Told you it would be soon.
Day 2 finds us neatly camped on the edge of the coolest view I personally think you can find in 2wd. The morning light reveals that we aren’t as alone as we though, which is a little bit of a letdown given that we are used to being pretty isolated, especially this time of the year where its a little cold for most folk. That being said, its still an amazing place and the short easy drive to the “little grand canyon overlook” only solidifies this view
Slide shows? neat!
Well, I say short drive, first we have to get out of camp which proves to be a little tricky for some.
To be fair, Tom drove into this spot in the dark and it wasn’t in his line of sight. Out of line of sight out of mind. I still laughed until my sides literally hurt, so...yeah.
The impromptu plan for today was...whatever? Lets go...um...to the river I guess. It says on the map “Dangerous River Crossing” which at the very least sounds interesting.
Holy. Crap.
Wow.
This was the same San Rafael river we were just staring at through powerful zoom lenses on top of the rim and it took us about 40 minutes to get here. The fall colors turned this into a true oasis for the feels.
On the other side of the river was a bit of a letdown. Not that it was bad, just hard to live up from the rest of the day. Its a loop that takes you on the backside of the Sid’s Mountain wilderness area and offers only fleeting glances at the amazing formations you can see from the overlook not to mention it was windy and kind of cold. We ate a nice tailgate lunch and moved along. As soon as I got unstuck. Well I wasn’t STUCK but I wasn’t able to move forward after I drove into a ditch with my rear wheel and even with all my lockers engaged I wasn’t able to claw out of since I was hung up on the bumper. Reverse and out. No pics because it was over all too quickly. There was another small challenge at a seasonal creek crossing that made it into the video but not into pictures, it turned out to be a non-event.
Frankly I didn’t take many pictures for a while. We drove through a gulch that led to a town that led to the loniest road of all time that led to this thing
Its an enormous cell tower that is part of a series providing service along I70 and the surrounding areas. It looks like a giant pine tree to seamlessly blend in with its surrounding environment....
...of short scrub oak and red rocks.
Its been interesting to take note of radio installations since becoming an amateur operator partly because of the science of radio wave propagation and partly because its more interesting than actually trying to talk to someone on the repeater, which I have been attempting to do for 2 days without a response aside from the repeater acknowledging that I had hit the right tone. Its nice to think a HAM and the extensive repeater network would provide a safety net in areas like this but...no one is home most of the time. Oh well.
After a brief pit on 70 we finally and with great effort find the exit that will take us south of the freeway to Swaysey’s cabin, the Ancestral home of Patrick Swazy as well as being the first Road House. There is also rumor that on a crisp autumn morning you can still here the faint noise of a pottery wheel turning. We’re all hoping to be so fortunate.
Without too much difficulty we found the place. Seems a little small for all that talent, but who am I to judge. The roads out here on the south of the freeway sure were different though, BADLY rutted from the recent rain and so rough we aired down.
Also on the menu is “Joe’s Office”
And somewhere around here is what they call “the icebox”.
Hunting for it wasn’t so bad though. There were Douglas fir interspersed with scrub oak and something else that changed color in the fall. Helluva view. Eventually Wade found the trail. Maybe next time instead of saying “nearby” on the placard you can say “100 yards east is the trail”.
The “icebox” was just a narrow slit in the rock where it was 20 degrees colder than ambient. Not sure how that would really help in 100 degree heat (as far as food spoilage) but it would feel good.
The fir tree growing up through the middle was a nice touch.
Also on site was a spring of sorts
I’ve seen worse place to wash up.
We left Swaysey’s cabin with a little more respect for homestead life in the 20's. Nearby was eagle canyon which will be a place to explore on the next outing for sure.
For now though, it was getting late and, again, we were getting hungry. We didn’t have to go far back on the main road before we found a wind sheltered area due north of the cabin off a seperate road leading to the lone warrior pictograph. 2 things were clear here.
1. We weren’t the first people to think this would be a great campsite
2. Water has not been kind to this place recently.
A little erosion goes a long way. These kinda of tear outs were ALL over here, and deep too at least 6 feet deep and several feet wide. The roads weren’t this bad but it gives you an indication how they looked in places.
Here is Tom doing his “swayseys leap” impression
What a place to camp though.
It was another bright night with the harvest moon above. How bright?
Pretty bright. We use the opportunity to take a walk to see the Lone Warrior.
Hey there.
Time for Wade’s Chili, then bed. In separate parts of the camp.
Again Part 2 of the video if you haven’t seen it