Summer Trip to Lake Powell

Our summer trip for 2018 was a bit complicated.  Besides our usual week in July at Lake Powell, we needed to spend some time with my mother in Orem UT, be in Sacramento in early July for the birth of d & Zhouyi's new baby boy, hike Paris Peak with Liz's sisters in Paris ID, and spend some time with the Graves family in the Tetons.  We left home in the RV on June 23rd heading for Moab UT with overnight stops in Amarillo TX and Abiquiu NM.

In Moab we stayed the night with Anna Maria and Jim and had a great time biking, hiking to Mesa Arch, and riding to a beautiful overlook in their ranger (off road vehicle built for 3 but we squeezed in 4).

Biking with Jim and Anna Maria along the Colorado River

Mesa Arch

On June 27th we drove to Orem to spend some time with my mother.  During the past several years we have been trying to find my mother's birth parents because she was adopted.  First we followed the paper trail to a dead end.  Then we put her DNA into Ancestry.com in hopes of getting some useful matches but nothing panned out.  Kevin Klein, one of my nephews, joined the search last year and he began to make real progress.  With the help of a professional genealogist, he was able to find my mother's birth grandparents (surnames are Folkersen and Clawson) but it was unclear which of their children were actually my mother's parents.  With some letter writing and contacts to appropriate descendants we were able to get them to take the DNA tests which confirmed that her birth mother is Florence Clawson and her birth father is Alma Folkersen.

Mom's Bio Folkersen Family
Alma Folkersen (back row right) is her father

While we were visiting Mom, the Folkersens had a reunion in Salt Lake City on June 29th for Mom to meet her extended biological family.  We had a great time meeting new relatives we didn't know we had.

On June 30th we dropped off the motorhome at Paul's house in Eagle Mountain and flew from SLC to Sacramento for the birth of our new grandson.  Euan Lisan Dayton was born on July 3rd, a beautiful healthy boy.  We stayed with d and Zhouyi for 6 days to help out with mother and baby.  We also visited Bruce and Becky in Roseville CA to enjoy their neighborhood fireworks on July 4th.  On July 7th we flew back to SLC.

Mother and baby are fine!

Meila meeting her new brother

Euan Lisan Dayton

Rachael and Kevin McLaughlin met us at the Salt Lake airport and took us back to Paul's house in Eagle Mountain where we all spent the night.  Next day we drove the RV to Bullfrog and moved onto the houseboat for our Lake Powell trip.  This year we had the Topher Daytons, the Keetons, the McLaughlins and us for a total of 8 adults and 5 kids.  It seems at Lake Powell we always have a mishap to give us something to talk about.  Our mishap this year happened right at the beginning.  The Keetons towed their speedboat from Bulverde TX (we didn't bring ours this year).  When they got outside of Blanding UT they noticed that the stern drive was dragging on the ground and the hydraulic lift that is supposed to hold it up wasn't working.  So they tied it up with ski ropes and brought it into Bullfrog on Sunday night to see if it could be repaired.  As you might expect, the backlog to see a mechanic at Bullfrog was substantial and we were worried that it might take days to get it fixed. Early Monday morning John towed the boat up to the boat shop to see what could be done.  We were fortunate that a very helpful and knowledgeable mechanic was on duty and agreed to look at it, saying if it was a quick job he'd fix it, otherwise we'd have to get in line.  As luck would have it, the fix was quick, the stern unit hydraulic lifter had popped a gasket.  So he replaced the gasket and we were good to go with very little down time.

Keeton's boat stern drive tied up with ski ropes

The week at Powell was marvelous and we had a wonderful time.....this place never ceases to amaze.  This year we stayed in Ribbon Canyon near the Escalante River and near the best scenic sites.  We stayed down river Monday - Thursday.  On Friday we returned to Bullfrog in the speedboat to drop off Rachael and Kevin who had to catch an early flight home.  We then explored Crystal Spring, Forgotten, and Annies canyons on our way back to the houseboat.

Night swimming at the houseboat

Elynn climbing up to the water slide

Kevin cliff climbing over water without equipment
This is called "deep water solo"

Beau thinking about water skiing

Kathryn checking the map

My with the kids

Topher and kids

Akston and John getting ready to jump off the houseboat

My studying the scenery

 On Saturday July 13th we returned to Bullfrog in the houseboat and Sunday everyone headed for home.  We headed for Price and stayed overnight at the Walmart.  On Monday we drove up to Strawberry Reservoir by way of Duchesene UT.  We stayed at Soldier Creek campground that night and early the next morning Robert and Lani Graves arrived along with Robert's friend Tim Streble.  Lani and Liz stayed at the RV in the campground while Robert, Tim and I took the car up Red Creek canyon to do some fishing.  Red Creek is Robert's favorite fishing spot and usually provides outstanding fishing but this day we had no luck.  After 1/2 day on the creek we gave up and returned to camp with nothing to show but it was a beautiful day and we had a great time together.  The Graves headed back to Salt Lake City and Liz and I broke camp and drove to Paris ID.

That night we stayed at Grandma Price's house in Paris and met up with some of Liz's siblings for a planned hike up Paris Peak the next day.  The sibling group included Anna Maria & Jim Englebright, Barbara & Frank Clark, and Liz & I.  Liz's brother Jacob met us for dinner the night before the hike.  The day of the hike (Wed, July 18) we were joined by Mark Budge, a local relative who served as our guide on the hike.  Paris Peak is 9575 ft high but the hike to the peak from the trail head is 12 miles round trip with about a 3000 ft elevation change so it was quite a rigorous hike for us in our late 60s.

Barbara, Anna Maria, & Elizabeth in the yoga pose
on top of Paris Peak

Mark Budge, Lee & Jim trying the yoga pose

The hiking crew
Anna Maria, Jim, Lee, Elizabeth, Barbara & Frank

View from the top of Paris Peak

On Thursday 7/19 we left Paris and drove up to the Tetons.  We spent the first night in Gros Venture campground because Colter Bay (our favorite campground) was full.  On Friday we rose early and got ourselves a camping spot in Colter Bay. Then we went down to Jenny Lake where we met Liz's sister Barbara for an afternoon of biking along the beautiful path at the base of the Tetons.  I was still recovering from the effects of the Paris Peak hike so I took at pass on the biking this time.

Bike trail at base of the Tetons

Barbara & Elizabeth posing with an unknown moose
before their biking excursion

On Saturday we drove the RV up into Yellowstone and stopped at the trailhead for Lone Star Geyser.  This is a beautiful biking trail that follows the Firehole River out to a single geyser.  The geyser erupts about every 3 hours, and as luck would have it, we arrived just in time for an eruption.

Lone Star Geyser erupting

On our return back to camp we stopped by Old Faithful to get our customary ice cream and watch Old Faithful erupt.  Our last day in the Tetons we went back to down to Jenny Lake and rode the bike trail down to Moose Junction.  That night we hosted the Graves family at our campsite for an old fashion campfire in the Tetons.  They were having a family reunion in the Tetons with all their kids and grandkids.  We walked down to Jackson Lake for a swim and roasted marshmallows at the campfire.....it was like old times.

Time to go home.  Our trip home took us down Hwy 191 toward Flaming Gorge Reservoir where we spent the night at Deer Run Campground.  Next day we drove through Vernal UT, where we stopped to watch a parade for the 24th of July. Then we drove to Grand Junction CO, and on to the South Rim Campground at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  This is a deep gorge carved out by the Gunnison River through black lava rock...quite breath taking.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison River

Sheer cliff of the canyon showing light-colored
pegmatite dikes

On July 25 (Liz birthday) we drove to Pueblo CO for the night.  We stopped in Salida CO (an old mining town) along the way and had a birthday dinner at a local restaurant.  Next day we drove to Amarillo for the night.  On the way we stopped at Capulin Volcano National Monument.  This is an old volcano cone that has a road leading all the way to the top where there are hiking trails and beautiful views of the countryside.  Unfortunately, the road is narrow and steep with sharp turns and RVs are not allowed.  However, some tourists from Georgia were going up in their car and had extra room and so they offered to take us up.  We're so glad they did...we got some great views and pictures.

View of nearby volcanic cone from the top of Capulin Volcano

View looking down into the crater of Capulin Volcano

July 27th we arrived home...another great summer vacation came to an end.