Saturday, November 22

Today, it was supposed to rain. It did. It was also windy to start. The trailer did a little rock and roll from the wind, but it wasn't so bad. I could hear the pitter-patter of rain on the vents.

And then the noise stopped. Looked outside and it snowing. No more wind, and rain slowly turning to snow. The sky has lowered so much, you can't see the hills around this valley.

So Park City is supposed to get lots of snow today. And since Deer Valley is a short hop, skip and jump from Park City, it should also.

Before today, the weather has been alternating between cloudy to clear (but dry all the time). Today, I guess it is changing.

Next week is Thanksgiving and I have to go to Deer Valley to fill out all my employment paperwork. It is supposed to be nice on Tuesday, but we'll see. I start work December 1. Can't wait!

November 12

Today is November 12, 2014. It was supposed to be nice today (maybe somewhat cloudy, but not too bad). Monday it was supposed to rain and/or snow. It didn’t. Yesterday was supposed to be nice and it was – blue sky and a few fluffy clouds. Thursday it was supposed to rain and/or snow.

Today was supposed to be more of the same nice weather. Hah!!! At 9:00 am it is snowing onto my car and trailer. Not a lot of snow, right now. Fairly big fluffy flakes/bunches of snow, but this time it is sticking – a little.

A change on Friday was indicated. Instead of clear, nice weather, it changed. Not to rain and/or snow, but strictly snow. The temperature for a high is below freezing. The low is single digit.

I’m keeping my heater down to 62 degrees and may have to go lower in order not to use so much propane. One tank lasts about a week or a bit longer. I think next winter I’m going to be somewhere where the weather doesn’t get so cold.

BTW, the cats are sleeping, totally unaware of the change in weather. Lucky suckers!

A slightly later update: The sky is clear but there are occasional snowflakes flying around. Very sparkly.

Deer Valley

Wish I could sleep as easily as Ziva, regardless of the position!

 I drove up to Deer Valley just to see where it was and what it looked like before the season begins. It is obvious that some snow has fallen (and been made), especially in the shaded areas. It is an absolutely gorgeous area. Of course it is full of very expensive hotels/motels/apartments and a couple of older houses that are surrounded by hotels/motels/apartments.

 One of the neat hotels next to the ski area is this one. One part is at the ski area bottom, the other part is at the top of the hill behind it. Guests take a cogwheel tram up to the top part. I've been on one of these and it is scary, but fun.

I'm ready for the ski season to start. I've found out where I need to go to start my job. I can't wait.

Rain or Snow

Today it was supposed to rain. No problem. Rain I can deal with at this point. It was supposed to hit a high of 59 degrees – cool but doable.

So I’m sitting here at my computer – the power is off so my laptop is playing on battery power now. Of course, no internet, no TV, no heater fan blowing. You get my drift. Fortunately, it is not me, it is the whole park, maybe the whole city.

And it is snowing. Yes, the hills closest to me are now slightly visible and have a dusting of snow on them. As do I, after walking to the front office to see if the power problem was with the whole park and not me. It isn’t supposed to snow at 59 degrees. But I guess the weather didn’t tell the weather guessers (commonly called “weather forecasters”) that is was going to snow today.

Fortunately, it is not a lot of snow and it is melting as it hits my truck and the ground, so the world isn’t turning white. Yet.

Yea!! The heater just came on. So I guess I won’t need to bundle up in everything warm I own (not much) just yet. I’d better get busy finishing the mittens I started. My hands might get too cold to do much.

It’s supposed to be dry and only overcast tomorrow. We’ll see!

Next day!!

It actually dry and overcast. The hills are alive with the sound of . . . snow and snow-making. Deer Valley sent me info about my first day of work (December 1) and info about the snow-making at Deer Valley. Can't wait. Of course, I've got to get new tires for the truck and figure out how to keep my California dreamin' truck alive and warm during, what appears right now will be, a cold winter.

BTW, this picture was taken from my door steps. As I sit at the window with my computer, this is the view I get. I love it!

Heber City, finally

A few days ago, I went up to Heber City to see what it was like. It is a nice little city and, according to someone I talked to, the fourth fastest growing area in the country. Great.

On the way up, I turned off on a side road and found this sign, located near the Provo Shooting Club. I guess they are just as bad as Californians!

Heber City is located between two reservoirs, one above the valley, one below. The first RV park I was supposed to stay at happened to be located at the base of the dam above the valley. It also didn't have internet or cable TV, so I went to the other park.

It is located at the other end of town. Of course, I arrived while it was raining! It was also very windy! The clouds came down and blocked out the mountain tops. When the clouds went away, surprise! Snow at the highest levels.

When I visited Heber City the first time, it was beautiful and clear. I took a couple of pictures on the trip from Provo through Provo Canyon to Heber City. There was a little park with a beautiful waterfall and a pond absolutely filled to the brim with rainbow trout. They have a feeding station where you can buy food to feed the fish and a lot of people were doing so. I didn't have any change, so I couldn't. It was neat though.

Today as the sun was going down, there was an absolutely incredible sunset. As you can see from the picture, I took it from the RV park. Lots of RVs got in the way!

The Arches

Monday, I drove from Green River to The Arches National Park at 6:00 am. I wanted to see the sun rise and hoped to get some sunrise and arches. Didn't quite, but the sky was quite beautiful.

 I drove to the end of the paved road (at Devil's Garden Campground) and hiked to see two arches. The first was "Tapestry Arch" and the other was "Broken Arch". I found Tapestry Arch (there was a sign) and then tried to go back to the original trail.

 Instead of going back the way I came (the "logical" thing to do), I ended up going cross-country, doing all the bad things the NPS didn't want you to do (first thing is to stay on the trail and not step on the natural occurring bacteria for the desert to regrow). I followed some other footsteps and tried to avoid growing spots, but it took about 20 minutes to actually get to the trail to go to the other arch.

However, I never found the other arch.

I went to the "Devil's Garden" trailhead and took the improved trail to Tunnel Arch, Pine Tree Arch and Landscape Arch. It was a fairly easy hike, only a few ups and downs and was another place I took too many pictures (85 I think). Thank goodness I'm not using film. I couldn't afford the film and the developing!

I'm not sure why this is called Pine Tree Arch, but it is still gorgeous. It is one of the few arches you can get underneath without a lot of huffing and puffing.

The next arch (after Tunnel Arch) was Landscape Arch. This one used to have a trail to stand underneath, until a 300 pound section of the arch fell, almost on top of some hikers. It's been closed since then.

 After that little hike, I drove down to "Balancing Rock". It really looks like it is balancing on the rock beneath. The lower rock has worn away and will probably wear away some more until the balancing rock on top falls over. Not too soon, I hope.

There was a path all the way around, so I did that little hike. That was the end of my adventure in Arches, except for a quick stop at the Courthouse area. The rock structures looked like many old courthouses and there was even a group of four rock "people" standing across the road.

BTW, the road into the main part of the park starts at the main highway into Moab and then makes some very sharp turns to climb up the rock face into the main section. Very dramatic and "let's not look at the view right now" kind of terrifying.

On Wednesday, I drove to Provo, UT. It was an easy drive. I made a quick drive to Heber City (about 25 miles away). More later.

Capitol Reef and Goblins

On Saturday, I drove to Capitol Reef and spent some time there. Most of the interesting stuff is located on dirt roads that are recommended only for 4 wheel drive or vehicles with high clearance. My truck isn’t 4x4, but it does have high clearance. I still didn’t go down any dirt roads. Too messy!

Right off the freeway seems to be part of the fold. If it isn't, it is still fascinating.

CR isn’t a park I had ever heard of, so it was interesting going there. Apparently there is a 100 mile long fold in the earth. It is called “Waterpocket”. It makes some interesting formations.

The layers that show up in the formations are really intriguing. For instance, this formation looks like a messy layer cake. That rock on top looks like it could fall at any moment.

In this picture, the different types of formations have different colors. The hard, smooth stuff near the base look like green-patined copper. Might be. The red may be iron. Wonder if any of these layers are from the time of the dinosaurs, or even earlier. Interesting to think about.

There is also a district in the park called “Fruita District.” There are a lot of fruit trees growing along the river, along with a few old buildings and a farmhouse. They sell fresh fruit “stuff” there, like pies, jellies and jams. I bought a pie. They also have an area that lets you pick your own fruit, when there is fruit of course. Not this time of year.

When I left CR, I decided to go to the Goblin Valley State Park. There was a small area for camping and an overlook to the Goblin Valley. The only bad part (besides the parking which was horrendous) was that everyone was climbing all over the goblins. They probably wouldn’t last long, but the info sign said that old ones were wearing down and new ones growing. I’m sure they were wearing down faster than they were growing new ones.

 There are a lot of differently shaped goblins. Some look like faces, some look like animals, some look like short fat "goblins". Some look like a specific part of male anatomy.

 I took a short walk among the goblins and noticed the shapes and the evidence of them being underwater and then above water with the water lapping at the structures. Really neat!

 The different colors also seem to indicate the different mineral content of the water and the sediment that was deposited over the years.