Stillwater Canyon Trip, Day 5

Today would be our last day in the canoes. Our destination was Spanish Bottom, a popular campsite on the Colorado River. The guide told us that finding campsites could often be a problem, so we tried to set out early. A few miles below Spanish Bottom is the start of the Cataract Canyon rapids. Going over these rapids in a canoe would be borderline suicidal.

And so we set off, paddling down the Green River to the Confluence with the Colorado. The character of the river changes here. Although the Green River is actually bigger than the Colorado, the joining of the two rivers makes for one very big creek indeed. Life jackets are required by the park service, and for good reason: whirlpools and eddies are everywhere, much more powerful than the placid Green upstream. While not white water per se, the currents were big and powerful, and required almost constant attention.

As you can imagine from the description above, Spanish Bottom is a popular campsite, both with folks floating the Green, and with rafters heading farther down the Colorado. For this reason, there is a campsite registration book about a mile upstream from Spanish Bottom. Landing here to sign the book was the most difficult part of the entire trip. The current, a strategically placed rock, high water, and a steep bank made landing almost impossible. Kevin and I took three tries before I was finally able to land, and even then he had to stay in the boat to keep the canoe from floating downstream. But sign in we did, and not long after that we beached the canoes at Spanish Bottom.

After setting up our tents, we headed off for the biggest day hike of our trip. Spanish Bottom provides access to The Maze, a district of Canyonlands National Park that can otherwise only be reached by 50 miles of 4WD roads. In particular, a steep climb up from the river provides access to The Dollhouse, a region of sandstone pinnacles, geologically similar to The Needles on the other side of the river.

Kevin and Dave hike up to the Dollhouse


The Dollhouse

We spent the day hiking around, scrambling on sandstone rock formations, enjoying slickrock expanses, sandy washes, and great views all around.

The Dollhouse

One really nice area was a “joint”- a fissure between the rocks that was as tall and narrow as any slot canyon.

Mark


Me


Paul in a narrow section

The hike concluded with a side trip to the Surprise Valley overlook and the ruins of a granary from a long ago tribe of Native Americans. Our last evening on the river ended with a spectacular moonrise over the canyon walls, and the draining of our remaining alcohol supplies…

Moonrise over the Colorado River

Austria Vacation Log: Day 13, The Disappointment of Wien

It has been much too long since I last posted about last year's Austria trip. It was a bit embarrassing to be in Vienna earlier this month, and realize that I hadn't blogged about my last trip to Vienna. The good news is that earlier this week I finished cataloging all my slides from that trip, so it should be easier now to bang out the last few episodes. This one sounds like a downer, but my opinion of Vienna improved as the trip continued.

Today we said goodbye to the idyllic village of Hallstatt and traveled by train to Wien- the capital city of Austria, and the former heart of the Holy Roman Empire. The English name for the city is Vienna, of course. The travel started off easy with a boat ride back to our train. And we knew which way the train went this time. We made our connection without a problem, but the trip felt very long for some reason.

When we got to Vienna we had to find the U-bahn (subway), buy tickets, and get on the train. The subway was very hot, and then it stopped at a station for longer than usual. An announcement came over the loudspeaker. I could make out the words “13 minutes” and saw everyone around me groaning and sighing. Clearly this train was going nowhere fast, so we bailed and went for the surface. We walked several blocks down a busy street, hot and crowded, with our heavy packs. We were tired and cranky, and this was perhaps the low point of the entire trip. Thankfully we found another subway line, and took that the last few blocks to our hotel . The manager was very friendly and showed us to our room. We got a bit worried at first, as the room was in an old office building behind the main hotel. But the room itself was fine- decorated in antique furnishings, it was big, had a separate bathroom and toilet, even a kitchenette with a freezer (ice cubes!). We relaxed, showered, and I even checked e-mail.

Then we went out to see the city. My initial impressions were not too good. Crowded. We tried to follow our guidebook’s recommendation to ride the tram around the Ringstrauße- a circular street that surrounds the inner city. It took us a long time to find the tram, then it was just too crowded. We bailed after 2 stops and started wandering on foot. We got out the map, and found our way to Stephansdom, the great cathedral.

Most of it was covered with scaffolding- with advertisements. I thought that was a pretty tasteless use of the church. All of the streets were crowded and packed. Even the plague monument, which looked like it might be really cool, was completely covered with scaffolding. Bah. We found our way to Am Hof square- where they were setting up for a carnival or something. This really wasn’t a good city for taking photos- I shot less film in Vienna than any place we visited. We found the Restaurant Ofenloch, recommended by our guide. All the tables were reserved- we could have one if we were gone by 8:00. This is gemütlichkeit?

We started the meal with an aperitif of champagne mixed with elderberries. It was good, even if it sounds like the punch line of a Monty Python joke. The meal was good- especially the soup with dumplings. I had Wienerschnitzel with real veal, the first time I’ve done that in memory. After dinner we kept wandering, and I got my first hint that Vienna wasn’t that bad. Maybe the friendly American couple we met in Michaelerplatz (from CA, taking a tour with a college professor to study the history of the Hapsburgs. We ran into them by chance the next night), or the opera singer singing underneath the Hofburg dome.

We ended the evening by finally taking that Ringstrauße tram tour. We were both exhausted and slept great.

Timing is Everything...

Yes, that's the same building shown below. The only difference is the 15,000 protesters.

Hungarian Parliment

Yes, I'm behind on my blogging, and yes, it will be a while before I start sharing trip stories from our Hungary/Czech trip. But that doesn't mean I won't tease you with some photos before that.

Here's the Hungarian Parliment building, from across the Danube.
 

We're Back!

We're back from our trip to Hungary and the Czech Republic, so I should be returning to regular blog updates this week. Before our trip I spent alot of time cataloging slides from our last trip, so the final chapters of our Austria stories should start appearing shortly. Then I'll continue with the remainder of this summer's adventures, and finally start editing the 700+ photos from our latest trip. I've got plenty of good material for months to come, so keep reading.

East Coast Trip

A few weeks after visting the West Coast, we took a trip to the East Coast to visit Dorinna's sister in New Jersey.

Maria, Jessica, Jacqueline, Dorinna


After the twins went to sleep, we had a Blackjack night with the family. Bunny gets the payout on this hand, but before the night was over he lost everything but his stuffing. Poor Bunny.


Dorinna with the twins


Reading


The Whole Gang

West Coast Trip

At the beginning of August, I traveled out to California for a conference. Before going to work in San Diego, I visited my relatives in Laguna Hills.

Cousin Mandy and Uncle Bob at the Mission of San Juan Capistrano


Mariachi Band


Mandy and Bob


Only in California would you see such an unusual display of painted stuff- right in front of a hardware store.

Laguna Beach

That night we saw Grandpa's Grass. My cousin Bob is the drummer.