Day 3 was our one day in a formal National Park. Since our only intention was to visit Zion National Park, we spent a leisurely amount of time at the hotel, slept in, actually ate breakfast, etc. We considered going to some of the nearby state and regional parks and looking for some of the many boxes in the area, but opted to simply box on the way to Zion.
We left the hotel and got on I-15 only to get off right away on Utah Route 9. We followed this rather scenic road and the paralleling Virgin River into the town of Virgin, where we stopped to grab a blue diamond box and one other excellent carve. We then continued on our way and into Zion Canyon.
Previously, I had been to Zion with my family in the summer of 2011 and I anticipated the experience to be roughly the same. Much to my surprise, the tram that runs the scenic road into the canyon only runs during the summer. During the winter, and thus the off season I guess, you drive your own vehicle down the canyon. Of course this lead to some confusion as I thought that would mean bumper to bumper traffic and so thought about hiking the length of the canyon. Of course, that would have been ridiculous and near impossible and we realized that shortly and drove the canyon, which turned out to be not very crowded except at trailheads.
Unfortunately, we did not do that much hiking. We hiked the trail at the very end of the canyon, but otherwise just drove in and drove out. Mostly it was because of parking but also slightly a time issue. In the future, I would like to return to Zion and actually do more hiking. For sure hike Angel's Landing, and maybe do some backpacking.
We then left Zion through the east and the really long tunnel and then took US 89 south to Kanab, Utah. In Kanab we stopped at the ranger office to inquire whether or not we could go hiking in North Coyote Buttes to go see "The Wave" in Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. Of course, there were no more permits, as I expected. In order to hike the wave you have to either preorder three months in advance, or show up at the Kanab office the day before you want to hike, at about 8 AM, and be part of a lottery.
Fortunately, just because we didn't get the permit, doesn't mean we couldn't go hiking in Vermillion Cliffs. The ranger, informed us of some other nice hikes we could do if we were so inclined.
We got our National Park Stamps and then continued on US 89 to Page, AZ. We actually got to our hotel, which overlooked Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam, before dark. That meant that we were able to go south on US 89 just a bit to Horseshoe Bend overlook. A small hike just off 89 that overlooks a goose neck bend in the Colorado River.
It was really nice and cool a very easy hike. Except the sun was setting at this point, which made taking pictures difficult. We then returned to Page, grabbed a box overlooking the Glen Canyon Dam and then grabbed dinner at a Grill Diner then went to sleep.
Virginia Class
The Virginia (SSN 774)
Friday, March 28, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Dam, Rocks, and Indians: Day 2-Lake Havasu City, AZ to St. George UT
We began our second day of travel by avoiding the continental breakfast. I am not even sure if the hotel we were staying at had a continental breakfast. Instead, I held scurvy at bay and ate an orange.
The first order of business was to see the London Bridge. Supposedly the second most visited thing in Arizona (after the Grand Canyon of course), the London Bridge, built in 1831, was auctioned off by the city of London in 1967. Arizonan resident Robert McCulloch then bought the bridge in an effort to draw investors to his community called Lake Havasu City. He had it transported over piecewise to Lake Havasu where it was rebuilt in three years.
We parked near the bridge and found a box by Jolly Mon, an Arizonan, and then walked across the bridge and then back. We couldnt stay long though since we had to visit so much more. Some other time it would be nice to return and explore the lake.
We then left Lake Havasu City and continued north on AZ Route 95 to I-40. We then made a detour west on I-40 to get an AZRoadie box near the Route 66 community of Topock thus fulfilling my Mohave County letterbox. That leaves only the Yavapai box before I complete the Roadie challenge.
We then returned to I-40 and headed east to Kingman. Surprisingly, there was very little traffic on the interstate, perhaps because it was Monday. In Kingman, we took a side street to a local trail loop on the north side of town. This loop supposedly takes you near the site of Beale Springs, or Fort Beale, a historic site founded in the 1850's by Lt. Edward Beale when he set about plotting a road through northern arizona along the 35th parallel.
Regrettably, I did not take the time to hike the loop in its entirety, or even research the area. I was simply looking for a trail on which I could plant my Mohave county box and then move on. Again, some other time it would be nice to return and explore the region.
We then got on US Highway 93 and headed north through the very sparse and boring Mojave desert. With the exception of the occasional historical marker and Joshua tree, this highway is straight and flat and is only useful in that it leads to the Hoover Dam (and Vegas if you're into that).
About four years ago, I had been at the Hoover Dam with friends and at that time all traffic along US 93 had to cross the dam as the memorial bridge was still under construction. Since then, the bridge has been completed.
We crossed over into Nevada and then went to the dam to do the tourist thing: walked across the dam, took lots of pictures, joked about skateboarding. By far one of the more interesting segments is the
star map that (rather confusingly) depicts the stars on the day that the dam was dedicated so that in the case that civilization falls and is rebuilt, future societies may know exactly when the dam, "this feat of civil engineering" was built. Also interesting is the art style ornamenting the dam (what I have determined since to be Art-Deco). For whatever reason, it draws imagery (to me) of both strength but also foreboding and formidibality.
We took a tour of the dam and the powerplants which were interesting, but pricy. Our tour guides were interesting, one being very short with a woman's voice and the other being an old Hoosier with a slurring almost incomprehensible speech pattern.
Following touring the dam, we returned to US 93 only to get off at the Lake Meade Recreation Area. I had no desire to drive through Las Vegas and intended to instead reach I-15 via the scenic route. What I did not realize was how large Lake Meade truly is. The roads going around are 77 miles long! But I can not complain. The area is very scenic and odd. As you drive through you will catch glimpses of the lake and the surrounding mountains, but nestled inside the park are all sorts of stranger mountains. Deep burnt red rocks on top of black rocks. Red and white sandstone. Later in our trip, Mitchel would describe it as "being on fire".
One other reason for driving through Lake Meade was for historical reasons. During the Territorial days of Arizona, the northern half of Mohave County, Arizona and all of Clark County, Nevada were part of one single county called Pah-Ute County, Arizona. The county seat was in the Mormon town of Saint Thomas, Nevada. In 1866, all lands west of the Colorado were given over to the state of Nevada and later in 1871 Pah-Ute county was dissolved.
The city of Saint Thomas, of course, continued to exist and thrive. (The Mormons actually ended up leaving for economic issues, but new residents moved in shortly) That is until the construction of the Hoover Dam when it became clear that the community would be at the bottom of Lake Meade. The residents were forced to leave there home and the city soon was under water.
Since the construction of the dam and formation of Lake Meade, however, the water levels have gone down substantially and permanently uncovering the ruins of Saint Thomas. on the north end of Lake Meade. You can access the town via a short hike (approx. .7 miles). We of course opted to do this.
The hike is very interesting. Since it is only recently uncovered, there is no old growth and so the only plants are bushes and reeds. The ground is also littered with sea shells. The town itself is quite frankly indescribable. It of course resembles a ghost town and only has foundations left, except it is quite clear that the remains are "modern" compared to the ruins of mining ghost towns like La Paz. There is clearly a city plan with a "main street" leading down an avenue of trees with buildings on either side and wells scattered about. There is even what appears (by comparing a picture at the trailhead) to be the remains of the school building with collapsed columns lying about.
Interestingly, all the trees and buildings are leveled and chopped down. All the trees appear to have been cut before the town was flooded which suggests that the city was perhaps leveled. Maybe in an effort to prevent obstacles in the lake. I have not found any resources to confirm or deny this.
After leaving Saint Thomas, we went down the road to Valley of Fire State Park a fairly large section of pocketed sand stone. The wind has literally sand blasted this section of rock and left it with all sorts of natural features. We got into the park later than anticipated and so only did a driving tour grabbing two boxes while there.
We then continued up to I-15 only sustaining the loss of my storage bin's lid. We then took the I-15 east to St. George, Utah where we grabbed Papa Johns and "celebrated" Saint Patrick's Day by sleeping.
We then got on US Highway 93 and headed north through the very sparse and boring Mojave desert. With the exception of the occasional historical marker and Joshua tree, this highway is straight and flat and is only useful in that it leads to the Hoover Dam (and Vegas if you're into that).
About four years ago, I had been at the Hoover Dam with friends and at that time all traffic along US 93 had to cross the dam as the memorial bridge was still under construction. Since then, the bridge has been completed.
We crossed over into Nevada and then went to the dam to do the tourist thing: walked across the dam, took lots of pictures, joked about skateboarding. By far one of the more interesting segments is the
star map that (rather confusingly) depicts the stars on the day that the dam was dedicated so that in the case that civilization falls and is rebuilt, future societies may know exactly when the dam, "this feat of civil engineering" was built. Also interesting is the art style ornamenting the dam (what I have determined since to be Art-Deco). For whatever reason, it draws imagery (to me) of both strength but also foreboding and formidibality.
We took a tour of the dam and the powerplants which were interesting, but pricy. Our tour guides were interesting, one being very short with a woman's voice and the other being an old Hoosier with a slurring almost incomprehensible speech pattern.
Following touring the dam, we returned to US 93 only to get off at the Lake Meade Recreation Area. I had no desire to drive through Las Vegas and intended to instead reach I-15 via the scenic route. What I did not realize was how large Lake Meade truly is. The roads going around are 77 miles long! But I can not complain. The area is very scenic and odd. As you drive through you will catch glimpses of the lake and the surrounding mountains, but nestled inside the park are all sorts of stranger mountains. Deep burnt red rocks on top of black rocks. Red and white sandstone. Later in our trip, Mitchel would describe it as "being on fire".
One other reason for driving through Lake Meade was for historical reasons. During the Territorial days of Arizona, the northern half of Mohave County, Arizona and all of Clark County, Nevada were part of one single county called Pah-Ute County, Arizona. The county seat was in the Mormon town of Saint Thomas, Nevada. In 1866, all lands west of the Colorado were given over to the state of Nevada and later in 1871 Pah-Ute county was dissolved.
The city of Saint Thomas, of course, continued to exist and thrive. (The Mormons actually ended up leaving for economic issues, but new residents moved in shortly) That is until the construction of the Hoover Dam when it became clear that the community would be at the bottom of Lake Meade. The residents were forced to leave there home and the city soon was under water.
Since the construction of the dam and formation of Lake Meade, however, the water levels have gone down substantially and permanently uncovering the ruins of Saint Thomas. on the north end of Lake Meade. You can access the town via a short hike (approx. .7 miles). We of course opted to do this.
The hike is very interesting. Since it is only recently uncovered, there is no old growth and so the only plants are bushes and reeds. The ground is also littered with sea shells. The town itself is quite frankly indescribable. It of course resembles a ghost town and only has foundations left, except it is quite clear that the remains are "modern" compared to the ruins of mining ghost towns like La Paz. There is clearly a city plan with a "main street" leading down an avenue of trees with buildings on either side and wells scattered about. There is even what appears (by comparing a picture at the trailhead) to be the remains of the school building with collapsed columns lying about.
Interestingly, all the trees and buildings are leveled and chopped down. All the trees appear to have been cut before the town was flooded which suggests that the city was perhaps leveled. Maybe in an effort to prevent obstacles in the lake. I have not found any resources to confirm or deny this.
After leaving Saint Thomas, we went down the road to Valley of Fire State Park a fairly large section of pocketed sand stone. The wind has literally sand blasted this section of rock and left it with all sorts of natural features. We got into the park later than anticipated and so only did a driving tour grabbing two boxes while there.
We then continued up to I-15 only sustaining the loss of my storage bin's lid. We then took the I-15 east to St. George, Utah where we grabbed Papa Johns and "celebrated" Saint Patrick's Day by sleeping.
Dam, Rocks, and Indians: Day 1-Tucson, AZ to Lake Havasu City, AZ
Today (Sunday March 16, 2014), was the beginning of Jess, her brother Grant, and my's grand Spring Break road trip through northern Arizona and surrounding states. Grant was flying in from Des Moines , IA via Minneapolis, MN. Of course, one can not simply fly into Phoenix without some slight hiccup; Grants flight was delayed for maintenance by an hour or so, but at least he didn't lose his baggage, and driving through Phoenix was not as bad as it could have been. We even managed to grab In-N-Out before leaving the Phoenix area, just so Grant could have a taste.
Our first leg of the journey was to take I-10 West from Phoenix to the California border. There are many boring roads, and this is one of them, in my opinion. Granted, there are plenty of mountains to view, but for the most part they are in the distance and not very novel in any way. There are also, simply no towns or cities between Phoenix and Blythe. This makes it so that there are relatively few letterboxes between each end.
Fortunately, there is at least one in La Paz County. And more fortunately, it is an AZRoadie box which I need to complete my Roadie 15 challenge, wherein I have to get one of Roadie's boxes in each of the 15 Arizona counties. Over the past year I have been slowly checking the counties off and at the beginning of the trip I only had 3 left and I deliberately planned the trip so that I could at least get two more.
Once we got to the Arizona-California border we turned north off of I-10 onto a little known, little traveled road that runs from the pseudo-Ghosttown of Ehrenberg to Parker. I chose to take this route for one reason only. The Ghost Town of La Paz, Arizona.
Essentially, La Paz, Arizona was a gold boom town founded in 1862 along the Colorado River. It had a substantial population, enough so that it was even the county seat of Yuma County from 1864 to 1870. Then the Colorado River moved more westward and the gold dried up. What population remained moved to nearby Ehrenberg and the town disappeared. Then in 1983, Arizona Congress passed legislation creating the 15th county, which residents decided (for what reason I havent a clue) to name there county after the long dead town of La Paz.
As I am completing my county letterbox series, I found it then appropriate to leave the La Paz county box somewhere near the ghost town.
Of course, finding the Ghost town is half the battle. There are no definitive websites that give exact locations and direction to how to get there. The best I received was 5.8 miles north of I-10. What few maps I could find were not very detailed (all the more reason to get the Ghost Town book I saw at the NP bookstore) and the historic marker that is supposed to mark the site has address marked "undisclosed". Not even a geocache! To make matters more complicated, most of the area is on the Colorado River Indian Reservation.
But, after some extensive research and google map hunting I got the general location of the ruins. And when we drove there, I wasn't too far off. What I thought was the town proper turned out to be the remains of an Indian Concentration Camp (or so says the memorial, I personally think it might by La Paz). But we did find some old gold ore processing sites even one with a completely intact hopper. Appeased (but not content) I decided to leave the box near this location if only for the sake of my wife and brother in law.
From the plant site, we continued up the road to Parker, AZ and joined up with AZ Route 95. As we neared Lake Havasu, we took a slight detour to cross the Parker Dam and go into California, just to say we did. Parker Dam is the "deepest dam in the world" although it doesn't look like it as most of the dam is covered by water on both sides. We looked for a box by Snake Doctor, but it appeared to be missing.
We then finished our journey by continuing up AZ Route 95 to Lake Havasu City where we stayed at a rather sketchy Travel Inn and had dinner at a nice restaurant. All things said and done, we drove just over 300 miles from Tucson to Lake Havasu City.
Our first leg of the journey was to take I-10 West from Phoenix to the California border. There are many boring roads, and this is one of them, in my opinion. Granted, there are plenty of mountains to view, but for the most part they are in the distance and not very novel in any way. There are also, simply no towns or cities between Phoenix and Blythe. This makes it so that there are relatively few letterboxes between each end.
Fortunately, there is at least one in La Paz County. And more fortunately, it is an AZRoadie box which I need to complete my Roadie 15 challenge, wherein I have to get one of Roadie's boxes in each of the 15 Arizona counties. Over the past year I have been slowly checking the counties off and at the beginning of the trip I only had 3 left and I deliberately planned the trip so that I could at least get two more.
Once we got to the Arizona-California border we turned north off of I-10 onto a little known, little traveled road that runs from the pseudo-Ghosttown of Ehrenberg to Parker. I chose to take this route for one reason only. The Ghost Town of La Paz, Arizona.
Essentially, La Paz, Arizona was a gold boom town founded in 1862 along the Colorado River. It had a substantial population, enough so that it was even the county seat of Yuma County from 1864 to 1870. Then the Colorado River moved more westward and the gold dried up. What population remained moved to nearby Ehrenberg and the town disappeared. Then in 1983, Arizona Congress passed legislation creating the 15th county, which residents decided (for what reason I havent a clue) to name there county after the long dead town of La Paz.
As I am completing my county letterbox series, I found it then appropriate to leave the La Paz county box somewhere near the ghost town.
Of course, finding the Ghost town is half the battle. There are no definitive websites that give exact locations and direction to how to get there. The best I received was 5.8 miles north of I-10. What few maps I could find were not very detailed (all the more reason to get the Ghost Town book I saw at the NP bookstore) and the historic marker that is supposed to mark the site has address marked "undisclosed". Not even a geocache! To make matters more complicated, most of the area is on the Colorado River Indian Reservation.
But, after some extensive research and google map hunting I got the general location of the ruins. And when we drove there, I wasn't too far off. What I thought was the town proper turned out to be the remains of an Indian Concentration Camp (or so says the memorial, I personally think it might by La Paz). But we did find some old gold ore processing sites even one with a completely intact hopper. Appeased (but not content) I decided to leave the box near this location if only for the sake of my wife and brother in law.
From the plant site, we continued up the road to Parker, AZ and joined up with AZ Route 95. As we neared Lake Havasu, we took a slight detour to cross the Parker Dam and go into California, just to say we did. Parker Dam is the "deepest dam in the world" although it doesn't look like it as most of the dam is covered by water on both sides. We looked for a box by Snake Doctor, but it appeared to be missing.
We then finished our journey by continuing up AZ Route 95 to Lake Havasu City where we stayed at a rather sketchy Travel Inn and had dinner at a nice restaurant. All things said and done, we drove just over 300 miles from Tucson to Lake Havasu City.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
February Fiesta and Friends
And without even batting an eye, January became February, and we still continued to letterbox as much as possible.
As was previously stated in a previous post, AZBluelion has been meticulously attempting to get all Atlas Quest boxes within a 30 mile radius. Why? Because it's fun, but also he wanted bragging rights before the annual Tucson Letterboxing Gathering.
So, with only 8 days left, we made a mad rush to get as many as possible.
Starting on the first, we (AZBl, TMWNN, Jess and I)went out to the east side of Tucson to get what boxes remained in the Rincon Mountains. This included a slightly illegal box in Saguaro NP, hiking to a waterfall that apparently is frequented by nudists (too cold that day fortunately) and ten miles of off-roading through the Reddington Pass to get to a rather obscure part of the AZTrail. Then, because we had time to kill, we climbed the first leg of Agua Caliente Hill to get two more boxes.
The next day Jess and I kept the ball rolling and hiked to the Pima Canyon Dam, to get the 10k Charmer. By far one of my favorite series, if only for how well spaced the boxes were and how pleasent the hike was (the carves are good too). We had also been charged with replanting the final stamp. Along the way we found a Geocache the was blatantly hidden (so glad letterboxes are NEVER like that :p) and decided to help ourselves to the goodies. I traded out my crappy carabiner for a nicer one and Jess put some gum in for a much needed trail mix bar.
Then on Tuesday (the fourth) the whole gang plus TMWNN's new girlfriend Sonoran Señorita went out to finally finish the Abscraps series. But first we got another Family Tree Shaker box located near some old mineshafts. Then, in the dark, we climbed up a rather steep unofficial trail to reach the official trail that the last Abscraps was on. Not the most fun but rewarding. We ended the night with the ever famous pork chop challenge at my favorite restaurant, Cody's beef and Beans.
The rest of the week was spent preparing for the gathering. On Friday night we took all of our boxes and planted them in Oro Valley Riverfront Park. There only five in all, and all we're going to be temporary. There was my contribution of a Father Kino stamp, AZBl and KM's one time Keep it Wheel stamp, and TMWNN's Desert Dangers series, a set of three Spider-Man characters. All quality carves in my opinion. We wrote the clues that night in preparation for tomorrow.
I personally, wrote my clues to be challenging. Not directions but actual clues. Controversial for sure, but if people didnt get it this year, there's always the future years.
The gathering itself was great. There were 50ish people, lots of food, and quite the plethora of new and historic boxes. We met new letterboxers from the SW like Arnold Ziffel and TeepeeAZ and caught up with locals. We also ran into some of our favorite and most respected letterboxers while on the trail.
Total, outside of our own boxes, there were 15 new traditional plants plus a series of all the historic event stamps. the theme was ten since it was the tenth annual! and as Desert Flower likes to say, 12 years ago FunHog planted the first letterbox in AZ, 11 years ago she introduced AZRoadie to letterboxing, and 10 years ago was the first event. Truly a long lived tradition,
We ended the day by finding a letterbox planted just hours before by the notorious (but respected) FunHog. Her clues inevitably give us problems as they are intentionally vague. Fortunately, this one was on familiar ground so we got it with little difficulty.
The next day, Jess and I relaxed for most of the day. but towards evening! we received an invitation to go to a post event for letterboxers. We thought, "eh probably not" until we found out that it was across the street. So we spent the evening talking about this absurd hobby with people twice (or more) our age.
On valentines day, Jess made an elaborate feast for us of homemade sushi, shrimpies, kani (crab) salad, and pumpkin tort and Jell-O shots for dessert. But not before we went out and got 4 new boxes planted by people from the gathering.
On the 15th TMWNN, AZBl, Jess and I drove north into Gila county in order to plant my county box in Globe and get the AZroadie box for that county. Really a fun trip, that took us into a different environment. Up there, the mountains are countinuous rather than "sky islands" and the rivers actually have water in them. We saw Roosevelt Lake and "the worlds smallest museum". And we found a rather old box planted in a small town called Mammoth. This box was planted at the old boxing club, a ramshackle building built by miners back when the town was more prosperous. We had to ask for directions but that was half the fun. The man we talked to was a third generation resident of Mammoth, AZ and told us all about the area, including more than we wanted to know about the local whore house.
On the 22nd we spent our first weekend without friends. But that didn't stop us. Instead Jess and I took on Wasson peak in the Tucson Mountains. Eight Miles round trip and quite a bit of elevation gain. We weren't as prepared as I would have liked, but it was well worth it, and a fairly easy hike, plus two boxes. We also visited Saguaro NP for the first time in my being here.
And we ended the month just as we started, by boxing. We're slowly waddling down the boxes we need to get. Once that's done we'll just have to expand our radius of influence.
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