My Journey

Jbynum.....thanks for the tips but we are now long gone.....

Arjan.....thanks.....we did get in a few nice hikes recently which of course I'll post about here eventually.....



We took Highway 89 to the west, and somewhere near Kanab, Utah we passed over a "summit" in the road reaching nearly 6,000 feet in elevation.....the highway now was covered in ice & snow and that confirmed my decision to move on to be a wise one.....

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Beyond Kanab, Utah the highway dipped south into Arizona and less than an hour later back north into Utah.....we made a quick stop at Pipe Spring National Monument and got some local advice on a somewhat nearby good spot to overnight.....

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Just south of Zion National Park we spent a few nights camped at a place called Sheep Bridge.....

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The views here were absolutely stunning.....

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One aspect of this years travels (so far) is the seclusion that we've experienced.....nearly everywhere we go we seem to be the only ones camped there. Here at Sheep Bridge things were a bit different.....many of the designated sites were occupied.....maybe due to it being close to Zion National Park or possibly because the interstate was nearby (or both.....who knows).....

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The nights here were bitterly cold and the days were just a bit above freezing.....just warm enough to melt the snow and turn the roads & trails into a muddy mess.....

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After a few days of this I'd had enough.....sunrises & sunsets here were spectacular.....but I needed a change of weather.....

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So we continued west, connected with the interstate and headed just a bit further south.....

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Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
Been seeing too many “decided to head wests”, but finally now a turn south. Good idea!


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tgil

Well-known member
I thought about you this past week as we looked around at Big Bend NP. I could see you and the sidekicks loving it, IF ONLY they would relax the dog restrictions! We stayed outside the park so Scout was able to roam a bit each day. I will mention though, it was probably the cleanest park I've been in, in years!
 
Ace.....funny thing about that "going south".....it did not end up being very south.....

JD.....let's hope so.....I'm looking forward to spending some 2022 nights in that cabin that I built.....thanks.....

JohninDetroit.....I'll assume that you're speaking to the wonderful skies and yes, they indeed were spectacular.....thanks.....

tgil.....Big Bend National Park brings back such fond memories for me.....that was one of my first planned destinations when I took my first "overlanding" (can't help but laugh at writing that) trips in my 68 Ford Bronco.....the one that I've spoke of previously.....the one that lasted for a few years.....thanks for that.....

flyboyaviator.....thanks so much and same to you & to all as well.....



Our next stop would be in St. George, Utah where we set up camp in the street next to Camping World.....I really just wanted to dry out a bit and knock the mud off the boots.....actually off of everything.....and I think too to remind myself what people look like.....we've seen so few it seems.....

.....so I was at a Maverick service station in St. George, Utah when this old rancher out of southwest Wyoming stopped by to have a chat and somewhere during that long, long conversation (and what a great conversation it was) he asked if I had ever driven Old Highway 91 and I said nope.....never even heard of it. He says "give it a go.....I think you'll enjoy it" and so it was that we traveled down Old Highway 91.....

Now I'm not much for driving much so we made a stop along the way.....we finally climbed (hiked) a mountain.....and how sweet it was.....

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There's a bunch of towers on the summit of West Mountain Peak (7,680') therefore there's a nice snow covered, and eventually extremely steep, road to the summit.....

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The good news here was that we were able to get the Jeep in for the first three miles.....saved us six miles roundtrip in the boots.....

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That was the good news and I'm not saying that there was any bad news on that mountain but the fact was that the Jeep did the easy part.....the boots did the hard part.....

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As the road got steeper we crossed paths with these guys that were on their descent.....

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They stopped to ask me if I was doing OK and they mentioned that they couldn't make the summit cause there was just too much snow and that it was just too steep.....

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They said that they nearly flipped their rig trying to turn around.....they sure made quiet a mess.....

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And now we had to bust our own trail.....the going got tough.....

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We had some real nice views along the way.....

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But seeing the towers on the summit pretty much sucked.....

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This was yet one more day that we got a late start so with a sun setting and soaking wet boots, we hustled back down that mountain just as fast as we possibly could.....we still had three miles of snow covered roads to maneuver in the Jeep.....and then we had to find a spot to spend the night.....

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At some point we enteted into the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area.....I just don't recall if it was prior to or after our climb of our first peak on this trip.....

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We spent that first night in the area camped right along the shoulder of Old Highway 91.....it was this unusual sculpture that initially had me pull over to the side of the highway.....

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I couldn't help but wonder what was behind this.....Tanner felt the same.....

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Fortunately this place was signed so we got the full story behind the metal sculptures.....

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We loitered here for quite some time and I noticed that there was little traffic on Old Highway 91 and since it was late we just didn't bother to move on.....

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While we were out there loitering & walking along the highway, we came across this sign and it obviously peaked our curiosity.....

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A short walk up that gravel road brought us to another one of these signs.....apparently we had stumbled onto something that we just needed to see more of.....I honestly had never heard of this place and the rancher from Wyoming in St. George, Utah hadn't even bothered to mention it.....

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So we left our campsite along Old Highway 91 behind and away we went to explore this new wonderland (it truly did turn out to be a wonderland).....

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Initially the road in was in pretty good condition.....perfect for my rig.....

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The plan now was to stay an extra night.....to see what we could see.....

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But our plans were useless cause as it turned out, we absolutely loved it here.....we almost stayed here forever.....

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There was absolutely nobody here.....more solitude.....may even more than I was comfortable with.....

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Ace Brown

Retired Ol’ Fart
Seeing a new post from My Journey is like seeing new mail. Of course I’m not referring to the immense pile of junk mail we throw away almost daily.

So many mysteries in this post for me.
First the Old Spanish trail map is wrong? South of Grand Junction it remains on the East Side of the Gunnison River. I just rode my bike there a few weeks ago. I’ve never heard of Old Highway 91. The Joshua trees in the Mojave Desert? Last I knew they were in California. Maybe the BLM sign makers are just messing with me.

But in any case I am always glad to learn something new?


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Ace i was thinking the same thing about the Mojave so naturally i had to google.


Mojave Desert Utah

In Utah, the Mojave Desert is located near St. ... Famous for its majestic desert beauty, the Mojave Desert is the location of four national parks. Within or adjoining the Mojave Desert is the Death Valley National Park, Joshua Tree National park, as well as Zion and the Grand Canyon National Parks.
 

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