Part 4 (final) - A Much needed 2022 Western US adventure

 Part 4 (final) - A Much needed 2022 Western US adventure

This is the fourth (final) in a series of posts made during our 2022 US vacation. 

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Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah (est. 1908) 

After leaving Hovenweep National Monument we headed to Natural Bridges National Monument and Bars Ears National Monument. This area is known as one of the darkest national parks in the country so attract astronomers from all over the world. We've come here four other times but I'll never forget the first time. I wandered outside at about 2:00am and found myself surrounded by the most amazing display of the Milky Way Galaxy. It was huge and showing itself off in all starry beauty. 

The park itself is relatively small with three giant natural bridges: "Kachina," "Owachomo" and "Sipapu". This trip we hiked from Kachina to Owachomo but you can hike through to all three in the full loop  hike (12 miles).

Sipapu Natural Bridge

Hike down to Sipapu Natural Bridge

Sipapu Natural Bridge

Kachina Natural Bridge

Kachina is my favorite bridge, there are some amazing petroglyphs and pictographs near it's base. Clearly native peoples lived under the shade of this bridge.

There is something amazing about seeing hand prints below the Kachina bridge from native people
that lived here as long as 1,500 years ago.

Kachina Natural Bridge: It is believed that native people lived here between 500 and 1500 years ago.
Here is a further shot of the hand prints that are just above a "Kiva".

Owachomo Natural Bridge

Owachomo Natural Bridge 

Found a new friend along the way.

Bears Ears National Monument, Utah (est. 2016)

Bars Ears National Monument is sacred to many Native American tribes. It's an un-developed monument and overall a little on the wild side. There is no visitor center and the roads are all dirt. The monument is approximately 1.36 million acres of public lands administered jointly with the BLM and U.S. Forest Service. 

We've had trouble getting into the area in the past due to wet and muddy roads but his time it was dry so we were able to get through the road that runs right between the ears (see pic below). For those who want to adventure, there is plenty of back country to explore. For this trip though, we just decided that we were going to hike to the top of the East ear. 

Bears Ears National Monument

This marker is located just as you crest between the ears.

I think that this is a Rocky Mountain Douglas Fur

Hwy 95 from Natural Bridges National Monument to Lake Powell

The drive from Natural Bridges through Lake Powell is an absolutely beautiful drive and well worth the trip. Is winds through a dizzying number of canyons. There is much to explore here and it's been added to the future vacation To-Do list.

 

Camping at 9,600 feet

After leaving the beautiful canyon drive from Natural Bridges and Lake Powell, we headed toward Boulder Utah to camp for the night. The route on Hwy 12 takes you up to much higher elevations, over 9000 feet and has some beautiful vista points with stunning views of Capitol Reef National Park. At this elevation the air it cool and thin. There are Aspen and spruce trees everywhere.  

We decided to camp for the night near Larb Hollow (see picture below) in a dispersed camping area and pretty much had the place to ourselves because it's early in the season and all of the campgrounds here are still closed.

Next stop, 

Grand Staircase & Escalante National Monument

Our camp just outside Boulder Utah in Dixie National Forest

Petrified Forest State Park, Grand Staircase & Escalante National Monument, Utah

We LOVE Escalante. It's a small town, there is a ton of BLM land, and there are lots of dirt roads and canyons to explore. We've been here several times in the past and always find things to keep us entertained. The Petrified Forest Sate Park is a good stopping point and has several first come first serve camping spots. 

Craig petting the giant Collared Lizard at the Escalante Visitor Center

Beautiful petrified wood at Petrified Forest Sate Park

Beautiful petrified wood Petrified Forest Sate Park

Beautiful petrified wood Petrified Forest Sate Park

Beautiful petrified logs Petrified Forest Sate Park

Dinosaurs and Dirt, Escalante National Monument Utah

From Escalante, there is a road in the area called Hole In The Rock Road that is a 62 mile dirt road that runs to the Hole-in-the-Rock on the western shore of Lake Powell. We've never made it that far (that's a long drive on a dirt road) but I'm told it follows the general route of of the original Hole-in-the-Rock Expedition. However, there are several places to explore off this road. We had previously visited to Peek-a-boo and Zebra slot Canyon so we decided to visit Metate Arch (Devils Garden) and Twenty Mile Dinosaur Trackway. I've posted some pictures below. I think this is a good place to visit if you already out that far but I wouldn't make a special trip. The tracks are hard to find and are relatively shallow. I would definitely get beta from the visitor center beforehand.

Twenty Mile Dinosaur Trackway

I think this footprint was made by plant eating sauropods on the shore of a shallow lake sometime between 201 million to 174 million years ago.

Sauropod tracks.

If you look closely you can see footprints and a tail drag in this picture.

Metate Arch (Devils Garden)

Devils Garden is on the way to the Dinosaur trackway so we stopped here too. It's an interesting area with it strange formations. Worth a visit if you're already in the area.

Escalante River Trail, Escalante Utah

This was quite an excursion that took us through four river crossing, two snakes, and a LOT of slogging in the sand. Beautiful and scenic hike though!

Not as grand as the ones at Natural Bridges National Monument but still impressive.

I think this is a Coral Gilia

Desert Globemallow

Red Rock Canyon

Red Canyon is located near Bryce Canyon National Park and has beautiful red and orange sandstone spires and formations. 

This is considered an "arch" because it was formed by wind. The bridges were formed by water.

Spiny Phlox?

Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah

We headed to even higher in elevations. Cedar Breaks National Monument is one of those places we would like to go but every time we try it's way to early in the year (too much snow). It's a high elevation park (at 10,000 feet) and it's Spring season doesn't begin until the end of May so access to the national monument is limited. We did visit the beautiful overlooks on Hwy 148 and camped near by at 9,600 feet. It's still on the to-do list for another trip.

Hanging out at 10,460 feet.

The Extraterrestrial Highway  (near Area 51)

State Route 375 is a long desolate state highway that is North of Area 51. There is not allot out there but a road through the beautiful desert and a few thirsty cows. 

A view of the moon from our camp near McKinney Tanks Summit east of Tonopah Nevada

Area 51, the AleInn off highway 375

For the record, I did keep an eye out for aliens but all I saw were some suspicious clouds.

On the way to Sonora Pass California

For the lunar eclipse we wanted to find a place with a good view so we decided to camp up as high as possible. We found a spot at 7,600 feet on the way to Sonora Pass that was off of Benton Crossing Road with amazing mountain views. 

Sierra Mountains from our camping spot

Our campsite for the eclipse

A beautiful sunset

Obsidian Dome, Eastern Sierras

We moved on to the Mammoth Lakes area and camped near Lee Vining.

Obsidian Dome is part of the June Lake Loop area near Inyo National Forest and was a fun hike. We started off-trail climbing up on top and then found the trail back down the other side. Climbing around was treacherous on unstable very sharp rock. The rock was amazing.

Sonora Pass, Eastern Sierras

We then started heading home by way of Sonora pass which had just opened two day earlier. There was nobody on the road and we found a great dispersed campsite up at the top near the climbing area.    

Giant Sequoia are found up on Sonora pass!

 

After Sonora Pass we headed for home and the culture shock of traffic and too many humans. It was a great trip and we hope you enjoyed following along.     

Part 3 - A Much needed 2022 Western US adventure

Part 3 - A Much needed 2022 Western US adventure

This is the third in a series of posts made during our 2022 US vacation. 

• Link to all posts

Collared Lizard, BEAUTIFUL!

It's worth it Right?

Marshall Lake

The picture below is the forest on our way to Marshall Lake through the beautiful Coconino National Forest

In the last few days we've survived heat waves, rough roads, big rigs, forest fires, and middle east style dust storms. It's been a little rough but it's all worth it when mother nature gives you little gifts.

These little guys are Short Horned lizards. The top one was spotted hiking in an area near Marshall Lake in Flagstaff AZ and the second one was about 90 miles away in an area called Water Wheel Falls in Payson AZ. I'm amazed at how different their coloring is. They both blend perfectly with their environment.

After leaving Payson Arizona, we headed towards Sedona AZ. As it turns out we were a little early in the season because of the campgrounds in the area are closed till May 1^st; we had to find an alternate plan. This was another happy surprise when we found dispersed camping around Marshall Lake a high 7,000 foot flat mesa. This area is within walking distance to the Lowell Observatory Perkins Telescope as well as the Arizona Trail (more on the Arizona trail below).

The Arizona Trail at Marshall Lake (7,600 feet)

The Arizona National Scenic Trail is a National Scenic Trail from Mexico to Utah that traverses the whole north–south length of  Arizona.

Since the trail was very near our campsite, we took the opportunity to hike it for about about nine miles in each direction. We were able to get a sense of the trail and even meet a few backpackers. Maybe someday we'll be back to give it a go.

The Arizona Trail cow gate and marker

Part of the Arizona Trail with burn scars from the 2021 Marshall Fire

There were some high winds that started up while we were at Marshall Lake (but nothing like our experience a little later in the trip). The high winds helped the Tunnel forest fire get going about 15 miles from where we were camped and close to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. fortunately for us, the fire was down wind so there was no danger where we were camped. Below is a picture I took the day the fire started. 

Fire near Sunset Crater National Monument

Sedona, Arizona

Sedona was a bust. We tried to go but ended up sitting in a two-hour traffic jam on a winding two-lane road. We finally gave up and turned around. For what it's worth, the canyon to Sedona was beautiful red rock. Maybe next time.

Homolovi State Park, Arizona

“Homolovi” is Hopi for “Place of the Little Hills” — the traditional name for Winslow, Arizona. The Hopi people lived there from the1200s to the late 1300s. We stayed at the campground at Homolovi. The park is relatively small with a few hiking trails to ruins that are pretty hard to make out (there hasn't been an effort to reconstruct them). There were quite a few pottery pieces on the ground. It's a nice area to camp for the night with some pretty cute locals. The ruins there were interesting but sparse and nothing compared to other places we've visited.

“Homolovi” is Hopi for “Place of the Little Hills” — the traditional name for Winslow, Arizona. The Hopi people lived there from the1200s to the late 1300s. We stayed at the campground at Homolovi. It's a nice area with some pretty cute locals. The ruins there were interesting but sparse and nothing compared to other places we've visited.

Some of the locals. I think the one on the right is pregnant.

Here is a video if you want to learn more about Homolovi State Park.

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona (founded 1916)

I was completely blown away by Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. We had visited the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park in Utah  a few years ago, but this park was huge and amazing in the sheer size of petrified wood forest. There are whole petrified trees and areas of the ground that were completely covered in shards of broke petrified wood.

The area was a large forest of Jasper with a river running through it. Approximately 216 million years ago, the trees died and fell into the river. Over the next 20 million year they were covered with debris and the wood was slowly replaced with minerals of iron, manganese, and others.

We only had one very windy afternoon to look at the sites (they don't have a campground) so we made the most of it with some good hikes. As the day progressed, the wind started to pick up quite a bit and the park was closing so we headed to our planned campsite at Red Rock, New Mexico.

This s a small example of the petrified wood covering miles and miles of the ground.

Craig found this beautiful Collared Lizard on one of our hikes.

New Mexico!

Gallup New Mexico

We arrived in Gallup in the dark. This always makes for a fun time backing up the trailer! We had planned to just stay for the one day and drive North but the following morning the wind began to pick up even more and predictions did not look good. These were not simple simple Winnie-the-Pooh winds, these were bad ass New Mexico blow your hat off, hold onto your car door kinda wind. There was no way any sane person would want to risk driving a little travel trailer on the highways with these kind of cross winds. So, instead we went into town and took care of laundry and grocery shopping. By the afternoon, the wind gusts were nearing 75mph and sitting in our trailer was likened to sitting on a boat in the ocean. Along with the wind came tons and tons of red sand. This super-fine sand permeated every orifice of the trailer and truck.

This view of the sand storm doesn't do justice.

As you can see from the pictures above the following day was gorgeous. This gave us an opportunity to take a hike behind the campground.

Church Rock (Navajo: Kinłitsosinil) 

Since we were stuck in Gallup for an extra day during the sand storm, we took the opportunity to take in a popular local hike that happens to be just behind our campground, Church Rock.

We left Gallup New Mexico with our tail between our legs and with a new respect for mother nature.

Bandelier National Monument

Bandelier NM was established in 1916 and was named after a Swiss Anthropologist. The area is near a huge caldera and surrounded by mountains made of pumice and little stream runs right through the center of the park. This area is unique in that the native people who lived here starting in the 1200s literally carved their homes into the sides of the pumice mountains. The insides of the homes were plastered and decoratively painted. Archaeologists have found over 3,000 sites in the area so it's likely that there were quite a few native people living there.

The native people were primarily farmers and traders. By the 1500s the people who lived there had left for areas like the Rio Grand. As with many of the ruins we've come across, It's unclear why the native people chose to leave.  

Stairs to an ancient home

Main Loop Trail

 

Main Loop Trail

Craig taking the stairs to a Kiva

Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico

The science museum in Los Alamos is a REALLY good museum. The people who directed the construction and displays in the museum did an excellent job. One thing that is so great is that almost everything in the museum is interactive (you can touch stuff!). The museum covers the history of LANLs history including the Manhattan Project. They also cover space research, nanotechnology, supercomputing, and so much more. If you decide to go, give yourself a full day at the museum to absorb the overwhelming amount of information.

Craig in front of models of Fat Man and Little Boy bombs

Hovenweep National Monument and Canyons of the Ancient National Monument Utah/Colorado

Hovenweep and the surrounding area are unique in that the area was inhabited by ancient Pueblo Indian tribes that built round, square, and D-shaped towers grouped at canyon heads. Many of the towers stand on the canyon rim. The archaeologists believe that they built these towers to protect something either themselves or the water that is so precious in the desert.

This is a beautifully remote area with several great hiking trails, an abundance flowers (this time of year) and well hidden wildlife. We were fortunate enough to get some great photos of lizards (they almost always pose for a photo). On one of many hikes I spotted a small rattlesnake! I had stopped on the trail to check my map and as I looked down, I saw the back end of a snake but no head. Just at that moment it must have noticed me, and gave it's tail a rattle. I'm really glad that I stopped because I may have placed my food right next to or on top of it. I was able to get quite a few pictures of it (below). The little snake was not moving from the middle of the trail and very intimidating. I gave it a wide berth and continued on my hike.

My new trail buddy, a baby rattlesnake

We are now headed to Natural Bridges and Bears Ears National Monument for a few days before heading West?