The Trip So Far

School ended Wednesday, and by Wednesday evening I had new tires and an electric tongue jack put on my trailer.  My scheduled departure time was 10am Thursday, and I met that.

There are only 2 RV parks that I could find in Ely, NV, and neither had a single spot open, so I spent Thursday night boondocking (dry camping, no hookups) in the parking lot of a Love's truck stop.

I got to Baker, NV, before noon on Friday and got my trailer set up.  I visited both the Great Basin NP Visitor's Center and the Lehman Caves Visitor Center; a short hike near the Lehman Caves Visitor Center was the extent of my visit for the day.

I brought my son's telescope along, as I'd read that it's been a long time since viewing Jupiter was this good, and GBNP is known as a "dark sky" park.  Afternoon clouds cleared out a bit and I could see our moon as well as Jupiter and the 4 "Galilean" moons.  Even with the telescope, though, Jupiter was just a bright dot with 4 tiny pinprick dots nearby.

Saturday (yesterday) I drove into the park again.  I visited the campgrounds in case I'd like to stay there some time (Upper Lehman Campground spots 10 and 11 are ideal for two rigs--who wants to go?!), stopped at some of the overlooks, and hiked a couple small trails.  For such a small park (at least, where you can drive), there are such diverse regions!  At the park boundary, in the Snake Valley just outside Baker, is desert ranchland.  Go up in altitude a little bit, though, and short trees appear.  Keep getting higher and you enter a dreamlike forest of grasses, meadows, dense trees (including aspen), and flowers.  Higher still, where the roads are currently closed due to winter snow, are bristlecone pines, whose species are the oldest living beings on earth.

Last night, at the Lehman Caves Visitor's Center, was an astronomy program--had to go to that!  Perhaps the talk and the slideshow could have been a little more interesting or relevant, but it's hard not to like the 3 big telescopes they had there!  Cloud cover prevented seeing just about anything interesting except for the moon and Jupiter, which I saw on my own the night before, but these telescopes were significantly larger than what I brought along, and the views were significantly more stunning.  In fact, Jupiter was big enough that I could see its equatorial bands!  It's 4 moons, though, were still pinpricks of light, even with these much larger telescopes.

It's been years, probably decades, since I've seen the Milky Way, and one of the volunteers staffing one of the telescopes told me that if I got up at 2:30 am and looked straight up, I'd be able to see it in all it's glory.  My alarm went off at 2:30, I wrapped a blanket around myself, went outside and looked up--and saw only clouds.  Not a single open spot in the entire sky.  That was truly disappointing.  Perhaps I'll be able to see the Milky Way from Utah.

I'd have enjoyed staying another day, but was told the RV Park (highly recommend Whispering Elms, btw!) was fully booked, so I made my way to Panguitch, UT, where I sit outside typing this post.  I'm about 30 min from Bryce Canyon, which I'll visit over the next few days.  This particular park (Paradise RV Park) seems nice if only a little worn down, and it's my own fault I picked a spot so close to Highway 89, where road noise might bother some.  But at $19/night with full hookups, I refuse to complain!

When I arrived and was setting up, I determined that there was either artillery practice or tremendous thunder in Bryce.  It's died off now, and it's possible the sky could be clearing.  Weather reports show vicious rain tomorrow, clearing Tuesday and Wednesday, so those two days are when I'll go into the park.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll reconnoiter, visit some of the local area, etc.

Truck, trailer, and driver are all doing great.  Again, I apologize for not being able to post pictures here; check out my Instagram (mrmillermathteacher) and prepare to be amazed!