Heading to Bryce Canyon

9/15/2008 Leaving Jackson, WY for Bryce Canyon, Utah
Today we leave Jackson, Wyoming and head to Bryce Canyon and then Zion National Parks, both in Utah. After that we are on our way to Apple Valley, California to visit Carmen's brother and sister-in-law. Of course the trip to Apple Valley just happens to take us through "Sin City". Yeah Baby! I'm talking Las Vegas. Not sure if we will have time to stop and put in a few quarters or not. Yeah Right. Like that would happen. If we're here we might as well stop, don't ya think?


We set out of Jackson taking route 189 south. This is suppose to be a Wyoming scenic byway. Well we find our right away that it is and the views do not disappoint. We have clear blue sky, with not a cloud in sight. We have rivers running through the passes, horses, cattle, and of course the mountains. As I have said for most of this trip the views are fantastic. (I know it is hard to believe and any picture we take will not justify the comments, but believe us the views are really spectacular.)

Along the way through Wyoming, we come across more and more pronghorn antelope. At a couple of locations the herd numbers over 50. I'm sure these are on ranches that specialize in hunting them, but they were still great to see.


We travel through the high plains and many are covered with sage brush and you can see for miles and miles. We stopped for lunch at a small turnoff at the top of a hill and you can see for miles, including the mountains east of us about 35 miles away. Also while on route 189 we see at different locations men filling large bags with, what look like cuttings from the sage brush. There must have been about 30 bags all total, but not all in one place.

There are snow and wind fence along he highway that are about 10 feet or more high. These are quite impressive.

The south west corner of Wyoming has rolling hills, but the rolls are about five to 8 miles apart. with a couple of small hills in between. At one point I measured the distance from one hill to another and the distance was eight miles. Then after I crested that hill, of course there was another five plus miles for another distance. The traveling sure seems long when you don't get to what your looking at for some time. I can imagine the pioneers having to travel the distance (oh, by the way we are paralleling and crossing the California trail) while looking at the mountains day after day to cover the 50-60 miles between the mountain ranges.

We drive by Elkol, which appears to be a mining town. It looks like they are either mining (underground) or strip mining coal. Either way there was a lot of it by the processing plant. And, nearby there was a railroad loading area with a number of tracks just waiting for the coal to be loaded.

We leave route 189 and head west on I-80. We are following the Pony Express and the Overland trails. I can feel Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill following us, or maybe that is the semi on my tail coming down the hill. Either case, its exciting.


Coming into the Salt Lake City area we cross the mountains east of the city. There is a very long upgrade, but the side for the down grade indicated a 10 mile 3% to 6% grade. Now I don't know about you, but Fred Flinstone's feet would surely have been hot.


We switch from I-80 to I-215 for a short few miles to circumvent the major traffic from the I-80 and I-15 interchange. Well that goes smoothly, and we switch from I-215 to I-15 heading south just in time for the 5:00PM traffic jam. For the next 20 miles or so we are mostly in bumper to bumper traffic. A well, can't plan everything perfectly. So far this traffic jam and the one on I-90 in Mass. have been the only traffic tie ups, unless you count the buffalo walking down the middle of the road.



I must say, it has been strange that we had to come all the way out west to experience summer. The temperature here today is in the 89's. Go figure, the middle of September is hotter then the middle of summer. Anyway, the aspens have started to turn color here. I know this because they are a golden-yellow and because Carmen told me so.



We continued for a number of more miles traveling through cattle and horse country. It seems that western South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and so far a good part of Utah has many horse and cattle ranches. But the country sure is pretty.



We are now stopped in a rest area, while I am typing this we have the generator on so we can make dinner and recharge some of the batteries. Carmen has taken a number of pictures today and has gone through several sets of batteries. Hope I can get at least one set for each camera recharged.



We should be able to reach Bryce Canyon by tomorrow morning and there may not be any wifi access for awhile. So when we get a wifi connection I'll update the blog, until then see you later. And of course the last picture is me driving down the road with the co-pilot seat empty (Carmen's taking pictures out the back window), but Cody is in the front window watching to make sure I am driving okay.



Per usual it was a great day with great scenery and Bob did good on that long down hill of 10 miles with 6% and 3 % grade of course with my assistance on when to slow down. We have had trouble with our Brake Buddy for the car and are driving with know brakes to assist the stopping of the SUV which we are towing. But we are being very careful on those long declines and there are quite a few.