AusTena

My dad emailed me a news letter that goes with these pics so instead of writing one I am going to copy and then paste his ;)

1/26/11

ESCAPE FROM BISS CANYON

The other day I got this urge to look at one of the Disney movies called “Race to Witch Mountain.” There have been several movies made in the past about this place called Witch Mountain where aliens from another world have crashed their space ship, and are waiting for their people to show up so they can all go home. They display miraculous abilities and have technology beyond our own. A lot of cars get blown up and there is action, so of course being a guy, I would enjoy it. I have always liked sci-fi stuff and a place like Witch Mountain just seems cool. It is wintertime and I get restless. I had been looking out the window thinking of somewhere I could go just to get out of the house. I like going out into the desert for drives. I don’t think it’s an instinctual thing like when Salmon returning to spawn or aliens having a strong desire to go to a specific place. It doesn’t matter so much about where I go, just that I am out looking at this wonderful country. I got the Excursion back from the shop and both my dog Aida and I were eager to get out. I called my daughter Austena and her husband Shawn, Friday night and asked them if they wanted to go to Yellow cat, which is about 30 miles east of Moab, and they agreed. We left at 8:00 A.M. because I wanted to get out there before it started thawing. The road was rutted but still frozen so I got over the potential muddy section without any difficulty. We had our dogs with us and they were excited to for a grand adventure. I enjoyed showing them around and we stopped at one of the old mines to look at a wood structure where Uranium Ore was once pulled out of the mine and then loaded into a chute so trucks could back under and receive the load. Further on towards Squaw Park the snow was about 1inch deep and I had fun driving and negotiating the crises cross of roads that eventually take you there. You have to know where you’re going or you can get lost. I was going to go into the Park but was not sure about the road. The Excursion is not all that good in sand and I knew that beneath the snow it could be a good place to get stuck. We started down into it and I decided to change my mind and turned around. I plan on taking them back in the near future but think I will take two cars in case we need help. There are some nice inscriptions in a nearby cave where the Rocky Mountain Fur trading company once camped and others carved their names into the rock. A few years back I was with my son Verle and he crawled into once of the caves that was filled in. He had wiggle in and I was scared. It was winter but who knew what would be inside? I was relieved when he told me that it was a big room and there was a dripping spring inside. Still, I am not going into a place where you have to wriggle in to see. I learned that the automatic Four Wheel drive button doesn’t fully engage the wheels and at one point we spun out on a hill. I backed down to a level spot and Shawn helped me lock in the hubs and we continued on and had no further trouble. There are some mining cabins along the road so I stopped and showed them those. We saw one eagle and several cows. I showed them where piles of stone dinosaur dung were located and they seemed to like what they saw. We let the dogs out of the truck to run several times and my goal was to wear them out, which did occur. Aida and Gin had a great time but they were tired. We eventually drove through a canyon and made it over to the river road and headed back home. All this was accomplished before it was noon.

This kind of thing is very relaxing to me and it was fun to just get out and go for a drive. The nicest thing was just having my family members with me. Austena, Shawn, and of course the dogs, mean a lot of me and they were really good sports letting the old man show them things. I need to take more time and do things with them. Life gets so hectic and time slips away before you know it. Escaping from Bliss Canyon was a good memory. I can’t wait to get out and do it again.