October 26, 2010

From the Zion Canyon Campground and RV Park; N37°11.582’ W112°69.475’

Another clear day after the coldest night we have had since being here.

I left the park to do a few caches toward Hurricane. I found nine on the way and four in La Verkin and Hurricane.

Since the sun was shining we had decided to go in Zion Park and see if we could get more pictures of leaves turned color. We did get some nice pictures, but not so many of foliage. Between the wind and two cold nights the colors had got duller or the leaves were gone. We also didn’t count on so many stops for the construction; more was going on than on rainy days. Outside the east entrance of Zion we did see the “pumpkin truck.”

We went to dinner at the Amigo Mexican Restaurant in Springdale. It was ok, not great.



Checkerboard Mesa



Tomorrow is the trip home. When I extended our stay to a total of six days, I was told we could stay a seventh for free. Too bad, we have to get home.

A small arch off the Mt. Carmel Hwy.

October 25, 2010

 

From the Zion Canyon Campground and RV Park; N37°11.582’ W112°69.475’

When we got up this morning we decided to stay for a couple of days. In the afternoon I headed up toward Orderville for a few caches. The first one I found and the one I didn’t find were off US-89 south of Mt. Carmel Junction.

The first one I tried in Orderville was also a bust. Later I met another cacher and she gave me a better hint. In all I found six in the area.

On the way to Orderville I stopped and took a picture of the Great Arch in Zion and one of the “windows” of the Mt. Carmel Highway Tunnel.

On the way back to Springdale I spotted a small heard of buffalo in a field and stopped to take pictures. In the field across the road were horses, cows and Llamas. On the side of the road there was a truck with hunters scoping out the field with binoculars.

A little further down the road I had to come to a dead stop for a group of deer, including two young bucks with legal or close to it antlers. Just around the next curve was a group of pickups, ATVs and a couple of trailers with deer hunters. It appears that deer aren’t your run of the mill dumb animals.

It was getting late but from Orderville through the Mt. Carmel Tunnel I had no cell service to let Gerri know I was on the way back. Back at the RV Park the sunset was really lighting up the cliff on the opposite side of the river.

Several years ago I visited Orderville several times with my Step-father. He was a rock hound and visited Orderville several times before his death in 2005 to buy rocks for polished slabs, cabochons and other items. The last time I was here with him was about thirty years ago, not much has changed in Orderville.

 

October 24, 2010

From the Zion Canyon Campground and RV Park; N37°11.582’ W112°69.475’

An old house in Grafton

We had decided to make a day of it today, first caching and then through the Park no matter what the weather was.

Turkeys in Grafton

We started with some easy caches down the highway toward Virgin. We worked our way up Dalton Wash Road, until we got to the Zion National Park Boundary. There was some mud and water on the Dalton Wash road, it got about 3” deep on the road by the boundary fence. Fortunately that road looped backed to the Dalton Wash Road, so I didn’t have to leave the road to turn around.

We drove through Zion via the Mount Carmel Tunnel; we didn’t stop on the way up. We saw oak trees that had turned red and maples that had turned even redder.

We drove out the North Fork Canyon Road after leaving Zion. It has been many years since we had driven this way and I didn’t remember any of this road being paved. This road connects Utah 9 with Utah 14 near Navaho Lake. A road also branches off this one and goes to the trailhead for the Zion Narrows Trail. The pavement looked old but not thirty years old. We weren’t on it very far anyway; we turned into the Ponderosa Ranch and Resort development for some caches. Away from the main development the roads turned pretty rough, but passable. We found one cache with a travel bug and when we were headed for the second which was about a 600’ walk, my crew was rebelling. They had had enough slogging through the mud and wanted to see more of Zion. I walked the 600’ feet by myself. In true Longwalker fashion I chose the wrong trail. I walked an ATV trail toward the cache; I should have taken the cache name to heart “Horse Lane.” I bushwhacked to the cache and saw the horse trail a few feet away. I stated back on the horse trail, but it was muddier than the ATV Trail. I was slipping and sliding with my shoes getting heavier with each step. I decided to bushwhack back to the Jeep. It was a lot easier going.



I'll bet they were glad we weren't the hunters



On the way back down through Zion we stopped at a few places for foliage photos.

Bill grilled steaks for dinner and we had a fine meal with all the trimmings.

Good company, good scenery, all in all a great day.

October 23, 2010

From the Zion Canyon Campground and RV Park; N37°11.582’ W112°69.475’

More rain during the early morning. I got up and brushed the water off the patio awning. I posted a request for a cure for the water pooling on the American Coach Mail list.

We got started from the RV Park after noon. We only did four caches. These few caches were done in what we now call the Mudville area. The roads were very slippery due to recent rains. We did see some sights.

We decided to get an earlier start tomorrow. Meanwhile it was back to the RV Park for a supper of Salmon with a lot of delicious trimmings.

No rain during the day but still a heavy cloud cover.

October 22, 2010

From the Zion Canyon Campground and RV Park; N37°11.582’ W112°69.475’

We had a lot of rain during the night. The weather made us want to sleep in. I got up at about 8 AM, MST and fixed coffee. Glenna and Gerri slept in. I noticed that the rain water had collected on the awning, so I tried to run it in. No go, the water was too heavy. I had to go out and push it off with a broom. Of course that made a mess near the door.

Bill and Elaine had gone to the grocery store and into Hurricane during the morning. After lunch we went geocaching. As we pulled up to the closest one it started raining heavily again. We went all over looking for the cache. I guess the rain effects the reception. Before finding the cache we were joined by a cacher from Wyoming. We finally zeroed in on it. The cache was named Scorpion. It was a plastic scorpion hidden under a piece of wood. What wasn’t visible at first was the length of monofilament connecting it with the wood. If you moved the wood very far the scorpion “jumped,” even knowing it wasn’t real didn’t stop me from jumping. We did a total of ten caches before going back to the park to get ready for dinner.

We grilled chicken for dinner and it started to rain just as the grill got warm. I put out the awning and we moved the picnic table under it. With the chicken we had salad, cauliflower and sweet potatoes.

I said the weather was good for sleeping in, well it was also good for going to bed early and which we did.

October 21, 2010

From the Zion Canyon Campground and RV Park; N37°11.582’ W112°69.475’

It has been a little over a month since we got to the house in Las Vegas. We have spent considerable time catching up on doctor’s appointments, and taking care of business around the house.

The week of Oct. 10-16 I went to the National American Coach Rally at Sam’s Town. There were some good seminars and venders and great food. Kevin Mallory did some of the work that we started last year in Celina, OH and were supposed to do this year in Quartzsite. We plan to finish the work of replacing the incandescent lights with LED in Quartzsite this year, plus a few other things. The list seems to keep growing.

At the house we finally got the leaking shower in the master bath fixed. The control was s corroded that it sprayed water into the wall and it ran down and onto the floor outside the shower door. Luckily there was no damage to the tile and only minor damage to the dry wall and baseboard. After the water problem was solved we got a contractor to take out the carpet in the bath and closet and replaced it with tile. The tile goes past the bedroom doors so the travel area from hall to bath is now tile. They also redid the grout as needed in the shower. This job was finished on Wednesday. We also contracted for decorative iron gates across the front entry arch. They were scheduled to be installed today along with some repair to the side gates leading to the back yard.

By about 10AM we were on the road to Zion Canyon. This is the resumption of what used to be annual trips to Zion with Bill and Elaine Cavagnaro. We have missed the last two years. The trip was uneventful for us, but Bill had a flat which delayed their departure from Las Vegas. We have had rain for the last several days and today the weather looked threatening with low clouds on all the mountains. We arrived at the RV Park and were set up by about 3:15 PM, MST. Bill and Elaine arrived about an hour later.

On the way through Springdale we had both noticed a new restaurant, the Flying Monkey. We had to go because of the name. A geocache called Flying Monkey Mesa is nearby. Flying Monkey Mesa is actually Smith Mesa on your maps. It has the unusual name because of US Army activities there during and after WWII. The geocache page has some of the legend at; http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=f08ce1b5-3a04-4527-8441-bd8c574528ee&log=y&decrypt=. This cache was my first Didn’t Find It after I started caching in 2002. We did find it on the next trip in Sept. 2003. A very memorable cache! And not a bad dinner, the feature pasta and pizza in a wood fired oven.

After dinner we visited for a while back at the park and then retired for the night.