pmatusov
AK6PM
Andrey was devastated. All that planning, shuffling of maps, checking distances and driving times in Google Maps, digging up the information about permits to go to this or that place - all for nothing. Out of the five days set aside for the trip - two were taken away, one because of a happy, and another - because of a tragic event. Whatever little common sense remaining in us after all that tequila told us to scrap the trip.
But we aren't known to be slaves to common sense, are we?
So we just set out to do it all in three days. That included driving from San Diego to Vermillion Cliffs and back - about 1200 miles, or 21 hours, according to Google. Give or take some.
We aren't known as very early risers, either. At least, we don't enjoy it. So piling up the junk in the back of the Disco was finished around 8:40 in the morning on Friday - by Monday morning, we were to be back come hell or high water.
The next hour, and the hills of San Diego North County flew by. Temecula saw us slowing down, and we came to a grinding halt around Corona. There was no accident, no road work - simply a traffic jam, not even in an urban area. It barely let go in Rancho Cucamonga, at which point we gave up our attempt to set a land speed record from San Diego to Las Vegas. Even in the sub-class of loaded-to-the-gills-Land Rovers with finicky handling.
The somewhat darkened mood led to some reshuffling of the travel plans. Andrey struck down my suggestion to hit the Valley of Fire ("how many times we've been there already?"); I retaliated with suggestion to strike down the visit to yet-unseen Yant Flat near St.George. Conversation died down; to cheer me up, Andrey read me aloud some political analysis of Russian economy and situation with Ukraine. Talk about an uplifting subject, if there ever was one.
Mid-afternoon saw us near Las Vegas. We proudly flew through the Sin City in the express lane - and decided that we'd make up for it by watching some porn in the hotel.
An hour or so later, Andrey all of a sudden changed his mind, and directed me to hit the right turn off I-15. Like, "Do it now." The time was around 3 pm - with about an hour and a half of daylight left. Soon, we were in the
Valley of Fire
This is a Nevada state park less than an hour North-East of Las Vegas. If you travel from the West, the uneven two-lane road will take you through a shallow pass, and dump in the area that'll strike you with its colors. It has its own famous spots - all of which we ignored.
But one, maybe - the Fire Wave. Most of our trips to the Valley of Fire happened in Summer heat - so the sightseeing was limited to sprints to roadside attractions.
If you follow the trail, it takes about 20 minutes to get to the Fire Wave, and it is totally worth it.
The road leading to it from the main highway is equally enjoyable; if you think you have a burly 4x4 with tall rubber and long-travel shocks, so these things are not a reason to slow down - think again.
An hour later, we stopped at Lee's Liquor in Mesquite, Nevada, and geared up for travel in rough country with people who disapprove of that kind of sin.
Another hour later, in a hotel in Hurricane, Utah, we transferred half of the contents of the glass bottle procured in Nevada into ourselves. The dinner consisted of a few sandwiches, pretty much raw bacon, an onion, and a few cookies.
The successes and shortcomings of the day were discussed; the biggest of the second was total lack of adult content in the vast trove of analog TV channels. Yant Flat/Candy Cliffs were reinstated in tomorrow's itinerary. The plan called for an early rise, a quick dash to see Candy Cliffs lit by sunrise, breakfast in the hotel, a dash to BLM office in Kanab for trail permits, and then Buckskin Gulch.
Things, of course, rarely go as planned.
Yant Flat/Candy Cliffs
First alarm clock went off at 4:38 am. I don't know of particular significance of this time, and I stumbled into the bathroom thinking that the stern people inhabiting this rough country had a point about liquor. Oh well, too late now.
By the time I came out half-ready to head out, Andrey consulted with iPhone and figured out that sunrise isn't due for another couple of hours. So... we fell face down into our pillows for another hour.
Fast forward an hour: we're rolling uphill on a rough dirt road in complete darkness. Judging by a vertical wall on one side, and lack of objects on another, it must be a vertical wall down from the road. Yant Flat (just as Valley of Fire the day before) was somewhat an ad lib visit, so we weren't prepared for it. My phone showed a red pin somewhere in the woods, and a tentative path leading up to it. We heard that we were supposed to walk for a while to get to Candy Cliffs, but the GPS was adamant about us being able to drive right up to them.
We turned off from the road to a smaller two-track, pretty rough but needing neither diff lock nor low range. Finally, it petered out, and we found ourselves someplace that didn't look all that impressive. Fortunately, the phone showed three bars on 4G coverage, and we googled coordinates of Candy Cliffs. It turned out that we went in the right direction, but on a wrong road. We took a photo of a dry tree primarily to see the light distribution of headlights and amber fog lights:
Meanwhile, it was starting to brighten up, and we got to see more of our environment:
Soon, we found the parking spot near the main road (we did have to walk, after all), grabbed our gear, and headed up to Candy Cliffs.
It looked like most of the place is more scenic at sunset, rather than at sunrise - but it was very pretty nonetheless.
On our way back, we paid more attention to the flora around us. The tree branches and stumps were covered with ice crystals, and there was an amazing variety of cacti that I don't remember seeing elsewhere.
We returned to the truck, re-packed the gear, and headed back to the hotel. On our way, we stopped to greet some horses and one very curious lama - who started off towards us with unclear intentions, but warmed up to us and the camera.
We were back to the hotel at ... 11, one hour late for breakfast, and barely soon enough to check out. It was already half past 1 p.m. when we had our brunch at Nedra's Too cafe in Kanab, Utah. There was still a lot of ground to cover before the end of the day.
But we aren't known to be slaves to common sense, are we?
So we just set out to do it all in three days. That included driving from San Diego to Vermillion Cliffs and back - about 1200 miles, or 21 hours, according to Google. Give or take some.
We aren't known as very early risers, either. At least, we don't enjoy it. So piling up the junk in the back of the Disco was finished around 8:40 in the morning on Friday - by Monday morning, we were to be back come hell or high water.
The next hour, and the hills of San Diego North County flew by. Temecula saw us slowing down, and we came to a grinding halt around Corona. There was no accident, no road work - simply a traffic jam, not even in an urban area. It barely let go in Rancho Cucamonga, at which point we gave up our attempt to set a land speed record from San Diego to Las Vegas. Even in the sub-class of loaded-to-the-gills-Land Rovers with finicky handling.
The somewhat darkened mood led to some reshuffling of the travel plans. Andrey struck down my suggestion to hit the Valley of Fire ("how many times we've been there already?"); I retaliated with suggestion to strike down the visit to yet-unseen Yant Flat near St.George. Conversation died down; to cheer me up, Andrey read me aloud some political analysis of Russian economy and situation with Ukraine. Talk about an uplifting subject, if there ever was one.
Mid-afternoon saw us near Las Vegas. We proudly flew through the Sin City in the express lane - and decided that we'd make up for it by watching some porn in the hotel.
An hour or so later, Andrey all of a sudden changed his mind, and directed me to hit the right turn off I-15. Like, "Do it now." The time was around 3 pm - with about an hour and a half of daylight left. Soon, we were in the
Valley of Fire
This is a Nevada state park less than an hour North-East of Las Vegas. If you travel from the West, the uneven two-lane road will take you through a shallow pass, and dump in the area that'll strike you with its colors. It has its own famous spots - all of which we ignored.
But one, maybe - the Fire Wave. Most of our trips to the Valley of Fire happened in Summer heat - so the sightseeing was limited to sprints to roadside attractions.
If you follow the trail, it takes about 20 minutes to get to the Fire Wave, and it is totally worth it.
The road leading to it from the main highway is equally enjoyable; if you think you have a burly 4x4 with tall rubber and long-travel shocks, so these things are not a reason to slow down - think again.
An hour later, we stopped at Lee's Liquor in Mesquite, Nevada, and geared up for travel in rough country with people who disapprove of that kind of sin.
Another hour later, in a hotel in Hurricane, Utah, we transferred half of the contents of the glass bottle procured in Nevada into ourselves. The dinner consisted of a few sandwiches, pretty much raw bacon, an onion, and a few cookies.
The successes and shortcomings of the day were discussed; the biggest of the second was total lack of adult content in the vast trove of analog TV channels. Yant Flat/Candy Cliffs were reinstated in tomorrow's itinerary. The plan called for an early rise, a quick dash to see Candy Cliffs lit by sunrise, breakfast in the hotel, a dash to BLM office in Kanab for trail permits, and then Buckskin Gulch.
Things, of course, rarely go as planned.
Yant Flat/Candy Cliffs
First alarm clock went off at 4:38 am. I don't know of particular significance of this time, and I stumbled into the bathroom thinking that the stern people inhabiting this rough country had a point about liquor. Oh well, too late now.
By the time I came out half-ready to head out, Andrey consulted with iPhone and figured out that sunrise isn't due for another couple of hours. So... we fell face down into our pillows for another hour.
Fast forward an hour: we're rolling uphill on a rough dirt road in complete darkness. Judging by a vertical wall on one side, and lack of objects on another, it must be a vertical wall down from the road. Yant Flat (just as Valley of Fire the day before) was somewhat an ad lib visit, so we weren't prepared for it. My phone showed a red pin somewhere in the woods, and a tentative path leading up to it. We heard that we were supposed to walk for a while to get to Candy Cliffs, but the GPS was adamant about us being able to drive right up to them.
We turned off from the road to a smaller two-track, pretty rough but needing neither diff lock nor low range. Finally, it petered out, and we found ourselves someplace that didn't look all that impressive. Fortunately, the phone showed three bars on 4G coverage, and we googled coordinates of Candy Cliffs. It turned out that we went in the right direction, but on a wrong road. We took a photo of a dry tree primarily to see the light distribution of headlights and amber fog lights:
Meanwhile, it was starting to brighten up, and we got to see more of our environment:
Soon, we found the parking spot near the main road (we did have to walk, after all), grabbed our gear, and headed up to Candy Cliffs.
It looked like most of the place is more scenic at sunset, rather than at sunrise - but it was very pretty nonetheless.
On our way back, we paid more attention to the flora around us. The tree branches and stumps were covered with ice crystals, and there was an amazing variety of cacti that I don't remember seeing elsewhere.
We returned to the truck, re-packed the gear, and headed back to the hotel. On our way, we stopped to greet some horses and one very curious lama - who started off towards us with unclear intentions, but warmed up to us and the camera.
We were back to the hotel at ... 11, one hour late for breakfast, and barely soon enough to check out. It was already half past 1 p.m. when we had our brunch at Nedra's Too cafe in Kanab, Utah. There was still a lot of ground to cover before the end of the day.
