May 20 – Acclimating to Bryce
The drive from Moab to Bryce Canyon City went smoothly, and Ruby’s Inn RV Park and Campgrounds has all the amenities. It’s nice to have the full hookup again, so I can use my laptop once more. I will try to straighten up the site a bit the next couple of days.
Once I got minimally settled in I jumped on the free shuttle into the park and headed to Bryce Point. I hiked the rim trail back to the Lodge before hopping back on the shuttle headed for the RV.
After being up late last night and doing a lot of hiking yesterday I decided to keep it low-keyed today. I will likely walk down the street to see what is around at the rest of the “Ruby’s Inn” complex, but then off to bed for me.
May 21 – And the Next RV issue is…
Well, there are actually two. For starters, remember how I had a little… mishap when emptying the black water tank the first time? Remember how I suggested the previous renters didn’t fully empty the tank? I was wrong. Apparently the waste valve/dump gate isn’t fully sealing. So, I had another little issue when hooking up to my site yesterday. I was far more cautious this time, so no bodily harm or wardrobe immolation was necessary, but still more than a little gross to say the least. So, to the previous renters, my heartfelt apology for maligning your honor. To the owner of the RV… you got some work to do.
Anyway, I was excited to be back on shore power for the first time in quite a few days, being able to use the microwave and charge my electronics more easily. I plugged my laptop in and merely went on my way. This morning I also finally managed to figure out how to only have the heat running without also blowing outside air in through the ceiling vents – finally doing some online searching revealed the trick with the thermostat (which really Diane makes any sense to me, but whatever). So I laid in bed letting the RV warm up to a comfy 55 before going about my day. I switched my charging cable from laptop to iPad and broke out the Keurig to make some hot chocolate the good new fashioned way. The Keurig did work. Turns out my iPad wasn’t charging either, not had my laptop. I checked several outlets, checked the circuit breakers and fuses and tripped/reset the GFI outlet to no avail. I headed out on my hike vowing to figure it out later.
After the hike I tip my charging cable and iPhone and tested 4 interior and 1 1 exterior outlets with no luck, no power. The microwave and AC worked and the light on the GFI outlet was on, so the RV was getting power. I finally decided to check the plugs over the main bed, and they work. So, assistant there is something going on with the GFI that isn’t the breaker, isn’t the circuit interrupt and is beyond my abilities. Google doesn’t have any other great ideas, so one more thing to add to the “List Of Woes” for the RV. Oh well, as with everything else, I will learn how to adapt for the time being, let the owner know and keep moving forward.
Down into the belly of the beast
I thought I posted this yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, but apparently I didn’t. So read this as if it was from Wednesday…
This morning I had the inspirational words from Blazing Saddles ringing through my head as I headed out to hike a loop in Bryce Canyon. “Now go do that hoodoo that you do so well!”, or something like that…
I started with Wall Street, then Peekaboo Loop and finished with Queen’s Garden. A bit over 6 miles with 1,500’ of elevation gain made for a good workout, and as always, can’t beat the views. There isn’t a whole lot else to report from the hike other than one of the local chipmunks tried to shake me down for some food as I nibbled on my Cliff Bar. I even had to take my backpack off the tree where I had hung it as the greedy little dude decided begging from the ground wasn’t working and tried to make a break for the bag.
*For translation, see the Junior Chipmunk Handbook.
Anyway, another great hike, and while there were plenty of people on the trails it really didn’t seem very crowded except at the main intersection of Walk Street, Navajo and Queen’s loops.
The bottom of Wall Street, which is a really neat set of switchbacks down into the amphitheater.
May 22 – Eerie night hike and more great pictures
Getting night shots at Arches was one thing, there were plenty of other people out doing similar things in the area, so I never felt alone. And the hike was flat and short. Last night was a completely different thing. I started my hike down Queen’s Trail just after sunset, stopping to evaluate different views and options. I didn’t want to get too far down for safety and energy reasons, as my legs were still “talking to me” from all of the recent activity.
At the beginning of the walk I saw a couple of deer coming up out of the amphitheater and definitely not using the trails, a very cool sight!
I finally identified a few possible locations within the first 3/4 of a mile of the trail, so I sat down and just listened to the silence for a while waiting for it to get dark, then I got to work. In response to earlier questions about how I am getting the pictures I thought I would do a bit something different here. I only brought a very small flexible leg tripod in this trip, which I also used to secure the camera to the roll bars of the ATV, so I have to get a little creative. It is essentially this set up, but in order to get the camera pointing I the sky the phone is reversed in the grip, meaning about half of the screen is covered up.
So this is what I did for about an hour last night in the middle of trail. I got a wee bit dusty… I set the iPhone camera to “RAW” and typically max out the exposure, which seems to be about 30 seconds for most shots. In some cases I will use my headlamp as a manual fill flash, but still figuring that out.
But all in all I say it is worth the effort, with another round of pictures I am pretty darn happy with. The only editing on these pics was to take out a sign from the last one. Everything else is exactly how it came out.
The hike back up was just weird. It was about 11:00 by now, and I could still see lights at various places around the rim, but absolutely no signs of activity below the rim. It was completely dark without my headlamp, and I had one of my trekking poles out for the extra balance in case I stripped in a rock or something like that. Very surreal and eerie, and once again the video won’t do it justice.
Getting back to the RV park so late, I didn’t want to make too much noise, and I was cold and lazy to be honest, so I didn’t bother trying to level the RV. The result was me stumbling around like Jack Sparrow trying to make it the actual 3 feet from the bed to the bathroom. My body just couldn’t reconcile the weird slope while still half asleep, so I nearly ended up in the driver seat before I was able to get myself more or less situated. Amusing now, not so much at 3 AM…
3 spots, 3 hikes
I started today a bit later, not finishing breakfast and posts until about 9:00. After breakfast I headed out to explore more of the local area. I started with a quick hike to Mossy Cave and Tropic Ditch Falls. The falls were neat, and some history to boot. In 1889 Mormon pioneers started digging this 10 mile ditch to irrigate their planned settlement – Tropic. It took 40 men 3 years to complete, but successfully supported their settlement, which remains as a farming community to this day. The Tropic Ditch causes far more rapid erosion and changes than the surrounding area, but still a neat little sight to see. Most cave was, well, a shallow cave. With moss. Didn’t even bother with a picture.
After that I drove a rather sketchy road to get to Willis Creek Narrows to hike a “novice-friendly” slot canyon. Over all a neat hike, but it was the first and last miles that really stood out, with the other 4 miles just a kinda cool hike through a wash.
The coolest part of the non-slot parts was seeing a raven take off from its nest. I immediately developed a back story for that since my brain doesn’t have much else to do at the moment.
4 hours earlier
The males raven is sitting on the couch watching golf and his wife asks him to go to the store to pick up a few things. He agrees and takes the list. As he is leaving, his wife calls out with one more item to get. She asks if he wants her to add it to the list, and he replies “Lorentz first establish the intelligence of ravens in 1927, and Heinrich furthered the aggregation of research on Covid intelligence. I will have you know that I have a relative stationed at the Tower of London, so I think I can remember one more item on the shopping list!”
Current time
The husband crow launches out of the nest with wings figuratively on fire after the tongue lashing his wife gave him because he did not, in fact, remember the one additional item he was supposed to get (Diapers? Baby formula? Carrion?).
Anyway, I just got darn lucky with the photo, so if anyone has connections with National Geographic, or Odin, I will gladly pass along the rights for the photo…
Next I headed to Kodachrome Basin State Park for a look-see. This area was featured by National Geographic in 1949, and a few years later named Kodachrome with approval by Kodak (you youngsters may not know the name, but you should). It was designated a state park in 1962 (some name shenanigans occurred in there).
A key feature of this area are the sandstone spires or clastic dikes. They are relatively unique to this area, and have competing theories on their origin. There is a decent but Wikipedia page on this, so I won’t get into it, but it made for a nice fun finisher for today’s activities.
The background geology is a great contrast, but please don’t ask me to explain any of this. I tried to do a little research on the geology of the area and it quite frankly just made new feel stupid, so, if you want to know more about it… read a book! (I know there is a quote here for a cartoon, maybe early 2000s, but I just can’t recall…)
So there you have it. A day with some adventure and variety. I will spare you the tales of laundry, but I will reveal that I have finally determined that the supplemental bed arrangement of the RV is superior to the table format.
Talk amongst yourselves.
Travel with Sherpa 