Monday, May 4, 2015

Tour of S Utah Day 5: Thunder on Thunder Mountain


RV parks have their advantages. Hot showers, electricity to charge devices, Wi-Fi to blog, a place to dump the poo tank, and laundry facilities.  We took advantage of all the Hitch n Post had to offer Sunday night.
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Another advantage is that is was within walking distance to a breakfast restaurant, so we filled our bellies to prepare for Thunder Mountain.
Thunder Mountain was new to both of us and highly recommended by friends.  We chose to do it as a loop from the Red Canyon visitor center, which meant we climbed for about 3 miles up a paved trail, then a couple more on gravel toward the 60% chance of rain clouds.
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But once we started the ride, it was all smiles and panoramic views.
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The trail runs along the ridge line for a few miles
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and then you drop quickly down through the stunning hoodoos.
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The phantasmal colors and shapes are created by weathering and oxidizing iron and manganese in the sedimentary rock of the 60 million year old Claron Formation, which was deposited in a large freshwater lake. 
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We were greeted by an alien head hoodoo when we got down into the hoodoo section. See the alien behind Drew?
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See, it really does look like an alien.

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Drew took GoPro video of our descent, but slow Wi-Fi and a need to edit the slow parts precludes me from including here today. I’ll update later.  Suffice to say it was surreal to swoop down through the landscape of hoodoos all around.  The video will be cool.
We are stopped right now for hot soup and coffee because although we miraculously dodged the rain, we were a little chilly.  We are off to find a pretty parking spot and snuggle up in our happy van for the evening.

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