After passing an Earthroamer 4×4 camper (“Look, Honey!!! An Earthroamer!!!”….”Huh?”) on the way out of Canyonlands, we head down 313 and then 191 for Arches. Turning off the road and into the entry way we notice a “Campground Full” sign. ? We ask if it’s for real and sure enough, there’s no camping available. It’s 5pm now and the Visitors Center is closed so we press on against the endless stream of cars leaving the park for the day. Are they insane??? Things are just looking good with the afternoon light!! Sigh….
We make a bee-line for the campground hoping beyond hope that someone STILL has made a mistake. But no luck. We drive around the campground anyway to get an idea for next time. It’s a habit of ours to peruse campgrounds noting the good spots for next time. In this case the best Arches sites are 20,22,24 (all with great high views to the mountains to the East) and fifty-something. That last one is kinda by itself, otherwise most of the sites are close together. Some have utilities. It’s not the haven that the White Rim trail was, for sure.
Disappointed but not dejected we decide to head out to Tower Arch and the 4×4 trail that leads behind some rock formations to a short trail and the arch. By now Kim has spotted her first arch as we turn off the paved road for more of a forest service type road. Nice fast driving with lots of dust, some washboards and sandy wash crossings. Fun driving. It’s 8 miles or so to the turn off. It is now that I realize this is where Jason and I nearly got stuck in bad sand and turned around. I mention this to Kim, but we brought sand mats, a jack and an air tank…..we can handle anything!!
And indeed we do! The first obstacle is in fact, the sun. It was right in our bug splattered, dust covered windshield and no amount of wiper wash would help. The trail had us pointed right into it as we bounced over unseen rocks and ditches. Finally up on a small hill we get a view of a different land to the West. There are rock escarpments of sandstone, some housing arches of their own, but then we see a large plain followed by the staunch cliffs you climb when entering Canyonlands National Park. It’s a nice change from the constant basins and towers of earlier in the day.
We see the trail will continue to be bumpy while traveling on and off sand and slickrock, but at least the sun isn’t in our eyes anymore. A jackrabbit darts out from a hiding spot and gets away before we can swing a camera on him. By the way, yes, our cameras were ever at the ready and we realize when we get the Defender back, we need semi-permanent spots for them to securely travel and be at hand. The Suburban with all its room has spoiled us that way. Up and down some more rock surfaces scared by past truck with not enough clearance, we manage to only hit our trailer hitch once. The road comes to a turn off I really wanted to try. This is the type of road that was labeled “Because of deep sand and challenging terrain, this trail should only be attempted from the Northwest to Southeast” Yes!!! But wait….what’s this…..a “Road has been closed due to damage” barricade. ? This is one of the trails I really wanted to run and I have to admit my heart sank a little when seeing that. It had taken me some constant negotiating to get Kim ok with going down the trail but not this time, not this year. It’s later in the Visitors Center that I see the trail has red on the it on their map and CLOSED next to it. I enquire and the ranger lets me know a large flood down one of the washes in October completely wiped out the trail so it’ll be closed most likely all this year. Call ahead is the lesson learned.
Back along the trail to Tower Arch we pass a nice little hollow that might serve as a good camp and just a bit later pass one of only two trucks we see on the trail. All the while we’re scouting for spots to camp. At the trailhead we leave the truck for a much needed stretching of the legs. Following the cairns to the arch isn’t too hard as overzealous hikers place them WAY too often for my liking. I’m used to cairns being placed only as often as you need them and you typically will only be able to see the next cairn from the one you’re at. In this case, you can spot 4-10 cairns from any given point, making the trail WAY too easy to find. Shouldn’t there be some chance of getting lost in our National Parks?
Tower Arch is a cool site and we hang out for a bit as we joke the people we can’t see, but randomly hear are in fact rock ferries (thanks to Sabrina’s insistence in ferries being everywhere she imagines). All we hear is some laughter floating down from somewhere in the rocks. The have left behind a backpack, so we know assume they are humans, but our tired minds keep insisting they are ferries. I decided they are evil ferries, judging by their laughter. They were probably bored too……so we head back to the trailhead as the sun is setting in front of use, canvassing the rocks behind us in the deep red-orange that can only enhance their natural colors. I stop to take a panorama set of pictures on the way back.
In the parking lot we joke about the feds. You see, we just KNOW the feds are coming to get us. What, with us planning on camping out on the road some place, of course the feds will be swooping in with their helicopters any time. We suspect they mounted infrared monitoring equipment to the commercial airlines we see overhead as well. The fear of the feds is only slightly lower than the fear of the evil rock ferries. Yeah, we need food and sleep.
We heat up some water and cook some food in the dirt parking lot but decide not to camp there as it’d be too easy for the feds to find us. Just before sundown we head back down the trail intending to stay at that nice hollow, but stop short as we find a wide spot in the road that would allow another car to get by. We look around and it’s nice and flat in the road for our tent. Kim starts setting up the tent (she got really good at setting it up and breaking it down this trip)while I dump 25 gallons of biodiesel into the tank.
We finish getting things set as yet more billions of stars come out this night. I decide I’m not going to get the opportunity pass by again and quickly setup the camera to take some long exposures. After the first couple I decide to go with more, shorter pictures and then stack them in the computer, to give that swirled effect. With the camera clicking away by itself outside, I retire to the tent to play Kim two games of chess before getting some sleep. It’s now about 11pm and we need to be up early……so the feds don’t get us.
By 7:45 we are ready to roll and head back down the bumpy trail. We did a good job of packing the truck as nothing is really flying around the inside as we bounce along the trail. We stop a couple of times for pictures of the rocks around us, including a formation known as Marching Men. And we are lucky enough to crest one hill and have the sun in our face, yet again. We have decided to get some exercise today and head straight for the Devin’s Garden, an hike at the end of the road with some 8-10 arches and other things to see. The parking lot is blissfully devoid of cars. Maybe 6 people are on the trail at this time of day and we park right up front.
The trail has an easy, harder and ‘primitive’ trail section and we think to try them all. The sun is making things a bit warmer and quite honestly, it’s perfect hiking weather. Landscape Arch, one of the more famous, is a wondrous site set against a solid cobalt sky. We keep leapfrogging past another photographer on up the harder part of the trail to Navajo and Wall arches. Each one is a bitter different depending on where on the wall the water pass through. Navajo offers a remarkable view to the Southwest. At this point Kim is really digging her new zoom lens as it gives her a chance to get close to the trees in the rocks without climbing all over them. I’m using a wider zoom lens on my camera to try to capture the grandeur of the arches in one frame. Sometimes I get it right.
On up the trail we go and soon realize they say people with a fear of heights shouldn’t attempt the middle section of trail. You climb up onto on the of the sandstone fins to be greeted with vistas in all directions. Bumpy, bulbous, blobs of sandstone make a maze to the North. Yellow Cat Flat stretches to the West. Behind us are the arches we have seen already and the La Sal mountains. And East are more fins we some how have to navigate through in a while. We stop for some chocolate and water to give the loud and obnoxious teens ahead of us time to advance. Soon enough we catch up with them at Double O arch (one arch on top of the other, it’s pretty cool) and quickly head down the turn off for the primitive trail that loops back to the main trail near the beginning.
The trail is fun and exciting. Some rock scrambling, some sliding down slickrock on your butt and lots of nice sand to walk on. It’s getting hot as the sun is coming up on to its noonday position and the rock heats up. We trudge on and realize why some people we saw walking into the campground last night looked so tired. This section of trail has some uphills that take the wind out of you. But soon enough we are back to the trail and the gaggle of ‘newbies’ who got up later than us and are only walking the easy part of the trail. Hmppph. We wanted the park to ourselves.
Back at the truck we take a break before heading to the Visitors Center where I air up the tires and check fluids while Kim browses the shop. If you make it to Arches, make sure you stop in the Visitors Center, they have some REALLY great displays setup explaining a lot of the park and history. It’s rather fascinating. But for now it’s time for us to head back to the McKell’s house, only 3.5 hours away. Kim sleeps a good chunk of the trip and there is very light traffic as we cruise at 70MPH.
That night we enjoy a home cooked meal by Tambee and Russ and end up watching a movie afterwards. Watching movies is one of the things I like about visiting the McKells. That, and stealing movies to take home with me. The next day I got to work and pick up the servers I started this trip for. After swinging by a food store to get ample snackage for the trip home, Kim and I are off for home around 2:30pm. Our first stop is back at the biodiesel station in Midvale south of Salt Lake City. This time we need to strap the fuel cans to the roof as there isn’t enough room inside. The servers add about 1200 lbs to the truck as well, so our going will be slow. With the cans secured, we are all set to get stuck in construction traffic before breaking free north of Ogden for the “open road”.
After a pit stop in northern Utah, I notice the temp gauge start to climb. Until now it has always been a steady 185F. But something isn’t righ…..the volt meter is also showing about 11.5V. All in all this set of events is classified quickly in my mind as “not good”. We limb along a little further to a rest stop where I check things. All seems ok, if not really hot. We drain off some coolant and it’s looking pretty brown, most likely rust. Yuck. Well, let’s see how it goes!!
We make it the middle of Idaho after a couple more stops, and call Dan Cronin to see if he has any pieces of advice. He thinks the alternator is bad as I had suspected so we quickly use the GPS to find us a Checker (Schucks) auto store just 2 miles away!! Hooray for the GPS!! It even has their phone number! My trusty co-pilot gives them a call to find out they do have our alternator and are open until 9pm. It’s now about 7pm. Good fortune indeed!!
We pull into the parking lot and I pick up the new alternator while Jorge, the guy behind the counter, hands me some tools to get the old one off. It took me a while and some help from both Kim and Jorge, but we finally got the bad one off and the new one on. When I start up the truck the voltmeter jumps to 14V!! Yeah! We probably could have limped along for a while with the old until, but we hadn’t even turned on the headlights when it was down to 11V. I’m also hoping the old unit was causing a drag on the serpentine belt and that is causing the high temps as the water pump isn’t running as well.
Back on the road at 8:48pm…..no luck. Temps still rising. If we keep it to about 68MPH the temp is only around 210F (redline is 260F). Dan and I decided earlier it’s not going to harm much if it’s 20-40F hotter than normal and I can probably make it to Scott’s garage, Old Town Garage, in Yakima and have him look at it. But first we stop in Boise at the airport Motel 6 for a few hours sleep. It was fun asking them if they have an “hourly rate for me and my wife”, wink, wink. But alas…..
4:26am and we’re moving again after noticing half the Boise airport police has parked in the Motel 6 parking lot. Kinda odd. Anyway, we stop at Deadman’s Pass in Oregon to put 30 gallons of biodiesel in and it seems to take forever. Kim heats up some water on the stove and has a nice warm oatmeal and tea breakfast. I opt for hot chocolate. We continue on into the brightening day to finally arrive at Old Town Garage in Yakima (Union Gap, actually) at 10:30. Scott’s outside to meet us and quickly orders us a new thermostat. While we wait for it to show up I look around his shop and then we have some lunch next door. With the truck dutifully repaired, we thank Scott again and take a quick road test. The temp rises, but falls back again. Hooray!!! Thanks be to Scott!!!
From here on out, the story runs down hill. Mainly because I fell asleep before we hit Snoqualmie Pass. Kim tells me it was whited out in one part and snowy in others. I’m not sure as I got some sleep in. We drop off the servers in Seattle after the people at work chuckle at all the stuff we brought (most for the offroad aspect of our trip) and eventually pick up Sabrina at my Mom and Dad’s before heading home.
It was dark and late when we got home but none of us wanted to sleep right away as the animals just keep begging for attention and Sabrina told us all about what she did during her time with Grandma and Grandpa. Finally, around 11pm, we rest. It was good to be back home. It always is.
