Ken's Lake

Monday, June 13, 2011

Today we drove up to Ken's Lake. It is only 6.5 miles away from our RV camp. Once there we opted to keep on driving up the trail to a place called Steel Bender Trail. Not a friendly 4x4 trail.

Ken's lake is made up of 2610 acres of an open water reservoir. The diverted water falls over rock ledges, and  down stream to channel into the lake, which is used for water storage.

Moab's Spanish Valley, where Ken's lake is located,  is 10 miles long. It is a collapsed salt anticline, which is the result of several geologic forces. Geologist state that this entire area was under water at-least 7 times. The rocks are made up of sand mixed with minerals from the sea...hence, sandstone.

We parked the truck and hiked the rest of the trail. We were so excited because Gloria and Ivan, our daily trail guides, have not been here before. At least that's what we thought while we were exploring.

The first thing we came upon was two holes in the rocks. Tommy and I separated on the paths and Sire and I went one way to explore and he the other. What Sire and I found was a cave. He found it first. He was inside it by the time I reached it. Oh, before I go any further, let me clue you in alittle....Tommy said we were going to Ken's Lake with Sire today.  A nice, relaxing, sitting around on the beach, watching him fetch - all afternoon. I had on white shorts and flip flops! NOT exactly hiking attire. I had taken off my flip flops and walked barefoot the entire time. It wasn't really that bad except for all the little spurs that are hidden in the sand that decided to attach themselves to my feet - constantly!

modern day petroglyphs

 

 

La Sal Mountains

very, very, very cooolllldddd water!! 100% snow melt.

can you see Sire? I was trying to get prospective.

So Sire and  I walk around this cave and around the rock and are having a great time. I am really happy he came with me as opposed to Tommy because if there was a wild animal around he would sense it and I would know to run. On the way back down the trail we hear Tommy calling us. We look UP! He is inside this cave about 80 feet  up in the rock. How he got there was a mystery.

Ken Lake

Can you see our truck and how very small it looks?

He told me how to negotiate my way up, and Sire and I joined him. The coolest thing about his cave was that it was an old movie set. The cave was covered in chicken wire and stucco to re create a natural cave. There were still lighting apparatus hanging from the ceilings. They had air brushed petroglyphs on the inside walls. I wonder what move was filmed here. It was awesome!  There were 10 different rooms to explore and each one was different.

When we got back to the truck we decided to walk up the really bad jeep trail. We only went about 1/2 mile because my feet were starting to get really sore. We found an arch on our travels and thought about Gloria and Ivan, once again, who did not see this place before. We were so excited to go home and tell them all about it. They seem to know every nook and cranny here in Moab. They have been coming here for over 20 years. Us -  2 years! Hopefully, many, many more!

 

 

Tommy and Sire walking down to the waterfall.

doesn't this look like a Chevy Commercial?

We did stop at the lake on the way down. AFTER Tommy decided to walk down the waterfall with Sire. 250  feet down, nothing but rock. I drove the truck down to the bottom to meet back up with them. They were successful. I was happy they made it. The water is all snow melt and is extremely cold and is running extremely fast! I was really worried about the boys but they did good.

Who knows whats on the schedule for tomorrow, but Thursday is another day with Gloria and Ivan. We plan on going jeeping.... stay tuned. Thanks for reading.

Castle Creek Winery

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tommy and I set out today for Castle Creek Winery and Red Cliffs Lodge. It sits along the Colorado river and is approximately 14 miles of out town. Along the way we stopped on the side of the road and threw 3 bottles of my favorite Pinot Noir - Mark West - into the Colorado River. The wine was gone, of course, and in its place we put postcards of Moab. We stated on the postcards the date we threw it, to please contact us when found, and to re date it and throw it back in the river.

This morning,(I'm writing this the day after), Tommy received a phone call. A Kayak-er found one of them. He was 10 miles south of Moab. He stated he did re date it and threw it back in. We cant wait to see if anyone else calls and just how far they actually get. The river is flowing incredibly fast because of the snow melt. This is a record year of snow and it all seems to want to melt in one week. People are frantic. In some of the pictures you can see just how much it is past its banks. The white water rafters are loving it!

sorry, I cant seem to rotate this.

While at the winery we walked over to the lodge. What a beautiful piece of 'peace and quiet'. It is spread out over 45 acres and offers over 125 cabins/rooms. They house a museum on the grounds that we spent well over an hour in. It is self guided. Apparently there were over 120 movies filmed right here in Moab. Last year while we were here we saw a production company setting up tracks along the rocks for cameras but none so far this year. Paramount Pictures was all over the place here last year. I took pictures of some of the better know movies filmed where we actually do hiking. Virtually, all of the Marlboro Man commercials were shot here.Very interesting.

Oh and remember that Chevrolet commercial where the car and the pretty girl were on top of a hugely tall but skinny rock? That was here. We pass that rock often. It is extremely tall. They used a helicopter to drop off the model and the car. I hope they paid her alot because the winds sometimes hit 45 mph here. On top of the rock I'm sure it was worse.

Imagine sitting at your dinner table on the deck of this beautifully decorated lodge and having these massive red rocks for your view, while listening to soft music and the roar of the river in the background. Does it get an better?

Tommy and I sat on the edge of the river for a while and watched the rafters float by. One after another. It was a beautiful day. Clear blue skies, cumulus clouds all about. The temperature was in the mid 80's.

Instead of heading back to camp the way we came, we decided to take a road up and over the La Sal Mountain pass. It is only 40 miles but up and over any mountain around here is more like 5 miles to one. It was a rough road at times, but we're glad we did it. I received a text from Kyle while on the pass and he said he would call me in a few minutes. I asked Tommy to pull over so I wouldn't lose my signal and we parked in the middle of a cow herd. They roam freely here and after a while they thought Tommy was a cow because he got out and walked around they followed him! It was pretty funny. One guy looked really really angry, maybe he was the leader and had fallen from grace with Tommy the new head honcho. LOL. (Its the picture with the baby next to him.)


Kyle did call us. We only had 3 minutes to talk. We tried to finalize our arrangements for graduation but we were cut off before we were done. It is difficult because Tommy and I are out West and need to fly back East. His Dad is in FL along with his sister and need to go North. And his Grandma and Aunt are North of him and need to come South. It will all work out I'm sure, but for now its a mess. The entire graduation ceremony is up in the air because at any given moment they can  delay Kyle a week, for any given reason. Another way to screw with them, I suppose. Any plans we make are tentative. We do have our flights booked and we will be there from the 27th - 3rd. If we have to extend, of course we will, but it is not fun when you don't know 100%. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

He sounded so good! It was the first time I talked to him that he did not sound sick. He stated that 6 people in his Platoon had pneumonia. One died. Isn't that horrible? He also said another kid in another Platoon hung himself. I guess Boot Camp really is tough mentally. I'm just so thankful Kyle is a strong person. I couldn't be prouder!! We cant wait to see him!

LOL. The park is full.

you can see for miles and miles...

Tommy's Nemesis

Today the idea we are throwing around is to take Sire to Ken's Lake. We have not been there before and passed it yesterday on the way down the mountain. The sun is out, as always, and wind has lied down so more than likely that will be the plan.

Thanks for reading and have a good week. FYI, if you want more detail, please click on the individual pictures. They will blow up for you. Enjoy!