Hi all,

Monday, Sept 26
Wow!  What a difference about 150 miles (and 3000 feet of altitude) makes!  It was downright cold last night.  I started sleeping on top of the sheet as I have been the last couple of nights, then got under the sheet, then pulled on a blanket, then I turned on my electric mattress pad, then finally I doubled up the blanket.  Each step got me comfortable for a while until the next step was needed.  I may have to change over to my winter PJ's!

Today was a day of driving and exploring.  We left about 9:00 in our 4 cars and went to the Kolob Canyon Visitor Center just out of Cedar City.  This is in the northern portion of Zion National Park.  In the Visitor Center, the ranger checked our  Golden Age cards and one-by-one confiscated them!  He then issued us new credit card type ones which have a magnetic stripe on the back.  They now swipe these cards through their reader when you enter a park or monument.  The scenery in this area was really gorgeous!
 
 

The group stops at Kolob Canyon at a beautiful overlook.

Next we headed to the Iron Mission State Park in Cedar City.  The fellow there was very helpful in advising what roads to take to see the best scenery, and which way to drive to Panguitch tomorrow.  He very definitely did not recommend taking our rigs over the highway we had been planning to.  He described a prolonged climb to over 10,000 feet followed by a 2 mile long stretch of 13% downgrade.  He said that even if our rigs were capable of making the drive, we would have at least 100 angry motorists behind us!

The alternate route only climbs half as much and has numerous passing or pull-off areas, and is only 15 miles longer.

We headed out for Cedar Breaks.  The route we drove today in the cars is the one he told us to not take with our rigs.  I agree totally with his recommendation.  The grade was gradual, but I am sure would have been slow going in the RV.  When we got to the downgrade, I could not hold my speed in 2nd gear, so went to 1st.  This held me to about 25 mph at 4500 rpm on the engine.  Doing this I made it down the very steep grade with almost no use of my brakes.  I would have been a real struggle in the motorhome!

Cedar Breaks is similar to Zion in many ways.  The formation processes were the same, and the base material is almost the same also.  It consists mainly of a brightly colored ampitheatre filed with spires, fins, and hoodoos against a background of vegitation greens and sky blues.  The ranger in describing the area called many of the formations as hoodoo wannabees.  Many of them will become true hoodoos over the eons.  Hoodoos are the marvelous statue like formations for which Zion is so famous.  The elevation of Cedar Breaks is 10,350 feet.  We stopped at a picnic area just down from Cedar Breaks and had our picnic lunches.
 
 

This is the Cedar Breaks ampitheater.

	We posed for a group shot at Cedar Breaks. From left to right: Bob Perdue, Doug Baker, Ed Pullen, Jeannine Kincaid, Dennis Kincaid, Janet Baker, Norm and Jean Johnson, Pat Perdue (seated) June Pullen, Ruth Lamb (seated), Alden Avery, Floyd Lamb, and Merle Avery.  Missing is Dick Mason (behind the camera)

The drive home was through some of the most scenic country in the US.

Tonight we gathered at Lamb's rig and were treated to a musical program.  Ed sang, Janet played the keyboard, and Alden played the mandolin.  We all sang along on some of the numbers.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Panguitch on our own and will meet at the park there.

Tuesday, Sept. 27
Last night was much more comfortable - cool, but not cold.

We only have about 65 miles to go today to Panguitch, so I got up in my own time and headed to Walmart to replenish some supplies.  I finally left around 10:40 and had a smooth drive.  I am very glad I did not try the route we originally planned.  This route only climbed to about 8000 feet and then down again, whereas the other route went to over 10,000.  It was a hard pull as it was with a fairly slow, steep grade down the back side of the mountain.  We mostly relaxed today.  I went into town to explore.  There was almost no traffic for the several blocks of town.  There is one market and a couple of drug stores.  One of the drug stores has a Radio Shack in the back.  There are also several restaurants for our selection later this week, along with a couple of antique shops, two museums, and a cowboy store.

We had a brief meeting in a garage we can use as a meeting room.  We will have our first potluck here tomorrow night, and are hoping to go to a chuck-wagon dinner the following night.

Wednesday, Sept. 28
We had planned to visit a wildlife museum until we found out they closed early for the season in preparation for a move.  Several phone calls and arrangements were made to visit it this morning.  The owner has just completed a much larger building in the Bryce Canyon area where he should attract many times the visitors.  He has moved one exhibit and started dismantling another.  He opened specifically for us and gave us a very good description of both the exhibits and details of his move.  He is doing just about everything by himself, but seems undaunted.  He plans to move an exhibit per day which says he will be mostly moved in the next couple of weeks.  He is normally closed from the first of November to the first of May, but says he will be fully open for business in the new location by the first of April.
 

The museum was mostly in a single large room, with a small additional room for the African displays.
	Each exhibit was set up to depict very lifelike situations.  The mural backdrops were beautiful.

The museum is spectacular!  He has about 400 animals on display, with many more he has no room to display.  There are about a dozen exhibits, each in its own cubicle around the outside with a beautiful mural depicting the native background for each group of animals.  The animals ranged from prairie dogs, skunks, bobcats, javelina, and coyotes to a black bear, and African lion, and a huge male elk, along with many, many birds.  The elk must have been nine feet tall to the top of his antlers!  There were also snakes, various animal skulls (the bat scull was about the size of a pea), and an extensive butterfly display.  Arranged throughout were implements and artifacts from various areas and eras.  The walls above the exhibits were just packed with animal heads and other hanging displays.
 

This is part of the African display in a separate room.
	A small hunter's cabin and a black bear highlight this display.

It was a very educational and entertaining visit.  The owner has hunted and "harvested" most of the animals on display himself.  He does his own stuffing and sewing, but has a specialist do the heads and eyes.  He claims to have the only wildlife museum where all the animals were collected for the express purpose of displaying them in this museum.  There are no bears with ferocious attack poses like most museums, only normal day to day poses.  I hope he does well in the Bryce area.  He should have hundreds of times the drive by traffic.  He currently has almost none.

I'm going to have to start my dish for the pot luck shortly.  I'm taking a chicken and rice casserole (yeah, it is mostly pre-prepared.)

(later)  The pot luck was a great success.  Following dinner we met for cards.  Dennis and Jeannine announced they were leaving the group to explore areas near here for possible sites for their next home.  Norm will be leading a tour by car tomorrow, with a portion being off paved roads.  Later, Dennis came over to give me some information and was very interested when I told him I was on-line with my Verizon phone.  He came in for a while and I showed him what I do to connect.  He will investigate that when they reach a location with a Verizon store.

Thursday, Sept. 29 
We all left in the cars this morning on a sightseeing trip.  In all, we drove over 100 miles.  About 40 of them were on a dirt forestry road which took us up to 10,400 feet in the most beautiful setting you can imagine among the Aspen trees with their brilliant yellow foliage.  In several places the view was spectacular, looking for miles over gorgeous valleys and at the hills across the way with vast spreads of fall colored trees. 
 

Our caravan stops for a photo-op.
	As we crested a peak, this spectacular sight suddenly came into view! I just wish the camera could do it justice!

Most of this road would have been accessible to 2 wheel drive vehicles (with high clearance), but there were several sections where I was really glad that we all had 4 wheel drive.  Part way through the forestry road, we found a particularly dense area of Aspens and stopped for lunch.  Sitting on a couple of fallen logs, we enjoyed our picnic.  I drove much of this section in first gear and we ranged from about 5 miles an hour to over 20!  It was a lot of fun!
 

At our lunch break, Ed takes a picture of a flower.  June serves as his hat rack for this effort.

Two logs served us well as seating for our lunch.

	We make a stop to view the marvelous scenery.
At one point, we had to make our way very slowly through a flock of sheep.

After getting back to camp, we all went out to dinner at a barbecue restaurant several blocks from our campground.  It was a delicious!

Tomorrow we head to Torrey, passing through Bryce Canyon. 

I'll close this report and get it out.

You can see this report and my other reports along with a number of photos at:

http://myweb.cableone.net/rsmason

Till next time,

Dick