Parowan Gap Petroglyphs--Old & New

Our 'weekend' plans were designed around the need to purchase and mail the external hard-drive and to restock our larder at WalMart.  A visit to the Parowan Gap petroglyph panels about 15 miles outside Cedar City, briefly mentioned in a tourist brochure, seemed like an interesting activity for Tuesday morning.

Although the directions were sketchy, the site was easy to reach and well worth the trip.  Archeologists have counted over 1500 figures, some nearly 5000 years old, scattered over 90 panels on both sides of a 600-foot deep notch in the hills surrounding Cedar Valley.  What makes the site so unusual, aside from the number of figures and span of time during which they were created, is that the Gap was used by the Paleo-Indians as a solar calendar.  The main glyph, nicknamed "The Zipper", may record the sun's movement through the Gap in order to schedule planting and harvesting times.



Zipper Petroglyph



Earlier visitors to the site have felt compelled to add modern graffiti to the ancient.   Thus, chainlink fencing has been erected around several panels to protect them from further damage or theft.  (Yes, people have pried off slabs of petroglyphs!) .  The necessity of the barrier is apparent but regretable because the direct and bright light (it's a solar calendar, after all) makes photography difficult.

On the way back across Cedar Valley, we saw a long white line moving across the horizon.  As we drew closer, we discerned a shepherd on horseback moving a huge herd of ~300 sheep from one side of the road to the other.  Cool!

It Just Makes You Wonder...

OK, we're bound  for Zion's Observation Point--4 miles and 2147' above us.  The trail ascends in a continuous series of switchbacks along the wall of Zion Canyon.  Although narrow and steep, the route offers astounding views and, at this time of year, wonderful wildflowers.  Our favorite section was the stretch through Echo Canyon, where the trail hugs the wall.  At various points, you can peer over the edge of the trail and look down, down, down into this hanging slot canyon but not see the bottom.

Our guidebook describes the last part of the ascent as 'airy'.   We didn't understand that adjective until we reached the "final ascent across white cliffs that drop away for a thousand feet below the pathway."  At that point, we learned that 'airy' means  'trying to move forward along a narrow ledge in the face of 60 mph head-winds.'  We literally clung to the wall, pulling ourselves along and attempting to shield our faces from the stinging blowing sand. 

Fortunately, the wind was less intense on the plateau at the summit--or so we thought.  When we rounded a turn, we saw a young woman sitting on the ground holding a bloody cloth to a wound on her head.  The wind had blown down a heavy 25' dead bristlecone pine on her as she passed by!  Although injured, she was very lucky not to have taken a more direct hit or been knocked off the precipice.  'Whew!,' we thought, 'That's two bullets (the wind and the tree) we've dodged today.' 

As we headed for the point, hikers warned us to watch out for the rattlesnake.  Yep, there he was, slithering his whole four-foot length under a tree toward a patch of shade.  Fred took several pictures and we proceeded to find a spot for lunch.  Suddenly, we noticed Mr. Rattler-- about six feet away and wending his reptilian way right for us.  Ours was a movable feast so we hastily relocated. When I commented to Fred that we'd done a tough eight miles, he told me we'd only done four miles at that point.  But we'd certainly had 8 miles worth of thrills and chills.

Our descent was faster and less eventful--until we were about a mile from the trailhead.  I stopped to snap a wildlfower while Fred continued on and was about 15' ahead of me.  At the same instant, we both heard a rumble above us and knew it was a rock fall.  But the sheerness of the cliffs and vegetation hid the source.  Then a basketball-size rock crashed on the trail between us and continued bouncing downward.

Although Observation Point had been a great hike with breath-taking vistas and beautiful wildflowers, we were glad to complete it unscathed, i.e., not blown off the trail, clobbered by a tree, bitten by a snake or smashed by a rock.

 

The Week That Was...

I haven't put up a post in a while so to catch up... 

Since our TV lost its video capability (about two weeks ago), we've been viewing DVDs on my computer.  Thursday evening, we watched "Unstoppable"; on Friday morning, the computer refused to boot up.  (Thanks, NetFlix!)  Long story short, in the process of trying to get the machine to restart, we had to revert to 'restore factory settings'.  The computer opened but my files had disappeared--pictures of family, trips, events and all the wildflowers I've photographed and identified, documents, reference websites, etc.  Fred consulted with daughter Alissa and her husband, both super computer-savvy, and they generously offered to search the hard drive and restore the files.  We need to copy the hard drive onto an external unit and mail it to them.
Purchasing an external hard-drive became the priority for our up-coming days off.

It had been a tough, frustrating work-week and we wanted to maximize our time off by spending as much time off-site as possible.  Now we had a plan:  Get away and buy a hard-drive!  In other words, head for St. George as soon as we finished our duties on Sunday. 

We left Tropic at 2:00, found the Best Buy, purchased the hard-drive and checked into our motel in Hurricane by 6:00.  Priorities #1 and #2 accomplished, we then focused on f-u-n.  The kick-off event was dinner at JB's, a family-style restaurant with wonderful food, large portions, reasonable prices and nice waitresses.

Early Monday morning we gassed up the Jeep ($3.63/gal--yay!), bought some goodies for lunch, picked up a mailing box at the post office and drove 30 miles to Zion.  Found a shady parking space and seats on the shuttle and were on the trail to Observation Point by 10.

Our Day to Take It Easy (you know better!)

June 1, 2011

Just like yestereday, today started off with a leak.  We thought we'd corrected the problem but  I felt the spot where we'd first noticed dampness and it was wet again.  Fred thinks that he inadvertently jiggled a fitting while trying to fix yesterday's leak.  He tightened the fitting before we left and the area was still dry when we returned.

Yesterday's hike took a lot out of us for some reason and we agreed not to hike a long distance or with much difficulty today.  The plan was to drive to an area of hoodoos, wander around and take pictures.  When we stopped at the GSENM visitor center (it's always recommended to do that to find out about the possibility of flash floods), the ranger uttered those magic words Fred can't resist:  slot canyon.  He told me it was an easy 2.5 miler.  He didn't tell me:  that was the distance one-way, that it entailed climbing, stemming and using ropes and that we'd left the map and GPS in the RV. 

Long short short:  the route was hot and sandy but there were some great wildflowers and amazing rock colors and formations.  When we reached the slot canyon, its bottom was covered with water of unknown depth about 50' from the entrance.  So, with great relief on my part, we turned around.

We stopped at a funky little restaurant/outfitter/souvenir shop our Pisgah Forest neighbors had recommended highly.  The menu was interesting and much nicer than our waitress.  We'll spend what's left of the day relaxing and preparing to return to work tomorrow.

A Full Day

Yesterday was our first day off after a long, hard week.  We were lucky with perfect hiking weather yet again--clear skies, comfortable temps and a nice breeze  Our plan was to go to Panguitch to deposit our paycheck, come home and go hike.

When I picked up the bathrobe that had fallen off the bed during the night, it was wet??  After a good deal of searching and speculating, we isolated the location of the source--at the end of the bed, behind the difficult-to-remove drawers, at the back of a crawlspace.  Fred compressed and contorted himself enough to inspect the water-lines and connections; none were leaking.  He thought the most likely cause was the absence of a silicone seal under the faucet housing in the shower.  Easy enough to remedy but the task ate up about two hours of our precious free time.

Next--on to Panguitch!  With four times the population of Tropic, we expected their (one and only) grocery store to have a larger selection and lower prices.  Wrong on both counts!  Since we had no intention of spending the day bargain-hunting, we bought a few necessities, returned home and packed up for Kodakchrome Basin State Park.

We'd hiked the park's longest trail on a visit early in May.  Today's agenda was to 'finish up' Kodakchrome by doing Shakespeare Arch, Angel's Palace and the Grand Parade, the three trails totaling about 6.5 miles.  (I offer no explanation for the fanciful names--nothing about any of them merited the label applied.)  Although they weren't far from one another, each route was quite distinct--interesting and beautiful in its own way. 

Shakespeare Arch passes the park's only large arch as it skirts the rim of Kodakchrome Basin and offers breath-taking views of the surrounding Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  We took the challenging alternate route that required a brief but steep stretch across slickrock--fun! Lots of evening-primroses.



Shakespeare Arch



The Grand Staircase in the distance




Fred at The Sentinel

 Angel's Palace climbs a small plateau and projects on to fingers above the Basin. There are sweeping views of the Basin and Bryce Canyon.  Lots of sego lilies.




Sego Lily



Kodachrome's red rock spires from Angel's Palace



Brave Fred out on one of the projections 150' above the Basin's floor



Obligatory Tree Picture


The Grand Parade stays on the floor of the Basin, hugging the base of cliffs rising above.  We took a side-trip into a box canyon that was unremarkable.



Red rocks, hoodoos and spires



Can you see the two figures?  
This immediaely reminded me of Hammurabi's Stele.



Mother Nature's diorama


We returned home tired, dusty, hungry and with memory-cards full of (hopefully) wonderful photos!

Eventful, but not in a good way

We knew, by looking at the schedule, that yesterday would bring a heavy workload—three cottages and three rooms to be cleaned, three rooms to be serviced, the common areas to be dusted and vacuumed plus mountains of laundry to be washed, dried, folded and put away.  Earlier in the week, we volunteered for check-in duty, manning the registration desk from 3-8, because that would be a good opportunity to do our personal laundry.

We completed our housekeeping duties at 12:30; however, before we could return to the RV for lunch, showers and time to relax, the owner informed us that she had OK’d an early check-in, expected between 1:00 and 2:00.  Fred stayed at the inn while I ran home to shower then we traded places.  Our ‘early check-in’ drifted in at 5:15 (forced smile) and the other new guests appeared by 8:00.  Tired and hungry, we loaded the Jeep with our clean clothes and headed up the lane to ‘home.’

Less than 10 minutes later, a guest called, saying her husband was having a medical emergency; could we please get help for him?  We dialed 911 and drove back to the inn.

Bob, her 73-year old husband, was propped up on the sofa in the common area animatedly telling two couples what happened:  he and his wife were having wine on the deck when his speech became garbled and his right side got weak.

Less than ten minutes after the 911 call, EMTs* arrived followed by the ambulance and its crew.  They took his blood pressure, tested his blood sugar, did an EKG, administered a battery of quick-and-dirty stroke screenings and determined he needed to be examined more thoroughly at the nearest hospital, 30 miles away in Panguitch.

His wife was understandably upset and flustered.  She wanted to be with him but she was frightened to drive to the hospital in the dark because she’d never seen the route or driven her husband’s SUV.  We volunteered to have Fred drive her in their vehicle and me follow in the Jeep--she could stay with her husband and Fred would have a way home.

The hospital staff attended to Bob immediately.  In less than 45 minutes, the doctor was able to tell us Bob suffered a TIA or mini-stroke and needed to be observed for the next 12 hours.  Bob stayed in the hospital, Fred and Bernie in the SUV and I in the Jeep returned to Stone Canyon.  It was 11:37 PM when we completed our day’s work.

*[When Dixie had told us that everyone in Tropic is an EMT, I thought she was exaggerating.  If she was, it wasn’t by much!  At least a dozen people responded to the emergency.  We were impressed by and appreciative of their calm, compassionate and competent treatment of a couple in an unfamiliar place among strangers who were thrust into a frightening situation.]

It's Always Something...

When we turned on the TV Wednesday evening,  the audio responded but the video didn't.  After trying all manner of sophisticated strategies, including un- and re-plugging, cord-jiggling, manual perusing, etc., we concluded: it's broken.  Television without a picture is radio, only less.  Thanks heavens for the internet!  And Amazon!  A new, larger set is on its way and should arrive early next week.

This morning, Fred switched on the gas furnace...and nothing happened.  The silver lining to this situation is that the weather has improved; daytime temps generally reach the low 70*s and overnight temps usually remain above 40*. The electric space heater counters the morning chill in the living area.  The bedroom is too small to use the heater but two blankets and a heated mattress pad keep us warm.

Yesterday was our second day off for this week and we had a continuation of the perfect weather.  Our destination was Cottonwood  Canyon Narrows, only 25 miles away but in a different world.  (For such a huge place, the topography of Utah changes suddenly and dramatically--there is nothing gradual or tentative, no transitions  just--BANG! there it is.)  Along the way, we took a short side-trip to Grosvenor's Arch, which is actually a double arch.  (You can read the particulars below.)  To reach the arch, you travel a packed clay road through dry, desolate country with no hint of humans except that track and barbed wire strung between weathered posts.  From the parking area you walk to the base of the arch on a concrete sidewalk!?!

Grosvenor's Arch

No such amenities at Cottonwood Narrows!  We found several entry points into the canyon and managed to select one of the steepest.  The canyon was immediately deeper, darker and drier than Willis Creek.  We saw scores of lizards skittering over boulders and into crevices and several varieties of wildflowers.  The hot, dry, rocky conditions must be the ideal environment for the vibrant Indian paintbrush.

The most difficult aspect of this 'hike,' actually a mile and a half walk,  was trudging through deep, soft sand--a lot of effort resulting in little forward progress.  There was no water in the channel and only one spot that required scrambling over a rockfall.



Obligatory Tree Picture

Because of the sand, we chose to return to the parking lot via the road rather than going up-canyon.  Although it was a hot and exposed route, it provided views of amazing landforms and colors.

Saw many of these along and even in the road to Cottonwood Canyon.  He was

the only one who posed for a portrait.

Work Hard, Play Harder

We spent yesterday in Fairy Land, hiking the 5.7-trail through Bryce's most surreal hoodoos.    The weather was sunny with temps in the upper 60s and a refreshing breeze.  The cloudless azure sky provided a stunning backdrop for the red, orange, coral, pink and white rock formations.

The beauty of the landscape made our considerable effort (8.4 miles and 2135' of elevation change) worthwhile.   Although it's possible to ride the park shuttle back to the trailhead parking lot, we opted to hike the additional 2.7 miles.  The guidebook's author idea of 'gradually ascending' is much different than ours!

What a great way to spend a great day in a great place!



The way to enter Fairy Land...

where there are hoodoos are of all sizes, shapes and colors...




 

and wonders wait around every corner.

You can see forever...

and look back across the eons to time before man walked the earth.

Beauty is everywhere!  :)

A Gothic cathderal?

An immense spear point?

London's Tower Bridge?

A delicate columbine.