Goodby to Our Friends

This morning Dennis and Cheryl told us they had decided to cut their vacation short so that Dennis could fly to Vancouver. His mom, who is 93, is having some serious medical issues, and he needs to be there with her. We were very sorry to say goodbye to our good friends under such circumstances, but wished them safe travels. We're hoping that Dennis's presence will be a comfort to his mom and that everything will work out well for her.

We have spent the last 2 1/2 weeks exploring St. George and some spectacular national parks with Dennis and Cheryl. It's been a great trip, and we are happy to have been able to share it with them. This morning after hugs and goodbyes, they headed for St. George to make arrangements for Dennis to fly to Vancouver tomorrow. We continued the trip as planned by driving to Escalante Petrified Forest State Park.

If you look closely, you'll see the construction equipment near our campsite. The reservoir has been drained, and the dam is being rebuilt. Fortunately, no one was working near the campground today. The campground hosts greeted us with congratulations on our owning an Excel, since they also have an Excel--much larger than ours, which they tow with a large fifth wheel hauler.

After lunch, we waited a bit for the wind to die down before hiking the Petrified Forest Trail and the Trail of the Sleeping Rainbows. Altogether the hike was a 1.75 mile loop, but much of it was up and down some rather steep and uneven sections of trail. When we reached the top of the mesa, we saw the "pygmy forest"--mostly Utah junipers and pinon pines, but all very stunted because of the lack of water. This small juniper is probably at least 150 years old.

From the trail we had views of the various levels and colors of surrounding cliffs and a panoramic view of the town of Escalante laid out below. The main attraction of the trails was, of course, the petrified wood. It's here because trees up to 100 feet tall were swept away millions of years ago by a massive flood, then buried under water where silicas replaced the living cells. The resulting petrified trees were in turn exposed to view by erosion. We were surprised to see the bright and varied colors, mainly oranges, reds and yellows from iron oxides and some blacks, blues and purples from manganese oxides.

Tonight we finally watched The Queen, with Helen Mirren, which we had recorded some time ago. We enjoyed Mirren's performance and found the interplay between the queen and her family and the prime minister during the days after the death of Diana fascinating.

Tomorrow we'll move on to Capitol Reef National Park. It's one we had never heard of, but we're looking forward to seeing new sights. The Utah landscape is extremely varied and engaging.