Dorothy We are in Kansas

We are in the middle of no where, close to the Tall Grass Land National Preserve. Thunderstorms and wind yesterday pushed us off the road early at one of the Kansas County State Fishing Lakes, Kingman,beautiful primitive camping but ok with us.  It is a little lonely! But unlike the big parks we've been there is 4G. So today we stopped when the wind got bad at another, called Chase.  The Kansas State Wildlife and Parks maintain these lakes for fishermen and again to help in flooding, but Kansas like the other states has been going through a drought.  It is green here now, but I am wondering about Western Kansas where we saw dried out cornfield after cornfield.

Lake Kingman

Tall Grass Prairie at Lake Chase

I am happy to see rain and filled lakes finally.

South Fork of Rio Grande Colorado

A couple days rest from the hot dry weather was needed and Pat needed to do some work.  We found this nice little private campground near the South Fork of the Rio Grande with clean, clean bathrooms, great laundry room with book exchange and WiFi. We have been able to do much needed cleaning as well with full hookups.
 We have the river at the back of our campsite and have picnic each evening outside.  It is almost fall here, the trees are starting to change. We have seen fly fishermen and one rafter, but the river is a little low. To get here we climbed through the San Juan National Forest to over 10,000 feet. Sadly, the trees were devastated by the bark beetle again, acre after acre.  We are going through Kansas next and the Tall Grass Prairie, we will pass through Dodge City, but there aren't too many things to do after labor day there.  The cowboys and Miss Kitty's Saloon we understand will be all packed up.  We seem to be one week behind every place we stop for events so next year we have decided we are going to look at the calendar a little better for events like Rodeos and Native American Days, Music Arts Festivals. We missed the Music Festival in Moab by a week.  We figured out that most campgrounds especially at high elevations close down last week in September.  Even this little gem will only stay open to then.  The campground host are going to Hawaii for their vacation. 

Sunset along the South Fork of the Rio Grande in Colorado  Rain Predicted

The Knife's Trail and Mesa Verde

On the Knife’s Edge Trail  ~Mystery of  Mesa Verde

Spruce Tree House

Again we walk among the Ancients as we hiked at sunset the Knife’s Edge Trail, a narrow path along the rim of Mesa Verde.  The modern decedents of the Ancient Peoples who lived in Mesa Verde 550 AD to 1300 AD believe that the name Anasazi was not a kind name to their ancestors so now they are called Ancestral Pueblo Peoples. The sunset was beautiful but no hummingbirds this time.  Eighteen years ago there were thousands; perhaps they have migrated south already or there weren’t enough red penstemon flowers blooming. But the mule deer does and their fawns still came to feed on the rabbitgrass beside our RV.

Yesterday was filled with long long ago history.  Pat climbed into the Cliff Palace Pueblo ( a strenuous climb down narrow steps and up ladders so my knee wouldn’t let me go) and we both visited the Spruce Tree House Dwelling (a moderate hike up and down), where families of at least a hundred people lived but then the mystery: the People abandoned the cliffs and left the area and move to the southern deserts around 1300 AD. Why did they leave?  A 24 year drought made large game hunts and farming difficult but they had weathered droughts before and springs inside the cliff dwellings still gave them water.  Why go to the desert? Why not just move to the mountains where game would be more plentiful? Pat will tell you the stories and an hypothesis.

Pithouse

Archaeologists have found over 4500 remains of dwellings (only 600 were cliff dwellings) in Mesa Verde and there are probably more to be uncovered.  As early as 550 AD (Pre-Basketmakers) they lived on top of the Mesa in pithouses and you can see the advancement from those small inground houses to small villages, then to the cliff dwellings and huge temples called the Temples of Sun and Fire.

The agriculture of these people was of the most interest to me.  They grew the three sisters, corn, beans and squash and gathered berries and other wild plants for food and medicine.  From 1915 to 1972 the National Park preservers grew corn near the Cliff Palace just as the Ancestral Pubelos had…in dry conditions.

It rained for a couple hours, oh beautiful rain.

 

Camping at Mesa Verde

Tower House

Cliff Palace

Red Penstemon Flower

 Sunset over Knife's Trail

BRYCE CANYON AND BEYOND

                Bryce Canyon was everything we remembered, except for the air.  I don’t remember the air quality being so bad 18 years ago.  It’s not really bad, but the view of the far side of the canyon was definitely degraded. Maybe it’s all the wildfires in the west this summer.   I also don’t remember the air being quite as thin, especially on the very steep 600 foot climb out of the canyon after visiting the Queen’s Garden.  Okay, the rim of Bryce Canyon is at 8,000 feet or more.  The canyon can be viewed from the rim, but it is much better to view it from below.  There is no elevator, so go while you are young and able! 

                Bryce Canyon is not a huge park, so we found that we had seen pretty much everything in 2 full days, so we left 2 days earlier than planned.  This seemed like a great plan, except that this seems to be an incredibly popular corner of the world.  Every retired RV’er, plus every empty nester RV’er, every biker in the Southwest, and a good portion of the populations of France and Germany has descended on this corner of Utah.  On our first morning out of Bryce, we stopped a Escallante State Park.  The campground didn’t look like much, and we were told that a visit to the petrified forest required a rather strenuous climb up and down.  We passed.  There were decisions to be made. 

                An inquiry at the Visitor Center for the Dixie National Forest told us about a likely spot at the Singletree campground in the forest.  (A very nice visitor center, BTW.)  The road to Singletree was quite the trial, with hairpin turns rated for as little as 15 mph.  And did I mention a number of sections with a 10% downgrade to go with the tight turns.  I picked a bad day not to take my L-theanine supplement.  Singletree had plenty of availability and, with the Golden Age Pass, we were able to camp the night for $5.  There were no sinks, no showers, no electricity, and no cell service of any kind, but what do you expect at that price point?  The bear I spotted in the woods turned out to be a black cow.  The weather was rather pleasant.  If you climbed the hill a bit and stood on a rock, you could get a glimpse of Capitol Reef National Park, which we would be passing through the next day.  It was quiet. 

                I forgot to mention Anasazi State Park.  No cliff dwellings there, but there were remains of a small Anasazi settlement exposed by archaeologists.  It was really a very nice museum.  In a video, a Hopi man recounted a creation story that sounded somewhat familiar, but ask me about this when we return to Paumanock.  It is hard to anticipate whether our readers will find the story threatening or affirming to their belief systems.  

                Last evening, we debated two different routes to get to Arches NP.  There seems to be no such thing as a direct route out here.  We decided to take the northern route after passing through Capitol Reef.   Capitol Reef NP turned out to be an amazing place.  It reminded me of Zion NP.  The Fremont River flows through the canyon and there are trees and nice foliage.  The groves of fruit trees are maintained by the Park Service, and you are invited to pick your own.  The rock formations and petroglyphs were amazing.  All were very accessible and close to the road.  We really should have seen about a spot in that campground, which was lush and shaded. 

There are not many camping opportunities between Capitol Reef and Moab, but there appeared to be many opportunities near Moab, which is near both Arches and Canyonlands NPs.  We sort of decided on the campground at Dead Horse Point State Park.  We called from about 40 miles away and they still had 2 spots – first come, first served.  Needless to say, they were no longer available when we arrived at about 1:30 pm.  So, we ended up at nearby Horsethief Campground (can you steal a dead horse?), atop a shadeless, somewhat featureless mesa.  It is 90 degrees.  We find ourselves very thirsty and longing for water.  Could it be homesickness? 

               

Arches and the beauty of the Sky and Earth

2000 Arches but we only saw 7 during an early morning to mid-morning hike.  It gets in the 90s outside in the afternoon and cools off to 60s at night.  

My Mountain Man

 The Arches have fanciful names like Skyline, Tapestry, Tunnel and they are all in the process of dieing (crumbling),they are born of uplifting and erosion (Moab fault) and they die from the same processes; aging takes its toll. We are camping in Devil’s Garden. Colossal sandstone fins and pinnacles and other geological formations dwarf people.  Pat calls the area Garden of Fertility because so many of the pinnacles remind him of..yes, you can guess.

You can imagine spirits in these places, too.  If you listen closely, you can  hear  whispering from the canyon ghosts or is it just the wind?

 Broken Arch I think above and our camp spot at Arches below.

Its Alive as much as the jackrabbit.  The clump is not a dirt clod but cryptobiotic clump of organisms which help keep the soil in the desert fertile and moist enough for other life to take hold. Organisms like cyanobacteria, algae, moss, lichens and fungi interdependent on each other make up the clumps.  If you step on one it takes up to 50 years to recover so the desert is a fragile beauty as well as stark.  I will have to write about the beauty of the desert flowers later.

The Lions Club of Moab has constructed a nice picnic area and super bike path the Moab City Limits to the beginning of Arches (5 miles away) and Canyonlands.  We see a lot of people biking.  But only the Canyonlands has enough shoulder to really accommodate bikers.  They could make changes easily in Arches and add a bike lane.  I guess it always comes down to $$$.

On way to Arches

If you can enlarge this you might be able to see the petroglyphs of buffalo men (or maybe aliens) just above the center rocks on their right.  Capital Reef

Capital Reef is Fantastic! because the grandness is up close; better than Zion or Grand Canyon.  We definitely want to come back in late October before the first snow storms because of the shaded apple groves, planted by the first Mormons to inhabit the area will be cool. In fact all Utah we want to visit again but after the heat and bring the family because there are many “adventures” to be had. Back country backpacking while avoiding snakes, cougars and coyotes, white river rafting along the Colorado and house-boating on Lake Powell when there isn’t drought would be interesting.

I have always had a theory about the founding of different religions; it has to do with unbearable sun and heat and persecution or the lack of water and/or the use of drugs like peyote.  The Latter Day Saints-the Mormons must have been really persecuted to settle here without air conditioner and miles and miles without another soul except for a possible skinny rabbit or coyote eating the rabbit to talk to…no water, etc… I think I could found a religion out here.  I need Rain…

The next few slides are at the Canyonlands

Pat is very funny when he wants to be. Of course, he has been drinking lots of ...water+…the people across from us here at Horse Thief BLM campground have been drinking beer since we arrived at 2pm, it is now 5:30. We are feeling a little bit like elderly an Mary and Joseph-No Room at any Inns and National Parks and Bureau of Federal Lands do not have showers, water or dump stations. But the Bureau does allow “usage” as in cattle roaming. Mule Deer, Pronghorns and Mountain sheep are the only large herbivores around. And also we saw a couple drills-oil or gas? But the land is very very vast.

Horse Thief at Sundown

Moab is the center of sin here ‘bouts, all kinds of restaurants with full bars, hotels and campgrounds catering to those (like us that would like to see water even if it is in a swimming pool.) But there is NO real WATER on the skyway up in Canyonlands National Park or at Arches.  After traveling through California in drought, Nevada in drought except for the unusual flood near Las Vegas, god’s perhaps judgment, WE need some WATER.  We will speed through the next 200 miles after Arches if there isn’t any and stay at one of those fancy campground places to take a shower.

The photo is of a petroglyph we saw today at Capitol Reef, you will have to look closely to see the space men. Fantastic, better than Zion or Grand Canyon.  We definitely want to come back in late October before the first snow storms because of the shaded apple groves, planted by the first Mormons to inhabit the area. In fact all Utah we want to visit again but after the heat and bring the family because there are many “adventures” to be had. Back country backpacking while avoiding snakes, cougars and coyotes, white river rafting along the Colorado and house-boating on Lake Powell when there isn’t drought would be interesting.

 I think Pat might want another extra wife before we are out of the state, but he hasn’t seen any likely candidates except on the Queen’s Garden Trail at Bryce when perhaps he was hallucinating due to low oxygen levels and walking up steep cliffs.  I was thankful I didn’t have a heart attack, the future grandkids will have to ride the steep dizzy horse trails without me.  I will cook buffalo flank steak on the fire pit that they allowed because of the week before it drizzled. Most places have curtailed camp fires.   I am including one photo from the Canyonlands where you can see rain falling from the sky but not reaching the ground.

It is so hot but not without beauty and grandness. Stark beauty, now I truly understand the meaning.

If you are reading the bloggs, you should always scroll down to previous bloggs. We don't have Internet most places, but we try to write something every other day and then put them in when we can find 4G.