Road Trip with Andy Part I

Colorado Utah Arizona (10 - 17 March 2007)

When I moved to Colorado, I told my brother Andrew how awesome the place was and that he just had to come over & visit while I was here, as there was no better time with the exchange rate, the epic winter & having a place to stay. So just days after the 1 year mark had passed since my arrival in the States, Andy jumped on the same Qantas BNE-LAX-DEN flight, at the expense of nearly 3 grand for a return trip!

Ahead of his arrival, I worked up some overtime to take leave, managed to arrange 6 days without pay, and spent hours researching, asking around & planning a mad road trip. Finally, all preparations were made; food bought, good ol Google Maps printouts of key towns etc, timeline and main destinations planned. I'd managed to keep everything secret from Andy, a total surprise, and on a snowy saturday afternoon I headed down to Denver.

Andy hadn't even arrived when the drama started for me, got the low fuel light on the highway approaching the airport, with no servos in sight. Coming into the west-side arrivals (new to me) looking for American Airlines, I finally saw it & took the first left entry to the carpark. I quickly realised I'd turned into a police-only parking bay from the 20 or so cop cars, so hastily did a u-ie, then had to take the next & last parking entry before the arrivals exit. But this was Valet parking! I hate Valet parking, and try to avoid it as much as possible (just don't like not knowing where my car is, or having someone else park it), but I was worried I'd run out of fuel if I had to drive the long loop around again. So Valet parking it was, for the first time in my life. A half hour later after going crazy scanning the crowd of arrivals for a familiar face, I spotted Andy on the escalators. It was so great to see him, same old, he hadn't slept at all aside from a quick nap on the LAX-DEN flight, so he was pretty flogged. He didn't take well to the mild stress of looking for a gas station before running out of fuel :) but I found one. Then we headed to my new favourite store, Big 5 sports, to buy him a bunch of gear for the snow. All expenses were on me for his 13 day stay, and I hooked him up with snowboard pants, socks, goggles, beanie, base layer shirt, some other stuff I can't remember, all at least 40% off. And I scored for myself new snowboard boots & jacket, shoes and best of all, a $280 Wilson K-Six-One tennis racket for $80, BARGAIN! In Oz all this gear prob would have cost a grand, I paid somewhere around $350 gotta love the USA.

I'd driven through snow on the east side of the divide on the way over... sure enough, now in the dark, we went back into the snowfall. Like me, Andy had never seen real falling snow in his life before coming here, and I was stoked to be there to see it. I found it funny how he reacted to being driven by me on the opposite side of the road in increasingly heavy snow, he was stressing a fair bit. I assured him it was still quite safe, the snow was melting on contact with the road; the only accumulation was right near the top of the pass and nothing to worry about. We talked the whole way home even though I expected him to sleep. At one point I asked him if I sounded the same...when he said "yeah you do" I was SO glad. Survived one year without any American accent! When we got home I offered him my bed and I slept on the couch to give him the best chance to recover from his flights and jet lag.

Next day was a glorious day for snowboarding, fine blue skies, as I helped Andy get organized to hit the Beav. Remembering my own snowboard learning curve back in January, I was curious to see how he'd go getting back to where he left off in Thredbo 2½ years ago. On the chairlift rides to the top, we heard sirens and saw an army of over a dozen grooming machines heading out below us. In a tactic I hadn't seen before or since, they were all staggered side-by-side & grooming the entire run in a single pass. On our first green run, we encountered them again coming uphill & in their wake was pristine groomed snow. One snowboarder came cruising past a minute later, spinning consecutive 180's & 360's on the tips of his board without jumping or slowing down, almost like he was dancing, clearly enjoying the perfect snow surface, pretty amazing to see. Andy & I eventually met up with my neighbour Blair Gorski (I call her Blairski), and we headed for Bachelor Gulch. Andy took the stack of the day on a particularly bad catwalk (Primrose) and I saw it all, as he slid sideways, caught his heel edge, and flew through the air to land full on his butt. I came up to him gasping and moaning, he was hurting haha it was great, took a minute to get going again.

Down at the base of Bachelor's Gulch is the 5 star Ritz Carlton, where Blair's roomie Garret works behind the bar at the Spargo restaurant. Blair, Andy & I rocked up to the luxury engraved stainless steel bar & he hooked us up with tall glasses of a great pale ale beer. After 2 glasses, and what Blair couldn't finish, I was feeling some effect on an empty stomach so we went outside to soak up some sunshine. I think Andy agreed with me that the Ritz courtyard is the best place in all of Colorado to hang out in the winter, with the music, the scent of wood, the slopes & procession of skiiers at the lift, kids on the bunny hill learning to ski, wealthy guests walking around with their dogs...everyone is so obviously enjoying life, it's infectious.

Got a few more runs in before lift close, Andy taking his time down the middle while I scooted into the trees and hit small jumps, then we took "Leav the Beav" exploring the run to ski out all the way down to the carpark. Then Blair & I introduced Andy to Moe's for a very late lunch, and since it was a beautiful afternoon I drove us all across town & up to a cul de sac in Wild Ridge where you can walk out along a ridge to the end where there's 360 degree views of Avon, Beaver Creek, Edwards, Wild Ridge and the mountains. Blair & I were laughing at Andy, because he wasn't yet acclimatized to altitude; he was heaving & puffing & lagging behind while we walked up the gentle slope.

We packed the Jeep that night for the next 8 days, heading out at dawn for a big day on the road to Arches National Park, and Moab, Utah. First point of interest is the Glen Canyon heading west towards Glenwood Springs, it was Andy's first taste of canyons & the highway takes an impressive elevated route westbound on a winding bridge. We listened a bit to the radio to the country songs which we both find ridiculous, one song about some guy who 'fell into the ring of fire' had us laughing, playing it full volume so we didn't miss any of the thick country accent.

Had to pull into Palisade on the way out to Grand Junction for fuel, came up behind some white van covered in dirt, and someone had written 'This car is a piece of s$%!' and I got a good pic of the owner having to put air in the tyres. Andy was in good form with his camera at the border, completely missing the Leaving Colourful Colorado sign, and shooting the Welcome To Utah sign as we were almost level with it. Useless, but I still managed to get them both, always got the camera ready for a quick snap on the road.

Soon we turned onto the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway that heads south, skirting the east border of Arches National Park, and fairly suddenly we entered an awesome canyon. I don't know its name but the highway follows the Colorado River and the further you go the more impressive the canyon gets, starting down a narrow arm, joinging a wide delta, then the road is squeezed between the sheer red cliffs & the river. All through the canyon there is cycling tracks and signs for hiking, mountainbiking & rafting. We didn't stop anywhere for long because our next stop was Arches National Park & I wanted to do two hikes that afternoon.

Arches entrance is just past the turnoff to Moab. Once past the visitor center (which we skipped hoping to catch it later) the road winds up a steep climb onto a plateau covered in sandstone hills. The first major spectacle is the Courthouse Towers, two massive sandstone columns of vertical sides at least 500ft high. Then the Balancing Rock is fairly impressive, but not as good as the Balancing Rock on the Pyramids of Girraween National Park back home. What was impressive though is the Fiery Furnace, a maze of parallel fins of sandstone that really defies description, but is a great example of how arches form, where the bridge of a fin is left after its weaker center erodes away. The Devil's Garden is like the Fiery Furnace, and in it is where the incredible Landscape Arch exists, the widest arch in the park at 306ft and to the eye, appears to be really fragile! A sign has a tourist's photo of the last 180 ton chunk of rock to break away under the arch in 1991.

Then it was on towards Delicate Arch, the icon of Utah, and our second hike of the day. On the way up the slickrock towards the rock mountain & canyons that hide the Arch, I was reminded about walking up the bare surface of Bald Rock in Australia. What it lacked in steepness it made up for in the last hundred yards with a walk along a 2m wide shelf that seemed unnaturally convenient, a flat path at the base of a vertical cliff, above a drop into a canyon arm. I was walking along this narrow stretch listening to the quiet, looking at the canyon formations and watching black ravens soar effortlessly along the cliffs, when quite suddenly, you round a corner, and there's the Arch. Incomparable to the other features in the park, my reaction was to grin, nod & say "wow". Positioned on the far edge of a big bowl-shaped concavity in the rock, on the brink of an edge that drops away out of sight, against a distant backdrop of canyons and snow capped mountains, is the awesome Delicate Arch. The many parallel layers of rock up the arch show strong & weak points; Delicate is a very fitting description for it. And what an extraordinary position it was in! Straight away I wanted to scoot over there & get a photo standing under the arch, while Andy argued that it might ruin the view of the 5 other guys who were there. I guess we just think differently, I'm sure they wouldn't mind waiting while I ran over to the arch which I came a long way to see, for a quick photo there and back in a minute. Soon two other guys did that very thing so we all agreed to swap & get a turn under the arch. We spent a while up there, it was a very exotic environment to be in, with the warm sun, the blue sky & scattered clouds, the red rock & crazy formations, distant mountains of snow, the noise of wind in the canyons and watching those ravens soar in enviable freedom and ease around the cliffs.

Our timing was great coz walking back we passed about 2 bus loads of people, individual shots under the arch would have been impossible with that crowd! We went & checked out Balancing Rock a second time close up & then tried to make the visitor center before close time but just missed it by 15 mins! So we headed back to Moab to search for accommodation, as my plan this first night was to wing it. We also found souvenir shops to make up for the closed visitor center...after 10 mins we were walking back the car & I saw a cop double parked in the street, walking over to look at my car! I quickened my pace as he pulled out his book while Andy showed his support by turning into the nearest shop. I got to the officer & asked if there was a problem; he said I was parked illegally. Sure enough in my sudden discovery of a spare bit of curb I missed the red paint on the gutter marking a fire hydrant. I explained how I hadn't seen it & after thinking a while, the cop asked where I was from since I didn't have Utah plates, & how long I was staying. He let me off the hook after asking whether I was going to park in front of a fire hydrant again, to which I said of course not, and he left, while I took the recently vacated parking spot in front. Lucky I came back in time! I initially thought he was stinging me coz I had plates with a March expiry and it was March :) I thought as I walked back to find Andy, how given my track record, I fully expected drama on my holidays, & couldn't help but laugh to myself that it was only Day 1. After more hunting around we settled on a great new Super 8 Motel with spas, hot breakfast & wireless internet. We headed straight for the spa & spent the rest of the afternoon talking about jobs, property, travel & other deep conversations until the sun's rays set on the ridge that defines Moab's skyline.

The famous Moab Brewery was our stop for dinner... the place is awesome, furnished with jeeps, kayaks, rafts, mountain bikes, climbing gear and tables spread throughout. We tried a couple of their brews, my favourite was the Dead Horse Pale Ale with the funny logo of an native-style painting of a horse on its back with its legs in the air, with the slogan 'you can't beat a dead horse!' I ended up buying the glass.

After a good sleep we got up for Day 2, checked out, & stopped by an outdoors shop looking for a shovel, as I expected to do four wheel driving of unknown difficulty that day & didn't have anything for digging myself out of trouble. You'd think that there would be loads of shovels in Moab, the offroading capital of America, but no, had to go to 3 stores before I found a small (but not travel-designed) shovel. Haven't used it yet, I might just go & shovel some snow around the garden tomorrow to try & make the purchase seem worthwhile, just annoys me for some reason, that I have this stupid shiny new bulky useless shovel.

We headed for Canyonlands National Park. Canyonlands is an enormous national park with three districts that are completely separated from each other by the Colorado and Green Rivers. These are the Island In The Sky, the Maze and the Needles; we were headed for the Needles as it was on our way towards Lake Powell. After driving west we wound our way downhill & discovered that we had entered the end of an arm of a canyon. As we drove on, we began rounding new turns that beheld sights that got more and more awesome. Soon we were driving around the flat valley floor of a massive canyon system, more rubbly and weathered looking than the other canyons we'd seen, but far more vast. After driving for a while, we crossed the national park boundary, & stopped by the visitor center for info. The staff convinced me to change my plans I'd researched on the Internet, as the Confluence Overlook drive (where the Colorado and Green rivers meet) is a fairly technical drive. We drove to the Needles viewpoint, which was similar to the fiery furnace but less spectacular from this distance. I was beginning to think Canyonlands might be a bit of a let down.

On our way back to the visitors center we found a spot that looked like a quick hike. Andy & I set out on the slickrock trail, following cairns of rock piles around some hill that converged with several canyons. The short hike turned into a trail that felt like it went on forever, & as flustered as I got with the time, it did ram home the realization that this place would be near impossible to navigate. Any wonder the Mormon pioneers on the Hole In The Rock expedition took forever to get across the barren maze of a landscape, it's a true wonder they didn't all perish. After missing a couple of rock cairns and having to backtrack, we finally hustled out of there, glad to get out & only then finding a sign saying it was a 3+ mile trail!

Back on the road, we headed back to the Colorado River Overlook road, passing the sign that warned it was for 'Four Wheel Drive Only'. After cruising out on the sand roads & crossing a couple of dry creek beds, we started hitting patches of rock, & soon it was time for 4Hi, & then 4Lo. Andy was concerned about the knocks & clatters coming out of my car (that have since been fixed) and I told him not to worry while silently willing my car to keep it together :) coz it would really suck to break down in such a place; we passed two cyclists & one car the whole time! Soon I was driving down rock steps over a foot high & over bumpy, cragged slickrock. Towards the rough end of the last mile & a half, barely getting over a walking pace, the scale of the place was really setting in. When the trail didn't require close attention, I looked out across the bare vegetation, out past the cliff edge we were following perhaps 50ft to our right, gazing at the endless lines of canyon walls far as the eye could see. When we finally reached our destination, the Overlook to the mighty Colorado River far surpassed my expectations, as cliffs dropped away 800 to 1000ft below us to the river, & we were on an intersecting point with another canyon, the Little Spring Canyon.

I found a photo opportunity sure to please mum & dad, kneeling out on the edge of an overhanging rock above the cliff, ignoring Andy's shouts and demands to get away from the edge haha. Despite his stress he got some good vertigo-inducing shots :)
Taking in the incredible scenery there in the very heart of Canyonlands, along with the absolute total silence, really gave you a profound sense of remoteness in that harsh land. Seeing the terrain on the ground & remembering the satellite images I'd seen on Google Maps, it's awesome and fearsome at the same time. Navigating without these established trails or GPS technology just seems like it would be an insurmountable challenge.

We'd planned tinned spaghetti & baked beans for lunch, but I didn't bring a can opener. While Andy siezed the opportunity to step up his efforts in rubbishing me non-stop, I realised my multitool I got for xmas has an old-school can opener on it. So Andy decided to make an amusing film ridiculing me while I figured out how to use the can opener. Here's the vid:
Instead of filming & ridiculing he should have paid more attention to watching & learning; when his turn came around, I enjoyed filming HIM completely failing in his can opening attempt:
And my spaghetti looked & tasted better than his baked beans, so sweet justice.

The Jeep survived a slightly faster & bumpier return trip & then we had to move it as we'd spent a good deal longer in Canyonlands than intended, plus we still had to get all the way south west to Halls Crossing at Lake Powell. It was pretty obvious we would be arriving late, and given the trouble I'd had communicating with the remote community a few weeks beforehand, I started trying to call ahead to find out where our accommodation was. No answers, no voicemail. Finally I'd had enough and stopping for gas in the last town before the expanse of nothing, I enlisted the staff to help get in contact with someone. After a few phone calls, I finally got hold of a lady in Bullfrog (the town across the lake's ferry route from Halls Crossing), who told me where I'd need to go.

Back on the road, I'd planned to see the Natural Bridges Monument on the way to Lake Powell. After arguing with Andy that we were already late and it was unlikely we'd ever come by this way again, Andy was overruled (coz I was driving and I'm older) and we checked out Natural Bridges right on dusk. Turned out to be pretty ordinary though haha & I got splinters in my feet when I tried to walk barefoot to take photos in a hurry (coz I like driving barefoot). Damned desert vegetation sided with Andrew and I drove with splinters in my feet all the way to Lake Powell, which we arrived at in the darkness around 8:30pm. Halls Crossing is seriously in the middle of nowhere, there is nothing there apart from some trailers, a store, a gas pump & the road to the marina. Apparently a sheet of paper was supposed to be on the store window for late arrivals with names and trailer numbers, the keys inside the unlocked trailer. I couldn't find my name, so called the lady from Bullfrog again, who checked the accommodation system from over there and couldn't find a reservation for me! I couldn't believe it. She called the lady who runs the store who 10 minutes later came down the road to open the shop & get us a trailer to stay in. While trying to figure out what'd happened to my booking, checking my bank account to ensure they hadn't already charged me, the lady (who was very nice) confessed that the year before they had several bookings disappear on them. Just my luck; I wish I took a confirmation number down on the first phone call. Andy's mood improved a lot when he could finally get indoors, shower & go to bed, no doubt wondering what more drama could possibly happen now that day 2 was over...

This will do for part 1! I've finished photos and will soon finish the story for the rest of the trip. :)