Railroad museum in Carson City made for an interesting stop on our way from Kirkwood to Ely.

Only ruins remain today of Osceola Ditch.

Kirkwood - Carson City - Ely
The kids have an extra week of vacations in April, and since the snow in the mountains was not worth our attention, we had used Kirkwood only as an overnighting forward base. Unlike the rest of our family, I would have possibly liked to ski on Saturday, but one week before our departure I had yanked so badly with my back that I was having trouble even just sitting, and when I imagined how I could yank it even more while skiing downhill or cross-country, I felt cold sweat pearling on my forehead. Thus I gave no resistance when being convinced to just drive out to the east in the morning, with a small stop in Carson City, in a railroad museum. Later in Ely we checked into a new La Quinta, with a swimming pool, but I sent Hippo along with the kids — somehow I did not want to jinx my aching back.

It is sad, but it seems that Ely is gradually falling apart; on Sunday night it gave the impression of a ghost town: shut doors and barred windows, empty streets and dust everywhere. It all created a rather depressive atmosphere. A receptionist at the hotel said that the only restaurant she could recommend was Twin Wok. This we had tested and approved of during our previous visits here, and we wasted no time.

A view from Osceola Ditch.

Lehman Caves.

Great Basin National Park
Our first stop was at the cash register of the caves, to reserve our spots on a tour. And we also needed to buy the annual National Park card, for we found out that we had left our old one at home. It would have expired during April, but one gets mad at oneself anyway. We only got an afternoon tour, and so we made a picnic in the woods and drove up along the road toward Wheeler Peak up to the snow line. There we discovered a trail to Osceola Ditch, an irrigation moat that used to redirect Lehman Creek to the stamp mills at the gold mining town of Osceola. The trail, to our surprise, mostly runs inside the ditch, where remains of some old wooden braces survive the ruins of the eighteen mile long waterway. Naturally, we only followed it for a little bit; as the (nowadays dry) channel wraps around to the northern slope of the mountain, we found ourselves facing melting, yet still knee-deep snow-banks, and we were not equipped for that. We needed to turn around anyway, to get back in time for our cave tour.

The museum in Ely is — peculiar.

In this icy weather we opted for Arches as a merciful choice where one can keep slipping back into a warm car.

Tom had remembered these caves, including its famous bacon — a translucent, stripy curtain over the staircase. I had the impression that our children kept up with and understood the commentary, and in places interacted with their own knowledge — perhaps they have been learning things in school, for some of them even I did not know.

Back in Ely we drove to the train museum to check whether it would be open on the following day, and to find another restaurant, for Twin Wok is closed on Mondays. A diner where we had some success a few years back had disappeared, and in the end we entered a restaurant that looked popular (judging by the number of parked cars), receiving a surprisingly decent American food. A hamburger will always stay within its own limitations, but even so it can be made fresh, well seasoned, and with a heap of vegetables.

Nevada Northern Railway — Moab
In the morning we woke up in a snowed-in world, quite in accord with the forecast, although I could not shake off a feeling that there should not be SO MUCH of it. We walked into the railroad museum wearing dawn jackets — the steam engine repair shop is not heated, but at least it is a shelter from the wind. After seeing all parts of the museum, we set out on a long journey to Moab, Utah. Every mountain pass that we conquered was a relief, for I kept worrying that we would encounter a section impassable for our bus. In the end we had managed it all without needing chains.

The Double Arch is one of the park's high-points that are visible from the parking lot.

Children have found a hiding place among the boulders inside the Double Arch.

We don't like the Thai food they make in Moab; while trying sushi last time, we had almost starved to death, and there was a micro-brewery across the street from our hotel — thus we had decided to take advantage of such a luxury, and had a few beers without having to drive afterward. This year they had managed to make a really good classic lager, i.e. a regular light beer, and our children had re-discovered an ice-cream counter, hence everybody was very happy.

Arches
Looking out of our window, the April looked more like mid-December, so I issued the kids their warm underwear and explained that they would pull their nylon trousers over that, for it would be could. We had gone on a hike in Arches during our previous year's visit (one of the two it offers); this year the weather made us choose the "Japanese Tourist" style — stop at a parking lot, run out up to two hundred yards to the rock, take pictures, and rush back into the warm car. During our first stop, just about twenty minutes long, Tom shivered a lot. It made me thinking and soon I discovered that he put on his long underwear in the morning, but then TOOK IT OFF and wore only thin top trousers. I would never comprehend the logic of such behavior, but in the moment I thought I would tear him to pieces. He was lucky that we had a bag with spare clothes in the car with MY spare underwear in it, which were a bit large for him, but you could not see it under the rest of the layered clothing.

Tom's haflinger Barney has short legs.

A ford.

Around noon, temperatures climbed a few degrees above freezing, wind had quieted down a bit, and sun started flashing through the clouds; we were actually able to take a small walk around Turret Arch and Windows. The park was (as usual) teeming with crowds, but they never dared out of the direct line of sight of their vehicles — the trail around Windows was therefore practically private, and that was a change for good. We continued right through to Double Arch, where Tom and Lisa began to play and in the end we had hard time dragging them back. By the time we got to the viewpoint to Delicate Arch, the crew spirits were considerably lower; apparently time had come for dinner, beer and ice-cream.

Hauer Ranch
Our horse-back ride was planned to fall on a nice day in the middle of the week. Indeed, the morning was sunny, but nothing could change the horrible cold. Again, we put on everything we had brought along — I had really not anticipated such an intensive need of dawn jackets in the middle of April.

Lisa & Sundown.

Hroch & Fisher Towers.

Beside us, another family had shown up at the ranch, but in the end we rode separately, in two groups. I appreciated that; we could advance at our own pace. Desert is in many ways simpler than mountains — we usually loitered through creek beds, dry or otherwise. Horses were moving freely, we did not have to keep in a column. This brought one disadvantage: when Lisa's horse Sundown decided to better turn back home, Lisa was unable to restrain him, and our cowboy Cliff then had to take Sundown for a while on a lead. Lisa had been having this problem; as she's small and skinny, many horses simply choose to ignore her — and naturally overcome her trying to yank on their reins.

My mare was very pleasant and from the beginning we had a deal that she would respond to my leg control, while I leave her mouth alone. Hippo's horse had been obviously well trained for tourists, stopping obligingly on every viewpoint to let the master finish taking his pictures. Simply easy going.

Mary Jane Canyon
We had asked the locals on the ranch where we could go on a mild hike for the rest of the day, and received a recommendation to Mary Jane Canyon along Professor Creek. In contrast to the overcrowded Arches, we were there ALONE and had fun jumping and wading the creek in this little canyon. The children had at some point found a large branch and proceeded getting over the stream like in pole vaulting. Naturally it had resulted in a fall in the water, so Lisa had to walk part of the way wearing only underpants and a t-shirt, while her sweatshirt and trousers were drying on a boulder — we had collected them on our way back.

A typical landscape along Onion Creek, a small tributary to Colorado River; Nuns and Priest in background.

The best attraction turned out to be pole (branch) vaulting across the creek.

I had felt my stiffening back toward the end of the hike, but still the horse ride had unblocked my spine, and I could stop stuffing myself with ibuprofen, for my pain stopped shooting into my legs. My Hippo had also mentioned that I had become a much better trip companion, which did not surprise me — just try participating in journeys and sightseeings and long travel in the car, when your only pain-free position is laying down. What surprised me was that I got better just by riding on a horse — and despite not being a cheap affair, they certainly come much more affordable than many a chiropractor or a doctor.

Dead Horse Point
We headed for our favorite brewery for dinner again — we did not feel like experimenting and the lure of being able to WALK between hotel and our meal was great. We pondered at length how to spice up the following day, which was bound to also include a long drive to Zion. Eventually we decided to see Dead Horse Point near Moab, as we had never been there, just had read about it.

Dead Horse Point is a narrow cliff above the Colorado River, separated from the rest of the mesa by a neck only few feet wide. Allegedly, it got its spooky name when once upon a time people used it to capture wild mustangs by barring the neck, chose some horses, and then forgot to unblock the barrier — and the rest of the animals died on thirst only hundreds of feet from (above) a river.

"Risky" sections "threatened" to let a foot slip on a muddy sandstone and one would — gasp! — get wet!

La Sal Mountains aren't really Salty Mountains at all, on contrary, they keep an icy cap throughout the year. First settler simply could not believe that ice would last in all this summer heat.

Despite a sad history, we really liked the place — in my opinion, it's a much better view point than the whole famous Grand Canyon rim, as you can see a large stretch of the Colorado River and a great deal of a fantastic landscape from the Dead Horse Point, not just a bit of the canyon. We had run the length of the trail around the edge of the cliff, had a picnic — and meanwhile the sun came out of the clouds and that made us retrace our view path. We were certainly not sorry for that, for our morning pictures were quite OK, but the ones taken in the afternoon, with sunshine, contain a quite different atmosphere.

Zion
We just made it to Flying Monkey in Springdale to have dinner; the kids naturally best remembered their Monkey Fingers — hazelnut chocolate filled baked pizza dough, and we stuffed ourselves. Finally we could put our offspring in a whirlpool again — they had an external pool in the hotel in Moab, but the freezing temperatures and intermittent snow did not allow it. Springdale is located somewhat more to the south, and the weather had improved, and one could stay outdoors in just a sweatshirt after dark.

This year, we had reached a point of annoyance by Springdale. Hotels are senselessly expensive, offering no breakfast, only on the account of a popular national park starting right outside the town. Next time, we would best stay somewhere else, like St. George, and just drive to the park, should we plan to stop there only for one day — you see, spending one hour driving or looking for a place to have breakfast, comes out even in the end, the former being cheaper, though.

Dead Horse Point Panorama.

Kids posing on a rock above Colorado River.

On a chain.

We wanted to get to Vegas in the evening, so we avoided Angels Landing again and chose Hidden Canyon. Two years earlier, we had ascended here through the switchback with a view of a waterfall — it was not happening this year; not a drop on the wall. We ran through the whole trail rather quickly, for we did not have to climb over a creek, which had simplified a lot of things. However, the fine sand from the creek bed, stirred up by tourists and deposited on surrounding rocks, was sliding like made of soap, and it was not that much safer either. On our way back, Tom accounted for a diversion, when he had decided to cross the only remaining pool (full of deep and dirty water) over a fallen tree. He had wanted to try it on the way up, but I screamed at him to forget it, so he hurried up going back and installed himself into a position that left no other way out but to finish his acrobatic performance. So I screamed at him again; I think it carried to the effect that if he falls in, I'd spank him. We both knew that my threats were toothless, and Tom had eventually overcome his obstacle course without falling in or being spanked.

Las Vegas — Tehachapi
We switched behind the wheel shortly before Vegas; I got to drive and Hippo navigated. Our bus surprised me unpleasantly by vibrating horribly on an off-ramp. I check it out at two more turn opportunities and I did not like it at all. We crawled to the hotel, checked in and went to have dinner at our favorite Thai place. Later I discussed with Richard, whether he'd know some reliable local mechanic, and I invited ourselves to his home for the duration of the repairs.

Our favorite Marriott had been remodeled, which we would not mind; what got us was that in the name of improving customer services, they STOPPED including hotel breakfast. Or more precisely, they upgraded to a Starbucks coffee for five dollars, and that's not exactly what I'd imagine as an improvement. Hence we ate from our own supplies and headed to Henderson. Richard's car mechanic was closed on Saturday, and we had to turn to a local Toyota dealership. They were helpful, promising to check our twitchy wheels and change our oil (which we really needed), and try to let us leave in the afternoon.

No water this year.

Tom had to act up - fortunately he did not fall in the pool.

Richard had picked us up with their bus and thus we had had almost whole day to chat, eat lunch in an (excellent) Vietnamese restaurant, and take Amber for a walk. They called back from the Toyota dealership that they had found nothing, but that our break disks would need re-surfacing and new pads, and that should help. So everything looked rather well (except for the prices).

Relatively merry we had set out from Las Vegas into the west. We stopped at Peggy Sue's Diner, which offers American cuisine, but it's a peculiar restaurant with an atmosphere, where the kids eventually ran around in an adjacent park with metal dinosaurs and live ducks and turtles, who live in a pond and system of brooks. The only problem presented itself in Tehachapi — having arrived at the hotel, Lisa announced that she had left her Kobo (e-reader) at Peggy Sue's, now about two hours driving distance from us. I even had no strength to rip her to pieces — I just called Peggy Sue's, and they confirmed having found the Kobo and offered to mail it to me.

Home
We have reached our home by Sunday afternoon, quite tired from the trip and pleasantly satisfied. By then we still had no idea that Hippo would take our Sienna to our local Toyota, to let them fix dysfunctional automatic passenger door, and find out that those vibrations were not caused by brakes at all, but by a ruined hub; driving it from Vegas was quite a hazard. Adding the new door, it was all quite a sum to pay.
Well, we can look for consolation in having saved money on doctors for me through having ridden horses instead, and Regina, who took off on a vacation trip with their whole family a week after us, had picked up Lisa's forgotten Kobo along their way, which had helped us as well.