Monday, April 3, 2017--Arches National Park

     We had a lovely night "dry camping" at Archview RV Resort (that means we parked in the parking lot as there was no room for us last night but we got reservations for a RV spot for tonite). It was quiet and a lovely view. 

     From our spot in the parking lot, we could see arches on the horizon at Arches National Park 4 miles distant.

     We arrived at the park at 9 am and drove directly to the parking lot for the trail to the Delicate Arch.

(We don't have our beautiful blue sky today so it makes quite a difference in the photos.)

     We got the last spot in a huge parking lot! At the beginning of the trail there was a lineup at the bathrooms! 

     We headed up the trail at 10 am. As the sky was mostly cloudy it was cool at the beginning. The journey was similar to what I have read about climbing Mt Fuji--a steady stream of people, lots of little kids, lots of languages being spoken besides English, some people running, and one man on crutches. 

     The trail is up, up, up for 1 1/2 miles. At over 5000 elevation, your breath comes a little harder. (Below) We were surprised to find Ute Indian rock art.

     A brilliant spot of color on the route.

     Centuries old junipers are the stately patriarchs of the park. You can see the parking lot in the center distance.

     As this is a pilgrimage, the pilgrims pay homage with icons along the trail.

     At places the trail drops off on one side and has a sheer cliff on the other. It separates the wall-huggers from the rest!

     Today's first view of the Delicate Arch!

     As we expected, there was a crowd at the Arch, but very congenial as we had all made the long trek.  

     Paul and I had hiked to the Delicate Arch 40 years ago and the arch was the same, but we passed only 6 people on the whole trek instead of many hundreds today. The trail was much more primitive 40 years ago. 

     We did enjoy the whole experience today very much. It was funny to see another lineup at the base of the arch itself, of people waiting to get their individual photos standing under the arch. We got that photo 40 years ago but did not today!

      This shows the arch as we first saw it 40 years ago--with no other human visitors. Below, today. Thanks, Linda, a perfect daypack for Adventures--overseas or not! I love it!

     It is a stunningly beautiful arch! The subject of thousands of photos today. You can see the parking lot and the park road from the Arch!

     Sofie seemed to not be enjoying RV travel so much today as she was confined to the van. Dogs are not allowed on the trails in National Parks. With the overcast skies, roof vent and fan she was quite comfortable even though she would have rather gone with us. 

     After the trek, we drove to the end of the park road stopping at many view spots and taking lots of photos. The sun intermittently peeked through to help our photos, but we missed the brilliant blue sky of yesterday.

     Then we came back to the RV park where we are enjoying electricity, water, hot showers and internet.   It was a surprise to see lilacs blooming in the RV park!

     Editor's note: Internet at RV parks is difficult at best. At 8 pm when I am blogging, the internet goes into hiding. I think everyone else is on-line at the same time. I almost lost all my work the past two nights, and blogging is a very slow slog. It takes 5 minutes to load each photo!

Today Our Eyes Were On:

Excited, ambitious, out-of-shape, athletic, happy, cranky, tall, short, young, old, generous, selfish people of all sorts working toward a single goal. It was a very interesting and heart-warming sight!

Sunday, April 2, 2017--Willard Bay State Park, Brigham City, Utah to Archview RV Park, Moab, Utah--224 miles

     Mallards quacking woke us this morning. Dawn was breaking and skies were cloudy and temperature was 49 degrees when we left at 7 am. 

     Paul drove the nearly 100 miles through Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo--the freeway was six lanes most of the way--and busy. We were glad it was early Sunday morning instead of rush hour. 

     We passed by numerous huge oil refineries, oil trains, mining, destruction (mining) of whole mountains and a sign on a poshish neighborhood "Welcome to Silicone Slopes". None of it was a pretty sight and we were glad to see the end of it.

     Then I drove across the mountains on a mostly 2 lane highway with numerous passing lanes and more numerous huge trucks going faster than I wanted to go. There was snow on the pass and tremendous road cuts on the highway.

     Paul drove the anchor leg, a bit of it with less traffic. As we neared Arches it was a steady line going to and from. The La Sal mountains in the distance told us we were nearing our destination. These peaks span a distance of 10 miles and contain 3 clusters of peaks, 12 of the peaks over 12,000 feet in elevation. 

     We were happy to find an RV spot 4 miles from Arches National Park.  Our spot was "dry camping" in the RV parking lot. The park was full! But we reserved an actual hook-up site for the next night, and we were glad for a place to perch for the night in such a busy, crowded location. All in all, the driving was quite tedious today.

     Then we drove to Arches park at 1 pm and waited in line to enter.  This is peak visitor time for Arches, which we did not know. The temperature was 70 degrees and the sun came out for us. 

     The park road is being rebuilt all summer and the park campground is closed during construction. This contributes to a shortage of campgrounds.

Nothing like red rocks and blue sky to put a smile on my face!

      Love those snowy peaks of the La Sal Mountains in the background

 Balanced Rock--still standing but looking precarious

 North Arch and the bird of the day--Common Raven. They rule the park!

      The Three Gossips and Paul at his favorite formation known as Park Avenue

     Around every turn is a new surprise!

IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! We love Arches!

Today Our Eyes Were On . . . 

Highways, big trucks, traffic, lots of RVs, big trucks, evidence of man's overuse of the land, more highways and finally. . . .

One of our favorite places with red rocks, snowy peaks, blue skies, old and new juniper trees and ARCHES!

     Saturday, April 1, 2017--Three Island Crossing State Park, Glenns Ferry, ID to Willard Bay State Park, Brigham City, Utah--222 miles.
     We awoke at 6 am after a peaceful and comfy night's sleep. The temperature was a cool 37 degrees. It was pitch black outside! The sun rose at 7:22 am! So much for an early start. As soon as we stepped outside we were serenaded by several Meadowlarks welcoming another sunny day. We left the campground at 8:10. (It took a while to reorganize ourselves so it was lucky we got up in the dark.)

     The Sawtooth Mountains offered the prettiest sights of the day's driving.

     We made it to our campground at noon, had a quick lunch and then to Bear River Wildlife Refuge (one of our favorite places on earth). This is the Visitor's Center, which was open.

     We were soon very disappointed to find the Auto Tour road closed and under a foot of water. 

     This old Coot saved us from being completely skunked on water birds at Bear River. We also saw but did not get a photo of 2 Avocets on the side of the road. So, instead of enjoying an afternoon of water- and shorebird watching, we went on a Wild Goose chase. At Bear River, the ranger suggested we take a spin to a nearby Wildlife Management Area. After driving about 18 miles, we decided it was not worthwhile so abandoned it without finding the wild goose! 

     Here we were at 2 pm and the rest of the day to fill and  too many mosquitoes in our campground to be outside. Paul had the great idea to get gas and find internet so I could do my blog. I jumped at the chance. We had not seen any sign of internet since we left home! 

     This pair of Common Grackles at the Flying J gas stations was the most exciting bird find of the day! Besides being a bird we don't see normally, it is on the edge of its range here Brigham City! We were first alerted by their very loud and noisy squawking, jabbering sounds, and got these photos of the pair and then the female Grackle.

     After returning to camp from getting gas and blogging on the internet, Paul and I both jumped out to settle into our campsite. Someone forgot she put the Subway sandwiches temporarily on the bench seat. Paul got back into the motor home in time to rescue the last half of his 12" sandwich. Sofie got the first half. Mine was safe also. Sofie had a guilty smile on her face!

     Views to Willard Bay from our campsite and to the beautiful Wasatch Mountains on the other side of the camp

     And finally, Paul's prize shot of American White Pelicans at sunset.So I hope you enjoy seeing how our adventure has begun. We have come about 550 miles so far.

Today Our Ears were on a chorus of Meadowlarks greeting the new day!

Our Noses were on miles and miles of the odor of Cattle Feedlot Central in Idaho--so many feedlots!

Our Eyes were on the beautiful Sawtooth Mountains behind a sagebrush sea and a  rare and wonderful juniper forest on the bed of ancient Lake Bonneville.

Friday, March 31, 2017--Walla Walla to Three Island Crossing State Park, Glenns Ferry, Idaho--324 miles

     At 5:30 this morning Somebody jumped out of bed and said, “It feels like Christmas morning! Let’s go! ” I agreed, so we did.

     We left home at 7:15. I scraped a bit of frost off the motorhome window. But the sky was blue all over!

     At Deadman’s Rest Area Red Crossbills flitted overhead with a Violet-Green Swallow.

      Three Sandhill Cranes were feeding at Ladd Marsh south of La Grande, OR.

     Spectacular Wallowa Mountains rise over the prairies north of Baker City

     At Farewell Bend State Park, we lunched on chicken, artichoke, feta cheese, olive and pasta salad in the motorhome as there was a brisk and cold wind all day. The Snake River appeared quite full with Spring runoff.

     We watched a flock of 20 Downy Woodpeckers cavorting and whinnying, moving so fast we didn't get photos. Highlights of our daily birding were a pair of Osprey on the platform at the Umatilla River at Mission, Oregon—a sure sign of Spring. 

     By 3:30 when we arrived at our camping site at Three Island Crossing State Park (Idaho), the sun had warmed the day to a balmy if still breezy 68 degrees. We walked the campground, soaking up the luxurious warmth. We had  27 species for the day. As we got ready to turn in for the night, Someone mentioned that things were a bit cramped. We had to do the man/woman/dog shuffle a few times. But there was unanimous agreement that it beats a tent all to heck!!!!!

Today Our Eyes Were On:

Many long-awaited Signs of Spring

Blooming fruit trees around Milton-Freewater

Blue skies from horizon to horizon ALL DAY LONG

Brilliant green fields of wheat

Just snowy patches left in the Blue Mountains

The open road in three states with oodles of other RV’s heading for outdoor fun