Southwest States Recon:
Synopsis
To accompany this synopsis of the recent two major trips recently experienced, I provide a pared-down collection of the many many photographs taken, and you can access this gallery of 333 shots chosen semi-randomly from pages of thumbnails here:
There will be more details to follow, along with more shots of the experience, but several other projects preclude that, so this will do for now. Furthermore, I was a bit excessive with my use of the camera, and the full galleries will be gargantuan, so if you've just time, patience, or interest for the overall and abbreviated versions, this is it!
Despite an optimistic itinerary of ten days, the first trip was embarked upon the day before originally intended, and nine hours were gained by driving from Sierra City, CA to Ely, NV. This headstart was eaten away at steadily, and this, combined with non-premeditated changes to the schedule, made for a varied, exciting, and successful adventure roadtrip.
The second day took us from Ely to Moab in about 10 hours, sightseeing stops included, and was followed by the third day, which was much better, since we finally got out of "gotta get there" mode and started doing some proper Backroadbussing, some of which will be shared fairly soon in video form, and then from red rocks desert to snow capped mountains, capped by a late camp several miles up some dirt mountain road after searching for an appropriate spot for an eternity.
The fourth day took us from the mountains above Hermosa, Colorado through Durango, south into Taos, NM, where we saw Earthships, and north into Colorado again where we drove around in Trinidad, CO, where I used to live, and finally ended at Monument Lake, west of Trinidad, where I augmented the supply of oil in the transaxle and changed the engine oil and filter. Somewhere between Taos and Trinidad my odometer went "klik-snapp!" and while the speedo part still worked, the odo part no longer moves.....until then, at least, it seemed that we were making good time and getting decent gas mileage!
All in all, the bus was doing great. Considering the multitude of nine-to-eleven-thousand-foot passes and the high winds, all was going quite well. Our goal upon setting out from Monument Lake (in Monument Valley, CO) on Day Four was Monument Valley, AZ, and I've gotta say that I'm very happy we didn't quite make it! We found a spot as the sun set that day called Muley Point, somewhere in Utah near the Valley of the Gods, and that had to have been one of the most awesome campsites we've had! We were within an hour's drive of our goal, but we were experiencing unusual backroads and awesome views without all the touristy junk that tends to spoil the granduer.
After most of a day of exploring and driving (if you like washboard roads from hell, drop me a line and I'll tell you where to go!), we met up with Kevin McLeod, found a campsite, and later were joined by Richard Kimbrough, and the next two days were spend making our dusty bumpy way across Arizona from the Show Low area to Jerome, and we had fun despite stupid Forest Service road closures, which stymied and frustrated us. Later on, after visiting some of Jerome's local color, we discovered that unless you like pink, lots of people, and shopping, Sedona is not a place for you, so we headed north and ended up having lots of fun on cool 4x4 roads outside of Flagstaff. Richard left that night for home, and in the morning, we headed out with Kevin in the morning and split up somewhere to the east of Flagstaff.
On our own again, now well into Day Nine of our adventure, we headed north through Arizona and into Utah, driving on relatively boring (but spectacular nonetheless) freeways until we found this really cool little dirt road that delves north into Utah via Cottonwood Canyon, which was simply stupendous. Our goal at this point was to get to Boulder, UT, to determine if it might be a cool place to relocate to (it was cool, but not quite it)and we saw more cool stuff, camped somewhere up some far-out mountain road, saw Boulder the next day, and with rain washing off our hard-earned mud, we headed across southern Utah towards Nevada and the Extraterrestrial Highway, near which we camped for the last night.
It was upon arriving in that desolate and beautiful area in the dark after a great sunset drive that we somehow chose a spot on a road out of several that we somehow chose (some dirt side-road off the ET Hwy) that we discovered what is to be henceforth known as the Area 51 Bulletbus, a '66 21-window sans all parts but the body, sinking slowly into the desert in rusting glory, and providing a target for those with plenty of ammo but nothing to shoot, if you catch my drift. Wierd.
Our drive from the ET Hwy through Rachel, NV, and northward to Sierra City was in general uneventful, but long and of all the days, this being Day Eleven, was hard work due to wind and road conditions compounded by extreme exhaustion, and not at all the kind of adventure we prefer, but we eventually did make it home, and within a week we were planning to go out again! Off to Colorado to specific locations now, and more driving than we expected, but by the time we got home from all that, we realized that we should have stayed for another day, because now I have to go out there again to REALLY check out a spot!
Some of the amazing stuff we saw on the recent Colorado Reconnaisance Trip were just some of your run-of-the-mill desert tableaus, pointy and rugged peaks of rock, ice and snow, spectral grotesqueries of redrock formations, blazing sun over a blooming desert in Springtime, with its luminescent-green sage, vibrantly purple-fleshed cacti, violent displays of red, yellow, blue and violet wildflowers of diminuitive stature, wierd ephemeral mini-ponds in the bedrock, fun roads, you name it, it was there! Some creative wierdness was to be found in Hanksville with the Dr. Frankenstein of scrapmetal (genius!), strange and undulating lands west of Hanksville, leading into the Capitol Reef National Park, and then a surprise 10K+ foot pass with some pretty serious snow coming down before we got to Boulder again. Leading out of Boulder is an alternate route between there and Escalante (Hell's Backbone), and we took it, but need to go back for the breathtaking and scary views certainly to be found beyond the oppressive and obscuring snow....
Our intentions were good, but as we went through Bryce Canyon it was snowing hard again, and beautiful, but as I stopped in Red Canyon (just west of Bryce) to take a couple gratuitous bus pictures with the snow on the red stone formations, I felt an unnerving feeling in my left foot....and moments later ascertained that it would be best to continue on down the road without the use of the clutch. So from the middle southwest area of Utah to the south east corner of Nevada I drove the ailing camper, turning back and backtracking for hours from a 10,000-foot snowy pass (hard to drive in chains without a clutch), and luckily the weather was dry ... windy, yes, but dry and not as cold ... in Caliente, where I spent 10:00pm to 2:00am pulling the engine and replacing what turned out to be a shattered clutch disc in the parking lot of a hospitable Chevron. The locals provided the entertainment, but we took off from there and drove until 3:20 until we ended up on the Extraterrestrial Highway again near where the Bulletbus was found, had a really late dinner, and slept until the next day, which broke over the bus too early, but we had to get home, so: Coffee, breakfast, road.
And here we are again. Preparing to leave. Michele will stay home this time to deal with stuff, and I will go out to a unique and strange place amongst redrock canyons in order to learn its secrets, which will help us determine whether we should move there or not....
More reports, videos and pics to follow, but for now, keep the rubber side down!
16-Apr-07
Return to top