The Boston Athenaeum

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018 - Recently going down "Internet rabbit holes", I found myself looking at past exhibitions at the Boston Athenaeum:

and and I discovered their past exhibition of "Chromo-Mania!". Since most exhibitions include pieces from the host museum's collection, I searched their on-line database and discovered 3 pieces I wanted to see (Moran, Durand and Winslow Homer). I also discovered a beautiful engraving by JMW Turner, so I made an appointment to view these pieces at 10 AM Thursday Dec. 13.

I arrived a little before 10:

and was escorted upstairs:

and into a side-room, where I was able to see the beauties.

JMW Turner - "Ancient Italy", steel engraving, published 1859-1861

detail:


Winslow Homer - "The North Woods", 1896 chromolithograph:


The piece I wanted to see by Thomas Moran was listed in the database as a single chromolithograph ("Summit of the Sierras Nevada"). I didn't see it lying in the display room, but there was a big red book. Imagine my surprise and joy when the librarian said to me "I saw that you requested a single plate, which is how we have it listed in our database, but it should be listed a part of a folio." They have the ENTIRE FOLIO of "The Yellowstone National Park, and the Mountain Regions of Portions of Idaho, Nevada, Colorado and Utah", published by L. Prang and Company, Boston, 1876!!!




There are actually 15 chromolithographs in the folio. I won't show them all, but highlights include:

"Hot Springs of Gardiner's River, Yellowstone National Park":

"Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone National Park":

"The Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park":

"The Towers of Tower Falls, Yellowstone National Park":

"Summit of the Sierra Nevada":


I feel honored and privileged to have seen many of these sights in real life.

Then because I was spending more time there than I had anticipated, I was able to request the actual folio that drew me to the Boston Athenaeum to begin with - "Original Etchings by American Artists", 1883:


It has 20 plates, and my 3 favorites are:

Thomas Moran - "A Tower of Cortez":

Samuel Coleman - "A Cloudy Day in Venice":

James D. Smillie - "At Marblehead Neck":


I finished at 11:30 - plenty of time to make the noon train back up to the North Shore! Thank You God for these WONDERFUL Adventures!

Zion Nat'l Park, Day 4/4 - Kolob Arch via Hop Valley Trail

Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018 - Day 4 at Zion National Park. Last Day for my Loaded Oatmeal and medium cup-of-coffee at Deep Creek Coffee Company (see Tuesday's photo).

Outside of the "main part of the Park", the Hop Valley Trailhead is 37 minutes away:

and Google Maps will even show you walking directions:


I checked out of the Zion Park Motel at 9:30 this morning:


The Park is beautiful on this lightly-snowy morning:

I parked on the road because I didn't know if the rental car could handle the snow at the trailhead:




I'm not really sure about these distances - I admit I did a "side-hike" (?wrong turn?), but got back on track shortly thereafter. I did 16.5 miles in 6 hours 42 minutes. Google Earth (looking north):


It is best thought of as 3 hikes - the first part is 3 miles to get to Hop Valley:

This first goes through flat land with waist-high sage brush:

with cool cliffs-in-the-fog:



After 1.5 miles you go through a gate onto private land, and that's where it got a little funky for me:

I started northeast (in the snow, with no tracks) and didn't like that. So I turned and headed along the fence for a while. That felt uncomfortable, and when I looked at MapMyWalk, I knew there was no part of the trail here that went west. So I headed back, then up across the field and kept following a path down:


It worked great, because at 11:30 I got my first glimpse of beautiful Hop Valley:



Which gets us to the 2nd part of this hike - through Hop Valley (Google Earth, looking south from the mouth of the Valley):

It is a really cool place to hike. The Valley is about 3 miles long, and the trail is easy to follow on this early-December day. There are several crossings of Hop Creek, but this time of year the water is low, and rocks and logs are available. Many (summer hiking) bloggers have written about cows grazing, and cow poop, and how this is a horrible place to hike - all I can say is when I did this, it was beautiful and majestic and awesome. I was the only person I saw this whole hike, and although I saw numerous animal tracks, I didn't see anything alive (well, the birds were nice).

After the Valley, you go up-over-and-down to get down to La Verkin Creek:

Although don't ask me why they just didn't put the trail going down Hop Creek - springtime runoff might wipe it out?

This is the 3rd part of the hike - from the sand plain up-over-and-down to La Verkin Creek, then left for 0.3 miles, then right up for 0.7 miles to see Kolob Arch:


Of course, La Verkin Creek Canyon has its own beauty - looking northeast:

and looking southwest:


I made it up to a great viewpoint for Kolob Arch at 10 minutes before 2 (look up to the left from the trail):


and there was a nice view back down:


It took 3 hours 30 minutes to get here - I made it back to the car in 3:12. the sky cleared in some spots, and the walls of Hop Valley were Beautiful:




I finished a little before 5, still with daylight. Returned my hiking poles back up in Springdale, drove down to Las Vegas, and flew home. Thank You God for these WONDERFUL Adventures!

And Thank You to my Wonderful Wife for letting me go off on this trip!

Shameless Plug: Thank you for coming along on this trip - if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Hiking in New England (the 4,000 footers; the 100 Highest; WATERFALLS)
hyperlink: dixonheadingnorth
http://dixonheadingnorth.blogspot.com/

Driving Music today:

random music in the morning, but for my drive down to Las Vegas I listened to:

Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy, 1973


Lyrics - "Over the Hills and Far Away":

Many have I loved, and many times been bitten
Many times I've gazed along the open road

Dave Matthews Band - Live at Red Rocks 8.15.95, double album released 1997


Jackson Browne - Lawyers in Love, 1983

Zion Nat'l Park, Day 3/4 - The Subway (from the Bottom Up)

Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 - Day 3 at Zion National Park. I can't wait to hit the day - after my Loaded Oatmeal and medium cup-of-coffee at Deep Creek Coffee Company (see yesterday's photo). Outside of the "main part of the Park" the Left Fork Trailhead is 30 minutes away:

Don't worry - the roads are all black-top highway.

Pretty nice out here at 10:30 in the morning:


With all their talk about "limiting the number of hikers" and "YOU MUST GET A WILDERNESS PERMIT", I was a little pleasantly surprised TO BE THE ONLY PERSON HERE!!!:


MapMyWalk freaked out up by The Subway:

I'll try to clean it up before sending it over to Google Earth.

In Google Earth, looking northeast, the hike goes up the Left Fork of the Virgin River:

To quote the National Parks Service: "This is a strenuous 9-mile round-trip hike through the Left Fork of North Creek that requires route finding, creek crossing, and scrambling over boulders." I did it in 5 hours 17 minutes.

You start with a nice level walk through scrub forest:

It is always fun entering "the wilderness":

and then you get to the canyon rim:

That's the River WAY DOWN THERE!

The red-rock walls are pretty awesome:


The River is very nice, and you hop back and forth from one side to another. I spent probably a quarter of my time wondering a) is there a trail on the other side?, and b) is it a better trail than the one I'm on?:




A blog I read said not to concentrate on "getting to The Subway", but rather enjoy the hike up to it. As someone who was sent outside to play in the woods, and follow rabbit trails and streams, I certainly agree.

Having said that, The Subway is pretty cool:



I changed into my waterproof socks and boots (and just rolled up my pants) and explored up through it. There are deep pools, and as soon as you make the left turn, you run right into pools that are at least 6 feet deep and span the entire canyon, from one side to the other:



Turning around, I did get some iconic views:



Oh, and did I mention that I was the only one up here!

About a mile into my way back down I ran into another hiker heading up - HUMANITY! It was a hard hike climbing up out of the canyon, but I finished at just after 4, with plenty of daylight. And here's the other guy's car:


Spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, read my COOL BOOK

SiFy Channel, bedtime. Thank You God for these WONDERFUL Adventures!

Driving Music:

The Beatles - Revolver, 1966


Lyrics - "Got to Get You into My Life":

I was alone, I took a ride
I didn't know what I would find there