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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My Ansel Adams Photo, Monument Valley Utah :: Winter Sojourn 2014/15

Copyright 2015, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Man and I have been offline for about a week.  It's a long story, not for telling now.

During the color filled awe inspiring days we visited Monument Valley and this time we chose to drive the valley roads ourselves, stopping and taking more photos than any one person needs in their lives, err, on their computer hard drives.   We stopped at the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park visitors center. They have a great porch overlooking the valley, and a sign about Photographers Point.  It says Ansel Adams and other famous photographers "have used this point as a source for their inspiration."

So you know I took a bunch of photos from that point.  Tee hee.

And, so I call this my Ansel Adams Photo:

* Only editing done on this photo was to reduce the size for the blog.

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Sunrise at Monument Valley Utah :: Winter Sojourn 2014/15

Copyright 2015, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Man and I are on a do-over of Monument Valley.  We have been hoping for blue skies and no wind.

We have had blue skis and some wind.  Today, a bunch of wind.

This is the first time in 2 days that I have been able to connect the computer to the internet.  I hope it holds long enough to get this posted.

Yesterday morning:  Sunrise:

We drove Valley of the Gods yesterday.  Today is so sandy misty we may just stay home.

More when we return to the land of real internet.  Or, my version of real.  LOL




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THE Trip, Monument Valley Utah to Moab Utah

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

(Note:  Yes, this is another graphics heavy post, as will be the one that follows.  Hope you can stick around.)

After just 3 nights stay and sadly some rain and weather not conducive to sightseeing, Man and I leave Monument Valley less than fulfilled, a bit let down.  This is such a beautiful place, spiritual, colorful, breathtaking.  Maybe some day we can return, we hope so.  If not, we do have the memories and the photos.

Our drive takes us about 150 miles, give or take from Monument Valley to Moab Utah via 163 north and 191 north.

It is sunny today, so we do get a second look at some of the sights from Monument Valley to Mexican Hat, sure looks better with a bit of sun and a lot less raindrops!  LOL

Little did we realize that this drive would take us past snow covered mountains, more rock and stone formations than you can believe exist, and that we would drive up to 7,260 feet, give or take a few.  Big Butt was working hard, pulling beautifully, and other than this little annoying code it threw in Man's face just south of Blanding all was well.  It turned out to be a sensor that needed cleaning, minor, but still concerning when you are running hard, totin' a slim and svelt (NOT) Tana on 6, 8 and 10% grades.

Here are a few of the views and sights we saw along the way:

Above: Look closely at this photo, do you see the building over to the right of the photo,
it is almost the same color as this rock, see it?? Ya, it looks small next to the rock,
the ROCK IS MASSIVE! 
Some of these formations rise 500 to 1000 feet or more from the desert floor.

Above, can you even begin to imagine how it must be to see this out your front or back door,
EVERY time you open it??  Or out your front or back windows?
I would just have to have a LOT of HUGE windows.

The views were outta this world stunning and amazing, I took over 275 photos, most of those at 50 to 60 MPH.  I barely put the camera down!  And, in the next post, I will bring you more of the beautiful scenery we saw from Monument Valley to Moab.




*Our drive from Monument Valley to Moab Utah was done on April 25, 2011
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THE Trip, Mexican Hat, Goosenecks State Park, Painted Rocks, Valley of the Gods, the Drippy Tour Day

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

Sadly, the day after our guided tour of Monument Valley the weather was still wet, drippy and gloomy.  However, since our time in this area was limited we decided to go for a ride and see some of the other highlights of the area, better to see them drippy wet, if possible, than not to see them at all.  We drove north on 163 and further north on 261.  We ended up coming back the same way, because our hoped for drive of the Valley of the Gods road was just not to be, you are advised by very strongly worded signs not to drive it if it is wet, and, it was wet.  Even with the less than stellar weather and photographic conditions, I took over 130 photos.

Just north of the town of Mexican Hat, is the formation known by the same name.  We are again amazed and mesmerized by the forces of Mother Nature and her brats and the outcome.

We saw more stunning, breath taking formations:

Still further north, more painted rock hills.  There is that word again - - stunning!  Looks like a child's painting to me, the striking layers of colors jotting up and down the hills.

Our next destination was Goosenecks State Park, where the scenery is the draw, although there is a small primitive campground (no water, no power, outhouses) there as well. One of our MOC fulltiming friends makes this a regular stop/stay, and I have to say, their campsite has fabulous scenery!  WOW!  So, I have two panoramic photos to share with you.  You know the routine, click on the image to go to a larger view, click your back button to return to Reflections.

Back out on 261 driving north again, it won't be long before you start spotting more monument type formations, which are on the east side of 261.  These monuments are part of the Valley of the Gods.  The best way to see all of the Valley of the Gods is via CR 242, which was our hope.  But, it was wet, and it is one of the regrets of our trip, that we could not make this drive.  You can see from this photo, the conditions were tanking, foggy, but, in some way, rather mystical.  This photo has NOT been edited, this is how it looked to me and to Sony.

So, we sadly turned around and went back towards our campsite, stopping for just a few minutes at a artist trading center type collection of stores.  From that vantage point I took just a few more photos of the monuments in Monument Valley.  Not the best photos due to the weather conditions, but, I just could not stop myself from trying to capture the beauty, even when raining.

We head towards Moab next.  Days and days of photos, using up two sets of batteries for Sony in a day.  Click, click, click!

I have not taken Monument Valley off my bucket list, I would love to do it all over again, with sunny days.  And, that Valley of the Gods road really is screaming my name!  This is such a special place, what a fabulous introduction to Utah.  I could spend weeks in this area, and take thousands of photos and never get enough!



* Our soggy day at the Goosenecks and beyond was April 24, 2011.
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THE Trip, Monument Valley, Susie's Story

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

One of the benefits of taking a paid tour of Monument Valley is the "insider" information you learn and "extras" you get to see.  One of our "extras" was to meet Susie and visit her in her home/work area.

Susie lives deep in Monument Valley, this hogan is on her homestead.   The pipe at the center top is the exhaust for the heating system, the door faces east.

We were escorted inside of Susie's work space/museum (not the structure above).  This photo shows the way it is built, and a few skeins of hand made yarn.

Here is Susie, working her wool into yarn.  Look at those hands fly.  She demonstrated just about every skill and step required to take that raw material to a finished rug or tapestry.  You can see a lovely piece she is weaving behind her, and wool in many stages.

Here she is again, surrounded by the tools of her craft.

By the way, Susie is reportedly somewhere between 90 and 100 years of age, they think.  She has 5 children, 4 boys and 1 daughter.  She has 24 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and 16 great-great-grandchildren.




* We can strongly urge you to take a tour if you ever get a chance to visit Monument Valley, you will learn more, see more, and appreciate more than you can ever learn, see or appreciate by driving the valley in a self tour.  All the tour brochures in the world will not give you the flavor of the valley the way these tours do. Besides, you won't get your truck or car stuck back there on one of those fabulous sand dunes!  This is a great example of letting someone else do the driving and the teaching.
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THE Trip, Monument Valley Utah, The Tour

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

(Note:  this post is heavily graphics loaded.  I hope you can stick around long enough for the photos and slide show to load, and that you will enjoy the post.  If not, hope to see ya here at Reflections some time soon.)

It is not what Man and I usually do, but, the tour of Monument Valley hosted by Gouldings (and others) came highly recommended by our RVing friends, so, that is exactly what Man and I did, signed up, paid up, and off we went.  Worth every penny we paid.  On the tour you get taken into areas of the valley that you would not see if you self drive.  The Navajo guide explains history, geology, names the monuments, sharing their culture with you.

The weather took a turn for the worst overnight, it was chilly, and dank, and rain threatened.  Heavy dark rain clouds hung over us all day, and near the end of our 3 plus hour tour, it did indeed rain.

Before the slide show (ya, got one again here at Reflections) I would show you a few special photos, first these three "holes".  I do not remember what geological name these may have, sorry, but, aren't they special??

Below, the hole is at the very top, this is called the Big Hogan, you can find the Wikipedia definition of Hogan here, and this structure does not fit the description, but, you can see that this HUGE rock with a hole in the "ceiling" could be considered a home.

Below, this hole goes through the entire depth of the stone, front to back.

Below, this photo does NOT begin to portray the size of this structure and of the hole.  The sand dune to reach it was huge as well.

The photo below will give you a bit of an idea of the scope and size of these structures.  Look close, way behind the van, yep, there he is, Man!!  He has on a hat and a dark red jacket.  Holding up the walls of the beautiful red rock of Monument Valley.

Looking close at this photo as well, you might see a pony and a rider:

Now, I'll admit I did some serious cropping on this photo, cause there were some ugly trash cans on the bottom right, but, I did want to share this wonderful view of the Valley, so, I cropped!   LOL

And, now, the slide show:



I leave you with a panoramic of some of the stunning formations at Monument Valley.

* Our visit to Monument Valley was on April 23, 2011.

** Finally remembered, those holes, were called "windows" when we were in Moab area.
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