Adios! 🚀 |
Adventures with Dave and Dimples - Glamping Airstream style
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Sunday, September 20, 2015
HOO-DOO-PALOOZA
When is a canyon not really a
canyon? When it’s Bryce Canyon National Park.
This “canyon” is actually the eroded eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt
Plateau distinguished by hoodoo-lined amphitheaters above the Paria River
Valley.
Scottish immigrant Ebenezer Bryce with his wife Mary, settled the land below what is now known as the Bruce Amphitheatre, over the years other settlers called the area Bryce’s Canyon and eventually it became Bryce Canyon. When asked about the hoodoos and amphitheaters, Ebenezer Bryce was reputed to reply, “It’s a helluva place to loose a cow.” (For the record, the only cows we see here are plated.)
We pull in mid-week before
noon and we have our pick from a number of campsites. We choose one in a back corner just below the
rim trail. One road with a series of
turnouts, parking lots and viewpoints affords a top view of the park. The vistas are vast and stunning, but we have
to wait for parking and inch through crowds to get a few shots of the
hoodoos.
Hiking is a much better
option. The rim trail runs parallel to
the road and connects all of the viewpoints.
Within a hundred feet of the viewpoints we have the trail pretty much to
ourselves. After a few days of hiking
the rim and some of the easy trails, we decide to challenge ourselves and
tackle the Fairyland Loop Trail.
From our campsite we climb
the hill to the Rim Trail and head south to Sunrise Point, here we take the
Tower Bridge Trail and continue onto the Fairyland Loop Trail. This eight-mile hike is considered strenuous,
with a total 900 ft elevation change and three uphill grades (a total of 1,716
ft of ascent) and all this takes place around 8,000 ft above seal level.
Friday, September 18, 2015
Thursday, September 17, 2015
ZWIPP… REWIND…
It’s time to start thinking
about heading southwest and since we had such a great beginning this year, why
not retrace our steps… First stop Capital Reef National Park. At sunset we check out the Goosenecks and
Sunset Point.
The weather is cooler now
(mid 90s as opposed to the low 100s.)
The baby fawns have lost their spots and the little turkeys are now
almost as big as their moms. The stone
fruits have all been picked. Apples and pears are now in season.
Pleasant Creek |
Cougar Tracks creekside |
Two Thousand Years of Rock Art |
We get in a great hike along
Pleasant Creek. The trail here changes
with the rains. It seems to be more of a
suggestion rather than a maintained trail.
It’s hikers choice: we can hike alongside the creek and walk up over a
desert landscape or just plow through the water. We do a combination of both. Along the way we explore the largest panel of
pictographs and petroglyphs in the park.
There is over 2,000 years of art here attributed to archaic hunters and
gatherers, the Fremont culture, Ute tribes and Mormon pioneers. For the entire hike we never see another person… but we did come across Cougar tracks… hungry cougars? hmmm...
Next back track is to
Escalante and the Shooting Star RV Resort.
It’s great to catch up with Troy and Michelle. They’ve been working hard over the summer
moving rocks and planting trees. The Airstream Motel is booked solid while
we’re here. Couples, families and friends living riveted for a few days and
catching a flick on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at the Shooting Star
Drive-in.
During the day we catch some
of the sites we missed last spring:
Hole in The Rock Lake Powell at the Bottom |
We finally get to the end of
Hole in the Rock Road and walk up the wagon trail to the top of the ridge and
look straight down to Lake Powell. It’s hard to imagine anyone willingly
driving a loaded wagon down this slot between the rocks… we don’t even want to
climb down this rubble trail… when does the line cross from courageous to
crazy?
A Beautiful Day for a Hike |
Across the river from the
Shooting Star is the Escalante Petrified Forest State Park. The sun is shining
when we start up the hill to the Petrified Forest trail. At the top of the mesa we take the trail of
Sleeping Rainbows down into the canyon and back up.
Petrified Logs |
The Juniper and Pinion Pine forest is
littered with chunks of petrified wood. By the time we get back to the
trailhead, the weather has changed.
Thundershowers are on the way; time to seek shelter. Storms in this area are not to be
underestimated. This storm takes the
lives of 7 hikers in a slot canyon in Zion N.P.
Time to seek shelter |
Box Death Hollow Wilderness |
Lower Box Death Hollow is a
scary name for a pretty green canyon surrounded by desert. . We work our way up
the canyon, zigzagging across the creek.
After a couple of hours we stop for a creek side picnic lunch and then
head back down the canyon.
Saturday morning we shop at
the Escalante Farmer’s market. It’s a
small market from 9 AM to Noon, with only a few vendors but we find everything
we want and more. Great baked goods,
heirloom tomatoes, wild mushrooms, green veggies, melons etc…
Next it’s onto the park we
missed last spring… Bryce Canyon N.P.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
WE MAY BE “LIVIN’ THE DREAM” BUT IT ISN’T ALWAYS PERFECT…
Abandoned Mine |
Serious Curves and a steep Runaway Truck Ramp |
They really mean this! |
Vail Ski Runs
The hose to the turbo has
come off. As an experiment, he zip ties
the hose back on and starts up the truck.
It runs! We call and cancel the
tow truck and look for an auto parts store to get some hose clamps to replace
the zip ties. There’s one about a mile
away. We head around the corner and
right there is a Home Depot. We pull in
& Chris buys a couple of hose clamps and installs them in the parking
lot. Once back on the road, we call the
GMC dealer in Grand Junction, where Dave had his last service, and get an
appointment for the next Monday morning. Excellent! We have a reservation at
the James M Robb Colorado River State Park Fruita Campground until Tuesday and
it’s all down hill from here… This should work out just fine.
We get to Fruita late
afternoon and have a nice spot with full hookups near the laundry room. With a sick truck we don’t venture too
far. We take the time to empty out the
truck, do some housekeeping & laundry.
Not all that fun. We talk about the things we missed on our last two
trips to the area. We have not gone wine
tasting (SHOCKING!) and this is a premier Colorado wine region.
The Two River’s Winery is
just down the road not too far. No steep hills to tax Dave. They have a nice tasting room with free
tastings. We try all of their vintages. Their Chardonnay is quite nice, buttery with
a hint of oak and ready to drink now. Their Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon are
both bold and flavorful but a bit rough around the edges. If we had a cellar these would definitely be
stored for a bit. The Vintner’s Blend
(60% Syrah-40% Cab) is a good choice for immediate drinking with time to
breathe and maybe the Vinotemp. Their ruby port has good body and flavor. A big plus here is their prices that run from
$12 - $16. (Excellent quality to cost ratio.)
Monday morning Dave goes into
the shop. That afternoon we get the call. Dave’s turbo is blown and needs to be
replaced. Fortunately this is covered
under warranty, they have the part in stock and the diesel mechanic can work
Dave into his schedule, if we can leave him until the end of the week. One
Problem: Our reservation is up tomorrow and the tag on our campsite tells us
that it is reserved for the rest of the week.
We need to move Dimples, so the dealer sends a shuttle to pick us up to
collect Dave. We check in the visitor
center and the park is 100% booked through the upcoming Labor Day Weekend.
Fortunately the Monument RV
Resort across the road can accommodate us.
So Monday night we get Dave and pack everything up so we’re ready to
move bright and early the next morning.
We’re checked in and unhitched by 8:30AM; Chris gets Dave to the dealer
before 9:00 and returns in a loaner car before 9:30. The loaner is a cute little Chevy Cruz, it
gets us around, but it’s no Dave.
The weather is sketchy with a
series of heavy thunderstorms. It’s a
perfect excuse to catch a movie or two. A Walk In The Woods has just been
released. We enjoy seeing the scenes
that were filmed up at Amicolola last year.
It’s always interesting to see the finished product when you know what
was going on behind the camera. We also
catch Ant Man – for mindless fantasy
entertainment you can hardly go wrong with the Marvel franchise.
The chef at No Coast Sushi remembers us when we sit at the sushi bar.
After a brief rundown of our summer, we start with a bottle of Haiku
Sake and proceed to order our favorite appetizer, the Shishito Peppers: deep fried, salted & tossed in a spicy sesame
sauce with bonito flakes and a trio of exotic nontraditional rolls. (Technically all of their rolls are
non-traditional as they use black rice seasoned without dashi – so vegans can
partake.) Our first roll: the daily special is one of our chef’s
creations. Smoked mackerel (the
sustainable alternative to smoked eel) topped with slices of Palisade peaches.
The peaches are a sweet counterpoint to the salty mackerel and would please
mackerel fans… unfortunately no mackerel fans here. It’s not horrible but would
definitely be better with eel. The Tai influenced, Coconut Curry Lobster Roll:
fried yam, lobster, Roma tomatoes and basil with a coconut curry sauce
is a real treat for the taste buds. BUT H.I.C. is probably one of the most
delicious sushi rolls ever! Smoked
Oysters, soft shell crab, avocado and cream cheese with eel and dynamite sauce.
Dinner is finished with an order of green tea ice cream (with a request for
sliced lemon wedges) and a fresh house made peach sorbet.
By Tuesday morning, Dave is
running great, he’s all packed up and hooked to Dimples… time to hit the road..
Friday, September 4, 2015
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