A Day in the Life, Utah

Well now, Whazoo and Lynn have gone home. What shall we do. We are camped in the dispersed camping area of Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument.

That's the view to the east in the afternoon from our campsite. Dispersed camping means it is an area, worthy of camping (usually), that has no campgrounds so you can camp wherever you please. There are some restrictions. You can't be within . mile of an actual campground, and they prefer it if you use an established campsite (there are plenty) rather than make a new one, do not camp at trailheads. Oh yeah! Pack it in and Pack it out. That means you deal with your own trash, also there are no toilets so it is mostly self contained rigs like ours who use these areas. Many, like the one we are at now in the Paria River area, are near Wilderness so campfires are generally prohibited.

All that being said, dispersed camping areas are some of the prettiest spots you would ever want to camp. We have sufficient water capacity, as well as waste water storage to camp for a week or more if we are careful. Even longer if we can occasionally supplement our fresh water when we are out and about with the truck. Our solar panels provide more than enough power, even in limited sun, to power all our camper facilities (we do not have the power hogging microwave oven and air conditioner) plus keep our laptops and camera batteries charged up. We can also run our cuisinart, crock pot, coffee grinder, or electric clippers for haircuts. We usually start our day with a double espresso, then either Oatmeal, yogurt and fruit, or some of Cheryl's egg specialties. This morning we had Huevos Rancheros with sourdough toast and jam with some fresh pineapple. Lunch, since we are often on the trail, is usually an apple, an orange, and a peanut butter sandwich plus some nuts or trail mix. Dinner (or is that supper, Tina?) can be Pizza if we are trail weary, chicken or beef, cooked over the campfire when we can, with potatoes baked in the coals, or maybe a casserole or crock pot dish. Usually we will have a salad of fresh greens, tomatoes, avocado, onions, carrots, etc, etc. Depends on how long since we visited a produce department. My point here is that we are not living on freeze dried backpacking meals and gorp. We eat very well. Today we started the day's adventures with our daily trip to the BLM office for the “Wave” lottery and to fill our water jugs. Damn! 4 straight ☹☹☹☹. Pretty soon we are going to run out of reasons to stick around here. We tried to get into the Glen Canyon Dam Tour with Whazoo and Lynn on their way south, but got as far as the top of the dam and got cancelled due to 40 MPH winds. Maybe later in the week.

On the way back from the Dam we took a short hike to view the “Toadstools”. The Toadstools are eroded sandstone that, due to a harder capstone, form these delightful creatures. They range in size from this big guy, probably 10 feet tall, to little bitty ones only a couple of inches tall. the whole place reminded me of an old Disney Classic “Fantasia” that had a piece with dancing toadstools.

One area was almost all red Toadstools, and another completely different area, about a quarter mile way, and slightly higher in altitude, was mostly white Toadstools.

But, as is so typical of the weirdness of southern Utah, there were some white in with the red, and some red in with the white. And of course some were white with red caps.

Off in the distance we saw this guy who had to be over 40 feet tall.

Back at the campsite we ran into another friend. These little guys are running all over the place here in the desert. They are 4 to 6 inches long, and so quick that they are really hard to catch with the camera.

Here's a friend we didn't run into and are just as glad. Probably a coyote.

Since we didn't win the lottery today, we'll use tomorrow for errands, having the oil in the truck changed, grocery shopping, and maybe a short walk out in the wash that runs behind our campsite.

So, which way is the wind blowing here?

Here's some flora pictures from around the campsite. Alien Life Form.

Any photographer will tell you that late in the day, when the sun is low, is the best time for landscape photography.  Throw in some intensely colorful geological formations like this and a threatening sky and you get a picture like this.