13 of 22 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. 10/1/24 Tuesday. We did a big road trip today to: Valley of Fire State Park, Hoover Dam, and Lake Mead. Valley of Fire State Park seems like it should be a National Park because it is huge and there is so much to see there.
We went for a short hike in the “White Domes” area. It was very hot and hard to walk in the soft sand.
12 of 22 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. 9/29/24 Sunday. On our last day staying at Panguitch we visited Cedar Breaks National Monument. At over 10,000′ elevation this was the highest place we drove to (the Pikes Peak Cog Rail Train took us to over 14,000′). The scenery on the drive was spectacular with aspens in full yellow glory.
11 of 22 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. 9/28/24 Saturday. Deanne and I got up early and drove back to Bryce Canyon to hike “Wall Street”. The trail is 3.2 miles long. The descending Wall Street portion is part of the Navaho Loop Trail and the ascending portion is called Queen’s Garden.
Starting the Wall Street hike, looking down the switchback trail.
Deanne heading down the trail. Me with Nathan’s borrowed hiking poles. They helped a lot.
Beautiful wildness.
10 of 16 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. 9/27/24 Friday. A beautiful day to visit the otherworldly Bryce Canyon NP.
Panguitch; a Paiute Indian word meaning “big fish” how do you pronounce that town name? Not Pan-gu-itch. Think of “Penguin Sandwich,” that’s how we were instructed by the owners of Dixie Forest RV Resort where we were staying; “Peng-wich”. The elevation at Panguitch is 6,666′. The elevation at the rim of Bryce Canyon is 8,500-9,000′
Deanne conversing with the raven.
Two pics above are both of the “Wall Street” canyon. The left is the top of the canyon, the right is looking down into the top of the canyon with lots of hikers on the trail. It was mid-day hot today so we decided to come back early tomorrow morning to hike “Wall Street”.
Some wind spinners we saw along the road. The cliffs in the far background are Bryce Canyon.
9 of 16 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. 9/26/24 Thursday. We traveled from Moab to Panguitch, UT. We stopped at the John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River, UT, and we stopped at Capital Reef National Park. The museum was not on our agenda when planning the trip but Deanne had read about it and wanted to stop. We are glad we did.
Crazy that little wooden boats would tackle raging rapids. Boat above is a replica of one of the boats lost at “Disaster Falls” on Major John Wesley Powell’s first trip down the Green/Colorado rivers in 1869. Disaster Falls is in “Ladore Canyon” in the map above. The original boats looked like a cross between a canoe and a rowboat. Deanne studying Colorado River lore.
Loads of fossils are found in the area including these fearsome dinosaurs. I am glad they are gone.
8 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. 9/25/24 Wednesday. We returned to Arches for a second visit on our last day in Moab.
The sisters enjoying a delicious breakfast at the Jailhouse café on a beautiful morning.
7 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. Canyonlands National Park “Island in the Sky” and Dead Horse Point State Park. The “Island in the Sky” name refers to the 2,000′ high mesa the entire area is on (compared to the river valley floor below).
6 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. Monday 9/23/24. Canyonlands National Park is Huge. There are two distinct entrances to north and south sections that are completely disconnected by the deep canyons of the Colorado and Green Rivers.
Today we left Moab to visit the southern “Needles” section of the park. A park ranger at Arches highly recommended we visit the “Needles Overlook.” She said “not many people go there because it’s out of the way but it’s worth the drive. You’ll be the only ones there in the morning.” It really is a long, lonely drive, we almost turned around but eventually arrived at an incredible view of why the two halves of the park are not connected.
Leaving “The Needles” we headed north back to Moab stopping at a roadside attraction: Wilson Arch.
5 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series.
Our first hike on the “Devils Garden Trail” started out chilly and got pretty warm by the time we got done. The trail goes to several scenic sites but the main goal is the thin “Landscape Arch”.
Our next hike was to Skyline Arch Trail. Jennie & Roni at Skyline Arch.
Sand Dune Arch Trail was next. Becky and Deanne navigate a narrow passage.
Delicate Arch Trail was longer and it was getting really hot so we didn’t go all the way to the Arch.
Balanced Rock.
We went out to dinner in Moab after a long day of hiking and driving through Arches National Park. The onion rings were a big hit.
4 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. While at Glenwood Springs, CO for two nights Deanne rented a car that we all would use for our visits to National Parks in Utah, and we visited the Colorado National Monument.
Below is a map of “US Terrain Regions” as mapped by the US Geological Survey. When we left Indianapolis in the Central Lowland Plains, traveling west through the Great Plains, then crossing the Rocky Mountain System, we arrived at the Colorado Plateau(s). I thought we were just headed to a bunch of National Parks in the Utah vicinity. I had no idea there was a name for this densely packed geological wonderland called “The Colorado Plateau”
The Colorado Plateau – “the least tamed area of the lower 48 states.” The Colorado National Monument was the first of many National Parks all included in the Colorado Plateau.
Another map of the Colorado Plateau area; marked with places we visited for National Park Stamps. Starting September 20th at the upper right (Colorado National Monument) we traveled generally counter-clockwise, eventually arriving 20 days later at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta October 9th.
The Rental Car: We went to the airport in Grand Junction, CO to pick up a rental car. The first one they gave us had a serious alignment problem so we rejected that one and got an enormous GMC Denali.
Leaving the RV behind for the day, we took the rental car to spend the day driving through Colorado National Monument. It was an amazing day. Jennie had told us it was worth visiting but it does not get near as much publicity as the big Utah National Parks so I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular. It is spectacular.
Hoodoos, Deanne, and the three amigo tourists at Colorado National Monument.
3 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. This post covers 6 days in Colorado on our way to Utah.
Garden of the Gods is a registered National Natural Landmark. Visiting the park is free because of Charles Elliott Perkins and his family. Perkins was head of the Burlington Railroad and died in 1909. Two years later his children donated the land to Colorado Springs under stipulation that visitors would not be charged and it would be left in it’s natural state as Charles had wished.
Above: The Garden of the Gods Visitors Center is a nice place to visit. They have some nice exhibits. This is where they collect $ from people visiting the free Garden of the Gods. Good coffee, hats, t-shirts, etc.
Below: The following photos from our drives and hikes at Garden of the Gods are some favorites. It is a beautiful place to visit, especially at times of sunrise and sunset.
The rock formation at the top of the middle photo is known as the “Kissing Camels”
The Manitou Incline shares the same parking lot as the Pikes Peak Cog Train so we saw it. 2,750 steps (originally railroad ties left after the tracks were removed). 2,000′ elevation gain in less than a mile. There were lots of people hiking the Incline. Here in Manitou Springs, CO it was a very hot summer day. When we were on top of Pikes Peak it was freezing with a 21 degree wind chill.
I think we did well at the top with 40% less oxygen than we have in Indianapolis, IN (at 600′ altitude). Roni taking pics.
There is a small Visitors Center at Florissant and some huge nearby petrified tree stumps. After viewing the stumps outside, and interesting insect fossils inside, we went on to an 1878 historic Homestead cabin that is also part of the Florissant park.
The 1878 Adeline Hornbek Homestead Cabin. Adeline came to the Florissant valley with her 4 children claiming this area of land through the Homestead Act and built it into a prosperous ranch.
2 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. This post covers 6 days of our trip from Clay Center, KS to Colorado Springs, CO.
The Farm Animals: “Gabby” (a Great Pyrenees) protects the farm and watches over visitors. She slept right outside the RV each night to keep us safe from coyotes. I think the donkey in the photo is “Daisy” but there are also two others named “Jethro” and “Sadie.” Then there is “Ginger”, a shy puppy that rules inside the house, and of course the chickens. Not shown are a multitude of cats that run around outside.
A sobering event: we visited the Republican City Cemetery to put flowers on Daniel’s grave. Daisies were blooming nearby. The windchimes had been a gift to Lizzy from her coworkers for Daniel’s memorial service. She didn’t have a place for the chimes so Deanne took them home to Kansas. They make a nice sound at the “old milk barn” where Becky grew up milking dairy cows.
Another highlight was riding in a combine with Becky’s cousin Ron. Ron makes it look easy doing 10 things at once while cutting corn. Here’s a a very wonky video I took of the amazing experience.
Two last pics before leaving Clay Center: The latest downtown ‘mural’ painting on a grain bin is called “Prairie Thunder” by Christian Stanley. It is awesome and so was the sunrise view from our RV. The mural recently won viewers choice in 10th place of “Best Murals of the World” and was the only mural in the top 50 located in the United States. Go Clay Center! Here’s a link to recent mural article: https://kclyradio.com/blog/prairie-thunder-lands-10-in-international-competition-of-best-murals-of-the-world/
The Kamphaus farm driveway is right on US Highway 24. We jumped right on 24 and headed West to a must-see Kansas attraction at Cawker City: “The Worlds Largest Ball of Twine”… circumference 46 feet
We stayed long enough to see the amazing sight… and read some signs explaining the history of the giant ball of twine.
Here’s how it began: Frank Stoeber was born in 1891. At the age of 62, in 1953, he stumbles across some twine and decides to gather it up to burn. Instead of burning it, he decides to roll it up into a ball. He must have enjoyed that, or there wasn’t much else to do in the 50’s (when I was born) because three years later, in 1956 the ball is 7′ around and weighs over 4,000 pounds. It progresses from there. You need to visit for the rest of the story.
Directly across the street (highway 24) was a restored old gas station that was more photogenic than the twine.
Next stop heading West was the National Historic Site Visitors Center in Nicodemus, Kansas. The town was founded in 1877 by recently freed African Americans, mostly from Lexington, Kentucky. It’s the oldest and only remaining Black settlement west of the Mississippi River.
This was an interesting place to visit. The visitors center is the nicest building in what is now a very small, nearly abandoned town. The 2020 census counted 14 people, 78% African-American. Some of the towns people and nearby residents are direct descendants of the original founders. I am so glad we stopped to see the town and learn the history of this place and period of American history. I am also glad my tax dollars are preserving a history that would otherwise by lost.
The founding of Nicodemus is tightly connected to the Homestead Act (visit to that National Historic Site is described in previous post) and Emancipation.
Still traveling West we visited a Kansas geological attraction:
People say “middle of nowhere” all the time but this remote State Park should be the definition. Early settlers called the area “Little Jerusalem” because they thought it resembled the ancient walled city of Jerusalem. Some also called it “Castle City”.
Moving on we drove a bunch of dusty dirt roads to arrive at another Kansas geological landmark called “Monument Rocks”. This place is just plain weird. There are no signs, no visitors center. If there was a sign it would say “No Really; the middle of nowhere”.
We met back up with Jennie and Roni (they did not do all the sightseeing we did on this first day) and stayed the night in Colby, KS. We stopped at Walmart on the way out of Colby so Deanne could buy another foam mattress topper for the uncomfortable overhead bunk bed… We continued on to Colorado Springs. But that’s a story for the next post.
DADart Photography 