Scipio, UT

Well, we somehow managed to extricate ourselves from Arches National Park. It certainly wasn’t easy. We very easily could have spent another week there. We are also on an interstate for the first time since Texas. Enroute from Ft. Davis to El Paso we hit I10 (or was it I40?) for a handful of miles, but other than that, we’ve been on backroads since Mexico. We have really
enjoyed the backroads and entering the interstate remembered why. The trucks go REALLY FAST on the interstate and the scenery, while “dotted” and supposedly scenic according to the atlas, is really lacking in comparison to the wonderful county roads and country roads and state routes and rural routes we’ve been on since leaving Mexico. We’ll leave I70 when highway 50 branches off and will be interstate-free until we are outside Sacramento in California.

We are all fighting our first sickness (other than stomach) since January of this year. Hard to believe we haven’t had a cold or and respiratory illness in 9 months, but we are all either coming down with or fighting a cold. Ellen slept about 3 hours yesterday and fell asleep about an hour after we left Arches. I’ve been running a fever for a couple days and have a wicked sore throat (par for the course when I get a cold) and everyone else is low energy.

The atlas didn’t lie. I70 is incredibly scenic going west from Moab. We saw a little of Capitol Reef
when we drove through the San Rafael Reef. (this is not a picture of Capitol Reefs – we’re on the way out of Arches) We’re identifying the different layers of strata and many times can see Entrada sandstone which was very sparse in Arches. Looking deep into canyons we can sometimes see the Moab layer. The majority of stone that you see in my pictures is rock from
the Moab layer. We’re travelling through a spectacular canyon now; Eagle Canyon. On the plateuas on either side of the massive canyon, olive and deep green brush intermingle with bright yellow flowered brush. It has a sagey smell. The canyon floor is deep red and there are a few fins showing the Moab layer of rock. Unfortunately I left the camera in the trailer (oh how I HOPE) when I got lunch for the kids so this is our only record of this massive canyon.

I’m going to bore you now with some geology (and we’ll see if I get it right). The reason that Arches is so spectacular, and exists at all, is due to oceans. Milions of years ago, a 700 sq mile area of land that Arches sits in the middle of, the Salt Wash, was filled with ocean. The ocean evaporated and refilled this area 29 times and over a mile of salt was left in this area. Due to continental shift and plate tectonics the salt was covered with dirt and buckled and cracked. The salt leached away when cracks in the stone above it allowed water to enter the salt layer. This land then collapsed upon itself without the salt layer to support it and erosion of the stone began.

And then suddenly, shockingly, we were in the Fishlake National Forest. Mountains covered
with green trees. If you looked closely, you could find beautiful mountain meadows hidden off the interstate up a valley. High up on the ridges were scarlet swaths of trees changing color. The temperature dropped as we climbed and climbed and climbed. For the past 75 miles or so, the only exits have been named “Ranch Exit”. Does everyone with a ranch get their own exit? They never say more; simply “Ranch”. There haven’t been many exits on this stretch of interstate; perhaps only a handful. We’re seeing beautifl mountain streams; a glacial blue instead of the coffee brown of the Colorado.

We passed a glorious looking boondocking area next to the glacial mountain stream (but right next to the freeway) and then a campground off highway 50 at the top of the Fishlake National Forest. I was a bit miffed as the kids were getting antsy and Jamie didn’t seem to notice and showed no signs of stopping. I got more than a bit miffed; he got very very miffed and we miffed and miffed about. After a generous (and necessary ) silence, we stopped miffing and Jamie had me drive. I immediately turned the beast around and went back to a playground we’d passed. For weeks, through alpine forests at 10k+ feet and desert Moab rock, Ellen has been asking for a playground. Today was her day. I thought we could make it a good night-camp and thought George might be proud of our selection. Jamie was adamant that we leave. I finally convinced him to stay; the kids were in
heaven playing in the lush grass (it has been eons since they’ve seen grass) and in the seemingly 2 acre park. It is a really pretty town, in a valley surrounded by mountains with a drop dead gorgeous central park. It is a tiny town; no grocery stores, no Post Office, no library and no schools, but it is pretty and the kids are LOVING the park. There is a covered (shaded) bank of picnic tables and that is where we had dinner. Not sure where we’ll end up tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be somewhere in Nevada.

(I just can’t stop posting pictures of Arches…someone STOP ME!!) The church caretaker stopped by and gave us permission to park the night and said the town (Scipio) is a farming town. I’d wondered why the town seemed absolutely dead; on my walk around the town not one single solitary person was in evidence. He said that it is a Mormon town and showed us where we could hook up to electricity. What a concept!!! We immediately hooked up (after he left) and put the fridge on electricity and started the water heater. Boondocking has really eaten into our propane use (water heater, fridge, heater); of our two containers, we last filled one in the Yucatan and that container lasted until Santa Fe, New Mexico. I expected that the container we filled in Santa Fe to last longer but without using electricity we’re blasting through the propane.

With electricity came television! For good or bad. We last watched TV in Chama – before the hurricane. We watched Nature on PBS (kid’s choice) and a bit of Survivor. Hard to believe that they’re in Guatemala in Mayan ruins much like the ones we recently visited. I’ll be Guatemala tourism increases after the show.