Five Ways to Describe Rocks - Part 2

Capital Reef Nat Park

After Bryce we drove into Dixie National Forest and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Highway 12 is a scenic by-way. Scenic indeed!  It took a good 3 hours to drive the 83 miles from Bryce to Grover near Capital Reef National Park.  Turns and twists, 30-45 mph, up and down.  The highest pass, Homestead Pass, was 9,600 feet. The Siesta thermometer read 18 degrees.  At one point I saw 3 elk off the road a bit standing in the pine forest. Eighty-three miles of ever-changing rock formations and vegetation, depending on elevation, from scrubby desert bristle bush to red-stemmed shrubs along dry creek beds to cedars and aspens all backdropped by colorfully layered buttes and bluffs.

And then we spent a night at Capital Reef National Park, the unfamiliar one, at least to me, and maybe to others, too, as there were only 3 other camp sites occupied in the campground. This park is a 100 - mile north to south stretch of protected land that a few million years ago experienced a shift in the earth’s plates causing an up thrust of rock formations. Many of the giant buttes of red rock striated with tans and grays, “pleat” at the bases to form rock “folds.” HooDoos caused by erosion are present, too. Only a small northern section of the 100 -mile “wrinkle” is developed with a Visitor’s Center, the campground and an 8- mile scenic drive that takes you past the monumental red bluffs and ends in gravel meandering down as the canyon narrows.  The walls of rock close in until you must look straight up to see their height.

Finally, we turned east on I-70, the ‘real’ start to our long trip back to Michigan. Except for the detour we made 60 miles later to Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah. How could we pass it up? Gorgeous sunshine and a beautiful blue sky framed our drive through this park of crazy rock formations that with a little imagination turn into Egyptian pharaohs, elephants, sheep, and courthouses. And then there are the arches!!

Our last night of camping before heading over the Rockies and home was Monument Campground on the Colorado River near Fruita, CO, part of James E. Robb State Park, just west of Grand Junction. After that we drove hard for two long days, making our midnight arrival at 314 N Clubview a huge relief and oh, so sweet.

Arches National Park

Escalante National Monument

Five Ways to Describe Rocks - Part 1

From Death Valley, CA, we drove into Nevada and through the north side of Las Vegas to get on I-15. East of the city we took the exit for Valley of Fire State Park which is adjacent to the large complex of Lake Meade National Rec Area. After driving 18 miles through a nothing-but-bristle- bush desert landscape, the sudden downturn of the road into a valley of brilliantly red rock walls and monoliths was nothing short of breathtaking. The campsites were tucked beside and under the red rock buttes. The next morning, we drove the scenic loops through the rest of the park and saw the extent of the fiery valley.  Every color of brown, red, orange and purple was layered in the rock formations.

The next day we drove into Utah and Zion National Park where the massive walls of rock that border the Virgin River are so majestic and so awe-inspiring that when I ran out of “Wow” and “Holy Cow,” I smoothed out into a steady “om.” We snagged one of the last available camp sites at South Campground. Watchman Campground was already full when we arrived – at 2:30 in the afternoon! Even after it snowed during the night (one of only 5 or 6 times a year it snows at street level in the park, according to our bus driver) and we decided not to hike in the 34 degrees on slippery trails, our ride through the canyon on the shuttle bus gave us a good taste of the glory of this national park.

If you drive anything bigger than a car and you want to take the road east out of Zion, you must buy a permit to go through the 1930s-built tunnel, which we did. Then tunnel traffic from both directions is stopped and you can drive safely through alone. Once through, we drove north and east on roads that were just a bit snowy at higher elevations until we got to the entrance of Bryce National Park, where there was quite a bit of old as well as new snow. Plus, it was cold at 7000 feet. We shopped at the Visitor’s Center, and we stopped and marveled at the depth of Sunset Canyon with all its rows and groupings of HooDoos (columns.) The word HooDoo comes from a similar sounding Paiute word meaning scary, which they may well look in the dark under a full moon, but in the sunshine, under a blue sky, those rock HooDoos looked rather cheerful, I thought. (cont.)

Valley of Fire

                                                         Zion National Park

Bryce National Park

The Places We've Been

Oh, the miles we've covered and the places we've been!
After leaving Annie's in Sacramento, Pinnacles National Park east of San Jose was our first stop.  We hiked the Condor Gulch trail and saw 5 condors perched on a pinnacle.  The park has been one of a few release areas for condors raised in captivity and 27 condors now wear tags from Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles: just one of the names for those free-standing columns of stone that you find in various rocky places in the West.

Just so we could say we'd been coast to coast, Atlantic to Pacific, on this trip, we decided to head to the beach before turning east for home. South of Monterey, CA, we found a camp site at San Simeon State Park, just north of Cambria. A short drive from there is the state park beach where dogs can walk on leash. Our walk with Nina ended abruptly, though, when we realized the large brown lump in the sand ahead of us was a sleeping bull elephant seal. We decided not to go any closer. Up the coast a few miles, though, we watched from a viewpoint, tons of elephant seals lounging in the sand.

 Leaving San Simeon, we drove Hwy 46 toward Bakersfield, CA. On that road, we found Blackwell Corners, a gas station at an intersection. This was where James Dean stopped for gas in 1955 before his fatal car accident a short time later. The gas station that's there now, of course, is new, and includes a market and a gift shop to attract passing motorists. Just as interesting, though, was the valley that Hwy 46 crosses. This vast stretch of flatness grows more almond and pistachio trees than my mind could comprehend. Of course we bought pistachios at the James Dean Market.

That night we bumped ever-so-slowly over 5 miles of washboardy gravel to Trona Pinnacles National Rec Area. Otherworldly comes to mind. There, more than 500 rock columns (or tufa spines) of various sizes rise from a flat valley of nothingness (well, nothing but rocks, anyway.) Since the Rec Area is so off the beaten path, we had the place to ourselves, except for one local amateur photographer who was setting up his tripod to capture that evening's full moon rise.  And oh, what an event that was! The next morning we caught the sunrise AND the moonset.

From there, we drove north and east to the entrance of Death Valley National Park.  As it turned out, a favorite part of that morning drive was the road BEFORE we reached the west entrance of Death Valley Park. We passed Searles Valley, a dry lakebed that contains 98 of the 104 known naturally occurring chemical elements. Searles Valley Minerals mines and processes minerals from this expansive flatland to produce boric acid, among other things. The town of Trona IS the mine and processing facility, plus a few houses. Wikipedia says, "Searles Valley is known for its isolation and desolation." Uhh.... yes. The amazing part of the drive happened after that. We drove from that very very flat lowland of Searle Valley Basin, until the road got to a point where it turned down sharply, curving and twisting to an even lower valley that stretched for miles to the east and north between two mountain ranges. A breathtaking moment! The occasional sunshine  through the clouds over the mountains and through the light mist that was falling created  rainbows as we drove along through this enchanted area.

Then we entered Death Valley National Park. As the sun got higher in the sky, the wind ramped up, and by the time we'd climbed over the mountains on the west side of the park and tumbled down into the sandy valley that sits below sea level on the east side, the wind was gusting to 50 mph, and we decided not to stick around in the swirling cloud of sand. So our plan to camp in Death Valley died, and instead we battled the Siesta down the windy road toward Nevada.