Day 20 & 21 Crestview and Sebastian, Florida

Day 20 & 21– 6/1-2/2021

The plan today is to drive 870+ miles to Crestview, FL where we will spend the night.  Then tomorrow drive the rest of the way to Sebastian, FL another 500+ miles. 

There is not much to record about this part of the drive, although we did have a flyby by a military jet. 

For the rest of the trip we do not take any more pictures, I think we were starting to get a little antsy and glad to be back in Florida and it will take us about 7-8 more hours to get back home.  On this trip, we drove 6,845 total miles. 

As with any blog, when you first get to this blog, you will see this last entry first.  If you look to the left side of the blog page, you should see an archive listing each daily entry of the trip.  Simply select the oldest date to start and work your way to this last entry.  By the way, if you have enjoyed this travel blog and have not seen our other travel blogs you can find them at this web address: https://www.blogger.com/profile/02504216977029606085.  You should see a list of the blogs for each of our trips, this trip, our previous trips, and any future trips we might do.  If you do not want to find it in the list of our travel blogs, you can get there directly using this URL in the web’s address line:  https://bobandcarmens2021usaroadtrip.blogspot.com/. 

If you have any comments, Carmen and I would love to hear them and thanks for viewing our travel blog.

Bob and Carmen

 

Day 19 – Wichita Falls

Day 19 – 5/31/2021 – Wichita Falls

Having a long way to go today, we leave early and reach New Mexico where we still drive by rock formations like this. 

While driving somewhere just beyond Gallup, New Mexico we pass these windmill blades sitting on trailers waiting for delivery.  You can imagine the size of one of the blades from the truck tractor pulling the flatbed rig.  We have seen one before, but not all three together.

Before we reach Thoreau, NM, we cross the Continental Divide, at an altitude of 7,275 feet.  The sky is darkening and we can see rain in the distance and it seems to be coming our way.  We stop at a gas station and get gas and a pit stop and as we get back into the car, it begins to hail.  To stay out of the hail and before getting back onto the highway we stop under the highway overpass until it finishes.

While still in New Mexico, we pass a section that has a makeup of lava flow rocks.  This must be thousands of years old because I do not remember hearing about volcano eruptions in New Mexico. 

This is not the first train that we have seen.  Most all of the trains have over 200 cars, many with double-decker containers cars pulled by three engines like these and pushed by at least two more.

Apparently, at 6,000 feet of elevation, we are still in an area with interesting terrain.  Check out the singular spire at this location. I wonder if people climb this a training for a bigger climb.

Having traveled from New Mexico to Texas, we have seen many windmills for pumping water, such as this one both in the distance and near the road. 

Once again we are seeing many windmill farms.  This one, in the distance, like many others lines of four to eight windmills make up a linear field for electricity generation. 

Sure enough, we go by several ranches and this one had many horses near the road.  There are small colts and at least five lying down, hopefully sleeping.  You can how large the fields are with the electric generating windmills in the background.

Just before we enter Amarillo, Texas, we go by the Cadillac Ranch again and although we do not stop, Carmen gets a passing picture of the cars. 

Before we get to Wichita Falls and stop for the night, Carmen takes a picture of one of the many wheat fields we have gone by.  This one is huge and fronts another windmill farm in the background. 

As we near Wichita Falls, we come across this Texan fixer upper.  And look, it has its own satellite dish receiver for television stations.  What more could you ask for?

Day 18 – Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Toadstool Hoodoos, Winslow, AZ

Day 18 – 5/30/2021 – Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Toadstool Hoodoos, Winslow, AZ

Our morning begins early, since we have a long way to travel, and leave our hotel in Tropic.  Traveling again west on Rt-12, we pass Glory Cove, Tropic Ditch Falls, and Mossy Cave trailhead.  Along this section of the road, we are in the northern most section of Bryce Canyon National Park with its spires and hoodoo formations.

Just before we reach the road to Bryce Canyon, we drive by a group of Brahma cattle.  I find the brand funny.  A bar over a B and a crossed out heart; does that read “no love for Bar B?”  LOL.

After driving about 10 miles from the Bryce Canyon turnoff, we enter Red Canyon.  Passing places like Butch Cassidy Draw, we drive through the Red Canyon Arch.  If you look closely there are rocks hanging precariously above the road. 

Shortly after passing through the Red Canyon Arch, we pass the Visitor Center and see these two hoodoos.  According to what we have read, this formation is called the Salt & Pepper shakers or as the Hopi would call them, the Ancients.

Now that we are on US-89 heading south, we pass a number of ranches.  This one is an old fixer upper that even has a mother-in-law house. 

Approaching Coral Pink Sand Dunes, we can see that many dune buggies and other dirt vehicles use this area.  You can see the trails left by previous riders.

Parking at the dune trail parking lot, we move up the dune to the top and have this view before us.  At this location, the dunes seem narrow, yet extend a long ways to our left and here to our right.  The trees in the distance are in a part of the dunes. 

At one spot on the top of the dunes, which had fine, very soft sand, I found four track trails.  One of them is from an adult Tiger Beetle. 

Climbing to the other side of another dune, I have a great view looking back towards the east.  The dune goes up and over the hill, in front of us, to more dune area.  Again, the dunes also continue further to the left out of the picture. 

We found it unusual to see a section covered with flowers that appears to be lupines at the top of one of the sand dunes.  I the upper left background you can see another beetle track.

Returning on the road we came in on, heading back to US-89, we again see a parking area for campers and dirt vehicles.  You can see an SUV at the entrance of the dunes.  Bring your toy-hauler up to the park and ride for the weekend. 

I thought, and apparently wrong, that we would have been out of hills like this, but we are in the southern end of the Grand Staircase National Monument.  There are so many layers in this hillside it is almost too difficult to count them all. 

We reach Kanab and US-89 turns east.  Here is one section of cliff that has, as we have seen before on cliff sides before, appears to be a carbon line as I have heard before.  The premise is that the earth was at one time in the past covered and burned in ash from either fires or volcanic eruptions. 

The terrain remains similar and we almost missed our planned stop at the Toadstools Trailhead. 

Beginning our hike, we are following a dry streambed and on both sides of the trail are cliffs like these. 

While hiking along the trail, we get a glimpse of some toadstool hoodoos on a hilltop.  Notice the darker harder stone on top of a spire of softer stone.  The softer white stone weathers faster becoming the spire-like feature under the hard rock making the feature look like a mushroom.

Reaching the end of the trail, I had to wait before people moved off the rock.  Still look at the too mushroom shaped hoodoos.  A very thin spire holds the mushroom top on the right. 

Other mushroom hoodoos in the flat slickrock area. 

Check out the size of this mushroom toadstool hoodoo.  You can see people trying to stay cool in the hoodoo shadow. 

I do not realize it until I get back to the trailhead, but if I had traveled to the left around this rock wall, I would have come upon more mushroom hoodoos.  Maybe we will stop next time, if we ever come back this way.

Walking back to the car, we see more of the weathered walls with the multiple layers. 

We are nearly in Arizona and I took this picture because of the speed limit sign in the desert.  I think there is a road there, but when I took the picture, it was for the tower and other formations I the background. 

As we approach Lake Powell and the Glenn Canyon Dam, we can see part of Wahweap Bay on the Colorado River. 

This slab of sandstone exhibit contains the dinosaur tracks made by a one-ton, twenty-foot long, meat-eating dinosaur.  The Dilophosaurus tracked through the mud 170 million years ago, when this was a different landscape. 

From the patio viewpoint I can get a picture of the whole dam and the Colorado River below.  

Before we go across, here is the bridge over the Colorado River from the Glenn Canyon Dam viewing patio. 

From the viewing deck, we can see the Colorado River, Lake Powell, and Wahweap marina in the background. 

After a quick stop in Page for lunch, we head out of town to the Horseshoe Bend Overlook.  We find a parking space after paying our entry fee and begin our three-quarter mile hike to the river’s rim.  As you can see, there are already quite a few people at the overlook.

Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River.  What a fantastic sight.  It might be difficult to see, but there are many kayaks in the water below with about 12 on the sandy beach right under us.  A panoramic picture is the only way to see the whole scene in one look.

Still on US-89 heading south the road is now the Vermillion Cliffs Scenic Road.  If there is any question of how scenic the drive is all you have to do is look out the window. 

Traveling long the Vermillion Cliffs, we eventually reach Flagstaff, Arizona and turn east on I-40. 

We are traveling by Winslow, Arizona and we, or I, must stop and check it out and “Take it Easy”.  Standin’ on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona, this area was dedicated in 1999 as a tribute to the memorable song of the 1970’s that made Winslow, Arizona a town to sing about on famous Route 66.

We will stop in Holbrook, not too far down the road for the night.  After that, for the next two days the plan is to drive back home in Florida. 

Day 17 – Grand Staircase & Bryce Canyon

Day 17 – 5/29/2021 – Grand Staircase & Bryce Canyon

Today the plan is to go to Bryce Canyon.  Our first planned stop is at Anasazi State Park Museum in Boulder, Utah.  Shortly after leaving Torrey, we pass one ranch which had many horses.  Great riding lands and I would imagine fantastic trails.

Leaving the Capitol Reef area, I think that we are seeing the last of these rugged landscapes. 

As we near the Larb Hollow Overlook we can see a wide span of aspen trees just on the edge of a field, beginning to get their leaves.  I am fascinated with aspens and white birches since I can see their yellow leaves both in the spring then again in the fall. 

Making a quick stop at Larb Hollow Overlook, we get a good view of the surrounding area.  The plateau field in the foreground to the mountains in the distance we see forests, grass fields, mountains, and waterways.

After leaving Larb Hollow we came along a field bordered by aspen and happen to see deer in the field.  There were at least ten deer, some laying in the trees and a few running around the field.  One looked pregnant to me because of her swollen belly, but I may be mistaken.

A closer look at some of the deer.  The one in the middle is the one I think is pregnant.  We must stop and take picture of any deer we see and this is no difference.  We could be here until they leave, but we are suppose to be on our way to Bryce Canyon, so we must continue.  The one behind and the one just to the right of the rock on the left of the picture were running and frolicking and stopped just before I took the picture.

I decided to get a close up picture of a couple of deer in the field before we leave.  As I said before; animals and flowers, we can not stop taking pictures of them. 

Our next stop is the Anasazi State Park Museum, we get here just before 9:00 AM, and they do not open until 9:00, so while we wait, we are looking at the flowers around the front of the building. 

We entered the museum, and find out that there are several “digs” behind the museum.  Touring the grounds we find out that people lived here for about 75 during the 12^th century and that there are about 100 structures on site.  This is one of the buildings excavated, which is part of a multi-room pueblo.  Not sure why the vertical beams look burnt, but you can see how the building and rooms were made.

The pit house on the property shows how they completed the construction by digging a pit then added poles, a roof, mud, and brush.  The ground insulates the Pit houses better than wood and therefore cooler on hot days.

I hear a bird and finally see it flying into the tree next to me.  Once again, I am not sure what the bird is, but our guess is the Juniper Titmouse, mostly because of all the juniper trees in the area.

On our way out, we pass a replica building with a couple of rooms.  It supposed to show how the construction created walls and ceilings.  The rooms have dirt floors where I would have expected hay or something on the floors.

Back on the road, we pass this ranch with barn and sheep. 

Entering the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and we first see some of the park’s landscape, it is no wonder this is preserved.  Once again, we see a landscape that could be from another planet. 

At this location, we can see a large gorge or slot canyon.  It would be interesting to hike the canyon, but not today. 

As we continue to travel through the Grand Staircase, it is clear that this is a special place.  The rock formations, canyons, and ravines would take days to explore, more time than we have available on this trip. 

Crisscrossing in the upper sandstone layer is clearly visible over the other defined layers of rock.  The darker stone near the bottom of the cliff can be seen next to the cars parked in a trail’s parking lot.

As you can see, the road hugs the cliff and even though it is two lanes wide, Carmen insists we not get near the edge.  Even after clearing part of the cliff to make the road you can still see several of the weathered onion top formations.

During one of our stops, I see this flower, which looks like a cross between an Iris and an Orchid.  It is in fact a Palmer's Penstemon or in my research that is what it looks like. 

Another flower and we are hard pressed to figure out what its name is.  It might be a form of Primrose or even a Monkey-Flower, but we are not sure.

Now I think this is a Smallflower Globemallow, I know, strange name for a flower.  Anyway, it is part of the Globemallow family and there are about 7 or 8 flowers with that name. 

As we near the end of our travel through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, we look back to the road we drove up on and the landscape we traveled.

Approaching Bryce Canyon, we still see mountains created by the pressures of time.  The single layer of white stone is evident in the hill beyond.

Still on route-12 and near Bryce Canyon, there is a turn-off with an information kiosk and we decide to check it out.  This is what we see from the viewpoint.  A viewing tube points to the right hand corner of the arch that is beginning to form.  In that spot is an artifact that is a granary.

A closer view of the granary made using sandstone, blends in with the surrounding rock and easily overlooked.  This artifact is at least 800 years old, if not older and wall art in the area dates back 4,000-8,000 years.  There were other buildings along the arch that is building, but this one also had the wall art, even though I’m not sure if it is true ancient wall art or newly created graffiti.

Shortly after crossing into Bryce Canyon we take the Fairyland Road to Fairyland Point.  It is easy to see why they named this Fairyland because of the Hoodoos looking like castle spires.  You can see people walking on the Fairyland Loop Trail running along the bottom of the Hoodoos on the right side.

Every where you look, Hoodoos abound, some under creation along a wall like these have not yet produced individual hoodoo spires.  Notice the weathering that is creating a window or arch in the center of the picture along the hoodoo wall.

Look at how white these hoodoos when compared to the others.  Also, notice the tree growing on the edge of the scree pile. 

Before leaving the Fairyland viewpoint, we get another wide view of the landscape.  There is a large variation in the hoodoo coloring.

Having left Fairyland Road we go to the Lodge area and park near the cabins, where we stayed years ago on another trip.  Making our way to the Rim Trail we have a great view from Sunrise Point. 

Walking along the Rim Trail, we head south to Sunset Point, but before we get there, another view catches our eye.  Again, we see the white in the hoodoos, this is from a different layer of sandstone. 

What a view from along Sunset Point. 

We hike back to the car, but before we leave the trail, Carmen gets a picture of people on the Navaho Loop Trail.  You can see the formation known as Thor’s Hammer where a large number of people are gathered.  We have hiked this trail before and though we would like to again, but we do not have the time.

At Bryce Point Overlook, we are at perhaps the most iconic of the four major viewpoints in the park.  We planned to stay for about 20-30 minutes, but when we get to the parking lot, there is a long line of cars waiting and driving in circles.  Carmen gets out before getting to the parking lot and takes a couple of pictures. 

On the way to the next viewpoint, we can see a pronghorn antelope the field before the trees.  We stop on the roadside and of course get pictures.

Looking out from Fairview Point, we can see a bridge or arch depending on how you see it. 

It is a short hike to Piracy Point and while on the trail, we see many of these yellow flowers.  They look like a daisy, but I think these are Badlands Mule-ears, or maybe a Goldeneye of some sort.

From Piracy Point, looking back towards Fairview, we can see a wide section of the canyon before us. 

Our next stop is the Natural Bridge overlook.  At an elevation of 8,627 feet, we do not want to run around much.  Fortunately, for us, it is a short walk to the viewpoint and when we get there, the Bridge is in full view.  This is a very large bridge.  Look at the rock pinnacle on the right; it looks like an Olympic torch with flame on the top.

Near the car, we see a whole bunch of yellow flowers, which to me look like a sunflower of some sort.

Ponderosa Point in Bryce Canyon still has great views of the hoodoos and landscape.  This looks like someone was making sand castle with very wet sand.

We follow the scenic road to the end and arrive at Rainbow Point.  At 9,115 feet, it is the highest viewpoint in the Park.  Tectonic uplift has lifted this entire area from sea level over the last 20 million years

Looking towards the beginning of the Park, we can see a good portion and the landscapes we saw at each viewpoint.  Under the Rim Trail follows down in the trees and runs between the Noon Canyon Butte in the top right and the hoodoos on the left.

On our way out of the Park, we decided to check out Inspiration Point, only because there were no parking spaces available when we were there the first time.  As the nearby sign indicated there is a wide spectrum of color and stone that rewards the viewer with indescribable beauty.

Another view from a different point at Inspiration Point and we see many more hoodoo and fins. 

We are simply inspired with the views from Bryce Canyon, but we have to leave to get to our hotel for the night.  I would have loved to stay to get a long night exposure, but we need to retrace our drive to get to the hotel, we leave with plenty of time to check in and then get dinner.  Tomorrow we head to Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah, drive to Page AZ, and then drive to Holbrook, AZ for night.