Pictures from Roadtrip to Utah - April 2006

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Kelli and I took a week off this spring, and headed down to Utah for some exploring. We took the backroads there... through central/southern OR, and the middle of Nevada.
Here's the road out of Burns, past the flooded Malheur lake.

Stopping for a drink in the park in Winnemucca. We had beautiful weather the whole way.

A state park along the 'Loneliest Highway' in the middle of Nevada.

Some cool clouds we saw along the way. There was some incredible (but desolate) scenery!

A windy stop at a reservoir and park

Ruins... just sitting along the roadside. Aparantly, there are lots of ghost towns around due to mining operations that dried up.

The great town of Ely, NV

The largest open-pit copper mind in the nation is just west of Ely. Here's a depressing little town that is literally at the base of the tailing piles!

Another view of part of the mine... mountains have been moved.

We made it to Utah and drove into Capitol Reef State Park.

Explorers saw the ridge for days as they approached. Incredible rock formations!

Duke enjoyed the view too.

More awesome rocks...

Kelli and Duke, dwarfed by the scenery.

We next went down to Grand Staircase, Escalante National Monument, and backpacked down into Willow Gulch. Here's Kelli in the narrows at the top of the gulch.

We hiked into Broken Bow arch.

My beautiful girlfriend, and a better view of the arch.

Duke loved swimming in the creek.

Here's our campsite. If you look carefully, you can see our little green tent under the overhang.

And, the view of the canyon from our campsite!

We continued down the gulch. Here's part of the canyon that has recently been uncovered as Lake Powell receded from the drought.

It hasn't receded too much though! Here's Kelli and Duke wading into the lake to see what's around the corner.

Kelli, retreating from the ever-depening waters!

There was this little slide below our campsite. Too tempting to pass up!

Yay!

A balanced rock at the top of the gulch. From here, you would never know what was down the canyon!

The road to Willow Gulch is called 'Hole in the Rock Road'. It goes all the way from Escalante to Lake Powell. We drove further on the road (until it got too rough for even the Subaru!) after our backback.
This is a picture of Ballroom Rock, under which Mormon settlers threw dances along the way!

A picture of the ridge along the road. Later, we explored the area at the bottom of this picture... Cave Springs.

Making dinner at the end of the road (at least for us!)

Duke, sacked out from the hike!

Our campsite... not too bad again!

A pretty cactus that Kelli found.

This is the alcove of Cave Springs (we think). Another beautiful setting...

Duke and I searching for water.

Part of the 'Grand Staircase', on the way west from Escalante.

A little further west... Bryce Canyon

After dropping Kelli off in SLC for a flight home (back to work!), I headed up to City of Rocks, ID to meet folks from the Rock Squad for climbing.
This is the path down from our campsite... right into the heart of the rocks!

A two-pitch route that we all planned to start on. If you look closely at the bottom left of the picture, you'll see the Gormans and Jason Stowers at the first belay station.

Here's Luke (I don't climb up!) Smith, at the top of the route the rest of us ended up on... Mystery Bolter

Me, repelling down the same.

Duke, enjoying the scenery at lunch!

And the rest of us... hiding our pale Oregon skins from the sun.

Mrs. Gorman, demonstrating crimping technique on the picnic table.

Everyone hanging out again the second day after splitting up for a bunch of climbs, and meeting up again.

Gorman, posing on another route.

Luke on a great boulder we found to play on (and in!) near Elephant Rock the morning we all left.