The Cattle Drive

The morning was overcast and COLD as we rode up the dirt road to Rusty Spurrs Ranch.  We met Han and his wife, Connie.  There also was another couple that went with us, Cindy and Joe.  It was sleeting when we saddled up but that was all of the "bad" weather.

When you go on the trail rides, you ride nose to tail in a row.  Today we rode wherever we wanted!  Han was a wonderful guide as he had the 2 women that have ridden, David, who has only ridden on trail rides and Joe, who really didn't want to be on the horse.

We started on learning how to herd and move the cows in the right direction. We practiced moving this small herd.  Then he told me to go ride up a ridge that was far away from everyone else and gather up those cows.  It was the coolest thing ever!  I was all by myself up there with about 10-12 cows and calves that I had to gather and move them down the ridge to merge with the main herd.  I WAS Dale Evans and/or Calamity Jane up there.

We continued to move and gather cattle that was scattered out on the range and bring them back toward a large pasture area.   Once we got all the cows together, Han stopped us.

He told us that NOW we were going to move this herd  UP this steep hill. You have NEVER heard so much noise!  The cows were MOOING, the dead aspen trees were cracking, we were yelling at the cows and the cattle dog was barking.  I absolutely LOVED this part.  It was hard keeping the cows moving up the hill and not letting them double back on you.  They also ran into the aspen grove and you had to ride after them and keep them moving.  SO MUCH FUN!!  David loved it too. The other woman that rode with us did not like this part and her husband was NO help.

Too bad we couldn't take pictures while herding the cattle.  David has some pictures of me riding but I will have to post them later.  We saw a herd of deer and a sage grouse while riding.

When we got back to the cabin for lunch, I told Han he made my childhood fantasy come true! Han told us to go to Hot Sulphur Springs to help ease our bodies.

The Hot Sulphur Springs have been in operation for the past 140 years. The Ute Indians (and their horses and dogs) to bath and relax in the sacred waters.
They had 24 pools and private baths.  I wish I had taken my camera inside as you were bathing/soaking in baby blue waters that were so HOT!  You were surrounded by the rocks and minerals- kind of primitive looking.  Very relaxing and I'm certain it will help with the soreness of the cattle drive.

Tomorrow we head to Fort Collins, which is where Teresa lives.  We are going to stay there for a week and visit with the grand kids, Teresa and Dave.

 sign on the cabin

 MY cowboy :)

 Cheezing for the camera

 David out on the range on Scooter

 waiting for us to get through the gate

 David and me

 getting ready to dismount

 different view

 Zoey, the cattle dog posed with us

 heading out

one more posed pic

We left Idaho and headed toward Utah.  The speed limit in Utah was 80 mph.  Luckily David couldn't go the speed limit in the RV and towing the truck.  Ha!  We spent the night at Salt Lake City in a KOA right in the city.  Listened to trains, planes and automobiles all night.  It did have a hot tub so took advantage of that :)
We got to our campground in Dinosaur National Monument.  It is on the Green River and had 80 year old cottonwood trees.  Really nice- no hook ups but now our generator is working so "no worries".   We went to the quarry which was not what I was expecting.  I thought we would be walking into a dinosaur quarry but that was wishful thinking.  The actual quarry was a side of a mountain encased by a building.  There were tons of dinosaur bones in the side of the mountain.  You had a paper guide so that you could identify the bones/dinosaurs.  There was a place that you could touch the dinosaur bones in the mountain.
We left and went out exploring where they had petroglyphs on the side of the mountains.  The Freemonts (Indians) had carved them.  We rode on down the road which narrowed, then turned to a dirt road, and then it narrowed again.  We were at Josie Morris' cabin.  She had come there in 1913 at the age of 40.  She lived there by herself until 1963.  She used the canyon to box in her cattle.
It was about 6:45 and David decided that we could go on the box canyon trail which was "supposed" to be a 1/2 mile.  We got our bear spray as it said we were entering bear country.  Of course the trail was NOT 1/2 mile and after 30 minutes of hiking in this overgrown back country trail, I was ready to turn back.  It was getting darker and I had the bears coming out to get me in my mind.  Finally David realized that yeah we need to get back.
The next day (Saturday) we went on a ranger led hike to the fossils.  I've already forgotten 80% of what she told us but it was SO interesting!  We got to see and touch the fossils (some dinosaur ones) in the mountain.
After that hike, David and I went on the Sounds of Silence trail.  It lasted about 3.8 miles.  It was totally awesome as we hiked many different terrains.  We found someones marijuana stash in a shrub.  It had the pipe, cleaners and the baggie but no pot.  We also found plenty of Mountain Sheep poop but didn't get to see a sheep.  Still hoping.
So we didn't get to camp at the Rocky National Park because of the flooding but we did get to go to two different National Monuments (Craters of the Moon and Dinosaur National Monument) to camp and explore.  Pretty good trade off.
Leaving Sunday for Colorado.  We are going on an all day cattle drive!!  YEE HAW!! Guess who picked this activity???  

 Driving in Utah

 At the Dinosaur quarry

 Petroglyphs- there's a mountain sheep

 scenery while hiking

 more petroglyphs

 man playing a flute

 The side of the mountain

 close up to see all the layers of rock

 Josie Morris' cabin

 dirt floors

 Her chicken coop

 cave in side of a mountain

 Cottonwood tree- bark was thicker than I've ever seen

Craters of the Moon

We left Idaho Falls on our way to Arco, which is the first atomic powered city.  We stayed in a really nice KOA.  David and I discussed that this would be a wonderful campground to run.  Found out the next morning that it was for sale. Hmmmm.....

We made it to the Craters of the Moon campground which is called "The Lave Flow campground."  This has to be on of the most unusual and funky campgrounds ever.
The Craters of the Moon was formed by the Great Rift.  Lava flooded from this rift about 15,000 years ago.  Every 2000 years there has been another eruption.  Guess what?  It has been just over 2000 years and another eruption is due.

We went on the a ranger walk that ended up with going into the Indian Tunnel cave. We learned all about the different types of lava.  The lava flows also produced lava tube caves.  We went into the Indian Tunnel cave with the ranger.  Later, David and I went into the Buffalo Caves on our own.  I was a tad bit intimidated going into this cave as you crawled into a narrow space.  But once down in it, the cave was awesome!  We ended up coming up out of the cave through a different hole.

We walked up cinder cones and and explored the splatter cones (which are miniature volcanoes).
The first day we were there the temps were in the high 70's.  The next day it was in the 50's but with the wind chill was far lower!  I was wearing 2 shirts, a sweatshirt, and a down vest and I was still cold.  We went on a 3.5 mile hike on the North Crater Trail. This trail was mostly UP except for when we went down into the craters. During the last part of the hike we were on a high narrow ridge and the wind was HOWLING!!  If I was a lightweight woman I would have been swept off the ridge.  As it was, the wind was pushing me hard!  I was extremely happy to be off the ridge :)
We woke up to 29 degrees this morning and we will soon be heading southward!!

The generator saga continues....
After we checked in to the Craters of the Moon, the rangers had been contacted by the mechanic that had worked on our generator in Idaho Falls.  He had researched our generator and found that it had had a recall on them concerning those springs and fuel pump.  He asked us to come back so he could replace the other spring and the fuel pump.  We did make the trip back and the generator runs like a charm.  We were VERY impressed with Hooker, the owner- mechanic for going to so much trouble for us.

 view from our campground

 miles of lava

 Indian Tunnel cave

 The lava had all different colors in it

 Buffalo cave

 hot collapsed lava tube

 Indian Trail cave

 splatter cones (miniature volcanoes)

 inside splatter cone

 snow shower in distant mountains

 dwarf buckwheat (they were all over the cinders)

 inside Buffalo cave (got 3 layers of clothes on)

 entrance to lava cave

 The lava was just fascinating- the names for the lava forms were from Hawaii

 checking out another part of the cave

 colors on the lava

 looking down into the North Crater

 bottom of the North Crater

 On top of the ridge with the wind BLOWING!

 Cool formations

 The snow on the mountain from the snow shower