Canyonlands and Grand Junction

Well we finished Canyonlands, but not without some stress. It was about a 1.5 hour drive to the Southern section of the park this morning... everything was going well until we turned off the main road. Snow. Snow on the road. Can't really see all of the pavement when there's snow on the road and that means waiting... waiting for snow to melt... similar to watching grass grow. We kept driving though... I was thinking well shout, not gonna be home Sunday, Monday? Tuesday? Is it gonna get sunny to melt this?

Plus while this was happening the problem we had yesterday with the grade sensors was still not fixed. Things did not look good... The happiness of getting so many parks done so fast and ending cycle 4 on a high note... well it was falling away from me quickly.

Here's a map of the drive and a picture of the roads as we saw them...


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Well don't mean to keep you in suspense... but as we descended in elevation so did the amount of snow. By the time we got to our route, it was tough to find the fluffy stuff except on the surrounding mesas. I honestly couldn't believe it...

We pulled over to try a new strategy on the grade sensors. The snow fixed itself; we had to fix the grade sensors though... decided to take out a grade timer card in our main computer. Well our magic worked... not another grade sensor error the rest of the day.

The scenery around the Southern section wasn't quite as spectacular as the Northern, but we didn't get much of a chance to check things out. With this park being with a days drive of Denver, it's one I'd like to come back to at some time. Here's a pic of what they call "Wooden Shoe Arch." Pretty fitting I think...


So we finished the rest of Canyonlands by 1pm or so and got to Grand Junction around 430. Onto Colorado Monument tomorrow... and with that the end of Cycle 4! Denver Sunday... Hopefully in time for Vikings/Packers...

Arches and Canyonlands

Yesterday we drove from Flagstaff to Moab and today we collected all of Arches and half of Canyonlands.

Here's a map of our drive yesterday....


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The drive yesterday was nice, snow/rain/sleet mix most of the time, slow drivers, and a lot of reading for me. We got to Arches about 230pm and were thinking about collecting but then it started to rain; so we bagged it. Drove around the park a good amount though; real neat place. I guess the park has about 2,000 arches, including the one on most of the Utah license plates (it's actually called Delicate Arch). We saw a lot of the Arches, but definitely not 2,000.

We were a little worried that the roads would still be wet or have snow on them today; but our luck has stuck with us and the roads were perfect. We not only finished Arches but we also got all of the Northern section of Canyonlands done. I estimated it would take us day to do each of these sections; so much for that. I gladly accept my error on that one.

Here's a map of our drive today....


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So tomorrow onto the Southern section of Canyonlands and then drive to Grand Junction, CO to finish up our last park of this cycle! Colorado National Monument. Should be done by Saturday afternoon...

Here's some pics from yesterday and today...

Balenced Rock... Really pretty crazy looking.... That boulder is huge, 55 feet high.
Delicate Arch - didn't have time and it was freezing out to make the 1.5 mile hike to the base of the arch; maybe next time.
Skyline arch
Double Arch

Canyonlands, the Colorado River is down there somewhere.

Wupatki, Sunset Crater, and Walnut Canyon

Next day we had 3 more smaller parks to do in Northern AZ. These had a little more mileage, but not many more routes. We finished all 3 of them by about 2pm. Felt pretty good to get 5 parks done in 2 days.

Wapatki and Walnut Canyon are similar to Montezuma and Tuzigoot as they were ancient ruins of peoples who used to live in the area around 1200 to 1300 A.D. We were able to tour one of the ruins a little bit, but for the most part we were focused on the finish line for this trip.

Sunset Crater is the youngest volcano of the Colorado Plateau. It erupted sometime between 1040 and 1100 and still has the lava flows to prove it.

Here's a map of our drive...


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I think I took some pics, but I was driving; so I don't think I got that many.

This is a pueblo at Wupatki...
These are some workers putting some silicon on the edge of the ledge. I guess it helps keep water out of the dwellings and further deteriorating them.

Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot

So after a couple of weeks in the office and a trip back to MN for a wedding; I was back in the field on Monday October 26th, 2009. I had landed in Denver on Sunday night at about 10pm and I had a flight the next day at 8:19am. It sucked. I had to do laundry too. Got about 5 hours of sleep.

So I landed, we did a quick DMI calibration (measuring off 2640 ft with a wheel on a straight road then running the truck over and over it). Then we were up to Montezuma Castle and Tuzigoot (pronounced Too-zee-hoot; weird I know). They are basically both ancient pueblos of the Sinagua people, whom were native to the region around 1000 A.D.

These were both really small parks, got them both done in about 3 hours. Oh and this is our last trip in this cycle (yay!). 8 parks to go, but all of them can be done in a day or less pretty much.

Here's a map of our drive...


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And here's some pics of the ruins...

Montezuma's Castle (not revenge)...

Tuzigoot

Grand Canyon - South Rim

Ok so I've slacked again; uploading pictures is just so time-consuming. Or more likely I'm just lazy when I get back to my hotel room. But since we're now within 2 days of ending this cycle's collection (pretty sure I explained what a cycle was in a previous post); I figure I should at least catch up the last couple of weeks.

So I left you at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We finished that up the next day and drove down to the South Rim. Although the road we needed to finish was closed until about 1pm due to downed trees from the day before. So we had to bum around the lodge for a bit and get lunch in there. Which wasn't so bad either, just made for a long day. Here's a map of our drive...


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As a result of us finishing later on the North Rim, the four hour drive to the South Rim didn't start until 4pm. Which also meant I was gonna be late for the Vikings Packers game. I was fine with it since we got the North Rim done and I figured we'd get to our rooms and I'd catch the 2nd half. Little did I know that the Holiday Inn Express there does not carry ESPN! What kind of hotel doesn't have ESPN, I mean seriously.

Well we made it to a bar and I got in the 2nd half to see Favre finish off those Packers... just like he'll do again in Lambeau this weekend.

The next couple of days were busy busy busy.... We did get a break though since it rained the second day... just our luck; rain in the desert. We still managed to bust out about 120 routes in 2 days though. Our usual above average day was around 30 to 35 routes; we blew that out of the water. Helped that the routes were short and really close together, one trailer park had 26 loops in it!

Grand Canyon is a pretty neat place, the commercialization of it kinda sucks, but understandable since it's such an awesome sight. Tough to sum it up in words or pictures; however I do remember a quote I read while I was there, this guy didn't do so well at his attempt to describe it...

"The region is of course altogether valueless, ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality."
- U.S. Army surveyor, Lieutenant Joseph Ives 1858

I mean he was there in 1857, before all the buildings, trails, and trains. It was probably a tough trip to get there, hot, sweaty, buffalo for dinner every night; but seriously that thing is an amazing wonder. I'm guessing he didn't go into the tourism industry. At least he's getting a call out in my blog 150 years later!

So we finished up the GRCA on a Friday and drove down to Phoenix; just in time for me to catch Game 2 of the Twins Yankees ALDS. That's all I'm gonna say about that game; I'm still bitter. Flew home to Denver the next morning... Here's a map of our drive.


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Here's some pics from the South Rim... Caught a rainbow on our second day there...

These pictures, per usual in National Parks, don't really do the scenery justice.

Grand Canyon - North Rim

Kanab, UT

Made it to the North Rim today... barely. Wind was blowing like crazy, they closed one of the long routes because of wind and downed trees. Even one of our magnets blew off the side of the truck. Made the drive a little more difficult as I was always correcting with the gusts.

But we collected everything that wasn't closed, so we should finish up the North Rim tomorrow.

Here's a map of where we drove today.


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We took a short hike out to Bright Angel Point, right by the North Rim Lodge. With the winding gusting and steep cliffs on either side; made it a fun little trip.

Here's some pics from today...
Here's two pics from Bright Angel Point...
Here's a quail (I think)... that decided to jump up on our truck while we weren't paying attention. Kinda freaked us out, but I think it was the other way around and it was pissed at us... or it just wanted some food.

Zion

St. George, UT

Well it's been another couple of hectic days. Yesterday we drove from Byrce down to Zion. On the way we heard one of our computers beep. Which isn't totally out of the question... when it's hot out. The computers yell at us when they're too hot. But when it's 65 and was probably in the 30's the night before, it should not be over-heating in the back of the truck.

After a little investigation we figured out that there was no air coming out of the back air conditioning. So we decided to take a trip to the Ford dealer. We were pretty lucky that one was close to Zion actually. Got there and we lucked out again because they were able to look at it immediately. It was a "door" that controls the air flow in the back of the van, basically when you have the AC on and the back vents blowing, the door will be "open", otherwise it's "closed". Well it was stuck closed, so the AC was blowing right into the "door".

Guy said it'd take until at least Monday to get a new one, we didn't like hearing that. So he suggested that he could just tape it in the "open" position. We were all for it. Cheap/quick fixes are our specialty.

So while he was fixing it, we went and got lunch (nice little break). Got the van back, headed back up to Zion and collected until about 530. That's when we figured out that our power supply that we had switched out of our Laser computer the day before, really was bad. Because now in the computer we had moved it to, that too was now just shutting off randomly. So we needed a new power supply.

These computers are old, real old; like they're still running Windows NT old (that's before Windows 98). So we were slightly worried that we wouldn't be able to find a power supply that would work. Luckily power supply technology, unlike every other technology related to computers, doesn't change that much. We went into Best Buy and showed them the broken power supply and asked if the one we had picked out would work, and they assured us it would.

So lo and behold.... two pretty major problems (no AC/no power to one of the computers) in one day and 2 major problems fixed. Well the mechanic did say the tape could come off, but we figured... eh we'll risk it.

Then today... you think more problems? Negative. Finished up Zion with some time to spare. It was busy, but we got it done. Another park I'd like to spend a couple of days in, but it was nice to drive around that's for sure. They have a tunnel that kinda just cuts through the side of the mountain for 1.1 miles. It was completed in 1930... think about that... a 1.1 mile long tunnel in 1930, in the middle of nowhere.... Not too shabby.

We got a little delayed trying to get through it though... They were only letting one way of traffic through at a a time; we figured it was for the larger campers to get by. But as we got into the tunnel, we noticed a camper pulling a car, just stopped. We later learned that something happened to the transmission and it was basically stuck... in the middle of a tunnel. I guess someone has worse luck than us.

Plus... Plus... The Badgers held onto the ax (sorry to ruin the Big Ten opener in the new place Gophs; "maybe next year"), the Twins are within reach of the playoffs, and Brett Favre is about to beat the Packers in the Metrodome... Things are looking up. Twins win tomorrow and Tigers lose and nothing the van does tomorrow can keep me down.

Here's some pics from Zion... these don't really do it justice. It's pretty magnificent...

This is the Kolob Canyon in the NW corner of the park. Only about 5 minutes off of I-15 and you really don't see any of it from the interstate. Worth the price of admission for sure.

Just a pic within the Zion Canyon.... pretty average view from within the park.
View from just outside the tunnel, looking towards the canyon.

Just a pretty sunset on the way back from Zion to the hotel.

Onto the North Rim of the Grand Canyon tomorrow. Hopefully the day's not too long. Already at 69 hours this week.

Bryce Canyon

Ok, so pretty much present... last 2 days we've been collecting Bryce Canyon National Park in Southern Utah. Smaller park than I imagined, but pretty nonetheless. Yesterday our first problem was a truck that wouldn't start (luckily we keep spare batteries in our truck). Next issue came later in the day with our Laser computer just shutting off randomly.

We decided to trade out the laser computer power supply with another computer's supply and make sure all of the connections were good. We did that and today we collected the rest of the park with little to no errors.

Ate dinner at the park lodge tonight... eh. $35 bucks for a so-so meal and a beer, ok I guess. Salad bar and the beer were the best part.

Got some nice goodies at the gift shop today, nice long-sleeve shirt, new puzzle, another magnet (I collect magnets from every park I go to, up to about 50 now I think). Fridge is pretty full.

Also got to take a little hike since we finished the park around 2pm this afternoon. A welcome break from the constant work. I think I'm at 47 hours through 4 days, so a little hike was nice. Here's some pics from that today...

GRBA

Ok, getting close to the present... We left for our current trip this last Monday, September 28th. Before we could leave though we had to get our truck working. Last week we had to test out some new rutbar controller boards (we wanted to have a spare around, but we wanted a spare that worked). Unfortunately when we tested the boards we made a boo boo and connected some wires backwards... not good. After much testing (~8 hours)... we figured out we needed 4 new boards in our rutbar (not the one we were testing in the first place). Those boards were located in Canada though and we were leaving that afternoon for middle of nowhere Nevada. Trust Baker, NV is not a thriving metropolis...

We had to get to Great Basin National Park (Eastern Nevada) by the next day since it was gonna snow on Tuesday night. So we had our friends at Roadware in Canada (current supporter of our truck) overnight our boards to the park. We left Denver about 4pm (after we had troubleshot since 730am). We drove to Grand Junction, CO (13 hour day).

So the next day we got up at 730am, drove from Grand Junction to Baker, NV; got the boards installed around 2pm, collected all of the park by 730pm, ate a quick dinner along the loneliest road in America (US 50). And then drove 2 more hours on an even lonelier road since we didn't see another car for about an hour and 45 minutes on it. We made it to Beaver UT around 1030pm. Then I checked my work, sent my daily emails and was off to bed by 1130pm. A nice 16 hour day for me... But we got the park done.

Here's a map of our drive on Monday and Tuesday...


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Wish I could've spent more than a couple hours at GRBA... but grabbed a couple of pics.
Great Basin NP is dominated by the 13,000 ft Mt Wheeler. Rises above the desert to the East quite magnificently.

Here is a look Eastward onto the Great Basin and the Sevier Desert from about 8500 ft.

Forgot to mention... Beaver, UT high school mascot? You guessed it... Beavers... Yes it's the Beaver Beavers.... classic.

Tulsa and Pathway

As I mentioned before, after GRSM we had to get to Tulsa to discuss the fabrication of our new truck. We decided to drive there since we were heading West with the truck anyway. Not an easy task in a truck with two bad batteries that when slightly over-charged smell badly. I had to change out the batteries a couple of times, switch out the regulator underneath the hood, and basically just deal with a sulfur smell after a while. It wasn't fun, but the truck got to Tulsa and eventually Denver.

Our meeting with the company, Pathway Services, went well. They showed us new trucks and even our truck (stripped out with no computers, makes it look big). It was fun to see the new technology and slightly worrisome as to all the new work flows we're going to have to figure out. But I enjoyed it and look forward to a truck with less problems (nothing could be as bad as this thing).

GRSM summary

So another reason that I've been neglecting my is that football season has begun. College, NFL, and fantasy. I'm in 4 fantasy football leagues, so most of my evenings have been spent reading up on my matchups for the next week. Sad I know... I've also tried to watch my Badgers whenever I can... Tolzien looks good, no?

Again after Blue Ridge, we had Great Smoky Mountains NP. We stayed in Cherokee, NC which is on the Cherokee Reservation, which means Casino! That's the last time I'll use an exclamation point when I describe the Cherokee Casino... it wasn't that great. First of all, no alcohol in the casino. I mean I understand that alcohol and alcoholism are large issues on reservations... at the same time, it's a casino. I figure if you wanted to attract gamblers, you'd want to get them sauced... well I digress.

Another thing about the casino there... no actual cards. Everything was digital on the blackjack tables and the poker tables. It wasn't fun, I mean you can't even touch the cards at most places, but shout... it was lame.

Alright I guess I'd feel differently if I hadn't lost money, but still... I don't recommend the place.

So Great Smokies... Nice park, lots to do, different areas. The only thing that really held us back on the first couple of days was rain and wet roads. The park is almost totally tree covered, so not a lot sun gets down to evaporate the roads.

We had a little more than a week to finish since we were planning on heading to Tulsa on Monday to check out our new truck (pretty exciting); I'll get to it in my next post. Towards the end of the week we were rushing. Then comes Friday morning... systems won't turn on. We figure out that it's one of our power inverters. An inverter basically takes the DC power that the alternators create and convert it to AC power that our computers can use. It's important needless to say. And important stuff isn't usually cheap or easy to find.

We called a place in MN that made the first inverter, explained the situation and told them we needed the inverter yesterday. After a lot of stress over credit cards, connections, remote power buttons, we got the thing Saturday morning in Gatlinburg, TN. Installed it with little problems, and started collecting. We had to drive the truck to Tulsa and be there by Tuesday morning, so we basically had to be done by Sunday afternoon.

After much stress we did it, not the greatest data as some of the roads were still wet. But we could still be there now and not be getting much better data. I think I still have some pics from the park. We saw lots of black bears (probably one a day) and even some elk (I didn't know they lived that far East). I didn't take that many pics though...
Hiked up to this waterfall when we were waiting for our inverter. Relaxed us slightly on a stressful day.
Here's a view from Newfound Gap... basically the NC/TN border. Busy up there, lots of motorcyclists... there was a rally every weekend. (Got old... fast)

So that was GRSM... onto Tulsa then back to Denver (finally out of the South and the East coast). Nice, but getting called a "Yankee" at the casino was the final straw.