4 Where's the Road?

[This is a small, low-res, work in progress. We plan to do some narration and more editing after that. The finished product will be saved to DVD for finer viewing. If you wish to receive a copy when it's ready, let me know.]

It is a bit hard to tell where the road is sometimes, when there is only solid rock and no tracks.

As happens whenever you get a little confident, we had a little stumble. There was a bit of a glitch which is not properly documented on film. We got off the road somewhere. Jed had even warned us about this too. The road goes up a cut instead of off on the smooth inviting slick rock. Well, we missed it the first time and went several hundred feet before wondering where the road was. That's where Paul was studying the map. No amount of maps and GPS could guide us like seeing eye dogs through the "elephant butts" of slick rock. (Paul's term) We had to use good common sense and tracking skills to find the road. It wasn't that hard, but we had to be patient and look hard until we were sure. I even came home and traced our whole route on Google Earth. Once you get the idea, you know what to look for.

We knew we were getting close to Grey Mesa because it kept looming at the top of the skyline. At the base of it, right before the only interpretive sign, we encountered another tricky spot in the road. It was a steep step up in a narrow canyon--no way to go around this one. We piled rocks against the step to lessen the angle. Kent got some uncharacteristic air. Paul had to try several times and put up with coaching from Kent. The Jeep went everywhere like it had suction cups.

The step down out of the little narrow canyon was also quite steep and the pickups scraped their rear bumpers going down. We fussed a little about how we were going to get back out that way, but decided not to worry about that until we needed to.

It was getting to be late afternoon, so we decided to make camp at a nice flattish spot, before the grade up to Grey Mesa. This turned out to be a wise choice, as we learned there was a party just ahead of us that was using the next camp spot. We had a hunch we were following someone because the tracks looked fresh.

This area is known as Marble Camp for the little sandstone marbles that grow out of the round sandstone hills. It looks like a fungus attacking the slick rock. You can see them forming in some spots and, at some point, they detach themselves and go rolling around. It made for very bad traction for the pioneers, I'm sure.

Ana and Katy had a wonderful time playing in the little canyons around camp. They came in for dinner half soaked, so I guess it hadn't been too long since it had rained.

We had a little trouble finding sufficient "soil" to stake the tents in. The sand is really only a byproduct of the sandstone and the wind, so it is not usually very deep. I suppose there must be a modern fix for this lack of staking medium.

We celebrated Joy's birthday with soggy graham crackers and marshmallow with a candle stuck in. Joy was having the best birthday, having finally gotten to go on a Hole in the Rock trip. She had been made to stay home on the last opportunity because she was nursing a baby. Her younger brothers Paul and Ed had gone with Grandpa Lyman.

After dinner, Kent and I played some fiddle tunes. The instruments were traveling well in their cozy, snugly-packed box.