Last night in Arches, after I had already typed up the journal, I did end up going to the astronomy ranger talk at the camp ground amphitheater. There were only a handful of people there. It was interesting. Some things I already knew. Others I didn’t. For instance, did you know that now is the first time in 200 years that all the planets are on the same side of the sun, and you can see all of them at night? I didn’t. It’s an every 200 year occurrence. Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so I couldn’t see anything. Though on my middle of the night bathroom trip, I was able to see Jupiter shining near the moon. Uranus was supposed to be there, but it couldn’t shine through the brightness of the waning moon. (Too many jokes...I feel like Chandler Bing right now;) JP
It was a tough night for sleeping. Phoebe didn’t fall asleep until after 9pm. When I got back from the ranger talk, Jada told me that one of our neighbors was reading a story to his children very loudly in German (they were German) so it kept them both awake. The clouds did eventually dissipate along with the winds, but the tent didn’t really cool off. Plus we were coated with a thin layer of dust from the wind that evening like a chicken leg shaken in a bag of Shake’n’Bake. So we were sweaty, sticky, and dusty. Not great sleeping conditions.
My alarm went off at 5am, but I was already awake. I packed a couple of things and got up to make breakfast. I woke Jada and the girls at 5:30am...the kids were not happy to be woken up, that’s for sure. They started packing the tent as I finished breakfast. Ellen went to the bathroom, and ran back because the women’s room was locked. I took her down to the men’s room and stood guard for she, and another woman who needed to potty. Jada later found out from another woman that it had been locked since last night around 9pm, but that lady didn’t bother telling the park host because she just went in and used the men’s room. We tried to find the park host that morning to no avail. I got the tent down mostly while the girls were still eating. The night before, I had also erected a small rock cairn at our site that Ellen finally noticed. I think Jada took a picture of that. We were all packed up and ready to roll at 7am on the nose...by my watch. That’s Mountain Standard Time which is important today.
It took 30 minutes to get to the visitors center. The park was beautiful in the morning sun as we drove back through. We stopped off at the visitor center which had just opened for a quick last minute potty stop, and the women’s restroom was closed for cleaning! The family restroom was locked too! When I came out of the men’s room, they were still waiting for the family restroom. There was only 1 person in the men’s room, so as soon as he came out, the girls went in. Ellen was a little weirded out, but we explained that sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. So the day was off to a roaring start as we took off again at 7:40am.
We were stuck in the construction single lane closure on the way back to I-70, but after that, we were just highway driving through Utah. I-70 through Utah is beautiful. You drive right through Reefs. We didn’t stop to find out what the Reefs are (there’s a National Park called Capitol Reef, but it was too far out of the way for this trip), but there were also canyons and mesas all along the road. The color changes from brown, vivid red, grays, blacks, and greens along the valley floor was great to watch in the morning sun. We left the Colorado Plateau region for the Great Basin which extends all the way to the south east corner of Oregon through Utah, Nevada, and California. All the water in the Great Basin stays in the Basin. Very little ever reaches an ocean. We left the interstate after 2 hours of driving for 2-lane highways across the salt desert floor. These were long, flat, and straight roads with very few people on them. Lack of sleep and traveling wore on a 9 year old psyche, and we had a bit of a blow up on a long stretch of desert road. That wasn’t fun, but we all survived it.
We arrived at Great Basin National Park main visitor center in Baker, Nevada (in the Pacific Time zone) at noon PST. We picked up a map and the junior ranger books. We found out we had to buy tickets for the Lehman Cave tours up at the Lehman Caves Visitor Center 6 miles up the mountain, so we headed that way and arrived by 12:15pm. No entry fees on this park. Jada found out that there was room in the 12:30pm 60 minute cave tour (there is also a 90 minute tour at 1pm that was full), so we jumped on it. $8/adult and $4/child. I ran back to the car to dig out everyone’s fleeces and flashlights since the cave is a constant 50 degrees. It turns out that we really didn’t need the flashlights though because the cave was well illuminated except when the ranger turned off all the lights to show us how this cave existed until it was discovered. It’s eerie how black it was, but oddly I didn’t feel claustrophobic at all. There were lots of tight squeezes through the passage ways and stairs, so I had to duck a lot. The girls and Jada didn’t have to do much crouching. I had never been in a cave before to witness first hand the building power of Calcite and Limestone. It almost looked fake. We learned about stalactites (hanging) and stalagmites (rising), shield and column formations, cave bacon, drapes, and popcorn. Prior to becoming a protected park, there had been quite a bit of damage done already by the first discoverer and subsequent tour operators allowing people in to take pieces away with them. The Elks Club held meetings in the main ballroom of the cave breaking stalactites off that were in the way. Even Boy Scouts used to camp in the cave. One of them had come through on a tour and told the Ranger all about how they used to camp up in an object called the Giant’s Ear. This cave is also supposed to be well known for it’s shield formations which are essentially disc shaped calcite structures. It was really interesting, and I think the girls enjoyed it too.
The girls were able to finish their Junior Ranger badge work while Jada and I finally ate lunch around 2pm PST. (We had fed the girls closer to 11:30 MST) It’s so confusing right on the time line. We watched a storm dump rain on the Snake Valley below our vantage point on the front porch of the Lehman Visitor Center. Another nastier one was building up to the south, which, coincidentally was the direction we were going to need to go to reach the Hidden Canyon Ranch. The girls were sworn in for their 11th ranger badge and we were heading toward Hidden Canyon around 3pm PST. We had to drive back to Baker, NV and on to Garrison, UT to get back to the Hidden Valley Ranch in NV again. We drove through the storm which was bearing high winds, thunder, lighting, and heavy rain. On the bright side, the Subaru got a bath. On the down side, the Hidden Valley Ranch is on a 6 mile dirt road which was now a bit muddy. The Subaru now looks like it belongs in one of those commercials with how much mud is on it. We descended a set of steep switch backs to the ranch itself. It’s a very pretty valley along a creek that was running high from the rains. We checked in and found that there was a miscommunication with dinner where the hostess hadn’t expected us to eat dinner there, but Jada thought that she had made that arrangement. Luckily, she was able to create a terrific beef and vegetable stroganoff over rice with a side of salad and bread which both of the girls really enjoyed. We all showered before coming back for dinner at 5:30pm so we could feel like civilized humans. We looked over one of our hostess’ maps of Nevada to check on the best route to Yosemite and what city was likely to have groceries. After dinner, we walked up a staircase to get a view of the valley, but another storm blew in cutting it short. Then Ellen got a splinter from the railing post that Jada expertly extracted while I brushed Phoebe’s teeth.
Our room is in a separate building from the main house. The room itself is a big suite probably the size of a small apartment. The single queen bed is in the front room with a couch and papasan chair. The second bedroom had 2 double beds with nice blankets that the girls loved. They were so excited to have their own beds. They fell asleep almost immediately when we put them to bed at 7:30pm PST. Tomorrow’s another long drive to Yosemite in California. So we’ll be turning in early.