2020 – Ulen Adventures

7-11 October 2020. Palo Duro Canyon, TX.

7-11 October 2020. Palo Duro Canyon, Texas. During the summer of 2019, we participated in a Jeep Jamboree event in Wyoming. We had such a good time, that we signed up for a Jeep Jamboree in Texas for 2020. It was supposed to happen in May, but was rescheduled for October. So, with very little rest at home after our Utah adventures, we headed toward Amarillo and the Palo Duro Canyon for this year’s Jeep Jamboree Event.

Palo Duro is a 60 mile long canyon that opens up in the middle of the desert. It is the second largest canyon in the US. The websites claim it is the most spectacular and scenic spot in the Texas panhandle. The canyon descends down to 800 ft, but where we were it was closer to a 500 ft drop. The Jeep Jamboree people hooked up with a private landowner (cattle rancher) who owns a huge amount of the canyon and lets large groups explore his property (you have to watch out for cows!). (There is also a Palo Duro Canyon State Park – same canyon, but further west – which is not where we were, they don’t allow 4×4’ing).

The rancher allowed our group to dry camp on the ridge above the canyon, then in the morning, the Jeep Jamboree folk took about 140 jeeps (in eight groups) down the very steep and narrow trail to the canyon floor. We chose to be in a “mid level skill” group and were surprised by the constant obstacles that we encountered, but we had a great time for two days of hard wheelin’.

Here are some of the Jeeps lined up and waiting their turn to head down the canyon trail.

To head into the canyon, we left the “Main Road” and took the “Horse Trail”. That was definite foreshadowing of the difficulty level for our adventure.

Our GPS said this trail was a 500 ft drop to the canyon floor, but quite the view going down!

At the bottom of the canyon, you get see the beauty of the area. – and how dry it is…

Many of the trails didn’t look much like trails.

Sometimes you had to help each other get through!

This obstacle was called Coyote Crawl. If your Jeep has good articulation, you drove through it like this.

If your Jeep articulation isn’t great/ or you forget to undo the sway bar, then this happens. Oh dear!

Why are all these jeeps waiting patiently coming off the hill?

Because this guy’s tire came off his rim! Got it patched up and off everyone went.

We had a slow climb getting out of the canyon!

It was a bit foggy in the rancher’s field the morning we left.

We are already making plans to do another Jeep Jamboree Event in 2021!

6 Sept-1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves, Part 5.

Part 5 shows the last few days of our Canyons and Waves adventure near the Utah/Arizona border.

26-29 StateLine campground. This campground straddles the border of Utah and Arizona. It drove us crazy for a while, because we could never figure out what time it was – the phones and the truck just wouldn’t match! So we forced the phones to Denver time and just calculated the right time zones in our heads… Stateline campground is about a mile south of the entrance to Wire Pass and also the Wave hikes. Our plan was to get to this free campground early, snag one of the eight sites for four nights. We would hike the Wire Pass trail into Buckskin Gulch as a warm up, take a day off to rest our bodies, then hike the Wave on the 29th.

We found a very nice site at the Stateline Campground, covered picnic tables and bbq pits!

The Wire Pass day hike also requires a permit, but you can pay for it right at the trailhead, so that’s what we did. The Wire Pass trail is about 1.7 miles and dead ends onto the Buckskin Gulch trail. (Buckskin Gulch is part of the multi-day Paria Canyon Trail hike that we mentioned in Part 2).

We actually went north in Buckskin Gulch about a mile, turned around and went back to the intersection, then went south in Buckskin Gulch about 1.5 miles. (Then turned around and went back across Wire Pass). The next time we come here (and it was cool enough that we will come back), I think we will spend all our time going south. It was just a more interesting hike in that direction…

This is the beginning (and end) of the Wire Pass Trail. It is pretty open and gets VERY hot in the afternoon! (Bring water if you come).

Wire Pass trail has some skinny parts (also a dry waterfall that we bypassed).

At the intersection, we headed north on the Buckskin Gulch trail.

I think maybe hikers must have filled these holes with pebbles?

I think that spire at the top looks like a saber tooth tiger head!

When the trail opened up, we turned around and headed south.

Going south, Buckskin Gulch got narrower, and there were occasional puddles of mud – which were easy to step in – don’t ask me how I know!

The rock formations were grand and beautiful!

Here you can see where a flash flood left debris high overhead. Rain is dangerous here! (Chuck is carrying my hat so I can concentrate on getting mud off my boot!)

Occasionally, you can see where the walls have collapsed over time, leaving rubble on the ground.

We ran into this little critter, probably a Marten (type of weasel).

This is as far south as we went, turned around and headed back. Probably 8.5 mile day.

The Wave. We had tried for five years to get a permit to hike The Wave. The BLM office only issues permits for 20 people a day to hike this area. Ten people via a internet lottery four months in advance, and ten people via a lottery of those that show up the night before. There are hundreds of people who are disappointed not to get a spot every day! I’m very glad we persevered, it was a GREAT experience. Chuck says sometimes I put in too many photos, but I think this time you’ll enjoy them!

The hike (definitely NOT a stroll) to The Wave is 2.7 miles of climbs and descents over rocks and sand.(You get a brightly colored permit that you must wear on your backpack to verify you are allowed to be there – ours was pink).

The BLM office gives you a map, of sort, with pictures to help you identify landmarks along the way.

If it hasn’t rained in a while, you can see footprints from previous hikers in the sandy areas to help lead you the right way. (Unless the wind has blown them away).

There are three main “waves” at The Wave.

We left on the hike pretty close to sunrise, so we had some amazing colors.

This is one of the side waves. It almost glowed in the morning light!

Us standing here gives a better perspective of how large everything is!

I just couldn’t get over how beautiful it was!

I thought this looked a bit like bleachers.

Here is a colorful canyon near The Wave.

Everywhere you turned, there were more colorful formations!

Can you imagine how the earth swirled and settled millions of years ago?

So many layers of ground showing, so very colorful!

You can see one of the few trailposts here.

The Wave hike was the highlight of our Canyons and Waves trip. I’m so very glad we got our permit and finally made it here!

6 Sept – 1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves, Part 4.

Here is part 4 of our Canyons and Waves adventure near the Utah/Arizona border.

20-22 September. Lone Rock Campground. We headed to the BLM Lone Rock Campground on Lake Powell near Page, AZ. This is a huge spot on the beach that allows you to camp anywhere you like for a small fee. We have stayed here a few times before, so we headed down the sand near the water and parked. Unfortunately, this campground is suffering from the renewed enthusiasm of folk who want to get away from their houses because of COVID, but don’t really know about basic camping etiquette (like quiet times at night). This phenomena is especially prevalent on weekends, and we arrived on a Sunday. So, we experienced a more wild night than we are used to the first night, and found a better spot further away from the water (and crowd) for the next few nights. We picked this area to take advantage of Page for our restocking routine, groceries, laundry and basic camper cleaning and maintenance. We also got to launch our Kayak on Lake Powell and kayak in Antelope Canyon. This is only a couple of mile kayak trip up the canyon, and then you can continue further up the canyon by hiking. This hike did not show off the beauty that you can see on the commercial tours of Antelope Canyon, but those commercial tours were closed because of COVID.

Here is the “Lone Rock” at Lone Rock Campground – Lake Powell.

Paddling on Lake Powell to get to Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon out on the water, not as dramatic as the commercial tours further inland, but still really cool!

This is the colorful “parking spot” for all the Kayaks that paddle to the end of the water at Antelope Canyon and want to hike.

Ack! We found a Baby Rattlesnake on our hike up Antelope Canyon! Back to the water for us!

23 September. Crosby Canyon. After getting restocked, we headed across a creek and along to the north shores of Lake Powell. This is a much more peaceful and rugged area, and we shared our first spot in Crosby Canyon with a view of less than half a dozen other campers, a family of Coyotes, a few birds and a few bats.

The roads on the north rim of Lake Powell are definitely ‘less traveled’.

There are cool rock features as you head into Crosby Canyon.

The GPS said that we were in the water! I guess water levels were down a bit.

There were not too many people sharing this beach in Crosby Canyon!

Here is momma coyote finding a fish for her babies.

All those nooks and crannies in the hills make great spots for bats to live, I guess.

24-25 September. Alstrom Point. Continuing east along the north side of Lake Powell is one of our favorite dispersed camping spots, Alstrom Point. It takes a high clearance 4×4 to get all the way out there. The views from this area are just incredible; you can watch the lights from the stars above and the lights from the parked houseboats hundreds of feet below on the lake. We were lucky this time with great weather, and the colors of the area just popped out!

We camped perched at the top of this cliff for our views!

View from our back window (before the wind came up and broke the window).

You can see the houseboats parked on the beach way below.

Lake Powell from Alstrom Point at sunset.

Next – We make it to The Wave!

6 Sept-1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves. Part 3

Here is our continuation of our Canyons and Waves adventure near the Utah/Arizona Border.

14-15 September. Kodachrome State Park. We spent the next two nights at beautiful Kodachrome State Park in Utah. This wasn’t our first is visit to this park, so we skipped the easier trails we had done before and struck out on the Panorama Trail. Beautiful views all around, a couple of slots and spires, and even a little bonus of internet service at the very peak of Panorama Point!

This is the colorful view from the top of Panorama Point at Kodachrome State Park.

Along the Panorama Trail was a short slot canyon called Secret Passage.

One of the many spires at Kodachrome State Park.

16 September. Lower Hackberry Slot Canyon. We took off south on Cottonwood Rd and stopped for our hike of the day at Hackberry Slot Canyon. This canyon was a bit different, fairly wide, with some bushes and trees growing on the bottom… From our research, we were expecting a 4-5 inch stream flowing through, but apparently not in September. There was plenty of sand, though, enough that we hiked half the trail barefoot! (Just to keep the sand from piling up in our water shoes). We spend the night at the BLM White House campground and were entertained by Uber-like drivers dropping off people to hike the 3-5 day (45 mile) Paria Slot Canyon trail. They were certainly tougher than us!

Cottonwood Road, along what they refer to as a Cockscomb mountain ridge.

The Hackberry Slot Canyon Trail, can you see Chuck’s shoes hanging from his backpack?

The Hackberry Canyon was wide, but still very deep!

We got to camp next to a huge sandstone boulder at White House campground.

17 September. Toadstools and Sand Dunes. We did a quick hike to see Toadstools and then headed to Corral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. This sand dune area was certainly bigger than the sand dunes area in Northern Colorado, and is known for several movies filmed there. We saw plenty of people playing with motor “toys” there.

The Toadstools hike was just a quick 1 mile hike off the main Hwy 89. Just amazing seeing these rocks wearing hats!

Lots of sand at Corral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, but I thought the sand was more orange than pink…

18-19 September. Toroweap. This spot on the north rim of the Grand Canyon has been on our “bucket list” for quite a while! To get there, you go down a dirt road for 60 miles, drive through the Grand Canyon- Parashant National Monument and then arrive at a big Grand Canyon National Park sign and a tiny Grand Canyon Ranger Station manned by a young volunteer who stares at our rig and says, “you know, you need to be less than 22 ft long to make it through the rough and twistee road”. After assuring her that we were indeed only 21.5 ft long, and her verifying our two day camping permit, she let us tackle the rugged 4×4 road to Toroweap Point and the Tuweep campground.

There are two 60 mile dirt roads out to Toroweap. We took one out and the other back. Would recommend sticking to the east one if you are heading out there.

The Toroweap Cliffs on the way in were beautiful!

The road inside Grand Canyon NP were a bit rugged.

Short hike to the edge of the Grand Canyon.

Here is Chuck getting close to the edge – 3000 feet straight down..

View of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon from Toroweap Point

From this point you can see the rapids on the Colorado River, and the rafters on “tequila beach” (where the rafters celebrate surviving the rapids). This is the only overlook in the National Park where you can see the river directly below.

Grand Canyon view from Toroweap point, looking east.

The Tuweep campground was about a mile from the point, and we found a boulder to camp next to! We were the only “big-rig” (non-tent) in the campground – as Chuck likes to say, the only one getting a hot shower in the morning!

There were plenty of short, pretty hikes to occupy our time!

We took a picture of this guy who got way closer to the edge than we would have! (See his Dad yelling at him to be careful from a safe distance on the left?)

Next – on to Page, AZ and Lake Powell.

6 Sept – 1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves Part 2.

We are continuing our adventure near the Utah/Arizona border.

9 September. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. We started off the day with a hike up the Calf Creek Canyon. After three miles, you are rewarded with a beautiful waterfall! Then we loaded up the trucks and headed to Hell’s Backbone Road. We found some very interesting geology formations – wouldn’t want to drive my covered wagon across them – but other than washboard on the road, and the narrow bridge with great scary views, it wasn’t that bad… We were the only ones at the tiny (six site) Blue Spruce campground near the top of Hells Backbone – nice and quiet. It was cold enough to that the rangers came by to turn the water off to keep pipes from freezing, but they came by in the morning and turned it back on! Our friends Kurt and Anna departed for some different adventures, but we hope to camp with them again soon!

Found some parking at the Calf Creek trailhead (this isn’t always that easy, it is a very popular hike).

Did I mention that Kurt and Anna brought their camping cat? She decided to go on an explore of her own… here is Kurt convincing her to return.

Starting up the Calf Creek Trail, scenery is magnificent.

This waterfall is spring-fed, so it usually has the same flow all year long.

Lunch stop view from our window along Highway 12. You can just see interesting geology for miles and miles.

Sharing a bit of shade along Hells Backbone Road.

View looking out from the bridge at Hells Backbone. Quite Rugged.

The new (1965), improved one lane Hells Backbone bridge

Our camping spot at Blue Spruce was lush and quiet!

And the view out of our back window was a trickling stream!

10-12 September. Hole in the Rock Road. Near the town of Escalante there is a dirt road that has a grand history. A group of Mormons built the road to get to the water (Glen Canyon/Colorado River/ now Lake Powell). But the only break in the rock cliff mountains was a tiny “hole” 50 miles down the mountain range with a steep descent to the river. Along the road are several interesting natural and historical sites. We hiked Zebra Slot Canyon, but found it a bit “icky” – the water was about mid-thigh high and was pretty stagnant and murky. And at our age, we really didn’t have the agility to “catwalk” the narrow passage. So we didn’t go deep into that canyon. After driving around on the wash-boardy roads, we found a camping spot along the way to Harris Wash. Beautiful spot, and it even had Internet! We spent two nights there, relaxing and reading, our friends who were tracking us with our in-reach GPS device worried that things had gone wrong because we were out in the middle of nowhere and we weren’t moving! We have great friends!

Meandered a bit at Devils Kitchen along Hole in the Rock Road.

Loved this pic of an arch at Devils Kitchen.

Not too deep into Zebra slot canyon. Yes, the water was that color! And the slot was that narrow!

We found this nice camping spot along Harris Wash Road.

This canyon was right next to our camping spot. Great little hike!

Our peaceful spot along Harris Wash Road.

13 September. Escalante. We spent a day doing laundry and gathering groceries in Escalante. Would you believe the grocery store there was not open on Sunday? Next stop, Kodachrome State Park.

6 Sept-1 Oct 2020. Canyons and Waves – Part 1

6 September – 1 October. Canyons and Waves – Utah/Arizona Adventure.

First one of our friends suggested a May trip that got us thinking about how beautiful the Utah/Arizona border area was. Because of Covid, that trip got cancelled. Then, because of Covid, our long trip to Canada got cancelled. Then, low and behold, after five years of playing the “Wave” permit lottery, we finally got selected for a permit for that hike. So, we created a month long adventure to enjoy the Utah/Arizona area and end up with our hike on the “Wave”.

6 September – James M Robb State Park. We frequently pass this Colorado State Park on what used to be an island in the middle of the Colorado River as we travel down highway 70 near DeBeque Canyon. We thought we’d give it a try for our first night of this trip. It was very hot, but really nice. Seemed to have good river swimming, too.

James Robb campground in the DeBeque Canyon (along the Colorado River)

7-8 September. Capitol Reef National Park. Then we headed on down to Capitol Reef. Those of you who have known me for a while know that this is where I broke my arm (hiking) ten years ago. I was much more careful this time! Unluckily, the smoke from the California fires seemed to be catching up to us, but here are a few pics. We enjoy driving along the Capitol Reef Scenic Drive (canyon), even got out and did a little hike. We were lucky enough to meet up with some fellow XP Campers, Kurt and Anna, and spend some good times with them.

Fruita Campground at Capitol Reef. Room for two XP’s here!

Driving down the scenic drive – the lack of blue skies just dulls all the colors!

See those little stairs? That’s the beginning of the hike.

View of the Scenic Drive from the hike – you can see how smokey it is!

The next day we all headed off to Notom Bullfrog Basin road and hiked The Headquarters slot canyon. The road is along a “fold” in the earth and there are several slot canyons in the area. Kurt and Anna are geo-cachers, so we were able to track down a treasure out in the middle of nowhere. Then we headed up the Burr Trail Switchbacks, did a little off-roading and hiking at the Upper Muley Twist trail, and then on to some beautiful view areas along Burr Trail.

Two XP Campers along the Notom Bullfrog Basin Road! Sky a bit bluer today

Entrance to the Headquarters Slot Canyon – Capitol Reef

Our XP friends Anna and Kurt, in the Headquarters Slot canyon.

This is where the Headquarters Slot Canyon ends.

XP Campers waiting for us to finish our hike!

A little 4-wheeling on Upper Muley Twist

Stopping along the Burr Trail to peek at the view

16-24 August 2020. Plan B (not Canada)

August 16. Beartooth Highway. We had originally planned to be on a five week trip to Canada – Had reservations in Banff and Jasper with our friends Jamie and Lisa – then we were going to just wander around British Columbia for a while. COVID changed that – and because the border remained closed, we met Jamie and Lisa for the Plan B trip. This started at the base of the Beartooth Highway in Montana. We had a great campsite near a small creek.

Our campsite at Greenough Campground at the base of the Beartooth Highway

Jamie and Lisa setting up their roof-top tent

The creek behind our campsites at Greenough Campground. Made some nice gurgles to sleep by!

August 17. Beartooth and on to Yellowstone. This was the first time any of us had been on the Beartooth highway, we had heard many stories of its magnificent views, and it did not disappoint. As we meandered up the switchbacks, there were breathtaking views all the way up and down the other side.

Starting up the switchbacks on the Beartooth Highway.

Lakes near the top of the Beartooth Highway.

Bear Lake – where the road construction had us wait a half hour (so we ate lunch) Beartooth Highway.

Going through Cooke City – couldn’t resist driving a little bit on the snowmobile trail -Daisy Pass.

Driving through Cooke City, MT, we couldn’t resist going up the Daisy Pass trail a bit (This is a snowmobiling trail that we’ve done numerous times)

Then a quick drive through Yellowstone – wasn’t any camping available (we knew that three weeks ago) – so on to Idaho and the Riverside Campground along the Henrys Fork River in Island Park.

August 18-20 Grand Tetons. The campsites at Grand Tetons are first come, first served; but during Covid, they made some changes and assigned your site at the gate of the campground. Still first come first served, but no picking. So we got up early and got assigned a good spot. Then we drove to String Lake and unloaded our kayaks for a quick paddle to Leigh Lake.

Our campsite at Grand Tetons National Park.

Kayaking on String Lake – heading to Leigh Lake. Grand Tetons.

There is a short portage between String Lake and Leigh Lake (maybe 2/10 mile).

We Kayaked across Leigh Lake – waves started to act up in the afternoon

The next day we did some exploring of the Grand Tetons Park, hiked near Jackson Lake and Radio Hill, and scoped out a kayaking adventure on the Snake River for the following day.

Wandering along Jackson Lake at Grand Tetons

Mamma moose near our campsite, she just wouldn’t turn around!

Because we had two cars, we were able to paddle the Snake river for over ten miles, the stretch was supposed to be gorgeous. Unfortunately, the smoke from the California fires hit overnight. The run down the river was still lots of fun, but we could not see any Tetons along the way at all…

Getting ready for the paddle down the Snake River

Kayaking the Snake River under smokey skies

A young Eagle watching us go by on the Snake River

August 21 The Sinks, Wyoming. One of our favorite mid Wyoming places to visit is the Sinks Canyon State Park. The river actually flows underground here, rising back up in a pond about 1/4 mile away. But the water takes a couple of hours to flow that 1/4 mile. There is a great hike here, to a waterfall area that the locals love sliding down. We did the hike, but did not slide down the falls (this time).

Chuck, Jamie and Lisa at the cave where the river filters underground.

This is the pond where the water rises from underground. All those trout are just waiting there for you to throw food at them… no fishing here!

One of the waterfalls in the Sinks Canyon.

We couldn’t resist jumping on the “Bouncy Bridge”!

August 22-24 Black Hills, South Dakota. Our next stop was the Black Hills area of South Dakota. Even though we had just been there two weeks earlier for Sturgis, it was a treat traveling those same roads in the camper instead of on the trike, and giving Jamie and Lisa a little feel for the area.

Looking at one of the waterfalls in Spearfish Canyon.

This is what Sylvan Lake looks like when the air is smokey instead of blue.

Squeezed through tunnels on Iron Mountain Road.

Looking out at Bismark Lake (where we camped).

And our final paddle, out on Bismark Lake.

I think we had a pretty good time for our “Plan B Trip”!

Aug 5-13 2020 – Sturgis, SD

Well, I’m getting more behind every month. I thought I’d post a more current event or two, then fill in the in-between later. We just returned from our annual Sturgis adventure. With Covid, things were a bit different. In fact, we were pretty surprised when they didn’t cancel this event like so many of the others we had planned on this year.

But Sturgis is mostly outside, and we don’t frequent the nightlife in the bars and at the concerts – so we felt relatively safe during this adventure. Grand-nephew Connor has been riding a motorcycle for a while now. He turned 21 just the week before, so we had fun exposing him to his first Sturgis. We did a lot more driving around, and a lot less going into stores for shopping, but we had a great time!

Took two days to get to Sturgis this year, had a relaxing layover at Lake Minatare State Recreation Area in Nebraska. Mid week was relaxing , we heard that weekends were a bit more crowded here.

We felt that although people were predicting a lower turnout for this year because of the virus, there were more people at the campgrounds than in previous years… (maybe there were fewer at the hotels?)

We were a bit earlier to Sturgis this year – here we are trying to set up “elbow room” at the Ride N Rest for our group.

Here’s how our campsite looked once all our family and friends settled in just a few days later! Wall to wall people!

We really took advantage of some great weather to get some serious motorcycle riding in! We touched on many of the iconic Black Hills tourist spots!