Hi all,

Monday, Oct. 3
I sent report #3 and uploaded to my website by buying 1/2 hour of Internet time at the office.  I have not had any cell phone signal (nor have any of our group) since arriving at Torrey. 

Tonight was an added pot-luck dinner.  It was planned around noon, so I did not have time for my crock-pot dinner.  Fortunately I had bought an enchilada casserole which I cooked for dinner.  After dinner we had special entertainment.  We held a roast for Floyd.  We had all prepared our talks ahead of time and had a lot of fun presenting them.  After the roast, we had a cake which was inscribed for the Lambs, along with homemade ice cream the Eschers sent along when they had to cancel coming with us due to mechanical problems.  We also presented Floyd and Ruth with a beautiful clear plaque proclaiming them as the World's best Wagonmasters.  It was a lot of fun and I think everyone, including Floyd, enjoyed it.
 
 

At the end of Floyd's roast, he is opening a present.  It turned out to be a beautiful plaque.

We all shared in Floyd and Ruth's gorgeous (and delicious) cake.
	Their present was a beautiful engraved clear plastic plaque.

Tuesday, Oct. 4
Yesterday's missing rain showed up this morning!  We had planned to leave at 10 to go to Goblin Valley State Park, a day's drive of about 150 miles.  Ten of us went in 3 cars.  For a change all the drive was on paved roads, which was just as well in the rain.  I had no idea what we were going to see.  When we got there, it was amazing!  All around us were formations which looked like goblins!  They were everywhere. 

These "goblins" were formed because the Entrada Sandstone has very uneven hardness.  The softer sections erode with wind and rain much more rapidly than the harder ones.  This leaves shapes which become "goblins", "stone babies", and "hoodoos".

 After looking at the formations in a very cold, brisk wind, along with a light driving rain, we decided to eat lunch in our cars.  While we were eating, the clouds started to thin and we actually had bright sunlight at times.
 

The first three goblins we saw are standing on a raised pedestal guarding the entrance to Goblin Valley.
	The large ampitheater is packed with goblins.

A row of 6 goblins stands looking at a castle like formation.
	Ed is set up to to photograph some of the many formations.

By the time we arrived back at camp, the front had passed and the clouds were pretty much gone.  The very cold wind was still here.  We found the park is now filled with Discovery motorhomes.  There must be over a dozen here, apparently on a rally.

This evening we went to a local restaurant, the Cafe Diablo which specializes in South West cuisine.  According to a writeup Jean has, it is the best in southern Utah.  They had very unusual menu items.  Everything was served items with very unique presentation.  Norm's chicken plate looked like a chicken with a spray of greenery as the tail feathers.  Merle's salmon dish looked like there were sea plants (narrow green tortilla chips) growing from the top of the stacked arrangement.  Some of the dishes looked like there was a small tree growing from them.  It was a lot of fun, and the food was very good.  I had only an appetizer - rattle snake cakes.  Made of 65% rattle snake, they were really quite good. 

This is our last day here at Torrey.  Tomorrow we drive about 250 miles to Monument Valley.

Wednesday, Oct 5
I think that was a cold front that went through yesterday!  It got down to 22 degrees last night, and was still in the low 20's when I went out to dump and disconnect the rig.

I pulled out of camp at about 8:20, about the 3rd or 4th to leave.  It was a beautiful trip with quite a bit of climbing and descending, and a few tight turns.  I passed the Lambs, the Johnsons, and the Bakers in the Chevron station as I drove by.  During the next 5 hours of driving, I saw every other rig on the road except the Pullens.  Traffic was so heavy on Highway 95 that at mile marker 18 a car went by going the opposite direction, and at mile marker 28 another one did, with none in between.
 

As I drove alongside the upper end of Lake Powell, I got this picture of Hite. We got this far up the lake a couple of times during the 6 yearly vacations Betty and I and friends took houseboating on Lake Powell.
	Highway 95 crosses this bridge over the Colorado River at the head end of Lake Powell.
This is the Colorado River/Lake Powell taken from the bridge.

	I stopped at a rest stop with a trail back into a canyon which shows 7 geographical eras in time. While here I met the Averys (Merle is in this picture), the Lambs, the Perdues, and the Bakers.

The Perdues, the Lambs, and I pulled into Gouldings RV Park, at around 1:30. over the next couple of hours the rest arrived.  We cut our stay here from 6 nights to 5 nights, so I should be getting home a day early.  This will give me 2 days before I have to head out again for my niece's wedding!

I was encouraged as I had a good Verizon signal a couple times during the drive over here, but once again, there is absolutely no cell phone coverage here. The park does offer WIFI for 1/2 the price of the one at Torrey.  At $3.00 a day, I will probably spring for a day or two during our stay here.

We all met for snacks (AKA dinner) at 5:00 to discuss our plans for our stay here.  There are several day drives to do, and we will investigate our options for touring Monument Valley with a Navajo guide.

This evening I had 7 people over for a showing of the Johnsons' videotape of the Mormon expedition team that in 1879 established a colony very near here starting from Escalante, building a 200 mile long road through Hole-in-the-Rock to the Colorado River, and across some of the roughest country in the world.  They completed it in about 6 months without losing a single life.  Two babies were born during the trip.  The route they created was used bi-directionally for about a year before an alternate route was made by way of Hall's Crossing.
 

Thursday, Oct 6
Today is Floyd and Ruth's 58th wedding anniversary!  Happy anniversary you two!

We headed out in the cars this morning in a northeast direction.  After about 20 miles we passed through the town of Mexican Hat.  Just out of town, we came to Mexican Hat Rock.  This is a formation which is topped by an upsidedown sombrero, balancing on a very small stem.
 

This is Mexican Hat Rock.  Can you tell how it stays put with such a small connecting point?

We backtracked part of the road we came in on until we reached highway 261 where we turned north.  This road is a nice blacktop road until it reaches the face of a huge bluff, where it turns into a dirt/gravel road which climbs 1100 feet in 3 miles.  It does this by a series of fairly tight switchbacks.  Once you reach the top, the road turns back into a nice blacktop road. 

We continued on to Gooseneck State Park.  This is an overlook of a section of the San Juan River where it meanders back and forth in a somewhat W shape.  It flows enters at the side heading straight toward you, makes a sharp bend and flows away, makes another sharp bend and comes toward you again, and makes one more turn and flows away from you on the other side.  It is very interesting, and very picturesque.
 

Gooseneck State Park provides a marvelous view of the multiple switchbacks in the San Juan River.  (This is a panorama of 8 photos.)

Next we continued on the Natural Bridges National Monument where we saw a video in the visitor center, then drove an 11 mile loop to a series of overlooks which allow views of 3 natural bridges and some ancient ruins.  The 3 bridges covered the range from a very young bridge, a medium age bridge, and a very old bridge in the last stages of its life.  These bridges are formed where the river has cut a channel and there is a switchback like at Gooseneck Park.  As the water wears the wall from each side the divider rock gets very thin and eventually fails, creating a hole.  Now the water will usually flow through the hole instead of around the former bend, eroding the hole even faster.  Over the eons, wind, blowing sand, and rain continue to erode the stone, continuing to enlarge the bridge opening.  This wear continues over the millions of years until finally the bridge is so thin it collapses.  This is the end of its life.

One of the stops was for a hike out to an overlook of the Horsecollar Ruins.  These ruins are in very good condition for having been occupied by the Anasazi from about 1050 to 1300.
 

	Sipapu Bridge is one of the 3 in the park.  With a span of 268 feet and a height of 281 feet, it is one of the largest natural bridges in the world. From this angle, you have to look very closely to see that the top of the bridge is 2  layers of rock up from the opening, not the top of the cliffs in the background.
The Horsecollar Ruin is in exceptional shape for being over 950 years old.

After lunch at a picnic stop on the loop road, we turned back toward our camp, retracing our path of this morning.  Just as we reached the top of the gravel switchbacks, we turned off on a side dirt road to Muley Point.  When we arrived we were on the top of a number of hugh rocks.  Many of these had totally vertical sides down to the valley floor far below.  The views from here were spectacular!  We could see the top of a number of channels like the Goosenecks, but I am not sure that is what they were.
 

Norm stands in a very precarious looking position on one of the Muley Point rocks.

There was a huge rock that had obviously split off the main rock and was now about 10 to 15 feet away, hanging over the valley below.  At one place there is a split in the main rock with a gap of 5 or 6 inches.  If you stand at the right point, you can look down through this crack and actually see out through the cliff.
 

Ed and June are taking photographs from the location where the tilted rock originally broke off.
	This crack is very straight and parallel.  You can see through it clear down to the valley below.

From here we returned to camp after being out all day.  About an hour later, we left camp again for the lodge restaurant about a mile down the road.  I had a Navajo Taco, which is like a tostada on Indian Fry Bread.  It was delicious, and I have one more dinner of it yet to eat with what I took home.

Tomorrow we will take a tour of Monument Valley on a Navajo guided truck.

Friday, Oct 7
Today was a fun day!  We headed over to the Navajo Visitor Center, paid our $5 per head to enter, and met the tour driver for our tour.  We were in the back of a Chevy pickup truck which had seating for 12 under a high cover.  There would have been room for 1 more in the passenger seat up front, but we did not need it as June decided to stay at camp, leaving just 12.

We were a little concerned at first, as this tour was about $10 more for a 2 1/2 hour tour than the ones offered here at the campground.  The fellow who collected our money assured us it was well worth the difference for a couple of reasons.  First, Gouldings does not leave the 17 mile loop that is open to anybody in their private cars, Blackwater Tours (our tour company) goes to a number of places only Navajo tours can go.  Second Gouldings starts counting the 2 1/2 hours at the campground, Blackwater starts when the loaded truck actually starts out on the tour road.  In addition, we ended up getting over a 4 hour tour.
 

	Here we are in our tour truck.  (OK, Ed and I are not in this picture.)
Several of the stops had tables or booths set up to sell Indian jewelery. Here, Merle and Janet review the goods.
	This was anothe stop with somewhat more permanent sales booths. The formation above is the Three Sisters.  On the left is a nun praying, the center is the little sister, and the right is the "naughty" sister. (She is pregnant.)
This is the Totem Pole.  It is over 600 feet high and is 27 feet across at the top! They recently filmed a Jeep commercial here.  They had to strip almost all the steel from the vehicle, leaving only fiberglass.  It was then carefully deposited on top by a heliocopter.

Merle asked if I could do a 360 degree panorama at one of our stops, so here it is.  It took 14 pictures, but it worked.  It does make for a very tiny picture though.

There was no narration as we drove, but the driver would stop frequently and tell us what we could see from where we were, and what to look for ahead.  We saw a number of beautiful formations we could not have seen with the other tour or from our cars, as they went into several back roads that were posted as off limits.  We saw 4 arches on these back roads.  As we were nearing the end of the tour, he headed into a shady, tree covered nook behind a large mesa.  There were his partners cooking over a wood fire in a grill.  They were making Indian Fry Bread.  They hand formed a small ball of dough into about a 10 inch flat disk.  They would punch a hole in the center to vent the cooking gasses, and drop it into the boiling oil on the fire.  After a minute or so, he would flip it and cook the other side.  As it cooked it would puff up making a finished piece of fry bread that was 1 to 1 1/2 inches thick in places.  It was very good.  They kept cooking until everyone who wanted one had his own piece.  Of course there was a lot of sharing as this process continued.  Every once in a while, the cook would make a tortilla by placing the dough directly over the coals, skipping the oil.
 

	These 3 arches were all off the public road, and were very impressive. I failed to get the names of several items, but the one at the left is Hogan Arch.  It is round like a hogan and has the vent hole in the center of the roof.
The 3 owners of Blackwater Tours are cousins.  Here they prepare us Indan Fry Bread.  Our driver is in the yellow shirt.

While we were there, they told us that the 3 of them were all cousins and partners in this tour company.  They started it only 2 months ago.  They have two tour trucks so far and hope to expand as the finances allow.  They can only give tours about every other day, as there are 12 companies offering tours, but the tribe only allows 6 to operate on any given day.

By the time we returned to the visitor center, we had been gone over 4 hours.  This turned out to be an excellent choice of tour companies!

After a couple hours of relaxation, we all met for our White Elephant auction.  In Gordon Boyce's absence, Norm was the auctioneer (and did an excellent job).  All told, the items we auctioned brought over $100 to help pay for Floyd's Fabulous Prizes (given to the winners of various games) and postage.

We found out today that Norm and Jean have to leave early to stop by their home before they head north for a reunion.  They will leave early tomorrow morning.  We shall miss them!

I expect to buy some Internet access tomorrow after we return from our drive, so I will finish this report here.

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