Thursday, September 15, 2011

Kodachrome State Park, UT (12-15 Sept)


Lat/Long:  37.52988, -111.99231
Location:  Kodachrome State Park, UT
Electric Hook Up:  Yes
Water Hook Up: Yes
Bathroom: 200+ yard walk
WiFi:  No (No Cell service either)
Shower:  Yes – FREE, 8 minute button push
Reserve on web at: http://www.ReserveAmerica.com
Site:  28…and also the “Camp Host” Site





After a 5 hour drive we arrived at Kodachrome Monday afternoon.  Was a gorgeous drive compared to last weeks trek thru Arizona.  As much as we loved the Grand Canyon, this place may be on the “Top 3” list of places to see.  Monday we spent setting up camp, showering, going thru all the wet things we brought with us from the North Rim.  It rained there EVERY DAY!  Not sure what the weather patterns are, but I have learned that the North Rim is in the path of a thunderstorm daily, often twice a day and sometimes in the middle of the night just to keep you on your toes.  It felt like everything we owned had a layer of rain on it. 

Kodachrome however seems to be the storm “brewer”.  It looks mean…but rarely rains.  I have taken note…they are moving SOUTH, towards the Grand Canyon.  ;)  The campground is perfecto!  It’s quiet, it’s out of the way of roads/noise, sites are spread out and boy oh boy, are we glad we have electricity again!  Dry camping was fine, but we did miss the ability to charge camera batteries, laptops, have light that we didn’t have to distribute out evenly between hours of the night, the ease of use to turn the thermostat from “Off” to “Heat Pump”, being able to listen to music…but the biggest concern was probably just light.  With the pine tree coverage and the storms, it stayed pretty dark.  Thank goodness for Coleman Lanterns though.  I think we probably could have run the furnace just fine as well as let the lights in the camper on a little longer then we did—but we were definitely trying to play it safe.  I’d dry camp again in a heart beat – easy money, we’re “old hats” now.  



Monday evening we took a nice jaunt around our campsite. There is a cool 2 mile loop that takes you up on top of some of these bizarre rocks.  Not sure why we didn’t bring any water with us, but lesson learned for a hike later on in the week.  Was a good little work out for us though. 

Tuesday we traveled to Bryce Canyon.  I’d been to Zion a few years ago and I remember the lady at the gate telling me to take some time and get to Bryce while I was in the area.  I remember mumbling to myself, “No time, see this (Zion) – continue on.”  I can see why she told me to take the time; it was breath taking.  When I visited Zion I thought that it was absolutely gorgeous…hard to imagine that there could be prettier places…there is:  Bryce Canyon.  We got up at 0530 despite Karon’s argumentative state, had a bagel, put on some warm clothes and headed to the National Park.  It’s 23 miles from here, so was an easy drive.  We arrived right as the sun was peaking over the horizon.  The other bonus about going so early is we missed the crowds.  We finished our “roadside” hike (also known as drive to the next view point before “that guy” gets there…you know, “that guy” that follows you around from view point to view point with his point and click…k, maybe it’s just me) around 10am, just in time to see the masses of tour buses roll in.  Lots of visitors from overseas, French, German and heard a lady at visitors center ask for a map in Czech.  Moral of this story…start early unless you want to be grouped with 100’s of “that guy”.  We stopped to eat at a diner for some chow and to steal some internet access to email all the parents as we have had very limited cell coverage this whole trip, which is fine by me! 



Wednesday…now this was a treat!  We got up, slept in as we had gotten our Bryce Canyon trip out of the way and planned to make a day here at the state park hiking.  We had a delicious breakfast and then got dressed accordingly, hiking boots, light jacket, cameras, water and of course the Kayle dog.  Now…little backstory here.  Anyone who knows Kayle knows she has an adversity to other dogs.  There is a lady who coincidently walks around in a “children patterned Snuggie” who owns a Doberman Pincher.  Every time they walk by our campsite Kayle goes crazy…hair up, barking with foam at the mouth…very protective.  So, back to the hike.  We take note…it’s a little overcast—but, it hasn’t rained since we’ve been here.  Why would it rain now?  .60 miles in rain, hard rain.  Luckily we were right by a cave (Indian Cave) and decide to wait it out.  We waited a good 10 minutes for the storm to pass and when we thought it had – we ventured on…mistake.  About .4 miles after the cave it REALLY started to dump, hard.  Mother nature decided an added bonus to the rain and bitter wind would be lightning.  At this point we are a little frantic, we immediately try and find shelter…we thought we had—we see where the cliff offered a little shelter.  With our heads down and a running pace we head for it.  Who’s there…Snuggie and her Bestest bud.  Karon out loud said, “Great, just our luck.”  So, we go FURTHER down the trail to find NOTHING.  If you can imagine it’s now raining harder so we do what makes sense, double back…Snuggie is gonna have to share and Kayle is going to have to make nice with the man eating friend or we could get struck by lightning.  
 

By the time we get back to the shelter, they had moved on so we sat…in the mud and waited…for the storm “to pass.”  This term “to pass” should have never entered our minds because it never did.  After we heard no thunder for 10 minutes, we started our trek back to the car—by Indian Cave the rain was no lighter, but no thunder or flashes of death light – so we continued.  The other factor we were dealing with was flash floods.  I’ve never experienced rain in the desert, but I now completely understand the term “flash flood.”  Rain finds that low spot and it runs and collects there at a very rapid pace.  With all the mud that is collected, I can see why they are so dangerous.  We made it back to the car, get back to the campsite and try and figure out what’s first – shower for us or Kayle.  Kayle gets the first round at the dump station, luckily the potable water was luke warm for her.  Then we head straight to the showers and notice it’s raining hard again.  We don’t think too much about the campsite, with exception as to how nice it will be to sit in the camper and enjoy a bowl of hot soup.  Upon arrival we both just groaned…flash flood—thru our campsite.  The cornerstone to every campsite…the green carpet is ruined.  Thankfully when we peeled it back, there was no mud there.  Brandon, a Utah State Park Ranger came to check in on us…noticed we had quite the issue with our tiny riverbed.  Offered us the camp host site, which we very thankfully took.  We did a very quick “three wolf moon pack up” and hustled over there.  Rest of the day we spent with our feet up and faces pressed against the windows.  Mother Nature put on a lovely showing of blue skies and some sun later in the day, but right on schedule as Brandon predicted it would…another scary scary storm.  We’ll definitely be sending Utah State Parks a nice letter about Brandon’s helpfulness.  




















The National  and State Parks this country has to offer really are something else.  I can’t tell anyone to go “enjoy it”, but I would encourage you to take your own journey and appreciate what you see along the way.  We have only hit a minority of the parks out there, there are so many others that I would love to get to.  At the rate we are going (2-3 new ones each year) we’ll get to all of them by the time we’re 103.  ;)  My next big plan is to win the lotto, get a big Tacoma truck-put an Airstream behind it and go for a year or two from national park to national park.  After that I’ll apply to be a ranger somewhere.  Realistically…the lotto will never pan out, so I’ll retire from the Air Force in 5 years and apply for a National Park job, use my retirement paycheck to make payments on a Tacoma and an Airstream.  ;)  For now, the T@b is absolutely perfect for us.  It’s been a dream to have, hard to think we’ve had it for a little over a year—it’s made a lot of fantastic trips! 





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