Zion's Emerald Pool

Zion has a lovely trail to a series of pools known as the Emerald Pools, where maidenhair ferns and other unusual plants for a desert inhabit this wet  niche.  Unfortunately, the middle pool trail was closed due to a rock slide, but the trail to the lower pool was easy and along the Virgin River for awhile, before heading up a small side canyon.  I managed to capture the small waterfall, which was a refreshing cascade about 50-75 feet high.

After shopping in the visitor center, we headed back to Cedar City, stopping at the Walmart for the promised memory foam for Helen.  Her bed is now another four inches taller.

Tomorrow, we head westward to Nevada as far as we can travel, although we are stopping along the way at Cathedral Gorge.

No bighorn sheep again today in either Zolob or Zion Canyons.  We did see more pronghorn antelope as we crossed from Nevada into Utah yesterday, but otherwise no large wildlife have shown themselves.  This morning, after breakfasting on bacon and blueberry pancakes courtesy of Lizzie, we drove south toward Zion National Park, first stopping at the Zolob Canyon entrance, where the red rock canyons were dazzling.  The pictures do not do justice to the colors--especially the rich red hues, yellow streaks, and black rivulets of moisture cascading down through the red chasm sides.

At Zion, we decided to use the shuttle system, although during the winter/spring period you can get a permit to drive into the canyon in your private vehicle.  The shuttle came every 4 minutes today (Sunday) with 19 buses running up and down the canyon.  The parking lots were full and getting a parking space was a challenge, but we managed, and had our crackers-and-cheese lunch then boarded the shuttle to go all the way to the end of the road for walking along the Riverwalk trail.   This trail is slightly up through the Virgin River canyon, and is paved, suitable for wheelchairs and strollers.  At the end of the trail begins the Narrows trail, which is currently inaccessible due to high flows of the Virgin River.  You then reverse and walk the mile back out.

This is a popular and easy 2 mile walk, and there were plenty of tourists in addition to ourselves. Pictured below are Helen and Liz as they lean over the river to get a shot of the narrowing canyon walls:

We then boarded the shuttle to drop down the canyon to the Weeping Rock site.  Helen was tired and my knee was bothering me a bit, so Lizzie took the short 0.5 mile uphill walk (roundtrip) to the weeping rocks while we waited below and watched other tourists.  We then boarded the shuttle to return to the Visitor Center, only Helen somehow boarded the back compartment, and we lost her until we reached the visitor center, when we hoped dearly we would find her again.  We did.

A landslide has closed the highway to Bryce Canyon, so we are going to have to re-think this portion of our journey.  We probably will turn back into Nevada and go to Cathedral Rock State Park to see what is there.

Copper Mine

I should mention that the morning we left Ely had become stormy, but we still swung by the operating copper mine west of town--the mine is huge, and these monstrous loaders sidecast the mining tailings over the side of an enormous pile of debris.  The colors of the various sidecasting rivulets (which avalanche all the way to the bottom after being sidecast) are remarkable:

 The size of the loaders make sawmill Laterno's look small.  These gigantic haulers take the material that is no longer needed and haul it up steep earthen roads to the top of the earthen pile to release over the side.  The picture below is the open pit from which the soil is removed.

Ghostly Visions

The people are few and far between in this country.  Entertainment is often wryly humorous, like the cowboy legs emerging from the rocky soil, or a odds-and-ends sculpture of an extraterrestrial, or even a spooky skeleton in a wheel chair:

At the campground above Baker we encountered some RVers who had a large white dog, larger than Tillie, but about the same shape.  Then, in Baker, there appeared to be a group of these large white dogs at a house in the town.  Perhaps they are a local breed.

After leaving Baker, we headed south toward Utah and Cedar City.  Long stretches of open range with cattle crossing the highway and pronghorn antelope darting away fill the vastness, with an occasional remote house way back from the road.   

We frequently pull over to use the trailer facilities--our own portable rest-stop--just slowing and stopping on a wide section of road.  At one stop, with open range all around, I was walking back to unlock the trailer when I spotted a large whitish dog in the distance about 1/4 mile away, standing on the road and peering toward me.  I climbed in to the trailer and used the facilities and by the time I climbed back out, the dog was at the trailer door, slowly wagging his tail and looking woebegone.  His coat was longer than Tillie's, shaggy, and perhaps he was a sheep dog.  

I wasd going to give him a piece of leftover toast with marmalade that Helen had squirreled away in her purse, but she couldn't find it, and the dog slowly wandered away, then disappeared suddenly.  As wwe continued driving down the road, we encountered another dog--same color and shape--on the road, this time dragging a short broken off rope.  He watched us go by, looking just as sorrowful as the first.

These ghostly dogs must be working sheep, we decided, as there seemed to be a sheep flock in the far distance by the base of the hills.  

Reverse Viewing

One day it was very cold--we were exploring the snowy areas of the Great Basin National Park, and when we would exit the car, we had to push mightily against the wind to get the car door open.  Still, we really wanted to see mountain goats, and so we walked out to each overlook and tried to see them.  One overlook had a viewer, and Lizzie was trying to use it to search the distant mountainside, but gave up quickly.  I started to take her place, and she said, "That only seems to make things smaller."  It was then we discovered she had been looking through it from the wrong end, so we swung it around...

After all of this, we still didn't see any mountain goats.

The Princess and the Pea

All three of us (me, my cousin Helen and sister-in-law Liz) are upwards in years.  We're not elderly, although others probably think we are.  However, we do have a few aches and pains.  Perhaps a touch of arthritis comes painfully in the night sometimes.  But for one of us, the matress pads in the trailer are not thick enough to ease a sore hip.  After all, we are walking up and down trails to reach beautiful vantage points, and sometimes it is a steep climb, so sore hips are part of the territory for some of us.

We first folded up the spare blankets I had brought.  One was a thick fuzzy checkered blanket I have used in camping for years, and it makes a nice layer.  Then, we placed the soft and fluffy quilt.  Next we placed an ultrasoft fleece.  Then we made the bed with sheet and down blanket topper.  That night was a "no-go."  The little princess' hip was very sore, even though she had tried to squeeze her pillow under the hip.

We decided to get memory foam at the next Kmart or Walmart we encountered, or anything similar to those stores which sold it.  Until then, we made a layer of pillows for the Princess, which worked fine, exccept she would roll off the pillows in the night, and that, too, was a "no-go." After some sleuthing, we found that the closest we got to one was 190 miles from Ely, and we decided we wouldn't drive that far.  But in Ely there was an all purpose hardware store, and it had a thin eggshell foam bed top.  We bought a king size and folded it in half--it fit the Princess' bed perfectly, and we used all the other usual softeners, except the pillows were used for the head and not the hip.  The Princess slept wonderfully, so we had found a solution.  Still, on a future trip we will have memory foam.

Our second day in Great Basin National Park included the 90 minute tour of Lehman Cave.  The cave system was discovered in the 1800s by Absalom Lehman, who then charged admission into the cave, giving tourists of the time a candle and letting them "take whatever they could break" off as a souvenir. Some stalactites of small size were clearly broken off by those tourists of 200 years or more ago.  But for the most part, the cave is unspoiled and breath-taking.  Stalactites, stalagmites, helactites, columns where Stalagmites have joined their dripping stalactite partner, shield formations--rare and unusual--and more fill the caverns.

 You first enter the cavern through an artificial tunnel into the mountain, which replaces the old entry through a small open hole in the ground surface.  Then, one climbed down a rope to enter the cavern.  Today, the path into the cave is mildly sloped, and artificial with a non-skid surface.  Some stairs go up and down, and water occasionally makes the ground slick, but there are hand-holds.

We saw one, lone bat (they usually hang out around the old, natural entrance), and learned that white nosed bat syndrome, which is killing thousands of bats mostly in the east, has not been detected in Lehman Cave.

As we descended--or more accurately penetrated into the limestone mountain side--we encountered great cavern rooms, as well as narrow passages.

The 90-minute tour takes you into more of the cave than the other tour, but still portions are sealed off from the public and restoration from the 1800-early1900 tour damage is being conducted.

The exit from the cave follows a different route, and once again you leave by an artificial tunnel. The tour is well worth it, and both fun and interesting.

Later, we took the nature hike above the cave which takes you past the natural opening which is sealed from access, but surrounded by a bat-friendly entrance enclosure.  Skinks and lizards were the most common animal life we say along the trail.

The road from Ely, NV, is mostly open range, and cattle on and near the road were common as we headed to the Great Basin National Park, the newest park in the National Park System. The new visitor center in Baker is very nice, and the older visitor center up by Lehman Cave is also interesting--we viewed a couple of films about the geology and history of the area there.  The day we arrived was a bit windy with partial clouds, and that night the overnight low was about 32.  We used our heater, and every blanket and throw, but were nice and toasty in our beds--getting out of bed, on the other hand, was chilllllllly.

Snow covers the peaks around us, and the road also is closed by snow just a few miles past our campsite at Lower Lehman.  We had an interesting time leveling the trailer, as the sites were lovely, including several pull-throughs, but were definitely not level.

A nice trail connects lower Lehman Campground with Upper Lehman Campground, and it follows Lehman Creek for its entire stretch, weaving through different types of ecosystems as the elevation gained about 600 feet between the campgrounds.

We traveled south of Ely to Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park.  These beehive shaped ovens reduced pinyon pine and juniper from the high desert forest into charcoal to serve the ore smelters.  The ovens were eventually phased out due to a shortage of available timber--the ovens resulted in complete clearcutting in a circle of 36-mile radius around the site.

A quiet and lovely campground with several pull-throughs is next to the oven site, along with trails through the high desert.

Every day around 3 p.m., a large wind has come up, and blows fiercely, usually dying off by around 6 p.m.  Thunderstorms were predicted for today, but have not materialized.  They are also predicted for tomorrow when we travel to the Great Basin National Park.

After the lovely stay at Mono Lake, exploring the nearby historical sites, we headed into Nevada and across the high desert toward Gabbs, then to Berlin Ichthyasaur State Park.  Here, we were the lone campers at the entire park.  The first place I tried to set up camp was steeply sloped, although pretty level side to side, and it didn't work, so we just stopped there and lunched.  Helen wanted me to try a particular pull-thru but it looked like a tough leveling site, so I found a nice level site and was backing in, with Heln behind the trailer on one side and Lizzie behind the trailer on the other side.  Each was giving me different instructiions as I backed, usually dead-opposite of each other.  As I was very tired, this began to be just a wee bit frustrating, so who could blame me when I pulled forward rather quickly to try to straighten out on my own.  I mean, a little pine branch through the open camper door with needles all over the floor was just a memento of the place, right?  The slight damage to the screen door latch was easily fixed with a new screw...

After setting up camp, Liz took a short walk behind our beautiful campsidfe (pictured) and found a desert-bleached dried set of giant antlers from a deer, then we explored the ghost town ruins of the old mine area, and lastly went to the Icthyasaur State Park museum.  Although the museum, which is a large barn-like building encasing a set of icthyasaur fossils, was closed, it has a self-guided tour through large windows where you can view the dig below.  These ancient sea dinosaurs once roamed throughout the great basin area, but here at Icthyasaur SP are large groupings, including the only one preserved in-situ where it was first found, and is now displayed.

That evening, the wind came up and blew in strong gusts (we did not have our awning up as there was plenty of shade around) that made tremendous noise coming up from the desert floor into our canyon.  We saw a ranger drive by, but other than that, we were the only people around and it was very quiet, with only the birds--lots of those, including a beautiful bluebird Helen saw. 

The next morning, we drove nearly all of the rest of the way across Nevada, through many mountain passes of about 6700 feet, up-and-down, with snow covered ranges all around us.  We reached Ely, and are camped in a KOA there, where we could at last have a nace hot shower.  We plan to be here two nights as we re-plenish supplies and explore the area around us.

We were planning on heading to Death Valley, but the heat wave that started on April 20th would make DV roasting at 112 degrees on the day we would arrive, so we went to plan B.  This plan took us down to Mono Lake as originally planned, and then we would head east and away from the hottest areas.

The Mono Lake area was beautiful, with snow covered peaks panoramic around us.  The scenery was spectacular, and the RV park we stayed in was easy to find and set up.  The older lady who runs it with her family, we think, was very nice.  They told us that Lee Vining had been pretty slow from a tourist standpoint so far, so that was why so many things were still closed in town.  The helpful ranger at the Mono Lake Visitor Center (a must see, and do view "Fire and Ice," the 20 minute film about the area), explained about road closures, so we could not go to Devil's Postpile, which was still closed by snow.

That night, I had a nice couple of glasses of Navarro's lovely rose wine and then cooked BBQ'd hot dogs, which were great.  Lizzie had made her fabulous macaroni salad, and we had a feast.  The wind came up, quite gusty, as the cold mountain air and the warm desert air mixed, but then it died down.  The next morining, Liz, Helen and I went down Hwy 120 to the turnoff for the Panum Crater, one of a series of cinder cones that bisect the area around Mono Lake, including the Lake itself as Negrit Island is one of the cones, too.  The trailhead had two choices--a rim trail or down to the plug of the volcano.  We chose the rim trail (pictured), and thus began the Mono Lake version of the Death March of Bataan. 

Helen and I were taking pictures, and looking at the sharp bits of obsidian everywhere, while the Energizer Bunny led the way.  And led, and really led, then we were in her dust and the Energizer Bunny became a mere speck in the distance (Helen is shown in the near distance, and the tiny speck on the trail horizon is Liz, or the EB).

A couple of miles later after the trail went  up then down then really up and really steep down, we were finally around the complete rim of the volcano, and caught up with Liz sitting in the shade of the trailhead sign.







The next stop was the South Tufa formation, where the stacks of carbonaceous subsurface vent deposits rise like thousands of ghosts from the lake itself (its current level is much lower than historic high water in the Lake, revealing the tufa) as well as from shore lands below the ancient lake rim. This view shows Helen and Liz on the lakeshore. The tufa are remarkable formations, and the trail winds through ancient deposits.

We returned to our camp for lunch, then headed off to show Helen the Historic State Park of Bodie, an old mining town forever preserved in an arrested state of decay.  We had about an hour to stay in the Park as it closed early at 3:00 p.m. off season, and then headed back out the narrow, winding road through open range.  It was here that Helen spotted three pronghorn antelope in the distance.  This is a picture of one of them.

On Sunday night, four rented, identical large motorhomes came into our park, and camped on either side of us.  They were filled with very noisy tourists from somewhere "down under"--either Australia or NZ.  They partied loudly until midnight, despite the quiet hours after 9 o'clock, and Liz and I got very little sleep.