We were gone from July 29 to August 4 and I wrote the first blog post about it August 8. I am finally finishing the trip today, September 2, and soon will get back to sheep and weaving posts…hopefully.
We spent Sunday night at a motel in Green River, Utah. I don’t remember when we got on the road, but this photo was at 8:50 a.m. At this point I don’t remember much about any of the photos I took, but it’s one way I keep myself entertained while being a passenger. Most of these photos were taken in Utah.
Trinidad is over 1200 miles from Vacaville and we didn’t always take the most direct route. That’s a lot of time in the car. Dan likes the driving part so I am happy to be a passenger. I had taken a dozen magazines and books and a couple of fiber projects to keep myself occupied. I barely looked at any of them. What’s the point of a “road trip” if you don’t experience the road? This scenery is beautiful..
,,,and vast.
We didn’t make many stops so most of these are “drive-by” photos.
We did stop here because this marker was a short distance off the highway. The story of the Pony Express is fascinating but it was only a fragment of our history. The third photo of this blog series back on Day 1 shows one of the stations that were located about every ten miles. That’s a huge undertaking when I think of our drive of over 1200 miles that followed some of the Pony Express route. From the Pony Express National Historic Trail site: “It is hard to believe that young men once rode horses to carry mail from Missouri to California in the unprecedented time of only 10 days. This relay system along the Pony Express National Historic Trail in eight states was the most direct and practical means of east-west communications before the telegraph.”
Driving across the salt flats of Utah.
It seems that this was the last photo I took during the drive. This is 4:30 p.m. Unlike last year’s road trip, we didn’t have vehicle or traffic issues through the whole trip until we got near home. Just west of Sacramento the Causeway (I-80) was narrowing to one west-bound lane for the never ending highway work. We drove in the driveway about 11 p.m.
The green line is the 2024 road trip and pink is this year.
We were on the way home after the stop inTrinidad Friday and Saturday. We spent Saturday night with Dan’s brother and SIL in Colorado Springs.
We had brunch with Dan’s sister, also in Colorado Springs. This is Dan and his two Colorado based siblings, Rob and Sally.
We headed west and planned to turn north to go through Leadville. We had thought about this on last year’s trip, but this intersection (or was it the next?) was blocked due to a fatal accident and we made a big detour. No such problem this time.
Somewhere along the road we stopped at this sign. I am interested that bighorn sheep horns are classified based on where the tip of the horn is in relation to the ear and the eye. I wonder if that could apply to Jacob sheep.
When we got to Leadville we stopped at the cemetery to look up Dan’s relatives. This is the headstone for Dan’s great grandparents on his dad’s side.
There was a detour driving into Leadville due to an event and we decided to see what was going on. It was the Boom Days Pack Burro Race!
I have decided that I missed out on an activity that I could have really enjoyed had I been able to start years ago. If you’re going to go on a long run why not take a burro? I would have loved to do this.
We got here as the last few competitors were finishing the course. This burro and his handler, in his late 70s according to the announcer, finished the 15 mile course. Remember, Leadville is at an elevation of over 10,000′.
This mammoth donkey and his handler finished the 22 mile course. I looked up the rules. Burros must carry the pack saddle with some basic equipment–a pick, shovel, and gold pan. The rules state that the burro must be on a 15′ lead and “the runner may lead, drive, push, pull, or carry the burro…may not ride the burro…”
This burro seemed to enjoy being petted after the race.
We continued west on Hwy. 24 and stopped at the points of interest.
The story of the 10th Mountain Division and their impact in WW2 is fascinating. It is also interesting that well known ski resorts in Vail and Aspen were started by veterans of this regiment and many were also involved in manufacturing of ski equipment and clothing, trail development, and developing skiing for the disabled.
The memorial for the 10th Mountain Division.
Camp Hale is 7 miles beyond the Memorial site. I’d like to return to explore the trails of this National Monument .
There were several signs to explain and point out the remnants of Camp Hale. It is hard to imagine 15000 soldiers and 5000 pack mules and horses in this valley. We read the signs and pondered the impact of this Camp. Then it was time to move on.
We drove through some beautiful scenery, eventually making it to Green River, Utah where we spent the night.
In 2024 we attended the opening of this show because I was a “farm partner”. The explanation and story is in this blog post from 2024. I think I did a better job of photographing last year’s show and sharing artist info in my blog. I took this quote from last year’s blog post, after copying it from the Cowgirl Artists’ website. From the website: “Celebrating the true contributions of Women in the American West…Much Western art is an ode to the work and contributions of men, while often limiting women to a single sphere, or pretty face. “Women’s Work,” a groundbreaking exhibition that teams artists up with women on working ranches, turns that notion on its head. By showcasing Western women as multi-faceted contributors to the Western way of life. Furthermore, Women’s Work aims to provide a platform for Indigenous women to authentically share their own stories, rooted in their intimate connections to culture and heritage. Traditional and fine artists are included, with all work on the theme of “Women’s Work.”
After seeing the show and talking to the organizer I decided to submit an entry for this year. Entries were due in the fall and, if accepted, work was to be completed in the spring 2025. I entered Year to Remember blankets using locally produced wool, and naturally dyed by me with plants grown on the farm. I could serve as my own “ranch partner”. I was accepted! Work was shipped to the show to arrive by mid-July.
The catalog of the show is at this link. There you can see all the pieces and details about work.
The Women’s Work show is upstairs in this building. The second floor is in a horseshoe shape over the lower floor. When I went upstairs I was immediately drawn to this display. Four artists worked together to put together the display.
There is amazing detail on this saddle called She Who Made Me by Kari McCluey
This painting, CowGirl II – Securing a Win, is by Megan Wimberley, the woman behind Cowgirl Artists of America.
Bluebird Let Me Tag Along by Lisa Sorrell.
There are details about each piece in the catalog at the link above. There was by far more wall art than 3-D work, but it was difficult to get good photos of those. That’s why I recommend looking at the link.
These are my two blankets. Later I rearranged them so that the more colorful side is the one that shows. The blanket on the left indicates high temperatures for Trinidad, Colorado for 2024 and the one on the right is for Vacaville. The full year is portrayed following the stripes from one end to the other.
On Saturday I came prepared to include the info about the Year to Remember idea with color coding. I thought it would make the blankets more interesting (and more saleable). However, this is an art show and the person in charge wanted to keep the signage at a minimum. This info is in the catalog, so I took it off the blankets. I’m including it here as explanation…and because this is a plug for your custom Year to Remember blanket. I have a blanket warp on the loom now and can weave one. If these blankets don’t sell in this show they will be on my website after I get them back.
Dan took this photo.
The A.R. Mitchelll Museum has a large display about Mitchell and his friends as well as contemporary western art for sale. From the Museum website: “During the 1870s and 1880s Trinidad was the headquarters of the largest cattle and sheep operation in the state of Colorado. A booming cow town filled with cowboys, cowhands and ranchers, Trinidad’s streets and neighboring towns were home to the horses, cattle and beloved cowboys and cowgirls that A.R. Mitchell would paint and immortalize throughout his career.”
I am already over my self-imposed limit of 10 photos, but I want to continue the story so I can blog about things at home.
On Saturday there was a luncheon provided by CGA to be followed by an artists’ talk. I had been asked to be one of the panel. Before the luncheon we wandered around this block of Trinidad.
I got a kick out of this design. That’s a real truck, not painted.
We stopped in the Corazon Gallery across the street from the A.R. Mitchell Museum. I was interested in this because it is an artists’ coop as is The Artery where I sell in Davis, California. Here’s a “small world” experience. We wandered through the gallery and I noticed a landscape photograph with the photographer’s name Joe Coca. I knew that name. Having subscribed to Handwoven magazine since the first issue in fall, 1979 I was very familiar with photography by Joe Coca. I wondered if he might be the same person because Handwoven magazine was based in Colorado. We started up a conversation with the person staffing the store on that day. I assume it is like The Artery where all of us artists take turns being shopkeepers when the store is open. I said we were in town for the show across the street and I had entered handwoven pieces. It turns out that I was talked with Joe Coca! We talked awhile longer. He worked with Interweave Press for years and has been all over the world as a photographer. Joe’s website states that he is semi-retired, but it is worth looking at the website to see some stunning photography.
Back to the show!
After the luncheon awards were announced. There was a winner and an honorable mention in the 2-D and 3-D categories. I was so surprised to get the 3-D Honorable Mention!
The people selected for the panel discussion were all artists who were able to fill the role of their own “ranch partner”. Megan, left, had prepared questions for all of us to answer. It was a fun experience and I was very interested to hear the stories of the other women. The other women are all cattle ranchers. Megan asked questions about how we got started, how we integrate artwork with our daily lives as ranchers (I call myself a farmer, but that’s another story– what is the difference between a farmer and a rancher?), do we have issues with gender expectations, recommendations for young people just starting, etc. One difference that I thought about later is that although we all talked about seasonality of ranching/farming, I think I am the only one who direct markets. In other words, I don’t load all my lambs on a truck and send them off to market and I don’t take my fiber, yarn, and handwoven to a retail store and it’s gone. I have interaction with all the customers whether I’m selling lambs for meat or for breeding flocks or selling all the fiber products. I spend time at the computer on social media letting the world know I’m here (including this blog–please share!), time (not enough) working my website, teaching fiber arts, working at The Artery, and attending fiber shows. That doesn’t mean any of us have more or less work than the other. It’s just different. A theme in the discussion was that there is Never enough time for all of it.
Dan had my camera and recorded some of the comments. I haven’t had time to listen yet.
After this discussion we got on the road and headed north to Colorado Springs where Dan’s brother and sister live.
In the last blog post I shared photos of a brief stop at a corner of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Then we were on the road to Trinidad. We had time for one more stop.
We turned south off of I-50 on Hwy. 69, east on Hwy. 96, and south on 165 to find Bishop Castle. We had never heard of Bishop Castle, but the campground host at Bryce Canyon suggested a stop here.
We parked along the road and walked past other cars on the road to this entrance. This is not part of the castle, but the entryway to the property.
This sign is at the right of the entryway. I guess this is enough to limit any liability claimed by visitors.
View of one portion of the castle. This project was started by Jim Bishop in 1969 and was a work in progress until he died in 2024. Wikipedia says: “James Roland “Jim” Bishop was born in Honolulu in 1944.[6] He moved to Colorado with his wife, where they raised four children, including a son named Dan.[6] Bishop bought the land for the site for $450 when he was 15, and construction on what was originally intended to be a family project to build a cottage[7]started in 1969.[8] After Bishop surrounded the cottage with rocks, several neighbors noted that the structure looked something like a castle. Bishop took this into consideration and soon began building his castle.“
View from another corner. It’s hard to get the whole thing in one shot. The tower is 160 feet tall.
The property is owned by the family and, despite the warning posted, they seem to welcome visitors. There is a gift shop on site as well as a food truck.
We did not take the winding stairs on the outside or the inside all the way to the top, but we stopped here.
I saw on Instagram that the dragon breathed fire on July 4th and on Halloween.
Interesting detail.
Near the castle are the workspaces where lumber is milled and metal worked.
There is also a small cement mixer.
This is the backside of the entrance in the first photo. Bishop Castle is an interesting place to visit. Dan came home with ideas!
I explained in the last post that I try to limit the number of photos in each post. That is partly because I think it helps the post to load better and I also want to keep whatever audience I may have. That’s you! However, I guess I’m sort of cheating because now I’m writing two posts for each day if there are just too many photos that I want to remember.
We headed north from Bryce Canyon National Park with the plan to get to Hwy. 50 and drive east as far as was practical.
As we turned north we saw plumes of smoke on the horizon.
About an hour later those plumes were much closer. This was the Monroe Canyon fire. It started burning July 13 and had now (August 16) burned almost 74,000 acres.
We passed the a fire camp.
This view shows two helicopters making water drops.
They are filling the buckets from a small reservoir on the other side of the highway.
There is a helicopter in the middle of this photo.
ireBy the time we were in eastern Utah we had left the smoke behind. We continued on to Montrose where we got a motel room for the night.
I left off in the last post when we arrived at Bryce Canyon and secured the last tent campsite in the park.
After looking over the landscape from the rim that evening Dan studied the park map and planned a hike. We started at the Queen’s Garden Trail, so called because of one of the hoodoos that looks like a statue of Queen Victoria.
We followed the trail down, which gave a different perspective than the view from the rim.
We came across a sign that explained the Hike the Hoodoos Challenge. If you photograph yourself with three of the benchmarks along these trails you get a prize! We found four. The prize is a sticker from the visitor center.
I took over 175 photos on this day and that’s one reason it’s taken me so long to write this post. I try to keep my blog posts to ten photos or fewer and that means a lot of sorting and decisions. I still didn’t meet that goal.
Two perspectives of the same formation (photo above and below).
The Queen’s Garden Trail led to the Peek-A-Boo Trail which connected with the Navajo Loop, part of which is what they have named Wall Street (below).
Its difficult to show how amazing this formation is.
This view is looking back towards the path with the stairs, through that slot and past the tree growing in the slot. There were a lot of people on this part of the trail. Look at what I just learned how to do:
I use Lightroom to edit photos and I was just able to remove all the people from this photo. That’s a great thing for ending up with pleasing photos, but it does make me realize that you can’t believe everything you see in print (or online).
A non-edited photo in which you get a feel for the scale of this place because I did not remove the people. .
View from the top after we finished the hike. You can see some of the trails–along a ridge in the center, and just below center on the left.
We hiked about 7 miles. That was significant because this is the first time Dan has hiked in a year and a half, after a knee injury in 2023. He’s had a new knee for just under four months!
Two other thoughts: 1. We stayed on the trails. I found myself wondering how many other formations there are like that slot canyon called Wall Street. 2. In this photo, what looks like clouds, is smoke, probably from the fire burning at the Grand Canyon. I’ve been following the progress of the fires because my kids’ involvement in wild land fire fighting.
We left home Tuesday morning and I shared photos in this post. It was getting late in the day when we got gas in Ely, Nevada and we took time to look at the map. We found a place to camp in the Ward Mountain Recreation Area a few miles out of town.
Here is the campsite in the morning. Dan was still in the tent.
I went for a walk as the sun was coming up.
We packed up and got to Utah about 9:30.
We got off the main highway to drive the original road through the mining town of Pioche. This sign describes the tramway, the remnants of which are still here on the east side of the road.
This is the tramway that facilitated movement of ore from higher up the mountain (behind us) to the valley below.
This is a closer view showing the cogs that held the chain or cable that carried the buckets. The structure that is on the horizon towards the left of the photo is one of the buckets still on the cable.
Our first stop where we planned to spend some time was Cedar Breaks National Monument. We checked out the visitor center first and then went for a hike.
All the views of the breaks are incredible. Do you notice that light spot just right of center on the bottom of the photo. It sure looked like a rock for the longest time.
Then I saw it for what it was – a hole through that wall. I still see it as a boulder part of the time.
Closer up view showing the colors in the rock walls.
Marmot along the trail.
View of the ridge where we had been walking.
We left Cedar Breaks to get to Bryce Canyon before night. Flock of sheep and their herder along the road.
Except for some of the pandemic years we’ve taken a road trip each year since 2014. That’s when I see a trip to Yellowstone in my blog posts. There were a couple of years more recently where the road trip became a sheep themed trip. That’s different. It’s hard to stop for a hike when you have a trailer load of sheep. So this was planned to be a regular road trip. The major difference is that after last year’s trip the green truck is no longer an option for our travel. It was easy to crawl in the back of the truck for sleeping, but we’d need a tent this year if we were going to camp.
We began the trip on Tuesday, July 29.
The only part of the trip we had planned was to be in Trinidad, Colorado Friday night and Saturday for the opening of the art show sponsored by Cowgirl Artists of American. Other than that we were going to figure it out as we went along.
We were following Highway 50 and our first stop was along the Pony Express National Historical Trail. The Pony Express operated for only 18 months before being made obsolete in 1861 by the telegraph. But in that time young men traveled on horseback 1800 miles in about ten days. Stations were about 10 miles apart and there are remnants of some of these along the route.
This station probably started with two rooms but additional rooms added as the telegraph came in. The site had been completely covered with sand and was rediscovered in 1975.
This site is part of the Sand Mountain Recreation area managed by BLM, featuring 3-1/2 mile long Sand Mountain.
This is a popular OHV destination.
Continuing on through Nevada.
We stopped at this Petroglyph site…
…and walked the trail to find some of the petroglyphs.
It was late in the day when we drove into Ely, Nevada. This open pit copper mine is west of Ely. We found a place to camp in the mountains just west of town.
I’m interrupting the Pasture and Irrigation Renovation posts (#9 of that series) of the last few weeks because we had an adventure before the project was completed.
Chris was to compete in the Tempe (AZ) Ironman on Sunday. Dan had gone to Idaho for a visit and to pick up Chris’ bicycle so he wouldn’t have to ship it. We left November 14 (Thursday) with the plan to camp part way and get to Tempe mid-day on Friday.
I took this photo when leaving the park on Friday, because by the time we got to Joshua Tree NP it was dark and I did not take a photo at the west entrance. I did not take any photos that evening. We set up the tent and ate bagels and cheese for dinner. This trip was not intended to be a real camping trip. We just needed a place to stay on the way to Arizona and it seemed that it would be fun to have short National Park experience. When we got there we realized that we hadn’t even brought any water, other than the water bottles we’d already emptied. I have learned that I am not a winter camper. The last (and maybe only other) time I have camped in the winter was at Big Bend National Park in 2017. I know that because I just looked for the blog post and found it. I have the same sentiment now that I did then–you get to a campsite in the dark and it’s not bedtime but you have to get in a sleeping bag to be warm.
I think we got in sleeping bags about 6 p.m. I read awhile and eventually fell asleep. I woke up at midnight and the wind was howling and the rain fly was slapping the tent. Dan told me the next day that he wondered if he left the tent in the middle of the night if it would blow away with me in it! I read until I finished a book about 3 a.m. and then slept. I woke up early and thought I’d be better off moving than lying in the sleeping bag for longer. I thought I might find some sun since it was starting to come up.
I found a marked trail not too far from the campground.
I didn’t see any bighorns, but I liked the sign.
Dawn in the desert.
This seems like a prickly place for a bird nest, but maybe it’s protected that way.
We were staying at the Ryan campground, named for the Ryan family who settled this area in 1896. It’s hard to imagine that 60 people lived here and worked in at the ranch and mine until 1908. This is one of the buildings built of adobe bricks. There are other remnants of the ranch as well.
You can see this structure centered the right of this photo. Those two large rock features are part of the campground and our tent was behind the one on the right.
Part of a toppled windmill. At this time the sun had reached the hills across the valley but there was not sun where I was.
I continued my walk until sun appeared over the hill and from behind clouds and I could stand in a sunny spot for awhile.
The tent was still in the shade when I got back. Dan had emerged, but maybe you can tell that he was cold. We didn’t linger there, but packed up and headed for Arizona. We did spend some time in the park, stopping to read signs and take in the sights.
This is a view over the Coachella Valley with Santa Rosa Mountains in the background and the San Andreas fault at the eastern edge of the valley.
We stopped at the “Cholla Garden”, a location along the road filled with cholla cactus.
This is a fascinating landscape, and I’m glad it’s preserved by the National Park system.
Another sign tells that Joshua Trees live only in the Mojave Desert and that is in the northern section of the Park. The Mojave and Colorado Deserts overlap in the park and the vegetation in each is different.
This post describes what happened on Day 7 and why our week long road trip took eight days. If you’re just tuning in and would like to start from the beginning go back to this August 11 post.
First thing in the morning we walked from the hotel to Service Masters where our truck was. I spotted this bench in the waiting area. They confirmed that the alternator was the problem and that they have the best luck using a Ford manufactured Motorcraft part in a Ford truck (only about $300 more than the other one we bought). We walked back to the hotel to kill time until we needed to check out. Then we walked back to Service Masters where we waited until the truck was ready.
Screenshot
We got on the road just before 1 p.m.
I took this photo because of the Clown and how it relates to Day 2. I don’t understand the fascination with clowns, but after writing the first post in this story I have a new understanding of the Clown Hotel in Tonapah, so I guess I can accept it. In looking through my photos I noticed the gas price–$3.49 is a lot less from my last fill-up here at $4.79.
Mountains east of Salt Lake.
Heading west. The Kennecott Copper mine is to the south and the Tailings Pond is to the north.
Kennecott Copper Smelter
Salt, “harvested” (or is it mined?) from the Great Salt Lake.
Metaphor: Tree of Utah, also called Tree of Life is described by http://www.utah.com: “Swedish artist Karl Momen created the 87-foot high tree between 1982-1986. He financed the project himself to bring bold color and beauty to the stark, flat, salty landscape. The sculpture is made of 225 tons of cement, almost 2,000 ceramic tiles and five tons of welding rod, and tons of minerals and rocks native to Utah.”
East of Wells, NV
Not too many more photos. I spent most of the rest of this trip reading a weaving book that’s I’d had with me the whole way. Most of the time I wanted to see the scenery, but I’ve been on this highway enough that I didn’t need to watch the whole time.
We crossed the border to Home about 8 p.m. I think we made it home a little after 10.
That’s the trip in green. Too bad the odometer on this truck doesn’t show up most of the time so there is no mileage record.
I just came back to edit this post. I meant to thank my Farm Sitters for handling things while we were gone. Four different Farm Club members took shifts so we could be gone for this length of time. I am grateful to them!
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