The Last Week Spent in the Red, the Marvelous, the Unbelievable :: Winter Sojourn 2014/15

Copyright 2015, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Man and I have been moving about Utah, Arizona for several weeks.  We have seen unbelievable beauty.  We have seen stone, rocks, shapes, mystery, surprises, colors of grey, black, white, cream, orange, multiple shades of red, burgundy, bright red, yellow, blue/gray, green, pink and some purple.

We experienced so much there is no way to record it.  We drove up to and over 8900 feet towing Tana.  We drove a lot of miles, paved roads, 2 lane high ways and a bunch of dirt/gravel roads.

We saw high desert, the Colorado River several times, canyons, vistas that go for miles and miles.  We saw horses, mostly domestic, but a few wild ones too.  Cattle, deer, sheep, bison, birds, and a few skittish little creatures, mammals and reptiles.  NO SNAKES!!!  YA!  We saw snow, just for the record.

We saw vehicles of every shape and form.  Camping equipment, dirt bikes, ATV's and who knows what else. Boats, trailers, rigs boondocking, rigs in campgrounds.  Variety counts!

We took a number of hikes, the last one in Capital Reef at well over 5500 feet with lots of inclines and steps.

We had some odd things happen, for instance, when we were preparing to leave Monument Valley, Cappy managed to get himself in the very back of Tana  with the slides closed.  No, I did not close the slides with him running around, as I always hold him in my arms during that process.  But, I did leave him in Tana with slides closed and went out to assist Man in hooking up.  I had never done that before, and I will never again.  SIGH. Retrieving him involved some climbing on a chair, laying on my belly on the table and a very long stretch, all the while he was talking, err, barking at me.  He did not like being stuck back there, I can tell you that!

We drove the 17 mile Valley of Gods dirt road.  It was dry.  I was happy.

We drove through Monument Valley in Jolly. Jolly got very red.  LOL

Then, there is this, which may now be one of my most fav photos, and it was not planned this way.  I was doing a panoramic photo and Man walked into the side of it.  I just kept going, figuring I could delete.  No deleting this beaut!

We drove Scenic 95 on our way to Capital Reef.  A very long day so filled with beauty I am still overwhelmed.

Tana and Jolly had a photo op in the Glen Canyon Recreation area:

The scenery changes constantly:

We visited Capital Reef, which may be one of the most beautiful National Parks we have.  Shhhh, don't tell anyone, or it will become too popular.

We drove out of the Capital Reef/Torey Utah area on Utah 72, another scenic route, the summit is 8975, yes, we found snow, not much, but, snow:

We are now at Moab, tired, worn out and exhilarated.

I have taken over 2200 photos since March 31st.

We were pretty much "disconnected" from the net from March 31st till April 7th.  Sprint did not like me trying to access the internet via my phone and roaming while we were in Torrey.  They froze my phone for a month. Just on roaming data, but, really??  SIGHHHH. We expected to be disconnected in Monument Valley, did not expect such horrible campground wifi in Torrey.  I screamed several times (poor Man) that I HATE HATE HATE campground wifi.  I always have, and apparently, still do, and always will.  Verizon (my iPad and our air card/modem) has never heard of the Capital Reef area.  No cell company has 100% coverage in the USA.  Verizon sure failed in this specific area.  At least the phones are Sprint and sorta worked.

The dry climate and the high altitude have had some affect on our bodies.  We are busy hydrating and resting.

It was GRAND!!




* I will undoubtedly share more photos of this last week at some time in the future.  It's gonna be a while tho.

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