Thur, May 5, 2011

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Somewhere between west Texas and southern Utah eggs are ordered “over hard” not “over well” as we say in most of the South.  Out here they just give you a blank stare as if you just spoke in some alien dialect.  – Donna Downey

One of the most pleasant places to wake up is overlooking Lake Powell.  If you’re lucky your thoughtful husband has already been up, fixed coffee, and opened the sliding door to the porch to let the cool dry breezes enter the room.  After “piddling” around for a while enjoying the weather and the view, we headed over to the restaurant for a hearty breakfast and a chance to enjoy the last views of the lake. 

Then it was off to the Burr Trail to travel a backcountry route from Bullfrog to Boulder, a distance of almost 70 miles.  It winds thru some of Utah’s most scenic country and a variety of sights.  We travel this route on almost every trip West.  It is just an area that we really enjoy and we always find something new to enjoy every time we drive it.  Of course it helps if you are easily entertained by just being “amongst” God’s gorgeous landscapes with an occasional set of old cattle pens thrown in for a change.  The view changes dramatically almost around each curve in the road.  One of the most colorful sections is the area known as the Waterpocket Fold, a 100-mile long bend in the earth where huge rocks were pushed up to form what looks like a long spine.  The area is full of cliffs, canyons, basins and colorful rock layers reaching into the sky.  It’s a treat for the eyes.  There’s a set of switchbacks that climb up thru the Waterpocket Fold that will take your breath away.

Unfortunately Charles began the day with a terrible headache… probably due mostly to the higher altitudes.  So we took a lot longer to take the trail with frequent stops where he would take a short nap and the pups and I would wander the countryside admiring the scenery and the perfect hiking weather.

Just down the road after climbing up via the switchbacks we spotted an old cattle pen so took the smaller dirt road over to it and found an old cow camp trailer there as well. We speculated about what happened to the cowboy that made his living from that camp. There was a snubbing post in the middle of the old corral so perhaps he spent his days catching wild horses and breaking them. It would have been an isolated existence so you would need to be happy with only yourself for company. 

The pups had been having playtime all morning in the dust and sand so they were in need of a bath but water is not in abundance along the Burr Trail.  We usually stop at small canyon along a large sandstone formation and at times it will have water flowing thru the sandstone bottom.  Luckily today was such a day so the pups had their bath although they were unaware that was the purpose and thought we just enjoyed watching them run, swim and play in the water.

We had planned to take the long dirt road drive down to Hole-in-the-Rock but we had killed most of the day just getting off the Burr Trail.  It is sixty miles down to Hole-in-the-Rock and the same sixty back out to since we were kind of tired, and the light was dismal for photography by then so we decided to save what would have been our second trip down there for another time.   Just past the turnoff was a new Heritage Center dedicated to preserving the history of the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition so we opted for a stop there instead. We love to read actual letters or journal entries from the pioneers so I have to share this one with you.  It is an exerpt from a letter Elizabeth Decker wrote to her parents on February 22, 1880: 

Coming down the hole in the rock to get to the river was ten times as bad. If you ever come this way it will scare you to death to look down it. It is about a mile from the top down to the river and it is almost straight down, the cliffs on each side are five hundred ft. high and there is just room enough for a wagon to go down. It nearly scared me to death. The first wagon I saw go down put the brake on and rough locked the hind wheels and had a big rope fastened to the wagon and about ten men holding back on it and then they went down like they would smash everything. I'll never forget that day. When we was walking down Willie looked back and cried and asked me how we would get back home.

It was a first-rate exhibit with plenty of information, some neat photographs, two huge paintings portraying the expedition and an old covered wagon. I included photos of the paintings as they depict what the descent thru the hole was like.  One man realized after helping what he thought was all the wagons down the mile-long descent realized his wife, children and wagon were not among them.  He went back up to find they had been overlooked.  With no other men to help, his wife stayed behind the wagon to guide the horse and they made it down alive although she fell as they began the descent and was drug some distance. 

Since we chose not to take the long side trip, we decided to drive on up to Ruby’s Inn at Bryce Canyon National Park for the night.  That would give us plenty of time to clean up the Jeep, do a load of laundry and still have time left to relax.  After almost a week in either drought or desert everything was coated in dust. 

We will probably ride into the park about sunset.  Other than getting a little too much sun today (it’s hard to remember you’re getting a lot of sun when the weather is so pleasant and comfortable), we are well and hope y’all are too.

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger