September 23, 2012, Fisher Towers Utah

I guess I realized this years and years ago but it seems as though when you live somewhere you tend to forget to explore your own back yard.  Maybe that isn't true for everyone but it certainly has been for me. 

The point is that people, certainly me at least, tend to get comfortable in their day to day lives and don't really get to know where they live like they should.  The visit from our Dutch friends this summer stirred these thoughts back up in my mind. I realized again that I don't explore like I really should.

Edward (one of our Dutch friends) is an explorer.  He reminds me in some ways of Bilbo Baggins from the Tolkien Hobbit series.  (Ed, being a Dutchman however, is much taller than Bilbo could ever have imagined to be of course, but I digress.)  Bilbo was an explorer at heart.  If my recollection serves me correctly it took a great effort to get him to go anywhere on a whim but he studied maps profusely.  Ed is very much like that except with Ed it is all you can do to hold him back.  When there is someplace or something to be explored you have to get up pretty early in the morning or you'll miss him. 

When the Ed and Margo go anywhere you can be assured they have studied their maps, researched their destination and know exactly what is where, what they are going to eat, where they are going to eat it and what they are going to explore and when they are going to explore it.  I admire the two of them but that is a different story all together.

All of this rambling is leading to one simple point....

We accompanied Ed and Margo to southern Utah when they left our house to begin their west coast explorations. I have been to southern Utah several times over the years.  I truly believe it is an area that contains some of the most spectacular geologic scenery that exists anywhere in the world. 

I like to take Utah route 128 south from I70 into Moab.  It's not the fastest route but it is certainly the most spectacular.  Highway 128 follows the Colorado river as it winds its way to the Grand Canyon many miles south.  I've been on the route many, many times before but it took a visit from Ed and Margo to  point out a place on that road where we needed to take a side trip.  Why the heck didn't I know about the place before I will never know.

You get to Fisher Towers by taking a side trip off of 128 just about 20 miles before you get to Moab, assuming of course that's the direction your heading.  The road to the parking lot is mostly gravel but there is a medium sized parking lot about five or six miles off of the highway.  The trail head to the towers starts there.

That's Pam with the Towers in the background behind her.

Mostly it's a very easy hike but you need to make sure you take plenty of water.  We did this in late September pretty early in the morning with overcast skies so it was quite nice for a hike but southern Utah can get brutal in mid summer and in the heat of the day.

There's Pamela again on the left.  She looks like she is walking on the side of a cliff. 

If you look at the photo on the right you'll see she was.

Beautiful place to explore.  Talk about sandstone sculptures, wow!!

And then there are the die-hards.  Take a look at these two photos.  Look real close.....

Do you see the spires in the background?  Those are the Fisher towers.....

Now look at the photo below.  Just a little closer look at the same towers at a slightly different angle.  See the climbers on the top?  Could be a hoot I suppose if I were 30 or 40 years younger but I don't think so, not anymore anyway.

 

There are several more photos of this often overlooked place in Utah at: Fisher Towers Utah

 

 





September 20, 2012, Guanella Pass in the fall

Ed and Margo Molenaar are friends from The Netherlands that come over to visit every couple years.  They came over again this year with the plan to spend eight weeks touring around the United States.  Ed loves the mountains of Colorado and since the leaves were turning in the Colorado Rockies the two of us took a day trip just up the road over Guanella pass. 

It was only a few years ago that the road over the pass from Georgetown to Grant was all gravel with limited vehicles.  Now pretty much the entire route has been paved except for the last few miles on the Grant side.  It's and absolutely beautiful road.  In some ways I was disappointed to see that it has been turned into such a nice road.  That means that it is prone to have more tourists and traffic and the isolation is gone.  I suppose in the big picture of things though it is ok because now more people are able to experience the beauty.  There are still plenty of other places that are still gravel and isolated so I will have to simply learn to share.

Georgetown just as you head up the pass.

The Aspen on the top were in their full glory.

Even though the main road over the pass is completely paved there are still side roads that most people would hesitate to take.  The Leavenworth Creek road toward Argentine pass and Mt. Edwards and the Santiago and Waldorf mines is one of them and once you leave the main road the only people you run into are the serious explorers.

 

 

There is a lot of beautiful country to explore up Guanella.  Here's some more if you are interested:

 

http://photosbygeorge.smugmug.com/MountainStates/Colorado/Autumn-in-Colorado/

 



 

August 31, 2012, Family photos

Getting together for a memorial service for a family member is a difficult thing to do.  Everybody has to do it in their life at some point.  I don't know how you can get away without having to experience it.  Times like these are difficult.  It's terrible to lose someone that you love. 

It may sound cruel and heartless but these are also the times when families get together.  All too often these are the only times that families get together.  I stay in touch with my brothers and sisters all of the time but only thanks to the technology of the times.  Telephones and the internet have made the world smaller indeed but there is nothing quite like seeing one another in person and that is what family memorials do. 

It had been years since all of my siblings were together in one spot.  It was very nice to sit around and visit after all of those years.  It is also nice to be able to take photos of all of us together again too.

From left to right these are my siblings: Susan, Dewey, Dixie, Jon, Tammy and me.  Aren't we a handsome crew!

August 30, 2012, Road trip to Wyoming

We weren't in a great rush to get to the funeral we had to go to in my home town of Evanston, Wyoming, we had plenty of time.  Rather than take the freeway all the way we decided to take some secondary roads we had never traveled before to there.  The reason for the journey was a sad one but the trip itself was good.

I wish I could tell you where this ghost homestead is.  Honestly I don't know.  Somewhere on Colorado 318 between Craig and the Utah border.  It was just kinda there.  We had to stop and take a look at it even though we didn't know what it was we were looking at.  We didn't have a map that said anything about it so I suppose it is just another place in the world that has lost its value and identity.  Sad how that happens.  Dreams come and then they go just as quickly.

Montana calls itself the Big Sky Country.  That always bothered me some.  I don't think they had ever seen Wyoming when they came up with that slogan for Montana.  Sure, Montana is a beautiful state, I know that because I lived there for several months before I was drafted but when it comes to the sky Wyoming has the lead. 

Have you ever been somewhere where you could stand on the ground and see the curvature of the earth?  Somewhere where you could see the clouds meet the horizon? A lot of people I have talked to over the years complain about driving across the plains of Wyoming.  They say things like "It's boring, there's nothing to see".  They're missing the beauty.  Too bad for them.

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