Northwest Passages III
Canyonlands
With the eastern morning light filtering over the red sandstone bluffs, I opened my eyes and began to search for some footwear. I headed down the hill to the one and only water spigot in camp and washed my face and pate in the bracingly cool fluid. Ah! I am now really awake. Feels good. There are still a few low-lying gray clouds drifting above the plateau and brushing the tops of deep blue peaks in the middle distance. Otherwise, is is mostly sunny and warming, with just a damp ground and the expected wetness clinging in places to the tent and on the old canvas ground cloth. It is a luxury to let all the gear dry in the rising sun, a luxury that I can not afford today, as we need to pack and get up to Boise, Idaho where we will overnight with my sister and her family. I tell my awakening family that once we are loaded up, we will have pancakes for breakfast in Moab, about 30 miles up the road.
As each member of the clan is rolling sleeping bags, deflating air mattresses, packing boxes or disassembling the tent that was so puzzling to construct just the night before; I now found it was way easier to take this simple structure down that to put it up, road-weary, in the dark and under precipitating skies. A new day, a new start and things were going well. With just about all our stuff stuffed back into The Q, Grant asked about what was down the road from Wind Whistle Campground. I said that I had never gone beyond this camp, but this very turnoff was labeled on the maps as Canyonlands National Park "Needles Overlook" and there was another sign that said "Great Anticline". Grant said, maybe, since you are a geologist, you should have seen those sights by now, you know, "enjoy the journey" - as you say. I said to him, if you are ready for a journey that is a bit more free-ranging than usual, I will take up your challenge and we will all go see the Needles. Of course, that means the pancake breakfast will be delayed. Grant was again enjoying prodding me into doing a bit of geologic gandering, and I was glad to be pushed by him in this off-the-path bit of exploration. The pavement soon gave out, and I flipped The Q into 4WD and kicked up a trailing dust cloud as we cruised toward the rim of Canyonlands NP.
By the time we finished our back country adventures, our pancake breakfast had become a pancake brunch in Moab. We washed up a bit in the Pancake Haus restroom, and called ahead to sister Sheri in Idaho to tell her we would be arriving a little later than planned. She is very accommodating, and we thank her for that.
Canyonlands
With the eastern morning light filtering over the red sandstone bluffs, I opened my eyes and began to search for some footwear. I headed down the hill to the one and only water spigot in camp and washed my face and pate in the bracingly cool fluid. Ah! I am now really awake. Feels good. There are still a few low-lying gray clouds drifting above the plateau and brushing the tops of deep blue peaks in the middle distance. Otherwise, is is mostly sunny and warming, with just a damp ground and the expected wetness clinging in places to the tent and on the old canvas ground cloth. It is a luxury to let all the gear dry in the rising sun, a luxury that I can not afford today, as we need to pack and get up to Boise, Idaho where we will overnight with my sister and her family. I tell my awakening family that once we are loaded up, we will have pancakes for breakfast in Moab, about 30 miles up the road.
As each member of the clan is rolling sleeping bags, deflating air mattresses, packing boxes or disassembling the tent that was so puzzling to construct just the night before; I now found it was way easier to take this simple structure down that to put it up, road-weary, in the dark and under precipitating skies. A new day, a new start and things were going well. With just about all our stuff stuffed back into The Q, Grant asked about what was down the road from Wind Whistle Campground. I said that I had never gone beyond this camp, but this very turnoff was labeled on the maps as Canyonlands National Park "Needles Overlook" and there was another sign that said "Great Anticline". Grant said, maybe, since you are a geologist, you should have seen those sights by now, you know, "enjoy the journey" - as you say. I said to him, if you are ready for a journey that is a bit more free-ranging than usual, I will take up your challenge and we will all go see the Needles. Of course, that means the pancake breakfast will be delayed. Grant was again enjoying prodding me into doing a bit of geologic gandering, and I was glad to be pushed by him in this off-the-path bit of exploration. The pavement soon gave out, and I flipped The Q into 4WD and kicked up a trailing dust cloud as we cruised toward the rim of Canyonlands NP.
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| Overland to the Overlook Weathered Juniper Tree Fiercely Standing Watch |
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| Overland to the Overlook - Blue Sky Red Rock Green Earth |
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| Overland to the Overlook Shelter from the Storm |
We find numerous lizards waiting to host us as we scramble over the flat top outcrops to get a view of the canyon below. In places there is a substantial railing and fence to keep fools from rushing to their deaths by toppling over the rim, while in other places a few strands of wire lazily warning that perhaps one should not venture too far past to get that great photograph. We pose for a few shots on the red earth beneath a blue sky.
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Mark lives life on the edge |
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| Grant holds onto Mom to keep her from dangling foolishly over the cliff |
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| High Above The Needles Canyonlands National Park |
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| Basking Son and Wife |
Grant informs me of the new must-do pose, called "planking" where one stiffens and lies on your belly for a picture. If only I was on face book, I would be exposed to the latest hip stuff. Alas, I am not on facebook, so I have to be taught. Grant shows me how one is to "plank":
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| I tell Grant, "Hold it, don't move a muscle... I am almost ready, No wait - don't move, I am about to take the photo. Keep still. Note the smile (or is it a grimace on his face as I tease him) |
We leave the Needles Overlook area and decide to drive another 13 miles at the Y to go see the "Great Anticline". It is definitely anticline, but whether it is great or not was debated as we drove back to the highway. Those who make their living can appreciate geologic structure, others think geologic structures such as an anticline are maybe not so "great".
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The Great Anticline, Canyonlands National Park |
Dinner was waiting for us when we got to Sheri & Tony's house, and what a place setting it was. In honor of the success of my North Sean #2 oil well [see Blog: Smarter than a Rock], Sheri can constructed a centerpiece of with black crepe paper simulating oil gushing over a drilling derrick, and everyone had a little plastic dinosaur at their place, and the table cloth was black as pool of West Texas Crude.
Our visit with Sheri, Tony and Daniel was brief, as we were back on the road the next morning on our way to Eugene, Oregon to spend a few days with Inga.
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