Weston-Bond's Travel Blog

Monday, 8 April 2013

Castle Valley - Red Rock Oasis

After a number of hours on the road, some sweaty palms on the freeway through Salt Lake city and a long decent into the Colorado River valley, we have arrived in Castle Valley. For all of us this was our first exposure to the stunning landscapes of southeast Utah. It literally takes your breath away when you see if for the first time. Our house is located 25 minutes east of Moab in the rural community of Castle Valley. The community is situated in a broad valley that is the result of a collapsed salt dome. The views from our place are truly spectacular and ever changing under different light. We have just begun to explore the regions famous mountain bike trails and endless hiking routes.

Home base for April

Our neighbors yurt

Weston checks out some cross beds

Sonnet wonders why

Across Castle valley

Geofantasy

Hammer time

Our introduction to slick rock at Moab Brands

Shafer Lane

Stay on the line!

our other neighbor

Sofia self-portrait above the Colorado River

Fossil hunting in the Chinle formation

Lunch at Dead Horse Point

Dead Horse Point

Loving each other and the Colorado river valley

Dry Falls to Mammoth Hotsprings

Our route down to Utah took a minor detour over to Bozeman, Montana to visit our old friend Mark Skidmore. Enroute we had to make a stop in eastern Washington's scablands. This landscape is the product of catastrophic ice age floods that swept away everything in its path. Perhaps the most magnificent feature of these events is Dry Falls where the flood waters once tumbled over and etched away at layers of basalt. The amount of water released during these glacial floods is estimated to equal 10 times the flow of all the rivers in the world! A staggering figure!

From our base in Bozeman we explored the museum of the Rockies and headed down to Yellowstone National Park via Paradise valley and the Yellowstone River. While not everything is open or accessible in the park at this time of year, it is not a bad time to visit as there is virtually no one around except the bison and antelope. We spent a couple of hours walking around the Mammoth Hotsprings travertine deposits in awe of it's stunning beauty.

Dry Falls

Earily quiet now

Blue Coeur d'Alene

Yellowstone spring tourists

Mammoth Hotsprings

Group photo with Skids at Mammoth

death by travertine

bacteria

An ever evolving landscape

Precipitate

The Methow River Valley

There is something about this valley that just feels right. The folks here have a good thing going and we were reluctant to hit the road for our next adventure. Cross country skiing ended a little earlier than we expected but we had no problems filling our time with mountain biking, hiking, geocaching, exploring some of the areas local food (I love when a local ranch has a store front for all its home-grown meat!) and mingling with the locals.

Late season snow fun

Midden Boot

Sofia explores an old homestead dump

Hiking in the Methow

Sofia on the cougar trail

Sonnet learning to leap

Cottonwood Cottage at sunset

Mater is retired in Twisp

Early Winthrop mountain bike

friendly neighbor

Monday, 18 March 2013

Welcome to Winthrop Washington!

We have been slacking off on the blog! Maybe it has something to do with the easy going groove of the Methow Valley! For the past two weeks we have been calling Winthrop, Washington home and absolutely love it http://www.winthropwashington.com/index2.html. This little gem of a town is located in north-central Washington up against the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains (south and a bit west of Osoyoos, BC). Set in the beautiful Methow (pron: "Met-how") River valley, Winthrop is a western-theme town and for good reason, the area is home to numerous ranches, hay farms and horses seem to occupy most properties. So what brought us to Winthrop for the month of March? Some of the best cross-country skiing in the lower 48. The Methow Valley Sport Trail Association track sets 200 km of trail in the local area http://www.mvsta.com/ski.html. Unfortunately the snow pack or temperatures haven't behaved this year and we only got two weeks of skate skiing in before they called the grooming season. Nevertheless we were able to get a good feel for many of the trails and see some beautiful country. Next time we will come in February. Or maybe we will just move here!