Fast Trek to New Jersey

 Buffalo National River was a two day break from driving.  We did two hikes here.  One to the Indian House and one to the lookout over the river.  The Indian House trail was rocky and a little challenging.  Very welcome after days driving.  The Indian House was much larger than I expected and just truly fascinating to think how they lived there.  It was basically a very large cave, but there was a stream at one end and it was in the woods.  So everything you need to survive - a roof over your head, water and food source.  Enjoy the pics.

The second hike was up from the campground to an overlook to the Buffalo River.  It was nice to be hiking through the woods after all of our desert adventures.  

Spring is starting to sprung

We also went down by the river while at the campground.  The walls on the side of the river were quite tall.

We then had another two driving days.  We stayed over night at a wonderful Harvest Host called Randys Rescue Ranch.  This is a prime example of why we enjoy Harvest Host so much.    This gentleman, Randy, loved animals so much he made a place to care for animals that no one wanted or were going to be killed.  He has had the 20 acre ranch for 8 years.  He has 12 horses, 8 pigs, 3 donkeys, a mule and 18 dogs.  He has been rescuing dogs for many years, even has a book written about him.  He gave us about a 2 hour tour of his place and told us about all of the outdoor animals.  The dogs we heard about, but did not see (that was ok with me).  The dog portion is a rescue and hospice.  8 of the dogs live in the house with Randy.  

So here are a couple of the many interesting stories of the animals.  He had a mini horse that had a couple of deformities.  The reason for that is they breed them to be small and the inbreeding causes many other issues.  

He had 8 pigs.  He said that they pack the pigs so tight in the trucks to transport them, that 1 million piglets fall off trucks every year.  A couple of the pigs he has are ones that fell off trucks.    We got to pet them and they were much different than I expected.  They had hair and it was coarse.  One pig he got because the owner was kicked out of their home.  The pig had only been fed pizza and junk food.  Randy changed the diet to all vegetables by sprinkling the food with brown sugar until they got used to the new diet.

He had a couple brood mares and race horses that were past their prime and were going to be killed.  He had a blind horse.  We got to pet the horses and go in the pen with two of them.  Boy when you stand next to them, they are huge.  Mabel was in the clydesdale family and she was huge, but let me pet her.  

It was a great experience and just so heartwarming to see the love this man had for these animals.  

Next stop was in Indiana, just a “rest day” from driving at a KOA.  They are a seasonal campground that had just opened for the season a week before we were there.  They had a work day and you could volunteer to help clean up the campground.  In exchange they let you stay for free and fed you lunch.  We joined in.  As silly as this sounds, it was nice to do some outdoor labor.  We raked and cleaned up the mini golf course.  The nice part about it is getting to chat with some of the other campers and the owners.  There are so many interesting stories on the road.  

Our next two nights were at Harvest Host wineries.  They both closed at 5, so we got there just in time to have a drink and then hang in the camper for the evening.

One added bonus at the first Harvest Host is it was only 15 miles from a high school friend/groomsmen of Dave’s.  We were able to get together for breakfast the next morning.  Always great to reconnect.  

Today we travel to New Jersey for Andrew’s fiancé’s Bridal Shower and Brian’s student’s play and visiting.  We will be in Jersey until April 14th, so there will not be any blog during that time.  We hit the road again on the 14th, so will be back in touch after that.

Til then…..

Catching up since Zion

 Well, it’s been a little bit since I posted.  Weather has been making us homebodies.  Mostly wind that feels like it is going to knock you over. 

From Zion we went to James M. Robb State Park in Fruita, CO.  We were going to go to the Grand Canyon, but the temperatures were going to be too low, 18 at night and only in the 30s during the day.  That’s why we have wheels, we can change course.

In Fruita the main thing we did was go to the Colorado National Monument.  Took a mile walk to get the lay of the land.  We were going to do a longer hike the next day, but the wind was not our friend.  Enjoy the scenery.

This one looks like a man wearing a hat and scarf over his mouth.  The nose is quite prominent

Our next stop was Albuquerque, NM.  The winds here were pretty consistent at 20-30 miles an hour with gusts over 40.  One day it was so windy you mostly just saw dust.  Petroglyph National Monument was in this area and we went to the visitor center.  However, due to the winds we did not do any hikes.  We did learn that this is the largest petroglyph site in North America with over 24,000 petroglyphs.  Will definitely be a place to go to when the weather is more cooperative.  They did have a display about The Horno at the monument.  Here is a picture.  It was used to bake bread, roast corn and vegetables, to cook and to fire pottery.

We are now on the trek back to NJ for the Bridal Shower so the next two stops, 3 full days driving, were Harvest Hosts to get some miles behind us.  The first was a burger place that had live music.  It was an enjoyable break from the road.  We also passed by Cadillac Ranch and checked it out.  This is “art” in the middle of a field.  It was originally supposed to just be the cadillacs and showing off their fins.  However, people started spraying graffiti on them and taking parts of the cars.  The owners embraced the painting and now it is part of the experience.  They say if you paint a part of a car, take a picture because it probably won’t last the day.

This one and the one below show the layers and thickness of the paint

The second Harvest Host was a brewery.  Dave enjoyed the beer, I enjoyed the cider.  

We got to Buffalo National River in Arkansas yesterday.  We are taking a two day break here and going to do at least one hike.

Til next time… 

Zion National Park

 To give you an idea of just how beautiful Zion is from the get go, these are pictures from our campsite.

We did three hikes while in Zion:  Emerald Pools, Narrows and Scout Landing.  

At the beginning of the Emerald Pools hike there were some park volunteers with a couple of pelts providing information about some of the animals in the park.  One of these was the beaver.  I thought these facts were pretty interesting:

• The beavers in Zion do not build dams in the river because the flash floods would take them away.  Alot of work for them to disappear in a flash. 
• Dams are different than dens.  The dams are made to make a pool so they can make a den in the pool.  
• At Zion their dens are made under the side embankments.  Their dens have several rooms.
• Even though beavers do not make dams, they still chew wood.  There are two reasons for that.  1) to keep their teeth sharp. 2) To keep their teeth at a safe length.  Beavers teeth always grow.  If they do not keep them at a safe length, they could grow through their skull.

The Emerald Pools hike takes you to three different pools, upper, middle and lower.  The upper is the largest pool and the lower has a small “waterfall” that you can walk under.  The height and grandeur of the surroundings is hard to explain, so I will just try to let the pictures do the talking. 

Lower

Middle

Upper

After the Emerald Pools we walked to the Narrows.  This is an area with very high walls and as you might guess more narrow than much of the river way.  You can hike in the river to go further into the Narrows.  The first time we were there with the kids, there was a chance of flash floods.  This time there was also rain in the forecast, so we tend to err on the side of caution.  Maybe one day we will get to do that hike.  

The final hike we did was to Scout lookout.  This takes you to the base of the Angels Landing Trail, which the top of Angels landing is 1200 feet, so my estimate is we were about 900 feet high.  Walters Wiggles is a part of the trail with lots of switch backs to help you get up the height of the area “easier”.  We did a little of the Angels Landing trail with the kids years ago, but it is holding on to a chain with very steep drop offs and lots of people, so we turned around due to comfort.  Now you have to have a ticket to go up, which is probably a good thing to make the chain area less crowded.  I remember that you were holding on to this chain “for dear life” and then someone is coming down and one of you has to let go to get around the other.  Not my thing.  

Walters wiggles from the bottom

Walters Wiggles from the top

Chains to Angels Landing

On the way back down we saw a spotted owl thanks to other hikers pointing it out.  We couldn’t get a picture though.  We also saw a porcupine.  It was really funny to watch the porcupine move from one tree to another.  He shimmied down backwards, slowly but surely.  Dave thought maybe they do backwards because then their quills are in the right direction if anyone were to come after them.   The porcupine did look a little like a monkey in the motions and his face. 

Here are a couple other nice pictures from the park

The last evening when we came back to the camper you could see the reflection of the mountain in the camper window.  Seems an appropriate ending photo.

We were supposed to go to Grand Canyon after Zion, but the weather forecast was too cold.  We were going to be dry camping and did not think we would have enough power to keep us warm.  So we are now in a state park near Grand Junction, CO.

Til next time…