GeologyForestryEngineering

Looking for Escalante National Monument along Utah route 12 east. Not much in the way of signs an my GPS can't find it either. Only found one sign from the U.S. Interior with Escalante National Monument written on it. The webpage for the Monument doesn't offer much about it either.

Leaving Bryce Canyon National Park & looking for Escalante National Monument. GPS showed 2 different roads neither of which did I find just a U.S. Interior sign saying Escalante National Monument.

My afternoon at Bryce Canyon National Park brought more storms and warnings of flash flooding. We didn't see any flooding but did see a lot of rain. The dark clouds made for some nice color and also broke the high temperature for the day.

Scenic drive out to Rainbow Point in Bryce Canyon National Park.

All day we tried to find parking to be able to walk Navajo Trail and after the main part of the storm, after the rain stopped we finally found parking and attempted to walk the loop through the Hoodoos, unfortunately it started to drizzle on the way down the switch back along Wall Street, then near the bottom it began raining harder. So I made the decision to turn back since I didn't take a map or memorize the one I had. My elder dog Sam is at retirement age (10 y.o.) for my mobility service dog, and my young dog Thunder (1 yr 9 m) hasn't learned everything yet and still gets corrected often. I'm concerned with the rain, slippery clay trail, and thunder coming from the sky. Not to mention Thunder wants to walk the edge like a pack mule.

Driving along talking to my Dogs and seeing the sights like a tourist.

I left the dogs in the Jeep with the windows gapped enough to let the breeze and air in but not their heads out. It's roughly 65 degrees, and all 5 windows are open. I wasn't comfortable enough do to the height and steepness of the canyon walls and no fence or wall. I like how it is left natural and not all built up.

Zion National Park was one of my favorites after my 2010 trip, its been 11 years since then and not all the changes are good in my opinion. The Commercialization at the West gate is a giant detractor for me and the congestion inside the park makes seeing sights next to impossible unless you take the public transportation. With having my retiring Service Dog and my next one in training public transportation was out for us. I wanted to spend more than a day here but found that to be too hard to accomplish so we drove on to Bryce Canyon National Park and got there around right before sunrise.

Seeing a the Sunrise at Sunrise Point Bryce Canyon National Park. taken with a GoPro Hero 7; 1 shot every 3 seconds compressed to 3 minutes and 20 seconds. I'm slightly in frame to the left taking still images with my Nikon D500 and an a Nikkor 18-105mm lens. I estimate there were around 40 people up on that ridge that morning. I was surprised to see anyone that early.

Driving from Grand Canyon North Rim Arizona up the Grand Staircase and stopping at the parks along the way. Kodachrome Basin State Park is named so from the National Geographic Photographers who used the first color film made by Kodak named Kodachrome (1935) in 1948. This Park lies between Bryce Canyon National Park and Capital Reef National Park.

Not all waves mean what we think. Before taking this trip I had a disagreement about the origination of the Jeep Wave and I was told my theory was wrong about it starting in California with the Rubicon Trail. Here I learned the amount of fingers held up specifies the number of vehicles in the group. I was told it was for victory after WWII, this may be partially correct too, but here surviving the trails are just as if not more important for safety for on coming traffic because some areas only 1 vehicle can fit through at a time.

Great valley and mountain views and scenery.

Descending a 14% grade into a narrow winding less steep grade with great views of mountains and historical mining structures.

Driving back towards Silverton after seeing a guy with a map up at the pass that showed the location of Gladstone which is now a ghost town. I'm trying to find where Mable (Lang) Coyle had lived before she died.

July 21, 2021 10:42 am. Refer to part 1 Description.

July 21, 2021 10:24 Am. I originally went to Silverton Colorado to find the grave of my Great Great Uncle Andrew "Andy" Coyle whom my Pap John Coyle spoke of often in the last 2 years of his life. He use to repeat the same story about how he left home when he was around 18 years old and rode an Indian Motorcycle out to meet his Uncle who was a gold prospector and helped him mine for a month looking for gold, then later on rode the motorcycle out to California to see the Pacific Ocean where he sold the bike when it broke down and hitch hiked home to Clearfield Township Butler, Pennsylvania. He did this in around 1928. Years after he passed away I learned through extensive research at the Butler County Courthouse and the aid of Ancestry.com that Great Great Uncle Andy was buried in Silverton Colorado. I ended up at the Silverton Museum after speaking with different people in and around Silverton I was directed to Beverly Rich San Juan County Historical Society Chairman and I even went through the court house records finding the properties he owned, claims he had, marriage certificate, and a bio written up in a 2 volume set of books about the people buried in the Hillside San Juan Cemetery above Silverton. In these books I learned Andy was married and a well known prospector and his wife lived in Gladstone Colorado a town wiped off the map by a flood after mining activity decades after she died of Tuberculosis. I ended up passing Gladstone without realizing it until I found a guy with a map.

After getting a Multi-point inspection after having my tires rotated I noticed my Jeep was idling rough and it sounded like a low oil situation and after checking I found the oil was no longer touching the dipstick and I had changed the oil less than a month ago with Mobil 1 Full synthetic.

Had my Jeep Gladiator serviced at Napleton Dodge Jeep Chrysler Ellwood City Pennsylvania and I had changed the oil myself less than a month earlier, yet after getting it back the day before my oil was low enough it didn't touch the dip stick, idled hard, and Lance the service manger an his staff questioned my ability to service the oil. I've been changing fluids in vehicles since I was in high school 20+ years ago. My first vehicle was a Jeep Cherokee 4 cylinder that was bought used and always breaking, it was a great teaching aid.

More digging and road building using a harbor freight trencher and Polaris Brutus HD PTO with bucket loader. Worked Past sunset.

Time Lapse more digging and road building using a harbor freight trencher and Polaris Brutus HD PTO with bucket loader.

Earlier in the day while digging I cracked the right stabilizer arm on my trencher and had to stop working or risk damaging it further. I'm using my friend's Hobart 235 Stickmate with 5/32 7018 welding rod. I have this same welder but his is already set up ready to use and mine requires me to setup and work outside. when I started my weld the buzzing sound didn't sound right and I realized the stickmate was set to DC Electro Negative and not DCEP (Direct Current Electro Positive) once the switch was changed the welding went smoother and buzz was just right. I set the welder at 120 volts and made several passes to build up material and add some more strength. Use, break,repair and repeat.

Using my trencher to dig out a hill side and separating the soil from the sandstone using a home built soil separator that allows anything an 1inch or less to pass through and all things larger than an inch to slide off into a separate pile. Then using my Polaris Brutus to move the separated soil to build my road further and make it wider and piling the separated rocks into a different pile for later building use.

After towing the trencher with the Polaris Brutus to my job site I have to set it up for digging operation, did some digging, and separating soil from sandstone rock and other debris larger than 1 inch with my homemade soil separator.

Moving & stacking logs in real time with a Polaris Brutus, cleaning up my work site so I can dig out the hill side and level out the area.

Using a grapple and bucket to move a tree and some stump logs