ARCHES NATIONAL PARK

"Double Arch"

"Balanced Rock"

Most arches take a long time to form. This one formed instantly in 1940 when the middle fell out. I have pictures of the pieces on the ground below.

Note the cars at the base in the foreground.

Arches NP is a lot more then arches but they are the formation that seems to be the most unique. There are lots of other formations here that would make the place special even without the arches. There is not a lot I can add to the pictures so I will just let them speak for themselves. I will only say that without the scale that having a person in the picture provides it is very hard to tell from a photograph how big some of these formations actually are.

Our plan is to go to Canyon Lands tomorrow and then come back here the next day to hike up close to some of the arches we missed today.

MOAB, UT

The wind storm in Monument Valley was everything the National Weather Service promised, perhaps more. We ended up with fine red dust everywhere inside the coach. We will be cleaning that up for days finding it in new places. We drove up here to Moab yesterday in much calmer conditions although it hailed in Monument Valley before we left and we drove through a little more of it on the way here. The temperatures have been in the 40's and 50's so up to this point none of it has stuck on the roadway. We still have some higher elevations to cross on the way home so we are keeping our fingers crossed. It is supposed to start warming up in a few days.

We have decided to alter our schedule once again and not only add back our lost day here in Moab but adding one more. That way we will be able to see more of this area. If you hike many of the trails and try to cover all there is to see in Arches and Canyon Lands NP's it could easily take a week or more. We'll do what we can in three days. We are headed for Arches NP today. More on that later. For now I am adding four pictures to this post. One of the dust storm and three more I took standing in front of the coach in our camping spot here in the Moab KOA.

LOOKS LIKE A "DOWN DAY"

This morning's NOAA weather forcast:

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SALT LAKE
CITY
UT
612 AM MDT WED APR 28 2010

...HIGH WIND WARNING
REMAINS IN
EFFECT UNTIL NOON MDT TODAY...
A HIGH WIND WARNING REMAINS IN
EFFECT UNTIL
NOON MDT TODAY.
.
* WINDS: SUSTAINED WINDS OF 30 TO 40
MPH WITH GUSTS IN
EXCESS OF 55 MPH.

* TIMING: STRONG NORTHWEST
WINDS HAVE
DEVELOPED BEHIND A COLD FRONT. THE WINDS WILL GRADUALLY DECREASE THROUGH THE MORNING HOURS.

* IMPACTS: THE WINDS
WILL CAUSE TRAVEL
DIFFICULTIES FOR HIGH-PROFILE VEHICLES...ESPECIALLY ALONG
EAST-WEST ROUTES.
AREAS OF REDUCED VISIBILITIES IN BLOWING DUST CAN ALSO BE
EXPECTED. WIND
SENSITIVE OPERATIONS WILL LIKELY BE
AFFECTED.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

A HIGH WIND
WARNING MEANS A HAZARDOUS HIGH WIND EVENT IS
EXPECTED OR OCCURRING.
SUSTAINED WIND SPEEDS OF AT LEAST 40 MPH OR
GUSTS OF 58 MPH OR MORE CAN LEAD
TO PROPERTY DAMAGE.
VEHICLES...ESPECIALLY HIGH PROFILE VEHICLES...CAN BE
DIFFICULT TO CONTROL
AT TIMES IN HIGH WINDS. MOTORISTS SHOULD TAKE EXTRA
CAUTION...
ESPECIALLY WHILE CROSSING BRIDGES...OVERPASSES AND
UNSHELTEREDAREAS

So I guess we will putter and maybe take some short trips in the truck today.

MONUMENT VALLEY

We were scheduled to stay here two nights before moving on to Moab, UT but a forecast for a serious storm with wind gusts in the 50 + mph range (one forcast said gusts to 70) caused us to change our plans and extend our stay here by one day. Not safe driving for what the National Weather Service calls "High Profile Vehicles" and we are one. We visited the valley this morning/afternoon and enjoyed very nice weather with just a mild, cooling breeze. One description of the valley....

Monument Valley is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of vast and iconic sandstone buttes, the largest reaching 1,000 ft (300 m) above the valley floor. It is located on the southern border of Utah with northern Arizona.

It is hard to believe but the fossil records indicate that this used to be the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico!

Like the Grand Canyon the vast scale of this place and the size of the "Mounuments" make them not only hard to describe by words but it is also difficult to do them justice with photographs. We will hopefully be able to follow up this text with a few of the many we have taken. Since we will have a whole extra unplanned day here, probably hunkered down in the wind, cold and rain, we will certainly have the time if we can get the connection. We have had our share of wind on this trip - just part of spring I guess - but gusts in the 50 - 70 mph range really got my attention and we agreed to be safe rather then putting our beloved Norv Orbus in a ditch.

FINISHING IN FLAGSTAFF

After eight days in the Flagstaff area, including our side trip to Phoenix and other points around here we finished up our stay here with a visit to the Walnut Canyon National Monument. This canyon was home to more cliff dwelling Native Americans and we can walk right up to and even stand in these ancient ruins. It is a beautiful high desert area and at 6500 feet the hike back UP the trail is, as the forest service puts it on their sign, "strenuous". At that altitude 185 foot stair climb feels like more.

Tomorrow morning we head for Monument Valley in Utah. We will be there two nights and hope to get some more good pictures to post.

EAGLE'S CONCERT

Well, as you can tell by this picture we were not too close but we did get to see the Eagles live and the concert was great. I think the crowd probably averaged 50.

MONTEZUMA'S CASTLE

On our way back to Flagstaff from Phoenix we made two stops. This was one of them. Montezuma's Castle is a National Monument. Informaton says this was inhabited in the 1100 - 1200's and that Montezuma probably never came this far north but the name just stuck. Access to these living areas was by ladder which could be pulled up for security. There is a reasonable creek below that gave a good water supply much of the year.

SEDONA

Sedona is full of very interesting and beautiful rock formations like the one on top. Can you find Snoopy in the middle picture? The last frame above is zoomed in on Snoopy with his "arms" behind his head. lying on his back looking up at the sky.

THE PETRIFIED FOREST

Hard to believe that where there is nothing but desert now, there once was a lush forest with large trees. Almost everything you see in the picture above that looks like a rock is actually a large piece of petrified tree trunk like the pictures above it.

THE METEOR CRATER

There is not much I can say about the Meteor Crater except it is a pretty big hole in the ground. In this picture it is about 3/4 of a mile across. To our surprise what we did not know until we got there is that this is all on private property and owned by one family. They have fenced the entire rim of the crater off and charge $15.00 for an adult to get in and see. Was it worth $30.00 ??? I guess I don't like natural wonders like this being privately owned. It makes me appreciate the National Parks and landmarks more. What if the Grand Canyon was privately owned?

In their defense they have created a nice visitor center with a number of view areas and a movie and displays. By fencing things off they have preserved the crater for research - at least that is what they say. Astronauts trained here for the moon landing. They have a 6' tall cut out of an Astronaut in his space suit with a flag the same size as the one left on the moon. They are only visible with a telescope they appear so small at the bottom. It was late in the day when we got here and they were closing up shop when we left. We also missed out eating at "The Hole Enchilada". (Arlyene LOVED the name!) I am sure it would have been excellent Mexican food well worth whatever it cost in the middle of nowhere.

THE PAINTED DESERT

(Reminder that you can click on any picture to enlarge)

Like the Grand Canyon it is difficult to capture the Painted Desert in a couple of photos but here are four that best represent what we saw there yesterday. We were lucky enough to have a few clouds which gave us more opportunities for interesting shadows. In many ways it looks like the moon or perhaps Mars. This area is also considered "Badlands", a term that applies to many areas where the native americans first made reference to "bad land" that would not support much of anything for human exsistance. Still, it is beautiful in its own way. The area was occupied in the 1100 - 1200's but when the Spanish came through here in 1540 there was no one around.

The first photo is an example of some petroglyphs we were able to view. They are apparently found throughout the park but these were the only ones we could get close to - and not really that close - so thank goodness for the telephoto lens.

There are apparently also many fossils in the area including dinosaurs from 225 million years ago.

Winslow, AZ

I had to do it. Since we are going to see the Eagles live in Phoenix on Wednesday I had to live out the line from Take It Easy. We stopped in Winslow for gas and a picture. Now I understand the song a little bit better because Winslow is another way of saying a tired old town in the middle of nowhere.

Petrified Forest Route

Todays side trip is about 260 miles round trip to the Petrified Forest National Park. Like yesterday we will do this in the "toad" (the pick up truck we tow) and leave Gizmo and Norv here at the KOA. Faster and cheaper and since the toad is a 4WD we can go places the coach could never dream of going.

BY THE WAY you can click on any of the pictures on this blog to get a bigger and better view. Just click your back arrow after looking so you don't get logged off the blog.

Wupatki Pueblo

We also visited the Wupatki National Monument. These pictures are of two different ruins only a couple of miles from each other. These ruins were occupied about 1100.

Sunset Crater

Today (Sunday) we visited the Sunset Crater area northeast of Flagstaff. Lots of lava flows and vent tubes etc. These picture were taken at about 7000 feet.

Grand Canyon Video

Music, "It's a Wonderful World," by IZ Kamakawiwo ʻ ole

The Grand Canyon

We took so many pictures yesterday and so many of them are so good that picking one to post here was difficult. I chose this one because from a sign at this spot I can tell you that the far side of the canyon you can see on the left of this picture (the north rim) is 8.25 miles away. Perhaps that gives you some idea of the vastness of this place. To see a slideshow of all the pictures we took look at this link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/waltdews/OMGITSABUS?authkey=Gv1sRgCOni2q-p8Knh9AE#5460447329523095026

This takes a minute or two to buffer on your computer depending on the speed of your connection and the pictures are a little grainy but you'll get the idea.

This is my third trip here in my adult life and it is still difficult to come up with words to describe the Grand Canyon. I am going to try and make a short slide show of more of the pictures and Arlyene is working on some video so hopefully we will have more to share. In the mean time just wanted to make a quick post to say all is well and we had a near perfect day for our visit to the canyon yesterday. Today is a "down day" since we really have not had one since we left Seattle. We will do some catch up on the computers, I have some work, work to do and we may work in a walk to downtown Williams, which I think has changed little since the pre Interstate 40 days when Route 66 was the main highway. It still goes through the middle of town and it still looks like 1950 except for a new Safeway.

Arrived at Williams Arizona

We arrived at the Canyon Gateway RV Park this afternoon. Tomorrow we will visit the Grand Canyon.

Today's Planned Route

This is today's route from Las Vegas to Williams, AZ where we will hopefully get some great pictures to post here. This is about a 5 to 5 1/2 hour drive with stops, about 240 miles. We have to drive via Laughlin because we can not cross over Hoover Dam so we have to go a little out of our way. They are building a bridge near the dam which will make it easier but that is not scheduled to be completed until next year.

DAYS EIGHT AND NINE - START WEEK TWO

ONE WEEK GONE ALREADY! Today, Saturday, we took a 5 mile hike with Mike and Kimberly on the "Tunnel Trail" . This trail is along old railroad grade and five tunnels that were used to support the building of Hoover Dam. You can see that Lake Mead is a bit low right now. We got an early start to get back before it got really hot. It is in the 90's this afternoon but there is a wind which helps. It also helps that Norv has to air conditioners that are working quite nicely. This evening Arlyene and I plan to go see "How To Train Your Dragon" in 3D. Tomorrow we are having sort of an open house here so family members who have not seen the coach yet can come and meet Norv. The site we are in is little more then a parking lot with hookups but that is because it is attached to Sams Town Casino and I think the idea is for us not to WANT to spend too much time here. They want us inside. Monday we will do some provisioning and we will make a run to Camping World and Costco for some supplies and then Tuesday morning we are off for Williams looking forward to a few days at the Grand Canyon. Hope to post some great pictures from there.

Day...Whatever....Seven

Must be getting in to this vacation thing as I have no clue what day number it is today. If Saturday was day one and today is Friday this must be day seven. Anyway, there has not been much exciting to report compared to the first couple of days. After Redding the weather cleared up and we had an uneventful trip to Palm Desert, staying one night in Bakersfield along the way. Two nights in Palm Desert visting with Dad and Win then yesterday we made the long climb up to Las Vegas where we will be for a few more days. It has been warm enough to need the air conditioners on in the afternoon. We still marvel at our ability to keep electonically in touch from almost anywhere on our route so far. We can do e-mail and phones almost at will. Pretty Cool!

The pictures are of Central California and a crew that washed the coach in the place we stayed in Palm Desert plus one of the lovely road to Las Vegas.