Searching for aspens

A few years ago we went mountain biking in Moab with a group of friends. We rented a house in town big enough for all of us to have separate bedrooms. Our room had a beautiful wide-angle photograph of aspen trunks. I've been looking for my own grove of aspens ever since.

Today, as we climbed the series of passes through the mountains between Bryce Canyon and Moab, we saw so many beautiful groves of aspen trees. But there was a blizzard raging outside the car, and the views were as much in our imagination as reality, so once again, I couldn't capture the aspen photos I wanted. Very disappointed.

This is a photo that Dave took in 2004, on our first trip to southern Utah. He cropped it to a similar size, but we never found a grove of consistent trees to make the picture we really wanted.

Pet Grouse

Finally, we're in Bryce Canyon National Park. The snowstorm that hit us in Zion this morning also made its mark here, and the red rocks and hoodoos were spectacular with a dusting of snow. We drove the road through the park, all the way to the end, then worked our way back. Such spectacular views from this mesa, I couldn't stop snapping photos and playing with the polarizer to get the best, brilliant blue skies. It was bitterly cold, though. Even though the sun was out, the wind was killer.

We bundled up into everything we had—for me that was my hoodie, black fleece jacket, fleece vest, baseball cap over the hood, gloves. And I was still so cold I couldn't stay on the canyon rim for more than a few minutes. I actually got brain freeze, like you get with very cold ice cream. That was a first.

At the overlook to the natural bridge (which is really an arch), I walked over to the edge to take a photo and enjoy the view, and turned around to see a ruffled grouse walking toward Dave. When he crouched down to take a picture, I got a good shot of him and the bird. Funny little thing… when Dave turned to walk toward me, the bird walked right alongside. He called it his pet grouse, and that he was taking it for a walk. The others around us were very amused.

Zion in the snow

Today was an amazing day in Zion National Park, during a freak snowstorm. The weather forecast was for low 60's today, imagine everyone's surprise when they got a dump of snow instead! We took our time driving through the park, and when the sky started to clear up, we scrapped plans to bolt for Moab, and instead we stayed in the park to photograph it in the snow.

This is one experience I will never forget... especially since we were in our Mazda MX-5. We were headed to Moab for a regional Miata event, and in our nine-state road trip through the West, we ran into snowstorms in five of them!

Grand Canyon is closed

Today we're heading for the North Rim. Once out of the hills and river valley that led south out of St. George, out into the open plains north of the canyon, we could see red rock mesas all around us. Beautiful.

But unfortunately, the North Rim isn't open for the season yet (it opens next weekend). Bummer. We tried driving up the road anyway, and at the barricade was the entrance to the campground, so we drove that way and found a historic ranger station that was really cool. This is where they stable the horses and mules for trail rides; they were hauling in hay and getting ready for the season.

The road was interesting, so we kept on going. Where it came back to the main highway was an old fire lookout station. There was a geocache there, so we parked the MX-5 and took a walk to find the cache. As we walked back up the hill, we had a great view of the contrast between the wee car and the very tall tower.

Winnamucca to St. George

My turn to drive this morning, east on I-80 and 75 mph in a windstorm! Yahoo! It took miles to get past a trucker who kept driving down the middle of both lanes. Sleepy? The scenery across Northern Nevada is breathtaking.

We stopped for gas in Carlin, then took Hwy 278 south to US-50 and kept on heading east. One gorgeous valley after another, separated by ridges and snow-topped mountains. Up and over a pass, drop down twisty roads to an open range with creek or river, farmstead, then up the next ridge. We stopped often to pick up caches. The sagebrush is bright green; no lack of water at this time of year.

Ground squirrels abound here, on all of the roads, along the roads, in the fields. Honk and they scatter—we learned quickly that this is better than swerving around the little moving pylons! Old telegraph poles pinpoint a narrow gauge railroad line, long gone.

We stopped at Pancake Pass for a geocache. Found a pile of narrow-gauge railroad spikes and other hardware. Sorted through and picked up 4-5 to bring home. Still lots of snow at the higher ridges; the pass is 8000+ feet, cold at any time of the year.

I drove from here to St. George, and the wind never let up. Added to the awful Utah highways, with tar-filled bone jarring cracks, and it was a wrist-jarring 70 mph drive, fighting to keep the MX-5 on the road. I was so glad to turn off onto Hwy 18 and head NE through the last mountain range before we reach Utah. There's money here, you can tell by the perfect surface of this highway. Great roads with grassy shoulders, big cattle and horse ranches.

Just before St. George, we passed a spectacular red rock canyon, and didn't have time to explore. Bummer. There are a bunch of earth caches in there. But it was was getting late, and we still needed to find a hotel and something for dinner. Finally settled on a hotel, a small place that was $40 with taxes, but very clean and nice. Plus it was in town, so we could just walk next door for a restaurant. The Mexican restaurant was closed, but the Thai place was booming, so we ended up there. Great food, good atmosphere, even a sushi bar. Dave had curry, I had something with chicken and veggies. We saved our leftovers for tomorrow's breakfast.

Back roads | Eastern Oregon

It's cold this morning. We're climbing out of LaGrande, heading for Baker City. We were at snow level in about 5 minutes! The highway climbs through the mountains to a flat plain of brilliant green grass, with dozens of Black Angus cattle and tiny little calves running about. Off to the right, the spectacular Anthony Lakes Wilderness area, bright in the early morning sun.

We stopped for gas in Baker City, and as soon as we got off the freeway, remembered this historic town from our last Moab trip. It has an 1880's courthouse, tree-lined streets full of old homes, manicured yards, wide streets. Great views of the mountains; wonder how cold it gets in the winter (and how much snow)? From here we head south on Hwy 7—the Elkhorn Scenic Highway. Gorgeous and remote, it's a great road for a sports car.

When we spotted this railroad museum, we had to stop even though they don't open until Memorial weekend. Spent an hour+ there, wandering through rolling stock and buildings, taking pictures, and doing some bird watching. It's still cold, though. All through this valley are the gravel piles of dredging; they've been here a long time judging by the size of the trees growing on them. Mining just tore up this gorgeous valley, leaving a wasteland of gravel pits and hills, with the river running through them.

Climbed over another mountain range to the town of John Day (we've been here before, but not by this route), then Canyon City. Amazing sports car road along the river, all the way to the town of Seneca.

There were endless photo opportunities, including a beaver dam, an oxbow lake wannabe, and the rusty-orange moose brush everywhere. Are there moose in NE Oregon? The road continued to climb and we started seeing Snow Zone signs; not comforting when driving in a Mazda MX-5, especially when we ran into snow yesterday when crossing into Oregon.

This will be the longest driving day of the trip, all the way to Winnamucca, Nevada. We passed long ranges of hills, endless cattle ranches, climbing up, then dropping down into long river valleys. Neither of us have ever driven through this part of Eastern Oregon. It's vast.

From 20 miles away we could see the huge thunderstorm hanging over town; kept expecting the skies to open and the rains to pour down. It was raining, but the rain never reached the ground. The huge sand dunes that stretched away on both sides of the highway were a magnet for ATVs of all sorts, even on this cold, windy day.

We spent the night in Winnamucca; after we chose a hotel, we found dinner at the Griddle, a diner on the main road with 1940s Nile Green booths and counter stools, lots of stained glass and Tiffany pendant fixtures, and amazingly good food. I had a turkey & roasted red pepper sandwich, with chipotle sauce. Yumm.

There's lots of Basque heritage here; unfortunately, we missed out on the traditional food because we didn't read about the town until breakfast time.

I'm so behind...

Between home and work and my hubby and a niece's engagement party and family and friends... (deep breath, relax, breathe) and work and getting ready for vacation and pruning blackberries before they take over the farm and pulling weeds and more work and teeth cleaning and the eye doctor telling me I may need bifocals soon... (breathe, just breathe) and windstorms and keeping up with my geocaching streak and (is this a run-on sentence, or just creative writing? I'm sure someone on the blog police squad will tell me) and learning a new GPS and charging batteries for all the electronics that use AAs and more work and catching up on e-mail...

I've neglected my blog. I write every day, and promise to catch up soon.

Winery dogs

Now before you think I'm talking about bad wine, let me explain. One common theme at many wineries is that they have a resident dog. A real dog, the four-legged variety. They come in all colors, shapes, sizes, and breeds. There's even a book about winery dogs, which you'll see displayed at many of the wineries throughout the Yakima Valley. Some of the more famous winery dogs appear on wine labels, like Murray, a yellow Lab at Hightower Cellars. Murray is sadly no longer with us, but his brother, Riley, is taking over dog duties with enthusiasm and flair. I expect to see his face on a label in the future.

The prize for largest winery dog goes to Coyote Canyon, one of the boutique wineries in Prosser's wine village. Their huge shaggy dog would make two (or three) normal-sized dogs. He's reluctant to move, thus easy to trip over. He reminds me of a Bernese Mountain dog, without the brown markings. The owner said he's about 160 lbs, and has recently lost weight.

We also like the three dogs at Two Mountain, and this pair of pooches is on duty at Cultura Wines. Both wineries are in Zillah.

Eating in wine country

A wine-tasting weekend would not be complete without good food, and we found some great restaurants this weekend. It always surprised me that in the entire Yakima Valley, you only had a choice of fast food, Mexican, or Chinese. In all the years we lived in the Tri-Cities and traveled to and from Seattle, we never stopped to eat in the valley. We'd eat in Yakima, or wait until we got home. But just like the winery scene is changing, so is the restaurant scene.

Last year we discovered Picazo, a restaurant in old-town Prosser, with a chef who cooks with a Spanish flair. Pasta, steaks, seafood…  excellent food, excellent wine list to go along with it. This was our choice for dinner on Friday night.

On Saturday, we tried a new place called Tuscany, which is in the same block as Picazo, in an old corner building with gorgeous arched windows. It's tiny, only 10 tables. But the food was amazing. We'd decided on steaks tonight, after all the great reds we tasted today. So with a glass of Mercer Cab Sauv in hand, we chose New York strip steaks, which came with salad, grilled veggies, and roasted potatoes…  and lots of garlic. The steaks were brushed with garlic butter, and they were fork tender and mouth-watering. We both agreed that this is one of the best steaks we've ever had.

We speculated that this was once the local bank, as it has the rather elaborate interior molding and lamps you'd expect to find in a bank (gives the image of prosperity, very comforting to the clientele). I loved the bathroom—tiny, tiled, great sink, and you step up into the toilet stalls. Reminded me of the  Roxy theater in Renton from my childhood.

And thanks to a Central Washington magazine we picked up at Barnard Griffin, we discovered a new restaurant in Sunnyside. We were looking for someplace other than the hotel for breakfast, and since there were a couple of caches in town that we planned to find before we started wine tasting, we decided to give it a try. Bon Vino doesn't sound like a restaurant that would serve breakfast, but it was packed. The curb appeal isn't great, but inside it's all Tuscan with earth colors, polished stained concrete floors, pendant lamps, lots of wine-related art on the walls, and a fireplace in one corner. Behind the L-shaped bakery counter they've painted an entire wall with chalkboard paint, and that's where the menu was. Nice touch! My  kielbasa and eggs were flavorful, and my English muffin was homemade (as were the lemon bars we bought for an after-dinner snack). This restaurant is definitely on our list for next year's wine tasting weekend.

Hightower... home of the perfect winery dog?

Hightower is another new winery for us. It's at the end of the road, closest to the river, with a unique tasting room. It's made of blocks of concrete that was mixed with wood chips, which lightens the look and warms the color. And both inside and out, the west-facing wall is lined with barrel staves, laid horizontally with a basketweave look. Really cool.

Riley, the current winery dog, met us at the glass door (all wineries should have dogs, don't you think?). I love yellow Labs. They're friendly, beautiful, fun-loving, soak up all the attention you can give them, but are happy to wander and entertain themselves.

Tim Hightower, the owner/co-winemaker, was on duty, and again, we were the only ones there. So we got to try the wines, talk with him about how he made them, and get to know Riley. His brother, Murray, is featured on two of the wines. We can only hope that Riley is so honored in the future.

Both Tim & Kelly Hightower came into the business via Columbia Winery. Kelly is the vinologist; Tim was the legal counsel for Columbia, but when they discovered what a great palate he had, they put him to work blending wines. We liked him a lot; another unassuming winemaker/owner who let his wines speak for themselves.

From Hightower we headed into Benton City and grabbed a cache, then drove the Old Inland Empire Highway toward Prosser, caching along the way. I really liked the Landslide cache, 'cause it explained the far hillside (above I-82) that is always so beautiful and full of shadows. And the Ghost Rails cache was fun, and shared a driveway with a small new building that would make a great tasting room. No signs; we'll have to wait and see what it becomes.