Little Red Saab Adventures…

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Griff and Gramma out West!…

Do you love hot springs?? Back roads? Quirky outdoor adventures?  Then you’ll love my big brother’s trips! His first name’s John, but we on the East Coast call him by his middle name, Griff.  He’s gonna introduce us to a whole bunch of off-the-beaten-path hot springs, scenic roads and detour-worthy sites out west as he and Gramma share their adventures in the little red Saab! 

So off they GO!….

But before we get too far down the road, let me introduce my brother, Griff: he lives in Jefferson,Oregon where everyone calls him John, and is an expert in all things vintage Saab! From repairs, rebuilding, and sales of antique Saabs, to selling his treasure trove of spare parts online, he is your man if you own or want to own a vintage Saab. 

And this is Gramma, his side kick on many of his adventures: our 90 year old mom, known as Gramma the Great around here. She is always quick to pack and roll on any new adventure!…

Griff and Gramma went off for a thousand mile trek, give or take several hundred miles… from Oregon to Colorado. Google says it’s about 1300 miles from Oregon to Colorado Springs, Colorado. But according to “Griffmiles” it was about 3,000 by the time they rolled into town, But wait! Let’s start at the beginning as I type their narration about their trip…

 First Stop for Griff and Gramma: Summer Lake Hot Springs, Oregon!

Griff: This place has outdoor hot springs, a hot indoor pool,  several cabins to rent, as well as a camp site! We rented the small cabin, but happily when we checked in Bill upgraded us to this bigger one! 

Gramma: I had never been in a hot springs before, the owner helped me get in and out of the pool, and she stayed right next to me for moral support!  After getting out, I was all silky and smmmoooth!… I couldn’t even hold my crochet hook!”  (Griff chimes in: it’s the silica! )

Griff: I went out for a midnight soak, too! With stars, and the milky way… nice and peaceful. Then in the morning, I came back for a morning coffee soak! 

Day 2: Welcome to Fort Rock, Oregon! Is the Saab a little dirtier? (Griff says this was taken right AFTER he broke the muffler, so he had to sneak back to Lapine to fix it!)

The homestead village at Fort Rock is made up of original pioneer buildings rescued from the area: a doctor’s office, the school house, a mercantile shop, several homesteader houses, and Saint Bridget Church!

The Rock itself was originally an ancient underground volcano, later turned fort. Nearby is “Crack in the Ground:” a 2 mile long volcanic fissure, where you can walk along the bottom if you are so inclined! And “Hole in the Ground,”  about 6 to 8 miles away, which is NOT made by a meteor, but by the steam of the old volcano. 

Second night: we made it to Hunter Hot springs, Lakeview, Oregon! With our own personal geyser.

This resort started as a health resort, using the mineral water to help healing, and today it has a motel, a pool to soak in, and  “Old Perpetual” the geyser, that plumes into the air every 90 seconds. And the town isn’t far away for eating.

Warner Peak area was next on Day 3!…. still in Oregon.

Griff: We found a great off-road trail for our lunch break overlooking the valley. You can hang glide off of a platform here. Gramma wasn’t interested.

Bog Hot!! We’re in Nevada now. Griff says this hot spring is his favorite!

VERRRRY hot water at the source, and cools down to a mere 105 degrees in the lower pools as you move lower down the stream.

Gramma stayed in the car and crocheted this time. Way too hot for her! Extra Tidbit: This place is VERY remote, so extra gas could come in handy, and you can camp anywhere 100 feet or more away from the water. 

Third night: Elko, Nevada!  With it’s gorgeous scenery…

And a stop at the Visitor’s Center and museum called Sherman Station! 

A self-guided tour will bring you through the homestead, a creamery, blacksmith, the one room school house and stables. 

FUN FACT about Northern Nevada is that this area is the largest producer of gold in the US, so nearby you can even go tour a gold mine! (Gramma’s claustrophobic, so needless to say that was NOT on today’s agenda!) 

Day four: After Elko, Griff and Gramma head south through Ruby Valley Wildlife Refuge to Ely (By the way, that’s Eeleeeeee, not Eleye. I’ve been corrected 5 times already.) 

This cabin pictured below was the bustling cattle ranch of Jacob Bressman. Originally from Pennsylvania, Jacob and his daughter, Deby, lived here in the 1880’s.  His cabin and gravesite remain as a tribute to these hearty pioneers. 

We traveled 130 miles of gravel road today!…

…Saw one 7,000 foot pass….

…one dead coyote on a car (Griff did a U turn for that one! Their car was broken down, and Griff’s car expertise was needed! Not really a place you’d want to break down….)

AND……a phone booth!!! but nobody was home. No answer.

Ely: For the night’s entertainment, you have your choice at Ely. Griff and Gramma are in the CASINO, not the Brothel. Just sayin’…  

But OTHER nearby attractions include rides on one of the country’s best preserved steam-powered trains at the Northern Nevada Railway Museum! and lots of outdoor activities at nearby state and national parks. Oh! And the Pony Express Territory! Can’t forget that area…

But beware, it has been named one of Nevada’s loneliest roads…..! 

Day 5: Ely to Hatch, Utah: by way of the Pony Express Historical Territory. In the town of Pioche, voted “Nevada’s Liveliest Ghost Town,” we found THIS treasure…. a pig in a Pioche:

…and also this treasure: a mining exhibit! The historical remnants of its past, back in the heyday of being a booming mining town with 72 saloons, 3 hurdy-gurdy houses (Do I even want to know what that is?) 32 maisons de joie, several theaters and breweries… and a graveyard full of victims of violent death….  FUN FACT: Pioche is french for Pickaxe!

…But the day is not over!! Next we made it to  Cathedral Gorge!...  

PS: on the link above for their website, there is a great video on the first page! Camping here and meandering though the slot canyons is definitely bucket-list worthy!

Griff: We made Hatch, Utah our base for the next three nights, staying at Riverside Ranch. (Griff is more a camper than a luxury resort kinda guy!) There were moose antlers over the bed! a fire pit outside, and campsites by the river…

Zion and Bryce National Parks are both nearby, and Hatch is right in between the two of them! So it was a strategic place to stay in order to spend a day in each park.

Extra Bonus: You can get “Ho-Made pies” at the Thunderbird Restaurant right outside of Zion National Park in Mt. Carmel Junction! NOT to be missed. Good pie, friendly waitresses, and salt from a nearby underground dry lake bed that you can buy here as a souvenir for your favorite travel blogger back home!  (Just give that “Ho-made pie” a google search for images cuz words cannot do it justice. I wouldn’t know where to start…!) 

Zion National Park Gramma: Here  you’re at the bottom looking up at beautiful scenery, and in Bryce you’re at the top looking down…

You can cross through Zion by car, but the main canyon is closed to traffic. We parked in Springdale and took the free shuttle bus.

Griff: You can get on and off the bus wherever you’d like, or you can take it allll the way to the end and hike back…. or better yet, park your mom at the sign that says, “wheelchairs not recommended” and go for a short walk up the canyon… (Gramma walks, but she’s kinda slow! So the wheelchair is for us, really! We like taking our time, just not THAT much time!)

The next day before getting into Bryce National Park, the road meanders through Red Canyon. It’s an area FULL of Hoodoos!… 

Bryce National Park: You can drive through it, but we opted for the free guided bus tour first.

 Griff: The tour guides are very entertaining! Ours was a retired teacher, told us lots of 2nd grader jokes….  wait… I’m trying to remember the COW joke…. it’ll come back to me…. (I’m still waiting.)

Rainbow Point was the 9,000 foot climax of the bus tour! 

After the bus tour, we actually took the car back into Bryce to go to Inspiration point! This is a separate branch not covered on the tour bus. 

Back down we went to our room in Hatch, at the Riverside Ranch, for the night. Then the next morning we headed up north to Torrey, Utah, following Route 12: one of the most scenic roads of our whole trip!

Through more of the red rock country of Bryce Canyon…

high elevation aspen groves!…

more arches!….

and some Billy the Kid hangouts, trunk lunch food, and Grosvenor Arch! Named in 1949 after a president of the National Geographic Society (good info for you for trivial pursuit!)… make sure to fill up your gas tank before you go! 

Day 8!! Somewhere in Utah… heading for Capitol Reef this morning…

We almost drove through here without stopping, but then I saw on my PAPER MAP, cuz I still use one, a 10 mile scenic road down through Capital Reef! And you KNOW I love a good scenic route!….

I had to talk Gramma into just one more scenic detour, cuz she was almost red-rocked out by now! But she had plenty of time to crochet in the car…

This was definitely another one of the MOST scenic roads of our trip! Highly recommend the detour!

When the pavement ends, keep going on the dirt road!…

When the dirt road ends, hike!!…  the things you will see and discover are worth it!

The afternoon was a quick drive to Arches National Monument, but not before stopping for lunch in Hanksville!  We did stop in a restaurant, but not before we went into THIS Hollow Mountain to buy road snacks!…

Side Note: There’s a great video on that link that tells you all the places you can go visit while making this town your headquarters. Not a bad idea if hiking, off-roading, backpacking, biking, horseback riding, canyoneering or paleontology  are you’re thing! From here you can reach:  Capital Reef, Goblin State Park, Canyonlands National Park, Dirty Devil River Basin, the Mars Desert Research Station and the Burpee Dinosaur Quarry, etc…

We made it to Arches National Monument just in time for the sunset by taking advantage of the highway for a little bit to get there in time.

An extra day here would have been nice to spend more time driving and hiking through this amazing park…

This area below is called Park Avenue! I think it’s a nicer one than in New York City…

But this is day 9, and we had to press on to Colorado! So we decided to push on after Arches to Grand Junction, Colorado. It was a long stretch, but we arrived at 11 PM….

Travelers Tip: When deciding to push on into the wee hours, call ahead for a room!! Who knew there was a 3 day country music festival going on in Grand Junction?!  Not a room to be found for 50 miles in any directions!… so what do you do when you can’t find a hotel room, your with your 90 year old mother??… well… good thing your mother is of hearty stock. You, and a dozen other people with no rooms at the inn, park at the Colorado Welcome Center/Rest Area! There’s bathrooms and picnic tables….

It was a good idea until morning when you wake up and the bathroom are CLOSED for cleaning!!… But Gramma actually woke up and said it was the best night of sleep she had! And luckily, there’s a truck stop not far away for coffee and open bathrooms…!

Day 10: Welcome to the Continental Divide!! 10,424 feet! A short stretch of interstate    and then back onto two-lane roads to cross the divide, and on to our destination : brother Deke’s house in Colorado springs! 

Colorado Springs has always been one of our family’s favorite vacation spots! Beautiful scenery, family, friends, ex girlfriends to visit, and great areas and activities!…

You can never get tired of Garden of the Gods! 

The quaint, nearby town of Manitou Springs is Griff’s old stomping ground. Such a unique, cozy mountain town nestled at the bottom of Pike’s Peak, filled with art galleries, quirky stores, fun activities. Plenty of things to do like river rafting, zip lining, hiking… Nearby attractions can keep you busy for weeks: the Manitou incline, Pikes Peak, Cave of the winds, Manitou Cliff Dwellings, the cog railway…  But we’ll talk about Colorado more this summer when we travel to the Rockies for some good summer hiking!…

Gramma’s on her way back to Virginia from here, but Griff and his little red Saab, well… they had to drive back home!… and that was the start of a whooole new adventure involving many more hot springs, dirt roads, and little red Saab adventures. To be continued…..

Thanks for tagging along!! Any questions for Gramma or Griff? Just drop them below!  We’ll see you on the return trip!