Our Travel Blog

Another warm night, but again everything cooled down enough for a good nights sleep.

Today’s trip was a loop around the La Sal Mountains, the highest of which was over 12,000 ft, or 3 times the height of Ben Nevis in Scotland.

As we hit the start of the loop, I was a little discouraged to see that, according to the GPS, the road came to a dead end just a couple of miles in. In reality the road physically existed, the GPS just didn’t know about it! It may have been because we had just entered a National Forest, or it could have been that the road was in such bad shape that the GPS was embarrassed to show it. There were more pot-holes per mile than Ottawa roads (sorry Bryden).

We started to climb almost immediately, and by the highest point we were up at 8,325 ft. The good news up this high was that the outside air was only 24°C…. bliss! Lyn was living in fear of coming into contact with snow, but it was a few hundred feet above us.

We saw an area of yellow flowers off the side of the road, they turned out to be flowering cactiCactus with a Bud

Again I am going to take the easy way out and inundate you with pictures, I have had no complaints, so it must be an OK way to go.

The group below are general vies as we drove around the loop. As in the Arches Park there were a number of the red stone rock formations.

Now for the lunch views

As we descended from the mountain we were heading down to the Colorado River. There was plenty of activity on the river with white water rafters. Much as we wanted to join them, we both figured we’d get fried to death with the current weather. Hopefully we will find somewhere in Colorado next week, where hopefully the temperatures will be a little cooler.

There was even a jet skier going against the rapids

Looking Good

Trying Hard

Back to the Drawing Board

Another day full of great scenery, tomorrow may be a little cooler, so we will probably hang around the camp site and do the weekly shopping

Last night the A/C was left running as the outside air remained around 30°C until after 11 PM, so there was no natural cooling of the trailer. It was a comfortable nights sleep with a wake up temperature inside of 22°C and outside 28°C.

Today’s trip was to the Arches National Park, about 7 miles up the road from us. Unfortunately our donated National Park pass expired at the end of May! Like all the National Parks we have visited, this one was well worth the price of admittance.

Again, as with many of the sights we have seen on this trip, it is best to let the camera do most of the talking.

We started off climbing up above the entrance area, and looking across the road, which was in a valley caused by a fault line, the earth split and separated along the fault and the land on the far side dropped about 270 ft lower than the land where we were.

We headed on around the park to an area known as Park Avenue

In this area were a couple of rocks that appeared to be balance on others

The few trees that there were in the area weren’t too healthy looking!

Below are some general views taken on the drive

Above is the first Arch we saw

Above is the Balanced Rock, the first shot from a distance, the second from underneath it!

While looking up I saw an aircraft, and decided to see how well the zoom worked!

No great detail, but enough to identify it as as a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737.

Our lunch views for today:

We headed further north into the park towards more arches, although there were a number of walking trails, most were 2 or more miles and with the temperature hovering around 37°C we decided not to attempt them.

We did however take a short walk to see both the Sand Dune Arch and the Broken Arch. the walk to the Sand Dune Arch was cool, both figuratively and physically, the temperature dropped noticeably as we walked through the gaps in the rocks.

Above is Sand Dune Arch, below is the Broken Arch on the far right, you can see the two supporting pillars, but no Arch. The arch to the left of it is showing signs of cracking at its crown.

Another short walk took us to the Delicate Arch.

The only wild life we saw in the area were a couple of lizards, but there were a few cactus (catcusses, cacti)?

As well as an assortment of flowers.

Also something that looked vaguely like a holly bush

Hot and tired we were at the end of the trail, so far we had not used the A/C in the truck, but as we would be heading non stop back to the park entrance we enjoyed its cool luxury!

Back in town, we broke down (us not the truck) and headed into a store that sold medicinal ice cream!!

Tomorrow is forecast to be hot again, but we will be visiting the Le Sal Mountain range and climbing up to around 10,000 ft where it should be cooler.

The Le Sal mountains with snow and an a towering cumulus cloud above them.

The outside temperature moderated late last night, dropping down to around 25°C by 11 PM. We decided to switch off the A/C and open up all the windows. This worked well, and by wake up time the trailer was at 20°C. With the trailer nice and cool we closed all the windows up, pulled down the blinds and switched the A/C back on. With the temperature forecast to go up to the high 30’s again I figured it would be best to start cooling early, rather than trying to play catch-up later on. Again the plan worked and despite the outside air climbing to 36°C, the inside stayed down around 27°C.  Not overly cool, but comfortable. One of the downsides of the trailer is that we chose one with plenty of windows, which is great for the view, but lousy for insulation as it is only single glazing.

Talking of views, this is what we can see from the trailer.

As we usually do, the first (and usually last) day at a site is a stay local day. After breakfast I did a little maintenance around the trailer, the smoke detector had parted company with the ceiling after all the shaking the trailer went through with the deformed tyre. I also had to replace a switch at the hot water tank that had burnt out a couple of weeks ago. I had a replacement sent here, so it was time to install it. For the last two weeks the switch wires had just been twisted together (i.e. switched on all the time), today’s job was simple, untwist the wires, crimp on a couple of connectors and connect to the switch. Simple…… wrong!

Got it all connected up, switched it on and no voltage to the heating element. What could I have done wrong, by anyone’s standard it was a simple job. Long story short, after half an hour of trouble shooting the light came on, metaphorically speaking. The tank was full of hot water, hot water doesn’t need heating therefore the thermostat switches off power to the element. I ran off some of the hot water to allow cold water into the tank, put it all back together and now it worked!

After lunch we headed into the city (everything’s a city around here) of Moab. This is very much a tourist area at the gateway to the Arches National Park, nonetheless Lyn managed to find a yarn store.

Tomorrow we’re of to the Arches, the locals recommend that we be there at 6 AM to beat the heat. That won’t be happening! we’ll be there about 10 AM and will beat the heat with the trucks A/C and plenty of cold water!

Woke up at the normal time and had breakfast in the motel. We headed out to the truck and admired our 4 new tyres! Then we headed off to Moab, Utah. This was a trip of 300 km, with only about 50 km on Interstate.

The first thing we noticed was the smoothness of the ride, its amazing what difference round tyres make. We figured the tyre must have been going out of round for sometime, and we just put the ride down to having the trailer on the back, anyway all is smooth now.

Almost immediately we started climbing up to 7750 ft. Again the scenery was varied, from desert to fertile valleys to scrub land to fantastic rock formations. Below is a mix of the views.

We had taken 5 pictures with the new camera, and when Lyn went to take another it wouldn’t switch on …….. I am getting a tad p*******d off wit all these things going wrong. As well as that little incident, I think we both get a little jumpy if we go over some road surface that causes the truck to bounce, or if there is a jumpy gear change as we go up hill!!

As has been the norm for the last few weeks we could drive 20-30 miles without seeing a house or any other type of building.

Anyway, we arrived at the campground and checked into the office, we got back into the truck to pull onto the site, guess what the truck wouldn’t start!!!!  Wasn’t too worried this time, I was sure I knew the cause AND the cure. It was the same problem we had a couple of weeks ago, when the engine has been working hard and everything gets pretty hot a vapour lock forms in the fuel filter housing. All that is required is a few pushes on the priming pump to expel the vapour.  Now I know the problem and the cure I need to look around for the cause.

The temperature climbed up to 39°C (102°F) today, and our poor air conditioner is struggling to keep the trailer around 30°C. The saving grace is the 8% humidity. At least we can look forward to the temperature dropping at night time down to around 20°C

Finish on a good note….. once I recharged the camera battery it worked fine, evidently the USB charger in the truck doesn’t provide enough current!

Woke up to a warm, but overcast morning. Overcast is good for travelling.

After breakfast we got the trailer packed away and hooked up in about 40 minutes, and were on our way to Springville Utah for a night stop.

Trailer on Site

As the day progressed the temperature rose, by lunch time it was around 28°C as we pulled into a rest area to make lunch.

Lunch Time View

We continued south and drove through Salt Lake City, by now the temperature was up to 36°C  (97°F). About this time we noticed the ride was not as smooth as it should be. We put it down to the concrete road surface, which has expansion joints. Depending on the distance between the joints the truck and trailer can get out of sync with their ups an downs. Having convinced myself that this was the issue we pressed on. Unfortunately mt theory bit the dust when we hit smooth tarmac and the bad ride continued.

By now we were at the hotel, so I checked out the trailer wheels, and then the truck ones, nothing seemed out of place. The tyre pressures were a little high due to the high outside temperature but nothing else seemed amiss.

I unhooked the truck, and drove around. There was still some bouncing but not too bad. maybe the high pressure was the issue. I headed off to get some fuel, and happened to pass a tyre store, so I decided to drop by and have them check it out. They suggested balancing may be the issue. The guy went out to move the truck into the shop, then turned around and came back. Evidently one tyre had a tread separating, this meant that not only would it go bang very soon, about a third of the tyre had ballooned about 1 inch, meaning the tyre was no longer round. The guy estimated we had a few miles left on the tyre before it died (by miles he meant a single digit number!). Well it’s not worth buying one tyre is it… 4 tyres and a haircut later (what else was there to do while I waited?) I left there to get some fuel.

By the time we get home we’ll have a new truck, in the meantime I need to find Lyn a job to pay for all this.

Yet another clear and sunny day, with the wake up temperature at 21°C. We may regret wishing for hotter weather soon, the forecast for the first 5 days at our next stop in Utah is 99, 102, 99, 98, 97 °F. OR 37, 39, 37, 37, 36 °C. I feel sorry for the air conditioner already. The consolation is the humidity, it is low at around 15%

This is our last day here before heading out, it is a 400+ mile trip to the next site, much of it on non interstate roads. Previous experience has shown that a realistic average on these roads is 45-50 mph, with stops for food, gas etc that could be a 10 hour day. We don’t do those any more, at least not with the trailer in tow. So tomorrow will be a hotel night, the chain we stay with sent me 4 $25 gift vouchers to use before September, coincidentally we have 4 more hotel nights between now and home. That brings the price for a night in a motel down to that of a night in a campground.

Today we decided to just laze around, and take a walk into the city of Arco. We also decided to get all the caches in the city, all 3 of them that is! Below is a pictorial visit to the city.

Back in the UK, to be a city you required either a University or a Cathedral. Arco has neither, but it does have 3 auto-parts stores, maybe that’s the requirement here.

Arco’s Claim to Fame

Main Street

Perhaps They’re Trying to Improve Things

Signs Like This Don’t Help !!

We found our first cache in a park, I’ve often talked about caches, but I don’t think I’ve shown any

Above is Lyn holding the cache, the top unscrews and there is a small paper log roll that you sign as proof of finding it.The Cache Back in its Hiding Place

Wasn’t expecting to see a submarine surfacing downtown! Another cache location.

The pronghorn I didn’t get a shot of yesterday!

A Few Horses

We walked 3¼ miles in 30 degree temperatures, should have shed a few pounds. Later in the afternoon I went out to fill up the truck, when I got back I noticed we had just completed 10,000 kms on this trip to date.

We woke up to yet another perfect day, 20°C and clear skies. The campground has filled up a bit for the weekend, but it is still nice and quiet!

After breakfast it was time to head out for some more exploring. Yesterday it was craters, today it will be The Magic Valley. I haven’t been able to find out the reason behind the name, I guess someone somewhere knows, but they’re not telling!

We set off after breakfast complete with packed lunch, it’s not too easy to find eating places out here.

We’ve noticed in many parts of the States that the towns initial is displayed on a hill close by; Arco has gone one, or several, better, the high school graduating class over the last few decades have carved out their graduating year.

The first stop was the MacKay reservoir.

There was a dam associated with the reservoir, together with a small hydro generating station, what was a little unusual was the dam appeared to be a natural one with the water exiting via man made tunnels, as shown in the above two pictures.

Looking down on the outflow.

Moving on from the dam we stopped for our first cache of the day at Leatherman Peak, this is Idaho’s second highest mountain, the highest is a few miles down the toad and about 400 ft higher

Further along the road Lyn spotted a solitary deer, this was different to previous ones we had seen. In particular it was much smaller.

This was a pronghorn deer, unfortunately this one had no horns. We saw one later on with horns but couldn’t stop in time to take a picture. There is indeed a prong at the top of the horn.

Below is Mt Bhora, 12,662 ft tall.

Next we headed a few miles up a gravel road to the site of a recent (1985) 7.3 magnitude earthquake. After the Walmart parking lot picture a few weeks ago, I figured I’d post the opposite rule here.

Below is a picture of the area where the ‘quake took place, the land here dropped 7.5 ft as a result.

Around the area we found a few more species of flowers

Next stop lunch, with the obligatory lunchtime view.
The valley was a mixture of land types, some areas were not cultivated at all, but consisted mostly of sage brush, you can see some in the lunch view picture above. They are the individual little bushes.

Other areas were given over to growing animal feed and other crops. There were also a number of horses in fields, and numerous cattle farms. There were a number of calves in the fields as well.

One thing I noticed many years ago when I frequently flew to LAX was the huge number of green and golden circles on the land below. I hadn’t really given them much thought until recently. They are fields of crops defined by the area that is watered. No water, no crops. The watering is done by long pipes mounted on wheels that rotate about a pipe supplying the water.

The system above only has two sections, in the larger fields they were 15 sections long!

After last nights calorie loaded dinner, its back to a simple BBQ and salad. Now the weather has picked up we can eat outside. Life is good!

Another warm sunny morning. Today we headed off to the moon, well the craters of the moon. This is a National Historic Preserve, first time we have come across one of them.

We headed out to the area, about 20 miles away, and pulled into the information centre parking lot where we came across a rather unique trailer.

The couple were from Colorado, touring around.

The craters of the moon is an area of volcanic disturbance and has a unique landscape as well as a few volcanic craters. Again I’ll let the pictures do the talking. There were a lot of unique flowers growing out of the volcanic soil,

Lyn managed to spot a marmot on one of the rocks

The area was laid out as a driving loop with a number of parking areas and walking loops running from these parking areas. All walking trails had information at the beginning.

Seems a little overkill, but I am sure there is a good reason for posting the info.

We were able to go to the top of a couple of volcanoes and peer down the rims, these volcanoes were only about 100ft high!

This one was known as Snow Cone, as there was an accumulation of snow in the core.

Another cone we walked up was Inferno Cone, but there was no crater at the top of this one, just a steep walk up and down, with some views from the top, the walk wasn’t as long as the one the other day where we dropped 600 ft, but the slope was twice as steep. A good cardio work out.

Many of the rocks had bright coloured patches on, this was lichen

Below is today’s lunch time view

The rest of the shots are just general views around the area

Back at the campground we tried Skyping Paul as it was our grandsons 2nd birthday, but they were too busy celebrating at Boston Pizza. Not to be outdone we headed over to the cafe associated with the campground, which was rumoured to serve up excellent ribs. The rumour was true!

OK, thinking up titles is getting difficult!

For the first time on this trip we didn’t need the fire on in the evening or over night. We woke up to partial sunshine and a temperature of 17°C…… bliss! We are still pretty high up at 5200 ft, but a little further south. Added to that there is a very strong SW wind blowing today bringing up warm Mexican air.

Below is the view from the dining table at this site.

This morning we hung around the trailer doing very little. The temperature climbed to 26°C, unheard of on this trip! So warm I braved shorts for the first time this year. After lunch we took a short trip out into the middle of nowhere to visit the worlds first breeder reactor to provide electricity. I guess it was located out here in the middle of nowhere just in case……

The site was started in the late ’40s and produced its first electricity in 1951. In 1963 Arco, where we are now, was the first city (well small town really) to be provided with nuclear power.

The pictures show the control room, no monitors, no LCD’s everything was large.

Above are the names of the staff at the site written with chalk on the wall of the building. This is protected today within a glass case.

The staff here also experimented with a nuclear powered aircraft engine, I guess they didn’t follow through with the project. Overall this was a worthwhile and  interesting visit.

We headed back to town where I wanted to get an oil change for the truck, with our recent experiences I don’t want to take any avoidable risks, we were already 86 kms beyond the recommended change time!!!

Being a small town there weren’t too much choices as where to go. The first place we found had closed down, the second place wanted $90 plus the cost of the oil and the filter, they didn’t get my business! The last place quoted $80 all in. They provided the best overall oil change I have ever seen. Apart from the oil and filter, all fluid levels were checked, including the rear diff. All parts that needed lubrication were lubricated and all tyre pressures, including the spare were checked. Most impressed.

Tomorrow we are off to the moon.

CORRECTION (maybe)

There may have been a mis-indentification of some animals in previous blogs. What I thought were mule deer may well be elk. If any one can confirm one way or the other please let me know.

These photos should have been posted yesterday, however in our rush to pack stuff to take from the trailer to the hotel I didn’t pack a suitable USB chord.

I jacked up the trailer to release it from the truck and the operator pulled the truck forward and onto the bed of the tow truck with a winch. A fifth wheel coupler was then added to the boom at the back of the tow truck, and the trailer connected up.

Above is us just arriving at the dealership before anything was off-loaded. Our first (and hopefully last) ride in a tow truck.

Finished up spending the night in a hotel, not the worlds cheapest at about twice the rate we normally pay. We were lucky as, after explaining our predicament, they were happy to extend our check-out time from 11 AM to mid afternoon if we needed it.

Woke up to a sunny day and an included hot breakfast, good for me, bad for Lyn! Lyn is trying to shed a few more pounds, while much to her annoyance I have lost too many pounds, and am trying to keep the weight steady.

I checked in with the dealership, and the good news was that they were working on the truck. It should be ready by mid afternoon provided a road test doesn’t reveal any additional internal damage. My original assessment was correct, the hoses carrying the transmission fluid from the gearbox to the front radiator had self destructed. As I had stopped the truck within a few seconds of the problem occurring I was fairly certain I had limited the damage caused.

With nothing better to do we headed off to find a couple of geocaches. Only problem was, the GPS was back at the trailer and although I could have used the phone, it was out of charge and the cable was back at the trailer! Plan B, get the coordinates of the caches, enter them into google earth, remember the image and go hunting. It worked, we got about one and a half miles walking in and found two caches. One cleverly disguised as an Idaho potato!

After the walk we headed back to the hotel for some time in the hot tub and pool. By the time we got dried off it was time to phone the dealership again. The truck was ready. As this was a dealership the price was way more expensive than you would expect for “a couple of hours labour and some parts”, unless the labour rate down here is $250 per hour. Anyway it had to be done, hence the title of the blog which seems to be my favourite saying these days. Previously my favourite saying was “What are they going to do, fire me?” Well we all know how that transpired!!

We grabbed some lunch, hooked up the trailer and headed off 24 hours late. In a lot of respects this was a good place for this to happen (if there ever is a good place for this type of thing) as we really didn’t have too much planned for our next destination, Arco Idaho.

I must admit to being a little nervous every time I accelerated up a hill, waiting for the lines to blow again! We took this picture as we passed the “incident” site, it was easy to find as I had marked the position on the GPS and also the large oil stain on the hard shoulder was a bit of a give away. As you can see it is a little remote.

We made it to the camp site, which is a little less remote than the last two…. just. WiFI is good though.