Toadstools & Sand Dunes

The shop is closed on Sundays, so that's my day to escape. This past Sunday I headed toward Page to get my oil changed and stock up on some stuff. On the way there I saw a sign saying "Toadstool Trailhead"... no idea what the trail was, but the name alone was reason enough to stop so I decided to head there on my way back from Page.

Awesome hike! Short, less than a couple miles round trip, unless like me you can't find the actual trail bit and wander around for a while in other directions taking photos. You end up walking in a wash most of the way, then the trail picks up and makes you feel like a mountain goat at times:

 

So, at the end you get to this foreign looking landscape that resembles a sci-fi flick from the 60s, of what they thought another planet would look like. And there are toadstools. Rock toadstools.

 Pretty nifty.

After that hike, I ended up back in Kanab earlier than planned so I kept going to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes, a state park about 20 or so more miles toward Zion. There was sand, lots of it. And wind. Not a great combo, but you can get some pretty sweet pictures of sand blowing off the dunes. The sand isn't so much pink as it is orange... maybe at dusk it turns pink?

There was this old wood beam fence running along the edge of the dunes. I sort of went a bit photo mad for it, but it just looked so cool. This was my favorite at the end:

Perfect temps, perfect sky so all in all a pretty good day off. This was my only day off this week, so I earned it. You can see the rest of the photos here:

http://heather-applegate.artistwebsites.com

Life in the parks...

I am currently living and working in Kanab, Utah... aka, Little Hollywood - cause so many westerns were filmed here. Kanab is kinda the crossroads of where people pass through to get to the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon. Its a tiny town, so its nice to have places close by to explore on the days off!

Took this in Zion National Park

I've been living at the place I work since the RV park isn't open til April 1st... this is the scene in front of my car on the side of the trading post & museum:

Not sure what I'll get up to this coming Sunday - I'm working 6 days this week. Tomorrow I'm going to do a half day then come back in the evening for when a tour bus comes in for the dinner and dress up movie scene thing... overtime is great, but definitely looking forward to Sunday! If the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was open I'd head there, but I don't think it is - maybe back to Zion if the weather's good and I can hike one of the trails.

Working again

I've just started my first job as a Workamper at a place in Kanab, UT - Frontier Movie Town. They have a museum out back with a lot of the old movie sets from back in the days of old westerns. Loads of films have been shot in the area.

Here's a little video of what they do for the tour buses that come through - last night we had a French group come through. It was hilarious. I'll be doing the photography for the tours, and working in the gift shop.

So far we've only had a few customers in during the day - so most of the first month we're open is getting the shop ready, inventory, and learning the ropes.

Kanab is right in the middle of where people pass through to get to the Grand Canyon, Zion NP and Bryce Canyon... lots to see around here, and I've not been to Zion or Bryce yet, so days off will be spent exploring!

Set for the year

So I belong to this website for workampers.

I pay for a yearly subscription, get to post my resume, check out employment listings, and all sorts of other stuff I don't really pay much attention to, but should.

Well the other day this membership paid off. I was contacted first by Amazon. Amazon hires workampers for the Christmas season madness - processing orders, pulling, packing, shipping... bet you thought it was trolls, elves or oompa loompas, but nope - its workampers.

(BTW, if you use the Amazon links on this my blog to buy stuff, I get a few pennies... help me out consumers!)

So I'm set to work for them at their Kansas warehouse. I told the guy I could work the whole season from October to Christmas. But then...

Contact #2 came along. A guy who runs a tourist place in Utah that shall be named later found my resume on the website. He's looking for a photographer/retail person. Emailed me,  I sent some answers to questions and a couple references, a very short interview and boom: he hires me about 5 minutes into the interview.

I didn't think I'd be starting a job until late April, but lucky me, I get to start March 1st, and go til Oct 31st. Overlapping Amazon... hopefully they are cool with that, or I leave Utah early because the money at Amazon is much better plus I get a bonus if I stay the whole season. I need to make that happen.

WANT

CAN AFFORD

Dilemma: I need a trailer to live in so I don't have to stay in my car/tent the whole year. Frantically trying to find a popup tent trailer on the cheap, but not needing repairs cheap.

Living in my SUV

I finally got the SUV bought from my neighbor and I'm off. I've slept in the car 5-6 nights now, and its been very cozy. I still need to re-organize and send some stuff off to Goodwill, but I'm happy with the result so far.

I have a 2000 Ford Expedition - its a beast of a vehicle, with plenty of room to make a living space. The first thing I did was take out the 3rd row seat and hand it back to my neighbor to sell himself. Next, I folded the 2nd row seats down - they fold flat - making the entire back of the car completely level - YAY!

I used the folded down seats at the base for my bed. I'm short - 5'2", so I fit lengthwise the width of the car. Unlike most people I don't have to sleep the length of the car. I'm a born space saver! I went and bought a full size 4" memory foam mattress topper - best $110 ever spent. I cut it in half, since the length of a full mattress is double my height just about. So, cut it in half and doubled it up, now I have an 8" comfy mattress. Its so full of awesome. I have 4 blankets - I sleep on top of 2, and have 2 to cover me - so far this has been warm enough for me and it got into the teens last night. We also got over a foot of snow the other night and I was fine.

I bought a 4' narrow folding table and put that over a couple tubs of stuff (mostly books). The table serves a triple purpose - an extra surface to stack things on, a table for when I get to a campsite, and a table for when I do art fairs. Multi-purpose = space economy.

I got 2 sets of plastic drawers - one is for kitchen stuff & food, the other for clothes - although it is mostly holding my home brewed beer til the Superbowl party I'm going to tomorrow.

I invested in a portable powerpack 600 made by Duracell. You can get it on Amazon the cheapest. So far its been AWESOME. I have AC power in my car now. I keep it charging when I'm driving, or plug it in at a friend's place. I used it for the first time today to power up my rice cooker and make some noodles. I have about 480w continuous power - which is enough for a rice cooker, blender, my laptop, phone, ipod... and it has jumper cables so I don't need someone else around should by battery go dead. Massive bonus.

So I'm staying in Denver til the end of March to find some work, then off on the next adventure. Trying to find my April-October season position somewhere, but I just got a job at Amazon for the Christmas season, so at least I've got that set!