Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The La Sal Loop Road was named for the La Sal Mountains, with peaks reaching as high as 12,700 feet.  The mountains would normally be visible from a large portion of the drive, but they were shrouded in clouds.  We did climb to well over 8,000 feet giving us spectacular views of the surrounding area.

We crossed over a ridge and gained a view into the valley to the east of our campsite.  It looked dramatically different.  The loopy road had us confused about direction most of the time, but we were on the lookout for Parriott Mesa and decided that must be it on the left in the picture below.  

Castleton Tower (middle) and Parriott Mesa (left) were visible for about half of the drive.

Our attention was split between the mountains to the south and the fantastic desert valley to the north.  We could see the fall color just starting on the mountain slopes and caught just a glimpse of the recent snow crowning the peaks.

Approaching Parriott Mesa from the east.

Taken from the foot of Parriott Mesa.

Circling around to the view from the west of Parriott Mesa.  (I think that about covers it!  Oh, there could be a view from the top of Parriott Mesa, but that's not going to happen.)

The Colorado River looked like it was more mud than water, but these intrepid kayakers didn't let that stop them!

You can see the river splashing up on the white kayak and it is nowhere near clear.  Yuck!

We drove past Big Bend Recreational Area and many other camping opportunities on Hwy 128, all right on the river.

The previous day's rain took a toll on Hwy 128.  Crews must have spent most of the day scooping mud and rock off of the pavement along a 1/4 mile stretch.

The loop drive took less than 3 hours (a lot less time than we expected).  After stopping in Moab for a late lunch, we settled back into the coach for a lazy afternoon.  Retirement can be very demanding at times!

Monday, September 29, 2014

It was another rainy day and cabin fever was setting in.  When it seemed like it might stop for a bit, we piled into the car and explored Moab just a little.  Clouds were threatening all around, and sure enough, it did start to rain again, lightly. 

The clouds looked tinted with red.  Are they reflecting the red rock below or is it red dust accumulating in the cloud?

The houses in Moab were not very impressive, but curiosity got the best of us and we opened up the Zillow app on the tablet.  The "charming bungalow" below listed at $334,000!  It was by no means a fluke or in a prime location, everything was outrageous (as far as I was concerned). Clearly, this is not the place to retire if you would like to have a house.  

I would estimate 1700 sq. ft. on a 1/8 acre, so $334,000.00?  Why not.

We stopped for a few groceries and the sky opened up!  Half of the people in the store had their groceries in hand waiting by the door for the rain to at least slow down before they ventured out.  I came in with an umbrella and I was still soaked.  Heading south on Hwy 191 the traffic slowed to a crawl.  The reason became apparent as a raging torrent of muddy, rocky water swallowed up one of the lanes and flooded stores and businesses along the road.

George, our neighbor, suggested we would find a drive around the LaSal loop a worthwhile venture.  Joani researched it and look what she found!  Obviously, the Parriott name has some significance in this town - maybe I should start wearing a name tag.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

It was a rainy day, so hiking was out.  That did not keep us from driving to the Visitor's Center at Arches National Park to get ideas for planning our exploration of the area.  The visitor center had a pretty nice display that helped in understanding the unique geology that led to more than 2,000 arches in the park.

Joani made sure she had all of the info on ranger-led hikes.  We usually learn a lot and have some fun too, as the Rangers lead us on group hikes.

Looking forward to a rain-free day to take advantage of the ranger-led hikes...

...and a clear night to view the skies.

On the way home, we also stopped in the Moab Visitor's Center to get information on the overall area including Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park (our neighbor Larry said the $10 fee at Dead Horse Point gave you a $1,000,000 view!).  This area includes a lot of unique and beautiful landscapes for camping, hiking, boating, fishing, mountain bike riding, jeeping (I think half of the people in the OK RV park have Jeeps) and then there are all of the winter activities as well.

As I was pulling out of the lot at the Moab Visitor Center, I stopped cold looking across the street.  I will have to visit this salon and see about their very unusual name!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

The Goblin Valley campground had a 2:00 check-out time, so there was no need to rush!  Joani wanted a shadow wave good-bye.  Even Sam joined in for the photo! 

Saying "Hi" and "Bye" from Goblin Valley State Park.

Our journey continued on to Moab, UT, an easy and uneventful 106.6 miles (70,685.7 total). 

We rolled into OK RV Park around 1:00 and decided to just take it easy for the rest of the day unless you want to count a quick trip to the grocery store.  We should have skipped the store since neither one of us was in the mood to exercise restraint when it came to snack foods. We will have to make up for our transgressions with a few extra miles of hiking really soon.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

I hoped Little Wild Horse Canyon had enough time to dry out a little, but ready or not, it was time to hike.  This time we arrived at the trailhead early and there was no problem with parking.

The trail started off looking like just any of thousands of canyons in the area.  We walked along a gravel wash below colorful rock bluffs. There was one large puddle not far from the parking lot but we were able to climb over some rocks to get around it.

The boulder on the ground had obviously fallen away, leaving a great example of "ripple rock", a rock layer formed when this was a shallow seabed.

Sam was happy for the opportunity to hike along with us.  His curiosity was piqued by a tiny toad hopping along the rock.  Sam went nose to nose with the little jumper until we reined him in.  It just would not do for him to develop a taste for toad snacks.

Less than a mile from the car, the canyon significantly narrowed.

The canyon finally became a narrow slot.  My shoulders could touch rock on each side.  I could not easily turn around with the backpack on.

The slot narrowed enough in places to make it a challenge even for Sam.

There were only two or three places where we had to climb over some rocks, nothing too big.  The slot opened up into a wide area for a few hundred yards and then became a slot, once again.

We continued until we could no longer see a way forward without getting our feet wet.  The folks below were determined to straddle the water around the next few bends to see if they could get beyond it.  I could have called out to them to see what conditions they found, but I estimated we were between 1.75 and 2 miles from the car, so that was enough for the day.  I don't know what lay beyond, but I think we probably saw the best of the Little Wild Horse Canyon.

On our way out of the canyon, this shady spot at the entrance to the second slot made a good place to stop for some lunch.

We could not decide if we were more saddened or inspired by a group of blind hikers (two of their group were sighted).  I am sure the hike was enjoyable and maybe even unique for them, but I could not imagine missing out on all of the visual beauty we experienced. Seeing them made us thankful for the blessings we have and usually simply take for granted. 

Our plan for the evening was just to set up our scopes and enjoy the dark skies.  It was perfectly clear (no clouds), but there was a little more moisture in the atmosphere than last night.  Stars near the horizon seemed to twinkle a bit more and the starlight seemed to lighten the sky a little.

John set up his Televue 127 refractor and allowed me to point it wherever I wanted.  The wide field views were incredible with pinpoint stars from edge to edge across the field.  I was able to view a lot of Messier objects - absolutely beautiful.  I know these APO refractors are also fantastic for astrophotography.  I hope to have the opportunity to try that someday!

John mentioned all of his equipment was paid for with royalties from his books.

John tried to split some more challenging doubles in my telescope, but my mounts poor pointing accuracy made it difficult to find the really close targets.

Jim and Nathan (the park rangers) brought out their 9.25 inch Celestron and set it up to practice for their interpretive program.  They were able to try my 2-inch diagonal visual back and many of John's excellent eyepieces.  They were sold on the improvement over the stock 1.25 visual back and 12mm Plossl eyepiece that came with their telescope.

John went over a lot of information with them for tomorrow's program while I entertained about a half dozen campers who wanted to look at anything I was willing to show them.  They were really impressed with the go-to capabilities of the computerized mounts and thought they would look into getting something similar.

All-in-all a great night under the stars!

Footnote:  A few days later when I had internet access, I looked at John Mosley's website www.StargazingAdventures.org and found out that during his 35-year professional career he worked in two public planetariums: the historic Hansen Planetarium in Salt Lake City and the world-famous Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles.  John was in charge of Griffith's educational activities for 27 years.  He also wrote five books (I'm pretty sure I have two of them).  If you are fortunate enough to meet John and Barbara on the road, I hope you will have dark skies!  I certainly hope to see them again someday.