We left Hanksville this morning and drove east and south to an overlook on the Colorado River:

We crossed the Colorado River using the bridge at Hite (as opposed to the ferry crossing at Lees Ferry), and pulled off the road a few miles to hike up to a pair of arches I had read about:

We walked across the road and saw that we it would be easiest to get down to the river through the vehicle culvert under the road, so we went back:

Walking through the culvert under the road:

Trish took off her shoes and waded across the river.  The kids and I went downstream 50 feet and found a place to cross:

One of B’s flower photos:

Eventually, the trail ended and we were forced to walk in the river:

We found Ducket Arch along the river bank:

Farther upstream we reached Big Arrowhead Arch:

We stopped at this structure, called The Grottos.  The kids found a few nice petrified wood chunks:

On the way back:

Continuing on, we stopped at a roadside pullout where a preserved 11th century Native American site has been restored:

We drove another mile and pulled off at the trailhead for Lower Mule Canyon, home of the Native American structure called House on Fire.  The trail through the canyon was lush in spots:

The canyon wall had some interesting eroded grottos:

At last we reached the House on Fire dwelling complex.  Ideal time for photography is when the sun is highest, around 1pm during daylight savings time.  We arrived a few hours later, so the sun was unfortunately fully illuminating the lower half of the structure:

The House on Fire:

From this side, much of the effect is lost:

Driving on, we visited the Butler Wash overview.  I walked out a half mile or so to view the townsite built into the canyon wall, much like at Mesa Verde:

Continuing on a bit father, we are overnighting in a dispersed camping location a few miles west of Blanding, Utah.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

We had a nice Shabbos at Forsyth Reservoir.  We walked over to the other RV at the lake, a retired couple that lives a few miles away in the town of Fairview, but they come up for the weekend in their RV  a couple times a month to get away from the phone.

After a chilly night, we awoke to another beautiful day:

We drove back to Loa to use the Laundromat:

They had three washers and three dryers, one of which only worked intermittently, so we only did half our laundry:

We drove east from Loa, back through Torrey and on to Capitol Reef National Park.  The first thing we did was drive the scenic drive in the park:

We headed down the dirt road through Capitol Gorge:

The park also preserves the Mormon settlement of Fruita, which was a private inholding when the monument was established in the 1920s.  The last resident left in the late 1960s.  The Park Service staff maintain the orchards and fields to give visitors a feeling for what life was like in the ten family settlement:

Not a bad view:

We drove east just outside the park boundary to disperse camp on BLM land.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

We woke up to a sunny day at our dispersed camping location on Burr Trail Road in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument:

We drove back to Boulder, then north to Torrey where there’s a great information center.  We took advantage of their displays and free WiFi:

We continued west to the town of Loa solely to shop at their grocery store.  The town, large for this area with a population of about 500, has the largest store we’ve encountered since leaving St. George almost two weeks ago.  We were also able to fill up our water tank at the USFS office in town (thanks!), and dump at a concrete company on the way out of town on our way north to Forsyth Reservoir.  This part of the US is so sparsely populated that dispersed camping on a lake shore is not a problem.  With our cell booster, we get no AT&T coverage but do have one intermittent bar of Verizon:

I went out for a bike ride, heading north into the mountains:

Looking back down towards Forsyth Reservoir:

At last, the summit:

Good Shabbos from Forsyth Reservoir:

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

This morning we went back into town for more groceries.  On the way, we stopped at the Escalante Heritage Center, which has a replica of one of the wagons that plunged through Hole in the Rock:

Portraits of the Hole in the Rock traversal:

In the temporary visitor center, we watched a short film about the San Juan Expedition.  The center also had a few items on display, including the original switchboard from the town of Escalante:

We perused the farming implements out back:

Driving south on Hole in the Rock Trail, we arrived at the unmarked trailhead for Zebra and Tunnel Canyons:

Off we go:

This puddle in the creek bed sported a few hundred tadpoles.  Hopefully they will become frogs before it dries up:

Along the way we found this dry waterfall structure:

Looking into the bowl:

This plant has its roots behind the rock face, where they pop out below:

The kids imitated the sound made by the ants in Them! as taught to them by Bubbe and Zayde:

The “shell” and interior of Moki Marbles, Iron Oxide concretions that fall out of the canyon walls when the softer surrounding Navajo Sandstone weathers away:

After almost three miles of hiking, we reached the mouth of Zebra Canyon:

Moki Marbles still in the wall (right), and weathered out of the wall (left):

The canyon became a slot canyon:

At the end of this serpentine-floored “hallway”, we had to go up:

After getting up, we reached a water filled pothole that we couldn’t get around:

Down we go:

M is quite the canyoneer:

Heading out of Zebra Canyon:

We hiked towards Tunnel Canyon:

Tunnel Canyon is sealed at the top, creating a tunnel:

More Moki Marbles:

On the other side, we found a bit of water and a huge bee colony coming out of a crack in the rock:

Heading back in:

Shadows lengthened as we made our way back to the truck:

We hiked a little over 7.5 miles.  We were pretty tired by the time we returned home: