Utah – TooBusyForWork

Moochdocking at Bear Lake

We left Salt Lake City around 11:00, but I totally underestimated the amount of time driving US 89 through Logan Canyon would take! The posted speed ranged from 20-50, and I generally had to go 5 mph less due to tight curves in the road. I also had to pull over at all the turnouts because of the line of traffic behind me! It is around 30 miles, but it took me well over an hour. I am sure it is a beautiful road, but I was concentrating so much on the pavement that I had to rely on Kevin to confirm that!

I have a friend I used to work with that has a “cabin” (really a very nice home) at Bear Lake. While his address is in Utah, Bear Lake extends into Idaho, and is really a very large natural freshwater lake. It is known for its blue color from dissolved limestone. Jim K has been volunteering an RV spot at his place if we ever came by, and this year we took him up on it. It is a respite from the crazy holiday weekend crowds. The site comes with 50 amp electric and water/sewer. And get this – he isn’t even here! He is on an Alaskan cruise with his wife, but his daughter and three grandkids are staying here. Pretty nice of him to let us stay. The house (I just can’t call it a cabin) is on a hill with a fabulous view of Bear Lake. We watched the town fireworks from his lovely deck.

Bear Lake is a huge tourist spot, and this Independence Day holiday is even crazier than it is the rest of the summer. Tourism group estimated around 100,000 people are around the lake. Luckily it is a really, really big lake! We are near Garden City, UT, and it is a classic lake tourist location. There are a lot of burger joints, tshirt shops, boat rentals, UTV rentals, and, the local specialty, raspberry shake specialty shops. A bit busy for our tastes, but I didn’t expect anything else. The temps are in the low 80s during the day and low 60s at night, so perfect weather. Since we are above 6000’, the intense sun makes the daytime seem even warmer.

We got here yesterday, and we did a quick tour of the town. Today we were planning on a 20 mile trip to Peter Sinks, a geological wonder with extremely cold temperatures year around. It rained last night, and we didn’t get very far on the trip due to slippery mud and very rutted trails. It was labeled as “moderate” difficulty, but it was more than we felt comfortable tackling by ourselves. We were driving far too tipped over for comfort! It wasn’t a wasted trip though since I got more flower pictures.

We got back to the motorhome, cleaned up, and went on the Bear Lake Scenic Drive around the lake. The lake is about 18 miles long and generally 4-6 miles wide, so it really is large for an inland lake. Did I mention it was really, really busy?

The biggest Marina on the Utah half of the lake was a zoo

We started driving on the west side of the lake, headed north. The North BEACH state Park looked like for for 2-3 miles! People parked on the beach with their sun shades and lots of toys. Obviously they were having a good time.

As we continued on the east side of the lake, the shores were very grass and shallow for long distances. Anyone launching a boat here was using a tractor to push the boat trailer into the water quick a ways. Maybe the picture below can give you a good scale.

Zoom on this to see the scale with the tiny boaters

We could barely see the town of Garden City across the lake from the east. See that little dab of white?

I also asked Kevin to drive us to the big overlook at the top of the mountain. There is a visitor center there with picnic tables and informational signs. You might be able to zoom in on a boat or two, but it depends a lot on your screen resolution. I have to reduce the photo size for the blog, so I apologize for the clarity of the picture.

From the top of the mountain visitor center

Tomorrow we have decided to go to some museums in the area instead of doing more riding. We will have opportunity for riding later in the summer, but we won’t be able to see these specific museums again unless we come back to the area.

Last days at Koosharem

We took another RZR trip on Friday before the weekend crowds were going to descend on the area. This time we went east to Fish Lake. We went over the mountain immediately to the east of our campsite via OHV trails, but then we stayed on paved roads quite a while. While we were still on the dirt retails we saw three nice bucks. Sorry for the bad photo; they were a distance away, and then they ran away. The photo also shows a very clear contrast to the hill vegetation, the rich grasses in the irrigated area, and the very dry valley without irrigation.

One of the interesting things about Fish Lake is that it was part of the old mule trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the Old Spanish Trail. One branch went along Fish Lake with its plentiful water and grazing. The markers are accompanied by the silhouettes below of packed mules. Kevin and I are considering finding some resources about this Trail and following it on a summer trip some time. We could go out on the northern route and come back on the southern route, or vice versa.

Spanish Trail marker at the far southern end of Fish Lake

There were some interesting rock outcroppings as we went on the east side of the lake.

The west side of the lake is where all the development is. There are Forest Service campgrounds and private resorts, boat launches, and marinas that were already busy by 10:00 am. This is a picture from the more northern edge. We will eventually be on the hills across the lake.

We moved along the edge of the Fremont River valley, and it was beautiful as you can see. Much of this was pavement, and we could drive at 35-40 mph. Quite different from the 10-15 mph we normally drive on dirt and rock trails!

There are three separate identified photospots along the west side. The trail is a good dirt road that stays between 9500-10,000’ much of the way. The views are just tremendous. The light colored patch across the shore is actually a really big FS campground, to give a sense of scale.

East side of Fish Lake from the viewpoints

Amd since I love flowers, here are some that were new to me on this trip.

The viewpoints were gorgeous – almost 10,000’

On the way back, the sun decided to make the link cactus blossoms just glow in the sun. Obviously what I saw earlier in the week was just the beginning of the bloom, because near the campground, coming off the mountain, the brilliant color was very much in evidence.

On Saturday we stayed at the camper mostly. We did a huge re-sort and clean both inside and in the storage bays. Kevin even gave the poor TZR a bath! I think both the motorhome and RZR weigh significantly less without all the dust! I did a bunch of sewing too. I now have 90 blocks, all 4” square (finished size). However I am totally ready to stop the curved piecing work and go back to a Hunter’s Star I cut out. Much easier.

We left the campground on Sunday morning, driving to the Salt Lake City KOA. As we went to our site, we saw a guy washing RVs, and we were able to get him to do ours too! The motorhome is so pretty! The red and gold just glow when it is clean. We also managed to get to REI and get me a couple more SPF 50 shirts that I can wear when riding or when I just want to sit outside without a lot of sunshine. Tomorrow morning we are heading to a friend’s house next to Bear Lake in northern Utah. He is letting us mooch-dock at his house during the craziness that is the 4th. We will hopefully get to do some riding there too.

Yet more RZR riding in southern Utah

It was a nice day on the trails. We left before 9:00, and we got back a bit after 2:00 – 67 miles. We first drove south to Koosharem, then up a trail along the west side of Mormon Mountain. We crossed UT 24 and headed east along the Paiute Trail. We did take some interesting side loops here and there, but the day was glorious. I am having trouble with the Go Pro battery, so these were all on the iPhone. Be prepared for picture overload!

Not gray rock but a hillside of purple flowers

We saw 8 deer, the first big mammals we have noticed. The RZR is noisy, so we don’t sneak up on things very easily. Besides these three, we also saw a doe and two spotted fawns plus two other solitary deer.

A d lots and lots of flowers. The best were around 7500’.

The center of these reminds me of a shooting star

A lot of clearing cedar trees had been done to the hillsides. It isn’t done by cutting the trees, but by dragging these huge chains between two tracts/bulldozers. It looks pretty horrid right after, but the work will open up the lane for more native vegetation. The fact that it will increase cattle grazing space is also factored in.

There were some old favorites that showed up.

At 7000’, the landscape was mostly sage and cedars.

There were a few surprises like this amazing flower. This was the only one like it I noticed.

We had lunch at Rex Reservoir. Those trees across the lake? Their trunks are 2-3 feet deep in water!

When we got up to 7500’, the scenery changed significantly. Lots of scrub oaks started showing up, and the Mountain View’s improved. If you blow up the picture below and look carefully,there is still snow!

More of the white crepe-like flowers, this time in a clump around Rex Reservoir.

It was the first cloudy day we have had. Ignore the rutted road and look at the lovely sky.

I found only one of this beauty too. An odd cup-like shape.

More sky drama. It wouldn’t be of as much note but the skies have been pristine blue until late afternoon since we arrived.

It was a fabulous trip, but processing this many pictures is time consuming! Just a short drive tomorrow to check out a specific trail, then it will be time to drive into town to get gas.

Southern Utah for a while

We stayed in St. George, Utah just one night on Saturday 24 June. We always stay at the Temple View RV Park, but it is hard to get around their building with the toad. It just isn’t set up for big rigs. The sites are fine though, so we keep coming back. We needed to run the generator for AC pretty much the entire trip since it was still so hot. I was so glad to leave the heat and move to the mountains!

We are staying at the Water Clover RV Park in Burrville, UT, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. The campground is owned by the Koosharem band of Paiutes, and it is on their reservation. Definitely a very basic place that has gravel sites and needs mowing, but it is only $150 for the week with full hookups! Can’t beat that deal. It also is right on a big OHV trail system and near Fish Lake, a big recreation spot. There is one other rig here, but I think they a seasonal since no one has been there since we arrived. Nice view over a small irrigation reservoir.

We took Monday to wander around the area and get information. I had to go to the ER on Sunday when my reaction to the gnat bites I got more than a week before got really concerning. I was afraid I had an infection, but it was just a terrible immune response. I got some super duty cortisone cream that is making me feel much better. We also went to the Richfield Visitor Center. What a nice pair of women staffing it! One was a UTVer herself, and both knew a lot about the trails and history of the area. We picked up some guide books and maps.

We then took off on a ride with the RZR. We are in a sagebrush meadow area at the start, but there were lots of flowers.

These orange ones are probably the most prevalent at the lower elevations (7000’)

Not many cactus, but this pink one was showy

Our trip was on the east side of UT 24. We headed up the mountains and crossed into the valley where Fish Lake is located.

Looking across the sagebrush to the west valley

Some of the trails we took were part of the Paiute Trail, a network of roads and trails widely advertised.

A lot of the trail was decent Forest Service roads

We finally got up to the aspens and lusher meadows. This was over the mountain southeast of our Campgroun.

As we continued higher, we got into the evergreens and skinny trees. They get that way due to the harsh winter conditions. Even this far south, the snow is intense.

We finally encountered a snowball we didn’t want to cross. We are much more cautious when riding by ourselves.

We had some dead ends trying to get back to our campsite, but it was an enjoyable day of about 60 miles.

Today we are getting chores done and relaxing. Our bodies feel that many miles in a RZR! Kevin checked a bunch of things on the RZR. He topped off the oil and radiator fluid and just generally checked things out. We have 49 more operational hours before it needs a major service, so this was just checking and cleaning things. I sewed some more. I cut out a bunch of 4” Drunkard’s Path pieces that I really needed to get to, so I did a bunch of those. Well, “bunch” is probably the wrong phrase. These are picky little devils, and they take a LOT of concentration. I did get about 20 done though. It is a good way to spend a lot of time and not get a lot done! They are awfully cute though.

We took a drive into Koosharem to have dinner. Nice little cafes that totally surprised me in such a tiny place! And there were pretty places along a trail head we checked out. It will be on our list of trips while we are here. And of course there were flowers!

Tomorrow we are taking a ride, so expect more pictures.

Salt Lake City to Lake Havasu

We got to Salt Lake City on Saturday, 3 June. Easy drive, so we got in before 2:00. We stayed at the KOA on North Temple as we usually do. We thought about Antelope Island, but the biting gnats were out, and those things love to take bites out of me! We connected with a good friend on Saturday, and I made my first pizza crust in the bread maker. It came out pretty well, but I don’t know how to stretch the dough well enough! It was a bit smaller and thicker than I like. Wish I had taken a picture, because it tasted great. The recipe for my 1 pound bread maker makes 2 crusts, so I froze on for later use.

Sunday we went to a fabulous concert held at my old church, First Presbyterian in SLC. They did the Rutter Requiem, and it was fabulous. It is one of my favorite choral pieces. If I had brought concert black attire I would have sung with them, but my black polo with worn blue jeans just didn’t fit the vibe LOL! Even better than the choral music was the first piece, an incredible organ piece performed by Larry Blackburn, my favorite organist. The church is a big city church with a gothic style, and it takes a big pipe organ to fill the space. Luckily they have one, and Larry makes good use of it. I don’t know if this link to the amateur recording will work, but here it is. You might need to copy it and place it in your browser.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NeT4rr9IgR15XZv_B_asjfbsmQ0MLysY/view?usp=sharing

Monday we had dinner with more old friends, and we repeated the joy with different friends on Tuesday. So nice to see so many of the people I enjoyed in Utah. I am not sad we moved, but I do miss the people. We also took the mandatory trip to Trader Joe’s and stocked up on freezer meals and treats. We also had the meeting with our financial advisor that was the official purpose for the trip.

We left on Wednesday, 7 June, and spent the night at the Eureka Casino parking lot in Mesquite, NV, just over the border from Utah. We have stayed there before in January heading to the southwest, and it always had 7-10 rigs of various types parked overnight. This time there was just 3 of us. It was pretty hot when we arrived, so we ran the generator for AC until about 9:00 pm when it cooled off enough to open the windows and turn on the fans. Kevin hates heat, but even he was comfortable with the temps that night.

We decided to take the slower route from Mesquite to Lake Havasu by driving NV 169, the Northshore Road that is mostly in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Lovely drive. Here are a few pictures.

Lots of little islands in the lake at this low water level

The bathtub line is >100’ above current lake levels

We arrived in Lake Havasu City to a reserved site at DJ’s Campground on the north side of town. It is a well-kept, older, very quiet place, but handy and priced well. It is HOT here, so boondocking wasn’t an option; we both wanted AC. We picked up the RZR from the Needles storage lot where it had been living since we left the SW, and Kevin is off today with a friend in town doing updates and modifications to it and the truck for transporting it without the trailer. The friend has an air conditioned garage, and all the tools known to mankind. I am sure they will have a blast.

I intend on starting a donation quite out of scraps cuts with my tumbler die. It is nice, mindless seeing, but the result is cute and for a good cause. However I never seem to get the scrap pile lowered!

Go north young (wo)man!

We left Overton, NV and headed north. The weather was a bit cold and snowy on both alternatives, and the northern route was a lot less driving. We chose to spend 2 nights at the Kaibab Paiute Tribal RV Park at Pipe Spring National Monument. Full hookups, reasonable price, and big roomy sites. The drive her was lovely, heading up through St. George, UT and Hurricane, UT, just south of Zion National Park. We are in an area of high red mesas, and it is gorgeous! Normally I wouldn’t post this quickly after my last post, but we took an enjoyable drive along the Smithsonian Butte Backcountry Scenic Byway. The northern end is in Zion National Park, but the road was very muddy, and we didn’t make it all the way. We did enjoy what we drove though.

Getting there means driving through the former FLDS towns of Colorado City, AZ and Hildale, UT. We have been through them a number of years ago, and they were really depressing. Their “prophet” was sitting in jail for child molestation, and they were really rudderless. A trust was running the towns under the auspices of the state governments and a judge. The difference now is significant! Lots of new businesses, new housing, lots of non-FLDS folks walking around. It still has areas of decaying homes and yards overrun with trash and weeds, but there were fewer than the last time we came through when we visited Pipe Springs for the first time.

Once we were on the Byway, the views just opened up.

The entire area was getting pop up snow or rain showers, depending on elevation. I think this captures the true definition of a forecast for “partly cloudy with scattered showers.”

Tomorrow we are going to Page, AZ, staying with friends at their rural spot. Undoubtably there will be more sightseeing and more pictures then.

Salt Lake City #2 and St.George

It was quite cool and wet on Monday, so we didn’t do an awful lot. We did get some shopping done, and we had a good meeting with our financial planner. We have a short term financial contract that expires next summer, and I will be going on social security next year at age 66. So we really needed to chat face to face about some options. Now that we have talked through it, we can do the rest over email and the phone when the time comes. We ate dinner at a lovely Mediterranean place called Mazzo’s. I recommend it.

Tuesday was a very enjoyable day though. The weather cleared, and the mountains were beautiful. There was no way I could get a good picture, so you will have to take my word for it! We also did a major shopping trip to Trader Joe’s for the last time this year. A follow-on trip to Smith’s grocery stores for a pork butt followed. We were having friends over, and I wanted to make pulled pork. A good rub, a bit of chicken brother, and 60 minutes in the instant pot (plus 20 minutes pressure release) made a gorgeous base for pulled pork.

I decided on a baked potato bar with pork, cheese, broccoli, butter, sour cream, and green onions. I did debate how to cook 10 potatoes in the motorhome. Should I use the “automatic” function? Combo micro/convection but manual? Or do I do it the old fashioned way and just oil them, sprinkle with kosher salt, and bake them at 400 for an hour? I ended up old fashioned because I wanted a nice crisp skin on the potatoes, and it worked. Of course we also had the complication of the campground power going out! I had to run the generator for about 3 hours since I was using the Instant Pot, the convection oven, and the washer and dryer. Luckily no one was around to bother with the noise, though the in-coach generator isn’t terribly loud. Any generator is annoying to me though, but the bigger heating appliances don’t work on battery power.

We did have a great time with a bunch of my choir buddies. They even did the dishes! We were able to finish off the flan too.

This morning we were out of the campground a little after 9:00 am for the drive through town and on to St.George, UT. I timed it so I didn’t have to drive in heavy traffic, but oh my, was the road bad for about 5-7 miles in northern Utah county! It was a construction zone, and the road was uneven and had little wiggles, not curves, just wiggles that were hard to see the marking for. Once we got through that it was smooth sailing.

As we got near Kolob Canyon, the landscape started showing its renowned red rock beauty. The land is so big that I just can’t get a picture of it, but you have probably seen them other places. I started feeling I could breath again in the dry, clear air with space all around.

We are saying at our normal St.George spot, Temple View RV Park. We got a huge pull-through site, and the temperature of 80 degrees at 4:00 pm convinced me I could start wearing sandals again. We sat outside for quite a while, then went to dinner. As we left the restaurant, the hills were just finishing some reflected beauty. Again, my camera can’t capture the breath of the view, but I at least tried.

The view was somewhat spoiled by businesses

But I cut the businesses out of this one.

Tomorrow we head towards Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. It has a no-reservation campground, so we are going to get there early. Hope we find a spot!

Salt Lake City #1

It isn’t that I think SLC is the best city in the nation/world, but that I expect to have two posts while we are here.

We did have an easy ride through SLC on I-15 because we timed it that way. I have found pretty much any city is the easiest to drive through between 10 and 2, so we cruised through between 12 and 1, arriving at the KOA around 1:30. This is a nice KOA with lots of trees and even some grass. The sites are big for a RV park, with maybe 10’ between rigs. We got settled in and generally just relaxed. The. Verizon signal is ok here, so I downloaded a number of television episodes in preparation for no signal in Death Valley.

Saturday we took a drive to one of our favorite places, Antelope Island State Park. Weather was definitely coming in, and sadly there was quite a bit of haze. I still took a couple of pictures of the mountains across the lake.

The lake surprisingly wasn’t too low, or at least not for late fall. When I first moved to the area in 2012, we could canoe all around the island. Now you can only paddle around the western side because Farmington Bat on the east is only a couple of inches deep near the island. Sad. All the people on the Wasatch Front are using up the mountain water before it reaches the Great Salt Lake.
We also did some shopping. A particularly interesting purchase was a dozen 4 oz. canning jars to make flan sous vide, as described by the server at the Basque restaurant a few days ago. I use my immersion blender to mix these up, and it works great. Here is Kevin’s sous vide setup using a small ice chest.

And inside were 8 jars of flan plus one jar of left over custard.

Sorry for the poor quality. My high res version got deleted!

The results (samples this morning) were fantastic! Smooth and silky, though not easy to get out of the jars.

This morning we went to our old church, First Presbyterian, and I sang in the choir. It was great fun hanging out with my old friends and singing again. A small group of us went to lunch at a great Greek place called “The Other Place.” It has been around for years, but we never went before for some reason. That was definitely our mistake! It has been family run for about 40 years, and the food was food was great. We both had breakfast, but some of our friends have the lunches, and they were huge. I want to come back because they also have liver and onions, a weakness of mine.

Kodachrome Basin State Park

Last January we made reservations for Kodachrome State Park in southern Utah. Spring is the most popular time, and reservations are truly necessary in this popular spot. We were able to get a lovely site with full hookups for only $30 a night, pretty good! There was no cell service, so we kept having to go to town to check on emails and texts to deal with selling the house.We had some friends join us, and we had a lovely time. I am going to add a lot of pictures, so be prepared.

Sorry for the antenna, but this is the general look of the area. Lots of rolling hills and mountains with juniper and sage.

While this part of the country is know for its red rocks, there are some big white bluffs too. Much of the white is clay, and it was mined extensively in the area.

This is a view of the area from the scenic byway Highway 12. We took an entire day to drive the 70 or so miles to and from the town of Boulder. Absolutely gorgeous.

On another day we went to Bryce Canyon National Park. It is high enough in elevation that it has lines instead of junipers, and snow was on the ground above 8000’.

View from a lookout at Bryce.

Nice arch at Bryce.

We also drove a rough dirt road, Cottonwood Canyon Road, to Grosvenor Arch. This is a well signed BLM site with picnic tables, a toilet, and a paved walkway that went most of the way to the arch. It was quite impressive – a full double arch that just opened up before you. Quite cathedral – like.

Kodachrome Basin is definitely off the beaten path, but well worth a detour. Mostly full hookup sites, 50amp electrical service, with a few no hookup sites available. All are reservable, and you need to reserve if you want a site. Almost all the sites will accommodate a big motorhome or fifth wheel with ease. Our friends had an electric site for the first 2 nights, but had to move to a non-electric on the third night. We shared cooking duties. She made sloppy joes with a wonderful fresh salad on her cooking night, and I made baby back ribs in the Instant Pot with pan fried potatoes, onion, and peppers on my night. Yum.

Too much going on to post!

Well the house in Utah has sold, and we have bought a house in Iowa. The prices in the Salt Lake City area are quite high compared to Iowa, so we were able to get a really nice new construction place with better features than the one we sold. About the same size, but with granite countertops, a three car garage, quality appliances, and just all-around better construction. Of course this means getting a 5 bedroom, 2 living areas, and a huge sewing room packed and moved. Anyone who has done can agree it is a terrible job, but it is done as of 2 days ago. I have had hardly any time to do anything fun, but I did get some sewing done. Here is the baby quilt for my niece’s upcoming baby.

I like the Irish Chain design. She wanted something understated, and she likes grays and whites. The white is a bright white Moda and the gray is Moda Grunge which is shot with streaks of white. I used a pale icy blue for the quilting. I am particularly proud of my binding on this one.

I also got a bit of embroidery done on some burp cloths.

We are currently living at the KOA in Salt Lake City. Remarkably quiet and pretty nice. We much prefer staying in our travel trailer to staying in a hotel, and we need to stay here until after the Hamilton show we have tickets to on Wednesday. Then it will be off to Iowa.

Oh, and we did take a trip to Kodachrome Basin State Park a couple of weeks ago. I will do a separate post for that.

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