Junior Rangers

This week we have been participating with Bryce Canyon seasonal and volunteer staff training. They have been throwing a lot of stuff at us, but it's been invigorating, rewarding and fun. The ranger staff here is great, and everyone is making us feel like we are a real part of the park. Our supervisor, Jan Stock, is a very inclusive and people-oriented person, and we look forward to doing anything she tells us to do. We have been learning what it takes to be a park interpreter, which involves helping visitors to the park understand and assimilate universal themes that the park has to offer. Our instructor Kevin likes to say that after our interpreting, we leave off where are visitors 'will go onto the rest of their lives'. We have also been struggling over the Junior Ranger book, it isn't easy! We found out that anyone (including adults), can become Junior Rangers. Yeehaw! But the program is targeted to kids twelve and under, with the underhanded intention of getting their parents involved too, so that they can learn a thing or two. We have been issued a set of keys, given use of the staff laundry, and soon will get radios and uniforms.

Today we have the morning off, but will participate in the "Dark Skies" program tonight, which we are looking forward to. Astronomy is very big here, so is geology. Kathy and I are both trying to prepare some geology talks. Right now I am contemplating using a sandwich as a model of rock layers, then show what happens to it as it is cut (faults) and one side is uplifted from the other, as can be seen here between the fault separating the Aquarius Plateau (higher) and the Paunsaugunt Plateau where Bryce is. I will also take some bites out of it, representing the formation of ampitheaters, which is what is happening here at Bryce. Eventually, the sandwich will be gone (yum) as will the rocks forming all the spectacular scenery here (sob), but that will take another three million years.

The most amazing scenery here, and what makes Bryce so unique are the multicolored hoodoos. There are hoodoos in other areas (including the country of Turkey), but none to the extent that exist here. It's the freezing/thawing cycle here that is the predominant erosion activity forming the hoodoos. Bryce gets 200+ days per year where the temperature goes both above and below freezing. We have had four out of five days like that so far, last night was the first night it didn't drop below freezing. By contrast, the Aquarius Plateau, which is from the same rock formation, stays below freezing a lot more because it is 2000 feet higher. Therefore, it doesn't get the erosion factor that Bryce gets and has no hoodoos.

On Monday Ernie & Heide Mahlke showed up and greeted me "Hi Scott" at Rainbow Point. I was taken off guard and didn't recognize Heide at first, but then I saw Ernie and she said "I'm Heide" and my recognition returned. They are the first visitors from back home who looked us up. We went out to dinner with them that night and had a good time visiting. They had just been to Zion and are continuing their travels on the 'loop' in Utah which takes one to several other magnificent parks. So the rest of you reading this, make your plans now to get out here and either surprise us or not, but just get here.

We feel that we are acclimating to the 8000 foot elevation here. Last night we did a 20+ mile bike ride, and notice we didn't feel as winded. But now I have a flat tire to attend to. (another one!) Kathy hiked down into the canyon today (as I sit here on the computer) and already encountered a ranger assisting a woman with a broken ankle. Falls and injuries are very common here. Not too many people die here, fortunately, but lightning has taken 3 lives and injured many others, including taking off the scalp and pony tail of Kevin Poe's friend. It is already pretty busy here. Many of the visitors are from foreign countries, mostly European, so we can have a European experience as well as a spell-binding hoodoo one right here in Bryce.

We Made it to Bryce!

After leaving the Mittens and other monuments we moved on towards Jacob Lake (North Rim, Grand Canyon). Driving by Marble Canyon, we reminisced on our first trip through in 2005. Then, as now, the wind was raging. That trip, we spent the night at the Marble Canyon Lodgeto avoid setting up a tent at 11pm in the National Forest, worrying the whole while about 40 mph winds sending a towering Ponderosa Pine into our tent. This trip, we decided to make a stop at Lee's Ferry, having missed it the first time through. Plus, the beautiful blue "Rio Colorado" would be eye candy after so much dry dust While trying to figure out the payment procedure - you'd think by now we would have these things down pat - we met and chatted with a couple from Mesa, AZ. They had been bringing kayaks to Lee's Ferry for several years and sang the praises of the Lee's Ferry campground. Apparently, you can kayak upstream the 15 miles to Lake Powell in quiet water. The current is minimal, and camping is allowed enroute if you choose to make a multiday trip. Coming back down would seem a cinch - but if the wind is being wicked, watch out! The camground offered no hookups, but it was worth a night's stay, having a splendid view of the Paria Riffle and towering canyon walls. The Paria Riffle, by the way, sure looks like a RAPID to me. But, of course, I am viewing it through Eastern eyes. We biked up to Lee's Ferry proper and happily watched rafters scurrying about like ants on a food gathering mission. After an easy hike along a River trail, we returned to see what kind of progress had been made. Still at it, apparently it is quite a time consuming process. I caught conversations regarding proper placement of liquid refreshments - a most important part of the supply chain. A lab puppy happily bounded from boat to boat - we never figured out which of the several trips belonged to him. After checking permits, a Ranger stopped and explained the difference between commercial and private trips. Private trips must have a licensed boatman for each boat. Other than that - they are on their own. Commercial trips must meet other requirements, as well. In the morning, after plumping up on pancakes, we headed up a small side canyon just next to our Rocky. We were able to make it to the head of the canyon and were rewarded with a purposely placed pile of petrified wood. Oh, I was so tempted to pilfer a piece - but was able to hold the impulse at bay and walk away empty handed, but full of self rightousness. Hiking up the side of the canyon on a little "explore" we came upon the Lee's Ferry "dump". This is where old toilets, dumpsters and signs go to die. Not pretty. Since it was nearing time to vacate the premises, we walked down to the "beach" to photograph the Paria Riffle and put our feet in the 47 degree waters, freshly released from the bottom of Lake Powell. Scott called "Rafters coming!" and we were treated to a show. This is the first turbulance they encounter after casting off from Lee's Ferry. I can imagine the thrill of the newbies as they cascade down this first "riffle". So, again, we will head to Jacob Lake, only 50 miles up the road. As it turns out, no campgrounds are in operation yet, until the North Rim opens in mid-May. But national forest abounds, so we found a secluded spot on forest road 248. I was truly itching to get on my bike and ride up the access road to the North Rim, even though that danged, infernal, eternal wind was still with us. Since we are on the Kaibab plateau, the road is generally level, with gentle ups and downs. And the huge trees sheltered us for the most part. We road a couple miles on the dirt forest road, then 10 miles up the North Rim road, which is still closed to all but local traffic. About halfway up we encountered a huge pine down and blocking the whole road (I guess our fears of four years ago were well founded). Apparently the "local traffic" knows how to get around using the forest roads, as a few cars passed us, but there were no tire marks in the ground around the tree. We are now at Bryce Canyon, cozy in our campsite. Located in a small loop of Sunset Campground, reserved for employees,two sites are occupied by Charlie and Carol. They share the campground host duties. One other site will be occupied sometime in June. We have met Carol, and her two friendly dogs, but have not yet laid eyes on Charlie. Last night we took a short walk along the rim to Sunset Point and then over to the Bryce Lodge. Kevin Poe (who will be conducting our orientation/training) was presenting a program there, "Dark Skies", which we decided to stay and watch. He had amazing photographs of galaxies/stars/planets/nebulae from Hubble, next to photos of the same he had taken. This was, to me, the most extraordinary part of the program. Leaving the Lodge, we encountered a bit of precipitation (mixed?snow? - hard to tell). Today reminded me much of the Southern Tier in terms of spring weather, a cold front charged in along with us, I'm afraid. Two thingsare certain, we are happy to be settled and no longer towing Rocky, and the results of a frequently bad thing - erosion - are stunning here!

We are now in Monument Valley, our second night at Goulding's Campground. We just completed an exhilarating hike up the mesa near the campground. A friendly woman who raised five kids here had told us how to get up it this morning. She and her husband had come here 38 years ago intending to stay about three years and they are still here. We never would have figured out how to get up there without her instructions, but we went behind the Seventh Day Adventist school which she is active with and climbed up a rock fall. It was great up on top, we could see a long ways. Earlier we had biked up to the fee area of Monument Valley and hiked around the West Mitten, the one hike they allow you to take without a guide. We had trouble staying on the trail though, but with the Mitten and it's two cousin buttes in sight the whole time, we always knew where we were.

We will get to Bryce Canyon this weekend, which we are excited about. We can finally set up a real home, with 'porch', outdoor shoe rack and get things in proper order inside the trailer. Our supervisor touched base with us and said our 2 week training period starts this Monday.

While we were staying near Mesa Verde, we also went over to Durango and did some shopping and hiking. There is a neat set of trails starting in the city limits called the Animas Mountain Trail. We had views in every direction, it was in a wonderful mountainous setting. The San Juan Mountains were snow covered, and the Forest Service employee we talked with at their office said the access roads to the forest were still closed for the most part. The Colorado Trail starts (or ends) there also but we were told it was pretty muddy with the spring runoff. I expected to see signs of gas drilling around Durango, but never did find any, must not have been in the right place for that. We did see plenty of oil drills on our drives though.

Today is Earth Day, I note that we are seeing some of the best the Earth has to offer. Monument Valley is recognized as a World Heritage Site as an example. We hope places like this remain protected and revered for generations to come. If humankind ever decides that these places aren't worth saving, then the planet is doomed.

P.S. We got our computer problem fixed by getting the latest version of Spybot and running it. We were using our computer for a few weeks without enough spyware and antivirus protection, not a good idea. Anyways, now we can upload pictures again, yippee.

I did not realize until waiting for a room at the Holiday Inn during the blackout (immediately following the duststorm "brownout" which followed the flat tire on Rocky), that Tony Hillerman was such a prolific writer! They had all (?) of his books in the lobby. Cool. I have read a couple and enjoyed them. This is his country for sure. I was admiring a beautiful photograph of a Navajo girl in full ceremonial dress looking out over Canyon De Chelly, when I heard a little "that's me" from over my left shoulder. She was justifiably proud of both the picture and her beautiful robe. We joined another couple driven in by the dust for dinner that night - the Navajo Taco was quite tasty . A combination of pizza, taco and chili. We took a 3 1/2 hr hike down into Canyon De Chelly the next dustfree day, with a Navajo guide named Ben. He had grown up in the canyon and told us quite a bit about his family Navajo tradition and life in the canyon. He wandered far and wide - what a place to be a kid! About half the hike was back and forth through Chinle Wash, which was running with 35 degree (my feet told me) water. The tiny, tepid mud puddles felt like heaven. We sure could have used the San Francisco River hot springs right about then. We moved on to a waterless, powerless campground the next night, but, hey, it was free. In the morning, after another Navajo taco at the Thunderbird Inn - we were hooked by then - We drove out the North Rim in "rainflakes" as Susie, one of our dinner companions called them (actually, "rainballs" would be more appropriate, as it was more like tiny hail). Anyway, we have since taken in the Petrified Forest, The Painted Desert at sunset, The Four Corners Monument and Mesa Verde, as well as surrounding environs on our bikes today. And we have heat and lights and water and laundry and hot showers, not to mention a gorgeous view. We also have been watching a pair of Mountain Bluebirds enjoy their reflections in Silver's sideview mirror each morning.
Best to all,
Klean and Squeaky (no longer Dusty and Sandy)

Mama Told Me There'd Be Days Like This

We said good-bye to Glenwood, NM yesterday and visited both Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. They both can be seen by driving the same road. We hit the Painted Desert just near sunset. Technical difficulties are preventing me from uploading some great pics Kathy took of that scene, maybe I can try again another day. We crawled into Chambers, Az along I-40 looking for a place to park our trailer for the night. A kindly motel manager at the Chieftan Inn let us keep our rig in the parking lot overnight, then he even gave us free coffee the next morning. But after that we discovered we had a flat tire on the trailer. It was a good time to learn about our Roadside Assistance coverage. After a phone call, a little more than an hour later a repair vehicle showed up to change it for us, then we were on our way. We stopped at Hubbell's Trading Post on our way to Canyon DeChelly during a fierce wind storm. Then it got worse as we drove to the canyon, visibility almost hit zero as we limped along. We got to C.D. and realized we didn't want to be in the wind anymore or even try to camp, so we are holed up in a Holiday Inn outside the park. The hot shower felt good but both our truck and trailer will need a bath tomorrow as dust got into them. There is no way to keep the dust out when it gets this bad. We had seen warnings of dust storms before, but we finally believe that they can happen. Also, I had the pleasure of calling the IRS this morning, that before we discovered the flat tire. My tax submission had been rejected because I didn't include my AGI from 2007. Apparently if you e-file you need that, but I was able to get that from the helpful IRS person. Sorry to have bothered them on the busiest tax day of the year, but that seems to be taken care of, I hope. We met a friendly couple from Phoenix who had dinner with us and told us about the guided tour they had of C.D. (in the dust storm) that day. They are off to Monument Valley next, we may run into them again as that is on our itinerary. It is pretty desolate here, although the town of Chinle has some amenties. We are also trying to learn about the Navajo culture, they live a hard life but have a long and rich tradition which we hope to get a better sense of.

Arizona and Back

Wow, time has flown, we've been to Saguaro NP in Arizona and are back in Glenwood, NM for a couple days. Meant to update sooner, but between lack of internet access and one lost post, it's taken a while. Our volunteer week at Saguaro was great, we learned to appreciate the desert in a new way and got to work with a great group of people, both volunteers and NPS staff. We had a camp in a remote section of the park, accessible only for official park business. It should have been accessible to all, but wealthy landowners along the road prevented public access, what a shame. We also made sure we didn't go in the pools there because there were protected spotted frogs that made it off limits. But we did get solar showers, they felt good after a day of trail work and we ate very well thanks to our wonderful cook Julia. Her and her husband Paul were the crew leaders for a group of ten. We were able to leave our trailer in Glenwood and came back to pick it up, after visiting Silver City and Gila Cliffs on Saturday & Sunday. Before we left, we took a long hike and got up close to 10,000 feet in the Moggollon Mountains, part of the Gila National Forest. Aldo Leopold played a big role in this area establishing Gila as the first wilderness. The area of wilderness and forest is huge, we could spend weeks here exploring. Kathy is off exploring the ghost town of Moggollon while I sit here in the library after doing my taxes, sigh. We will be going to some local hot springs, so I can cleanse myself from my tax ordeal.

We Feel Like We've Arrived - April 2 & 3

With apologies to northern New Mexico, we took off from Clayton first thing in the morning and headed toward the southwestern section of the state where we would stay in the Gila National Forest area. We drove a good bit of the way on I-25, breaking our own rule of avoiding the interstates. But it was the fastest way. Except for the section heading into Santa Fe, after turning west we hit a ferocious wind tunnel and I had a hard time keeping up a 40 mph speed. We finally reached a USFS campground just before dark. We had spent over 11 hours traveling, New Mexico is a big state! There were no hookups at the sites, so we ‘dry camped’ for the first time. It was a wonderful, peaceful setting with surrounding mesas (or buttes?) and Ponderosa Pine. We were able to cook dinner on our gas stove, didn’t worry about the dirty dishes, and ran lights and music off the battery. We stayed warm enough during the night with some extra layers.
We noticed a red bus parked at one of the sites and saw some kids who were friendly and polite. The next day we met the whole family of father, mother and eight kids who were all living in the bus, we were amazed. We spent most of the morning talking with them and hearing their story. They adopted 6 of the kids from Brazil and are home schooling them as they travel around the country. The kids don’t have a lot of toys but they don’t need them, because they have the outdoors. They weren’t destitute as the father would find seasonal work that provided for all. Their philosophy was that they wanted to enjoy life now with their kids, and having too many material things only took away from their family togetherness. We hope they prosper as they move around while showing their kids the different parts of the country, which is a far better education than they can get in a classroom.
We are now settled into the laid-back town of Glenwood, NM at TT RV run by Darrell and Polly, a place our friends HarunMuf recommended. Darrell gave us use of his pickup so we wouldn’t have to unhitch, which struck us as unusual hospitality. We used it to go 4 miles up the road to a place called the Catwalk, an amazing gorge that used to have a pipe running through it that was used in mining. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, although we only hiked about 2.5 hours, we were glad to be working our hiking legs again, as we had not been doing any real hiking during our 2+ weeks of driving out here. Kathy also said I hadn’t been smiling much during the trip, as there was so much to deal with, especially driving into a head wind which seemed ever present. But I was smiling today as we were off the road and just taking in the wonderful surroundings of the forest and the Mogollon Mountains. It was interesting driving through the Great Plains and getting a sense of their immensity and importance, but we feel like we are now where we want to be: the west with its mountains and wild feel; we plan to partake of it for some time now.