And then, the skies opened up...

I was up early this morning and left my hotel in Moab, UT by 6:45 am. I wanted to get to Arches National Park before it got busy. When I reached the Devil's Garden parking area, it was almost empty, which was no big surprise. By 7:30, I was walking the trail and feeling good.

My plan was to hike to Landscape Arch, Partition Arch and Navajo Arch, which would be roughly 2.6 miles in and back. I had done this hike six years ago, and decided it would make a nice, relaxing morning. Landscape Arch is the largest arch in the park, and precariously thin. No telling when it will finally succumb to nature's elements.

After climbing up the challenging slick rock, I took the side trail to the other two arches. As I did, the dark clouds to the north looked ominous. I had checked the weather forecast last night and it only said about an hour of rain around noon. I know I should have checked again this morning!

After checking out Partition and Navajo arches, I had been planning to eat an early lunch...I had brought food with me...but, as some raindrops fell, I changed my mind and decided to make my return.

Just before I got to the junction that would take me back to the parking lot, I stopped to snap pictures of a couple of mule deer feeding right next to the trail! They showed no fear of myself and a few other people who were there. Look at the ears on that young one!

There was an old couple I had run into earlier that decided to keep going to Double O Arch rather than cut their day short. I told them I wanted to get back before it REALLY started raining because wet slick rock is...well, slick. As I passed Landscape Arch again, the skies really looked angry.

I kept walking and it started to rain lightly. I quickened my pace, but about 500 yards from the parking lot...the skies opened up and it poured! I was only wearing a denim cover shirt and my sun hat, and I got pretty wet. I hope that old couple were okay...they seemed to be better prepared for weather than me. And, I wonder what the deer did when the heavy rain came down? Thankfully, since I was road tripping, I had dry clothes in my car. My T-shirt was only slightly damp, but the lower half of my pants was soaked.

As I ate my lunch in the car, the rain dissipated and the skies lightened. I changed into dry pants and put on my raincoat, then headed down the road to Skyline Arch. This arch once had a smaller opening, but in 1940 a huge section fell out, and the result is what you see today. I walked a short trail to the base of the arch, where you can see the broken pieces of the boulder.

It was sprinkling lightly as I left Skyline Arch, but it was far worse elsewhere...we were surrounded by thunderstorms. I made two more stops before calling it a day...Double Arch and the La Sal Mountain viewpoint. The rock formation to the left of Double Arch is called Parade of Elephants. I have no idea if that "thing" in between has a name! At the viewpoint, I walked through potholes filled with rainwater and was treated to a spectacular vista amid sunny skies!

Kind of reminds me of Monument Valley. Before leaving the park, I purchased a new Interagency Annual Pass, which will get me into national parks for another year. It's a great value at only $80, and it pays for itself pretty quickly if you visit as many parks as I do. Tomorrow, I'll continue road tripping through Utah and seeing more natural sights. And, I'm pretty sure no rain for awhile.

Walking in Dinosaur Land

When I left my hotel in Vernal, UT this morning, I was expecting a nice, sunny day. There were a lot of clouds in the sky, but at least they weren't rain clouds. My destination of the day was Dinosaur National Monument, about a half hour east of town. I had visited this park on a previous road trip, but the Fossil Bone Quarry building and new visitor center were still being constructed.

I got to the park as soon as it opened and spent about a half hour in the Quarry Exhibit Hall looking over the dinosaur bones embedded in the rock. There are a number of dinosaurs represented here including the carnivorous Allosaurus and the Stegosaurus with its back plates and spiked tail. They had an Allosaurus skull on display and you can see a Stegosaurus skull in the rock.

After looking at the dinosaur bones, I decided to take in a hike. I chose the 1.5 mile Desert Voices Trail, which follows Cottonwood Wash before climbing out and looping around through desert terrain, then back down to the wash again. When I started my hike, it was still cloudy, but the sun broke through about midway. My photos look so much better when it's sunny!

As I walked along the trail, I snapped photos of things I saw along the way. Pretty furry lichens, purple Pacific asters, yellow rabbitbrush flowers and a desert cottontail hiding under a shrub.

Later, while I was eating lunch at the picnic area, a golden-mantled ground squirrel came over to look for a handout. There was none from me, so it sat on a rock next to my car to eyeball me.

I spent the afternoon driving through Colorado on my way to Moab, UT...my pit stop for the night. As I traveled south on Hwy 139, I stopped off the road at Douglas Pass to admire the view and the fall colors.

Tomorrow, I'll be spending the day at Arches National Park. I'll be revisiting some places I've seen before, but it just never gets old. This is one of my favorite parks and I'm looking forward to getting more nice pics!

Downer of a day

Well, it was bound to happen. Sometimes the best made plans are just not good enough. I did enjoy my stay in Jackson, WY last night, though! The last time I road tripped in the area, I spent the night at the Cowboy Village Resort. This place is awesome! Cabins right in town! I had a bigger cabin this time around and loved every minute of it! About the only negative critique...and it's a minor one...is the dreaded half pillows! As usual, I ignored them and used my own!

Anyway, back to my disappointing day. First, I drove about an hour and a half away to Pinedale in my quest to see pronghorn. Namely, I was interested to witness the antelope migration, known as the Path of the Pronghorn. There are a couple of overpasses spanning US Hwy 191 west of town that were constructed special for the antelope to cross the road. I turned off the highway near the Trapper's Point overpass and looked for pronghorn.

But, alas, all I saw were some hoofprints on the ground leading from the overpass. I think I was too early. Peak migration is supposed to be mid-October. Oh, well...onward.

Another two hours of driving later, I crossing into Utah. But, as I was traveling south, it got cloudier and soon it began to rain lightly. By the time I turned onto State Highway 44 south of Manila...also known as Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway...the rain had stopped.  It was still overcast, though, so the photos I took were not as colorful as they should have been. It was still a pleasant drive.

I had one other sightseeing destination, but it was still overcast, which put a damper on any decent photos. So, I decided to call it a day early and enjoy more time in my very comfy hotel room. It looks like the sun will return tomorrow, which should be a great excuse for another hike!

A Big (horn) and Grand (Teton) Day

When I left Cody, WY this morning, I knew it was going to be a beautiful day. I headed west on US Hwy 14 on my way to Grand Teton National Park via Yellowstone National Park. As I drove, I kept my eye out for bighorn sheep. When I traveled the same route last fall, I saw a few bighorn. I lucked out again this time around...a band of nine bighorn were right next to the road. I got a lot of awesome pics, too!

It was the first time I had ever seen a bighorn ram...that's him in the fourth photo with the larger horns. There were two females that kept grazing closer and closer to my parked car. The little one wasn't sure if I was a threat or not, but the other two just ignored me and kept eating. I continued on and had an early picnic lunch in Yellowstone, then kept driving to Grand Teton. I wanted to have enough time to take a nice, leisurely hike. Before going to a visitor center to get some information, I stopped at the Jackson Lake viewpoint to admire the vista.

I chose to hike the 3.3 mile loop trail around Christian Pond, with hopes of maybe seeing a moose.  Well, I didn't see one, but I DID get some nice scenic pictures. I started my walk at the pond, then the trail wove through scrub forest, sagebrush fields and returned to a large marshy area. During my walk, there were glimpses of the Teton range through the trees and I got a nice shot of Mount Moran.

Before leaving the park, I had to get the obligatory photo of the entire Teton range. It was kind of late in the afternoon so the lighting on the peaks wasn't the best, but it still looked majestic.

Tomorrow, the forecast calls for rain where I'm headed. I hope it passes before I get to my sightseeing spots, but I might look for indoor alternatives just in case it doesn't. I've been pretty fortunate so far that the weather has been cooperating with my plans, and I'm looking forward to that continuing.

Buffalo Bill in Cody

The weather was pleasantly cool...not cold...when I left Red Lodge, MT this morning. It only took a little over an hour to drive to Cody, MT, my destination of the day. I would be spending the whole day at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This complex contains five museums: Buffalo Bill Museum, Draper Natural History Museum, Plains Indian Museum, Whitney Western Art Museum and Cody Firearms Museum.

The center is named after William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, a man of many aspirations, but most famous for his Wild West shows. His statue graces the front of the building, but his life was no exaggeration. I decided to check out the Buffalo Bill Museum first and I spent the longest time of my day there. Even though I knew some of his story, I learned a lot of other things, too. He earned his nickname while providing meat...bison...for the workers building the railroad in the Midwest. His reputation as a scout, Indian fighter and buffalo hunter resulted in many comic book stories in the 1870s.

This fame soon led to the Wild West shows. Buffalo Bill was very progressive in his views of women's equality, respect for the native Indians and interest in people from other countries. They all performed in his shows and even traveled around the world. They had displays of the real posters advertising those shows and Buffalo Bill's outfits, including the jacket shown below.

After lunch at the center, I visited the other museums. Here are some of the more interesting things I saw. An Indian war shield cover decorated with a raven, Ben Cartwright's (Lorne Greene) gun from the TV series Bonanza and a painting by American Western painter Frederic Remington.

After seeing all the taxidermy animals in the natural history museum, I was happy that they actually had some live ones. They had a live raptor program where handlers displayed and provided an educational talk on birds that are unable to be returned to the wild. Suli the turkey vulture was too imprinted on humans, Hayabusa the peregrine falcon could no longer fly, and Isham the red-tailed hawk lost an eye. There was also a bald eagle on display in the courtyard...it also had a damaged wing. It was wonderful to see such beautiful birds of prey up close.

It was almost a shame to spend such a nice, sunny day indoors. But, the forecast looks to be equally as good tomorrow! I'll be spending the morning revisiting Yellowstone, then onward to Grand Teton National Park. Looking forward to more great natural sights and majestic scenery!