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Published: August 18th 2007
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This morning, Elise, Simone and I went on a trail ride to the canyon. Elise road her own horse, Strawberry, and Simone and I rode Heeber. The ride was fairly uneventful as all we did was walk. Simone was immediately bored, and wanted to go home, so we made up some songs about the horses. She brightened up immediately. Elise was start-struck the whole time and was very proud of herself at the end.
Joe and Ethan went on an off-road ATV ride this morning. The guide who led it was a “grouchy old fart” as Joe describes him. The guide told them that if they caught them doing fishtails, that he would take their keys away from them and they would walk home! Ethan’s eyes were wide at this point. At the halfway point, Joe quizzed the guide about Ruby’s….. Actually, the original owners name was Reuben. According to the guide, Reuben bought a few hundred acres of prime canyon front real estate in the 1920s, and then traded rights to the government for a road to Bryce canyon for even more land. Supposedly now, Ruby’s descendents are the various heads of town in this area and Ruby’s supports
2/3 of the taxes to the county. They are going to be finally developing some of the land, and new vacation homes will be put in. Seems that Ruby’s has more than just a corner on the market.
We swam, had ice cream, and shopped in the afternoon. Then, we attended a ranger talk on the Geology of Bryce Canyon. The Ranger told us that the uprising of the Colorado plateau formed Bryce Canyon, and a number of canyons and rock formations in this part of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. Amphitheatres are formed where the water washes off the plateau. Bryce Canyon is really an amphitheatre scalloped out of the edge of the plateau. Theoretically, it should be called Bryce Amphitheatre, not Bryce Canyon. Further along, he talked about the formation of the Hoodoos. Here is the lay-person’s understanding of this. I’m absolutely confident that the formation of Bryce Canyon is more complicated than this. Initially, they start as mesas that get worn down to fins of rock. These fins are further eroded by water to have windows in the fins. Finally, after years and years of erosion, the top bridge part crashes to create these stand-alone spires
called Hoodoos. The Hoodoos themselves are made up of layers of rock, which make them so interesting to look at. The top layer is made up of a Conglomerate of limey and pebbly sandstone which forms the erosion resistant tops. The layers are formed by while limestone, pink limestone and the bottom is the Wahweap formation (white sandstone and pebbly conglomerate). I have sure learned a lot attending these Ranger talks with my kids……so that they can earn their Junior Ranger Badges.
Next to the Visitor Center where all 3 kids received their Junior Ranger Badge. Simone was so proud that she could earn one here, but she was also running on empty and her behavior was difficult. We needed to get her a nap in the car.
We decided to try to go to Posie Lake. We started off and there was a huge storm looming over the mountains. According to the fishing store, it would take a hour to get to Posie Lake. We decided to try the short-cut through the mountains. Probably not the safest decision on our part. The mountains are very remote, and we only saw 2 other vehicles on our trip and
both were huge trucks with 4-wheel drive. None of the roads are well marked, and the roads were gravel and sometime rock. This area is known for having flash floods, and the mountaintop seemed to have received inches of rain right before we got there. We saw a number of washouts that became somewhat scary at times, especially when it looks like the side of the cliff has given way. We even saw hail. At the top of the mountain, we ran into a 4-wheel drive truck at junction and asked directions to Posie Lake. The young men, who had trouble talking through their chew, told us that we would be “best off taking the lower pass.” Along the way, we had to dodge kamikaze rabbits, cows and bulls. We rode over some large rocks and then also skidded through the mud with the Sienna Minivan. Both Joe and I were pleasantly surprised that the Minivan made it out in one piece. At one point, Joe was sure that we were going to be a) hit by lightning, b) fall off a cliff in a washout, c) get buried in a landslide and d) contract bubonic plague from the infected
prairie doges (this part is true). Then, we came over the hill and the clouds parted, the sky was blue and we were waiting for the fairies and unicorns to come out. At the end, the Minivan looked kinda cool all mudded up and all. The mountain pass took 2 hours, and we decided that Posie Lake was probably out of the question.
At this point, the kids were hungry and we had to find them something to eat. We drove through Escalante and almost all of the stores were shut down, including the restaurants. This town seems to be one of those Western towns that time forgot. We found only one restaurant that was open and we were the only customers there. What an experience. The Golden Loop was filled with antiques, old pictures, animal body parts and skulls. There was even a photograph of 3 men hanging from a barn, apparent horse thieves. The waitress took our order of fried foods (that’s all they served) and I asked how large the portions of French fries were. Her answer was “I don’t know, how ever many they throw in that day”. At the end of the brown
food meal, Ethan declared that this was his favorite meal!
We had not yet given up on fishing, so we made our way to the local reservoir which was a State Park run by the Bureau of land management, not the Department of Interior which runs all the National Parks. The campground was not updated, and the reservoir was a weedy siltbed. Two pickups came and checked us out. Seems the mud covered minivan attracted attention. No fish, and a long drive home, but a great adventure.
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