Bryce Canyon National Park, Southern Utah

I spotted this guy somewhere between Paria and Bryce Canyon.  He is really beautiful, don't you think?

This is our first indication of what we will be seeing in the Canyon.

There is a dusting of snow that I wish was a bit heavier - but at least there's snow!  

We first discovered Bryce by accident on a family vacation years ago.  You see, there was this friendly dispute between Granpa and I in Rocky Mountain National Park.  Year after year Granpa would take us to Colorado and the Rockies.  It became pretty obvious that drastic measures would be required to break out of those Rockies!

We tent camp.  In the beginning it was a cost saving thing, but then it became MY preference!  With all the camping gear and all of the family and the law requiring a seat belt for everyone, we had to take two vehicles.  So, I told Granpa that I loved him to the moon and back, but I was gonna turn right out of the Park and head to parts unknown.  If he wanted to, he could follow.  If he didn't want to leave the Rockies, his truck was loaded with the camping gear and, well, I'd see him back in Texas.

Bless his pea-pickin' heart, he turned right.

Every vacation since then has been one of discovery -- and we've never been disappointed at the choices made that day!

Since then we have been back to Bryce a couple of times, but we've never been there in the wintertime when there was snow.  Knowing the canyon, we think it will look like frosting on a tiered cake!

This just gets better and better - hoodoos, spires, windows, tunnels - all of which you can hike into, and it's a fascinating maze of slot-like canyons, views and vistas.  I think it is incredible how the landscape can change so dramatically and so quickly!

There are tunnels through these red rocks that you must go through to even get to the entrance of Bryce.  Once in the Park, the best way to view it is to put blinders on, drive all the way to the end of the Park road to Rainbow Point, and begin there to get out at all of the pull-outs and named turnouts on the way back.

Rainbow Point is over 9,000 feet in elevation and today the window is howling.

It must be cold for Granpa to put his hood up.  We lasted about two minutes up there in the frigid wind before high-tailing it back to the van.  Every point we stopped at had that wind on this day!
The views were worth it though.

This is the overall view of Bryce.  Off to the left is Zion National Park. We had to pass it to get here. Zion is all granite and smooth, shear walls into a fabulous, rock-solid box canyon.  If you ever read Western novels or watch Western movies and wondered what a box canyon looks like, go to Zion.

These are "windows" in the rock.  There are many more here to see.  

The tunnels were man-made; this is just nature at its best.

It was a blindingly bright, sun-shiny day, but as I've already said, c-o-l-d!

These formations are called hoodoos.

If you have children this is truly a magical place.

And we have a family tradition of taking shadow pictures.  I'm cold!  Let's go the hotel!

On Our Way to Bryce Canyon National Park

During this stint of six days off, we decide to revisit Bryce Canyon up in Utah.  Haven't been there in many a year, but it is completely unique in what it has to offer - and we hear there's even a touch of snow up there!

John decides to make a quick side trip to Paria.  (Pronounced pahreah.  See our post from last year:  http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-old-pahreah-town-site.html ) Again, the contrasts are stunning.  Looking to the left:

Looking to the right:

We will spend the night in Page, east of Grand Canyon National Park and then the take the days drive up past Zion and into Bryce.  We arrive in plenty of time to check in at the hotel and return to Glen Canyon Dam for some sunset pictures.

Granpa must be gettin' tired 'cause he's gettin' silly.  (Great reflection in the Visitor Center window.)

Look at him in his shirt sleeves and I'm freezin' to death in my hoodie and winter vest!

The scenery around us is what's beautiful, though!

Avoid the Brothel!

So I'm studying the atlas to see if there is a way out of Death Valley that doesn't involve going back to Senator Harry Reid's state of Nevada so as to avoid legal prostitution.  There HAS to be a way...

Death Valley National Park is huge - and there are roads all over the place.  We just have to make sure that the ones we pick connect and don't run us back into the state of Sin City.  Highway 190 makes a hard right turn, exits Death Valley but skirts it until connecting to 127 southbound - and we never have to go into Nevada again!  Woohoo!  And the atlas says its scenic all the way down to Baker and I-15.  This is what I'm talkin' about!!

Wow.  This place looks more like Death Valley than Death Valley does!  There are mountains of sand dunes everywhere.

I wonder what those cars are doing out there?  They don't look like dune buggies.  Hmmm.

Well, it's been a long day's drive what with all of the photo ops the Lord has provided.  But it's interesting that we can get from Kingman to Yosemite's east entrance in a single days drive. However, the day is done and we're gettin' close to home.

Thanks for making the journey with us!

Back into the Valley of Death Rode the ... Two

Yes, Granpa is so intrigued and fascinated by Death Valley National Park that he has now voluntarily decided he wants to go home through it.  That is oh, so totally fine by me!

The views are spectacular yet again!

It's a steep descent into the valley.  Every curve is a photo op!  The views are great, the colors are absolutely amazing.  I am thrilled that Granpa has made this choice.  Even more so when a couple of the natives decide to greet us!

We managed to get fairly close, yes?  But I like the other photo better.  It is pretty "Death Valley" definitive.  Ultimately we cannot escape the lure of more photo ops.

Have you ever seen the TV programs that talk about the phenomenon of what has become known as The Racetrack in Death Valley?  It's very interesting and has taken many decades to try and solve the mystery of the moving rocks.  I'm not even sure that the mystery has been solved!  Do you really believe that the wind blows these rocks across the floor of Death Valley???

This surface is what's left of a lake.  The surface is covered in what is known as playa, which in Spanish literally means "beach."  But I'm thinkin' this is no form of beach sand. Apparently, when it rains or snows and this old lake bed gets a really good soaking, this surface must somehow get very slickery (my own word).  Those rains sometimes come with super strong 70+ mph winds.  The geeks say that that is when the wind pushes the rocks.  ???  Whatever.  Personally I think its kinda spooky - even in broad daylight!

But there is sand in Death Valley - 14 square miles of it ...

And, unbelievably, on the other side of the road to our right is this beautiful vista:

When God decides to put color and variety on display He obviously can do it wherever He wants to!

Joy to the World! The Lord is Come! May His Holy Spirit Be With You!

And How Does Your Christmas Tree Grow?

It began as just a decoration to brighten our traveler's home.  It really wasn't intended to be our Christmas tree. But, package by package that appeared under the tree caused it to "grow."  So, Granpa said it was tree enough for him!

Diaz Lake, California

We have left Bishop behind and are trying to decide whether to get back to Kingman through Death Valley again (because it was so beautiful one way I wonder what we missed coming from the other direction!)  While we're hemming and hawing, we come upon a beautiful little lake and state park. Granpa decides he wants to stop for a potty break.

I, of course, have to read every sign ever created, and I discover that Diaz Lake was created by an earthquake back on March 26, 1872.  That quake caused this area to drop twenty feet! in elevation and it opened up a spring which filled that lowland.  The folks ranching the land very much appreciated that event I can tell ya' for sure!  And we very much appreciate it almost 150 years later because it is truly a sight to behold.

See?  Earthquakes aren't all bad - but I would personally just as soon avoid 'em!

Christmas His and Hers

I know you won't believe this, but Granpa has been using a computer we bought for me right after Hurricane Katrina so that I would have a laptop to use when deployed on disaster relief.  It was state of the art back in 2005 - a whopping 80 gigs!

One of our daughters-in-law gave me another one when she upgraded a few years ago (500 gig), so I handed my Katrina laptop off to Granpa.  He uses it almost 100% to manage his photos. (No surprise there!)

But photos take up a LOT of gigs these days, and especially the kinds of photos Granpa takes.  For the past six months every time Granpa opens his laptop, I have to steel myself for a lot of grumbling and under-his-breath *%#* comments.  So I start shopping for a new laptop for Granpa.

Back in the day, we paid $1,500 for that 80 gig Katrina.  Now I find a Dell laptop from Walmart.com running Windows 8 that has 1 trig of memory, a touch screen, and a keyboard with a numeric pad for $499!  Now THAT's amazing!  That is so amazing that I decide to spend some bonus money that I earned from John's current traveler company (a story I may or may not tell in the future), and I order myself one of these hot babies, too!

Granpa's shift has him off of work for six days before Christmas, on call Christmas day, and then at work for basically the next six days.  When the computers are delivered I decide to give him his gift early so that he has those six days off to play with the new toy.  Sometimes I am just wise beyond my years!

We open our identical computers.  He hands me one; he keeps one.  I open mine up, and she runs like a charm!  (Windows 8 is a little weird, but charming nonetheless.)  He opens his up, and it's a train wreck!  Windows 8 is enough to throw anyone off, and the pop-up ads are coming at him right and left.  I set my laptop aside and start whack-a-moleing as fast as any kid on a computer game - but I'm not fast enough and some simply refuse to go away no matter how much I whack 'em.  The system comes with 30 days of McAfee security for free.  I'm thinkin' McAfee is a pretty wimpy dude!

I start to put together a plan of attack in my mind that includes getting System Suite (our preferred defender of pop-ups, etc.) onto Granpa's system asap.  Much easier thought than done, I can tell you for sure.  I'm so glad that I bought a twin, so that I know it's not Dell, it's whoever brought Granpa's to life.  I name that fool George (apologies to any George I might know out there - no reflection, just a name that popped into my brain.)

Day Two:  I'm still whackin' moles, and I have been completely unsuccessful in getting System Suite downloaded.  Granpa is getting pretty unhappy.  I decide to call for help.  (I silently thank the Lord that I had decided to give the gift early because come Christmas Day I would bet the phone lines will be going nuts from everyone getting gifts all on the same day.)   I call a number - can't even remember where I glommed onto that number.  The tech takes over the system, confirms there are major flaws, and calmly says that he can fix it for $250.  WHAT!?!  A brand spankin' new computer not even 24 hours old!?!  I don't think so!

I decide to call Dell direct.  Why, what a darlin'!  He says he can fix it for $100.  WHAT!?! A brand spankin' new computer no even 24 hours old!?!  I don't think so!  Dell advises that, because we bought it through a third party, there is no warranty on the software, etc. having been loaded correctly.  He says that I have the option of returning it to Wal-Mart and buying directly from Dell.

Hey!  Now, there's an idea!  Okay, so how much does this jewel cost directly from Dell?  $250 MORE than I paid through Wal-Mart!?!  He calmly explains that that is because, direct from Dell, it comes with "free" tech service.  Ah.  No.  Not happenin'.  And I am forever put off from buying another Dell from anyone.

Put on the "Rocky" music because I am up to this challenge.  I have a twin laptop and I have a brain. I can do this!

I line all four laptops up, I am ambidexterous, mentally and physically, so I have two mouses (mice) on the left and two on the right.  I begin to out think George.  There is more than one way to skin a cat - but I might have to skin this one six ways from the middle!

I can't even remember all of the different things I tried, and I can't even remember which ones worked.  I do know that when I finally got System Suite downloaded things began to change quickly and dramatically.  There were apparently over 100 drivers out of date, a ton of virus had to be cleaned, defragged the disc ... truly every thing that System Suite had in its tool box was put into play.  And I'm proud to say that I did not grumble or say under-my-breath *%#* comments.  But, trust me, it was only by the grace of God.



Now I am in the process of transferring files - which is in no way as simple as I thought it would be - even with a 1 trig external hard drive. But I have my trusty Lolo the mountain lion as a woobie for when the going gets tough.

I am most anxious to get Granpa his photos because he is extremely stressed about all of this nonsense.  I'm am so not happy with Dell.  They should NOT ship computers with scrambled brains - and then demand money to get things right.

 

Yosemite National Park - East Entrance

Ah-ha!  The ghost of Granma!  Always livin' on the edge of excitement ready to jump in at a moments notice, eh?

This interpretive marker lets us know that the east entrance to Yosemite National Park is only eighty miles from Death Valley National Park.  Major contrast between the two!  Both exquisite in their own ways.

Granpa and I have definitely decided that the east entrance to Yosemite is the only way to go.  It's a long drive through the park from here to the famous Half-Dome and other well-known and well-touted sites - but it's so much better from here. Something tells me that the California tourist industry sees the west entrance as a much better opportunity to capture your tourist dollars, and that's why they promote it so heavily.

We have uncovered the secret, though, and are delighted to share it with our readers across the globe.  (We're being read in 64 countries now!)

This is the gateway to Yosemite from the east!  

(Granpa says that now we have to go back in from the west and put the pictures side by side!)

I learned in the Yukon Territory a few years back that when the water is green because of the glaciers of the past that have melted and left behind debris that gives the water a green tint.  The water is so very clear -- and I don't even have to touch it to know that it's c-o-l-d!  A few weeks later this sprinkling of snow became a whole lot more when it began falling at two inches an hour.  They don't plow the roads of Yosemite in the winter time, so we are just in time - God blesses our timing yet again!

We love mountain creeks and rivers,

 and mountain lakes with beautiful beaches surrounded by unsurpassed beauty!

A bit farther on down the road we find a wonderful place to begin hiking -

 and it's as close as we got to the famous half-dome mountain.  

We spent way too much time on photo ops - but absolutely could not pass any of them up. 

It simply means we will have to come back. (YEA!!)

The Drive Up Highway 395

It's early morning, 

and our brains can't believe how many wonderful sights our eyes have seen over the last 24 hours!  To the left and to the right we are blessed.

There are almost two dozen short side roads off of 395, just from Bishop northward, that will take you into canyons and up the side of the Sierras and into amazing sights!  There are dozens of small lakes throughout the area that provide fishing and beautiful stands of cottonwoods, willows and aspen.  We have (once again) stumbled onto another of God's gifts to mankind - what is known as the #2 area in the good ol' U.S.A. for Fall colors!  But when you consider the height of the Sierras and, because of that, these Fall colors go on for weeks based on elevation and temperature, I think it should be considered #1!

USA Today's Weekend Magazine said this is one of the USA's 5 best road trip destinations.  Sunset Magazine says the June Lake area is in its top 5 Fall hiking destinations.  TravelandLeisure.com says the "blinding displays of yellow and orange" make it one of America's best Fall color drives!  Lonely Planet says this is "The secret California dream... Just follow the scenic US Route 395 as it connects wonders."

Even without the Fall colors the sights are breathtaking...

There's one area called Buttermilk Country - and it got it's name because, in the 1800's, the ranchers would load their goat milk into wagons and the rough road into town would churn it into buttermilk by the time they reached Bishop!  

Bodie State Park contains the West's largest unrestored ghost town.  It's an old gold-mining town that even brought Mark Twain to the area!  Now its in “arrested decay,” which means the buildings are protected but not restored.  When the last of Bodie's residents moved out there were no more moving companies in town, so they loaded up what they could carry and everything else has been left behind.  But there is an active curse on even the smallest item - like a nail - that will attach itself to you if you have sticky fingers and decide to pocket a souvenir.  A great article on the town can be found at http://www.csicop.org/si/show/curse_of_bodie_legacy_of_ghost-town_ghosts/

And all of this leads us into the Tioga Pass entrance to Yosemite!

The Methusaleh Tree

The location of the ancient Great Basin bristlecone pine forest is not a secret.  Which tree is actually the 4,846 year old Methusaleh tree IS the secret!  Thank you, vandals, everywhere :-(



It's not difficult to find Inyo County, California and the White Mountains.  There's even a sign on the highway that points to the forest, though it wasn't a very big, imposing sign.  So, we hang a left and then another left, and up the mountain we go!

The tree has had the name of Methusaleh for so long that it probably won't change.  However, the scientists have discovered another bristlecone in the same area that is judged to be 5,065 years old. (meaning that it poked its first bristle out of the ground -- are you ready? -- 3,051 years before Christ! Yowser!)

It was really, really cold when we got into the car this morning down in Bishop. Now we're about 9,500 feet above sea level, and the wind is howling.  The tallest peak in the White Mountain range if over 14,000 feet high.  Today it has the first dusting of this season's snow.

We also seem to be about the only people on this peak!  It's a beautiful center - but closed for the winter.  Thank goodness the potties were unlocked!  Icy cold pit toilets are not my favorite, but Granma had to go! 

The paved road ends at the interpretive center. We try to follow the dirt road on up, but it got pretty rough.  No worries, there's a footpath that wanders through the forest.  This place is at the treeline hence the sparse growth.

These guys are not the most attractive organisms in the world, but I think that they are beautiful!

The bark-less (is that a word?) wood is part of the reason the bristlecone pine is so long lived.  Also, their needles don't fall off - so no energy or nutrients are wasted re-growing them. They also grow very, very slowly which makes them virtually pest-resistant.  Then there's the fact that they grow in a location that minimizes exposure to wildfire.  And finally, the oldest of them grow in what's considered "poor" soil conditions. The very same pine trees in "good" soil grow taller and straighter, but they don't tend to live as long.  It's a strange combination of facts, but it works for Methusaleh - and his older brother, whatever his name is.

Now it's back down the mountain and back through Bishop to Yosemite, which is where we originally planned to go before being run off the road by a brothel and sidetracked to Methusaleh...

Maybe someday we'll go find the eighty-thousand-year-old Quaking Aspens in Fish Lake National Forest in south-central Utah; and the eleven-thousand-seven-hundred-year-old Creosote bush named "King Clone" in the Mojave Desert near the Lucerne Valley in California!  These guys are what's known as Clonal organisms - different class from the bristlecone pines.






This is a view of Death Valley from the top of the White Mountains Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest!

Moving on to Bishop, California

We chose Bishop, California because it is just outside the eastern entrance to Yosemite.  It's a small resort-ish kinda place.  The more research I did I realized that it was also just about fifteen miles from the Methuselah tree!  Death Valley was a bonus - and so will the search for the oldest tree on the planet be a bonus!

We spent so much time in Death Valley that we must pass by Methuselah and check into our room. In the morning we'll backtrack the fifteen miles, find those ol' trees, and then go back through Bishop to Yosemite.

We stayed at the Days Inn in Bishop and gave it a 4 out of 5 rating - not bad for a $50 room!  I suppose during the "season" the price might be higher though.  Days Inn, of course, is a "chain" hotel. We've started looking for the privately owned places because they seem to be so much cleaner and quieter than the chains.  Hotels.com has their own customer-based rating system, and we've found it to be right on target.  If a private hotel has a rating of 3.5 at the right price, we'll consider it.  If it has a higher rating?  Fantastic!  We have friends that "shop" Hotels.com, and then call hotels direct to try to get a better price.  I don't feel like that's right or fair - and motels at $50 a night is about as reasonable as you can get!

I guess we stay in motels because every time we stay in hotels the car is so far away that we walk ourselves to death retrieving things like tablets and laptops.  What we're looking for is a good night's sleep - not bragging rights to a location.

And I have no clue how I got on this train of thought to post on the blog - but you might find it interesting how we end up some of the places that we do...

Zabriskie Point in Death Valley

This place gets a 4.5 out of 5 rating from TripAdvisor.com.  I personally give it a full 5!

It looks like chocolate swirl ice cream to me!  Anyone for a hot fudge sundae?

Turns out that we made it in just under the wire because the National Park Service is closing access to this area until March or April of 2015.  Again, the Lord blesses us!

Zabriskie Point is named after the vice-president and general manager of the old Pacific Coast Borax Company.  From here you can see these richly colored mudstone hills and canyons left when Furnace Creek lake dried up five million years ago.  Later sculpted by erosion - water does come to Death Valley but usually in downpours and what we in Texas call gully-washers - the beauty of what we see in this vast graben (the geological term for a sunken fragment of the Earth's crust) cannot be explained by merely using the word "erosion."  Neither does the phrase, "200-square-mile salt pan surrounded by mountains" or "forbidding desert conditions" give even the slightest clue to the exquisite beauty of Death Valley.

I so wish we were younger and could scramble around the formations!  They say that there are fossilized footprints of ancient mastodons, camels, horses, carnivores and birds in what was lake shore mud!  The only way to see them is to take a hike.  These ol' hips and knees aren't up to the task anymore.  Take heed my young family - it's now or never!

Telescope Peak is the highest point in the park at 11,049 feet.  It is only fifteen miles from that peak to Badwater Basin - the lowest point in the United States.  The vertical drop within that fifteen miles is twice the depth of the Grand Canyon!  You can imagine the drive from the normal world down to Badwater Basin gives endless views of amazing landscapes.  Check your brakes, boys, and get out the cameras!