Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah and Colorful Colorado

We left Idaho on Sep 10 and stayed overnight at Yuba State Park at Scipio, Utah on our way to Colorado. We decided at the last minute to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and planned to stay at Dead Horse Point State Park which is located right between the two national parks. Their campground was full so the ranger directed us to Horsethief Campground just outside the state park on BLM land. This park is in the high desert and was just fabulous. No water, we already had a full tank because the state park doesn't have water; but 30 amp electric. Here is a picture of our site at Horsethief CG.

And with being so far from any town, and no artificial lighting in the park, I was able to get some great sunset pictures from our site.



We spent one day exploring Canyonlands National Park from the "Island in the Sky" mesa at the north side and another at Arches NP. Both parks really require a lot more time, but we had tentatively told the kids we would arrive on Saturday.
Here are slideshows from both parks. The first two are from Arches NP and the last is Canyonlands. Place your mouse over the bottom of the picture to bring up the toolbar.





We did do some "off the main road" driving and walked several short trails. We will for sure be going back to spend more time at these two beautiful parks and will probably stay again at the BLM campground.

On Saturday morning we left the high desert of southeastern Utah and headed for Colorful Colorado and its tall mountains, mountain rivers and tall pine trees.
We arrived at Redstone Campground in the White River National Forest about 3:00 pm after a really easy drive. The campground is about 15 miles south of Carbondale, CO where Tim, Karen, Elijah and Isaac live. Tim is our oldest child and if you've been following our blog you know we were here in June/July to help them get moved into their new house. They moved from flat, hot, high humidity McKinney, Texas to mountains, rivers, fly fishing, low humidity Colorado. And they seem to have settled in real well.

Dan's brother, Larry and his wife Phyllis, arrived on Sunday and parked right across from us at Redstone.

Don't you just love that scenery?


Redstone is a National Forest Campground (managed by Thousand Trails), so our Golden Age Passport allows for 1/2 price camping. Regular price is $25 + $5 for electric. We pay $12.50 + $5 for electric. We use 2 small electric heaters at night rather than use the propane furnace. There is one non-hookup loop and 2 loops with electric and water. No dump station so we have to be sure we have empty waste tanks when we come in. They do have showers with solar heated water, so at this time of the year it is wise to take evening showers because the water really cools off overnight. :)

Tim and Karen were especially glad to have us visit again since Karen's boss had called her back to Memphis for 2 days. Karen works from home for Hilton. He wouldn't tell her the reason she needed to come back, but did say "it is all good." Dan took her to the Aspen airport Tuesday morning R 7:30 and she'll return Friday morning. Soooo, we are all waiting to hear from her tonight. Elijah started in a new preschool on Tuesday, so Grandpa and Grandma are spending the days with Isaac at home. Elijah's school is in El Jelbel, about 20 minutes from their house, and on the way to Basalt where Tim works. Elijah really likes his new school. He was missing going to school and having a routine to his days.
Meet Isaac and Elijah



We haven't been spending much time in the campground, but are looking forward to having the kids come out on Saturday for a weiner roast and s'mores. The boys should really enjoy that, especially since there are lots of chipmunks in the campground and they may get to see some deer. I bet their dad does some fishing in the Crystal River which flows right past the campground. :)

I think that just about gets this blog up to date again. As I've said before, we are really enjoying this lifestyle. Not sure where we'll end up after leaving here. Will check out the maps and see what tweaks our curiosity.

More later........

Catching up and Sadness

I sincerely apologize to everyone who keeps checking the blog to see where we are and what we are doing. We are just fine. In excellent health and just enjoying the freedom of this great lifestyle. But,,,,,, you knew there was a "but"

When I last posted, Stephanie and Erin had left Seattle and Lucy and her parents were in Florida; and we were expecting to leave Seattle around the 27th or 28th of August. The O'Byrne's arrived back in Seattle on Sunday, August 24th (Gretchen's birthday) and we had decided that we would leave on Tuesday or Wednesday, staying just long enough with Lucy to reacquaint with her, but not so long as to get back in a routine. Leaving a 2-year-old can be difficult for all concerned.

So we were making sure the webcams worked and talking about leaving when we received a call from Dan's older brother on Monday, August 25th telling us that their nephew, Scott Brogdon, Dave's forty-one year old son, was missing. Dave is Dan's younger brother. Scott had talked with some family members about ending his life. When we learned on Monday that Scott's body had been found in the Illinois River, Dan decided to fly back to Illinois to be with his brother and family. We were able to get a flight leaving on Tuesday through St. Louis and into Springfield where our wonderful neighbors picked him up at 9:55pm.

Scott ended his life by walking into the Illinois River, probably on Saturday, when he last spoke to his family. He had a long history of problems with alcohol and apparently just was not able to cope with his life as he saw it. He leaves behind a 20 year old son from a previous marriage and a current wife and her children, plus his parents, a brother and two half-sisters, and aunts, uncles and cousins. He will certainly be missed. We continue to keep his family in our prayers.

Sooo, Dan returned to Seattle on Saturday, August 30th. I spent the time while he was gone just being with Gretchen and her family. We didn't do a lot, but just hung out together.

We left Seattle on Labor Day for the southeastern part of Washington and spent several days near Pasco, WA at Hood Park, a Corps of Engineer park, near the confluence of the Yakima, Snake and Columbia Rivers. This park is one of the most beautiful parks we've been in. Since southeastern Washington doesn't get much rain, irrigation is everywhere. So the parks are just beautiful. There is a lot of space between the sites at Hood River with many large trees. We did not have satellite TV, but I was able to get on the Internet with my aircard. But I just couldn't get up the energy to bring the blog up to date. We really just chilled out and enjoyed the scenery. Went for several drives and visited Sacajawea State Park where Lewis and Clark camped and otherwise just generally hung out.

We had been pretty busy since we left home on June 2nd with a wedding, an RV rally, visiting with family in Denver and Carbondale, Co, having Erin with us all summer and spending a month at Lucy's house, plus the sadness of Scott's passing.

We then spent the last few days at Three Islands Crossing State Park near Glenns Ferry, ID. This was the site of the last and one of the worst crossings of the Snake River for the pioneers heading to Oregon. Another beautiful park with lots of space between sites. I know, I sound like I don't like neighbors, but that's not true. We both enjoy visiting with fellow RVers and go out of our way to meet people, but we have lived in a subdivision for many years and really enjoy looking at the scenery and not the side of an RV parked next to us. So, we really like COE, national forests and state parks.

We're moving to Massacre Rock State Park, close to American Falls, ID tomorrow for a few days. Plan to visit the replica of Fort Hall at Pocatello, ID. Fort Hall was one of the last opportunities for the pioneers to restock supplies. And there are some scenic drives in the area. We have really enjoyed following parts of the Mormom Trail and Oregon Trail. And we've also crossed part of the Lewis and Clark Trail. And we are really enjoying our mode of transportation as compared to those early settlers. :)

I'll post some pictures of the contrast between the farm land and mountains in this area. This part of Idaho gets very little rain and relies entirely on irrigation from the Snake river. The main crops are sugar beets, potatoes, hay and straw. The green of the irrigated fields next to the dry, sagebrush, tan/brown mountains is quite a contrast. There are huge stacks of BIG bales of straw in the fields. And since the rainfall is so scarce, they are are not covered with tarps like they would be in Illinois.

We're making our way toward Carbondale, CO to visit with Elijah and Isaac and their parents again as we make our way back toward Illinois.

Really do like this slow pace and the freedom of this lifestyle.

More later.......

Catching UP AGAIN

Here are some links to pictures we've taken in the past 2 weeks. Just seems like I can't get "in the groove" to actually post, so thought I would play "Catch Up" with pictures and then tell you about our trip to Mt. St. Helens yesterday. So here are the links to pictures. Just click on the picture and the album will open in My Web Albums in Picasa.

Redstone & Carbondale, CO and surrounding scenery

2008 07 16 From Deschutes SRA, OR to Ainsworth SP, OR

2008 07 22 Mt St Helens drive

The story of the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980 is very powerful. The first earthquakes that signalled that the volcano was awakening occured in late March, 1980. As the frequency and intensity of the earthquakes increased the Forest Service and geologists were on alert and monitoring the volcano. Along with the earthquakes, which occurred about one to two miles beneath the north slope of Mount St. Helens, a large bulge was growing upward and outward on the north face of the cone. The bulge was more than a mile in diameter and pushed out 300 feet by mid-April. It was growing at a rate of five feet per day.

The Forest Service had set up a Red Zone around the mountain and had evacuated people from the area. On Saturday, May 17 some people were let back in to retrieve belongings from their homes and there were plans to let another group of people in on Sunday, May 18th. Dave Johnston, a geologist monitoring the volcano from a ridge 5.5 miles from the volcano, made an early morning radio report that the bulge continued swelling at a steady rate. An hour later Dave was dead. At 8:32 AM an earthquake of 5.1 magnitude shook Mount St. Helens and triggered a giant avalanche of the bulging north slope of the cone and slid away into Spirit Lake. The blast cloud shot out of the torn-open north face and quickly outraced the speeding avalanche. It raced north, northeast and northwest, climbing ridges and sweeping down valleys, killing everything in its path. It blew trees down like toothpicks and destroyed 230 square miles of forest. That took about 5 minutes.

The unroofed magma column jetted upward for the next nine hours into a fifteen-mile high ash cloud. More dense portions of the ash cloud near its base formed pyroclastic flows of hot rock fragments fluidized by expanding gas. These flows poured our of the horseshoe shaped crater toward Spirit Lake. Mudflows - floods of water from melting ice, the ground water soaked avalanche, and the water from Spirit Lake rushed down the stream and rivers. Homes and bridges were swept away. Much of the mud ended up in the Columbia River, clogging the navigation channel for months.

Fifty-seven people died and property damage totaled 1.5 billion dollars. One person we talked to said if it would have happened on Monday rather than Sunday, more lives would have been lost because many of the men would have been working at the logging camps.

Mother nature is doing her part to recover from this terrible event as are private and public entities. Weyerhaueser Lumber began an aggressive reforestation program and the Forest Service alone salvaged 200 million board feet of downed and standing dead trees and has replanted millions of small trees. Replanted areas are labeled with signs indicating the type of trees that were replanted and the year replanting occurred. And most amazing of all, after five years, the numbers of Roosevelt elk and black tailed deer at Mount St. Helens were back to normal.

Inside the National Monument boundaries, which include Mount St. Helens, 110,000 acres have been set aside to study Nature's process of healing itself. No replanting was done in this area, so it is still very stark with patches of renewal. Researchers from around the world are studying this area and learning about the recovery of a totally destroyed ecosystem.

Geologists continue to monitor Mount St. Helens with sophisticated equipment hoping to be better able to predict her next eruption.

The Mount St. Helens Visitor Center, at the beginning of the drive; the Forest Learning Center, and the Johnston Ridge Observatory all depict different aspects of the eruption. Each has wonderful displays and short movies which really help the visitor understand all the events that occurred on May 18, 1980.

This drive to Mount St. Helens was, for me, both very sobering and exciting. Sobering, as I saw up close what can happen in just a very few minutes when something this catastrophic takes place; but exciting to see the beautiful new trees, many of which are now 25 years old, the bright patches of color from the brightly colored flowers and the Roosevelt elk that I watched along the river from the Forest Learning Center overlook. It was also refreshing to see how the people have recovered and rebuilt as we drove along Route 504 which follows the North Fork of the Toutle River, leading to Johnston Ridge Observatory. Much of the original road was buried beneath the avalanche and mudflows of the 1980 eruption. The new road was built during 1992-1995.

We were able to see the mountain from Elk Rock lookout, but because of thick cloud cover, we could not see it from Johnston Ridge Observatory. There is a cloudy picture in the web album, and here is an "official" picture from the Mount St. Helens website.

Mount St. Helens

Not sure what we doing Thursday. We may check out the south side of the mountain which was unaffected by the eruption or we may drive to the Pacific Ocean. Dan and Erin are probably getting tired of trees and more trees, so the Ocean may be a good choice. Will decide in the morning.

Happy 17th Birthday, Taylor

More later....

Talladega, Here We Come

One of our favorite times of the year is almost here - The Nascar race at Talladega Superspeedway at Talladega, Alabama. We love to watch Nascar races, but being at the track is pretty exciting. Our seats are up high in the 38th row and at the start/finish line. We can see around the whole track. Talladega is a 2.66 mile track and a lot can happen in that 2.66 miles.

We'll take in qualifying and practice and watch the Nationwide (formerly Busch race) on Saturday and Cup race on Sunday. And it looks like the weather may cooperate with temperatures in the high 70's and low 80's. Don't forget the sunscreen!!!

We camp about 20 miles from the track at Pell City, AL. Can't quite take ALL the activity in the campgrounds around the track; however, there is one "family" campground where consumption of alcohol is prohibited outside your RV and quiet hours are enforced. BUT, the camping fee is pretty steep. Of course, with the price of fuel now and driving back and forth to the track, most likely would break even. Oh well, we like Lakeside Landing in Pell City, and have stayed at the same site for the last 4 years and have the same neighbors every year.

We're leaving Saturday and plan to stop at Rickwood Caverns State Park on the way. That's where we rescued the puppy in January. Will probably check with the animal shelter about the family that adopted the puppy and see how he is doing. Also will explore the cave at the park.

Will post pictures from the race.

More later......