A Day Trip to Escalante

Today was a blustery day.  Very blustery.  So blustery that we couldn't generate enthusiasm for a hike.  There was a fair amount of wind chill associated with all that bluster.  We decided to drive down Scenic Hwy 12 to see what we would see.  Gayle and Jim had driven it a few days ago, and their pictures were just lovely.  Some of the trees are still hanging on to their foliage.  After today, there will be more naked trees, the sky was full of flying leaves.
 

This is higher on Boulder Mountain.   Those are cows.  There's a lot of livestock on this road.

After we crested the 9,600 foot summit, the scenery changed.  It became a little more austere.  It's really easy to see where the water is.

We went all the way into Escalante.  We had considered doing the Calf Creek Hike, but the parking lot was full, there were tour buses, and we decided to just keep driving.
Here we are at the Escalante Municipal Airport.  Who can identify what that horn like projection on the airplane is? (Answer is at the bottom of the post.)

We stopped at all the overlooks on the way out, but the light was not good.  Coming back it was better.  The view is just astounding.

Getting back to the airplane quiz.  The horn shaped thing on the plane is a Venturi vacuum system for the instruments.  The shape of the horn creates a Venturi effect which produces enough suction to drive the gyros of the Attitude Indicator (AI) and the Directional Gyro (DG).  The system was suboptimal because it didn't work on take off or landing, and was very susceptible to icing.   The system was phased out in the 1960s in favor of electrically driven instruments.   From the presence of the horn, we can deduce that the airplane is fairly old.
It was a long day in the truck, but it was completely worth it.  It is so beautiful out there.