Errata

Errata is defined as corrigenda.  This is one of those times when you go to double check the meaning of a word only to find that the definition is more obscure than the word itself.  I've seen the term 'errata' several times in books and other written materials but have never seen 'corrigenda' until just now.  Here's an understandable definition of the 2 words: a list of errors in a specific piece of written material.  Both words are plural, the singular forms being erratum and corrigendum. 

Hmm, erratum and corrigendum - kind of catchy, good name for a pair of folks who play classical music duets.  "And now, it gives me great pleasure to present, for their first appearance in Carnegie Hall, the great classical artists, Eric Erratum and Constance Corrigendum!"  The house lights are dimmed, the curtain opens, the stage footlights and overhead floods come up very slowly, finally and fully illuminating the world famous duo.

Okay, I'm back.  Got carried away there.  There was an error in one of my posts, the one titled Grand Staircase.  In that post I said that there was no visitor center, which is incorrect: in fact, there are 4 visitor centers.  We had yet to come across one of the centers when I did the post, since there isn't one on the northern edge of the monument.

In another post, Bryce, I said that I didn't know how Paria View got its name.  I was curious, so did a little research, found that paria is a Paiute word meaning either 'water with elk' or 'water with mud'.  The next time I visit my favorite Paiute restaurant, I'll not be ordering the Paria Daily Special.  Too iffy.  I really like elk; mud pies not so much.

Now everything is clear, right?  It makes perfect sense.  I mean really, no one could possibly come up with a more appropriate name than watery elk/mud for a scenic overlook at Bryce NP.  Oh yeah.

 

National Park Service

The National Park Service is a bright spot in a coliseum of dim bulbs, an example of government at its best.  Although proud of my country, I've become less and less a fan of big brother over the years.  My participation in the Vietnam debacle didn't inspire warm fuzzy feelings towards the DC gang, for starters.  Since then, congress has gotten progressively more worthless, accomplishing squat, focusing on keeping their places at the trough, and when their mouths aren't stuffed full of pork, parroting the party line like platoons of brain dead zombies.  Were it within my power, I'd shit can the lot of them.

But, I'm quite delighted with the NPS.  Having visited over 100 NPS locations (there are about 400) gotta say that they get it right a lot more often than not.  With the exception of the occasional Nazi campground host, NPS employees are dedicated, knowledgeable and helpful - despite, I suspect, marginal monetary compensation.  NPS sites are popular with foreigners, also, especially Japanese and Germans.  At some NPS campgrounds foreigners outnumber natives, or at least it seems that way.*  I'm pleased that so many foreigners still find the USA worth touring but saddened that more of my countrymen apparently don't.

 

Brochures from some of the NPS sites I've visited.

I have 2 copies of some brochures and thought I'd removed all the duplicates before I took the picture but I see I missed a couple.  Want to play Where's Waldo?

 

There are 29 different NPS designations, about 20 more than needed.  Take rivers for example.  There are 7 designations for rivers: National River, National Recreational River, National River and Recreation Area, National Scenic River/Riverway, Scenic and Recreational River, Wild River, Wild and Scenic River. 

Then there's the historical battlefield designations.  There are National Battlefields, National Battlefield Sites and National Battlefield Parks - plus National Military Parks.  Also, some  historic battlefields are called National Monuments and a few more are named National Historical Sites.  It appears that all of these places are managed the same, regardless of designation.  According to Wikipedia, the various designations have little meaning in themselves and are simply a reflection of the whims of congress on any given day, nothing more, nothing less.  Let's hear it for congress and inconsistency!

*Japanese come in herds (tour groups); Germans come in Cruise America rental RVs.  I wasn't aware of the German/CA connection until Trish pointed it out a couple years ago.  Seems like 90% of the CA rigs are filled with Germans.  It's become a private joke with Trish and I.  We meet a CA rig on the road and one of us invariably says, "Germans."

Washout

On July 13th, LHC experienced a monsoon downpour that resulted in flash flooding and washed-out roads.  The event is being called a 50-year flood; 2.6" of rain fell in 4 hours.  There was one death: 3 men were in a vehicle that was washed away, 2 escaped, 1 did not.  If you're interested, there are several (very amateur) youtube videos of the flooding, google: lake havasu city flood july 2012.

Closer to home - at home, in fact - there's some flood-related damage.  Water pouring over the retaining wall behind the house created a sinkhole about 12' by 3' where the ground surface dropped 6".  No big deal that, just shovel in gravel from the bank above, and dig a trench to coax the next big runoff to head on down the hill rather than over the retaining wall.

A bigger deal is the driveway.  The flooding washed out lots of gravel along the outside edge, and undercut the concrete driveway itself up to 2' in some areas.  Repairing that is a job I'm not gonna mess with, have 3 concrete contractors working up bids on it; first bid is $750.

BTW, July 13th was a Friday.  Maybe it's an unlucky day and number after all.  Paraskevidekatriaphobics is the scientific name for folks who fear Friday the 13th.  It's a great word; practice pronouncing it so you can impress your friends and neighbors.  Since I don't suffer from this phobia and will never be able to use it on a scrabble board, I'm going to forget it as soon as I post this.  There's already too much useless trash in my cranial archives and my trash retriever isn't what it used to be.

Shrunk

Was there something in the water that caused the shrinkage?

 

This picture is left over from our summer travels, too cute to be left out of the blog.

It was taken at Union Creek Resort, near Crater Lake.

Recap

We left LHC on 6-28 and returned on 9-5.  Our summer jaunt was by far the shortest, in both days and miles, of our last 3 summers of travel.  It goes without saying that it was also by far the cheapest.  "It goes without saying:" that's gotta be the dumbest phrase ever.  We say 'it goes without saying' but we darn well go ahead and say it anyway, don't we?

1.  Total miles we towed the EDGE: 3755

2.  Total miles we drove the pickup: 5257

3.  Number of nights on the road: 69

4.  Best campground: Capitol Reef N P.  Gorgeous!

5.  Worst campground: Bruneau Dunes S P, ID.  The place was so butt-ugly and bleak I didn't write a post about it or take any pix, thereby saving y'all from severe bouts of depression and anxiety.  By all means, give it a miss.  My recent post, Last Stop, described an even less desirable place but we pretty much knew that up front - and anyway, it was an RV park, not a campground.

6.  Casualties: 1 RV tire, 2 RV batteries, 1 cordless driver battery charger, 1 microwave, 1 electric toothbrush, 1 shower hose, 3 yellowjackets, 1 mink, an estimated 13,000 flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, ants and assorted buggy relatives.

7.  Nastiest stretch of mountain road that I'll never, ever travel again: Highway 1 between Fort Bragg, CA and Leggett, CA; 21 miles of ups and downs and hairpin turns and switchbacks and no shoulders, made all the more pleasant by several haul-ass, road hog logging trucks. 

Last Stop

DATELINE: HENDERSON, NV

THE SCENE: DESERT SANDS RV PARK; WHERE RVs GO TO DIE

Trish said, regarding the dumpiest places we've ever overnighted, that this place is second only to Slab City.  That's not a compliment.  Of the 245 spaces in this park, 2/3 are filled with long term residents and unoccupied RVs that are just stored here.  The vast majority are over 25 years old, haven't been on the road in years, and most likely, will never be again.  Lot's of flat tires, ripped apart engines, jury rigged up one side and down the other.  One rig has a humongous residential A/C unit installed on top and I'm wondering how long it will be before that thing crashes the roof and wipes out the occupants.

So, why are we here?  Two reasons.  First, the drive from Bryce to LHC was longer than we wanted to do in one day.  Second, we wanted to hit Costco and Total Wine, stock up on bacon, beans and biscuits and get something with which to wash them down.  Ever been in a Total Wine store?  Their inventory will blow you away: virtually every kind of beer, wine and booze known to man.  And woman. 

On our drive here yesterday, we came through Zion N P but didn't stop - except to wait for our turn to go through the long tunnel.  At the park entry gate, the guy said he had to measure our trailer.  "If it's 94" or wider, you have to get a tunnel permit ($15) and stop at the entry to the 2nd tunnel until they stop the 2-way traffic flow.  Then, you'll be told to proceed through the one-way tunnel."  He measured, yup - 94", pay me, have a nice day.  So, we got to head up a parade through the tunnel - and an impressive tunnel it is.  Built in the 20s, it's a long, narrow bugger, a mile+ long I'm guessing.

It's 6:30 AM.  Within the hour, we'll hook up and hit the road for home.  There's no place like home.

Bryce Canyon N P

 

"That's nearly got it; just a little more to your right."

Taken at Paria View, don't know what Paria is - or was.

Don't know the people in the picture, either.

Don't know if the lady in red survived the photo op.

 

Also from Paria View.

The harder white cap rock is plainly visible here.  When the cap rock is all eroded the softer pink rock below it erodes rapidly. 

 

There are hikers on the trail that cuts through the middle of the picture.

The girl in the yellow shorts is a hottie, yes?

We planned a brief stop here to take a gander at the hoodoos, then move on to a Forest Service campground down the road a piece.  Instead, we decided to stay a couple nights seeing as how there was plenty of room in the campground and you can't take a trailer to some of the best viewpoints.

 

Above and below are from Bryce Point.

Bryce was a rancher in these parts in the late 1800s.

 

 

I was here in the mid 80s while on a whirlwind backpacking tour that included Bryce, Zion, Arches, Grand Canyon north rim, et al, only stopped briefly at Bryce.  Trish has been here a couple times and hiked down into the canyon a time or two.

 

Chess anyone?

Taken on Queen's Garden Trail, which descends a mile down into the canyon.

 

Looking down Queen's Garden Trail from Sunrise Point.

You can just see Trish's head in lower left.

 

This is the end of Queen's Garden Trail.

The taller hoodoo on the right resembles a statue of Queen Victoria.  Sorta.

I think the smaller one on Queenie's right resembles a flying fish.

Another viewer said it looked like an airplane; I commented that he must be drinking stronger stuff than Trish and I.  He laughed.

 

Our campground is at 8100' altitude so it's chilly at night, 46 degrees at 6:30 AM.  By contrast, we'll be back in LHC in a couple days and running the A/C cuz it'll be 85-90 in the early AM; it'll be cooling down nicely there soon, however.

 

 

This shot and next 2 are returning up Queen's Garden Trail. 

 

 Taking a break, nearly back to trail head.

Escalante Grand Staircase

Heading south from Capitol Reef NP on National Scenic Byway route 12 takes you through Escalante Grand Staircase National Monument.  The scenery is awesome, red rock and sandstone vistas from high vantage points where you can see forever.  The Monument has no visitor center; it's a drive through with several campgrounds along the way.  Trying to capture the vast panorama with a camera is an exercise in futility.  Do the drive.

A half mile section of the route, the Devil's Backbone, is extremely narrow and twisty and has no guardrails or shoulders.  You run off the road and you're toast, sheer drops of 2-3000' on both sides.  The speed limit in that section is 20 MPH and I had no problem whatsoever staying at that speed or even less.  It's a top contender for the White Knuckle-Max Pucker Factor Scary Mountain Road Trophy.

 

Above and below: petrified wood.  Beautiful stuff.

 

Looking down at the park and reservoir from the petrified wood trail.

Now, we're camped at Escalante Petrified Forest SP, near the town of Escalante, UT for 3 nights.  We did the petrified forest hike yesterday, and the the town (population 500) last night.  Doing the town consisted of listening to live music provided by none other than our campground host, and sharing a burger and fries at the Cowboy Blues Bar & Restaurant - a very enjoyable evening.

The altitude here is 6000', temps are comfortable, highs around 80, lows of 60.