Colorado River @en
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VLV is back in action!
It is on September the 7th in the morning I found my “home on wheels” back for the coming weeks. Significantly cleaner than when I let her since Fullservicestorage that housed VivaLaVida for more than one year has cleaned her!
1. Dashing!
Having installed the track rod with new ball joints and wired the oil cooler fan installed the eve of leaving VLV in 2015, I took the road to visit Hans and Madeleine in Moab, hosted by high températures: 98F at 5 PM! I slept near some bentonite hills North of Moab.
2. Boondocking
3. This clay, often colored by inorganic oxides in different sedimentary layers, is always spectacular.
4. Late afternoon light.
5. Quiet Wake up…
6. Silhouette of La Sal Mountains in the morning.
7. Castle Valley…
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8. Fisher Towers in front of La Sal Mountains.
9. Along Colorado River…
10. Not sure that in case of gas failure, it is of great ease..!
11. Colorado River North of Moab.
VivaLaVida is then passed in Colorado, discover some interesting spots. To come in a few days.
From Utah to Arizona…
I spent the last days of 2014 between Zion and Gooseberry Mesa, not far away.
1. The bottom of the Zion Canyon is quite open, with magnificent cliffs.
2. Gradually, when going upstream in it, he gently tightens.
3. Then suddenly, because of a change of rock, it turns into a narrow, a deep trench not wider than the river bed.
4. Some cliffs are almost vertical walls over 2,000 feet high, really impressive!
5. Along Kolob Terrace Road while it starts snowing… A few miles further, I will tow the Subaru of two French and two Belgian guys stucked in deep snow. Without VivaLaVida, they would have spent the night there, no one else was up there in this season. A little reckless in my opinion, without even a tow strap…
6. I spent my New Year Eve on Gooseberry Mesa, while it was snowing… 😀
7. In the morning, there was about 4 inches fresh snow.
8. The view over the Zion Mountains clears in early morning…
9. Despite the snow that fell the previous night, I tried to reach a viewpoint on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s a really unfrequented corner because of difficult access via a hundred miles trail, really muddy for the first part, then rocky and quite rough for the last 20 miles and closed in winter. However with VLV capabilities, I reached it in late afternoon when the moon rose.
10. Enough air there! I’m on a 20 inches ledge overhanging a truly vertical wall… But it was the only way to show you the Colorado River, exactly 2,890 feet down! 😀
11. Warm last light rays in this winter atmosphere.
12. The snow fallen a few hours earlier makes patchwork design on the sandstone.
13. The camp will be really cold in the clear night…
14. The potholes freeze on the sandstone, with beautiful textures. Here, ice pebbles…
15. Down the next day in the canyon to see Lava Bed Rapids, the most difficult rapids of the entire Colorado River. The trail, sometimes non-existent, is very steep in a lava flow that makes walking dangerous, lava stones rolling like bearings under the feet. there is even some climbing in places, hopefully not too difficult because only I wouldn’t have be able to reach the bottom otherwise. A trek to not recommend to everyone anyway!
16. Here the rapids, without sun this season. Hard to show the scale as the canyon is so huge but it’s pretty impressive. What a power! I understand that there is a portage trail for canoes…
17. The depth of this canyon is just amazing, I fell really small down there!
18. Small beach upstream the rapids.
19. I begin the long climb back. Top left is Toroweap Point where I go, 2,890 feet higher! 😀
Following of the discovery of this part of the Grand Canyon to come soon!
D5 Creation