Monday, September 13

We knew that we needed to cover about 300 miles in order to still have time to get Mike to the bus station in Albuquerque by 3:00 on Tuesday afternoon. We also knew that we wanted to go to the Anasazi museum in Boulder, see some of the sights in Capitol Reef National Park, and stop at the Natural Bridges National Monument. It would be a long day…and, as it turned out, a long night as well.

--the museum was small but nicely done with ancient ruins under outside cover; we learned that the term “anasazi” which means ancient enemy is no longer in favor; now the preferred term is ancestral puebloan people
--followed hwy 12 to 24 and had views of mesa after mesa--actually climbing to a pass at 9600 ft. at one point
--entered Capitol Reef National Park, which is called a “giant wrinkle” in the earth or the Waterpocket Fold--a unique area which is surrounded by desert

--watched a very good short video at the visitor’s center (area was a long time, very small Mormon settlement), ate lunch, and picked some small but good apples at a U-pick old orchard near the picnic grounds--included bags, long handled pickers, ladders, and a scale with an honor payment system at $1/lb.

--would have loved to do the 20 mile scenic drive but no time
--saw some great petroglyphs

--exited Capitol Reef and drove through Cathedral Valley, an area of brown and gray ramparts, sand slides and sculpted ridges; Mark called one area of gray rocks protruding from the sand around it, a “battleship graveyard”
--another area reminded us of flying buttresses; strange and bleak but beautiful in its own way

About this time, I was weary of sitting in the middle seat and retreated to the camper. Mike and Mark drove through the areas bordering Lake Powell. I snoozed, read, and periodically peered through the windows.

We arrived at the Natural Bridges National Monument and took the 9 mile loop drive through the park stopping at vistas of the various natural bridges (by definition they are formed by the erosive action of water) as well as distant views of some ancestral puebloan ruins from over 700 years ago.

can you find the bridge?

We resumed driving while looking for an appropriate place to spend the night. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Suffice it to say, we finally found an RV park in Bluff, Utah about 7:30 at night. By the time we pulled in, I was in a hypoglycemic snit but we got dinner going in record time. Mark and I went to bed early since we planned to get up early. Mike decided to sleep in the cab since it was a typically barren gravel park. It did offer good showers AND wi-fi, however!

Mike took the computer into the cab with him for a little more online time. Somewheres around midnight, we heard an insistent knock on our locked camper door. Mark crawled out of bed and Mike tumbled into the camper with tales of a mouse in the truck cab. (Apparently, Mark had left the back truck window open when we were in Kodachrome and a mouse had crawled in to go traveling with us.) Mike stretched out on the floor of the camper for the rest of the night. We all struggled to get back to sleep.

Early the next morning, Mark went hunting for the mouse. He discovered that the mouse had gotten into a bag of sunflower seeds but he couldn’t find the mouse. Needing to open the glove box for some reason, he was surprised to look into a Kleenex box there and see…the mouse!! I’ll spare you the gruesome details but the mouse did not go on any further with us…..