Thursday, May 1, 2008

Wednesday, April 30, 2008--Geocaching Our Way to Manila

Wednesday we downloaded some geocaches. We picked ones that were along the way to Manila, Utah. We were told the route to Manila was more scenic than Utah 191 beyond Dutch John (town near our campground).

We started the morning by dressing warm--long johns and all! The prediction for the high was in the 40s!

Our first cache was at Little Hole near the campground. We answered the questions and moved on to the dam overlook and the visitor center to answer questions for the next two caches. These caches are 'virtual' and we had to e-mail the answers to the people who posted the caches.

From the dam area we drove south on Utah 191 until it intersected with Utah 44. We headed north toward Manila. Our next cache was hidden at an overlook. The cache was hanging in a tree 300 feet from the parking area. As we searched for it, we saw moose or elk scat. We are pros at identifying mule deer and jack rabbit scat, but this was new scat!

We also saw a lot of tracks. We know the first one is a deer track.
What do you think the other is? After logging the cache, we headed to Red Canyon. The person who posted the cache said the overlook was the best in Utah! We turned on the road and not far along we saw the elusive bighorn sheep. We stopped to look at them and they didn't move! Three were looking at us and the other three were looking away from us.Bob also spotted this yellow bellied marmot sunning on a rock. We have seen others, but they ran away before we could snap a picture.
This cache was also a virtual so we parked and walked to the overlook. Joyce wrote the answers to the questions while Bob took pictures of the view!
It was gorgeous! The red cliffs dropped 1700 feet to the water. The snow started to softly fall around us. We decided to walk the short nature trail. There was no on else at the overlook. The Red Canyon Visitor Center doesn't open until Memorial Day. It was nice to have the area to ourselves!Red Canyon Lodge was not open. It will open later in May.
After collecting our caches, we drove into Manila. We looked for a place to eat lunch. We found one restaurant open! Manila is just as small as Dutch John, except Dutch John had 2 places to eat!

After lunch we headed back toward Dutch John. We decided to drive the Sheep Creek Geologic Scenic Loop. We saw more interesting sights along the way.

There was a section of the area that was not part of Ashley National Forest. It was a private ranch and the animals were free to roam. We slowly passed 3 horses on the road. They didn't want to move for us.

After we passed through private land, we saw the confluence of Sheep Creek and Big Spring.
Just a little further on we saw two more sheep. Bob stopped as they crossed the road and climbed the rocks. We drove until the road ended at a closed sign by Palisades Picnic area. It was the first indication that the loop was not completely open!

We turned around, returned to Utah 44 and made our way back to the rv. As we approached our campground, we saw a herd of pronghorn antelope! It was beginning to get colder and we wanted to stay warm. We brought the slide-out in so we were not trying to heat such a large area. We also opened the bathroom door to make a partition between the front and back of the rv. We hoped to keep the bedroom and bathroom warmer. The temperature was supposed to drop into the low 20s!
Thursday we plan to head toward Rawlins, Wyoming. We are on our way to see Bob's sister Paula in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jennifer has been officially adopted by her Aunt since you are moving! Two can play that game. Did she tell you I was going to be a great aunt? You should keep up.

Guess who?