One of our goals in our full-time traveling is to stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. That's why we spend our summers in the north and winters in the south. Fall and spring are easy, enjoying the nice temperatures in between. But this fall we are struggling to stay ahead of cold temperatures. We are hearing weathermen through Montana, Idaho, and now Utah exclaiming about temperatures that are 15-20 degrees cooler than usual. We have been heading straight south, with a forecast for snow just as we were leaving each campground. We thought we were safe here in central Utah, so we were certainly surprised to see snow flakes falling in our campground!
It was hard to take pictures of the falling flakes, but we could definitely see their effects. Even though there was no accumulation on the ground close to us, it was interesting to watch the mountains around us turn white. When we arrived a couple days ago, this view out our front windshield was a totally brown mountainside.
What would be a good activity for a cold, snowy afternoon? How about making home-made ice cream! Mark loves ice cream, and he was dangerously low--down to his last half gallon. In our road trip yesterday to points in the middle of nowhere, we purchased the ingredients for his third batch of ice cream in the last month. Yes, he is outside freezing ice cream in the middle of a snow storm.
Paired with warm brownies right out of the oven, home-made hot fudge, and a generous sprinkling of pecans, it was a great dessert for a snowy afternoon.
After the rain and snow cleared, (and after our decadent dessert) we needed some exercise. We were smart enough to stay on the road--for a while. Then we got the great idea to cut across the "grassy" pasture area to make a loop hike. Too bad we ran out of grass, and found ourselves in the middle of a mud pen.
With the two inches of rain and snow, the dirt was turned into something akin to construction adhesive. Mark took a picture of his shoes. Yes, all that mud is attached to his sneaker. With all that muck stuck to his shoes, he is now two inches taller than when we started this hike.
It took as long to clean our shoes as it did to go on our messy little hike. Sometimes we just have to laugh at the messes we get into.
The local news reported snowfall totals of 6-12 inches in the mountain regions of Utah. It also reported breaking records for the lowest high temperatures for this date for many towns. We guess we're just lucky to be traveling through the state during a record-breaking cold spell. Wasn't the official end of summer just a week ago? But looking on the bright side, this crazy weather gave us a giant rainbow that stretched all the way across the sky.
All those clouds gave us another beautiful sunset. We caught the now snow-covered mountains in the east, turned to a bright pink from the setting sun.
After such a cold day (and night) we found plenty of ice on our vehicles the next morning.
We're once again on the road driving south, towards another national park. It's a two-hour drive further south, so HOPEFULLY we won't be seeing any more snow!
When we moved to Painted Rocks State Park in central Utah, we knew we would be in the middle of the proverbial nowhere. We could say we were between Fayette (population 249) and Levan (population 898). But most people aren't familiar with those "metropolitan areas." We decided to take a little road trip, just to see what we could find in our neighborhood. We drove 20 miles to the buzzing town of Centerfield (population 1,416) and saw a sign pointing to Beck's Farmer Market. We followed the arrow, and were surprised to find one of the largest pumpkin farms in the state. They had two long lines of pumpkin for sale--90 different varieties, and 80 different kinds of gourds. As we spoke, they were loading them into semi-trucks to deliver to over 100 grocery stores in a four-state area. Out here in the middle of nowhere, they are shipping out 70 tons of pumpkins every day except Sunday.
They also had miniature golf, and this hay bale maze for youngsters. But we were most interested in the garden vegetables we purchased, and the homemade soup we bought there for lunch.
We drove a few more miles out here in the middle of nowhere to Manti, Utah (population 3,396). The little town's skyline was dominated by this impressive building at the edge of town. This is Manti Temple. Dedicated in 1888, it is one of the first and most impressive Mormon temples. This was the location of the "holy of holies" until the Salt Lake temple was dedicated. On a similar note, we have been looking for a place to go to church this weekend. Out in the middle of nowhere at our campground, Google maps showed 26 different Latter Day Saint churches within 35 miles. There were no protestant churches in that same 35 mile radius. So it was internet church for us on Sunday.
We drove on to the town of Ephraim, and took a random road out of town towards the mountains. Canyon Road turned to gravel in a few miles. As we headed up in elevation, we were once again in the middle of nowhere. That's when we started noticing the beautiful fall colors on the mountain.
We parked the car and took a hike through the brightly-colored maple trees.
We haven't seen much fall color yet, so we were delighted to drive into these beautiful trees in September.
Far below us we can see the valley floor, and the town of Ephraim.
Denisa loves fall leaves almost as much as spring wildflowers. She is gathering pretty leaves by the hand-full.
They make a beautiful explosion of color! They are proof that even in the middle of nowhere, we can wander into God's wonders!
Paired with the little pumpkin from Beck's pumpkin farm, we have a new centerpiece for the table in the motor home. And all of it just happened on a random drive through the middle of nowhere!
We left Wasatch View Campground in Ogden, Utah, and headed straight south down I-15. We are glad to report that the roadwork we experienced on this interstate two years ago is now complete. We enjoyed a smooth trip through Salt Lake City ahead of the forecasted snow. Mark drove about 2.5 hours today, further than usual for us. We landed at Painted Rocks State Park--out in the middle of nowhere.
When Denisa called the park ranger to ask if we would have any problems finding a camping spot at Painted Rocks, it must have been hard for him not to laugh. This little campground doesn't take reservations after September 15, and there was only one other trailer here when we arrived. We had our pick of 40 sites! We drove into a spot overlooking the valley, and this was our view from the windshield.
The little bit of water you see in the picture above is what is left of Yuba Lake. We were told that lake levels have been very low for the last 5 or 6 years. A herd of black cattle are now grazing in the middle of the lake.
A local told us that not too many years ago he had driven his boat between the two hills behind Mark. You can still see the water line on the twin hills, but it has been some time since that dry lake bed has seen water that high. Mark is standing on the boat dock that used to be surrounded by water. Now it is just surrounded by a sea of cockleburs.
Likewise, even though Mark is standing in the middle of a very long cement boat ramp . . .
he is still a very long ways from any water.
We did some hiking the first evening we arrived. You can barely see Denisa on the right-hand-side of one of the giant painted rocks.
It seems that we took a lot of pictures of her perched on or beside big rocks, surrounded by puffy clouds floating in blue skies.
We climbed to the top of the tallest hill in the state park.
The views from the top were nice, and we could see where our dried-up lake joined with the larger section of Yuba Lake. We had to read our own blog from two years ago to remember that we had visited there on our first trip through Utah. We are finding that we see so many places that we are already forgetting some of them.
It's getting a little late in the year for Denisa to take pictures of multi-colored flowers that she likes to slip into the blog. So instead she added the multi-colored lichen from the top of the mountain we were climbing.
We also found a chunk of a large egg on the mountain. Based on the curve and size of this piece of the shell, this had to be from a large bird. Are there wild ostrich roaming the mountains of Utah?
The sun was lighting up the mountain-side by the time we were making our way back to the motor home. If there was water in this lake, this place would be stunning.
But with a full lake, we probably wouldn't have gotten our choice of camping spots on a weekend. So we will enjoy our quiet campground and the setting sun that is turning the mountain to gold. Mark is standing in front of that golden rock face.
We made it back inside the motor home, and made ourselves comfortable in the two captain chairs where we normally ride when we are traveling. Tonight they are front row seats to the beautiful sunset filling the sky in front of us. I think we're going to like our stay at Painted Rocks State Park here in central Utah.
Just a few miles down the road from Downata Hot Springs, we crossed another state border. The snow skier on the Utah state sign felt right at home since they are already getting snow in the mountains here in mid-September.
We are camped for two days at a campground that accepts Passport America, situated in the northern part of Ogden, Utah. We are at Wasatch View RV Park, and we can see the Wasatch Mountains behind us.
We had great weather the day we arrived, and drove through Ogden to Canyon Drive to see the Wasatch Mountains up close. There's some fall color on the mountain. But the weatherman predicts these mountains will have snow within the next couple days.
So we stayed outside most of the first day just to soak in the blue skies and sunshine while we could. We enjoyed the miles of trails that wind through the parks along the river in Ogden. We shared the trail with high school runners at a cross country meet here in the afternoon. The flowers in the botanical garden along the trail are fading, and freezing temperatures are in the weather forecast.
We are celebrating Denisa's birthday with this beautiful weather. We started the day with chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-cheesecake for breakfast. It's a family tradition to eat your special birthday dessert for breakfast. When we had lunch at a recommended local Mexican food restaurant, Denisa didn't turn down the complimentary fried ice cream dessert. With all these calories, it looks like we should have walked more miles on that trail today.
For evening birthday entertainment, Mark managed to find a weekly dance at Union Station in downtown Ogden. That's nothing short of a miracle in the middle of Mormon country and in the middle of the week! We enjoyed two-stepping to the country music. Half the songs were line dances, and we knew almost none of the moves. That didn't keep Denisa off the dance floor, however. All the other dancers were less than half her age, and obviously come to this weekly dance so they know all the line dances. In the picture below, their arms and legs are blurry because they are moving so fast. You might notice that Denisa is more in focus because she isn't moving much because she's not sure which direction to move. It was good clean fun in a smoke-free venue, where the only beverage available was bottled water.
It was a great birthday! True to the weatherman's forecast, the next day dawned cold and cloudy. We see that fruit orchards line the foothills of the Wasatch Range north of Ogden. We also see that the baskets are piled high, as they are picking fruit ahead of the upcoming freezing temperatures. We found out that the O'Henry peaches are ripe, as are a multitude of different types of apples.
The gardeners at the local farmer's market pointed out that this could be the last of the garden tomatoes. We bought tomatoes, peaches, apples, cantaloupe, onion, green beans, corn, and something new to us--crenshaw melon--best eaten with a lime.
But the featured crop at all the road-side fruit stands were the pumpkins. It's beginning to look like autumn!
With snow predicted for tomorrow in the Wasatch mountains, we're heading another couple hours south as we continue our flight away from the snow and cold weather through Utah.
We enjoyed a five night stay in the Juniper Campground at Ririe Reservoir. It's a comfortable 20 mile drive to Idaho Falls, and we enjoyed this little city. True to its name, there are falls right downtown.
There's also a paved walkway that goes for miles along the Snake River that flows through town. We would have surely ridden our bikes along this trail, but the weather was rainy and cold while we were visiting.
That kind of weather is a good opportunity to take care of business. Denisa is showing up in all the pictures today, because she just got a new haircut at a salon in Idaho Falls. It's her least favorite part of full-timing in an RV. She loves new hikes and new towns and new parks, but it is scary to face a new set of scissors for a haircut. She's sitting on one of the park benches by the river. Built by a variety of local artists, each has its own theme and style. But they are all interesting additions to downtown.
There is also a new Japanese garden along the Snake River. The pagoda style roof was painstakingly built to proper oriental architecture standards.
We also visited the giant eagle statue at the center of a round-about near the river. Denisa wanted to stop traffic to stand beside the sculpture just to provide a sense of scale to how big it was. But Mark does have limits to what he can allow. Let's just say that these are massive eagles, and we didn't cause any traffic jams taking this picture.
We even braved the cold to visit "A Taste of Downtown." It featured trendy restaurants offering samples of their food for purchase to pedestrians downtown. It was hard to eat cheesy potato skins and quinoa chili while wearing gloves, but we found a way.
On another (but equally chilly) trip to Idaho Falls, we stopped in at the Farmer's Market. We have visited markets all over the country, and this was one of Denisa's favorites. She bought plums, concord grapes, cucumbers, peaches, summer squash, corn, green beans, tomatoes, apples, cherry pie, and zucchini. We eat lots of fresh produce, and it's fun to buy it from the people that grow it. It's also nice when it's a good value. The local farmers are picking at a frenzied pace, knowing that freezing temperatures are upon us.
Mark's favorite part of the farmer's market was this pet wolf. We searched for wolves in Yellowstone, but this will be our only wolf photo. Raised from a 3-week-old pup, this full-blooded wolf is now 12 years old.
Another fun activity for cold and rainy weather is playing the piano. We stopped in at this music store when Denisa announced she needed some new music. Mark was bored, so he was taking pictures while she tried out some new books. The picture makes it look like there are two Denisas. Lucky for Mark, there is only one, but the rehearsal hall area had mirrors everywhere.
After days of wearing coats and gloves, we're ready to head further south. A 1.5-hour drive south finds us at a deserted campground at Downata Hot Springs. Even though this is a busy setting for vacationers and family reunions in the summer, the staff is breathing a sigh of relief that the crowds are gone now. We were the only RV in the campground when we arrived.
We took a walk to explore our new surroundings. From the hill above us, we can see the mountains to our east.
We are right in the middle of farm country, with a field of hay bales on one side, and a corral of calves on another.
The main draw to Downata is the hot springs and the pool complex that makes use of those warm waters. Busy on a daily basis during the summer, the pools are open only in the evening and early morning this time of the year. Denisa took advantage of the senior citizen water aerobics class that starts at 8 a.m. She didn't have a camera with her to picture the steam rolling off the warm water on a 40-degree morning. These tough seniors meet three mornings each week all year long. During the cold Idaho winters that means there will be frost in their hair by the end of the class.
Just two miles down the road is Red Rock Pass. It's hard to capture the size of this mountain fin, but the full-size electrical poles can barely be seen close to its base.
We climbed the steps to the top of a memorial to a Mormon settler that became a military hero. We normally think of Utah as Mormon country, but we see that many of the early members of the Church of Latter Day Saints settled in this part of Idaho as well.
This was a quiet and relaxing two-day stop at another campground that honors the Passport America discount. But with more cold weather in the forecast, we're continuing our faster-than-usual trek south to warmer temperatures.
