Auntie Pat's 77th Birthday

We gathered at Chrissy's house. Circumstance allowed us to have Jon here in SoCal, sitting by his Mom. Cindy and Katy are in the bg

I am sitting between my two sisters. Catherine in fg flew down from Sacramento to be with us.

Brandon, left, is Chrissy's youngest son standing next to Ted, Chrissy's husband

Cindy, Pat's oldest daughter, on left, with her daughter Katy, are serving the cake and sherbet.

Here is almost everyone. Chrissy, our hostess is in fg.

And here is the bday girl, herself, blowing out the candles. (The "77"candles are not backward to Auntie Pat.) Doesn't she look young? She a beautiful Matriarch. Her children and grandchildren love her, as do her baby brother and sister.

Quartsite - A free campsite

and worth every penny. Along Highway 10 where Arizona meets California you find Quartsite, a desert community well known for being a haven for Snow Birds looking for a cheap winter by "dry camping" or "boon docking" on the land controlled by the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). Here is the road approaching Quartsite. Becca was looking out the window as we drove. I asked her what she saw. She said, in typical Becca-ezz"Zero, Nothing"

Here we are at our "campsite" (random dirt spot in the area called Dome Rock). It is the afternoon of October 22. The full "Hunter's Moon" is rising in the east. This was to be a great feature of our one night stay.

Wide shot of Bigfoot, my chair on our "patio" and the moon

Hunter Moon rising over the desert on a clear night, mild temperature.

And this is the desert dawn on October 23, our day to travel into California

If you're prepared, meaning you have your own water and charged batteries, Quartsite isn't so bad. And the price is right.

Aunt Catherine and Uncle Marvin

A special stop for us when in Northern Arizona is Catherine and Marvin's home in Prescott. Here is Mom and her sister in the gourmet kitchen.

Marv and Catherine are both artists. They imagined and designed this unique house. Every detail was carefully planned and constructed. Only quality materials were used. We wouldn't be surprised to see this casa featured in Sunset Magazine

Here is one of Marvin's paintings. It is hanging in the downstairs guest quarters.

Both the bedroom and bathroom are decorated in a western motif

Notice the brands around the tray and the barb wire design on the hand towels

So Catherine was tickled when we gave her the roll of John Wayne toilet paper (see the Monument Valley blog). It will fit right in here.

This energetic couple have many fun projects going. Marvin is refurbishing this wooden canoe. It is beautiful. He is working on it in the downstairs garage and work room.

Four-shot on the front porch. (The photo below is in focus. It's the old folk who are a little fuzzy)

Here is Becca with her Prescott Squeeze

Getting to this Ericsen Hideaway isn't easy, but it is worth the effort.

Monument Valley

We were excited as we approached our final destination on this trip through Southeast Utah. Monument Valley was made famous by John Ford's films shot here, including one of our favorites, "Stagecoach"

About every third rock formation is called "The Thumb"

The scenery is dramatic. We agree with Ford's decision. We are very glad to have taken this route.

The story is that Harry Goulding went to Hollywood and showed John Ford photos of this place, and rest is film history. Goulding's name is everywhere.

Here is where we stayed.

Becca shows off her "Utah Rocks" shirt

Of course John Wayne, hero of the Ford westerns, is the hero in this valley. Among the ton of "The Duke" souvenirs we saw, our favorite was John Wayne toilet paper

"It's Rough! It's Tough! It doesn't take crap off anyone!"

You gotta love it!

Arches National Park

We had three destinations we wished to visit on this quick visit to the Moab Utah area. Dead Horse Point, Canyonlands and Arches, which was our last stop.

If there was a word that captured the essence of all of the trite words like "Wow, Amazing, Unbelievable and Impossible," I would use that word to describe Arches. We took dozens of photos, none of which do justice to the geologic wonder of this place.

There is a world of geological study that could be done in this area. All of the grandchildren interested in rocks should be given a chance to come down here. Just the vocabulary that they use in trying to describe these phenomena is an education--spires, pinnacles, mesas, buttes, arches--to name a few.

The Rangers (whose hats we love) recommend several days to see this park. Since we had only a few short hours, we picked two features we did not want to miss. The first was "Balanced Rock".

Here is Gramma reaching out to touch this 60 foot high, 60 ton rock, seemingly balanced several stories in the air.

The other feature we wanted to see was "Delicate Arch". It has been called the symbol of Utah and it is on Utah license plates. The hitch is you have to leave the car and hike a ways to see it. Here is the sign describing the trail options.

Becca and I started up one of the trails, labeled "semi strenuous". It took us a long time to hike it. We stopped often to take pictures and rest. Here is a rock Becca saw and named it "The Eagle". We don't know if there is an official name for it.

Interesting Becca story. The trail we were on was only about a mile in length but it ascended about 3/4 of that mile. In the steepest parts of the trail, steps had been fashioned out of the rocks. Becca has always had trouble with steps of any kind. So, I would say, "Shall we head back to the car?" She would pause and look up the steep trail which other climbers were taking. Then she said, "Walker says I can do this. " She would take my hand and on we went. Parts of the trail were near a steep drop off. It was frightening to her, but she never gave up.

Here we are at the summit of this viewing trail. Becca is resting here. (And I am resting on an opposite rock.) Becca looked down at the valley below from where we came. She then said, (I'm not making this up) "Walker says next time we use a helicopter"

Here is my very own Delicate Arch photo taken from this stop

Going down the steps were again difficult for Becca, but she was pumped. As we met new hikers going up. Becca announced, "We made it to the top!" When we finally got back to the parking lot, Becca raised both of her arms in celebration. "We are winners!" she called to her Mom who had waited in the car for us.

What a spirit that girl has!

Canyonlands National Park is adjacent to Dead Horse and has some of the same type of terrain.

But the park is huge. It has three major areas, each reached from separate routes. We went to one closest to Moab. It is called "Island in the Sky".

One overlook is of the Green River. A few miles from here it meets up with the Colorado River in what they call the confluence.

And here is the Green River (which like the Colorado, is not green but brown)

The afternoon sun broke through the clouds and Gramma said, "Quick, quick take a shot of that!"

Here is a nice example of the beautiful rocks is this area (and a beautiful Gramma)

Becca is showing off her new Dead Horse shirt. She'll tell you the horse on the shirt is Not dead.

Becca took this shot

And another tourist lady offered to take this shot

Dead Horse Point State Park

Have you ever heard of this place? We hadn't until we started looking into traveling through Southeast Utah. In all of the times we have lived in and passed through Utah, we have never been down here.

On our first day in Moab, we decided to go to two of the places on our to do list.

Dead Horse came first. It got its name because it is a butte high above the Colorado river. It is said cowboys would drive horses there because they could not get out. One time they ran out of water and died. Sad, but that's the story.

That's the Colorado River down there.

These days it gets its fame from the movies shot here including Mission Impossible and Thema and Louise. (Yes, said the ranger, they drove a couple of cars off the cliff 2000 feet to the river below)

This is Dad above in his new Dead Horse hat

In the tight shot below you can see the wake of one of the many boats that take tourists on the river.