Category: Utah

Day 16 – Final day of our Tour of Utah

This is our final day of our Tour of Utah. We will travel from Eureka Nevada to Verdi Nevada – home. The trip was a lot of fun but it is always nice to get back home. Besides we have someone special waiting for us to pick him up – Jenner! We will be watching him for the next 4 days.

The trip home was unremarkable, but at least with no wind or rain. We see the last of the fall colors outside of Austin and make a stop at one of Nevada’s Pony Express Station stops.
We say goodbye to Bill & Janie and Roger & Karen in Fallon and then on to home in Verdi.

Day 15 Tour of Utah

Today we get up at 6:30. Rick changes the carburetor on Lizzie in hopes she will run smoother. We have breakfast at the Silver Cafe again. It is huge portions and very good. We are on our way to Eureka, after taking pictures of our cars in front of the old Ford Garage.

 The highlight today was a herd of pronghorn, but I wasn’t fast enough to get a very good picture.

And Mount Wheeler. We go over 4 passes today with the highest being 7722 feet and Tin Lizzie is running better.
We ended the day in Eureka and did the self guided walking tour of the town. We went through the museum, the opera house and the court house. Roger bought the group drinks for our final night and we had dinner together at The Owl.

Day 14 Tour of Utah

Today we leave to head back home. We get up at 5:30, load up, have breakfast at 6 and  are on the road by 7. We travel back over Hwy. 14 again. This time the fall colors  are coming to an end as is our trip.

We stop in Cedar City for lunch and pick up gas. On our way out of town we pass Bob and Marilyn headed back to BC with their car loaded on their trailer. We drive to Panaca and get gas-not much else there to be had.  Our final stop for the day is Pioche and the Overland Hotel. It is really old and quaint. We are in the “Anasazi Dwelling” room.

We eat in the only place open in town – The  Silver Cafe. The food is really good. The town is like a ghost town.  

Day 13 Tour of Utah

Today we get up early to the most beautiful sunrise  over Monument Valley. I take pictures right from our room balcony.

We decide the 17 mile trip through Monument Valley is too rough for Tin Lizzie. We head on and make a spur of the moment decide to go out to Navajo National Monument. Bob and Marilyn go with us. We were glad we went. It was only 9 miles out and 9 miles back. It was cliff dwellings similar to Mesa Verde. We missed their once a day hike to them but went out to the overlook and enjoyed seeing them. We had a picnic lunch before going on.

Next it is onto Page to make it for our last night of the tour farewell dinner cruise on Lake Powell.

Where we have a great dinner with great friends and end up being blessed once again with a fantastic sunset but this time over Lake Powell.

The end of the tour with the Tour Leader-Bob Travis, the President-Brad Richter, and the Assistant Tour Leader-Bob Moore.

Day 12 Tour of Utah

Today our first stop is to Natural Bridges.

We stop at an overlook to some ancient Indian ruins and kivas.

                                                The second of the three Natural Bridges.

                                       We decide to hike down and under the third “bridge”.

We then are our way down to Monument Valley and on the way we have to go down 2+ miles of dirt road that is 10% down grade with sharp switchbacks to reach the valley from the mesa. Needless to say we went down in low gear, slow! Rick did well with his love of heights with no guard rails.
We pass Mexican Hat Rock.

                                                  And then it is onto Monument Valley.

We have dinner at the lodge and watch the sun set over the valley.
What a beautiful site to end the day with a full moon!

Day 11 Tour of Utah

Today is to explore Canyonland – “The Needles”.

Our first stop is the Visitor’s Center and one of the car’s has smoke rolling out into the cab.
How many men does it take to fix a Model A?
                It ended up being a shorted out wire, fixed and everyone on their way again.

We go down the trail and see ruins and some pictographs. Next we have to climb some ladders.

Onto the “potholes”
This guy was glad to get a drink.
We are then onto “The Needles”

                                            We see the Wooden Shoe Arch on our way out. And then make a stop at the Newspaper Rock. And thank goodness we did because when we stopped the oil is pouring out of Lizzie! We lost half of her oil from a broken oil line. Rick plugs it and we get oil from Bob and are on our way again.

We end the day by coming over the mountain through pretty aspen in fall colors and down into Blanding and eat at the Steak House-the only place open in town.

Day 10 Tour of Utah

We get up and have breakfast in our room. Then set out for a day in Canyonlands. We are going to the section called “The Island in the Sky” today. But our first stop will be to Dead Horse Point State Park. It is the famous horseshoe bend in the Colorado River where the story goes that the cowboys   chased wild horses onto the end, corralled them, chose the best ones to keep and left the others to die of thirst.

Next we went to Mesa Arch and hiked out to it. It was a pretty arch and some “crazy” people actual walked over the top of it.

We go on to Upheaval Dome next.
We have a picnic lunch with Roger and Karen and share a table with a couple from Munich, Germany. Rick and I then hike out to both Overlook One and Overlook Two.

We end up at the Grand View Point before heading back for our picture at Balanced Rock.
We again end the day with having dinner with 6 others at Zax’s.

Day 9 Tour of Utah

Today was a “free day” to do whatever we wanted. We had said yes to Jay when he invited us to join him on a rafting trip on the Colorado River. And boy are we glad we said yes. It was a beautiful day on the river, with some class 2 rapids, wonderful weather, breath taking sites and a fantastic lunch made by Jay. I will have to add pictures later because I don’t have a water proof camera and will post some when I get them from Sally.

We make it back to the motel just in time to clean up and go to dinner with the entire group and then join the boat trip up the river and see the “Sound & Light Show”. What a fantastic show.

The guide points out a lot of faces and figures you can imagine by looking at the rocks. This one of a man’s face.
As the sun sets and the moon rises the colors on the rock walls changes.
The light show and the history of Moab coming back is like none other. I just watched and listened and didn’t take pictures.
The possibility of a new arch being formed, not to be seen in our life time but showing how things are always changing. The end of another great day, with my thinking it can’t be better tomorrow but each day brings new and different sites and things to see and do.

Day 8 Tour of Utah

We get up and head out to a place to get the luggage bracket welded on Lizzie. It is at a man’s home and he has a shop out back. He ends up welding both sides on the spot for only $20. We then get the oil changed on Lizzie with it being the new engine. The guys had never changed oil on a Model A before, so Rick helps out. We end up back to the motel by 10:30 and have plenty of time to go to Arches. We go with Roger and Karen and Jay, Terri, Cammie, and Sally.

Our first stop in the park after the Visitor’s Center is to Balanced Rock. From there you can see the La Sal Mountains with snow on the tops.
We drive by The Three Gossips.
We are then on our way to The Windows. Rick and I actually climb all the way up and sit in one of the windows.
With Rick’s “love” of heights this is not his favorite thing to be doing!
But we make it up and down and then have a picnic lunch with others before heading on by ourselves to go to Delicate Arch. What is a trip to Arches in Utah if you don’t climb to see it.
It is a steep 3 mile hike with some narrow places with big drop off cliffs, again not Rick’s favorite thing to do, but we make it and it is well worth it.    
Another great day ended with having dinner with friends at Zax Restaurant.

Day 7 Tour of Utah

We get up and have breakfast at the motel. They have a nice buffet, however it is not included with the price of the room.  But nature’s beauty makes up for it, for this is the site from our room of the sunrise!

Then we are off with Roger and Karen being our leader today. Bob and Marilynn and John and Judy join us to make a group of four. We are on our way with Capitol Reef being our first stop. We stop and watch a very nice movie at the Visitor’s Center.

We decide to go up the canyon and take the hike to the “tanks”.
We go to the end of the pavement and then take the dirt road further up the canyon until it ends and then we get out and hike up through the canyon for a mile.
It is a really pretty walk through the canyon.
The last 0.2 miles is the steepest, but worth the climb.
The “tanks” are pretty. It is amazing the amount of water that is still in them this late in the year.
There is wild life here, if you look for it, even if it is small.
Past Capitol Dome and then onto Moab where we are staying the next three days.

Day 6 Tour of Utah

We get up early and are on the road by 7:45. We are headed to Bryce Canyon. We start out with eight cars and soon change to three – ourselves and Bob and Marilyn and John and Judy join us. It is a very nice group. We watch the movie at the visitor center and then head to Sunrise Point so we can hike down into the hoodoos in the canyon.

We decide to go down to the Queen’s Garden.
It is a beautiful hike. It is just amazing and every direction you turn is another beautiful site. The colors are always changing depending on the light.
It is a long hot, steep climb back out, but it was worth it!
Once back up on top we had a late lunch/early dinner at the Bryce Lodge. We all had their buffet. Then it was a very enjoyable ride over the mountain from Bryce to Torrey. We saw a lot of cows, deer, and fall colors. We crested the summit at 9,600 feet, there were skiffs of snow already.
We finish the day with a very pretty sunset and make it to the motel by 7:30.
  

Day 5 Tour of Utah

Today we get up and are on the road by 8:00 to make it to Zion National Park before the parking spots are gone. We go through the 1.1 mile tunnel to start. While waiting to go through we see mountain sheep.

We park at the information center and get on the shuttle.  A group of eight of us decide to hike to the three Emerald Pools. It was a moderate hike but the last pool made it worth it.
Wild turkeys at the beginning of the hike.
We cross the Virgin River, which is still full of silt and running fast from the rain, but nothing like it was 24 hours ago.
We make the hike up to the pools.
We make it back down and are ready to have some lunch. It is beautiful views no matter where you look!
After lunch and listening to a lecture on the geology of the area we hop on the shuttle again and head to the River Walk up to the Narrows.
We make it to the head of the Narrows but decide we are not going to hike up through the river.
The sun on the rocks is very pretty as we hike out. We decide to go to Springdale for dinner and finish with getting an ice cream cone before driving back to the motel. I think we were the first group out this morning and the last back in but it was a very fun day with friends in beautiful country!

Day 4 Tour of Utah

We get up and it is not raining! We leave at 9 and head to Coral Pink Sand Dunes Park. We sign releases and are off on our ATV trip through the dunes. Rick and I ride together. It was a lot of fun.

We take the short nature hike through the dunes before having lunch and leaving.
We are then on our way to Cedar Breaks. We go via Hwy. 14 again, but it is a pretty drive.
The fall colors are pretty. Cedar Breaks is at 10,350 feet, which I didn’t expect. It was cold and they had a half an inch of snow last night!
We walk out to the point overlook. It is really pretty.
Then it is back to the motel. We see a lot of deer on the way back.
We had a very enjoyable day. We finished with having dinner with a couple from Florida that just joining the touring club.

Day #3 Utah Tour

We get up at 7:30, it has rained all night. Breakfast at 8 with all the group. It is still raining. The ATV trip at Coral Pink Sand Dunes and lunch have been canceled. There has been so much rain and flooding that Zion Park is closed! The dry stream beds are now rushing with chocolate color water.

We decide to go 17 miles to Kanab for lunch. Rick is not feeling any better and right after lunch we decide we better find out what is going on. So how better to spend a rainy day than in ER???

 

Good news – No appy – just severe gastro with treatment just taking Pepto!

On our way back it is still raining but Rick feels better just knowing nothing serious is wrong, so we stop and go to the Moqui Cave. It was very interesting. Back to the motel and finish the day with dinner with Roger and Karen.

Day 2 Tour of Utah

We get up at 5:30, have breakfast at 6, get Subway sandwiches and on the road by 7:15. It is hot, dry and windy but not quite as windy as yesterday. Rick’s gut starts bothering him with severe abdominal cramps. He takes some imodium and can’t wait to get to Rachel. Hwy. 365 has got to be the biggest contestant for “loneliest highway”. It goes forever and there is nothing, but this roundup of cattle.

We make it to Ash Springs for gas  and have our picnic lunch – but not Rick, he spends his time in the bathroom. The Laughlins and Gashs head on wanting to get in before dark. We leave about 10 minutes later to continue on our own. We continue onto Cedar City and get gas, Rick decides he can make it so we don’t stop at ER. On our way over Hwy. 14 we just miss being involved in a terrible accident by literally seconds. A pickup with a utility trailer lost control on the curve and wet pavement coming down the hill towards us and hit the two pickups right behind us. We stop and help at the scene The second pickup had four children so I helped with the four year old. It took rescue an hour to get there because of no cell coverage. We finally go on and the fall colors are pretty.

We finally go on and get to Mt. Carmel Junction after dark at 7:30. It was a long, long day and Rick still does not feel well.

CIRCLE OF UTAH TOUR 2014 IN TIN LIZZIE

This trip had a rough start. A month before it was to start we were on our way up Spooner to Lake Tahoe (to Roger’s funeral-who was to join us on this trip) when all of a sudden we hear a loud bang and we pull to the side of the road. The engine on Tin Lizzie lost a rod and it was the first time in 50 years that Rick couldn’t fix her and had to have her towed home!

After a month’s worth of work on replacing her engine we started the trip today. Traveling from Verdi to Tonapah didn’t have anything new to take pictures of today. Not to mention the dust from the heavy winds didn’t make for nice scenery. Roger Gash lead us through a different route with very little traffic, or can we say no traffic, that made it nice. We traveled about 50 mph or slower at times with the winds which made it nice for a new engine.