Trip West '06 #1

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We’ve been gone for about 3 weeks now. Our route has taken us from Orlando to Rogersville, AL, then on through Little Rock and Amarillo. We stopped for a couple of days at Santa Fe, NM and then headed up to Navajo State Park near Durango in Southwestern CO. We’ve logged about 2700 miles and it seems like about that much in fuel! We’re getting about 12 mpg which is better than I thought but diesel is pretty much over $3.00/gallon. Today is Sat. May 20th and it’s about 95 degrees outside, which is about 10 degrees hotter than normal. We’re back at a commercial campground after spending the last 4 days in Arches National Park at a primitive campground (that’s right Marge, no room service!). We had our own private canyon in the back of our campsite. It’s at about 5200 feet so it’s a little cooler there and the stars are really bright at night. The sandstone in this area has eroded into fantastical fins, arches, towers and canyons. It’s like being on Mars or something. We’ve done a lot of hiking, taking a gazillion pictures. We rafted down the Colorado a couple of days ago which was a nice break from the heat. We’re heading over to Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands NP for 3 nights tomorrow. If you saw the movie Thelma and Louise that’s were they filmed the car over the cliff scene. They also filmed City Slickers II and Mission Imp. II there. After that we’re heading up to Wyoming and cooler weather for a couple of weeks at Grand Teton and Yellowstone NP, where I’ll try to add an update to this.

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Photos

Navajo state park-colorado
NIce view out the window

Camp along Colorado river
Pprimitive campground along the Colorado river...it's about 10 feet to the left

Fisher towers hike 1
Near Sorrel Ranch in Utah

Fisher towers hike 2

Fisher towers hike 3
the towers are about 1500 feet. You can't see them but there were several technical climbers there

Colorado river rafting
2 man kayak on Whites rapid. this was a class 3, mostly it was class 1 & 2. they sell you a picture if you want

Arches National Park
As they say, hot but dry heat!

Fiery furnace hike 1
Ranger led hike or special permit is the only way you can get to here because of the slickrock scrambling req'd

Devil's Garden campground
In Arches NP. 4 nites here, our favorite so far...no hookups but we had our own private canyon in the back of the campsite

Devil's Garden campground 2
our own private canyon! Got to the high 50's at night...good campfire weather

Private Arch
Patty's favorite. You can see how the arch developed out of the sandstone fin. Along a 7 mile hike..wasn't discoverd until 1991

Double Arch
Probably my favorite. that white dot at the bottom is Patty. It's 11 stories tall

Surprise Arch
This was a recently discovered Arch back in the Fiery Furnace area. It was a very spiritual place. Ask us about it sometime.

Comments

[Sara]

The pictures are beautiful! I can't believe the rafting that you all did!! You two better come back in one piece!! Miss you, love you! Sending out save-the -dates at the end of this month, wish there was a way to send you one!! Take care of each other out there!!

[Marge]

I'm not all that familiar with Utah.
So, like, which one of these places is the nail salon? And where in heaven's name is the gift shop??? Wow, it is really beautiful. Enjoy it! We're enjoying your photos and the journal.

[lea]

us too
We also loved Arches and enjoy your pictures and comments