Month: September 2014

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.