From the Southwest to the Northwest

[Tom&Shelly]

We decided to see the Northwest this Summer, but since we started near Albi-quirky, we get to see some of the Southwest on the way! So we spent last week at Mesa Verde National Park, which features pit houses and cliff dwelling sites occupied some thousand years ago, or so, by the ancient Puebloans.

We had a non-electric spot, and they let us pick. We found one in the trees, but many are not as nice, so it pays to look around. Since we arrived Memorial Day Monday (by design) we had a fair selection.

Showers, laundry and wifi are at the camp store. No cell phone service at the camp sites themselves. Fortunately, we came prepared with some good reading.

Excellent weather last week: Cool nights and warm (upper 70's) days. We could see lots of virga, but got only a few drops.

The first day we had reservations for the "700 Years" bus tour, which was very good. The tour guide makes or breaks those things, and ours was good. Part of the tour includes a hike down to the Cliff Palace, which was guided by a ranger; also very good.

 

[Tom&Shelly]

On our way back, we saw this. Turns out it was a controlled burn. We could smell the smoke at the campsite.

 

[Tom&Shelly]

The second day, I toured Balcony House, which features a 30 foot ladder, and a 12 foot long man-made tunnel that requires a crawl. Reading the description, I suddenly remembered my grandparents describing the same tour, with their 35 mm slide presentation, back in the early 70's. They made several trips in their red VW bug after they retired. I must be about the same age now.

 

[Tony Latham]

Wow!

Any bad dreams from that book?

Tony

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Wow!

Any bad dreams from that book?

Tony

Not yet. But when we have cell service I usually read the news every day, so I'm hardened!

Shelly wakes up to that face every morning, so she also has a high threshold for scariness.

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Our third (last) day at Mesa Verde, I scored a ticket to the Long House site, on Wetherill Mesa. (Technically, Shelly scored it for me. She found some internet coverage and found a cancellation and jumped on it. Then she let me have it!) Wetherill Mesa has been closed the past few years, and is now open only on Thursdays. If you get out there, there is one site (Step House) you can see without a ranger guided tour. (We were too tired Thursday afternoon, so we have something to go back to.)

The highlight on the Long House Tour was an unscheduled appearance of some grey foxes who came up to the seep for a drink.

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

From Mesa Verde, we went to visit friends in Southwest Utah, near Zion National Park. Saturday, we went on a short drive in the northwest corner of the park. The scenery was great, but my pictures weren't, as the Sun angle was wrong.

But then we went on to Cedar Breaks. 100 degrees in Washington UT, but still snow at the top of the mountain.

Excellent views, and, from what I hear, far less crowded than Zion this time of year.

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Today, we went hiking at Snow Canyon State Park Utah, in rather warm weather. Beautiful views! Slot canyon, Names of pioneers, and a nice hike in sand and volcanic rocks.

Tom

 

[cdnred]

Great pics Tom. Been there many times while working in Denver and Salt Lake City. We're actually leaving tomorrow morning for that area, planning on spending 4 weeks there. I just luv the red rock country around there. Hopefully the weather won't be too hot during our stay there..

 

[Tom&Shelly]

From Southwest Utah, Shelly and I drove on to Canyon Lake State Park Nevada, near Great Basin National Park.

On advice of our friends, we planned to have a picnic lunch at Cathedral Gorge SP Nev, and even managed to make it in, but we were just in front of a very serious looking thunderstorm (that had already pelted us so much an hour earlier that we had to pull over) and so we drove through. Made us cranky until we saw our new site:

That and a charcoal grilled dinner put us back in the spirit!

The next day, we drove up to the top of Wheeler Peak in Great Basin NP and did a short hike

Then came down in time for our scheduled tour of Lehmann Cave

At our campsite, we had no electricity (no problem), and we did have flush toilets and showers. Shelly wanted me to mention that there are no outlets in the bathrooms. I think her hair looks better naturally dried anyway, but try telling her that!

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

The next day, we stopped at Ward Charcoal Ovens, to try and buy some,but they were out, and evidently have been since they burned up all of the first growth juniper and pinion for a zillion miles

They burned more acres of woods in each one of these, each time, than I own, so I wouldn't have a viable business here! This is actually a neat stop just off of US 50 in Eastern Nevada, if you happen to be going there. Takes only 15 minutes or so to see the ovens, and there is a picnic table and outhouse at the site.

That afternoon, we went into Ely and toured the railroad museum. Shelly hates railroad museums, but, as it turns out, loves machine shop museums, and the active machine shop is part of the museum

I am surprised at how cluttered it is, and how they just let us, the other tourists, and the two shop cats, just wander around. Some very old machinery here, including 120 year old large metal lathes. I have more wrenches in my shop than they do, but I will admit some of theirs are bigger

(No metric ones, for some reason.)

From Canyon Lake State Park, we drove "The Loneliest Road in America" past Reno, into California, where we spent two nights at Lakeside National Forest Service Campground, Truckee California.

I will post pictures as time and internet service permits. We are actually a week and a half further along, somewhere in Oregon, as I write this, but Shelly is wanted me to start the charcoal...

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

From Southwest Utah, Shelly and I drove on to Canyon Lake State Park Nevada, near Great Basin National Park.

On advice of our friends, we planned to have a picnic lunch at Cathedral Gorge SP Nev, and even managed to make it in, but we were just in front of a very serious looking thunderstorm (that had already pelted us so much an hour earlier that we had to pull over) and so we drove through. Made us cranky until we saw our new site:
View attachment 1320103


View attachment 1320104

That and a charcoal grilled dinner put us back in the spirit!

The next day, we drove up to the top of Wheeler Peak in Great Basin NP and did a short hikeView attachment 1320105
Then came down in time for our scheduled tour of Lehmann Cave
View attachment 1320106

At our campsite, we had no electricity (no problem), and we did have flush toilets and showers. Shelly wanted me to mention that there are no outlets in the bathrooms. I think her hair looks better naturally dried anyway, but try telling her that!

Tom

Oops, meant Cave Lake SP. vs Canyon Lake Sp.

 

[Tom&Shelly]

A few shots from our campsite near Truckee CA. It's called Lakeside and is a National Forest Site. Vault toilets and no showers. Great views of the lake from just about all of the campsites.

We didn't do too much there--went for a short hike and baked a cake in the dutch oven. It was really a one day (two night) layover after driving across Nevada, before going on to Lassen Volcanic NP.

Tom

 

[KCStudly]

Nice pics, but you left out the most important points; was the cake good and did it have frosting on it?

 

[Tom&Shelly]

The campground at Lassen Volcanic was busy, as to be expected. Not much ground cover between sites.

Showers and laundry at the camp store. The washers were only attached to cold water, so be forewarned if you use them. As a former longtime bachelor, who was indifferent to washer settings, I was surprised how much difference that makes!

The road through the park closes in winter due to snow, and normally opens sometime between May and July. It was still closed while we were there. We drove up the the ends (from each direction, which meant about an hour and a half drive each way to reach the southern portion of the park).

We also stopped at the Sulphur Works, in the southern part of the park, an area with mud pots, steam, smelly air, etc. Everything you would want from a volcano except the boom. (Which, given our campsite, was probably a good thing!)

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Nice pics, but you left out the most important points; was the cake good and did it have frosting on it?

The cake was good! No frosting though--it was really a blueberry "short bread". We make them for our breakfasts on days when we have a drive ahead.

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Our next stop was Del Norte Coast State Park California, part of the Red Woods National and State Park System. (Or something like that.)

Much cooler weather and a campsite that was almost gloomy. Couldn't see very far through the jungle, and the marine layer lent a mood...

Still no electricity, but our solar panel kept up despite the fog. Really, we only used our reading lights and sometimes the DVD player, and we charged our phones, which had not had much coverage at campsites up to this point. I think it was around here that Israel and Iran went to war, and we only heard about it the next day when we ate lunch in Crescent City.

(Not sure why I took a picture of the restaurant, but the fish and chips were good.)

Walked along the shore one day, and took a few drives in the state parks looking at the big trees.

Also met some of the neighbors

The next day, we drove some more among the redwoods

Now I know (sort of) where some of my favorite building material comes from!

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Took this one from inside a dead tree stump

This one is called the "Big Tree" but there was a path with allegedly "even bigger trees" (but we didn't hike it)

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Our next campsite was William Tugman State Park near the coast in Southern Oregon. Along the way, we stopped at a little museum in Coos Bay

The campsite itself was the first one with shore power after about three weeks of traveling. Time to charge the beard trimmer, camera batteries, and computer!

Looks great from this view! Actually, we were elbow to elbow with our (human) neighbors, with no cover in between.

The park was really just a base to explore the southern coast anyway. We saw the Umpqua River Lighthouse,

and The sea lion caves (commercial and over-rated enterprise). There was one sea lion there when we went down; many more near that seafood restaurant back near the redwoods parks.

Another lighthouse, seen from sea lion caves at a distance, from their (free) porch

They claim this is the most photographed lighthouse in Oregon, and who am I to claim different?

We also saw Thors Well, but at low tide, when the water spurting up occurs at high tide, which would have been around midnight. Oh well...

The highlight of the day was supposed to be a doll house store in the Lincoln City Mall. The store was a solid "meh", but I claim it makes our whole trip a tax write-off since Shelly has a business making doll house furniture. Not sure if our accountant will agree to put his license on the line for that, though.

However, there were a few "we buy junk and sell antiques" stores in Lincoln City, and I was able to replenish my reading material for the trip, in the form of Max Brand novels.

Tom

 

[Tom&Shelly]

Getting ahead of the narrative a little, but I caught a cold at Mt Rainier, and today, at Fay Bainbridge park on Bainbridge island in Washington, I'm lying in the teardrop recovering while Shelly is out doing laundry and seeing her niece. Guess it's as good a time as any to try and catch up this narrative. Need to kick this cold before we head to Canada next week!

Tom