The last blog post described our arrival in Moab, so let's continue from there on.
Recap: We got some information from the local tourist info and checked online for 'free' camping. A few sites were recommended, but Kane Creek Canyon was the closest one, so that's where we headed.
It started out as a muddy creek, with the first camping also being a muddy flat full of red-neck looking RV's. Not too promising! The sites are managed (everything in the US seems to need management) by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These guys had also put up a sign with a map of the other camping sites in the canyon, and this showed that we had three more options down the route: so we continue on.
The second camping site looked quite nice, but was full and had no vehicle sites, the third one was full, but looked beautiful (inside a little side canyon)... so it would have to be the fourth one...
Yes! An OK looking area, with 2/4 vehicle sites still unoccupied. We put up a sign on site 1, so that we could check it out without someone else taking it. By the time we went to explore site 2 there were people there that just moved in, so we were lucky that we 'pre-booked' nr 1. It's a site between the road and a little stream, with a 30m vertical red stone cliff on the opposite side of the stream. We were exploring what the best site would be to build a shelter for Tyler when I spotted an overhang on the opposite bank. There were stepping stones in the stream, so we went and checked it out.
This overhang was THE perfect site: a stone platform about 50cm off the ground, varying in width from 1-3m, with a rock ceiling jutting out about 3-5m, some 2-3m from the ground. As it was starting to rain, we immediately started moving camping gear to this place: we would cook here, build a fire there (we moved the fire ring), and Tyler would build a little shelter within the natural shelter to sleep.
We got set up quite quickly, the meal was great, and we were enjoying the huge shadows that our campfire was casting of ourselves on the vertical rock above us. We were warm and dry while the wind was howling and it was raining outside... some of the other campers must have been a little jealous.
Previous experience in Iceland had taught me that rain and wind in a little tent will prevent you from sleeping (flapping tent fabric, lots of noise)... so we were looking forward to a good night of sleep, me in the van, and Tyler in his natural shelter. The only thing we were worried about was if the stream would not overflow with all the rain. And of course Cougars and Coyote's are always on the worry list, but I thought Tyler should be fine with a fire right in front of him, and natural walls all around.
Let me tell you that neither slept very well that night. It started at about 02:00 am when I heard something scratching the van. I woke up, got my light and started shining it around the van trying to find out what the hell was going on. However, I couldn't spot any wildlife outside... so after some watching in the dark I closed the curtains again and tried to get back to sleep. About a minute later I heard something rustling in the trash bag. I picked it up and shook it but nothing made a sound anymore... wtf. We bought firewood that afternoon that came in a large cardboard box so thinking that there might have been a mouse nest in it I checked it... nothing again. We had a bucket full of kindling wood from Byron, but that had been in the van for a couple of days already, so if something was in that bucket it would've woken me up a lot earlier.
Grrr... no other option but to sit back with a headlamp on, hold still and wait for the sound to start again.
A couple of minutes later I heard something rustle again. I quietly turned out the light, and there was a little mouse, gnawing on the bottom of the thrash bag.... let the hunting begin!
First of all I got all the food wrapped in soft plastic off the floor: so imagine the van with a thrash bag tied to the ceiling, and on the other side a bread tied to the ceiling...
Within my foodstock were some peanuts and pasta, and empty one gallon water containers (used to refill the water tank). I dropped some peanuts and pasta in the water containers and put them up vertically, in the hope the mouse would go in and not be able to come out again. After this operation I held still again and turned the light off (it was now 02:30).
After a little while, the mouse appeared. Right on my bed, about 30cm away... it hopped about a little bit and I could see it catch the scent of the peanuts... into the food stock area it went... climbing around a little, sitting on the ridge of the water container, but not going in.... checking the other water container... same story... hopped off towards the thrash bag... can't reach it anymore... back to the water container. This time when it is putting its snout in the container I give it a little push, and catch it! Ha Ha! It starts jumping frenetically to try to get out of the container, but I put my hand on it to prevent it from doing so. A quick picture, and off with you into the night: I set the mouse free from the passenger side of the van and get back to sleep.
Some 5 minutes later I hear something scramble up in the engine compartment... 1 minute later mister mouse is out and about again, now trying to chew through the plastic of the peanut bag... aaargh (03:00am by now).
Betting that the mouse won't fall for the same ploy again it's lights on and trap building time! I build a noose around the water tap and put a peanut inside it. The first time the mouse doesn't put his head in far enough when I pull and he's gone before the noose gets him. The second time he rans off with the peanut and the noose doesn't get him. The third time he gets to close to me (5cm) that out of pure frustration I try to get him by hand, but he is too fast for me.
By this time Tyler drops by to see why my lights are on. He has a story of not being able to sleep himself as well. He says someone was throwing rocks to him and that someone was by the van and near to his sleeping site as well. I don't believe anything of it, but we'll see tomorrow. Tyler goes back to sleep again, and I tell him that I will as well, if I can catch the bloody mouse!
AFter the noose not working I put my engineering skills to use. I employ three different trap designs: a double sided ducktape area with a peanut in the middle (apparently Albert Heijn employed glue plates), a horizontal water container with a pull string to pull it upright when the mouse goes inside, and the old box with lid propped up with a stick on a string.
By the time I have everything finished it is 03:30-04:00. The mouse hasn't been scared by his last capture and my attempts with the noose because once I turn the light off I can hear him scrambling around again quickly. When I turn my headlamp on the ducktape peanut is already gone... so far for ducttape's one-fix-for-all usefulness. The mouse still hangs around the vertical water container, but won't put his head in anymore (I can study him from very close by as he is not scared at all). The finally he walks into the box and I just slam it's lid on by hand, ducktape the whole thing shut and try to go to sleep. This didn't go very well, because the mouse is scrambling and gnawing to get out of the box. After a time however he settles down and I can finally get some sleep (probably 04:30).
After a bad night we both felt kinda groggy, but we had to get up early and go to work on exploring the area. Breakfast, setting the mouse free (this time on the other side of the river), and driving off towards the first site: a petroglyph rock. You can see the drive and rock in the video below (and a little fun at the end). The rock is the on we stop at halfway down the video. You can see that the shadow covers it when we arrive, but that it is almost fully lit when we leave.
Sadly there was no Park Ranger Docent here, so it was guessing at what the petroglyphs meant. As you can see in the video we came across a lot of 4WD vehicles. The people told us that this week is actually an annual event in Moab, with 4WD driving courses all around the area (and lots of people). So that's why we saw so many 4WD drive vehicles on trailers on the highway... we spot a few more at quite a gnarly angled track above us down the road.
First plan: get to an official camping site near Canyonland some 20 miles north of Moab (claim it before noon). Check. Second on the list: groceries... aargh back to Moab again, should've done this first! That's what you get for sleepless nights... stupid mouse! Afterwards: quickly back to canyonland to check it out (I have no idea, except that I should go there). There's a few viewpoints where you can get to by car, and an interesting hike near 'upheaval dome'. Due to the limited time we have by now we decide to head for the furthest viewpoint first and than do the rest depending on how much time is left.
The first awe-inspiring viewpoint changes this however, and we get out to shoot some pictures first anyway.
The views here impress me more than the Grand Canyon, probably because here you can imagine the scale a little... grand canyon is such a unique site that you just don't have any reference for it. We drive all the way to Grand View Point and enjoy the magnificent view there. We hike all the way to the endpoint of 'Island in the Sky', just because we are enjoying the surroundings so much. Some pictures here, a lot on Picasa. We decide to run back, instead of walking, so we both (me a little more) end up completely exhausted when we reach the van.
We end the day by driving down the other viewpoints. By the time we reach upheaval dome it is nearly sunset. Since it is a picnic area we first cook some soup to have dinner and recover before hiking again. Very refreshing food so readily refuelled we hike up to upheaval dome. It is called that way because there is a strange type of rock in the middle of a crater, of which the geological origin has not been determined. It could've been caused by a salt rock layer melting away or by an astroid, the scientists aren't agreed yet. It makes for some beautiful pictures again though, especially with the sunset going on.
The plan was to also include the other Moab National Park in this post, but since it is already this long, I'll call it quits here and show you Arches in the next post.
Day 24: Moab Canyonlands
Recap: We got some information from the local tourist info and checked online for 'free' camping. A few sites were recommended, but Kane Creek Canyon was the closest one, so that's where we headed.
It started out as a muddy creek, with the first camping also being a muddy flat full of red-neck looking RV's. Not too promising! The sites are managed (everything in the US seems to need management) by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). These guys had also put up a sign with a map of the other camping sites in the canyon, and this showed that we had three more options down the route: so we continue on.
The second camping site looked quite nice, but was full and had no vehicle sites, the third one was full, but looked beautiful (inside a little side canyon)... so it would have to be the fourth one...
Yes! An OK looking area, with 2/4 vehicle sites still unoccupied. We put up a sign on site 1, so that we could check it out without someone else taking it. By the time we went to explore site 2 there were people there that just moved in, so we were lucky that we 'pre-booked' nr 1. It's a site between the road and a little stream, with a 30m vertical red stone cliff on the opposite side of the stream. We were exploring what the best site would be to build a shelter for Tyler when I spotted an overhang on the opposite bank. There were stepping stones in the stream, so we went and checked it out.
This overhang was THE perfect site: a stone platform about 50cm off the ground, varying in width from 1-3m, with a rock ceiling jutting out about 3-5m, some 2-3m from the ground. As it was starting to rain, we immediately started moving camping gear to this place: we would cook here, build a fire there (we moved the fire ring), and Tyler would build a little shelter within the natural shelter to sleep.
The overhang under which Tyler camped. The stream is visible in the lower right.
We got set up quite quickly, the meal was great, and we were enjoying the huge shadows that our campfire was casting of ourselves on the vertical rock above us. We were warm and dry while the wind was howling and it was raining outside... some of the other campers must have been a little jealous.
Previous experience in Iceland had taught me that rain and wind in a little tent will prevent you from sleeping (flapping tent fabric, lots of noise)... so we were looking forward to a good night of sleep, me in the van, and Tyler in his natural shelter. The only thing we were worried about was if the stream would not overflow with all the rain. And of course Cougars and Coyote's are always on the worry list, but I thought Tyler should be fine with a fire right in front of him, and natural walls all around.
Let me tell you that neither slept very well that night. It started at about 02:00 am when I heard something scratching the van. I woke up, got my light and started shining it around the van trying to find out what the hell was going on. However, I couldn't spot any wildlife outside... so after some watching in the dark I closed the curtains again and tried to get back to sleep. About a minute later I heard something rustling in the trash bag. I picked it up and shook it but nothing made a sound anymore... wtf. We bought firewood that afternoon that came in a large cardboard box so thinking that there might have been a mouse nest in it I checked it... nothing again. We had a bucket full of kindling wood from Byron, but that had been in the van for a couple of days already, so if something was in that bucket it would've woken me up a lot earlier.
Grrr... no other option but to sit back with a headlamp on, hold still and wait for the sound to start again.
A couple of minutes later I heard something rustle again. I quietly turned out the light, and there was a little mouse, gnawing on the bottom of the thrash bag.... let the hunting begin!
First of all I got all the food wrapped in soft plastic off the floor: so imagine the van with a thrash bag tied to the ceiling, and on the other side a bread tied to the ceiling...
Within my foodstock were some peanuts and pasta, and empty one gallon water containers (used to refill the water tank). I dropped some peanuts and pasta in the water containers and put them up vertically, in the hope the mouse would go in and not be able to come out again. After this operation I held still again and turned the light off (it was now 02:30).
After a little while, the mouse appeared. Right on my bed, about 30cm away... it hopped about a little bit and I could see it catch the scent of the peanuts... into the food stock area it went... climbing around a little, sitting on the ridge of the water container, but not going in.... checking the other water container... same story... hopped off towards the thrash bag... can't reach it anymore... back to the water container. This time when it is putting its snout in the container I give it a little push, and catch it! Ha Ha! It starts jumping frenetically to try to get out of the container, but I put my hand on it to prevent it from doing so. A quick picture, and off with you into the night: I set the mouse free from the passenger side of the van and get back to sleep.
Some 5 minutes later I hear something scramble up in the engine compartment... 1 minute later mister mouse is out and about again, now trying to chew through the plastic of the peanut bag... aaargh (03:00am by now).
Betting that the mouse won't fall for the same ploy again it's lights on and trap building time! I build a noose around the water tap and put a peanut inside it. The first time the mouse doesn't put his head in far enough when I pull and he's gone before the noose gets him. The second time he rans off with the peanut and the noose doesn't get him. The third time he gets to close to me (5cm) that out of pure frustration I try to get him by hand, but he is too fast for me.
By this time Tyler drops by to see why my lights are on. He has a story of not being able to sleep himself as well. He says someone was throwing rocks to him and that someone was by the van and near to his sleeping site as well. I don't believe anything of it, but we'll see tomorrow. Tyler goes back to sleep again, and I tell him that I will as well, if I can catch the bloody mouse!
AFter the noose not working I put my engineering skills to use. I employ three different trap designs: a double sided ducktape area with a peanut in the middle (apparently Albert Heijn employed glue plates), a horizontal water container with a pull string to pull it upright when the mouse goes inside, and the old box with lid propped up with a stick on a string.
By the time I have everything finished it is 03:30-04:00. The mouse hasn't been scared by his last capture and my attempts with the noose because once I turn the light off I can hear him scrambling around again quickly. When I turn my headlamp on the ducktape peanut is already gone... so far for ducttape's one-fix-for-all usefulness. The mouse still hangs around the vertical water container, but won't put his head in anymore (I can study him from very close by as he is not scared at all). The finally he walks into the box and I just slam it's lid on by hand, ducktape the whole thing shut and try to go to sleep. This didn't go very well, because the mouse is scrambling and gnawing to get out of the box. After a time however he settles down and I can finally get some sleep (probably 04:30).
After a bad night we both felt kinda groggy, but we had to get up early and go to work on exploring the area. Breakfast, setting the mouse free (this time on the other side of the river), and driving off towards the first site: a petroglyph rock. You can see the drive and rock in the video below (and a little fun at the end). The rock is the on we stop at halfway down the video. You can see that the shadow covers it when we arrive, but that it is almost fully lit when we leave.
Youtube: http://youtu.be/l7jg6crz-d0
Sadly there was no Park Ranger Docent here, so it was guessing at what the petroglyphs meant. As you can see in the video we came across a lot of 4WD vehicles. The people told us that this week is actually an annual event in Moab, with 4WD driving courses all around the area (and lots of people). So that's why we saw so many 4WD drive vehicles on trailers on the highway... we spot a few more at quite a gnarly angled track above us down the road.
First plan: get to an official camping site near Canyonland some 20 miles north of Moab (claim it before noon). Check. Second on the list: groceries... aargh back to Moab again, should've done this first! That's what you get for sleepless nights... stupid mouse! Afterwards: quickly back to canyonland to check it out (I have no idea, except that I should go there). There's a few viewpoints where you can get to by car, and an interesting hike near 'upheaval dome'. Due to the limited time we have by now we decide to head for the furthest viewpoint first and than do the rest depending on how much time is left.
The first awe-inspiring viewpoint changes this however, and we get out to shoot some pictures first anyway.
The views here impress me more than the Grand Canyon, probably because here you can imagine the scale a little... grand canyon is such a unique site that you just don't have any reference for it. We drive all the way to Grand View Point and enjoy the magnificent view there. We hike all the way to the endpoint of 'Island in the Sky', just because we are enjoying the surroundings so much. Some pictures here, a lot on Picasa. We decide to run back, instead of walking, so we both (me a little more) end up completely exhausted when we reach the van.
We end the day by driving down the other viewpoints. By the time we reach upheaval dome it is nearly sunset. Since it is a picnic area we first cook some soup to have dinner and recover before hiking again. Very refreshing food so readily refuelled we hike up to upheaval dome. It is called that way because there is a strange type of rock in the middle of a crater, of which the geological origin has not been determined. It could've been caused by a salt rock layer melting away or by an astroid, the scientists aren't agreed yet. It makes for some beautiful pictures again though, especially with the sunset going on.
The plan was to also include the other Moab National Park in this post, but since it is already this long, I'll call it quits here and show you Arches in the next post.
Day 24: Moab Canyonlands
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