Tour Diary - Day Eight
Nov. 9th, 2016 01:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanWhat goes up, must come down, as the philosophers say...
Tuesday 11th October - Boulder, Colorado to Moab, Utah
From the mountains to the... well, not the sea, but the sand. Red sand - in Utah. Arches National Park to be exact. Quite a way from the sea... either about 1000 miles, or back a few million years when there was an ocean here. Plenty of sand left over though
But first, there was an early rising at around 5am. Difficult to do, given we both had trouble sleeping on our last night in Colorado. How much of that was due to a lot of Chinese food & how much to being on the road again, is hard to tell, but after about an hour of restless attempts at sleep, I ended up on the couch, playing a lot of sudoku & word games on my phone until sleep came calling probably only a few hours before I had to get up again. Last goodbyes to Kathy, Raven & Ellie-May, before Gary, in his pickup truck with demountable camp cabin attached, led the way to the local donut shop, who are open at this ungodly hour & have a wide range available for the hungry early morning traveller at pretty good prices too. So, donuts for breakfast, as we headed out of Boulder & began the climb into the Rocky Mountains that we'd come down from on Friday last week. Sunrise was very pretty, but soon behind us as the canyons closed in. Gary had 2 walkie-talkies charged up & ready to use, so we could let each other know about required stops, photo opportunities, or just general commentary, observations & trivia. A bit of fun with call signs & "10-4 good buddy"s, but they could prove to be useful in the coming days. No one wants to be stranded in the desert alone, with 2 flat tyres & an overheated engine
Soon there was evidence of a snowfall in the mountains overnight. Soon after that, there was evidence that it may have only been about an hour ago - we passed a snowplough heading up to the Jefferson Tunnel that brings you out at 11,600ft, where there was plenty more evidence, including the clouds responsible still hanging around. Some photos out of the windows & windscreen, before the view near Frisco seemed too good to not stop & get out the 'real' cameras for some wintry scenes. Even though the temperature was obviously cold enough for snow, it wasn't cold enough to stop us exploring a little & finding different viewpoints of this landscape unlike anything we have in Australia. In fact, you'd have to stack Australia on top of itself about 3 times to even get close to this altitude. More photos at the Vail Pass... It took a while to get over the top of the Rockies & begin the descent to Grand Junction...
There, we collected a spare tripod from a friend of Gary's & found ourselves a traffic jam to sit in next to the Colorado National Monument, so photos were taken out the windows
Across the border into Utah & back to desert landscapes as the Rockies receded then disappeared. A short way along the I70, Gary turned off at an insignificant-looking exit that first took us along some extremely back roads, with no signs of civilisation... until we came to a place called Cisco (Anyone else remember the Cisco Kid & Pancho from 1960s TV?!? Just me then...). There, we found signs of life that had moved on & left quite a while ago - derelict cars, buses, campervans & buildings - a perfect little scene of rural decay, so of course the cameras came out again & we roamed the site for a while
Later, that road led us into the Colorado Canyon, where the Colorado river had done some practice for the Grand Canyon further downstream, by carving out high cliffs & formations reminiscent of Monument Valley... so of course many stops for more photos. The weather had started to turn a little grey... then very grey... then a few spots of rain. This did not bode well. Still, how great a rain god are you, if you can make it rain in the desert?!?! Not a very great one as it turned out - the clouds faded or moved on after a while, without adding much more to the river's flowing waters. The canyon road took us around the back of Arches National Park, then left the river as we arrived in Moab, the nearest town to the Park
We'd both booked accommodation ahead, so we drove into our Motel & Gary headed further to his campground. At the reception desk, the Motel staff recognised our Australian accents & 2 out of 3 said they wanted to visit. The 3rd expressed concerns about how our toilet water swirled in the opposite direction & how we drive on the wrong side of the road. Not sure which of those confused him more... Either way - an unlikely future tourist, but probably a lucky escape for the Lucky Country there
We collapsed onto the king-sized bed in our room &, just as I was starting to drift off, Reception rang to tell us Gary was waiting. The goal was to get to Window Arch in the Park in time for sunset. Which we did, with time to spare for photographing various other formations in the late afternoon light that turned everything a more vivid shade of muddy red & the lengthening shadows bringing the dramatic contrast
Up at the arch, Gary scouted a spot that he thought would be good for sunset - looking through the main window across to Turret Arch & the golden colours visible through that... in theory. It looked like a relatively easy little walk across to that spot... but it turned out to be a bit more of a climb than we'd expected, especially the last bit just before our spot, where we climbed around/over quite a significant drop to the valley floor. Having made it there, I wondered aloud about doing it in reverse when the sun had gone down - not something I looked forward to
Other photographers had observed us & began the same trek over, all similarly 'enjoying' that last obstacle & most voicing the same concern as I had. Gary & I had to defend our tripod spots, as we soon had 6 people on our ledge & it was getting a little crowded... Fortunately not all of them stayed until sunset, which made me feel a bit better. The sunset itself was okay... not as colourful as you could wish for, but the view through the 2 arches made for an impressive scene regardless. Then it was time to climb back...
Other than that first heart-racing bit, the rest was pretty easy & we got back to Window Arch & collected Julia, who had elected to not make the climb & had not enjoyed seeing me do it either. Even though she'd had the foresight to relieve me of the car keys beforehand, I was still in a bit of trouble for challenging my fear of heights in such a dramatic fashion. We all took some more shots as we made our way back to the Carpark & Travis, while the evening light became night-time dark. Dinner at the local Denny's, where it took an hour for food to arrive & Julia's sleep bomb went off. Time to head for the Motel...
Tomorrow's plan is to get sunrise photos at the wonderfully named 'Dead Horse Point' in nearby Canyonlands National Park, then spend a day doing Arches properly, unlike our drive-through/drive-by visit in 2012. It does mean getting up at about 4.30am though... Holiday? What holiday?!?
States travelled through - 2
Tuesday 11th October - Boulder, Colorado to Moab, Utah
From the mountains to the... well, not the sea, but the sand. Red sand - in Utah. Arches National Park to be exact. Quite a way from the sea... either about 1000 miles, or back a few million years when there was an ocean here. Plenty of sand left over though
But first, there was an early rising at around 5am. Difficult to do, given we both had trouble sleeping on our last night in Colorado. How much of that was due to a lot of Chinese food & how much to being on the road again, is hard to tell, but after about an hour of restless attempts at sleep, I ended up on the couch, playing a lot of sudoku & word games on my phone until sleep came calling probably only a few hours before I had to get up again. Last goodbyes to Kathy, Raven & Ellie-May, before Gary, in his pickup truck with demountable camp cabin attached, led the way to the local donut shop, who are open at this ungodly hour & have a wide range available for the hungry early morning traveller at pretty good prices too. So, donuts for breakfast, as we headed out of Boulder & began the climb into the Rocky Mountains that we'd come down from on Friday last week. Sunrise was very pretty, but soon behind us as the canyons closed in. Gary had 2 walkie-talkies charged up & ready to use, so we could let each other know about required stops, photo opportunities, or just general commentary, observations & trivia. A bit of fun with call signs & "10-4 good buddy"s, but they could prove to be useful in the coming days. No one wants to be stranded in the desert alone, with 2 flat tyres & an overheated engine
Soon there was evidence of a snowfall in the mountains overnight. Soon after that, there was evidence that it may have only been about an hour ago - we passed a snowplough heading up to the Jefferson Tunnel that brings you out at 11,600ft, where there was plenty more evidence, including the clouds responsible still hanging around. Some photos out of the windows & windscreen, before the view near Frisco seemed too good to not stop & get out the 'real' cameras for some wintry scenes. Even though the temperature was obviously cold enough for snow, it wasn't cold enough to stop us exploring a little & finding different viewpoints of this landscape unlike anything we have in Australia. In fact, you'd have to stack Australia on top of itself about 3 times to even get close to this altitude. More photos at the Vail Pass... It took a while to get over the top of the Rockies & begin the descent to Grand Junction...
There, we collected a spare tripod from a friend of Gary's & found ourselves a traffic jam to sit in next to the Colorado National Monument, so photos were taken out the windows
Across the border into Utah & back to desert landscapes as the Rockies receded then disappeared. A short way along the I70, Gary turned off at an insignificant-looking exit that first took us along some extremely back roads, with no signs of civilisation... until we came to a place called Cisco (Anyone else remember the Cisco Kid & Pancho from 1960s TV?!? Just me then...). There, we found signs of life that had moved on & left quite a while ago - derelict cars, buses, campervans & buildings - a perfect little scene of rural decay, so of course the cameras came out again & we roamed the site for a while
Later, that road led us into the Colorado Canyon, where the Colorado river had done some practice for the Grand Canyon further downstream, by carving out high cliffs & formations reminiscent of Monument Valley... so of course many stops for more photos. The weather had started to turn a little grey... then very grey... then a few spots of rain. This did not bode well. Still, how great a rain god are you, if you can make it rain in the desert?!?! Not a very great one as it turned out - the clouds faded or moved on after a while, without adding much more to the river's flowing waters. The canyon road took us around the back of Arches National Park, then left the river as we arrived in Moab, the nearest town to the Park
We'd both booked accommodation ahead, so we drove into our Motel & Gary headed further to his campground. At the reception desk, the Motel staff recognised our Australian accents & 2 out of 3 said they wanted to visit. The 3rd expressed concerns about how our toilet water swirled in the opposite direction & how we drive on the wrong side of the road. Not sure which of those confused him more... Either way - an unlikely future tourist, but probably a lucky escape for the Lucky Country there
We collapsed onto the king-sized bed in our room &, just as I was starting to drift off, Reception rang to tell us Gary was waiting. The goal was to get to Window Arch in the Park in time for sunset. Which we did, with time to spare for photographing various other formations in the late afternoon light that turned everything a more vivid shade of muddy red & the lengthening shadows bringing the dramatic contrast
Up at the arch, Gary scouted a spot that he thought would be good for sunset - looking through the main window across to Turret Arch & the golden colours visible through that... in theory. It looked like a relatively easy little walk across to that spot... but it turned out to be a bit more of a climb than we'd expected, especially the last bit just before our spot, where we climbed around/over quite a significant drop to the valley floor. Having made it there, I wondered aloud about doing it in reverse when the sun had gone down - not something I looked forward to
Other photographers had observed us & began the same trek over, all similarly 'enjoying' that last obstacle & most voicing the same concern as I had. Gary & I had to defend our tripod spots, as we soon had 6 people on our ledge & it was getting a little crowded... Fortunately not all of them stayed until sunset, which made me feel a bit better. The sunset itself was okay... not as colourful as you could wish for, but the view through the 2 arches made for an impressive scene regardless. Then it was time to climb back...
Other than that first heart-racing bit, the rest was pretty easy & we got back to Window Arch & collected Julia, who had elected to not make the climb & had not enjoyed seeing me do it either. Even though she'd had the foresight to relieve me of the car keys beforehand, I was still in a bit of trouble for challenging my fear of heights in such a dramatic fashion. We all took some more shots as we made our way back to the Carpark & Travis, while the evening light became night-time dark. Dinner at the local Denny's, where it took an hour for food to arrive & Julia's sleep bomb went off. Time to head for the Motel...
Tomorrow's plan is to get sunrise photos at the wonderfully named 'Dead Horse Point' in nearby Canyonlands National Park, then spend a day doing Arches properly, unlike our drive-through/drive-by visit in 2012. It does mean getting up at about 4.30am though... Holiday? What holiday?!?
States travelled through - 2
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-09 04:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-11-10 12:41 am (UTC)No... I don't think the thrill of being in these places wore off at all, so we were always 'on' when we were there. Tiredness & 'sleep bombs' didn't tend to happen until we had stopped for the day & various non-essential body systems began to shut down. Once we recognised the signs of that happening, we knew it was time to get to bed before the essential ones shut down as well...
The first 2 nights back here in Australia were the deepest sleep I've had in a long time