The Three Day 83rd

 It’s all about threes: 3 birthday celebrants: Susan Walker and daughters Jessica Walker and Lucy Walker; 3 lodge and grill owners: Blake Spalding, Jennifer Castle, and Lavinia Spalding; and a
3-day 83^rd birthday celebration in Boulder, Utah!

Jessica, who is friends with Blake and Jennifer, planned to celebrate my 83rd birthday (May 21^st) in Boulder, Utah (pop. 250), at the Boulder Mountain Lodge and Farm with its Hell’s Backbone Grill and Little Bone Food Truck.

Actually, I discovered Hell’s Backbone Grill, twenty years ago when on a road trip to sister Sarah’s house in California. I stopped at the Hell’s Backbone Grill for dinner. While I have never driven the actual Hell’s Backbone Road, which requires an off road vehicle, paved Hwy 12 leading to Boulder is a thrill in itself with cliff-hanging twists, turns, and hold-your-breath bridges running along knife-edge aretes and spanning deep valleys, as well as stunning views of the cliffs, valleys, and rock formations in this otherworldly area. 

On Sunday May 18th, I shopped and then prepared each of us a “snack bag” (crackers, cheese, beef jerky, snap peas, small red, yellow, and green peppers, etc.). Our snack bags were for noshing in the car on our 6+-hour drive. I also stocked the cooler with sandwich fixings and topped off the water bottles.

Lucy flew to Salt Lake City from Lafayette, Colorado, late in the evening of May 19th. Jess picked her up at the SLC airport, and Lucy spent the night at Jessica’s house in Mill Creek. I picked Lucy up the following morning so that Jessica could complete some business and Lucy could spend time with Jeff and work a little on the tiny house.

We are all working on an old wooden food truck that we purchased for a song last year and parked on the driveway beside the house. I’ve named her Gigi (Green Gables) for her green tin roof and green door. We have a lot of prep work to do: cleaning, sealing, staining etc. When Gigi is spiffed up and furnished, we plan to use her as a guest house, though if our guests number more than two, they may have to find accommodations nearby or at Jessica’s Airb&b. Gigi is petite. Sandy law says she must be moveable, so we've jacked up her super trailer to stabilize her.

Lucy and I spent a good deal of the morning of Tuesday, May 20th, buying supplies to clean and finish Gigi: lumber, screws, lockable entrance door latch, deck cleaner, caulking, windows, etc. On our return from our birthday trip, Lucy stayed with us for a day and a half. She and Jeff built stairs, and I hired a friend of Jessica's to sand and help me bleach the exterior. Next, we will insert her windows, and I will caulk the log part of Gigi, stain her, and her door green. Then we will work on the interior: insulation, loft, and walls, which Lucy plans on wainscoting. Jess and I already have an eye on an IKEA couch that unfolds to a double bed, plus other furniture. We will also hang several paint-by-number pictures that Jeff and I painted. It is a fun project.

BACK TO OUR BIRTHDAY TRIP:  Jess picked us up around 1:00 PM on May 20th. We stuffed the car, which also had Jessica's mountain bike on a back rack, said goodbye to Jeff, Baxter, and Bear and were off on the 6.5-hour drive to Boulder, Utah, the air conditioning on full blast, the car radio turned up, and the girls sitting in front loudly singing the lyrics to the radio's songs, especially belting out the lyrics to Kenny Roger’s “The Gambler.”

 . . . You’ve got to know when to hold em’

Know when to fold them

Know when to walk away . . .

They were having so much fun with each other. I, ensconced in the back seat with all the goodies, was so proud to be the mother of these two loving daughters that their antics brought a tear to my eye.

The first portion of our drive was south on I-15 along the Wasatch Front (some peaks still snow-covered), but after a stop in Torrey, where we fed several peahens crushed crackers from our snack bags, we turned east, and the landscape was amazing: washes, canyons, and cliffs painted orange, pink, gray, tan, and white. 

Susan feeding the peahens--taken with Lucy's worn cell cover, so a bit hazy

This area of Utah and the U.S. is fantastic and fascinating. It includes mountains, slot and other canyons, steep vertical walls of rock, some containing holes and caves, hoodoos of various colors, buttes, arches, natural bridges, and pinnacles, all the result of erosion and geological processes over millions of years. 

Cliffs along the Burr Trail

Castle on a hill?

This cliff face looks to me like the facade of an ancient Incan temple.

I can just about see how these rocks emerged millions of years ago.

 We took care not to walk on cryptobiotic soil and remembered a little verse from our 2009 Canyonlands, Green River Canoe trip: "Every New Kangaroo Wants Chocolate Milk." The verse helped us remember the rock layers.

Entrada sandstone—This formation was deposited during the Jurassic Period, some time between 180 and 140 million years ago
Navajo sandstone—Red, brown, or pinkish, Navajo sandstone frequently overlies and interfingers with the Kayenta Formation. Together, these formations can result in immense vertical cliffs. Atop the cliffs, Navajo Sandstone often appears as massive, rounded white domes and bluffs. Typically Navajo sandstone can also be salmon or gold. Navajo Sandstone may originate from the Late Triassic but is at least as young as the Early Jurassic. This sandstone was named for the 'Navajo Country' of the southwestern United States.
Kayenta formation—Red to brown, the Kayenta Formation frequently appears as a thinner dark broken layer below Navajo Sandstone and above Wingate Sandstone (all three formations are in the same group). Together, these three formations can result in immense vertical cliffs of 2,000 ft or more. Kayenta layers form broken ledges.
Wingate Sandstone—Pale orange to red, Wingate sandstone frequently appears just below the Kayenta Formation and Navajo Sandstone.  Wingate layers are typically the remnants of wind-born sand dunes deposited approximately 200 million years ago in the Late Triassic.
Chinle Formation—The Chinle Formation is fossiliferous, with a diverse array of extinct reptile, fish, and plant fossils, including early dinosaurs and the famous petrified wood of Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Appears as caprock in Utah. The Chinle Formation displays a wide range of colors, making it a visually striking geological unit, particularly in areas like Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert. 
Moenkopi Formation is red sandstone laid down in the Lower Triassic about 240 million years ago.

OK, that’s my geology lesson (with help from the Internet) for the day. Back to our mutha/dauta celebratory birthday trip.

We’d been in this area last year when we celebrated my 82nd birthday (and Lucy’s 49^th, Laura’s 44^th, and Jessica’s 52^nd birthdays) with a birthday camping/fishing trip to Moab, UT.

This year, Laura Boersma, Lucy’s partner, was not celebrating. She was suffering from a bout of shingles on her face and even in her eye. She had been checked by an optometrist and assured of no permanent eye damage and she was on the mend but still in some discomfort, so . . . Laura stayed in Lafayette, Colorado, and took care of Tigger cat and Ramble dog. We missed her! (This had been a nasty year as well for Laura’s parents, our friends Drew and Julie Boersma. Their house and that of their son, Brad, had burned to the ground in a wildfire that burned down 96 other houses in their west Stillwater, OK, country club neighborhood.) My heart goes out to Laura and her parents.

We arrived at the Boulder Mountain Lodge about 7:30 pm. On check-in we spotted several ruby-throated hummingbirds coming to the feeders hung before the building. We  also spotted two tiny hummingbird nests on the wires in a corner of the building.

Our adjoining rooms on the second floor were separated by a bathroom/shower. Each contained a queen-sized bed, a large, tall dresser, a closet containing hot-tub robes and a hair dryer, a big-screen TV with free wireless Internet, and a vanity/sink and coffee maker. The girls’ room (below) also contained a small refrigerator and a table with chairs. Because Jess and Lucy wanted their own sleeping space, Jessica called Erica in reception and asked about a cot. The only cot available was a metal folding bed that was too heavy to lug to the second floor, so Erica gave Jess her own sleeping mat, which served Lucy well.
 

Jessica and Lucy's room also had access to a second- floor balcony that ran the length of the lodge. Our end overlooked the hot tub. The balconies and rooms on this side of the lodge all overlooked the lodge’s wonderful Schoolhouse Pond Bird Sanctuary. (See Below). We had hardly unpacked before we were exploring the pond and spotting the birds on and near it.

We saw a very busy muskrat (there were two we discovered the next day) and the following birds: yellow-headed blackbird, red-winged blackbird, cliff swallow, coot, yellow-rumped warbler, ruby-throated hummingbird, ruddy duck, Canada goose (a noisy flock flew in to roost on the pond each night), mallard, crow, pinyon jay, white-crowned sparrow, and song sparrow. Also the females of most of these species.

Pinyon Jay,  Ruddy Duck, Red-winged Blackbird

On the rest of our trip we also spotted two osprey, a northern harrier, several vultures (one eating a dead calf), a mallard with five ducklings, several mountain bluebirds, and a coot with five cooties er, chicks. Coots are all black, but their chicks are far from it. The chicks, as in the photo below, sport yellow-fuzzed, brown-flecked, dark feathers. Their masked bare yellow heads and orange beaks make them look like Superbird bath toys. 

We also took on one of the lodge’s feral cats. It obviously liked our second-floor balcony and our end of the lodge. So, we quasi-adopted the cat and named it Fuzzy. Fuzzy settled down at our feet wherever we were. One day, Jessica and Lucy were sitting on the balcony playing HIVE—a new game Jessica is teaching us. Fuzzy was lying at the deck rail before them. Suddenly, Fuzzy leapt up and caught a ruby-throated hummingbird! Quick as lightning Lucy was on him and gently removed the hummer from Fuzzy’s mouth. The hummingbird flew away, apparently unharmed.  

The hot tub looked inviting, but years ago, my cardiologist had cautioned me against sitting in a hot tub. Also, I couldn’t risk the bacteria in the hot tub because I’d had ingrown toenail surgery just days before, and was soaking my right foot twice a day in Epsom salts and protecting the toe with bandages, which the girls expertly applied.

The surgery came at the wrong time because I had to wear open-toed sandals. Walking on the dusty, gravelly trails and outlooks meant frequently stopping to remove the gravel and sand between my foot and the sandal. It also meant being extra careful about protecting the toe. The toe survived the celebration, however, because a couple of weeks after getting home, the pain was gone and the podiatrist declared "all good." 

Chomped Chicken Leg and Salad

That evening, after our exploration of the sanctuary and property, we ate a delicious dinner of crispy chicken drumsticks on a bed of Jessica’s arugula with pasta salad mixed with her southern broccoli salad and a bit of balsamic vinaigrette. Very tasty and filling. 

The next day, May 21—the day I entered the world in 1942—we ate breakfast of hard-boiled eggs and leftover salad and then packed water, sandwiches and munchies and spent the day driving 64-mile Burr Trail and back. 

Named after John Atlantic Burr, who was born in 1846 aboard the SS Brooklyn somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. He and his family lived in Salt Lake City, then later moved south and established the town of Burrville, Utah, in 1876. John Burr soon developed a trail to move cattle back and forth between winter and summer ranges and to market. This cattle trail through the rough, nearly impassable country around the Waterpocket Fold, Burr Canyon, and Muley Twist Canyon came to be known as the Burr Trail. (Internet)

We made many stops walking into slot canyons, visiting campgrounds, and viewing  canyons, creeks, huge cliffs, washes, totems, hoodoos and other fantastic rock formations. 

Burr Trail Scenic Byway

Our first stop was at a roadside pond. The area was enclosed in a barbed wire fence, so we assumed it was private land. We were standing at roadside looking at a coot with five chicks and at a large vulture across the pond that was eating something, when a bearded old guy in a pickup pulled up and told us that the fencing was meant to keep cattle out and that we could enter the public area through a gate at the top of a sandy hill. On entering, we found what I think were skink and mouse (?) tracks, their tails making a distinct line behind. We also walked to where the vulture had been and found a dead calf. How did the calf get in? What had killed it? Both remained a mystery.

Pond with coot far right

The right pic looks like it might have been bad: The larger prints facing the smaller ones

Poor dead calf

After cruising slowly past gorgeous checkerboard sandstone sand dunes (below), we pulled off at the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument sign.

Several flowers were blooming in this area. 

Narrowleaf Yucca

Tulip Prickly Pear

Firecracker Penstemon near yucca spines

Lucy and Jessica dutifully posing for Mutha . . .

Moi posing with small purple flower

Next, we followed a meandering roadside creek lined with pale-green cottonwood trees and then stopped at Deer Creek Campground. Jessica and Lucy had camped here previously and were familiar with the area. The campground dirt lane stopped abruptly at stream edge . . . or so I thought. But the girls showed me that it picked up again around a bend. Vehicles were expected to drive the streambed! We did not. 

Crystal clear stream/road

Lucy on the  bank and the stream rounding a bend where the dry road picks up again

We walked along the cliffs beside the stream and followed the crystal clear babbling creek for a while until Jessica freaked at the sight of what she thought was poison ivy, to which she is highly allergic. I was doubtful, having had a close relationship with poison ivy as a kid, so I snapped a photo of it. My "Picture This" app t0ld me that it was Western White Clematis. 

Jess examining the cliffs

I also took a photo of an enormous cottonwood at streamside. My "Picture this" app told me that it was a Fremont Cottonwood.

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"Picture This" tells me that the tree above is a Sweet Birch, aka Black Birch, Mahogany Birch, Spice Birch, or Mountain Mahogany. I have googled photos of trees with each of these names and found none with a black trunk and markings such as this. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful tree. There were several of them in the area.

Next, we had a view of Long Canyon from a switchback. 

The Burr Trail road travels through Long Canyon for about 5 miles. My foot wouldn't allow us to hike the long, multi-day trail into the canyon, so we passed that one up and walked into Long Canyon Slot instead.

At the trailhead was the trunk of a large downed tree. (See below.) A couple was commanding their border collie to run up the trunk and jump down to them. The dog thought this fun until it was urged too high. When it looked down, it whined and refused to jump. Smart dogs, those border collies.

Fallen "border collie" tree we had to step over before entering the slot

The walk into the slot was short and not at all taxing. On emerging from the slot canyon, we met a fun couple with a three- or four-year-old named Lucy. Big Lucy introduced herself to the couple and to Little Lucy.

We walked into the canyon for a bit, seeing more wonderous rock formations such as the one below with a perfect hole in it, and the one following with what to me appear to be clay ovens, but are actually just the way the rock settled. Did they form from molten bubbles or from the rotation of a harder rock? Wish I had a geologist on hand to answer the many questions that swirl through my head.

Tamarisk aka Salt Cedar

We drove the Burr trail for several miles more enjoying the fantastic scenery and then stopped for lunch. I cannot now remember the name of the place where we stopped, but one could look at a massive valley, hemmed on our side and the distant other with tall rock walls and mountains. We were prepared to find among the boulders a comfy place to sit down and eat, but instead Lucy, who was scouting around, found a picnic table, the only one in the area. While we were eating our sandwiches in the shade of a juniper, two cars pulled up, obviously thinking to enjoy the picnic table and the view too. We invited them to sit at the end of our table, but they waited until we were finished and then quickly claimed the table.

That's the Escalante Valley below. Note the road running through it.

Across from our picnic table

Across from our picnic table

How did the rock face get these horizontal scratches?

What is the explanation for the deep vertical etching
on this upthrust?

It was late afternoon when we spotted the Boulder Mountain Lodge's distinctive fencing beside the Burr Trail and knew we were "home."

After washing up and resting for a bit, we were ready for birthday dinner. Unfortunately, the Hell's Backbone Grill was closed our two nights at the lodge, but we enjoyed a delicious birthday dinner from the Little Bone food truck. I cannot remember my dish exactly, but it contained acorn squash, other veggies, and?? It was delish!

After dinner, we watched a DVD on the big screen TV. We could do this because the lodge had a lending library of books and DVDs in a common room just down the hall from us.

However, we made a poor choice. I was struggling to stay awake because the movie--which title I cannot now remember--was b-o-r-i-n-g. When I decided to tell the gals that I was quitting the movie and going to bed, I found both of them asleep!

On our last morning, we opened the deck door and found Fuzzy relaxing in our deck chair . . .  a dead mouse laid before the door. A present of apology for catching the hummer? Both girls would have adopted Fuzzy in a heartbeat, but he was a happy cat, visiting visitors, and thriving (egad!) in a bird sanctuary.

Home again home again on Thursday, May 22. Jessica took a longer route so that Lucy and I could stop at the secret morel mushroom place she and I had discovered when on my 80th birthday celebration. (Sorry about the misspelling of "break" but it is not correctible at this time.)

Lucy knew exactly where to stop. We three parked and exited the car with great hopes . . . but it soon became obvious that others had found and looted the spot. Lucy did find several morels, but they were dried and hard--well beyond eating at this time. Bah!

Can you find the morel mushroom in this photo?
Granted, it is dried and darker than usual, but Lucy and Laura,
great mushroom foragers, have keen eyes. Clue: it is above a wavy stick

Ta-da! Lucy's keen forager eye found not only the culprit but several others!

On the way home we passed what looked like an alien colony tucked back in a canyon. Turned out it was Clear Sky Resort in Cannonville, Utah. Might be fun to try out one of these deluxe domes on a future birthday jaunt.

Clear Sky Resort, Cannonville, Utah

Lucy spent the night with us while Jessica caught up on her real estate business. The next day, Lucy and Jeff created some stairs with a pipe railing for Gigi. 

Lucy was set to fly back to Lafayette, CO, on Saturday, May 24th, but her flight was delayed three hours, so she spent another night at Jessica's and flew out on Sunday morning, May 25th.

A remarkable 83rd birthday, thanks to the planning and efforts of my two beautiful daughters.