In the desert mountains: High outside Wikieup, AZ

We decided to try another area of the country.  We also wanted to be in close proximity to Las Vegas, so we could get to the Las Vegas airport easily in the next couple of weeks to pickup our grandson, Ian, who will be joining us for a week of boondock camping in the Mojave National Preserve.

Vicky ("Always Prepared") had already obtained maps for an area in Arizona south of Kingman.

Here she is reviewing them as we drove:

One cannot underestimate the importance of this.  On this road trip she has two containers this size, with maps in them.  They are all organized and, as can be seen in the photo, she has them organized in such a way as to be able to find them when we need them.

She enjoys this.

Virtually nothing on this road trip has gone as "planned."  We had planned on returning to our beloved National Grasslands, but never got to one of them.  So what?

When we left the Valley of the Gods, we drove to a KOA in Flagstaff (not a good experience), and then headed west to Kingman.  Before we got there we headed south, until we got to a small community named Wikieup, and then headed into the mountains.

Our first site was off of the only "main" road between Wikieup and Interstate 40.  It is a gravel road, but well maintained.

It was a beautiful site.  We were on a spur off of this main gravel road.

On our first hike, we identified several very old mining/ranching roads:

Up high on one of these old roads we found something:  Amazing.

What we found was a very old corral and windmill.  Why would these be here?  Who built them?  To get the cattle from this place to Wikieup would be almost impossible.  Why not just herd the cattle down lower instead of collecting them here and then trying to drive them down these very steep, old roads.

Another mystery:

The next day we hiked closer to our camper.  Along the way we found yet another old corral:

AND a camping spot that was farther off of the main road.  We decided that, even though we liked our first site, we would like this one better, so after our hike we picked up and moved.  Here we are for tonight, and probably several nights to come:

I doubt we will hear or see anyone else.  Perfect!

Thanksgiving in the desert

We have had seven Thanksgivings together.

We have spent them in (1) Whidbey Island, WA, (2) Everglades National Park, FL, (3) Big Bend National Park, TX, (4) the Mojave National Preserve, CA, (5) KOFA Wildlife Preserve, AZ, and (6) Valley of the Gods, UT.

Here is another shot of our site in Valley of the Gods, where we spent Thanksgiving this year:

We might be hard to see, but we are at the bottom left of the monument in the center.

Our Thanksgiving:

Vicky somehow managed to hide a bottle of wine in the camper to give me for Thanksgiving:

The weather was so warm that we could eat outside.  Vicky made a scrumptious meal:

 We danced:

 Then we just sat.  We had something better than football games to look at:



A day later we left, out of food, propane, water, and room for garbage.  We are heading to a more southern location and to a lower elevation.   We can feel the colder weather approaching, so a lower elevation will help a lot.

We also are looking forward to taking our first showers in seven weeks where the water comes out of the wall.

We have hiked about 160 miles this year in Bears Ears National Monument, 75 of them in the Valley of the Gods area.  We love it here.

Here is a map of our hikes in Valley of the Gods.  The black trails are what we did in 2015, and the red trails are this year (when we say "trails" we don't mean established hiking trails---there aren't any here; instead we mean the trails we made):

 

An appeal of our type of hiking: We make discoveries, and find mysteries

We have now taken 580 hikes in less than six years, a total of 3100 miles.

Why?  What keeps us energized for doing this?

The are obvious appeals to hiking.  One is the exercise factor.  We don't take monstrously long hikes any more, preferring more frequent, but shorter hikes.  Our hikes average 5 1/4 miles, and generally take us 3 hours.  We both believe that at our age unless we exercise daily that our quality of life will deteriorate quickly within a few years.

The second appeal is to experience the beauty of nature.  We experience it from seeing beautiful views, from smells, from seeing wildlife, from examining rocks, from walking on different types of surfaces.  That part is spiritual.

But another factor that is important to us about our hikes is due to the fact that we rarely, very rarely, go on established hiking trails.  Almost all of the time we are making up our own hikes.

And because of this type of hiking we make discoveries.  We discover interesting natural formations, like we recently did in Bears Ears when we came upon a ledge that was the size of a football field.  Or historical features, like the amazing old road that was carved into a mountain many years ago, with bodies of 2-3 cars that had gone off the edge below in a ravine.  We discover old mines, old homes, old rock structures.

In short, our hikes are frequently intellectually interesting---they make us curious about what we have seen, and keep our minds engaged trying to learn more about what we have seen.

This piece of hiking cannot be seen any more clearly than one we took this week in Valley of the Gods.

Our "goal" was to try to hike around the top of a very large series of canyons, staying at the top.  We had explored some of the washes within the canyon, but wanted to get as far around it as we could.  So, we did that.

And from the top of the canyon Vicky looked across to the other side and said "There's an old road there."

Here is what we saw:

It is a little difficult to see from the photo, so here is a better look.  It runs from the lower left to the upper right, in a straight line into the wash. 

And as one of the characters in the film Prometheus said, in nature there aren't straight lines.

It was clearly hand built.

Of course, we altered our hike to explore this unusual old hand-built road.  Here is Vicky walking down it. 

It was still in good shape, all things considered.  Our puzzles were:  Who built it, why, and when?

The best we could come up with concerning the why was that it was built so that cattle could descend into the wash to get water.  However, that had to have been many years ago, as there is now a fence across this "road" that would prevent cattle from doing that.

Is the road 40 years old?  80?  100?  We'll never know. 

Now, talk about winning the daily double, when we were about to descend the road Vicky (aka "Keen Eyes") looked across the canyon and said she saw something that looked like icicles.

We didn't think they could be icicles, but they did look unusual, so we had to go find out.

They were.  Icicles.

Now, icicles aren't really that rare in the world, but here?  The past two night have had sub freezing temperatures, but today during our hike the temperature was about 50.  And prior to that the weather has been warm, with nights about freezing and daytime temperatures of mid 60s.

How could this be?  How could these icicles have survived all of those warm temperatures?  How could there be this much freezing, over a long enough period of time, when we are approaching winter, not leaving it?

The area was protected from sun, we could tell that, and it was definitely cooler in this spot than in other areas of the wash, but still.  What is going on?

The weather is supposed to warm up in the next few days, so we think we'll come back to this spot on our final hike to see what has happened.

What a mystery.  We speculated a lot.  There is a lot of lime in the area (in fact, the main washes are called Lime Creek).  Would the lime drop the temperature of the water so there would be a higher freezing point?

It just makes no sense.  We've never seen anything like this.  We are at 4500 feet, not 7000 feet.  But these icicles had been there for a very long time.  They were two inches thick.

We have learned something.  We don't know what, but something.  If nothing else, we have learned that there is a lot we don't know, and a lot we'll never know. 

 

FREEZING in Valley of the Gods: BRRRRRRR

When we decided to stay in the Valley of the Gods for Thanksgiving the weather forecast looked great!  Highs in the mid 60s (perfect for hiking) and lows in the 30s & 40s (perfect for sleeping).

But then the forecast changed, and we were supposed to have three days in the 50s and three nights in the low 20s. brrrrrrrrrrrr.

So we had a decision to make.  Stay and tough it out or drive south a day to warmer weather.

We decided to stick it out.  We really wanted to be here for Thanksgiving.  Such a beautiful place and such a perfect camping spot.  We are 1/2 mile off of the main road, on a spur that goes into the middle of the valley.

We are about 100 yards off of this spur on another spur. 

We have been here a week now and had only three vehicles come up the main spur.  Only one made it the entire way to the end (we walked the entire road and found there was a camping spot at the end of it).  Another went 1/4 mile or so past our side spur and turned around.

The third got stuck, and we spent a very hard hour digging them out.  They had driven their rented AWD BMW SUV (I'm running out of capital letters) into a sandy spot, tried to turn around, and high centered.

Fortunately, we carry two shovels and our good natures.  We also carry a towing strap and if worse came to worse we could have pulled them out, but that would have meant completely closing up the camper and then starting over again to set up camp).

We don't take any spurs unless we walk them first.

This is the second time we have dug someone out.  We also had to once in Big Bend National Park.  Someday we'll need help, and we are confident someone else will return the favor. 

So we had to prepare for the cold nights.  The cooler days were not going to be difficult because we can hike or dance to warm up.

Vicky was ready.  She has knitted several wool blankets.  We also had cotton caps that she had knitted.

Last night was supposed to be the coldest of the three, and we slept well.  It was an adventure. 

Our second camp site in Valley of the Gods.  You can see why we were reluctant to give it up, and why we wanted to be here for Thanksgiving.  Wish all of our family could be here with us is all:

Our site looks good from the other direction too.

Temperature in our camper in the morning. 

Outside temperature in the morning.  This thermometer is off a few degrees, so it was probably closer to 15 degrees than 10 degrees.....as if that makes a difference.

Frost on the windows:

Me bundled up:

Vicky bundled up making breakfast:



Some photos of our hikes from this site the past week:

I'm in this photo.  

Earlier this week we took a "rest day," and danced instead of hiked.  Nice place to dance, isn't it?  Generally, after hiking five days we take one day off, and either dance or use the day to travel to a new spot. 

Valley of the Gods in Bears Ears National Monument

Yes, this place is for real.  We have hiked here for a week, and plan to stay through Thanksgiving.  A nice spot for Thanksgiving don't you think?

This was the camp site for our first week.

Protect Bears Ears National Monument from the Trump administration!  It belongs to all of us.  It needs the added protection that National Monument status gives it.

 

 

 

We almost never get cell phone reception.  But on today's hike the phone rang.  It was the Social Security Administration calling to enroll us in Social Security.  We each talked for about 30 minutes.  A nice spot to sign up for getting money in the mail, huh? 

We are both waiting until we are 70 to take Social Security, so we can get the maximum benefits.  I guess that means I'm going to be 70 in a couple of months.

That thought ruins my day. 

Me enrolling in Social Security:

 

Vicky enrolling to get something called "spousal maintenance," which we had never heard of but are more than happy to get.  I thought "spousal maintenance" was dancing with her, but if it also gets us money, well, hey!