Wheeler Peak Drive, 20 October 2019

Weekend #6 was really four days long.  We finished the engineering development work on Friday, 1 November, and had to wait a couple weeks to get the final production version of the software changes we had been testing.  With flight test over, I took a few days off and spent Saturday, 2 November to Tuesday, 5 November visiting southern Utah before I flew home on Wednesday.

On Saturday, I drove from Dugway to Arches National Park and hiked up to Delicate Arch.  As I always do, I spent several hours hiking all over the cliffs across, below, and above Delicate Arch.  I drove into Moab for dinner at Zax's, and then camped at Williams Bottom Campground on the Colorado River on Potash Road.

On Sunday, I drove further out along Potash Road, up above the potash settling ponds on the 4WD road, and flew my RC aircraft at a few different locations, including out over the Colorado River.  I returned to the paved road closer to Moab and hiked out to Longbow Arch on the Poison Spider Mesa, flying one of my quadcopters a couple times on the trail. I then drove back into Moab for lunch, and then headed south towards the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park.  I stopped at Wilson Arch south of Moab, and also headed out east into some open lands to fly my RC aircraft a few more times.  I drove west towards Canyonlands, stopping at Newspaper Rock, and then flew in the canyon before reaching the park. I spent the evening and sunset at several viewpoints in the Needles section, before going back east and then south of Blanding, where I camped for the night.

On Monday I hiked out to the House On Fire Indian ruins, about halfway in between Blanding and Natural Bridges National Monument.  I then continued on to Natural Bridges National Monument, hiking a few trails, before moving on further west past Fry Canyon and to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. I stopped at the Hite overlook on the Colorado River in the late afternoon, and drove north towards Hanksville.  Before reaching Hanksville I took the turn-off on Utah 276 to the southwest towards the Bullfrog marina.  Just before reaching Bullfrog, the Notom-Bullfrog Road branches off to the northwest.  This road passes through the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef National Park, which has some incredible rock formations.  I camped that evening just off that road here, about halfway to the Capitol Reef National Park boundary.

On Tuesday I continued the drive to Capitol Reef National Park, and then took the Burr Trail Road switchbacks up, westbound out of the Waterpocket Fold towards Boulder.  Just after the switchbacks, I stopped and hiked out to the Strike Valley Overlook. Any good 4WD vehicle can drive almost to the overlook, but I did not have a 4WD rental vehicle at this point, so I did the entire Strike Valley overlook hike on foot.  The view is worth the hike.  I returned to my car, and continued on the Burr Trail Road to Boulder, headed north over Boulder Mountain, and had a late lunch in Torrey.  There are lots of great views along the Burr Trail and Boulder Mountain, so I stopped many times for photos and flying.  I made it back to Salt Lake City that evening, where I stayed in a hotel at the airport, and caught a flight home on Wednesday morning.

I was home for about 10 days, then returned to Dugway for the final testing of the new software.  We flew Monday through Saturday the week before Thanksgiving, but did not quite finish up all the flights we need, so I would be coming back after Thanksgiving to complete everything. 

Weekend #7 ended up much like weekend #6; I took a few days off after we finished flying, but before I flew home.  I had worked on Saturday, so this was a three day weekend, Sunday, 24 November to Tuesday, 26 November.   I had received a 4WD rental car for this week, so I planned to make use of it when possible.

On Sunday, I drove from Dugway to Bryce Canyon, planning on continuing east to Kodachrome Basin State Park, and south along Cottonwood Canyon Road to Kanab.  However, the bad weather in the north of Utah was also hitting southern Utah as well, and rain and snow had made Cottonwood Canyon Road impassable.  I spent the afternoon and sunset at Bryce Canyon, had dinner at Ruby's, and decided to reverse the order of my last few days.  I drove back west, south and then west again through Zion National Park in the dark, and to a St. George hotel for Sunday night.

On Monday, I returned to Zion National Park, and took the park shuttle to the Grotto to hike to the top of Angels Landing.  I had checked at the Bryce Canyon visitor center on Sunday to see if Angels Landing was safe, and the ranger said she had been told it was not yet covered in ice, and people were still hiking it.  A hiker had just slipped and fell to her death on Angels Landing a few days before, but the ranger said they were hiking in the rain, and those rocks are very slippery when wet.  Rain and snow were forecast to begin over Zion Canyon around 3PM on this day, so I wanted to make sure I was off the rocks before that.  This was the fourth time I had climbed Angels Landing, and like my last climb, I had my GoPro on a headmount and my Gear 360 on a pole sticking 3 feet up above my daypack. The rocks were wet in just a few places, but there was no ice yet.  I completed the climb and descent, and about 5 minutes after I was off the rocks at Scout Lookout, it started to snow. The snow only lasted about 2 minutes, but then it started raining, which continued.  I was very happy to be off the dangerous section of the climb.  I proceeded down the trail back to the Grotto and took the shuttle back to the visitor center.  I drove into Springdale and had dinner at Pizza & Noodles, the same restaurant we have been eating at for almost 25 years, whenever we visit Zion.  After I left Springdale to drive to Kanab, I saw the light from sunset bouncing off the tops of the eastern rocks of Zion Canyon, stopped to take a few photos, and several cars pulled up behind me to catch the same images.  I drove on east, up the Mt. Carmel Road, through the tunnel, to Mt. Carmel Junction and on to Kanab.  I had originally planned to camp at the White House Campground east of Kanab on the Paria River this evening, but I drove through a blizzard all the way from the Zion east entrance to Kanab, so I decided I would get a hotel in Kanab instead of camping in the snow and cold.

Tuesday was a very long day, with lots of driving, hiking, and things to see.  I had breakfast at the hotel, drove east to House Rock Valley Road, turned south and passed the trailhead for the Wave at Wire Pass. My destination was White Pocket, which is an area of multicolored rocks on the Paria Plateau, part of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument.  House Rock Valley Road is usually passable by almost any car, but you need a high clearance 4WD vehicle for the last few miles off of House Rock Valley Road to reach White Pocket.  I had visited White Pocket in 2018 with my son, my sister and her husband, and wanted to see it again.  It did not disappoint at all the second time around.  The light was different, it was cooler for hiking, and there were fewer people this time.  After several hours of hiking and photography, I returned to House Rock Valley Road and had to decide if I wanted to go back north and west towards Kanab, or go south and see more sights;  I decided on south. 

I made it back to paved road, Arizona 89A, just north of the Kaibab Plateau, drove west to Jacob Lake, and then northwest towards Fredonia and Kanab.  The road to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon turns south from Jacob Lake, and was actually still open when I arrived at Jacob Lake in the late afternoon.  I did not have time to make the last 50 miles (one-way) to the North Rim, and it is a good thing I decided to pass up on that drive.  I found out a few days later that a snow storm hit the area that evening, and the road was closed for the rest of the winter season as soon as the storm hit.  I drove through Fredonia, continued west, and stopped at Pipe Spring National Monument about 20 minutes before they closed for the day.  I managed to walk through the small monument and take a few photos before closing, and still had time to get a magnet. I continued on northwest to Hurricane, stopping to fly for a few minutes and to take some sunset photos, and then drove to Salt Lake City that evening. I stayed in a hotel at the airport and flew home on Wednesday morning.