Cabin Loop, Day Two

We went to bed when it was dark and getting cold...during the night it was on the colder side of comfortable but we were ok in our sleeping bags. At 8 am, we were awaken to this site...and it was warm. I climbed out of my sleeping bag and quickly began shedding my multiple layers.

We sat around camp, made coffee, had breakfast and then packed up. We were amazed by how warm the sun was so we made sure to sit in the shade. Sorry, I can't turn the picture so you will have to turn your head!!


The goal today was to get to Aspen Springs Cabin. We had no idea how far away it was...we had no idea how much further we had to go on the Barbershop Trail. Turns out we were only like a mile from the end. We had a decision to make...do you believe the sign and the mileage?


If we decided to go to the General Crook Trail, we could then take that to another cabin. We had no idea how far down the General Crook trail the General Springs Cabin was so we thought we would hike the 1.5 miles to the end of this trail and see what the sign said. So we dumped our packs since we knew we had to come back this way...


and we were officially on the third trail...Houston Brother's Trail.


Well, the darn sign lied...again...big suprise. It wasn't 1.5 miles down to the end, it was 2 miles. Now, the sign where we left our packs said it was 4 miles to camp. So we hiked about 1 mile on Barbershop, did 2 miles to this sign which meant 2 miles back, get our packs and do 4 miles to camp IF you believe the sign.


So we decided to just go down the trail--which happened to be the road at this point--for a little while. We were able to cell phone reception so Jason called his Dad and spoke with him on Father's Day. I had to leave a message for mine. The camera took a dump on me here. I thought these would be the last pictures for this camera...but I amazingly got it working again.



We decided to only go about a mile down the trail/road. The trail was not very good so we just went to the road, grabbed a geocache and hiked back to our packs. We had some great views and a sign in the middle of nowhere--usually these were at a trailhead or a trail crossing.


There was a little stream that went into a pool that would have been like knee deep. I was tempted to go in but that would require removing my hiking boots and socks and then drying my feet afterwards and that just seemed like too much work!


We found some pretty flowers along the trail--ok one was a weed but the orange ones were amazing!


We passed this really gnarly tree and a ripairian exclosure area.


Some more pictures of the trail


And finally, before we knew it, we were at camp! We were staying at the Aspin Cabin. There was a neat footbridge across the stream and an outdoor fireplace/chimney.



It was a very interesting area...had a cabin with an old stove out back...and what appears to be a road!!



We were debating where to camp that night. The east side of the stream had a huge campfire ring, a nice wood pile but it was in the direct sun when we arrived. I liked the west side of the stream because the campfire ring was smaller, we could just bring some of the nice wood over and it was shaded. So we decided camp would be on the west side...this is the view from camp--very shady but across the stream was in full sun.


This was the campsite we decided on.


Jason got busy filtering water...and our wonderful camera got a great action shot!


We put up the tent and ended up with it being right ON the trail. Good thing there weren't any other hikers out here!


We both had Turkey Tetrazzini for dinner and it was very good again. We got into camp around 3:30-4pm and figured we hiked around 11 miles today. We were happy to relax. I finished my wine which was still very good and made it an early night again. It is amazing what happens when you don't have electricity and the sun goes down. Now, here is hoping to a nice night of sleep and a shady morning!!

Cabin Loop, Day Three

Well, Well, Well...did we learn a very valuable lesson. Even though you are out backpacking and it is beautiful and peaceful...you still need to use your brain! Because we did not last night when we picked our campsite. Dumbass Tami never thought that the east side of the stream is in direct sun at 5pm because the sun sets in the west...which means it rises in the east...and the west side of the stream will be in DIRECT SUN...again. This is what we woke up to again...kind of looks like yesterday's picture...


So there were some great things over the weekend and some not-so-great. The great things were the 26-plus miles of hiking we got in despite all the elevation changes going in and out of the canyons...the nice campsites...how good dehydrated food tastes after a day of hiking...and the beauty of the area. The not-so-great part of the weekend was our camera has officially died. It went on life-support Sunday afternoon and I was able to get a few more pictures but this is the official last picture this camera will ever take :(


We hiked out the last 1.5 miles back to the Pinchot Cabin and to the truck. We saw one guy on a horse with his dog on Saturday, the backpacking couple on Saturday and a couple with their son and dog dayhiking on Sunday. I was amazed that there weren't more people out enjoying this beautiful area. Until next time....The Collard's

Friday May 1st, 2009...Bryce Canyon

Welcome to Bryce Canyon National Park!


We are packed and on our way!

We are packed and on our way! We originally planned to rent a RV and travel for 3 weeks up to Utah to visit some National parks and then continue up to go to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Well, Mr. Collard couldn't get the time off so we did the next best thing...11 days in Utah camping in a tent! We don't know why we didn't check into renting the RV for this trip--because it was only 11 days instead of 21?? We still don't completely understand our thought process on that one.

We were on the road later than planned (surprise, surprise) but we were on the way. We stopped to buy ice for our new fancy dancy cooler--it will keep ice for 5 days!! Then we were on the road around 7:30am. The plan was to head up to Bryce National Park...google maps said it should take about 7 1/2 hours to get there. I had only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before so my plan was to sleep the whole way up there...and I pretty much did that. I am very fortunate that I can sleep easily in a car however I couldn't recline my seat even an inch so it wasn't the most comfortable sleeping position. Jason did get a kick out of swerving the car so that my head would bob around...he thought it was hilarious...I didn't :)

I couldn't believe when we got in the car to get on the road that I hadn't noticed all this extra space! Once we got on the road, I managed to find something for this spot also.

Here are some views from the road

We got to Bryce in the afternoon...we lost an hour on the way there but had no problems finding a campsite. We didn't get our first choice but we did get a great site. We got camp all set up and decided to do the scenic drive...

We settled on Site 99 for our two nights of camping.

After getting the camp all set up, we went on a drive...first to the general store...then onto the scenic drive. The general store at Bryce completely ROCKS!!! Anything and everything you could want was here...and reasonably priced! They had firewood, toiletries, beer, eggs, steaks, camp supplies, gifts...everything! We did learn that when the general store was constructed, the roof was made with a design in the shingles to look like a wave...to better fit in with the surroundings. You can't really see it in the picture but the roof did have a wavy appearance.


They even had a gas station at one time.


We decided to drive up the scenic drive--18 miles one way. We drove straight to the end of the road and stopped at the overlooks on our way back. The first overlook is Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point. They offer expansive views of Southern Utah and on clear days you can see the Kaibab Plateau in Arizona which is 90 miles away...it was not our lucky day but we still had awesome views.

Rainbow Point...with beautiful views and an interesting warning!


So we are camping...where are we suppose to keep our valuables? In our tent?? I think we will risk it and keep them locked in the glove box.

We went on the 1 mile Bristlecone Loop Trail at Rainbow Point.

Ok, at this point, I am questioning my choice for a spring vacation. Snow...is that SNOW?? I know that I am freezing my butt off but SNOW? Thankfully, the snow was only at the highest elevation at Bryce and our trip did eventually warm up once we left Bryce!

To quote the following sign on the Bristlecone Pine tree...

"Bristlecones thrive where few other plants can grow. At the windiest point of the trail, on bare rocky ground, this bristlecone has lasted more than 1,600 years.

Bristlecone pines can survive prolonged drought. When branches and portions of the trunk appear dead, other limbs may function as the main trunk. This bristlecone's trunk has been dead a long time, while a surviving branch has become the new tree."

Ok, how do they KNOW it is 1,600 years old? I just don't get it...but it was a really, really cool tree! You can tell the dead part and the part that is alive even when it doesn't have needles!



We followed the trail down...even though there were warnings, we had to check out the building. We don't know what it was...thought maybe an outhouse but that couldn't be. There were solar panels on the building and windows...I can just imagine someone somewhere in an office watching a video tape of us walking right by the building! I believe there were cameras inside and don't know if they use it to watch the weather or what.


When then continued down to Yavimpa Point...just one of the many lookouts we will be stopping at.

I did see someone that has my sense of style :) Is that really a striped sweater with plaid shorts? Even I wouldn't do that!


We found this very funny and thought of our friend who is getting married at the end of the month! Her name is Molly....the first picture you can't really see it so we did a close up of Molly's Nipple...that just sounds bad :)



OH, OH, OH....our first wildlife sighting of the trip!!!


The first lookout on the trip back to camp was Black Birch Canyon. Here are some views from that lookout. We thought the hole in the rock (middle of the picture on the right) was really neat!




The next one was Ponderosa Canyon.

I think I should explain what the formations are. They are called Hoodoos and are pillars of rocks that are left by erosion. Basically years and years ago there was a plateau that was lifted up...younger layers lay next to older layers...and streams began to erode the layers of sediment away. If you think of a solid layer of land that has a crack in it, the crack slowly expands until it is more like fingers. Then the fingers will slowly erode into columns. The water freezing and thawing helps this erosion along. Most of the hoodoos have a hard cap of rock over softer layers...once that hard cap is gone, the pillar falls apart.

We had seen similar rock formations down at the Chiricahua's in Arizona. The Chiricahua's had more defined formations of gray rock...these were all beautiful colors of reds and oranges...just amazing!

This was a set of Hoodoos in the sand surrounded by trees. I just thought it was cool!


Then came Aqua Canyon...there is a Hoodoo called the Hunter here that has small trees growing on top of it. We tried to get a picture of it but it really was hard.




Next was one of our first Natural Bridges we would see...although technically it isn't a Bridge. A bridge is formed by a stream eroding the rock from the bottom...arches are formed by erosion cause by rain and frost from the top of the rock. Either way...bridge or arch...it was cool!



Farview Point was next...

Here there are Ponderosa Pines from the upper elevation and Douglas Fir and White Fir from the lower elevations.

We walked out to Piracy Point...didn't see any Pirates though.




The last stop was Swamp Canyon.

The view from here...they kind of all look the same after a while!


We realized on the way back to camp that dinner hadn't thawed out yet! We were having fish for dinner and I know they thaw pretty quickly so we improvised! Nothing like being out camping!!



We saw some actual real wildlife on the way back to camp...turkeys...


Pronghorns...



Mule Deer...


Dinner Time...the fish thawed out although cooking it wasn't the easiest. We seem to have a few problems getting the charcoal ready at the same time as everything else. We had Parmesan Baked Fish for dinner that was actually Cheddar Baked Fish. I forgot the Parmesan Cheese and the Cayenne Pepper at home so we used what we had--Cheddar Cheese and Jamacian All Spice! Gotta love the Jamaican All Spice--it goes on everything!




This dinner might not have looked the prettiest but it got a big thumbs up! I have already made it again once we got home! We only hike a mile today since we were in the car driving so long...so 1 mile total for the trip.