May 28-29, 2020 Green River, Utah to Grand Junction, Colorado

96 and sunny today. Too hot.

We are now parked at Green River State Park, Green River, Utah. It is a lovely green, shady park. We got one of the last places, it is pretty reserved up. It is on the Green River. It is a popular river to boat down to the Colorado River, Cataract Canyon and Lake Powell and this is one of the put in spots.

Welcome to Green River,  a propane tank painted like a watermelon. This are is known for it's melons. A mural of a boater on the river, Old fashioned motel sign. The sensor for our outdoor temperature is in one of the bays, it was 102 down there. It was actually only 96 outside, which feels about the same to me. Another mural. Sunset tonight.

 Before we left Green River John found an acceptable RV wash and washed the bus. He is happy now.  Welcome to Colorado!! 

Palisade, Colorado is known for it's peach orchards, vineyards and beautiful views of the Book Cliffs.  We are camped at the Palisade Basecamp RV resort. Nice park, but a little short on shade. It was 95 degrees today. I swear they only predicted into the 80's. Wishful thinking. 

The RV park is right on the Colorado River and between peach orchards, vineyards and a dispensary.

Book Cliffs. We visited with Jimjim and Martha at their campsite at the James Robb state park right on a lake.  

Martha cooked us a yummy chicken dinner. Jimjim and I toasting. 

Jimjim, John, Martha and Chili Dog in the sunset light. Sunset from their campsite.

May 26-27, 2020 Marysvale, Utah

Low 80's and sunny. We headed north to Marysvale. Neither of us have ever been through this area and Marysvale was about as far as John wanted to drive today.

The Sevier river along the highway. We drove 30 miles out of our way to go the Bryce because John says it has the best RV wash in the United States, only to find that it was closed when we got there.  

Beautiful historic downtown Panguitch, Utah, and Spry, Utah and Paiute Lake state park. Butch Cassidy grew up in this one room homestead house between Panguitch and Orderville. He was the oldest of 13 children.  

This area is a beautiful, lush valley between two mountain ranges. A ranch before Marysvale. Hiking, biking, relaxing, laughing FUN! The Rock Stop in Orderville is shaped like a giant rock. Joe's Rock shop is home of the Utah septarian nodule. 

Beautiful downtown Marysvale. We are camped at the South Forty RV park just north of Marysvale. 

The RV park is right at one of the trail heads for the Paiute ATV trail. The trail is 275 miles long, with hundreds of miles of side trails through the mountains on either side of the valley, and the valley in a big loop. This are is very popular for ATV's. The RV park caters to and rents ATV's. We are the only people here without one. Sunset tonight. 

The clouds were beautiful today. We drove up to see Big Rock Candy Mountain. It was named after the song became popular in the 1950's. There is a resort there, and it is for sale.

We saw at the resort that there was whitewater near by. We found it just up the road on the Sevier river. Class three rapids.  John didn't think it was worth taking the boat off the car for, class three is too easy for him. It would have been very challenging for me. John saw this sign for Bullion canyon and wanted to check it out. I thought is was like bullion cubes, but it is actually where many gold mines are up in the mountains. 

From Miner's park in Bullion canyon we went on a one mile hike to Bullion Falls.  All the foliage is in spring green so far. Choke cherry blooms, service berry flowers and a lupine.

This cabin was starting to slide down the mountain The inside and outside are tilted. Wild onion, larkspur, new growth on a spruce tree and oregon grape flowers. 

The trail passes cascade falls on the other side of the canyon. Bullion falls is huge. 

This cabin is in Miner's park. When the gold mines were up and running 1,600 people lived here. The park has a nice interpretive trail with antique mining equipment. Really green and pretty up there. Sun though oak trees along side the road. 

Back at the RV park, if you were ever wondering how to tow a truck and a side by side behind the RV, here is how it is done. Side by side on a rack on top of the truck. Sunset tonight.

The sign for the South Forty RV park and the ATV's they rent. Lots of Firecracker pentestamen. And Ducky drive in Marysvale. 

May 25, 2020 White Pocket, Kanab, Utah

High of 79 and sunny.

I have always wanted to see White Pocket in the South Coyote Buttes. You need 4 wheel drive to get to the trail head, so we went on a guided tour. We got to drive in our own side by side. Our first time in one. We followed the guide in another one. We went from Utah, to Arizona, through The Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument into the Vermilion cliffs. 

Red brain like rocks. We passed the Paw Hole entrance into the Coyote Buttes south. You need a permit for that and the BLM office is closed still so we could not get one. Next time, it looks pretty cool too. 

Yellow flowers. We passed a couple of these oil well looking pumps. Here they are used for water. Lots of cattle ranching in this area. White daisy and wire lettuce. We hiked around White Pocket for a few hours with our guide Dan. The rock formations here are phenomenal.  

Red and white bumps. Checkered white area.

Swirly red and white rocks.

John and Dan on the left side of this formation. Dan said it looked like bacon. We had lunch in a shady alcove with petroglyphs, pottery shards, bones, corn cobs all left by the ancients. 

Gray mint, yellow badlands mule ear, fragrant white sand verbena and evening primrose. Spider wort and badlands mule ear.  

Swirls and pinnacles.

Wild textures.

Hoo doo. pottery shards, bones, corn cobs left by the ancient Indians.  A vertebrae in papery thin rock fins, lines and curves, tiny concretions- balls of iron rock.   

Prickly pear bloom, creamy white flowers and globe mallow. Amazing rock formations. 

Big butte. There were lots of these old corrals in this area. There was a lot of ranching in the old days. 

Swirly red capped with white. A lone tree in the white sandstone. 

We were glad we were in the side by side. Some of the road conditions we experienced: deep ruts- John thought he was driving a slot car, deep sand, huge rocks, cows. We stopped by a Subaru that was stuck in the sand. Dan basically said there is nothing we can do to help and threw up his hands.  A jeep drove up that was going to tow them out. We drove around. Really glad we didn't try this in our Subaru. Swirly rocks, grass and lichen.  

Cryptantha, mats of greenery on a seep in the rocks, asters and California buckwheat.