Monday, April 30, 2018

MOAB UTAH - Hiking and Warm Sun

Its Monday the 30 of April and we have been in Moab Utah 13 days and counting, we plan to leave this week and start heading North to our new jobs. We will be working at the Rocky Mountain Elks Foundation in Jackson, Wyoming. We will be in the main visitor center selling items.
The hiking and weather has been outstanding these last couple of weeks here. We have logged over twenty four miles hiking in the area. I am finally starting to get my hiking legs back from hanging out the Winter in Arizona.
                                                                                  
 We did get away from the crowd with this hike, down a 7 mile dirt road and a extremely steep climb to Tower Arch in Arches National Park Link: https://utah.com/hiking/arches-national-park/tower-arch-trail 



The inscription on the south abutment reads "DISCOV'D BY M. AND MRS. ALEX RINGHOEFFER AND SONS 1922-23." the inscription has led to much controversy because the name "Ringhoffer" is misspelled and the date 1922-23 is cryptic. The Ringhoffer family operated a silver mine in Salt Valley and spent Sundays exploring the surrounding country. The family was probably aware of the arch. It is unknown who actually carved the inscription

Our Camp on the beautiful Colorado River

                                                 
we added this to our camp

 
                                                                     

Ancient rock art thousands of years old


Dinosaur track


Lizard in our camp



Landscape arch


Navajo arch

Partition arch


Double "O" arch nice hike in park away from the crowd

                   
                                                                            

Thursday, April 26, 2018

FUN & SUN - On our way Moab Utah

Today is April 26th, 2018. We left the Nut land of Zion National park and stayed a refreshing five days in Escalante Utah. We hiked over 20 miles of remote BLM land with very few People! We stayed in Green River Utah 2 nights before we arrived in Moab. Geni and I
 arrived in Moab Utah on April 16th. It has been awesome weather here since! We stayed here for ten days last year in September when we finished up in Yellowstone. We liked it then and we still really like the Moab area. It is very popular and busy with mountain bikers, jeepers, hikers, climbers, and all other outdoor types. But the difference is that it is surrounded by a million acres of BLM land to disperse the crowds.
We have been hiking Arches National Park here and yes it is People, People and More People! You can avoid them here however by getting up very early. The park starts getting busy at around 10 AM.
We did hike the 3.5 mile round trip up to delicate arch this year! Last year we tried and there was just so many people on the trail it looked like a line of ants heading up to their ant holes! It was still busy but tolerable. We are now up to 12 miles hiking and still counting, we will leave here on May 2nd after spending two weeks here on the Colorado River.
 

Bryce Lodge built 1928


Sunrise point - Bryce NP


Zebra Slot Canyon - 5 mile hike no people!

Entrance Zebra Slot Canyon
Nobody for miles around!

The HODO's





The town of Green river has the John Wesley Powell Museum. The Civil War veteran that was the first to float the Green River and then into the Colorado River into the Grand Canyon in 1869

A one arm Civil war vet floated the mighty Colorado in 1869

His wood boats that he used



Sunday, April 15, 2018

On our way ZION NATIONAL PARK - people people and people

We arrived in Zion National Park on April 5th for our week stay at watchmen campground. The campground was full when we arrived and stayed full till we left. We were here 35 years ago and I can say it is a totally different National Park. First thing I noticed is you have to take a bus into the park now, it stops at every pullout and trail head and it is also totally full of people! That the next thing I noticed is the park was beyond full, people everywhere! They were in Springfield (town that adjoins the Park) , they were on the hiking trails (hundreds of people on every trail!, They were in the visitor center, the buses, the campgrounds everywhere! I'm so glad I experienced Zion NP before it got so popular! As I travel to the National Parks I can clearly see how popular they have become, we our over loving our parks to death!! The park service cannot keep up with the demand, most of these parks are 70-100 years old and have older lodges and services. They increase the entrance fee every year to now it is $35 just to drive into the park! I don't know the answer to how they can fix it either,
they were built as the Arch in Yellowstone states "FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE".
You cannot keep raising the entrance fees so it puts a hardship on the public! The weather was outstanding with temps in the mid 70's everyday.

                                                                                            
  Angles landing is one of the most popular hike in the park. 5 miles straight up with the last 1/4 you hang on chains to reach the peak with a 1500' drop on each side!
The peak with many people way unsafe!



The view from almost the peak of angles landing
People


Elephant skin mountain 

Northgate peaks - no people on this side of park!

Emerald pools hike 2 mile loop 


People at pools



Zion Lodge built in 1926 2 year wait to get a room!

Inside lobby