2nd Tuesday in Utah - the Stellar Jay arrived

2nd Tuesday in Utah

the Stellar Jay arrived

We'll start off, today, with the news of the day - a Stellar Jay appeared out the window. There are three types of Jay at this altitude, here, and this makes the third type, a clean sweep.

He has the comb that sticks up, whereas neither of the others do. The wind would blow it around!

Last night, Larry fixed chicken and vegetable Kibobs on the grill - very pretty, and very good!

Picking up some of the neat photos from Monday, as we drove down the mountain, if you are not driving, some neat scenes. Here is the first, just around the corner, 1000 Lakes Mountain; didn't roll down the window on these two, so some reflections.

Then, a little further down, swing to the east, a bit... the house in the valley, where we turn back to the left...

After we got down in the valley, and around a few curves, we get out to the blacktop, where the bald eagles have a nest.

A little closer look, I was able to catch the top of the head of the female bald eagle in the nest.

After we had finished the loop of the Old Caineville Road yesterday, we decided to do just a little piece of the Cathedral Valley drive, many less than ten of the 60 mile trip... we wanted to do the river ford...

Just a few miles in, the road 'fords' the Fremont River a few hundred feet... They have actually reinforced the river bed into a highway bed... but it still looks scary as you go down one bank, into the fast rushing water a ways, and up on the opposite bank. Note: if any extra rain in the area, always check with the ranger station, first.

It was fun... Annette gets out and takes the photos...  ;-)

One other highlight on this short trip, out a few miles further; Indian Paint Brush, just starting to come out. This was the only good one we saw!

Ok, one more set of two photos...  as we were up and down and around all the rock formations, we kept seeing this one formation, that really looked like a Ute Indian, on a bluff, wrapped in a blanket, with his peace pipe or a rifle, guarding the valley... snow on the Henry Mountains, in the back right, pretty neat as well (melted quite a bit the 10 days we have been in the area) - back to the 'Indian.'

Guess it is hard to see, on the left, on that point. Here is a closer view - it is obvious an unusual rock formation, but....

It was another great day!  ;-)

2nd Monday in Utah - Old Caineville Road

2nd Monday in Utah

Old Caineville Road

We went for an adventure ride today on the Old Caineville Road, a little ways beyond the Capital Reef park to the east. Part of it is the old dirt/gravel/sand road before Highway 24 was built and improved. Toward the far end, are some remnants of old Caineville... new Caineville, a little farther east, isn't much more impressive.

Most impressive is that we go off the highway, into the rocks, so to speak, and here is this fairly lush valley, with a canal and a river running through it, green hay fields, trees, ... totally unforeseeable from the highway.

Just feet from the highway, on the dirt road, there was a cattle gate. When Larry went back to close it, this old gentleman (92+, Annette and Larry know them) and his wife pulled up. Larry re-opened the gate, for them... as they went through, another car came and went, as well. We never saw another car, all the way around.

Looking ahead...

On down the road, a piece... Canal just below the photo, river in the bottom, cliffs on other side.

Around many, many curves, we came to a swampy, wet-land area along the road. [From here on, some photos are mine, some are Annette's]

There are actually beaver working the area... we didn't see any, but, the tree upper left, shows signs.

Here Annette was about to take the following photo of the beaver chewed tree, up closer.

A few curves further down the road, we came to the old, abandoned (mostly) homestead. Here is a wide angle photo, back up the road we came down.

Nancy stayed in the jeep, but we moved it a couple of times, along here.

Here is the first old building...

Annette captured me looking at it...

Next was the abandoned house...  perhaps only 30-40 years from livability.

Next on the east was a corral, looks like for sheep, but also cattle, that had been used this spring.

With the nearby pasture, there was a modern rake; but there was also relic, old machinery.

Moving on down the road, and turning back to the north, toward the Highway, and just west of current Caineville, was an old cemetery.

I'll share more about the cemetery, and some other side trips, in a later post.

It was a nice, generally cool, day!  ;-)

Second Sunday in Utah - a quiet day

Second Sunday in Utah

a quiet day

Nancy finished her jigsaw puzzle on the puzzle table late on Saturday night. She did it all herself, with only positive encouragement from the rest of us. Congratulations!

Pretty, huh?!

After a heavy workday and the park yesterday, Larry took it easy and work on assembly of another bench for the desk. Much more complex than I imagined. But, he has all the tools and the skills. They are really neat. Shade makes the photo a little bad on contrast, but it is recorded.

We each worked on our projects, and the all sharing in watching three hours of Survivor finale - skipping the commercials via Direct TV. Boston Rob finally got his win.

It was a good day!  ;-)

First Saturday - Work in the Park Day

First Saturday

 Work in the Park Day

Annette and Larry were committed to a work day and cleanup day down in the Teasdale Park (started to say City Park, but Teasdale is not an incorporated City!). It is an annual event they have done for a few years now. Lots of folks work, and then they have lunch in the shelter house. Mom and I stayed home, this year. We were sad that it seemed to be raining, up here, between 9 and 10 a.m. But, it didn't last, and they had a good work day. Here Larry and some of the guys are working on a new walk/bike path they just started that goes around the park. (Thanks to Annette for photo!)

 

Hummingbirds are a little late getting to the house this year. There has been one, from time to time, it seems. Today, I finally got him with the camera.

Hummingbird is drinking, lower right, in case you missed it....  ;-)

Larry put a shield on the bird feeder stand, yesterday, to keep the squirrels out of the bird-feeder. Well, I happened to see the little chipmunk JUMP from the white stump on the right, to get to the feeder!  ;-)

The larger squirrels on the ground haven't tried it yet!  ;-)

Nancy worked on a jigsaw puzzle and her computer; I worked on blogs and other writing...

Already in a work mode, Annette worked in the yard, cleaning out old dried sticks from the little green flowering plants...

Larry also worked, out back (east side), moving some rocks to put in a drain pipe.

The day ended something like it began... some rain, about 7:30 p.m., followed by a nice rainbow!

It was another nice day!  ;-) Thus ended the first week of your visit in Utah this May...  ;-)

First Friday - Groceries in Loa

First Friday - Groceries in Loa

Well, we'll start with Thursday night. Annette and Larry had a meeting to select a movie for the BIFF (Bicknell International Film Festival), subject this year: Superheros. Before they started previewing the film, I took this photo of the tv screen and Mom working...

This morning, we saw some deer walking up the hill, west of the house. Couple of photos came out.

In the afternoon, we drove over to Loa to the grocery store. On the way, we drove up to the Sundown Campground in the Fish Lake National Forest, just a mile off the road. Neat!

Up at the campground turnaround... looking back into the valley.

Back home, we had noticed the 'neighbors' were camping out on their homesite with some friends. At least three tents, and a nice campfire.

Looking at the sun in the valley...

And, from the west side of the house, with the Wilson's house on the left, campers on the right.

Watched movies, this evening... some better than others... no... both bad!  ;-)

It was another beautiful day... regardless of the movies!  ;-)

First Thursday - 1964 comparisons in Capital Reef

First Thursday

1964 comparisons in Capital Reef

By Thursday morning, the weather had turned beautiful, as we had hoped and expected... about 65 degrees and sunny. Our mission today was to locate the rock formation behind us in four 1964 slides I took of the family as we drove from St. George, Utah, to Louisville, Kentucky, in mid-July, 1964.

The first one we were looking for was this one, with Nancy holding Allison and Annette behind.

Annette had noticed the 'petroglyph' in two of the photos, and was sure she knew the area. So, these were the first rock formations we looked for, in that area.

We parked the Jeep in the pullout near the current 'petroglyph' boardwalk... the rock formations were certainly there - but trees were now grown up, a bit in the way. Here, you can see the rocks.

To get the right angle, to close the rock formations together, they needed to be to the left in the photo, over by the entrance to the boardwalk. Below is a photo of Annette on the boardwalk to the petroglyphs. I am standing about on the spot were the sign was, before.

Do you see the petroglyphs on the red wall, behind? I didn't either. Here is a closer look. There are many, many more, proceeding to the right, down the boardwalk, now.

Here is the second 1964 photo; the petroglyph sign, again. I'm holding Allison, Annette at side.

The trees even seem to be the same, here. Unbelievable!  ;-)

Next, we went on east, to the entrance of the park, turned around, to locate where the entrance to the Monument was - in 1964, Capital Reef was a National Monument, not a National Park. Just east of the Behunin Cabin, we found the curve in the road and the rock formation. See here:

and, again, 

The sign is gone, but the spot is still there; the cement foundation and some fragments of the bricks.

Here, Annette looks at the remnants.

So, we achieved our goals. Earlier in the trip, we ate lunch at Chillzz.

Driving into town, we saw a Golden Eagle nearby the road.

And, along the road, in the park, two big-horn sheep lept across the road in front of us... then stopped nearby. I got a partial view, but Annette was able to get out of the car, stand up, and took this one.

This is a fairly rare occasion, so we really enjoyed it!  ;-)

While on the petroglyph boardwalk, we met a nice couple and chatted a bit:

Leaving the park, I took this photo over the Visitor's Center - neat, huh?  ;-)

It was another very good day!  ;-)