Long Way to Arizona, Part 2

After leaving Utah and Dinosaur National Monument, we traveled east to Colorado and then south on the western side of the state.

The mountains were green and beautiful and we found ourselves on a very high pass before coming down into the Grand Junction area.  We entered I 70 and turned west towards Utah.

A short time later, we exited I 70 and took Highway 128 south at what used to be the town of Cisco. It is pretty much deserted now but used to be a location where trains were serviced.  We soon found ourselves driving along the Colorado River.  The Dewey Bridge was built and finished a hundred years ago in 1916.  It was the second longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi at the time.  The Colorado River is joined by the Delores River near this bridge. The Delores River is formed by run off from the San Juan Mountains and the Colorado Plateau.

These are closeups of the plaques which memorialize the bridge which is a National Monument.  The bridge center burned in 2008 as a result of a wildfire.

The highway follows the Colorado for miles through beautiful landscapes.

We had no idea that one could follow along the river for such a long distance before reaching Moab.

Fisher Towers rise majestically from the floor of Professor Valley.

We elected to take the dirt road for an up close look and walked up to the Towers along the trail.

We soon encountered a snake!

The Fisher Towers were beautiful and majestic.

A shot with Glen to prove we were there.

Truly lovely.

This was our beautiful view looking back at the Colorado River from whence we had come.  We continued on our way south enjoying every minute of our drive along the Colorado River.  We would spend the night in Moab.  The next day we visit beautiful Arches National Park.

The long way to Arizona, Part 1

The day after Memorial Day we began the long way to Arizona.  We drove up Spanish Fork Canyon, past Strawberry Reservoir, on past Starvation Reservoir, and then through Duchesne to the Utahn Cemetery.  We wanted to check out a couple of things.  Number one, had the iris bulbs we planted made it through winter? And number two, had the weed killer worked?

The answer to both was "Yes."  Glen cleared off the dead weeds and I gave the iris plants some water and told them it would be okay to bloom next year.

Utahn Cemetery is basically a sand hill so had to share this little survivor.

I am proud of this man who is trying to watch over this sacred space.

Before leaving Duchesne we took a couple of photos.  I hoped to read this later.

Unfortunately even with a close up I could not make out the words.

This is one of the first homes built in the area and it sits along with the above monument on the lawn near the new high school.

We drove on east through Roosevelt and on to Vernal.  I was excited to see this small temple which was a precursor to the Provo City Center Temple.  It, too, began as a tabernacle but was then remodeled into a temple for the members in this northeast corner of Utah.  In this photo the temple is facing east.

I loved the red brickwork.  This photo was taken from the south.

And this is a view of the temple facing west.

After getting gas and food we headed for Jensen, Utah.  It is a small farming community near the Dinosaur National Monument.  It is beautiful farm land with a great source for water.  This picture is not a lake but the flowing Green River.  It explained all of the green fields surrounding us.

The highway heads north out of the crossroad that is Jensen and runs along the Green River.

The sun shines on the Dinosaur National Monument in the distance on a beautiful day.

The rock formations seemed to have emerged from the earth at a slant.

In no time at all, we were at the visitor center.

After viewing the film we jumped aboard the trolley taking us up the hill to the viewing center.

In the early 1900's, this hill had been slowly chipped away as dinosaur bones were extracted and then shipped to museums around the United States.

Now it is possible to see them in the uncovered hillside.

There was a section where one was allowed to touch them.

It was fascinating to see and read about the discoveries made here.

It was and is a gigantic dinosaur graveyard.

We drove east and came upon the Green River where it is joined by the Yampa River.

There were beautiful camping sites and rafting is popular.  Jensen had several raft outfitting business.  On our way out of the National Monument area we saw a beautiful ranch set up that had been in place for over a hundred years.  Beautiful country!

Stars and Stripes

I've made a few small quilts to hide the none to attractive fireplace in the family room-kitchen.  When I saw the new flag quilt pattern from Thimbleblossoms by Camille, I felt inspired to make another fireplace quilt.  My quilt is based on Camille's but I changed out some measurements to make it fit my space.

I had fat eighth bundles of American Jane fabric on hand.  I had also recently discovered a two yard cut of the cream fabric in a dresser drawer so I was set to go.  The only thing I had to go to the store for was the batting.  The binding was scrappy and made from the remainders of the blue fabric.

The reds, blues, and low volume fabrics came from a couple of American Jane's lines.

So patriotic and fun!

I loved all those different blues.

The piece of cream fabric gave its all for this quilt.  There were literally just a hand full of scraps left.  I wanted to make a sleeve on back to hang the quilt on my tension bar which fits into the fireplace space.  The only big enough piece left was one with the selvedge.  I sewed the top in under the binding and then used the pinholes in the selvedge to stitch it down on the backing.

I cross stitched it down leaving the fringed edge.  So cute!

I found some extra blue fabric to sew down the center of the backing as my quilt was wider than the width of the fabric.  I hand stitched on a label.

These blues were also included in the scrappy binding.  I machine quilted it on my Bernina 750 sewing machine using the long wavy stitch on the flags.

I love this quilt.  It has been up for a week now and next year it will definitely be out by Flag Day in June!