Wednesday, September 24, 2008

A Choose Your Own Adventure

The previous teaser of the sun vomiting on Bryce Canyon could be the best way to describe this place (Bryce) but you can make that judgment for yourself. What is more difficult to describe, and possibly even more of a mystery than the geology here in Bryce, was the relationship between our campsite neighbors.

We were gearing up for temps in the 20’s, warming up by the campfire when we noticed the “couple?” across the way. He was a California surfer dude: long blonde hair, tan, and driving a Volkswagen Westfalia. (This van does have room for sleeping quarters for two- information that may be relevant later.) He couldn’t be younger than 40. She, no older than 27 was unpacking her mid-sized, hatchback SUV with Colorado tags. Upon his arrival Rach was immediately curious. We needed to know (or at least conjecture) as to the nature of their relationship.

Their conversation was blatantly uncomfortable for both them and us. By her accent, it was obvious she was German. He offered her hot tea a few times, she preferred water, and he agreed (every time.) They spent a few minutes sharing her pictures and drinking water while we started to develop theories. At this point, I was convinced he was her estranged father. She was on holiday in the US, just like half of Germany is right now (or so it seems) and he lives close enough, in Cali for a meeting in Southern Utah. The awkwardness of their conversation, the sharing of the pictures… it seemed like the classic awkward reunion of the non-custodial parent and child, with a German twist. At this point I was confident that was the case and quite happy for the father.

We enjoyed our campfire and began to make dinner. The next thing we new, they were in the van from which we could hear what sounded like music from a video game. Maybe they were playing a video game. His voice was definitely excited. The door slid shut, the music ended, and we stunned for about 30 minutes. (I don’t mean to imply too strongly that sexual relations took place – we do not know that for sure.) They came out for a moment and then retired in the van for the evening. Unfortunately, in the morning we left before we saw them again. That’s all we know.

Now it’s time for your guesses. Here are some theories from which you get start your thinking:

A) The father-daughter reunion is the case and the 30 minutes in the van was, in fact, for gaming.
B) That National Park Service sets up visiting Germans with locals for blind dates campsite style.
C) They are hard-core gamers and hikers, that met online and united for a little of both.
D) Off-season ski instructors last year reunite to rekindle the high-altitude passion.
E) Your guess is as good as any. Let’s hear it.

Oh- we also went to Capitol Reef National Park and they have great homemade pies.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Is this a totalitarian state?

Ok fine, we'll tell you about Canyonlands and Moab.

We entered Canyonlands after our adventures in Moab where we loved rafting but hated mountain biking (slash walking with a bike uphill in the sand)...I was constantly reminding M'er that there was no need to stop for me just 'cause I was making deathbed sounds. I'd either catch up, or fall down dead...either way there'd be no blame awaiting him.

On the other hand, our rafting guide Molly was worth the trip down the Colorado river alone. We picked her up in a ghost town near the river and spent the day being guided by this badass hippie who came to Utah in 1991 when she couldn't even get served a cup of coffee. 17 years later, she's married into the Mormon family that runs the newspaper, is a pillar of the community, but still hasn't given up her style; rather the town has taken it on. She spent the day laughing with us, steering us through fantastic class 3+ rapids and chatting about what seems to be on everyone's mind...the election. She made the day relaxing and interesting, especially after we realized her tone of concern amounted to a giggle, a shrug and a suggestion that maybe you shouldn't do that?

Thankfully, there is no mountain biking permitted in Canyonlands National Park, so it was back to the good ol' hiking shoes for us. This nearly inaccessible park astounded us with the canyons in canyons, hoodoos, colors, and really tough to follow trails. Yep, we got lost. Climbed ourselves halfway out of a canyon before realizing we had to go back down to find the trail; slick rock scrambling is fun but it was NOT awesome to hear we still had two miles left to climb after finally rejoining the trail. We continue to try to imagine being a Pioneer encountering these canyons after endless flat land and desert...we continue to come up with no response other than "well shit Bessie, better strap on the good Oxen". I'm pretty sure i'd be a terrible Pioneer.

After our adventures in Canyonlands, we passed through many exciting sights, and some not so exciting. The goosenecks state park where a river meanders for six miles while traveling only one mile through a canyon 1,000 feet below, a road M'er calls the Lombard St. of the Wild West, and the town of Hite...drowned by Lake Powell and as our guide book says: better passed through than slept in. We landed for the night in a motel run by the man who ate Norman Bates in a small town named Hanksville. Having heard about the Blondie's Diner, we treated ourselves to a great brunch and were treated unexpectedly to some riveting local conversation. Bobby McGee landed in Hanksville after leaving Las Vegas when it got too big and pushed out the rare desert neanderthal/humanoids he and his brother encountered in the sixties. Leaving that topic aside, we were enthralled by his cross-porch question: is this a totalitarian state? Seems Bobby was frustrated by new ATV regulations, a sentiment echoed through much of Utah frustrated with the Federal Government's large presence here. Do you think children under 16 should be within 300 ft. of an adult when operating an ATV? Bobby sure doesn't.

Bobby left us feeling re-energized and ready to face the next two parks after his stories of fantastical desert creatures, the downfall of the USA, and a brief lesson in desert Oysters and geology. More on Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon (which looks like sunset projectile vomited all over it) in the next post, but enjoy these pics ahead of time.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Moab UT

We decided to switch things up, and just provide some annotated pictures. We did some mountain biking and river rafting, but no pics from those adventures.


Friday, September 12, 2008

Photos from WY and Salt Lake City

So, Salt Lake City did NOT blow us away. The Great Salt Lake was more depressing than anything else, Oktoberfest at Alta just wasn't the same without beer, and we were heartily fooled by the Mormon church when we bought 3.2% beer at 7/11. But the locals sure seemed to enjoy it! We did make a couple more friends late-night at the campground...they seemed tipsy and desperately seeking Frank, but we had questions: what is Bud Dry? have you ever had a drink outside Utah? If yes, what happens, do you just get immediately arrested? Why is the foreign guy in the designer jeans still in Salt Lake City? And why did he feel the need to narrate/MC the evening? We weren't worried when several people drove home after all that great near-beer. Just turn right past the O'doul's billboard, a left at the Tabernacle and you're home.

Overall, Utah started off confusing. And a little bittersweet. We dropped off our treasured traveler at Salt Lake City airport and embarked deeper into this odd state on our own.

Check out the pics from Lander and Northern Utah. More to come from Moab!


Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Friends in High Places

We found Wyoming (the equality state oddly enough...quiz us on any of them, there's a LOT of car time and some fun facts in the Atlas) to be the friendly state. Although our political views may not be eye-to-eye with many of the only 680,000 inhabitants of the state (that's 50th of 50), our sense of hospitality, goodwill, karma, pay it forward, call it what you will, really jived with the Wyomingites (?).

After leaving Yellowstone we headed for a quick whirlwind tour of the Tetons. We intend to spend more time in this truly Grand place at a moment when Yellowstone hasn't thoroughly kicked our...

Some much needed car-time and resting got us to Lander, WY, the climbing destination of the state, nay the world. Zaks led us to this magical liberal oasis where hunters, climbers, vegans, cattle ranchers, cowboys and tree-huggers co-exist happily in one small town of less than 7,000. Here we made many friends. There was Vance, the seeming keystone of the community, and climbing legend, who lent us his book (yes, he wrote it), rented us gear, pointed us toward friendly guides, and offered reassurance to the newbies of the group. And then there was Jake, our friend made via Jameson, with whom we celebrated his birthday, and who took us climbing, not for a charge, just to share his love of the sport, the state, the country. Over the course of the next couple days, we spent a fair amount of time with these two and they out-lived every expectation.

But these weren't our only friends, or the most spectacular by far. While camping in City Park (free of charge and including an offer of a shower in the Jr. High...we did not partake), Zaks and M'er met a lady in need. Her tennis ball was sadly lodged in the fence and they happily offered (and spent a slightly pathetic 15 min. doing so) to retrieve it. After this small gesture of kindness she felt she owed these travelers. Later that evening, after having refused extravagant offers of dinner, and chuckling with a bartender at John McCain's speech (yep, they think it's funny out here too!), we returned to our campsite to find some fresh baked cookies...and a pamphlet on finding Jesus. Rather than resent the hint that we were in fact godless Jezebels, we genuinely appreciated, and indulged in the gift left by tennis ball lady. We also wished we'd cashed in on that lasagna, those cookies were good!

But Lander wasn't the last place in Wyoming we made friends. 40 miles outside Jasper, our gas light went on...uuuuuh, it's only got 25 miles left. Cell service? Nope! But never fear, gas man was there! When we stopped at a rest stop, in desperate hope of a pay phone, we found something far superior than AAA...another Wyoming citizen willing to help. He quickly saw our predicament and offered his 5-gallon gas container in addition to cold beverages. We soon learned he was a light and sound man who'd toured with Sesame Street and was now running routes for the oil companies in Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado...and of course he lived just 15 miles away and was awaiting a visit from his grandkids, and had just sent a son to Iraq (um, extreme home makeover, where are you?). All we could think to do was pay it forward. After refusing our offer of cash, M'er started in with: "We have some delicious chocolate chip cookies..." It just seemed like what Jesus would do. Four cookies, five gallons of gas, and several friends later, we left Wyoming for Utah. We can only hope it lives up to its neighbor!

Sorry guys, not many pics of this one. Check the next post for a few from the Canyon we climbed in.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Another Reason We Owe TR

(scroll down for another new post: Cody, WY)

There is no place like Yellowstone National Park. The world’s first national park (thanks again TR) became special thousands of years ago when a giant volcanic eruption blew the top off the volcano exposing a giant valley, called a caldera. The closeness of the magma underground is what provides so many of the unique geologic features of the park. Hot springs, mud volcanoes, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, mountains, valleys, plains, countless rivers, and of course the famous predictable geysers make the park so dynamic. At almost any location in the park, a small pond or winding stream steams from the geothermal activity beneath the ground. Throw in the bison, elk, bald eagles, deer (we call them “face-butt deer” because well…), wolves, bears, and mountain lions and this place becomes unforgettable. We never caught sight of bears or mountain lions, but we tried hard.



Perhaps the most unique species we encountered was in the Snow Lodge restaurant, just outside Old Faithful. He looked at us through stoned-red eyes, and asked, “Is it cold in here?… I can’t tell ‘cause I have this awesome sweater.” The black and gray version of a Where’s Waldo tee he wore under the prescribed black uniform must have been awesome because it was indeed cold. From his day-old greasy, disheveled black hair, past the obligatory hemp necklace he is a round mound of awesome. His name is AJ. One semester and likely two years from graduating college, he was willing to tend to all of our dining needs, while “he was up.” After gracing us with a few awkward smiles and much-needed breaks, it was clear our comment card was going in his favor, something he greatly appreciated since he “could use something to go his way”. We miss AJ.

In seriousness, we filled our days among throngs of foreigners, RV’ers, and senior citizens taking in the highlights but we also trekked miles into the backcountry on our own. We hiked a mountain and into a canyon despite the wintry weather at night. It did snow twice during our visit. Take you time through our photos- we really hope to share our appreciation of the park with you.



If you can't have fun in Cody, you can't have fun

Fresh off our patriotic high we rolled covered wagon style into the Old Wild West in Cody, WY and boy was it wild! We joined Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Butch Cassidy, Fred, and the gang (including what seemed to be Kevin Costner keeping his acting skills up between movies with a re-enactment gig; I mean, I didn’t see Swing Vote but I had no idea things had gotten this bad!) for a good ole’ fashioned gun fight! Fear not, only the town whore and drunk bad guy died.

We scrambled for a beef dinner to soak up the remnants of the whiskey-soaked blood bath as we were late for the rodeo. The ultimate cowboy championship was hosted by a 5-time world champion cowboy and three-time broken neck survivor. We were in for an extra treat when we unwittingly sat in the VIP section next to Buffalo Bill looking pretty great for his 158 years and fresh from the town gunfight.

The rodeo was chilly, but the action was hot. We never expected anyone to be able to jump up a running horse, grab a bull by the horns, and wrestle it to the ground. We definitely didn’t see it coming in under 12 seconds.

If you don’t enjoy these pictures, it’s your own damn fault.



Correct Answer to Flinstones/Jetsons Brawl

Thank you to everyone that participated in our Flinstones/Jetsons challenge. The correct answer is: Flinstones. Although the Jeston's do have some rockin' stuff, the Flinstones have all their gadgets and needs handled by Dino-pliances. That's DINOSAURS doing your stuff for you people! Flying is cool and all, but what's better than having a pterodactyl announce the end of the day, sliding down a brontosaurus and landing directly in your car!

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Mount Rushmore

Saturday, August 30, 2008
Mt. Rushmore, SD
Patriotism, Americana, and a sense of history slapped us in the face at the sight of the granite busts of George, Abe, TR, and Tommy J. TR is fast becoming our favorite dead President with his badass frontier sensibilities and creation of the NPS (our home for the month). This was luckily my second visit to the national monument. Do you ever get the feeling that you member some things as a kid as much bigger than they actually were? I kept telling Rach and Zaks how amazing Lincoln’s eyes are. “The pupils are 16 feet long!” I told them. The pupils are actually 20 inches, but still impressive. We thought Mt. Rushmore would be cheesier than it was, although at first sight it seemed we wouldn’t mesh well with the “Proud to be an American” and “Harley Davidson” tees. Our visit reminded us how amazing those four presidents truly were, how strong their convictions, how numerous their accomplishments and left satisfied…and feeling a little sheepish for not wearing our American Flag tees.
Back on the road, this upwelling of historical persons lead to another would-you-rather-type question that provided hours of entertainment. If you could take as many as 6 people from history on this road trip, who would you take? Genghis Khan was immediately shot down (the threat of mass murders and highway conquering would be too great during traffic jams) and the implications of having MLK and Thomas Jefferson in the same car seemed tenuous.
On the way out of town, we enjoyed a Bronto Burger at the Flinstone’s Theme Park but declined to pay the $9 admission to really enter Bedrock City. However, we would like to know (and took a bit too much time to answer ourselves) would you rather be the Flinstones or the Jetsons?

Badlands National Park, SD and Wall Drug

Near the western end of South Dakota, the plains end dramatically in the Badlands. Upon entering the park, the tall spires and buttes took us by surprise. I think the pictures will tell the best story of the quickly changing topography. Practically a desert, there wasn’t much wildlife that we saw during the day. However, that changed when an unpaved road took us to our campsite. Across a small field and dried-up river, we found a herd of 200 bison. After an amazing sunset we returned to camp with the bison only yards away- their eyes reflecting in the light of our lantern. The Badlands was a short but memorable stop.

And finally we reached it. 400 miles in the making, South Dakota’s version of South of the Border: Wall Drug. Now a tourist attraction, the only pharmacy in Wall, SD (current population: 800) the business survived and became famous for advertising free ice water. Of course we indulged in the world renowned water, some fresh doughnuts, photo-cut outs and a free ride on a jackalope. Would you rather be a jackalope of a unicorn? Discuss.

Check out the pics here: