Meet the Mules

Torrey, Utah

We woke up this morning to snow. The forecast for tomorrow is more snow with about a one inch accumulation. We're renting a jeep in the morning to explore Cathedral Valley in the Capitol Reef National Park, so we're hoping for good weather. This is Rachel the mule being ridden by a jackass.

The Cathedral Valley loop is about 60 miles of bumpy dirt road that requires a 4WD, high clearance vehicle to traverse. Pictures tomorrow. The mule below is called "Mouse". Mrs. Phred is called Mrs. Phred.

Capitol Reef National Park

Torrey, Utah

I'm a sucker for desert wildflowers.

The Capitol Reef National Park has some white domed rocks that resemble the U.S. capitol building.

A "reef" is a barrier. There is a small abandoned uranium mine here. It's hard to understand how uranium deposit end up in sedimentary rocks. They used to add the uranium to drinking water for health purposes or wear it in packets around bad joints in the hope that it would cure arthritis. Now we know it makes good bombs. Stupid old timers.

The Mormons settled here and created a community called "Frutia" that produced apples and other fruits. They were all bought out by the National Park Service around 1920.

We hike down one of the "washes". When it rains here, the flash floods can quickly fill the washes to 15 or more feet.

Mrs. Phred does some high rock climbing to see "the tanks" which hold water. I give her the camera and she takes my picture from above as I eat a sandwich and hope for her safe return. As she walks along the cliff, I keep seeing her stumble and bounce 300 feet to the canyon floor.

The park is 100 miles long and five miles wide. It's a fold in the Earth that was formed about the same time as the Rocky Mountains.

Some of the exposed layers here were populated by 18 foot long crocodile like creatures with really big teeth.

Maybe our next stop will be Salt Lake City. I'd like to buy Mrs. Phred an iPad so I don't have to share the laptop.

Rand McNally is coming out with a new GPS that is designed for people like us that RV a lot. It has dump stations, propane stations, campgrounds and height and weight restrictions. I think I need one of these too.

The gray layer is where they say the big crocs with the big ugly needle teeth lived.

Down in the Hoodoos

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

The park has an incredible collection of pinnacles, fins and spires which are difficult to capture in all their glory with a cheap digital camera.

The old sand dunes from the Jurrasic were solidified by minerals and upthrust nearly two miles. The rock have too many colors to describe: white, red, cinnamon, chocolate and even blue with the addition of a little manganese.

At this elevation there are an average of 200 days a year that the temperature drops below freezing and then rises above freezing during the day. Water trickles down into cracks, freezes, thaws and sculpts the strange "Hoodoo" shapes that stretch in the Canyon for miles. The Paiute Indians avoided the canyon, fearing that they would also be turned into pinnacles.

Bryce, while huge,  is just a small part of the "Escalante-Grand Staircase" area that includes 2,000,000 acres of geologic wonderland.

We did a mule ride today down into the Canyon floor. Mrs. Phred had a little mule named "Mouse". My mule was a sweetie named "Rachel".

In the morning we're heading further east to the little town of Torrey, Utah. It's just outside the Capitol Reef National Monument (part of the Grand Staircase).

Maybe we can see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon this year before we head for San Francisco? The North rim opened today.

Two Miles High

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

These are the tennis courts just outside the Zion National Park. We left Zion this morning and backtracked east to the Bryce Canyon National Park.

To get to Bryce, we lumber up a mountain range to 10,000 feet. The air is so thin that the peacocks can't get off the ground.



At the top of the mountain range is a large flat plateau covered with deep snow that lasts about ten miles. We see a a highway warning sign with a cow on the yellow diamond. The notion of high altitude cows makes us both laugh. I keep expecting oxygen masks to drop down from the ceiling.

Mr. Bryce was an early Mormon settler who moved near the canyon in 1825. Upon viewing the complex canyon from a peak at 8,800 feet, he is said to have commented, "That's a hell of a place to lose a cow."

The sandstone erosion patterns are fairly unique. The Indians called the pinnacles "hoodoos" and might have thought of them as people turned to stone.

We have a hike planned along the rim today. Maybe a horseback ride down into the canyon tomorrow, then on to the Capitol Reef National park.

Kolob Resevoir

Zion National Park

Tennis scores this morning were 6-3, 6-2 in spite of the wrist brace I've been wearing. I felt really good this morning with no shortness of breath or fatigue as the games progressed. This is day 5 without any tobacco. Quiting is easy, I've done it dozens of times.

After tennis we drove up to the Kolob Reservoir.. My favorite reservoir was "Reservoir Dogs" by Quentin Tarrantino. Mr. Green. Mr Pink. "Why do I have to be be Mr. Pink?

Mr. Blonde has cut off Marvin's ear and begins talking into it]
Mr. Blonde: Hey what's goin' on? Can you hear that? "

Anyway we get up to the reservoir at 8,100 feet and there's still snow on the ground and ice on the lake. The guys driving this snow cat charge off though the snow and only one guy comes back. The guy he dropped off has the keys to the truck so the snow cat takes off again to get the Chevy keys.

The temperature at midday is about 38F. We enjoy a turkey mesquite honey sandwich on sourdough bread before turning back from the reservoir.

Joe: With the exception of Eddie and myself, whom you already know, we're going to be using aliases on this job. Under no circumstances do I want any one of you to relate to each other by your Christian names, and I don't want any talk about yourself personally. That includes where you been, your wife's name, where you might've done time, or maybe a bank you robbed in St. Petersburg. All I want you guys to talk about, if you have to, is what you're going to do. That should do it. Here are your names...
[pointing to each respective member]
Joe: Mr. Brown, Mr. White, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, and Mr. Pink.
Mr. Pink: Why am I Mr. Pink?
Joe: Because you're a faggot, alright?