Starry, Starry Night

Our Utah destination is Cedar Breaks National Monument, a complete unknown to us, but we know Zion will be packed on a weekend.

 We approach the monument through green valleys with sheep grazing and sheep herders watching over them from horseback.

Our first glimpse of the gigantic rocky bowl that comprises 90% of Cedar Breaks stuns us. It is the absolute opposite of the lush forest and wildflower meadows that flow up to the ridge's edge.

Settlers misnamed the area Cedar Breaks, misidentifying the Engelmann Spruce as cedars.  "Break" was their term for the abrupt edge of sandstone cliffs.  The Monument is famous for its wildflowers.  The tall spikes above are Elkweed. 

We get a campsite just teetering on the brink of a meadow of flowers.

Walking to the Visitor Center we spy Colorado Columbine in the shade of prickly currant.

The evening sun makes these daisies glow.

The Visitor Center is housed in this log cabin constructed by the CCC in 1937.  A big picture window inside has this view:

We hear about the Stargazing party at 9:30 pm.  We are at 10,350 foot elevation - the highest point of our whole trip.

When we come back, about 120 people have gathered to look at the planets through giant telescopes manned by local professors and researchers from the observatory located atop Cedar Breaks.  We get to see Jupiter, Saturn and Venus.

In the morning we come back to the same point to take a 5 mile hike along the edge of the precipice.  It is downhill 2 miles and uphill the whole return.  We feel the elevation!

The Englemann Spruce forest has been decimated by spruce bark beetle.  This is a 300 year cycle of forest decline... and rejuvenation, as young spruce are coming in.

The Bristlecone Pine grow in the most inhospitable soils right on be edge of the Breaks.  We loved seeing these a few years ago in the White Mountains near Bishop, CA.  These trees are the oldest living species on earth, some over 5000 years old.  The ones in Cedar Breaks are youngsters at only 2000 years.

The pine foliage looks young and spritely.

There's a wildflower festival this weekend and we pick up info about all the species in the monument.

It's fun to find this Cinquefoil peeking out by the edge of the path.

It was very cold last night.  We finally needed the Pendleton blanket we brought, just in case.  We leave Cedar Breaks feeling refreshed by its alpine beauty.

We have a few hours of driving ahead and will go through stunning Utah scenery. If you have not been to Utah, you need to go!

Our overnight destination is Valley of the Fire State Park, 40 miles north of Las Vegas.  We know it will be hot, but we feel blasted by the heat and are glad to pay $10 more for hookups.  Our little air conditioner struggles to cool the Chalet.  I take 2 cold showers (thank you, Nevada Parks!).  We stayed here back in 2009 with John and Lisa, but it was more pleasant in October!

We are headed home.  Our 16 day impromptu trip has taken us through 

6 states.  We camped free 5 nights, paid a high of $40 and a low of $5 for campsites.  We have a list of improvements to make on the Chalet (get rid of the funky carpet on the steps and have the fridge serviced, etc).  We have been constantly entertained by the gorgeous scenery.  Thank you family and friends for your hospitality :)

The Chalet has passed muster!

Point of View

This is a day of vistas.

We are homeward bound and we need to travel steadily.  The expansive lands that stretch before us keep us entertained.

The skies are mesmerizing.

We will reject this lake for our overnight camp since the campground is pretty much a parking lot, but the surrounding terrain is colorful.

We opt for Steinaker Lake campground, which is full of families gathered for a big weekend of fun.  It's neat to see the kids entertaining themselves just as ours did years ago. That's our Chalet perched up on the hill.  

We sit in our lawn chairs and take in the sunset and watch the bunnies skitter in and out of the sage.

Bushwhacked!

Wyoming offers stunning and ever-changing scenery as we drive from Grand Teton to Lander.  Next stop is a visit to the Almas family from SLO who are spending time in their house there.

A job out of college took them here 30 plus years ago.  Karen's parents followed them and stayed, even as Bill's career took them on to Las Vegas, and eventually SLO.

When I was a kid, I always liked the Sinclair Oil dinosaur mascot. After we buy gas, Ben obliges my fascination.

The town of Lander is bustling with a Climbers Festival.  We arrive at the Almas's place and find Bill has weed whacked a clearing for the Chalet right next to the roaring creek, where son Jesse and his girlfriend Aubrey are fishing for trout.  Their sleek and rambunctious bird dog Tucker joyously greets us.

Just as we are backing into our spot, a friend and retired mycology professor, Jack, arrives to request permission to bring a group by to see the petroglyphs on the property.

A short time later we clamber up with the group to get a mini lecture on the shaman and face carved 1000's of years ago into the sandstone with an antelope horn tool.  Jack tells us a local boy damaged the petroglyphs by beating them with a hammer.  He heard this story from the boy's mother, who no doubt took the kid to the woodshed.  Jack and his dad found two peace pipes near the site when he was a youngster.  

Karen and Bill tour us around the property and give us a drink from the spring flowing out of the rock face.

We have a feast that night, joined by old local friends.  Aubrey is quite a cook and wows us with a beet and yoghurt dish and fruit cobbler for dessert.  In the "small world" category, Aubrey, who is from Chico, knows our neighbor Lyndal, whose wedding we are attending next weekend.  Jesse fishes til the last minute, but the trout are wily.  Next morning, we all head up the mountain for a hike Bill kind of remembers.

There is quite a bit of discussion about which fork to take.  Jesse is overruled.  We head up... and up.

After lunch, Jesse and Aubrey split to go fishing and we arrange a meet up time with a back up to meet at the truck at 7 pm.  Before long, we completely lose the trail.  

There is a difficult boulder crossing and much trail blazing before we finally reach our destination of Upper Silas Lake.  We realize we have added quite a bit of elevation and distance to our hike.

We watch a school of trout flit around in the stream and wish the fishermen were here.  It's almost 5 and we need to find our way back to the truck.  Two more boulder crossings, bushwhacking through willow thickets and leaping streams ensue.  We have faith in our leaders, Bill and Karen.

We find cairns marking a trail and Bill adds to them, he says in penance for getting lost.  This trail leads us right across a gorgeous meadow... where we are swarmed by a mosquito cloud.  It turns out Jesse and Aubrey also got lost and Tucker ruined their fishing by leaping in the lake repeatedly and chasing off the fish.  They got one cut-throat trout. We pile in the truck at 7:30.

We are starved.  We enjoy a delicious dinner downtown and recount our day.  Next morning it is time for all of us to depart.  Thank you, Almas family, for the hospitality and adventure!

Yellowstone is Not a Day Trip

Grand Teton borders vast Yellowstone.  My brother Curt encourages us to detour up there for at least a day.  It seems as soon as we cross into Yellowstone the traffic increases ten-fold.

We join a throng stopping to photograph Lewis Falls.

We pull over to gaze down into Lewis River Canyon.  In 1988 powerful 80 mile an hour winds drove a fire through the drought-stricken forest.  The fallen snags litter the slopes.  Ben ventures out to the rocky overhang for a close look.

We are headed towards Old Faithful, but we stop to see Lone Star Geyser.  A chance to ride our bikes the 2 mile distance is much more appealing than trailing other cars on the main road. The trail is peaceful and follows the shimmering steam.

A ranger-led group is just leaving as we arrive.  The last eruption of the geyser started at 10:35 and won't happen again until 1:00.  We join a young couple in the shade, and fight off biting flies and chat about travels.  A few others arrive over the next hour as we all wait to see the occasional spurts of roiling water and steam finally develop into a 30 foot tower of scalding water that erupt dramatically at 1:10.

The show lasts about 8 minutes and then subsides.

We hear  plenty from our geyser group about the crowds at Old Faithful and they share their frustrations about clueless tourists (especially with the hordes of Chinese visitors, some of whom ignore signs and warnings).

We are ready to head back to the sanctuary of Tetons and take on Yelliwstone someday when we have time, and not at the peak of summer.

Our campsite is a refuge.  We make a quick dinner with the plan to take an evening bike ride to enjoy the sun setting behind the jagged Tetons and maybe see some elk.  We park at the Chapel near the lake and head out.  Dark clouds border one side, but brilliant evening sunshine illuminates the meadow.

Rain is coming, so we pedal fast to get in a 10 mile ride.  We see elk herds in the far distance.  On our return ride, lightening is starting to strike.

It's a soul-lifting experience to race the rain, take in the wild flowers close by; the dramatic cloud-haloed peaks standing sentry.  Later, rain will lull us to sleep in our little Chalet hideaway.

T Time

North of Idaho Falls the farm land along the Snake River becomes more lush, the colors intensified by the sodden clouds.

The powerful Snake River is dotted with rafters and kayakers.  As we drive hundreds of miles along the Snake we witness its changeable nature from placid to raging.

The interface between farming and conservation is challenging.  Wildlife specialists incentivize crossings for migrating antelope and stream protection  for Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

We delay lunch until we reach posh ski town Jackson, with it's trendy shops garbed in Western style.  Moneyed tourism has a big upside when you are looking for good food.

We are giddy about the menu at Persephone Cafe.  I order a BKR - bacon, kale, ricotta - sandwich and Ben gets a fab chicken salad sandwich with a cup of Intelligensia coffee.  We split a lemon ricotta tart.  Heavenly.  The mom and kid next to us order brussel sprout/yam hash.  Wyoming kids are tough.

Patrons leave little nortes typed up on the old manual typewriter.

This sums it up.

Ben notices as we leave that our favorite SLO County olive oil is featured among the choice products on their shelves. Yo go, Pasolivo!

Just outside Jackson we pass the vast elk reserve.  In a few miles, the alpen peaks of Grand Teton National Park tower over the valley floor and fill us with wonder.  

We will learn later about the tetonic forces that have created this magnificent and startling range.

 Now it just seems like a magical scene when you turn the page of a pop -up book.  Only this is real.