Utah: Petroglyphs near Moab - July 27

We left Torrey and moved on to Moab. We drove out Potash Road and found these petroglyphs right along side the road. Note the hunters in front of and behind the huge bear.

Utah: Burr Trail/Notom Road - July 15

We left Torrey at 9am today and took Rt. 12 to Boulder. We stopped just this side of Boulder to find a geocache and discovered then that there was a problem with a locked brake on our rental 4-wheel drive Kia. The kind folks at Thousand Lakes RV park promptly delivered another rental and while we waited the hour or so it took them to get there, we found another geocache and bought cookies - 8" cookies - just in case we got stranded in the wilderness. :-)

The first 35 miles of the Burr Trail are paved and quite scenic, but after the pavement ends it gets drop dead gorgeous! I took 135 photos and had a difficult time picking out a handful of them. Once again, the photos just can't do this place justice.

Utah: Burr Trail/Notom Road - July 15

Still going down. There are half a dozen serious switchbacks to the bottom. We were glad we came from Rt. 12 instead of Rt. 24 so we could enjoy the view on the way down. We were also glad our Kia had brakes!


Made it to level ground!

Utah: Burr Trail/Notom Road - July 15

The east side of the Waterpocket Fold. Most visitors to Capitol Reef don't get to see this.

The Velvet

DD (dear daughter) wanted to know what the Velvet was so here are two photos of what we see every time we walk out our door. Galen and Larry walked across the top of it last weekend - saw a 5'snake. Galen and I took a 4-wheeler up to the top in 2006.

Utah: Rt. 12 Geocache - July 6

We did three geocaches today. This one is up a bumpy dirt road off Rt. 12 and we would not have found this scenic view if a cache hadn't led us there. I am up to 76 caches now.

Utah: Hell's Backbone - July 6

A close up Google Earth view of Hell's Backbone.

Utah: Hell's Backbone - July 6

This is a nice view of the Hell's Backbone bridge from a geocache we did near the bridge. We turned around at the bridge and went back to Rt. 12 rather than drive 40 more miles of narrow, dusty, washboard Posey Road.

Utah: Hell's Backbone - July 6

It took four shots stitched together to get this photo. I took the photos from the bridge and the green you see way down there is the tops of tall trees! Our GPS said it was six miles to Hell's Backbone but that is as the crow flies. It was 16 miles on a narrow gravel road.

Utah: Hell's Backbone Geocache - July 6

We did a geocache on the way back from the Hell's Backbone bridge. Larry and I are standing at the edge of the cliff where the geocache is hidden. Lu said she wasn't going to take one more step, but got out of the truck and watched from above. Our truck was clean when we left Torrey this morning, but wasn't after driving the Hell's Backbone road.

Utah: Google Earth photos of Rt. 12

These are two Google Earth photos of Rt. 12. Calf Creek Falls are in the valley.

Utah: Calf Creek - July 6

We drove the breathtaking Rt 12 to Calf Creek Falls today. You can't see the road itself in this photo, but you can see about where it is. This photo was taken from the Calf Creek Recreation area. There is a campground here, but only for tenters and very small trailers. It is a steep drop with a sharp curve from Rt. 12 into the Calf Creek Rec area.

Utah: Calf Creek - July 6

I'm still too gimpy to do a six mile hike so had to sit and wait in this ugly place. :-) I read, slept, played iPod games, and took a few photos. The only way to the falls is a 3 mile hike in and a 3 mile hike back out not including about a half mile through the parking lot each way. It took them 3.5 hours, including 20 minutes to cool off at the falls. Galen and I did this hike in 2006 on a hot day and clearly remember how good the mist off the falls felt. The falls are 126' high.


Here is a photo of Rt. 12 taken from the Calf Creek area.

Utah: Calf Creek Falls - July 6

Larry and Lu at Calf Creek Falls. Galen took the photo with Larry's camera.


Lu is dipping her hat in the water before heading back. It was a pretty hot hike. The guy with the backpack is Galen. Larry took the photo.

Utah: Robber's Roost Party - July 5

Galen, Larry, Lu and I were invited to the Robber's Roost (a way cool coffee shop) employee party. Buffalo burgers, steaks, and ribs were provided and we all brought a dish to pass. The four of us provided entertainment - played some dulcimer tunes and Galen sang a couple of tunes. We figured we would be background music, but people sat and paid attention and seemed to really enjoy it. We had a good time, too.

Utah: Torrey - July 4, 2009

We started our day with a bike ride to town to go to the Boy Scout Pancake Breakfast. It is a popular event and we had to stand in line a while.


We expected candy to be thrown out at the parade, but not apple pies!


Galen was helping serve lunch so I shared my pie with him.

Utah: Torrey - July 4, 2009

A storm blew in during the afternoon, but cleared up in time for a campfire and s'mores in the evening.

Capitol Reef - Pleasant Creek - June 27

We didn't have very good directions so our 1 mile hike became a 2.5 mile hike. We were not supposed to go across Pleasant Creek. We were supposed to follow it to the petroglyphs and pictographs. Sigh.



The guys left us wimpy girls in the shade, went the right direction, and brought back photos.

Rt. 12 - June 21, 2009

Larry, Lu, Galen and I drove over Boulder Mountain to Escalante today on one of the most beautiful roads in the USA. Rt. 12 runs from Torrey, Utah to Bryce Canyon National Park and through the amazing Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The views alone are enough to call this area amazing but there is much more going on in this wild place. A few examples:
*Twenty species of bees live here that live nowhere else in the world. One species only likes cactus flowers.
*Dinosaurs that have not been discovered anywhere else in the world have been discovered here! Some discoveries are so new and strange that they don't even have names yet.
*The iron in the sandstone cliffs washes out. This not only changes the color of the sandstone, but the iron goes on and forms into little "marbles", little blocks, and even pipes sticking out the rocks.

Rt 12 - June 21, 2009

Curves, a couple 14% grades and several single digit grades, an area called the Hogs Back that drops pretty much straight down on both sides of the road, and no unsightly guard rails. :-)