SANTA BARBARA AND SOME NATIONAL PARKS

TRAVELS WITH BETSY 1

SANTA BARBARA AND SOME NATIONAL PARKS

Friday September 25, 2009

Down I-5...much of the land on either side is barren. Orchards, some bearing fruit, some withering in the dry heat, some dead and standing, some dead and bulldozed flat. Roadside signs..."Congress created dust bowl", apparently a reference to the water wars of the West. Ironic after several miles of running alongside and crossing the Delta Mendota and San Luis Canals, carrying water south.

Road work on Highway 41 W to Paso Robles is funded by the feds under the Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Putting American to Work...bailout dollars.

The new gps isn't working and we have no maps for this area. AAA in San Luis Obispo saved us with maps including a detailed one of the Santa Barbara area, as we had no idea where we were going to this family wedding. Turned out to guide us beautifully to Goleta, Montecito and places in between. Goleta has a shopping mall that is the prettiest I've ever seen; even the Costco is barely recognizable, meeting the local building standards. Best Buy took good care of us and we now posses a new gps, which seems to be working fine.

The Cabrillo Drive along the beach in SB is terrific; place to park Betsy for a long walk and to meet the Barbaria/Seaton/Fox clan for lunch at Fess Parker's Doubletree. Palm trees line the grassy strolling/running area, the paved sidewalk thronged with walkers/bikers, the sand beautiful and inviting.

The rehearsal dinner at Stella Mara was wonderful, the wedding in Montecito was beautiful, relaxed, and lovely. Gene's grand nephew and his bride are off to a wonderful start with great plans for the future; amazingly mature at 24 years old. I didn't know people were married at that age any more.

Foggy Sunday a.m. found us traveling down 101 to meet Brian someplace between Corona and Las Vegas. We settled on Fontana and navigated the maze of freeways, feeling like pros as Gene drove from the 101 to the 210 to I-5. Have you ever had lunch at a Panera? Nice franchise of fresh food, good selection and yummy salads. After catching up with Brian and delivering some warm clothes to him, we headed off for Las Vegas over several 4,000 foot passes, crossing the desert in the blazing sun and Southern California heat. Amazed to find a solid string of cars buses trucks rvs coming toward us from Las Vegas, mile after mile, three lanes wide, all returning to So.Cal after a weekend in Las Vegas. Celebrated Brian's birthday without him by having dinner out.

On Monday we crossed over into the NW corner of Arizona, and at the last minute at the border of NV and AZ there sprang out of the desert a new community called Mesquite, complete with Del Webb Sun City, a grand casino pumping gallons of water through a lavish display of fountain and pools, inviting in this high desert of sandstone and sage brush. Acres of cars surrounding the casino. It seemed almost a mirage.

Route 59 out of Hurricane AZ took us over deserted desert to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, into forest and meadow, aspen lit by golden leaves. To the GC lodge and its 30's architecture and interior, light fixtures being particularly stunning. Walking toward the Bright Angel overlook, I felt the 8,000+ elevation, puffing and panting my way back up. Drove to Cape Royal, a 23 mile drive of several stunning overlooks including Angel Window and the delta where the Anasazi farmed thousands of years ago. A short hike at the end of the drive led us to a panorama of canyons and a glimpse of the Colorado River.

It was late, turning cold, and we needed to drive the 23 miles back, and then the 35 miles or so back to the campground when Gene discovered we needed fuel. Well, he knew we needed it and was sure he had seen a station somewhere on the beautiful drive in on the plateau. It was dark at 7:01 when we pulled into the station which closed at 7:00 p.m., lights slamming off. Happily, the people let us fill up, bless their hearts. A hairy drive back to the camp in the dark with deer browsing in herds and leaping in the lights. And then a side of beef standing immobile in the middle of the narrow road.

Tuesday took us to Zion via the East entrance, involving a narrow tunnel for which we were measured for fit. We fit. Through the narrow mile-long tunnel, and down a spectacularly steep road through stupendous sandstone cliffs and deep canyons. At the bottom, we parked and leaving Lucy in Betsy, took the 1.5 hour shuttle drive up the canyon to see this wonderful small park. Temperature back in Betsy was 98 F when we returned, but Lucy was fine with the shades drawn and the vent fan purring away.

Deciding to also see the NW corner, Kolob Canyon, we drove to the small town of Karranaville for the night, stopping to enjoy the sunset on the way.

Driving the next day on Highway 14 out of Cedar City UT through the Red Canyon was stunning. The red rocks were a perfect foil for the gold, yellow, red and green tree leaves, aflame with color matching the yellow stripes on the red chip seal highway. The Red Canyon is one of the most beautiful short drives we've ever been on, this time of year. Cedar Breaks National Monument is a huge natural amphitheater of deep canyons at about 10,000 feet. From the ranger station there we could see the gathering storm, predicting snow in Bryce NP, where we were headed. We were above sandstone but not above tree line as there were Bristle Cone pines there, one known to be 1,600 years old. We headed down past granite falls and lava fields. From 112 degrees in Las Vegas to 33 degrees at Cedar Breaks in two days.

At Bryce NP we found plenty of space to dry camp in the North Campground, and took off for the 36 mile round trip to the end of the park. Hoodoos, created from differential erosion of hard and soft layers of limestone, dolomite capstone, sandstone, are fantastical features of this park. Ice causes cracks in the stones during the 200 days where temperatures fall below freezing at night. Our night was freezing and shortly after going to bed, the carbon monoxide detector began to scream, causing no small amount of scurrying around to shut it up. Tucked back in we got colder and colder, finally realizing that the house batteries were not working, therefore the furnace was not working. No help there as turning on the generator during the night was a park no-no, so we just froze. It was 36 degrees in Betsy when we finally tumbled out and turned on the generator to power the furnace.

A hike the next day into the Kodachrome State Park showed us pipe stones of sandstone. The whole area was once dunes, from Wyoming to the southern tip of Nevada, compacted into stone then eroded away to form the etched rock faces and teetering spires. The Fremont Indians, Puebloans, 1,000 years ago used some of these rock faces as granaries.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a huge area surrounding several parks, national and state, including Capitol Reef, Bryce, Zion and the GC. There is a terrific visitor center at Escalante, jointly created and manned by BLM, NPS, FS. There is a quote on the wall: "When we say 'there is nothing out there' it only means we cannot see." (Terry Tempest Williams) On to Torrey UT and Capitol Reef NP. This beautiful park has everything...towering cliffs, narrow canyons, petroglyphs, and a lush Fremont River area where the Mormons settled, planted orchards which still bear fruit, and created a community called Fruita. We took the 2 mile trek into the narrow canyon, saw the petroglyphs and then saw, high on the canyon wall the carved names of the surveyors who laid out a road there in 1911. The road is gone, except for a patch of asphalt, but the trail is a terrific rocky walk toward the water 'tanks'. Capitol Reef is unique geologically in being a 'waterpocket fold', where the land folded when being thrust upward during the formation of the Rocky Mountains. This miles long fold is best seen in the visitor center model. Unique formations include Capitol Dome and Navajo Dome. The weather was beautiful, the grass lovely, the aspen glorious colors, the campground wonderful (although we couldn't camp there due to no house batteries and the freezing night temperatures).

Saturday it was off to the desert again, going through the Great Basin stretching from Western Utah through Nevada, stopping at the new visitor center for Great Basin NP, but not going in. Needing to make tracks to head home, we drove this desolate area ('there is nothing out there') from Delta UT to Fallon NV, over 430 miles. There is NO PLACE to stop and camp between here and there. Gene did a masterful job of going up and over numerous passes, thankfully becoming lower and lower as we got into Nevada. The first several at 8,000, 7,000, 6,000 feet were hairy with switchbacks and no guard rails. I felt a lot better when we were going over the 4,000 foot passes; felt almost level.

We leave Fallon today Sunday and plan to go home via the Feather River canyon, to complete the fall trip in search of national parks, deep canyons, red rocks, tall towers, and fall foliage and land in our own backyard tomorrow, Monday, October 5Th, 2009. Photos will be added later.