Canyonlands National Park and Arches National Park

For those of you who are heavy drinkers, let's recap a bit.  When I last posted we were way over in Nevada at Great Basin National Park.  Now we are in Moab, Utah.  Well, technically I'm home in Austin at this point in my pajamas watching Housewives of Atlanta but not so very long ago I was in the wilds of the desert outside Moab.

Moab, it's so nice to see you again it's been forever, like 10 years.  Um, you've changed.  I mean, don't get me wrong you still look great and all but gee, you have gotten kinda big.  Last time we met, you were small and kinda quaint.  Now it's like you've entered your teenage years, you're noisy and not very fun to be around.

So we only went in to town for dinner and supplies and mostly hung out at the two national parks we came to see.

First up, Canyonlands National Park.

It might appear to be a quiet place to contemplate the universe. breathe in the solitude, and it is, until you turn around.

Tourists arrive by the bus load and line the rim all along the canyon wall.  Some places had people lined up to take the exact same photo.

How big was that rattlesnake, Fred?

After the four boxes of Chez-Its I had this trip I think I'll have to choose a different route

Yes, Fred we've all heard the story of the rattlesnake that bit you

Not to worry, you won't be alone if you get lost out here.  This guy and his scorpion friends will keep you company till the mountain cats come to drag away your parched bones

Doesn't this make you want to order up an Acme rocket and some roller skates

A nice rock for the front flower bed

From the distant mesa the looming shadow grows

I guess I shouldn't have eaten that peanut butter sandwich and large bag of potato chips before my hike

Ah, water in the desert.  Well, if you want a mouth full of temporary pond organisms.

Back in the day, Fred would have made me hike this

Now I just sit and look over the edge

Hurry up and take the picture, I'm thirsty

We tried to get a camping spot in the National Park but it was a no go for both Canyonlands and Arches.  Just too crowded.  So, we stayed at an RV place that was right next to a great running/hiking trail and just a couple of miles from Arches.

Not bad for a little morning hike right outside our camp spot

Fred ran, I watched him run

Here's the money shot from Arches

Unfortunately, we had to hit Arches late in the afternoon so we had to hustle to get any shots at all before the sun went down.  We have been here before so we did not hike out to the Arch this time.  Plus, it's so crowded these days it's hard to get a shot without people crowding the frame.

There are plenty of other grand views in the park though.  Like this one.

It's fun to watch the shadows creep up this massive wall, just ask the two little kids that were behind us crying with excitement the whole time

Bristlecone pine?  Please, you people are not paying attention at all

Illegal aliens

Because we are experienced backpackers, we began to notice the subtle signs that the day was ending.

Since we got cheated out of our night skies at Great Basin, we decided to have a night time picnic at Arches.  Actually, that's not totally true.  We misjudged the time and lack of picnic tables in the park and did not end up cooking our dinner till well after the sun went down.  We were the only ones in the picnic area which was fine except the ranger told us that a bear and mountain lion had both been seen there that afternoon.  It's hard to enjoy your glass of wine and the night sky when there is sizzling meat in a frying pan, total darkness and a mountain lion in the vicinity.

I'm including this last shot of us at a roadside stop because of what happened right after we pulled back on to the road.  We stopped to take a picture of this:

Not sure if you can see, but behind me is a guy on a motorcycle.  He pulled out onto the road and we watched as he nearly got creamed by a car.  It was really close.  It was one of those "oh, my God he almost ate it" kind of moments.  He pulled over just as we pulled on to the road.......and nearly got creamed by a speeding semi that was laying on his horn.  But then it got weird because the guy in the semi kept slowing down in front of us and if Fred tried to pass he would cross the yellow line so we could not see around him.  Eventually he lost interest in us and sped up but not before I shot him the finger.....under the dashboard.

We spent our two last nights in Taos, NM and Lubbock, TX respectively.  We timed the Lubbock stop perfectly as a big storm moved in just as we pulled off the road into our camping spot for the night.  Fred was pretty pooped after driving all day and we needed to get our head wrapped around the fact that another long trip out west was at an end.

To sum up:

Miles Traveled - Over 5,500

Most Expensive Gas - $4.30/gallon

Best Part - Toss up between bristlecone pines and Oregon's beaches

Biggest Bummer - Missing the night sky at Great Basin NP because of rain

Next up?  I think we may head east but first we have to get the Bambi out of the hospital she needs a new circuit board and some much deserved down time.

Mt. Lassen National Park to Great Basin National Park

Sorry for the radio silence, this has been the worst trip, or best I can't decide, for lack of wifi, cell service, internet, telegraph, telegram, television and general contact with civilization as we know it.

Anyway, where were we?  Oh, Mt. Lassen or as I came to call it, Mt. Less Than.  As in, less than Yellowstone and really less than any other national park I have been to.  It's not that it's not scenic, it is.  But, I have never been in a national park that I didn't round a corner and say "Wow, that's amazing", except this one.

Why is this place a national park anyway?  Well, in 1914 Mt Lassen volcano erupted and a dude, B.F. Loomis, and his wife who lived there got some shots of it.  They appeared in all the papers and since no one in the United States had ever seen an eruption, it was a really big deal.

But, here's the thing, since then it's been dormant.  And nothing in nature elicits the comment "Wow, that's amazing"quite like the word dormant.

ZZZZZZ

That's not really fair, it is a great area for hiking and there aren't a ton of visitors so it's a nice place to snap some photos and spend a couple days.  But, beyond that it just didn't ring any bells for me.  Now if it was constantly erupting like the volcanoes we have seen in South America, then it might be a different story.

Wouldn't this be better if molten lava was running down the sides?

There were a couple of pretty, deep blue, lakes 

And some stinky, bubbling, roadside mud pots

Nice warm mud baths

Some meandering mountain streams

Wow, that's amazing

I think this is our 38th or 39th National Park, I'm gonna check

But then as we were leaving, I ran into this guy and he made the whole trip here worthwhile.  That's an old Astro van that's been covered in plastic jar lids.

Don't ever change California

After leaving Mt. Lassen National Park, we spent one night in the biggest, little city in the world.

I lost, Fred won, nuf said

As we approached Reno, it got smokey.

Really smokey

Out of control wildfires in California made it pretty hard to breathe but it did make for some nice sunsets.

Great Basin National Park

Isn't it in the middle of nowhere?  Yes, it is.  Is it worth it?  Most definitely.  I mean what's not to like 3,000 year old trees, a brilliant night sky, caves, and some cattle rancher landowners next to the park with a quirky sense of humor.

But first, I made Fred pull over on the side of a mountain road because I had spied these:

Those are coulter pine cones and they are huge, like 2 lbs each huge.  They are also called widow maker pines for obvious reasons and they produce the largest pine cone of any pine tree species in the world.  They can weigh as much as 10 lbs and I love them so I risked widowhood by having Fred collect a bag full.

As we drove in to Great Basin National Park we were greeted by this ominous sign:

Uh-oh

Yep, we picked the one weekend that proved to be the most crowded of the whole year.  You know what that meant, no camping spots available in the park. Not one and your choices outside the park are really pretty limited.  We ended up getting the last spot at a privately owned RV/dive bar/tent camp/motel. 

At least the location was good, right outside the entrance road to the park so early the next morning we took one of the best hikes in the park.  The trail up to see the bristlecone pines.

You have to drive up to the trailhead which starts around 10,000 ft, but what a drive.  

The aspens were on fire

The trail itself is a little rocky

Ok, maybe more than a little

Then you start to see the pines:

These trees are between 2,000 and 3,000 years old

Even the dead ones do not decay for 300 to 400 years

 They are the oldest living things on the entire planet

Since we left for the hike early in the morning, we had the whole grove to ourselves for awhile.  Fred hiked further up the trail toward a glacier to get some better mountain shots and I sorted rocks and contemplated the age of the universe while I waited for him to come back.  There was no shortage rocks and you are required by law in Utah to have deep thoughts here.

A bit further along the trail the mountain expresses its opinion of my deep thoughts

If you read Game of Thrones you will know this is really a weirwood tree

This is my favorite hike this trip, it's just beautiful and serene

I'll leave you alone for a moment while you contemplate these two ancient life forms

Look how teensy the cones are compared to the coulter pine

Meanwhile, back at the Bambi, I'm closing things up cuz it's about to rain and you know why that's a big bummer?  Because we had planned on doing some of the astronomy stuff that second night and the whole thing was cancelled.

The next morning we headed back to the park to tour some caves which turned out to be pretty great but you know what's not great about caves?  The ability to get decent pictures of drippy rock thingees .  They just never turn out that great, so I'll spare you.

The land that borders the park is owned by cattle ranchers who I think take all this newly created tourism with a grain of salt based on the art that tacked up to fence posts around the park.

Like so:

This one was my favorite, complete with horse head skull and hooves propped on the steering wheel, but these little art gems were all along the road to the park.  Someone has a twisted sense of humor that I love.

Next up, two more national parks Arches and Canyonlands and then we skeedaddle home.