canyon National Park Utah

Penstemon flower - Red Canyon Utah

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT

We decided to stay put for a few days in Escalante. We've been there before and have found that there are more places to see than anyone can do in one trip (we've been there at least three times before).

The town of Escalante is pretty small with a population of just over 800 people. The draw to this area is that it sits right in the middle of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and has some pretty interesting canyons. The monument consists of 1.7 million acres of diverse and rugged terrain.

Spreading Phlox - Escalante Utah

Big Horn Canyon - Escalante Utah

Hiking on top of giant ancient sand dunes - Big Horn Canyon - Escalante Utah

 Big Horn Canyon Narrows - Escalante Utah

I love it when nature makes art sculpture! - Big Horn Canyon Escalante Utah

Sand Dragon rock formation - Big Horn Canyon Escalante Utah

Escalante Utah

Storage grainery high up on a cliff built around 1000 to 1200 AD 

(Anastazi and Fremont were both around this area 

but its unknown which tribe built these)  - Escalante Utah

Another storage grainery high up on a cliff - Escalante Utah

The hike up requires several river crossings but the water wasn't above my knees - Escalante Utah

Escalante Utah

  Escalante Utah

 200+ feet? with beautiful desert varnish - Escalante Utah

Freemont style? petroglyphs - Escalante Utah

This beautiful pine tree thriving near a river in the - Escalante Utah

Approaching - Escalante Utah

Caulanthus flower - Escalante Utah

Scarlet Gilia flower -  Escalante Utah

Sagebrush seeds - Escalante Utah

Kingcup cactus - Escalante Utah

Cool rock! - Escalante Utah

Jack at the Petrified forest

Dinosaur National Monument Utah

One trip Utah long ago we were heading up to Wyoming and had planned to go to Dinosaur National Monument. When we arrived it was so hot (90+) that we went to the visitor center and looked around a bit but didn't stay long. Since then I have always wanted to go back and spend a bit more time there. There is a "bone yard" there where Archeologists have uncovered a huge cache of large dinosaur bones. In addition there are quite a few places where you can see dino bones embedded into the rock formations on the side of trails. 

In addition to the dinosaur inhabitance there is evidence of a large indigenous human population there. The large green river that runs through this area must have been an incredible resource for these people to fish and farm in this area.

The First People

"Dinosaur National Monument is home to a vast and rich cultural history. Since time immemorial, people have lived and migrated through here, drawn by the natural riches of the area. Proximity to the Green and Yampa rivers provided a reliable water source, while the natural alcoves and canyons offered cool shade and respite from the desert sun. An abundance of archeological evidence, including stone tools, granaries, and homes reveal that people have lived in the area for at least 10,000 years. The presence of petroglyphs (etchings) and pictographs (paintings) on the rockfaces throughout the monument show us that life was comfortable and allowed people to devote a substantial amount of time to the creation of these images. Many of the petroglyphs and pictographs found within Dinosaur National Monument are attributed to the Fremont peoples, whose descendants still reside in this area today."

Milkvetch flower

Bluestars flower

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A little side bar 

Trouble with our RV refrigerator. At some point when we were in Los Padres NF, we realized that our very full refrigerator was not as cold as it should be; In fact it was about 50 degrees. The strange thing was that the freezer, also full, was working as expected. We had planned a few days to visit family before heading up to Tehachapi so we took the opportunity to troubleshoot the problem. At first we called a few repair shops to see if anyone could look at it but soon realized that a 3 week + wait time wasn’t going to work for us. Our second step was to starting checking out prices for a replacement fridge. These little RV 3 cubic feet 2-way fridges are expensive because they run on electricity or propane. A new Dometric brand runs between $800 and $1200 but they can get them to you in two days. This was an option but I figured that given enough time to think about it, Craig would hopefully be able to figure out how to fix it. After getting online and reading a few other RV fridge troubleshooting posts, I was able to find someone who had a problem with similar symptoms relating to the propane jet getting clogged (The jet heats a tank of ammonia to keep the fridge cool). Craig was able to remove and un-clog the propane jet and tada! 12 hours later is was back to 34-40 degrees.

---- These pictures were taken at Hole in the Wall, Mojave Desert Ca ---

Cactus garden - Hole in the Wall, Mojave Desert Ca

A well fed Chuckwalla lizard? He/she was quite large.

Cochemiea tetrancistera cactus?

Krameriaceae? flowers