There are no long hikes in this park. You can tie a few together and do a few miles. The park has published a series of guides to help visitors find the rock art. It's kind of like a scavenger hunt. We think we found most of them. It's Moab tomorrow.
We only drove 30 minutes to get to this place. Consequently, we arrived early and had most of the day to get acquainted. This park has an unusual beginning. We are right next to I 70. When they built that highway they needed a lot of fill dirt. The plan was to literally, dig up a hill and use the dirt to build the roadway. As they started digging they began to discover artifacts. Turns out that hill was the site of the largest Fremont Indian village ever discovered. Can't stop progress. The hill and the village are toast. The artifacts that were discovered are housed in a museum at the park Hq. There is a lot of rock art that we are in the process of trying to find. We're here for 2 nights.
We are back in one piece. We got the door latch installed and it didn't take too long and it didn't cost too much. We are now headed south. Our camp on Antelope island was our most northern destination. I didn't mention this earlier but we lost a hubcap in New Mexico. The MP looks a little skanky on that side. I've ordered a new one and we will catch up with it when we will pass through San Antonio later this month. We are only here overnight. Tomorrow we move to a state park near here. There are some random pics below.
The Great Salt Lake is 75 miles long and 28 miles wide. The average depth is about 30 feet. Antelope Island is 15 miles long and 4.5 miles wide, encompassing 28,000 acres. Today we drove up the East side of the island and visited some historical ranches and homesteads. At the end of the road we did a 6 mile (3 hour) hike which carried us up and over the spine of the island. At one point we had a view of both sides of the lake. We were on the trail by ourselves probably because the climb was grueling and it was 100 degrees. The part we need to fix our door arrived today. We'll pick it up tomorrow as we leave. We are actually not sure where we are going. We are changing our plans on the fly.
I have been wanting to visit this island ever since I lived here in the late 60s. There is a 7 mile elevated road that takes you here from the mainland. We drove into Kaysville to await the arrival of the part I ordered last week. Turns out it was delivered and signed for by Jeff at 10:15. There is no one named Jeff at The Camping World store in Kaysville. I made a few calls and found out it was delivered to a Camping World store in California. Sounds like one of those Rick Perry Oops! moments. We said "the hell with it" and left. We are keeping the door held shut with bungee cords. That's Aggie engineering baby. It's pretty frigging hot here. We are sitting outside, under the awning, in front of a fan set to high. We'll crank up the generator in a few minutes and get the AC going for a few hours before dinner. The door part is going to be overnighted to, hopefully, the correct location tomorrow. We'll pick it up in a couple of days on our way out. Of course by then it will be lost in the Camping World parts warehouse.
We spent 2 nights at a working cattle ranch that is also a B & B and a campground. 9 mile canyon is at least 30 miles long and it's jam packed with Fremont Indian petroglyphs. We hired one of the ranch owners daughters to give us a tour. We were out 5 1/2 hours and it would be an understatement to say we saw some petroglyphs. A few of the pics I took are below. We are currently in a RV resort in Heber City. The MP has thrown us another spit ball and the part to fix it will (supposedly) be delivered to a Camping World in Kaysville around 10 AM tomorrow. Stay tuned.
We were going to leave today but that was way too optimistic. We had laundry, and groceries and we were both tired so we slipped our departure. The float trip started after a 3 hour bus ride. We had 2 stops, the first was at a liquor store in Colorado. They have different laws. The Gates of Lodore was named by John Wesley Powell when he floated through it in 1869. There was a poem written about a river in Scotland that Powell thought described that stretch of the Green. Only 4 trips a day are allowed to begin at The Gates. 2 commercial and 2 private. The campsites are assigned by the Park Service because the entire route flows through Dinosaur NM. We had 6 boats, 6 guides and 25 clients. We would paddle a while and stop for lunch. Lunch was easy to eat, you could generally hold it in your hand or eat out of a small bowl. Dinners were more elaborate. There was salmon and steak and something else that for some reason neither one of us can remember. I paddled one day in a single inflatable kayak and 1/2 day on an inflatable paddleboard. Jenny and I spent 1/2 day paddling a double inflatable kayak. The guides wouldn't let the clients paddle through any class 3 rapids but there were plenty of ones and twos. It was pretty hairy in places. It was a great trip. The guides were fantastic and the clients all got along. Tomorrow we move to Nine Mile Canyon. I suggest you Google it to see why.
