July 3-9, 2015 Utah-Colorado

 

These are shots from the scenic over looks on I-70 looking into the San Rafael Reef in Utah. It was a giant uplift of many colored layers and then it eroded into a bunch on really nice canyons and hoodoos.

A Utah juniper  and a pinion pine and pinion cones, soon to be pinion nuts. I-70 where they cut through the reef for the highway.

 

Welcome to Colorful Colorado, through our bug covered windshield. Book Cliffs outside of Grand Junction, Colorado.

 

We are in Carbondale, Colorado visiting our friends Jimjim and Martha.  John has just written If UR DUMB U gotta be tough on the street.  You can sort of see the dog I drew behind his feet. Jimjim, John and Martha at first Friday in Carbondale.

 

The next day we went boating on the Crystal river outside of Carbondale.  John, Frank and Jimjim securing the boats to the top of the car. Frank, John and Martha on the river. Jimjim is the tiny dot way in front.

This family complete with the dog went by us. Heart  Martha and Jimjim’s kitty.

  

The remains of our 4th of July dinner. The garden when nuts while we were gone, our tomato and basil  plants are about twice as big as they were when we left.

I am working on some peacock feather soap dishes, to test whether I should use some green in the feathers on a bigger piece I am working on.  We visited my brother Jerry’s new house in Longmont last night. He is not moved in yet, these are just some furniture that the seller left him.  We then went out to dinner in Longmont.

July 2, 2015 Ely, Nevada to Salina, Utah

We went to Great Basin National Park. We had not heard of this one before. It is in eastern Nevada. It is a mountain island in the middle of the high desert.

Wheeler peak in the park. It is the highest mountain in Nevada at 13,063 feet. It rises 7,700 feet above the valley floor. Even has a glacier on top. A trail in a lovely aspen grove near the top.

There are a few groves of rare species of bristlecone trees in the park.  They are bigger and longer lived than any other in the world. They are up to 40 feet high and thousands of years old. This photo is from the trail head to the grove on the peak. It is a 3 hour round trip hike, so we passed on it this time through.  The view for about half way down of the desert below.

 

We did see the big mountain mahogany trees. I am used to seeing them as bushes in Colorado, these are full on trees. The Lehman Caves-really only one cave- are inside the park too. We took a 60 minute tour of the cave.

Very pretty cave. Many of the features were covered in ‘cave popcorn’, the bumpy stuff on these stalactites. I  was photographing them and look who popped into the photo!

The cave is famous for its shield formations. They are the round rocks with the stalactites hanging all around like a jelly fish. You can see a couple in the middle of the first photo here.

 

The hind end of a jackrabbit, a cactus flower, purple flower, stone crop and red gila flowers, purple asters and a  close up of the cave popcorn. The popcorn is formed from mineral laden water splashing on the cave floor onto the formations.

 

After the caves we headed into Utah. View from the road. If you look real close behind the chili you can see the crack in the windshield of my new car. Boo.

More roadside views, a dry lake bed and another shoe tree. They must be popular in this part of the country.

 

Beautiful downtown Delta, Utah. It is only July 2, but they have chairs out all along the road saving their places for the 4th of July parade already.

 

Golden fields outside of Salina, Utah. Entering Salina for the evening.

   

This Indian statue is outside our hotel. On the side of the bathtub we were greeted by this cute rubber duck. Made we want to jump in the tub and take a bath.   

Sunset over Salina.

July 1, 2015 The Loneliest Hwy in America-Hwy 50 in Nevada

Armed with my trusty Official Hwy 50 Survival Guide,AAA guide book and piles of literature I pick up everywhere we visit  we set off to discover the attractions on Hwy 50

Part of Hwy 50 follow the original Pony Express ,the Overland Stage coach  and Emigrant trail route. Just east of Fallon is the Sand Springs Pony Express station. There were stations about every 10 miles.  This station once had a few small rooms for living quarters, black smith, tack and storage, a stable and corral. There was no roof, and no furniture. The well had bad water. Not the best conditions. The ruins show very thick stone walls.

 

Another view of the Pony Express station ruins. There was a trail with interpretive signs. The station is next to Sand Mountain this big sand dune. It has ‘singing sand’- which cause a low moan when the sand shifts. To the Paiutes it is Panitogogwa, a giant rattle snake traveling north east with the wind to it’s back and the snake can be heard as it moves toward it’s hole.  It is a popular recreation area for ATV’s and sand boarders (snow boards on sand).

 

We saw lots of white lizards. Certain animals like scorpions and lizards have adapted to the harsh conditions by loosing their native cooler and turning albino to blend with the sand. Here is one of the lizards and a couple of the many wild flowers in the area. It was surprisingly green considering it has been over 100 degrees every day. The road marker with the L is for the Lincoln Highway, it is the first  coast to coast highway running from  New York to San Francisco and is a memorial to President Lincoln. Eisenhower  backed the idea for the use of moving troops across the nation and created the interstate system. Cement markers were placed along the highway by the boy scouts as a memorial in the 1920’s. Historic downtown Austin, Nv.  Cute little town of 192 people with lots of the old historic buildings that sprang up in 1862. Rumor has it that  a pony express pony kicked up a stone that was the cap on a silver laden cavern that ended up being a huge silver mine.

 

John is posing by the mysterious t-shirt mural in Austin. Next was Eureka, the friendliest town on the Loneliest road in America.

Eureka has many historic building dating from the 1880’s including the renovated opera house John is standing in. Performers have signed the walls downstairs and there is a small museum with the old equipment from the original opera house. The historic outhouse is a the only 5 seat outhouse in the whole state of Nevada.

 

The court house from the 1880’s was also renovated. This is the old court room that is still in use today. The building had fantastic woodwork. Next stop was Ely, Nevada. We went to the Nevada Northern Railway museum.It is America’s best preserved short line and complete rail facility. The complex include a full service rail yard encompassing 56 acres with 63 buildings with 9 steam and diesel locomotives- 5 still operating. It is a working rail yard and they still have many different train excursions.

Here are two of the steam engines as seen on TV. They will be having a fireworks ride on the 4th of July with fireworks shot off from the train. The engines are hooked up to the train to the right and off it goes.

 

This cool old engine photographed through the fence at the depot is called a spreader. It is a snow plow or bull dozer. The best part was the machine shop. Huge pieces of equipment they still use in maintaining the trains.  John is talking to master mechanic who still works on trains and is the rail inspector.

 

Pancake pass sounds like an oxymoron to me. I mean flat as a pancake and a pass?? The next two shots are from the machine shop. Gigantic drill bits and black smith tools.  The last one is the charcoal kilns east of town, we did not get out there, but here is a picture of a picture. John is standing on a steam powered wrecking crane. He must have been unable to read the sign that said do not climb on anything.

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After touring around town we went to the historic Hotel Nevada built in 1929. This is one of the many murals from around town. At the historic Nevada we gambled. After John made $10 and I lost $20 we gave up. We had dinner in the historic Cell Block Steak house. You get to eat in a jail cell. Fun place, good food.