Provo “Chillin’”…

Posted on June 22, 2022 by rvrrat520

Inching closer toward Yellowstone, we did a week’s stop at the Springville/Provo KOA, a prior stop of ours. Even though it is excruciatingly overpriced, it is in a good location for sights of the area and has a nice set up to keep the young’uns entertained. The temperatures for the whole stay were quite moderate compared to where we just left. The RV park itself was not busy at all, so the pool was very available without having to fight the crowds, and we all know how much Max LOVES those swimming pools… We never checked out the clubhouse before, but this time we did and found they have a very nice setup. There is a large full kitchen area, presumably for guests to host family meals; the (2) billiard tables are in good shape; there is (1) shuffleboard table also in good shape; TV’s throughout the large space and at least one had access to Amazon Prime; and a few arcade quality games including (2) mini-bowling lanes. The big bummer was the absolute terrible wifi at our site. (Inside the clubhouse seemed to be OK, I’ll know if I succeed in importing my photos to this blog post in a timely manner.)

Since Max got his first taste for fishing at the last stop without catching a fish, Jeanne found the Spring Lake Trout Farm in Payson just south of Springville. We took Max to the farm and holy moly he caught his first fish! And his second fish! And his third fish! And his fourth fish! We had to pull the plug on that fun in a hurry, they charge $8.50 per pound for the experience and at Max’s rate he was going to put us in the poor house quickly! The fish were all Rainbow’s and just under a pound each. The farm actually cleans/fillets your catch for you, so Max got some nice fillets to freeze and take home to enjoy a fish feed with his dad.

We took Max to check out the campus of Brigham Young University in Provo. That campus is HUGE! We walked a small area, checking out the Wilkinson Student’s Center, the BYU Duck Pond, the Bean Life Science Museum, and finished it off with a run on the BYU Creamery for some ice cream fun. The Bean Museum was an interesting collection of stuffed critters from around the world.

They take their ice cream seriously here at BYU!

We decided to take Max out for his usual – cheeseburger – and chose the Strap Tank Brewery & Restaurant. It is part of a unique compound of shops owned/ran by Legends Motorcycle Co. Many of the businesses are inside stacked shipping containers converted to inhabitable businesses. We walked around the compound checking out the unique shops and I was surprised it held Max’s attention, he actually seemed to enjoy it.

Max got a viewing of the Bridal Veil Falls outside of Provo. It was his kind of waterfalls; not a lot of walking involved (you park right at the falls) and he got to wade in the small pool at the base. The Provo River runs right along the mountain and has an asphalt bike/hike trail that takes you to Vivian Park, about a 2 mile trail, one-way. We tried to get Max to finish it, but he ran out of gas about a mile into it. Oh well…

Jeanne found another hike in the area, a mile and a half shorty, that took us to Battle Creek Falls. We loaded up with Max and headed out to the trail on Father’s Day. The hike was moderately easy and Max had ample opportunity to go off trail and play in the creek and tree stands along the way. We got to the falls and were able to enjoy the views from the bottom as well as the top. Max enjoyed himself on this one…

Some of that ugly scenery along the trail at Battle Creek Falls

The Alpine Scenic Loop is just north of Provo, in the mountains where you will find the Sundance Mountain Resort, an enterprise established by THE Robert Redford. We wanted to drive the loop so we did. We were certainly treated to some spectacular views, and actually got a dusting of snow on us as we drove (imagine that, near the end of June of all times!). We also happened upon a couple of turnouts where mountain climbing aficionados practice their art over the American Fork River (not a real wide river, but still had some turbulence to the flow). At the first turnout we stopped and found a large tree trunk fallen across the river with a rope stretched between trees to use as a hand-hold to cross the river on the downed tree. We played on the “tree bridge” for a short while, then continued down the road until the second turnout. There we found another similarly setup “tree bridge” with accompanying hand-hold rope. I promptly got up and crossed that tree. However, I had noticed the rope was not stretched as taut as the last one but decided to continue across anyway. Bonehead move. As I neared the other side, I turned to take a photo downriver and found myself starting to keel over the side. Death grip on the rope, it sagged down with me but still allowed me to “go swimming” (unintentionally of course) and tear some skin off my knee and shin in the waste-high water and rocks. That will be on Max’s highlight reel for years to come I’m afraid. He’s still giggling about it…

Timpanogos Cave National Monument is also located along the Alpine Scenic Loop. It boasts a “short” mile and a half hike to the caves where you can enjoy guided tours that you purchase on-line. We again loaded Max up and headed out on another day of mild temperatures. The trail is asphalt/paved all the way up, and I DO MEAN “UP”! It is over 1,000’ elevation gain for the 1 1/2 mile hike! We made it, a huffin’ and a puffin’, then enjoyed a nice, cool tour inside the mountain (temperatures inside can get into the 40’s). The saving grace for us was that the return trip down the mountain was actually DOWN the mountain! Talk about screaming quads & hams!

That about catches us up for now. Until next post…

Spearfish Canyon

Posted on June 2, 2021 by rvrrat520

Spearfish Canyon is a National Scenic Byway traversed by the So. Dakota road designated “Alt 14”. We loaded up Woody and headed out to sightsee a 13 mile section, basically between Spearfish and the area called Savoy. There are several trails, campgrounds, picnic areas, and points of interest along the route, we chose to travel from south to north, ending in Spearfish.

At Savoy, before starting north, we headed down Roughlock Falls Rd. to check out a couple of points of interest. First up was Roughlock Falls. The falls are on Little Spearfish Creek about 1 mile past Savoy. They have a nice parking/staging area there, with well built/developed sidewalks with hand rails and various viewing platforms along the creek. It was nice to see the water here was just as clear as the waters in Montana and Wyoming. 2 more miles past Roughlock Falls lies a film site used in the movie “Dances With Wolves”. Not a big wow-factor for me, just another narrow canyon area among many. It might not even have been recognizable as the film site, considering our current time of year and the scenes in the movie were winter scenes…

Back to Alt 14 and points north. Right in beautiful “downtown” Savoy sits The Latchstring Restaurant sitting on the junction of Little Spearfish Creek and Spearfish Creek (the latter runs adjacent to Alt 14 all the way to Spearfish). Spearfish Falls is located directly behind the restaurant, accessed by a 1.5 mile roundtrip trail. The trail is easy, with just the first short section having a mild grade to it. This trail was also well maintained with a nicely developed viewing platform area at the bottom of the falls. There is an upper viewing area simply off the parking lot of the restaurant with a skewed angled view of the top of the falls. This was the most visually intense waterfall of the 3 total to be seen today.

Kissing Rocks (aka: The Dice) are laying in the middle of Spearfish Creek and if you are not paying attention, you can drive right by them without taking notice. There was barely enough shoulder to pull over to ogle, but we managed. Another feature known as “11th Hour Gulch” was supposedly a stone’s throw away. The gulch is a 50’ wide slot carved into the canyon, According to our “tour guide” (Spearfish Official Activity Guide), “blink and you’ll miss it.” And it claims there is a “parking lot” just downstream from the gulch. There is no “parking lot”. Yes, we blinked.

Victoria’s Tower is a limestone face rising above the canyon floor. We found it looming over a private residence in the canyon and photo opportunities were limited, but I successfully snagged a couple.

How’d you like to have Vicotria’s Tower in your backyard?

The Homestake #2 Hydroplant stood at the trailhead for The Devil’s Bathtub. The Homestake Mining Co. built the plant on Spearfish Creek in 1917 to generate power for use by their gold mine in nearby Lead. They have since abandoned use of this plant, but still use an older (1911) plant in Spearfish.

Woody decided to sit the next one out, so Jeanne & I took off K9-less in search of The Devil’s Bathtub. I do have to say the trail(s) to get there are a bit lacking in trail markers (to say the least), particularly since there are a lot of private residences/properties in the area with GREAT signage advising all to stay out. This was a moderate hike based on some rock scrambling as well as crossing the creek 8 times. If I’m not totally brain dead, I believe the bathtub is actually on Squaw Creek which feeds Spearfish Creek. Once we passed the third trail marker, we were on our own for trailblazing. Trails followed the creek on both sides, at times intermittently (hence the creek crossing) and there was quite a bit of foot traffic seeing that The Devil’s Bathtub is a pretty popular point of interest not only for we the tourists but also for locals. We hiked (more accurately described as “stumbled”) upstream for about 9 tenths of a mile and “found” The Devil’s Bathtub. Well, picture picture picture and we turned around and returned to the Jeep. We thought it was a cool find on our part…until the next day when surfin’ the web regarding The Devil’s Bathtub I discovered there is a common confusion as to where the bathtub is actually located. Many people stop at the “false” Devil’s Bathtub which is a small pool area fed by a short water slide/fall. In actuality The Devil’s Bathtub is about another 2 minutes upstream. Well, after giving Jeanne another of my awesome lessons in 4-letter vocabulary (%$#@&*^”%$#@&*^!!!!!!!!) we made another trip back to “the tub” a couple of days later and retraced our hike, this time actually arriving at The Devil’s Bathtub. I was glad we returned, the sights are spectacular. Now, for anyone planning on a visit, from The Devil’s Bathtub parking area it is a 2-mile round trip hike to see “the tub”.

The final point of interest we saw along the scenic byway was Bridal Veil Falls. There is a viewing platform right on the highway and no hiking to view the falls. It seems the name “Bridal Veil Falls” is used on numerous falls throughout our country, we have seen many. This was one of the most underwhelming I have seen.

That about covers us for the Spearfish Canyon National Scenic Byway. Until next post…

9/12/2019 A Stopover in Vancouver

Posted on September 12, 2019 by rvrrat520

Jeanne had found out about a lot of stuff to do in and around Vancouver/WA & Portland/OR (both pretty much the same city, just divided by the Columbia River), so we set our sights on the Vancouver Elks Lodge for a few days’ stay. Unfortunately, the weather was horrendous for doing outdoor activities, lots of rain off and on. But we gave it the good ol’ college try. After our (5) hour drive and initial set up, first on our itinerary was to hit a brewery we had heard about (OK, our son Chad sent us on a beer shopping spree…) called Great Notion Brewing. We braved the absolutely horrible driving conditions (traffic, plus rain, plus drivers with HUA) and found Great Notion. They had a pretty good selection of brews and I found (3) porter/stouts to be worthy…Double Stack, Cake Party, and Hot Fudge Saturday. Unfortunately, they don’t distribute much, particularly the Cake Party and Hot Fudge Saturday, beers that are limited in production and usually “tapped out” fairly quickly. But at least I got a taste…

On another rainy Monday we ventured over to Ft. Vancouver to check out Officer’s Row. The U.S. Army “fort” built in the mid 1800’s was called Vancouver Barracks and later part of the Department of the Columbia. Officer’s Row was a series of some 21 residences for the officers and their families with the Marshall House and the Grant House belonging to various commanders of their times. The City of Vancouver took over ownership of the residences in the 1980’s and restored them. Today, some of the homes are working businesses, some residences. The city gives free tours of the Marshall House (lower level) and our docent did a very nice job of giving us a history narrative surrounding Brigadier General George Marshall.

Being the intrepid travelers we are, it was off into the rain again, this time to drive the historic Columbia River Hwy. and see some of the sights along the way (mostly waterfalls). First stop was the Vista House. It was built on a point overlooking the Columbia Gorge as a rest stop & observation point for travelers to stop and gawk at the scenery. The views were very nice. It was then onward and eastward where we encountered Latourell Falls, Shepperd’s Dell Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Wahkeena Falls, Multnomah Falls, & Horsetail Falls. The trail to the upper falls area of Horsetail Falls was closed, so we only got to see the falls that were next to the road. (Gee, I hope I don’t mislabel any of the photos, but if I do, go ahead and sue me!) We ended our journey along the Columbia River Hwy. at Clock Tower Ales in The Dalles. Clock Tower Ales is housed in one of the early courthouses and is now a tap room and restaurant. The beer was good, the food fair, and the building historic.

A look up the Columbia River Gorge with Vista House perched on the point.

When we finally got a clear day with minimal clouds we loaded up the Woodster and headed to the Waterfront Renaissance Trail, a trail along the Columbia River in Vancouver. We let Woodrow lead us on a couple miles of paved walkway along the river, watching a few of the fishermen catching whoppers out of the river. When we finished we dropped Woody off at the bus and headed into Portland to check out a brewery Jeanne found on line with some high end seasonal offerings, the brewery called Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. We had a nice pre-birthday lunch (her birthday happens to be this week on Friday the 13th…great!) and tasted some of the malts, barley, and hops they offer. Holy moly, I just added one to my top 4 brewers list. Hair of the Dog now occupies my top tier of breweries (my opinion) along with Evil Twin Brewing, Founders Brewing, and Firestone Walker Brewing Co. We had a great lunch to boot. May I suggest the brisket and potato/pasta salad with a wash down of their Fred From The Wood. Mmmmmmmmmm! Hair of the Dog also does a very limited production (sometimes just a dozen bottles per release) on a barrel aged brew they call “Dave”. “Dave”, as they have a couple of bottles there now, goes for upwards of $800 per bottle. It is about a 29% ABV Barleywine that has been aging in multiple barrels for over 20 years. I better get crackin’ watering that money tree I have…

Moving day came and it was off, southbound and down.

6/19/2019 Into Montana We Go…

Posted on June 19, 2019 by rvrrat520

Success! We managed to fill in all the gaps (even during the dreaded 4th of July week) with reservations for our stays leading up to our time at Glacier N.P. From St. George it was north for a few days’ return stay at the Springville KOA (Provo, UT). We wanted to drive the Alpine Loop and check out some of the trails off the loop, but weather gods were not looking favorably upon us, the Alpine Loop was actually closed (snow). So we settled on a little bicycle riding through downtown (the Provo/Orem area has very nice bike paths throughout the downtown areas). In fact, the trail along University Av (Hwy. 189) continues as the Provo River Trail. This takes one through Mt. Timpanogos Park, Canyon View Park, Canyon Glen Park, Nunn’s Park, Bridal Veil Falls, and into Vivian Park. We broke it up into 2 rides, about 25 miles and 10 miles respectively. Bridal Veil Falls was very scenic, as usual, and the Provo River was raging pretty good on this visit. Provo had a farmer’s market one day which we just had to attend. It turned out most of the “farmer’s market” was food tents (of the cooked/prepared type) and crafts. Jeanne managed to find the only booth that actually had produce for sale and appropriately ordered up some of their lettuce & kale.

Northward ho and into Jerome, ID for a couple night’s stay at the Snake River Elks Lodge while we waited to pick up our general delivery mail. The Elks Lodge is on an 18-hole golf course, very green, but otherwise the Jerome area is kinda dumpy, tons of farmland, not much to do. We had already checked out the Snake River area a few years back and this was mainly just a mail stop for us.

Our home at Snake River Elks Lodge. We had to stare out the front window at the hideously deep green grass of the 18-holer.

Next stop…Dillon, MT at the Countryside RV Park for a few days. Dillon sits in a big bowl surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The area is very large and green, with cattle ranching seemingly the big agricultural endeavor here. We are starting to see more interesting critters now. Near the ID/MT border we saw a massive Golden Eagle take off from its perch on a fence. We saw what we both agreed was a badger scooting along near the roadway. And we are now in the middle of prairie dog country where the little yappers go non-stop. Pronghorn deer are also becoming more common sights. Jeanne also identified our avian neighbors as Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

Our big outing for this stop we decided to visit Bannack State Park, home to the ghost town of Bannack, the first territorial Capitol of Montana. The state does a nice job of maintaining the 50-60 buildings still remaining. We the people are even allowed to enter many of the buildings, some of them still containing artifacts from the mining town days. It was an interesting experience, however the state does such an outstanding job of maintaining the town, it was “too clean” as far as ghost towns go. The ghost town of Bodie, CA, is still at the top of my all-time favorite ghost towns, nationwide.

Our last day here we drove the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway between Wise River and Dillon. It was very scenic, however we missed out on the little side trip to the ghost town of Coolidge and the Elkhorn Mine & Mill due to the road closure. Oh well, we got to see critters (badger, pronghorn, deer) as well as receiving a very light dusting of snow.

Some of the scenery along the Pioneer Mountains Scenic Byway.

So, we’re jacks-up tomorrow continuing our way north, hopefully with little to no snow. Until next post…

(Tech notes: My cyber-incompetence just drives me nuts sometimes, OK, most-times. It seems a few years back, leading up to 2015, I managed to make a whole bunch of photos disappear from my blog posts. The captions remained, just no photos to view. I don’t know how, but I may have figured out how to fix it, it took a lot of trial-and-error, not to mention a few bottles of bourbon and cases of beer. I will slowly but surely be working on replacing all the missing pix, so bear with me. I just hope I can get the right pix in the right spots…)

6/9/2016 Roasting in Utah (read “It’s all about timing…”)

Posted on June 9, 2016 by rvrrat520

We made it into St. George, just in time for triple digit temps in all of southern Utah and northern Arizona. Here goes plan change #4,573. We made no attempt to hit Canyonlands or Arches NP’s, nor to pop over to Lake Powell/Page AZ, due to the triple digits. We found the St. George RV Park in town and made it home for a few days.

Our home at St. George RV Park. Is it level, or is it not?!? (It really is level, just took some effort)

There is a high school for the performing arts called Tuacahn, that has an outdoor performance area near St. George. We checked it out and found it to be a large outdoor amphitheater area among the red rock cliffs that stages musical performances near constantly during the good weather, such as “Peter Pan” and “Tarzan”, among others. Unfortunately we could not breach the walls or gate due to a live dress rehearsal going on at the time we were there.

Tuacahn Amphitheater and High School for the Performing Arts.

In keeping with that secretive theme, we visited a small art center called Kayenta. They did not allow photos of any of the art contained in the many shops, but we did manage to snap a couple of pix of a 3-D chalk drawing on the walkway.

Just outside St. George, the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area is home to some scenic red hills and the most intact building from the late 1800’s version of Old Harrisburg, the Adams house. There is a small campground (no hookups, no facilities, and very limited as to the size of camping rigs) that rolls through the hills at this site, but it is more suitable for tent camping and there is not a lot of activities to partake in other than horse or hike trails.

While we were here we discovered through social media that Bud and Meredith, some of our friends from the “Tiffin Service Center RV Resort” in Red Bay, Alabama were recreating at the Zion River RV Resort just outside Zion NP. We met up with them and swapped stories and experiences over dinner. Later, we would make plans to hook up again at the Provo KOA for a couple of days.

Our next stop was at the Utah Lake State Park in Provo. Temps had drastically dropped (hah! into the 90’s) and our site had a view of the lake with snow capped mountains all around. Unfortunately, the midge flies were in full force and made it not fun to be outside in the area of the lake during the daylight hours.

We took the opportunity to escape the clouds of flies and drove up Hwy. 189 to check out Bridal Veil Falls, just outside the Provo area and along the Provo/Jordan River. The Falls have a very nice paved bike/walk path that runs parallel to the very large mountain and the river for several miles. After a short walk with Woody up the path, we continued north toward Park City. We passed a very nice lake, the Deer Creek Reservoir, which was a state park and very busy in this heat with all the boaters. And as luck would have it, we ran over something in the road and it punctured the rear tire. It’s always nice having to change a flat in 90 degree heat at 7,000 feet or better. Thankfully, Heber City had a Les Schwab open for business and after a quick stop there we were mobile again with a fixed flat.

The Provo/Jordan River near Bridal Veil Falls.

We arrived in Park City and headed for Old Main St. to act like typical tourists and eat lunch. The street is lined with ski resort type shops, restaurants, and bars. We ate at Flanagan’s Irish Pub and walked among the shops until the heat persuaded us to head back home in the A/C of the Jeep.

When we returned to Provo, we relocated to the Springville KOA where we met up with Bud and Meredith again. While they went sightseeing into Salt Lake City, we took a scenic drive on the Mt. Nebo Scenic Loop just south of us between Payson and Nephi. The first stop on our loop tour was the Grotto Trail. It is a 0.3 mile trail into the hills, criss-crossing a creek several times until we found the Grotto. The Grotto is a popular place for locals and tourists to go and play in the water.

Our next stop on the loop was at a geologic formation called the “Devil’s Kitchen”. It was a very short walk along a paved path to an observation overhang. The “Devil’s Kitchen” is nick-named “little Bryce Canyon” and looking at these pictures, the nick-name is well deserved.

The scenic loop lived up to the scenic part, climbing to a summit of 9,345 feet. There were many beautiful views overlooking the mountains, and at the summit we happened upon some snow, the outside temperature being 65 degrees and a very welcome respite from the valley floor temps.

Some of the scenery near the top of the Mt. Nebo Loop. A little hazy, but Lake Utah is out yonder.

The next day we played tour guide for Bud and Meredith and returned back to Bridal Veil Falls, Heber City, and Park City. After more story swapping and a nice meal, we all prepared for our impending moving days. Bud and Meredith headed for Idaho, and us headed for who knows where, just trying to stay out of the extreme heat. We had another good time visiting with more of our “Tiffin Service Center RV Resort” friends. Until next post…

Road Trippin', Watkins Style

Prowled county roads for a living, prowling country roads in retirement!

Tag Archives: Bridal Veil Falls

Provo “Chillin’”…

Spearfish Canyon

9/12/2019 A Stopover in Vancouver

6/19/2019 Into Montana We Go…

6/9/2016 Roasting in Utah (read “It’s all about timing…”)