Moab and beyond

Before I continue about our journey, I wanted to let you know about a related website. I was a little frustrated that I'm only able to upload about 25 photos a month under this website, but I have so many more to show you. So, I set up another website, in which I have the ability to post tons more pictures. Its website name is http://semitte.photosite.com. I'll post related pictures, along with captions, on a regular basis. I'll also refer to various pictures in my blog from time to time. You can also view the pics as a slide show if you want. OK, on with the show.

Our Journey to Moab

We reached Moab Friday evening -- big surprise! We found out after we got there that Moab is a MAJOR playground for ATV's, motorcycles, etc. When we went to the grocery store, we must have seen at least a hundred twenty-something guys, each with beer and snacks. We were lucky we got a spot for our RV as just about everyone in town was booked for the weekend. But since we weren't out playing in the dirt, everything turned out ok and we didn't get in each other's way.

First we went to Arches National Park. This was exactly the picture of Utah that Michael and I had in our heads, with the arches, the mounds of sandstone, etc. We drove through the entire park, and all of it was amazing. We also hiked around and through a couple of the big arches. While we were up there, we met a couple, about 30-ish, from Nelson, British Columbia, named Aaron and Jen. Aaron is a cartographer (map maker -- hey Ken, he also has the map gene!). We had a good time talking to them. Jen was the one who took this picture of the two of us.

After Arches, we drove over to Canyonland National Park. It's kinda like a small Grand Canyon -- very beautiful. Some of you may know, I've always said I'm not afraid of anything. Well, I found out what I'm afraid of -- high ledges with no fences! There were several places throughout the park, including the one in this picture, that were like that (that's a road down at the bottom!). I freaked out whenever anyone (especially Michael) got too close to the edge. I knew for sure that the dirt and gravel would give way, or that that would be the day that the big rock would give way and fall to the bottom! Scary! But it was very beautiful there and we enjoyed it.

After we left Canyonlands, we took a little detour to see some petroglyphs (rock writing from hundreds of years ago). There were various writings all over the sides of the big rocks. Also all over the sides of the big rocks were several groups of rock climbers. After we looked at the petroglyphs, we walked down to the first group of 3 people. They were Shane and John from Colorado, and Sally from Florida. They weren't climbing all the way to the top, but were doing shorter practiced runs. Sally was climbing when we walked up. She's only been climbing for about 2 months. I was also amused to find out that she's afraid of heights! When I asked the obvious question, she said that this was a way for her to conquer her fears. Admirable! Anyway, both John and especially Shane were showing us all the equipment, how it worked, how the rope is tied off at the top, etc. I'm really glad we got to talk to them! After Sally made it up, and then back down (yeah, Sally!), John went up. Being the more experienced of the two, he zipped right up and down. Here's a picture of John.

Leaving Southern Utah

The next morning, we left Moab to head toward Salt Lake City. When we left, it was 68 degrees. But by the time we got to the middle of the state, it was 36 degrees and snowing. Around that point in time, I saw a beautiful river, the Price. Then right along the stream, I saw a coal burning plant. That was a bit surprising, and even a little sad, that all that nasty cool was burning in the middle of this beautiful valley. I had never seen a coal burning plant before.

One thing that struck me all along the way through Utah was the number of Mormon churches, and they all have white steeples. Every little community we drove through, we just looked across the landscape, and there it was. It didn't matter that it was just a junky little town, there was the beautiful, well-maintained Mormon church.

As we drove into Salt Lake City, I also knew we were in Mormon country by even the billboards. There was one billboard for a menswear store (I've included it on my photosite) that showed a guy in a suit, with a little dog after him, that said "Missionary tested". There was another one for a shoe store that said "8 kids. All girls. 120 pairs of shoes." Funny, huh??

The next morning, I went down myself to the Temple Square (Mike had some other things to do). It was all very beautiful and well-maintained. I went to the Tabernacle and heard an organ recital. It was what you would expect a Bach organ recital to be, but I enjoyed seeing and hearing that huge pipe organ. I also went through the Visitor Center where they have an 11-ft statue of Jesus, with the stars and planets in blue as a background. It was very striking. I've posted a lot of these pics on my photosite.

I also got to do something else that I had wanted to do for a long time -- that is, go to the genealogical center. For quite a while, I've had a fascination with searching my ancestors, although obviously not for the same reasons the Mormons do. Just on the one floor I was on, there were thousands and thousands of catalogued microfilm spools, each with thousands of bits of information on them. These spools were in hundreds of drawers that were cross-catalogued with the computer research that I had to do first. My dad has a lot of names from his side of the family, so I wanted to do research on my mom's side. I got to go back pretty far on my mom's mom's side, but had a more difficult time researching my mom's dad. He's a mystery man. The one cool thing I did find (and get a copy of) is my grandma and grandpa's wedding license from 1912. Very cool!

By the way, another interesting piece of info I got there was from a poster on the wall, where they had done a brief geneology on a man last-named Howland who came over on the Mayflower. From this one man and his children came President Ford, President Nixon, both Presidents Bush, President F. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill (as well as a couple of other supposedly-famous people I didn't know). Pretty cool, huh?

Spending all that time looking through the parts of Temple Square were very interesting. It was a cultural and educational experience for me. But I was also kinda sad when I saw all the money and effort spent for various things that were so far off the mark.

Salt Lake City was full of various companies and industries, and it seemed there was a lot going on there. But as I said to Michael, it seemed that there was a lot going on, but nothing going on. So other than Temple Square, they really didn't have an area that was worth spending time on. So we decided to go ahead and leave late that afternoon.

Up to Idaho

As we were entering Idaho, I couldn't help but realize that that border was at the same latitude as Oregon's, and that Pocatello was just about the same latitude as Medford. It was interesting, too, that when we first drove into Idaho, we were up in the mountains. Then, pretty soon we caught a view of a big valley, and started driving down the mountains into it. As we were driving down, we saw lots of homes nestled on the hill to the west, then we drove into Pocatello. For those of you from Medford, you'll understand it when I say that it felt just the same as driving into Oregon, seeing the Rogue Valley come into view, seeing the homes on the western hill in Ashland, then driving into Medford. It was an interesting deja vu experience.

Pocatello was a nice town, around 50,000. We drove on up to Idaho Falls. It was about the same size, but it wasn't pretty at all. I'm not sure what happened in those few miles between them. It was already starting to get dark, but Michael felt like driving on, so we continued on toward Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We actually ended up just pulling over and sleeping in Alpine, Wyoming (just inside the border) and rolled on into Jackson the next morning.

We had a great breakfast there, then headed for the Teton National Park. We were surprised to find out when we got there that it was too early in the year, and only the first 3 miles of the park were open. They don't completely open until May 1 (a week away). It was a little frustrating because we could see the roads, and they were fine. Just some snow along the side. Oh well. We went ahead and drove in those 3 miles, and I got a great view of the Tetons. Beautiful!

The other thing we found out there at the Tetons Ranger Station was that the south entrance of Yellowstone was also still closed. We had come that way planning to drive right on up out of the Tetons and right into the south entrance. Only the west and north entrances were open, so we had to drive back the way we came! UGH! We drove back to Jackson, then decided to take a different route out -- up and over a mountain that we had driven around the night before. This mountain was incredible, but there was a 10% grade! And we still had the fifth wheel on the back!! Neither I nor Michael had ever been on a 10% grade before. That pickup certainly got a workout, both up and down that mountain!

After we got off the mountain, we decided to take a back road toward the west entrance, and I'm glad we did. All along that 30-mile stretch of highway were potato fields, as far as the eye could see. It was either ready to plant, or had just been planted -- I'm not sure. But it had been "tractored" -- all the dirt had been processed and had the "lines" in it. We couldn't comprehend how so many hundreds and hundreds of acres could have been tractor-processed on a timely basis like that. It was very interesting, and I'm glad I saw where the Idaho potatoes come from.

We arrived at Yellowstone

We finally made it to the west entrance of Yellowstone. We also found out that more than half of the park was still closed until May 1 (or later). Only the western and northern areas were opened. We were bummed, but at least we enjoyed the parts we saw. I was amazed, though, at how much devastation was still left over from the huge fire in 1988. Even though it was 19 years ago, you can still see it all over. Everywhere you look you see all these 30-40 ft barren tree trunks hovering over new growth that's about 6-8 feet tall. Some hills have never really recovered. It's really sad how a fire like that can have an affect for years.

We first went south down to Ol' Faithful. I had seen that as a teenager, but it was certainly fun to see it again. I was thinking it spewed every 15-20 minutes or so, so I wasn't worried about when we would get there. But I found out that it spews about every 90 minutes, and it had just gone off when we got there. So we went back to the fifth wheel and had lunch and relaxed first before going back. That thing is amazing!

We also saw all along the way down to Ol' Faithful all the various areas of thermal activity. There was pool after pool of boiling water, minerals, mud -- it looked like we were on a different planet, and certainly not in the middle of a beautiful national park. I've included several pictures on my photosite, but of course, the pics don't do it justice.

We also saw several different wild animals -- elk, muledeer, bears, wolves, moose, and lots of bison. I took pics of all those animals, although the wolf one didn't turn out (he ducked behind the tree right when the camera snapped). Again, I have those pics on the photosite. The situation around those bison pics was pretty cool. We were driving down the road, and up ahead were 5 bison just walking down the road. One was kinda in the middle of our lane. We slowed down, and I rolled my camera down. I was just about 3-4 feet from them. I kept taking pictures, but then the head bison started getting a little annoyed, I think. As I was snapping the camera, I was thinking about what I would do if that bison just turned and decided to ram me and/or the pickup. We decided to speed on before that happened! We saw lots of other bison along the way, but that definitely was a close encounter!

We're resting this afternoon and are heading out tomorrow on the first leg of a long journey of boredom! We're stopping first in South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, but then we're driving down through Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma to go see my family. That's a lot of miles of nothing but flat land, empty fields, and tired backsides! Oh well, I think this will be the worst part of the trip, then it will be over with!

I'll catch up with you down the road!!