The 2015 Spring Roadtrip: Headed for Home

What, you thought we were going to Zion next? Well, yeah. That was the plan. I got my extra hour's sleep in Cedar City and headed for Zion. Like most national parks you only see a portion of it if you stick to the overlooks. In addition, Zion is different from the other parks because of the physical constraints of the Zion Gorge. There's no room for traffic in gorge so, if you want to see that part of it, you've got to park in what I think of as Greater Zion and take a shuttle bus in. On my first visit I was oblivious to the shuttle and the gorge. I thought I had seen it all - and loved it. On my next visit I caught on, but my schedule had no cushion for the shuttle. This time, I was going specifically to take the shuttle up the gorge but after five days on the road the combination of fatigue and early morning tourist traffic robbed me of my enthusiasm. Next time, it'll be Zion first and the shuttle bus into the gorge. That said, it was a curious feeling being able to take a shortcut through a national park without stopping at any overlooks or snapping any pictures. It was like the park is mine but I've got something to do, so the rest of you people can use it while I'm gone.

After taking my shortcut through Zion, the most direct route back home (which wasn't particularly direct, by the way) took me by Page AZ. By way of inspection I took a slight detour up to the Wahweap Overlook to check out Lake Powell. Panorama above covers the whole vista from Castle Rock on the left to the Glen Canyon Dam and bridge on the right.

So, having skipped the Zion shuttle and stopping only briefly at Lake Powell, I was actually a little bit ahead of schedule on my drive home. I had planned to stop at Socorro or Roswell NM but on arrival at both locations I didn't feel like stopping. Keep on truckin', dude. There were several times after passing Roswell that I wished I had stayed the night. I hadn't been paying attention to how much rain Texas had been getting while I was gone, but as soon as I crossed the state line I was in it. So the weather was lousy and I probably lost an hour because of it. And there really wasn't a good place to stop till I got to San Angelo. I pulled into the parking lot at Denny's and took a four hour nap, which did me a world of good. Made it home about 9:30 Saturday morning. . . then crashed for three days.

*****

These panoramas - or is it panoramae - are to recap the 2015 Spring Roadtrip in case there's a test next week. You'll want to be ready for it.

North of Green River Utah, 19 May

Approaching Vernal Utah, 19 May

Grand Teton Ntional Park, 20 May

Yellowstone National Park, 20 May

Near St Anthony Idaho, 20 May

Fort Boise Military Cemetery, 20 May

Cedar Breaks National Monument, 21 May

The 2015 Spring Roadtrip: Cedar Breaks National Monument

I didn't sleep very well in Boise and consequently the drive south through Twin Falls ID and Ely NV was tough. I ended up stopping several times, napping in the Sierra and moving on for another couple hours. I did uncover a weakness in my planning, however. It seems I failed to take note of the route's terrain on this leg and I was actually surprised by the size and scope of the mountains in Nevada. Every time the road I was traveling took aim at a ridge whose upper reaches were encased in the clouds, I was sure that I'd soon be trying to cross the snowy pass. I think my fatigue was showing. As it turned out, I made it to my motel in Cedar City in time to take a two hour nap before checking out Cedar Breaks National Monument for the sunset.

Cedar Breaks NM is about 20 miles east of town and the stretch of I-15 that joins Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. I-15's probably a very nice highway, maybe even a scenic highway, I don't know. I'll continue to bend to my preference for local byways. The view above is the western approach to Cedar Breaks, sometimes described as a mini Bryce Canyon. One's initial impression might suggest that,  however it's really an overstatement. On the other hand, depending on where you happen to be and when, it's (1) easier to get to and (2) you may not have to share it with anybody. Those are a real selling points.

When I arrived, a few hours before sunset, I was still unsure whether there'd be any sunset for me to shoot. I'd not been rained on all day but by the same token the clouds did threaten all day. But being up here alone, it's easy to go with the flow and decide to stick around to see how things turn out.

Besides the red rock sandstone, there were plenty of stands of fir trees, or combinations of fir trees and matchsticks. It didn't look like there'd been a fire recently, maybe some kind of beetle or acid rain. There was plenty of snow still, but none of was on the road (which I thoroughly appreciated).

Sometime between taking the picture above and the picture below there began to be indications that the clouds may break up enough before sunset to give me some color. You never really know about whether or not the color will be there until it starts showing up. It's just a waiting game.

I did appreciate the standing water and melting snow. It makes a good foreground. I was also glad to see the sun making an attempt to break through. Since I was the only one around, I'd have to assume Mother Nature's effort was especially for me, right?

I guess I need to quit imagining my sunsets ahead of time. My imagination works well enough that it seems I'm doomed to be at least somewhat disappointed. On the other hand, I know great sunsets happen and I can increase my chances of catching one occasionally by trying more often. Yeah, that's a plan.

These last two shots were taken at the aptly named Sunset Overlook. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and it made me thankful. Thankful for my jacket with its quilted lining (it was about 40° with a 15 knot wind) and thankful for digital cameras and lithium-ion batteries that let you shoot hundreds of pictures on a single charge. How great is that?!!

It occurred to me, standing at Sunset Overlook, that my plan to come back for sunrise was ill advised. None of the overlooks is called Sunrise Overlook and there's no good spot to shoot the Brakes at sunrise. Instead, I'll give myself an extra hour of sleep - or the possibility of an extra hour of sleep - and head directly to Zion NP in the morning.

The 2015 Spring Roadtrip: West Yellowstone to Boise

This post is going to be short and sweet. You're probably asking yourselves, "Why is he going to Boise?" Good question. Once I'd made the decision to go to Grand Teton and Yellowstone NPs, the pull from an unexpected quarter kind of took on a life of its own. In December 2012 I found the gravesite of a great, great uncle who had apparently gone missing after the Civil War. There are several posts on this blog site recounting the details. Still, as far as I know, no one in the family had ever visited the gravesite. I had found pictures online of the Fort Boise military Cemetery and reposted a few of them when I was writing about this uncle. I found the terrain interesting and thought that I might at some point get a chance to photograph the area myself. So, in planning my road trip, I found myself routed to Yellowstone and looking for an alternate route home, not wanting to re-cover ground I had just seen. Perusing Google Maps it was obvious that I was going to cross into Idaho at some point, probably from Yellowstone's west entrance. That's when the pull started. . . 356 miles to Boise. Well, having come this far, another 6 hour drive hardly seemed critical, and I am on a photo mission. I shifted my third night motel from Idaho Falls to Boise and my fourth night to Cedar City, effecting a bypass of Salt Lake City and set up staging for another visit to Zion NP.

There are some nice mountains between Yellowstone and Boise, but after the last few days I thought I'd be better off if I stuck to the Snake River basin. With the skies I had for this trip, I thought the relative simplicity of the plains landscapes would be more than satisfactory. And, so they were. The shot above,  near St Anthony, Fremont County, ID shows the skies had lost none of their drama.

About halfway to Boise I passed Craters of the Moon National Monument (above). What appears to be turned earth in the middle of the image is actually a lava field. In the 60s some of the lunar astronauts trained here not because it was actually like the moon's surface (the name was coined in the early part of the century in a random remark about the area's desolate nature), but because it was easy to show them just how to search for target moon rocks when they got up there. The skies notwithstanding, I didn't expect to find anything there I'd want to photograph. Keep on trucking. . .

I found Fort Boise Military Cemetery right where I expected to, in Ada County, ID. . . just over the hill and about 2 1/2 miles distant from the state capitol. I'd been hoping all day for the clouds to stick around, but thin out a little bit too, anticipating lots of color and a great backdrop for the cemetery images. By the time I'd been in Boise a few hours I decided I probably wasn't going to see that color. My guess is that the clouds extended far enough west that the setting sun couldn't reach the high clouds over Boise which would have provided the color. Oh well, the best laid plans. . .

Arthur Conlin, son of John Conlin and Sarah McAllister Conlin;

b. 13 Aug 1840, Augusta Twp, Carroll Co, Ohio; d. 06 Apr 1904, Fort Boise, Ada Co, Idaho.

Pvt, Co I, 86th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Civil War

Pvt, Co B, 170th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Civil War

Looking west from Fort Boise Military Cemetery towards the federal and state government complex which includes the VA Hospital, Idaho State Veterans Home, Fort Boise Park, Idaho State University, and the US Geological Survey - Idaho Water Science Center. The state capital is probably out of frame on the right, on the other side of the hill.

I hung around for a couple hours till I was sure the skies weren't going to suddenly light up in a symphony of color.

No promises had been made, so I wasn't really disappointed. The cemetery was as peaceful and pleasant as anyone could expect and I appreciated the opportunity to sit quietly, think, and listen to the birds sing.

One of the things that crossed my mind sitting out here was that I still might find more information about Arthur, who had been a member of the Phil Sheridan camp of the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic, a veterans organization along the lines of the VFW, I believe) in Boise before he died.

I need to see whether there's any way to search, or have searched on my behalf, GAR records which are probably archived by the Idaho State Historical Society. I had found some records online, but they were only documentation of the GAR "encampments", annual reunions for Civil War veterans.