Road Trip to CO – Moab to Leadville

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Robin

I’m finally back to my photos of our Road Trip. I left off at the blog post about hiking in Arches National Park on our third day out. After a full day of hiking we headed northwest from Moab on Highway 128 that follows the Colorado River. Just after dark we found the Lower Onion Campsite just above the river. We enjoyed the mosquito-less evening while eating a hasty meal of beans and salad and went to bed planning on an early start the next day.

Here is a view of our camping spot in the morning…

…and the cliffs beyond the river as the sun came up.

The red rock landscape of Moab changed to more typical desert as we headed north to I-70. We spotted our first prairie dogs along this stretch of road…

…followed by pronghorn. Not a desolate road at all if you pay attention.

Our goal was to get to Leadville, CO by noon to meet up with Dan’s sister, brother, and their spouses, so we didn’t stop much along the way, but I took photos from the truck. I marveled at the engineering of this stretch of highway between Glenwood Springs and Vail.

The eastbound lanes are just above the Colorado River and the westbound lanes are elevated to fit within the canyon walls, sometimes overlapping the lower eastbound roadway. There is also a paved bike/running path right at the river’s edge.

At this point the highway is at about 8000′ elevation. We turned south on Highway 24 that would take us to Leadville at over 10,000′. As we climbed into the mountains we had to stop at top of one of the switchbacks to take a look.

Farther up we came to the Camp Hale Memorial. This meadow is the site of a U.S. Army training facility built in the 1942 and decommissioned in 1945. According to Wikipedia “Soldiers were trained in mountain climbing, Alpine and Nordic skiing, cold-weather survival as well as various weapons and ordnance. When it was in full operation, approximately 15,000 soldiers were housed there.”

This is a view from that meadow looking east up the canyon to Sheep Mountain.

A marmot posed for me while reading the roadside memorial signs…

…and this bee flew into this columbine just as I was taking a photo.

Entering Leadville.

We wandered around the downtown for awhile…

…and then met Sally and John for lunch at the Golden Burro Cafe.

After lunch we took a self-guided tour of the Matchless Mine. “The Mathcless Mine, a historic silver mine purchased in 1879 by H.A.W. Tabor, was estimated to have produced 7.5 million dollars during its peak operating years. Once fabulously wealthy, the silver market crash of 1893 devastated the Matchless Mine and the Tabor Family. Upon Tabor’s death his widow, Elizabeth “Baby Doe” Tabor, returned to the Matchless where she remained in isolation for until her death in March of 1935.” This is the cabin where “Baby Doe” lived until her death.

Dan is standing in the phone-booth size structure that would lower miners hundreds of feet below ground. We watched a video that shows a 3-D image all the tunnels and shafts below us. I don’t remember the stats but the distances are staggering to think about.

After the mine tour we met up with Rob (Dan’s brother) and Renee and we all went to the Leadville Cemetery.

My father-in-law’s grandparents are buried here and following his death just this spring, this was an meaningful stop for the family. We spent some time here before returning to our motel, eating pizza, and making plans for the early morning start of the Leadville 50–an ultra run that Rob was had entered.

This was our one “civilized night” and I spent a little time trying to catch up with e-mail and thinking that I’d start my blog posts. Nope. We were tired and I wasn’t motivated enough to interrupt the vacation!

Road Trip to Colorado – Arches N.P.

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Robin

The mosquitoes that had been relentless the night before (this post) were slightly less so in the morning.

However the surroundings were beautiful as the sun reached the west side of the canyon.

But we didn’t linger around camp. We packed up and drove just north of Moab to the entrance of Arches National Park.

The cliffs on the left side of the photo are part of Arches and that’s the Colorado River flowing our of the canyon in the center of the photo.

I had been here once or twice before but that was almost forty years ago. (Oh yeah, I was going to find my old slides and see if I have photos from back then.)

I don’t remember the names of all the arches. Besides sometimes I don’t want to know what names other people have used for formations. I like to enjoy them without always having to see or think of something that is not a rock. I’ll make up my own name if something comes to me.

We had one day to see the park and, knowing that it was going to be a hot day, we decided to start with one of the longer trails. Out and back on the more traveled trail would have been about 5 miles. We ended up taking the “primitive” route to come back and that was 7 miles.

I thought about giving up taking photos because it seem so hard to capture the grandeur, the color, the textures.

But of course I continued to shoot photos and I am sharing some of my favorites.

Distances are so deceptive in this country. We had seen these rock walls in the distance and I had thought, “it’s a good thing we’re not going there”. The “primitive route” took us around those and beyond.

Cairns are important in finding the trails over slickrock and through washes. Seeing those little rock towers kept us on track in places where the trail wasn’t obvious.

More from Arches National Park in the next post.

Road Trip to Colorado–Tonopah to Moab

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Robin

After the tire problem the night before (this blog post) we knew that before we drove farther we needed to buy new tires.

Tonpah rest stop

We had driven to a rest stop just west of Tonapah, Nevada, where we spent the first night of this trip.

Tonopah NV

We drove through town looking for a tire store and I remembered this motel from a previous trip through Tonopah when we were looking for a motel late at night. We chose something that did not advertise clowns. Sorry, Clown Motel.

Most of the rest of these photos are DBP (drive-by photography). The goal was to get to Arches National Park or close to it so that we would have all of Friday to spend at the park.

UT-0778 Hwy 50

Dan likes to drive and that’s fine with me. I keep myself amused with following along on the map or with the phone (if there is service…which there wasn’t for a lot of this trip) and by taking photos.

UT-0780 Hwy 50

UT-0780-cosmic ray

We saw these “things” regularly spaced on both sides of the highway for several miles in Millard County, Utah. All we could make out was what looked like solar panels on a framework and we speculated as to what they were–we decided that they were to monitor or measure something, but what? As we drove into Delta, Utah we just happened to see several of them in what looked like a parking lot beside a building that said Cosmic Ray Center. I googled “cosmic ray delta utah” and found a lot of references to the Telescope Array Project: “The Telescope Array project is a collaboration between universities and institutions in the United States, Japan, Korea, Russia, and Belgium. The experiment is designed to observe air showers induced by cosmic rays with extremely high energy. It does this using a combination of ground array and air-fluorescence techniques. The array of scintillator surface detectors samples the footprint of the air shower when it reaches the Earth’s surface…” OK, you lost me. At first I wondered if this was for real (thinking of driving through Roswell, NM last year with it’s focus on Aliens) but I guess it is. Who knew what we’d learn on the road?

UT-0782-shoe tree-

I also learned from googling, that “Shoe Trees” are a real thing, although of less lofty impact. There will be more about this in a future blog post.

UT-0785-Delta

Where there is water the desert is held at bay. There were plenty of alfalfa fields throughout this valley in Utah.

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Towards the east the patterns and rock formations were impressive…

…and we began to see “red rock country”.

This is U.S. 50 in central Utah, which is known as the “Loneliest Road in America”. I just looked this up and now I understand why there is a sign in Sacramento for Ocean City, Maryland (see my first blog post for this trip). U.S. 50 is also one of the longest highways in America, going between Sacramento and Ocean City. I always thought that it was just because someone in the Sacramento Highway Department has a sense of humor.

We drove U.S. 50 to Highway 191 where we turned south to Moab. Arches National Park is just east of the highway and north of Moab and seeing the spectaular scenery whetted our appetites for the next day’s adventures.

It was late though and we needed to stay somewhere. Arches N.P. has very few campsites, but there are several in the Moab area. We found a BLM campsite on the Colorado River right outside of Moab.

The sun was going down, giving intensity to the red rock cliffs.

The campsite was right next to the river. River + Dusk = Mosquitoes. They were relentless.

We quickly set up our tent and retreated until after dark when we ventured outside to heat up a couple of cans of chili.

Road Trip to Colorado-Bodie & Beyond

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Robin

The first post about our trip is here. One the first day we made it to Bodie State Historic Park near the California/Nevada border with about an hour and a half before the park closed.

W.S. Bodey discovered gold here in 1859 but he died in a blizzard several months later, never seeing the town that was named for him (although spelled differently). A mine collapse in 1875 revealed a rich body of gold and the boom time of the town was during 1877-1881 when there were 30 mines, 9 stamp mills, and 60 saloons. As the boom years ended population declined quickly into the 1900’s. Mining continued until 1942 and the family of the last major landowner continued to protect the town from vandals. In 1962 the CA State Parks purchased the town to protect it. It remains in a “state of arrested decay” without the intent to reconstruct it. The non-profit organization, The Bodie Foundation was created with the goal to raise funds to assist with stabilization of structures as well as education.

View of what is left of the town from above. At it’s height there were probably 8000 people living here. There is an interesting mix of eras remaining–houses built in the 1870’s, gas pumps from the 1920’s, and a school that was used until 1942.

The walls and roofs of many of the buildings are covered with flattened tin cans.

Dan took this photo because he liked all the different roof lines.

I like the design of the tin here, but I was really trying to take a photo of one of the violet green swallows that were zooming around. I got this one just as it flew into the corner of the roof.

DSC_0734-2

Do you see the wing tips under the roof line?

The brick vault is all that is left of the Bodie Bank after a fire in 1932.

This is the safe inside the vault.

Due to safety concerns the Standard Consolidated Mining Company’s Stamp Mill and other buildings are not open to the public except by guided tour. It is on the hill above the town and was only one of thirty mining companies in the district.

After our visit to Bodie it was time to get on the road and drive until we found somewhere we wanted to stay for the night.

Coming down the mountain towards Mono Lake the truck rattled and shook every time Dan used the brakes. Then we heard a thwump, thwump. One of the front tires was beginning to shred, but fortunately still held air. Dan changed the tire and we knew that we needed new tires. It was too late to find anything near Mono Lake so we decided to continue on. We turned east and spent the night at a rest stop outside Tonopah, NV.

The lower pink line is the first day of this trip.

Next up: on the road to Arches National Monument.

Road Trip to Colorado-Day 1

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Robin

VACAVILLE TO BODIE

We just completed our annual Road Trip. Last year it was to see my daughter and her family in Texas, exploring Arizona and New Mexico on the way. If you’re interested the blog posts about that trip start with this one. This year the goal was to meet up with my husband’s brother and sister in Leadville, Colorado on July 9 and do some site-seeing and camping along the way.

I do use my iPhone for maps and interesting info along the way, but it doesn’t do you much good when the phone says “no service”, which it did a lot on this trip. Besides we like to follow along with the detail in these map books as we’re driving. They are also invaluable at finding places to camp along the way.

We started east on Hwy. 50. I always get a kick out of this sign when entering Sacramento.

I’m glad that Dan likes to do most of the driving because it leaves me free to watch scenery and take photos from the truck. This was another journey for the old green truck.

This is some of the evidence of last year’s fires in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

East side of Sierras

We joined up with 395 on the east side of the Sierras. Beautiful. Most of the country on the east side is considered the high desert, but the West Walker River is at the base of the mountains and other creeks flow out of the mountains that are east of the highway. The valley is lush and this is cattle country.

Our plan was to first visit Bodie, and old mining town in Mono County, California. Bodie had been a favorite haunt of Dan’s dad and he wanted to check it out.

Disclaimer: Let me say here that a lot of my travel photos are DBP (Drive-By-Photography). Some are from the open (or maybe not) side window and some are through the bug-splattered windshield. I’d rather read (and write) blog posts that are more photos than text, so I’m using what I have. Even my good photos will never be National Geographic quality, but these posts are about the story. So here we go.

We turned off of 395 onto Bodie Road (270). The country is mostly desert, but again, where there is water the desert is kept away. I was excited to see sheep on the way to Bodie. This was not a fiber trip, but sheep are always a good sign. I tried counting these from a photo and I think there are about 600 sheep with 4 guardian dogs and a herder. They were moving up this valley when we drove to Bodie. (The next post will be about that.)

When we left Bodie two hours later the sheep were back in the middle of the valley and had been going to water in an irrigation ditch at the right of the photo. They were moving away from the ditch and back into the valley. We stopped and watched awhile.

When I enlarged the photos I could see about 17 black-faced rams in with the ewes.

The band started moving up the valley on it’s own but that was obviously not the plan the herder had. He and his Border Collie walked out to the road and up in front to cut them off. The Border Collie turned them while the guardian dog in the center of the photo went to get a stray.

Near Bodie

But back to Bodie. Here is the landscape without water.

Stay tuned for the next post.

Hawaii, Day 7

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Robin

Last person standing. That’s me, for our Hawaii family vacation. Well, Matt and Kaleena were still here but staying somewhere on the beach. My father-in-law and his wife live on the Big Island and that is where we spent most of the trip. My husband and Chris and Meryl had left for home from there. Katie and her family left the night before after spending the day at Pearl Harbor so I woke up alone in my Waikiki hotel room and decided to spend some time on the beach with my camera before going to the airport.View to the southeast with early morning sun.View to the northwest.Not too many people in the water yet……but there were people on the beach……working out……and getting ready for business.The beaches are protected (created?) by rock walls built out into the ocean. When walking along one I realized that it was like looking down into an aquarium tank. There were fish everywhere. I took lots of photos but in most the wave action obscures the fish. There are a few that aren’t bad for my first time trying to photograph fish. The only ones that I later identified are these needlefish.I wish that I’d had my new GoPro with me and a long stick to reach into the water.I sort of like this photo because the ships looks pixelated, but it’s just the containers. Still on the wall, the sun was getting higher. DSC_4044-crab

Here is an activity of which I was unaware–feeding bread to fish –these tourists brought an entire loaf and threw crumbs into the water.It’s a great way to bring fish (and pigeons) to you, but I can’t imagine that it is an approved method of watching wildlife. I was seeing plenty of fish without bribing them.As the sunlight hit the water the fish were easier to photograph……especially these almost luminescent needlefish.

As I walked back to the hotel, the beach was waking up.

Many more people out and about.

By the way, this was not my hotel. Mine was a few block off the beach in the low(er) rent district.

Back to winter in northern California. It sure didn’t feel like Christmas time in Hawaii. Aloha!

Hawaii, Day 6

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Robin

After spending five days on the Big Island, my daughter’s family, my older son and his wife, and I flew to Honolulu with the main goal of seeing Pearl Harbor together. Katie and her family would fly home that night, Matt & Kaleena were staying a few more days north of there, and I was flying home the next day. Unfortunately this is a blurry photo but I like the image. I sat in the row in front of Kirby on this short flight. We picked up a rental car (had to upgrade to carry all of Kirby’s luggage) and drove to Pearl Harbor. The monument includes several memorials and museums and it would be easy to spend a full day immersed in this history …but not with a toddler on board. We chose to tour the U.S.S. Missouri while waiting for our assigned time to see the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. (Unfortunately all boat rides to the Arizona were cancelled due to windy conditions.)The USS Missouri was the last battleship built by the U.S. and was the site of the Japanese surrender, ending WWII. The ship also served in the Korean War and, after being modernized in 1984, in Desert Storm.The Missouri is now a permanent museum in Pearl Harbor.There were a couple of photo opps before entering the ship. USS Missouri

A lot of the ship is accessible and there is a wealth of information covering the three eras when the ship was in use. It would be easy to spend several hours taking time to absorb everything. I have included just a few photos here.There is a display about the Japanese pilots who died in kamikaze attacks near the end of WWII. It is a moving exhibit but I don’t understand what can drive a young man to this end during that era any better than today’s suicide attackers (although I thing there is probably a world of difference in their reasoning). So sad…as are all parts of war.

There is a warren of passages below the main deck where people worked, ate, and slept.

The living spaces for 1600 enlisted men were spread throughout the ship.Part of the modernization in the 1980’s.Back on the main deck we looked up and saw…Katie, Kurtis, and Kirby.A disappointment was not being able to go to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. This memorial is directly above the Arizona that still holds many of the 1177 men who were killed during the bombing that sunk the ship. During the day my thoughts kept going back to the National Museum of the Pacific War, the moving exhibit in Fredericksburg, Texas (birthplace of Admiral Nimitz) that we saw in July (blog post here). It’s well worth your time if you’re traveling in that area.Toddlers don’t care about this stuff. Chasing birds and picking up flowers from the lawn are more their style. (If I chose to make this blog more commentary and opinion this would be the point to discuss innocence and when/how does it change.)

After spending much of the day at Pearl Harbor, we found my hotel in Waikiki. Katie, Kurtis, and Kirby relaxed there while waiting to catch the red-eye back to California. I had one more day of exploring.

Hawaii – Day 5, Part 2

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Robin

One of us napped between visiting Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and our next stop. However, that didn’t help Kirby want to step down into beach sand today anymore than the last three days. The Punalulu’u Black Sand Beach is well-known to host the endangered Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle.We weren’t disappointed.We found several turtles basking in the sand while onlookers watched from outside the stone “corral” that prevented them from coming too close.The population of these turtles was in steep decline during the 1970’s due to harvesting of turtles and eggs, but numbers have increased since protection by the Endangered Species Act. The adults weigh 200-500 pounds and they are thought to live 60-70 years.The turtles weren’t moving so I don’t think that Kirby really noticed them.Matt found a little more action. There were a few turtles swimming and eating in this pool.I took a video of this one as he (she?) approached me, blowing bubbles. Even if Kirby had been a fan of the beach, she would have probably been too tired to enjoy it here. It’s better to be in Mama’s arms……or better yet, sitting on a towel next to Daddy.

Beautiful water, whether it’s in blue… DSC_3646 - Version 2 …or shades of gray.

DSC_3643 - Version 2

Hawaii – Day 5, Part 1

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Robin

I have been back for less than 10 days and this Hawaii vacation seems like a world away…I guess because it is. Back home it’s cold and drippy and I have battled a bad cold and eventually won.

I just spent a good part of the day sorting through hundreds of photos so that I could print some for a photo book for Kirby, share a lot with my family on Shutterfly, and finish up my blog posts. I am discouraged to find that I have had to edit so many to remove lots of spots. Some were from an outwardly dirty lens (my fault for not paying attention) but others are spots that I can’t clean. My camera and lenses need to go to the camera doctor and be cleaned inside. The dirt really shows up with blue sky and ocean landscapes.

Dan had left for home (life of a teacher) on Tuesday night. Chris and Meryl left for home on Wednesday. The rest of us visitors wanted to see what we could of the island before leaving the next morning and still get back to spend the evening with my father-in-law and his wife. We started by driving up the mountain towards the Mauna Kea Observatories, hosting telescopes operated by 11 different countries.

Do you see that white spot on the skyline in the photo? The telescopes are at 13,796 feet above sea level. The mountain itself rises 32,000 feet above the ocean floor. There are a lot more facts and a cool photo of the mountain top at this link. We didn’t make it all the way to the top. The visitor center is the recommended stopping point for all 2-wheel drive vehicles, especially rented ones as well as for all children. We had a full day ahead of us without including a trek to the mountain top (beside the fact that we had a toddler with us) so we satisfied ourselves with a look around the visitor center. The other photo shows an array of telescopes that I assume are put into service for special viewing.

Our next stop, a couple of hours away, was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

We spent a little time in the visitor center and museum but mostly drove through the park, getting out to look at points of interest……and take photos… DSC_3491 Kaleena & Kirby …a lot of which, unlike most of my exploring/hiking trips were of family. DSC_3514 K's I’m not sure that even amazing, steaming volcanoes can compete with beautiful family pictures…that is, pictures of beautiful family.However there were plenty of other arms to hold Kirby on this adventure so I did try to get some photos of our surroundings, especially of the area of rain-forest where we walked. While much of the Park is more desert like this part of the trail is through lush rainforest.

DSC_3532 Matt & Kaleena

DSC_3536 fern

This had already been a long day for Kirby but she did well in her backpack.This is on the wall to the entrance to the lava tube.Lava tubes are formed as slow moving lava cools to form walls, but the inner hot lava continues to flow.

Leaving the lava tube. DSC_3517 Meridian tour Seen in the parking lot. Should I decide to move to Hawaii, do I have a job waiting for me?Catching a nap before Part 2 of the Blog.

Hawaii – Day 4

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Robin

Tuesday began with a trip to another beach. DSC_3303 Kirby (1) While the big kids swam and paddle boarded and snorkeled Kirby and I walked on the beach. Or I should say I walked on the beach and carried Kirby. She still didn’t like the sand or the waves. At one end of the beach we found lounge chairs and buckets. As long as there was no sand she was happy. Another first for me. I went snorkeling with my kids and there is video to prove it somewhere. Very cool. IMG_7759-Kona brewing Dan had to get back to work and was leaving this morning so we cut the beach visit short. After he left we drove to Kona and had lunch at the Kona Brewing Company. DSC_3308 Kirby in backpack Then we loaded Kirby into her new backpack and went walking around Kona. IMG_7767-Ironman start This is the dock overlooking the start area of the Ironman triathlon. My father-in-law (who lives in Hawaii and is why we were all here) has completed the Kona Ironman twice and for many years volunteered here. Chris has plans to someday qualify for entry in Kona. DSC_3316 Matt and gecko Some of the local wildlife… DSC_3319 gecko

…and color. IMG_7768-basket maker While the kids were looking in other shops I found a basket weaver and bought a few of his things.On the way back to our house we stopped north of Kona to catch the sunset.

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Life on the farm and at the loom.

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