What’sup: a little rock humor
Sign Posts of the Past
We have been in search of rock art this past week. Standing next to, and in some cases being able to very gently touch these markings left on rocks, either chiseled pictographs or painted petroglyphs, made us feel connected to their creators. We actually stood where they stood, saw the same landscape and perhaps even peed in the same place! Wow!!!
Most of the art we can only guess at its meaning or importance to these ancient peoples. Since we are traveling, we decided to interpret them as way signs for other travelers, good hunting, bad water, many snakes, etc.
A shared common language or travelers code used for thousands of years.
In Newfoundland we encountered Inukshuk, Inuit rock statues that sometimes resemble men, designed to show the way ahead across barren landscapes that can be ravaged by wind, rain and snow.
The Underground railroad used signs to show safety and danger such as quilts, lamps, songs, and secret knocks.
Hobos during the depression had a secret code they carved onto bridges, barns and even houses that let others know if an area was safe, a house was likely to give you a meal, or where a campsite was.
We have even noticed messages along our way that seem to be from one transient to another telling of a safe camping spot.
Today, we travelers leave our mark for other travelers electronically on iOverlander, an app that allows overlanders to share information, like campsites, drinking water and laundromats, with other travelers.
Perhaps things haven’t changed as much over the years as we think.
Mighty Mouse
Disclaimer: No rocks were harmed in the making of this blog post.
Lag time
Hi Everyone,
We just wanted to remind everyone that our blog is always at least 2 weeks behind us, a lot of times even more. We do this for 2 reasons: 1) It takes time to process they bazillion pictures and videos I take, and 2) Our blog is public and as much as we want to believe the world is a safe place, we know that isn’t always so…so for our safety we keep our present location a mystery to all but a few.
We also want to thank those who have been following along on our journey. We are officially three quarters of the way through, with the home stretch in view (which brings up too many mixed emotions to contemplate). Thanks for being a part of this amazing Voyage of Discovery.
Most importantly, today we would like to thank all who have served our country. We have a much deeper appreciation of the amazing country we live in.
THANK YOU!!!!!
I’ll leave you with a few pictures of our great country.
The Wedge: Utah’s Little Grand Canyon
The Wedge is the home of the Little Grand Canyon of Utah! Awesome place! Like its big brother, photos don’t do it justice. Unlike its big brother, it was empty of people! We drove the 40 mile dirt road to the canyon rim and were wowed by the view! You literally drove right up to the edge of the canyon, no chain link fencing, no walkway and no people, just amazing scenery and the sounds of silence.
The free BLM campground at the rim was empty and the weather predicted calm wjnds, so we chose the most remote site and set-up camp for a few nights right by the edge of the wedge.
The next day we drove to the bottom of the canyon, exploring as we went, and camped right on the San Rafael River. Mr. Busy Beaver was our only neighbor.
The Last 48 Hours – Part B
After a great night in our sweet little camping site, the weather forecast was still predicting snow in this area so we decided to continue heading east over the next pass to warmer weather. At the diesel station at the bottom of the pass, a fellow gas purchaser, and local, said we better get going because as soon as the snow started, they would close the pass. So, off we went…up and up and up, and up and up some more, to over 10,000ft and snow on the road. The views were amazing, the road pretty well maintained and filled with friendly hunters on ATVs who stared at us before waving (we get that a lot), but the ominous clouds following us kept us moving up, up, up and over to the other side.
We quickly descended part way down the other side on a steep bumpy road. We are now sitting in a little USFS Campground around 7,600ft in the rain shadow, with the storm brewing above us in the mountains. Dinner is on, down jackets are on, and the new propane heater is prepped and ready!
And then it snowed…we woke up to 23 degrees and ½ an inch of snow/ice on the top of the tent.
What an amazing, nerve wracking, and adventuresome 48 hours. We are hoping for a slightly calmer next 48 hours with slightly warmer temperatures (I know, be careful what you wish for)!
The Last 48 Hours – Part A
It all started very innocently, a beautiful sunny day of hiking around Antelope Island watching the buffalo graze…and then it started!
The wind was the beginning. Unpredicted 30 mph relentless cold wind that blew tents over and would not even give us a break to drop the tent and put up our emergency ground tent (the family next to us finally dropped their tent and made for a motel in town and the guys down the way dropped both their tents and crammedinto a tiny RV). Hours and hours of 30 mph wind with hours and hours of sitting inside holding the tent poles up, hoping we didn’t fly to Kansas or flop over. Thank goodness Darrin had devised our new anti-wind, keep the heat in, elastics. The night was long, sleepless, and nerve wracking …but we came out the other side with absolutely no damage of any kind thanks to Darrin’s amazingly designed tent! Phewwww!
The next morning dawned bright and cheery, if a bit cold. Our time at Antelope Island was at an end, so we wandered down a back road to Maple Canyon, a well known rock climbing place. There were no spots available at the tiny canyon campground, so after consulting a group of local hunters, up the canyon we went to 7,600 ft, snow on the ground and a beautiful aspen grove. We made dinner and snuggled in to a night that dipped to 25 degrees. We were toasty warm all snuggled under our layers of down with our new propane heater blasting (Luckily, I said we should buy it even though Darrin didn’t want to 😎!)
The next morning was quite cool and crisp with snow in the forecast, so we packed up and headed further up the canyon to the ridge we were told was a nice drive…2 hours later, a bazillion switchbacks, a few hairy go arounds with vehicles going the other way, and lots of rocks and drop offs, we made it back down to the valley floor. We cleaned out our shorts, decided it was a grand adventure…the Wee Rover did awesome…and continued on.
Antelope Island
Treeless Antelope Island sits out in the Great Salt Lake. A mere bay away from bustling Salt Lake City, it is an wide open serene place of roaming herds of buffalo and smaller darting groups of pronghorn antelope. Several small roads and hiking trails around the island give way to great views and animal watching. This time of year the weather was an ideal warm and sunny during the day with cooler temps at night, and then the wind started to blow!
Utah Traffic Jam
Bryce Canyon National Park
Another park, more crowds, beautiful scenery, I am loving the red rocks. The highlight was meeting some great people from England at one of the view points.
