Canyons and Parks of Arizona and Utah with Jorg

North America » United States » Arizona » Flagstaff
March 3rd 2009

Published: March 8th 2009

Edit Blog Post

Hiker Jules

Photo 1

Me fixing lunch on the side of the road.

“The challenge will not wait. Life does not look back. A week is more than enough time for us to decide whether or not to accept our destiny.” The Devil and Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho

After dropping Kari off at the airport I went to the hostel. After I checked in, Jorg and I sat outside enjoying the evening and catching up on the stories of what we had both been doing. The hostel was just across the street from a wedding chapel so we would watch as they changed the sign with the couple’s names on it every 15 minutes, just before they came outside to get their picture taken with Elvis. While we were there, he gave me a gift (which was beautifully wrapped with a bow). It was a book on the photographic history on the Grand Canyon. How thoughtful.

Now it was time to hit the strip one last time. Jorg is not much of a gambler so I had to show him how it is done. We went into our first casino. He pulled out a dollar for the penny machine … I rubbed the dollar, rubbed the machine and we were off.

Photo 2

View from our campsite in Zion National Park

The first spin of the machine and we had tripled our money. It was time to go to the quarter machine now. We took our winnings and moved on. The next machine, the same ritual, rubbed the machine and we were off. After a couple spins, we had now doubled our money. We made it all the way up to over 6 dollars at one time before we eventually lost it all. So as you can see, I showed him how it is done! :-)

We then went back onto the strip and enjoyed the Treasure Island show and headed down to the Wynn. We were determined to get a free drink, and here we finally did. We each put 5 bucks in a machine then played for a good half hour and had a couple free beers each. We watched the Dream Lake show at the Wynn, then it was time to say goodnight to sin city.

The next day, we were off to Utah. We were heading to Zion National Park. I had been there with Kari already, but we simply drove through it. I was going to camp with Jorg and do some hiking so

Photo 3

Sunset at our campsite in Zion National Park

I was quite excited. After we had picked our site and set up the tent, we went for a walk that turned into a mini hike. It had been raining in the morning so the trail was a little muddy and getting late so we didn’t go to the end but the views were beautiful nonetheless. After the hike, we made dinner, Jorg built a fire and we sat and relaxed enjoying the conversation and the quiet.

The next day, we drove up the Canyon to the end and saw a nice waterfall. We then went for a 2 hour hike on a trail called Emerald Pools. It consisted of 3 pools to see. The last one was the most difficult to get to but the falls view was great. The seclusion of it also was wonderful. After the hike, it was still early afternoon so we wandered over to the visitor centre, looked around and stopped in a little coffee shop for some coffee and a croissant. We sat a chatted in the sun on the back deck for a very long time. Afterwards, it was time for dinner and a fire again. We collected wood on the

Photo 4

View from one of our hikes in Zion

way back to the campsite (which was against the rules, but Jorg was always breaking the rules!). After dinner Jorg built a fire again and we sat and relaxed enjoying the conversation, the quiet, and the stars (Cassiopeia is Jorg’s favourite).

This morning, I purposely stayed in the tent until the sun rose. I knew it would come over the mountain at 9:05am so I waited for it. At 9:06am, Jorg was removing the pegs from the tent. I guess it was time to get up and go now. We were on the road by 10am. We reached Bryce Canyon around noon. We drove to the end of the park and worked our way back stopping at most of the lookout points. It was just as beautiful as it was the week before when I saw it with Kari but it was nice to be able to share it with Jorg. We stopped in the “bustling” town of Tropic outside Bryce Canyon to stay for the night. Only one hotel was open, and a few stores, the rest are on vacation until next month when the season starts.

It is now Thursday Feb 16th, and this day we

Photo 5

Falls on one of the hikes in Zion

actually just drove most of the day. We didn’t actually get too far (only about 130 kms), but the drive itself was breathtaking. It was Scenic Route #12. We first ventured into Devil’s Garden in the Grand Staircase Escalante area which was a desert area with a “garden” of Rock Formations (Hoodoos). We enjoyed actually walking through them and climbing all over them. The drive was about an hour down a dirt road. By the way, Jorg has been doing all the driving and very well, he is definitely used to the “Automatic” car now. Of course, he was taking this road a little more “carefully” than I would have so the drive was even longer. Let’s just say his love of cars was pretty obvious when he gently stroked the dashboard. It was all beautiful so I didn’t mind.

After that, a little further down the road and we were then in the snowy mountains. The roads were clear and the sun was shinning brightly so it was absolutely beautiful. I was taking a picture almost every minute while Jorg was driving. We eventually stopped in a little town of Torrey outside Capital Reef National Park where we

Photo 6

Jorg being an "animal" on display at the Zion visitor center. I see a wolf.

stayed for the night. We ventured into the next town, picked up some wine and watched the sunset. We then made dinner of soup on the camp stove in the hotel room, drank wine and talked the hours away.

The next day, we explored Capital Reef National Park. We did a small hike to an arch, saw some petroglyphs and then headed to Moab with lots of stops along the road for beautiful views. In Moab, we stayed at the hostel because it came highly recommended. We actually stayed in a private cabin though as I had become accustomed to being able to just spread all my crap everywhere and not worry about locking things up. The cabin was only $30 bucks so you can’t beat that.

It is now Saturday Feb 28th and we got an early start. Jorg has me trained now to get moving and all packed up early (which I like). We went into Arches National Park. Our first hike was a simple mile hike to several large arches (called Window arches) where you could go stand under and see for miles in each direction. After that, we decided to hike to the Delicate

Photo 7

Sunrise from the tent in Zion

Arch. It was listed as a 2-3 hour hike but it was the Arch on the licence plate of the state so I really wanted to do it. It is something that we will remember forever. The hike to the arch is straight uphill the whole way. It isn’t difficult because the rocks are smooth and path is easy, it is just the uphill part that gets most people (but I love uphill).

What is so amazing about this trail is that you don’t actually see the Arch until you get around the corner at the top. The natural reaction when coming around the corner is some form of the words “Oh My God!”. I won’t do it justice to try and describe it. It is a hike that I think everyone on this planet should do. The view of the snow capped mountains in the distance is the icing on the cake. We actually stayed for about an hour at the top, just sitting and enjoying it and talking with our new 6 year old friend Logan. When I was there, it was like time stood still. There was nothing that was important enough to leave for. I

Photo 8

Jorg enjoying one of the many views from the roadside.

know I could easily spend days or weeks there and it still wouldn’t be enough time.

I must admit I started to have fantasies of being married there. Watching the wedding party and guests all hike up to the top. I would have hiking boots under my wedding dress … it would be absolutely perfect! I imagined standing under the Delicate Arch saying the vows … a perfect name for an Arch when starting a life together. Ok, enough of that fantasy. It is time to hike down again.

On our way out of the park, the sun was in a little better position so I asked Jorg to stop so I could take another picture of the balanced rock. As we pulled up, we were listening to Elvis. When I got out of the car, Jorg opened his door and left the music playing. There was a group of guys standing at the rock all smiling at us. I then realized it was because of the music. Jorg then turned it down. They told us that the just came from Memphis. They are a band from Scotland/Ireland called Two Dollar Bash. Jorg got out the camera and

Photo 9

Bryce Canyon

took a picture of me with them. When they discovered Jorg was from Germany, they all started speaking German. I always like to see people talk to Jorg in German. He works so hard at speaking English so it is great he gets a break now and then to speak in his first language.

We then started off to go to Canyonlands National Park but we were both watching our gas levels and realized that we just didn’t have enough to get us there and back so we had to turn around. We had decided that we had already seen enough today anyway so we hit the road and stopped for the night in Monticello.

Just when I thought there couldn’t be anything better than yesterday, today came very close. We started the day at the Four Corners. This is where the four states of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado meet. If you stand on that point, you are in all four states at the same time. We had fun driving around that spot, then jogging around all the flags of the states. It was then off to Monument Valley. We were on the lookout for the

Photo 10

Bryce Canyon

view that was on the cover of Jorg’s travel guide. When we got very close, we pulled over. It was so beautiful. The road was so long, the colours were brilliant. We were not in the exact spot, so I decided I would jog down the road. Jorg wanted us to drive, but I don’t know what overtook me, I just wanted to run, so that is what I did. I was jogging down the road quite a distance. I don’t know where the energy came from, but it felt so free so I just kept going.

Jorg eventually pulled up with the car. We took some pictures from “the spot” then continued our drive into Monument Valley. We actually went into the park and were able to drive around on a dirt road through all the rock “monuments”. A special spot for Jorg was to actually be in the famous spot where John Ford directed all the John Wayne movies. We even did the tourist thing and each sat on a horse for$2 dollars with the view in the background. After we finished driving around the monuments (we spent about 3 hours there), we hit the road. We

Photo 11

Bryce Canyon

decided to go all the way through to Tuba City so that we would be close to the Grand Canyon tomorrow. Along the road, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset. At one point, I even had Jorg drive off the road and over some train tracks so I could get a picture without the hydro wires. We stayed at a Quality Inn in Tuba City … very nice.

The next day we headed over to the Grand Canyon. Our first stop was the desert view. We then drove along the rim to the usual stop points of Mather’s point and then down to the lodges. We wandered down a bit of the bright angel trail and made a deal that the next time we come back we will hike down and camp there. After enjoying the view of the Canyon, we went into Bright Angel Lodge and had a nice lunch. During lunch, he gave me a gift. A set of gift cards of the Grand Canyon. Inside he had placed a photo which was a beautiful collage of pictures of the two of us in New Orleans. He said he had it made there and has been

Photo 12

Jorg breaking the rules (as usual) at Bryce Canyon.

carrying it around ever since. I almost cried.

It was now time to head to Flagstaff. We found a hotel there, went out for a coffee and cookie, did some grocery shopping for food for Jorg’s 30 hour train ride and then relaxed at the hotel. We ended the evening by enjoying a slide show of all the pictures from the past week (I managed to get it down to about 600 pictures). Jorg mentioned that we could meet up again in Europe when I come over to do the Camino de Santiago in Spain. We could tour Portugal together, this time in his car.

It is March 3rd and we got up at 4am (to see Cassiopeia but there were clouds) and we were down to the train station just after 5am. The train was leaving at 6am. We sat quietly waiting. Few words were spoken. They didn’t need to be. I mentioned to him that this reminded me of one of my favourite movies “Before Sunrise” where strangers meet on a train and spend the night getting to know each other, then one leaves on a train the next day and you never know if they

Photo 13

Our gourmet dinner one night at the hotel ... it was fun ... just like camping.

ever see each other again.

It is 6am and he is starting to board the train. I walk with him to the door. I give him one last hug just before he gets on. The train is all dark. I do not know where he is. I stand alone as the train starts to pull away. As his train car goes by me, I cannot see his face, but I see his hand pressed up against the window. I hold my hand up slowly and wave. The train lights disappear in the distance. Take Care “My Dear”.

Additional photos below

Photos: 41, Displayed: 32