A Trio of Canyons and Diamondbacks in the Valley

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The POD for Thursday: drive from Zion to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, spend a few hours there, and then head east to Page, Arizona, just alongside Lake Powell and the Glen Canyon Dam. Not so much drama this day, but plenty of beauty to behold . . .


To exit Zion Park we drove back through the way we had come in, once again marveling at the sights and stopping to take a few last pictures. Then we headed south to the North Rim. When we made a pit stop about 45 minutes from our destination, we were happily greeted by much a milder temperature. Then we started down the long road that takes you to the north rim entrance. The landscape here was much different than at the east or south entrance. With the elevation about 2,000 ft. higher, it is much more heavily forested with Ponderosa Pines, Aspen, and Spruce trees, while wild f lowers of yellow, pink, purple, and orange dotted the roadside. Once inside the park, there are other differences as well. Since the north rim is only open part of the year there is only one lodge, restaurant, visitor center, etc., and they are all centrally located near Bright Angel’s Lookout. FYI, Bright Angel is a trail that can be hiked from one rim into the canyon to the other. So this area is where the most people are concentrated, but still it is easy to see the crowds are much smaller. It is, however, hard to get room and restaurant reservations unless you book well in advance. So, even though we wanted to dine there overlooking the canyon, the only reservation time open was 9:15 at night. Needless to say, we had to pass.


The lookout points and trailheads at the north rim are also more spread out, and there is not a shuttle like at the south rim, so you are free to wander on your own. Often there were only a handful of people at any given lookout, so it is much more peaceful there, with the exception of Bright Angel. At Bright Angel, we decided to be a little adventurous and climb a large pile of boulders situated out on the point. It felt a little daring, and we convinced a few others to try it too. It made a nice perch for taking in the views and sipping from our water bottles. After spending some time at Bright Angel we wandered through the lodge and gift shop, where I found a gorgeous necklace with a pendant featuring a light green stone similar to turquoise. I almost passed it up, but as we were walking to the car, I remembered my birthday is next month and remarked what a nice birthday gift it would make. Don’t you know when Nick went back to the shop someone else was looking at it! Fortunately for me, the other person chose the smaller of the two necklaces, so I got an early birthday present; and now Nick doesn’t have to sweat over what to get me this year!


Next, we went to explore the rest of the park. The winding and mountainous road out to the easternmost lookout point is 18 miles, and then there is another road that takes you 17 miles to Imperial Point. We opted to take the first route and stopped at the last point, where there are two easy trails with two lookouts, Angel’s Window and Cape Royal, and interpretive signs along the way. We also stopped to take in the view at Roosevelt Point before heading out of the park and off to Page.


The drive to Page turned out to have still more twists and turns in the roadway as we traveled alongside the Vermillion Cliffs. Here we were reminded of all the Saturday morning western shows we watched as kids. We kept wondering when we would see an Indian on horseback high atop a hill, or the cavalry riding across a plateau. We arrived at Page around six, so we had time to check into our hotel, drive around town and find the places we needed to be the next day for our tours, and eat dinner at Ken’s Steakhouse. Then it was time to get some sleep for the big day ahead, with two tours planned.


Morning arrived, and we reported at Canyon River Discovery at 6:30 in the morning for a float trip down the Colorado River. We started by boarding a tour bus, which took us through the Glen Canyon Dam tunnel to the base of the dam, where we were frisked and our belongings were searched. Just kidding about the frisking, but we did have to part with our belongings as we went through homeland security because the dam is federal property. We also had to wear hard hats in case of falling rocks from maintenance work in the area as we walked along the cat walk to the boarding area. Soon we were reunited with our bags, and hopping onto a pontoon raft for a smooth water ride down the Colorado River, through the Glen Canyon Dam, around Horseshoe Bend, and ending at Lee’s Ferry, the historic crossing point of the river at the edge of the Grand Canyon.


The trip was relaxing and leisurely, and our guide was a cute blond recent college graduate from Wisconsin who was working the river job for the summer. Hey Peter, are you reading? BTW, if any of you know a college kid looking for a fun outdoorsy summer or full-time job, she told us about the website she used to get her job. It’s called coolworks.com. It looks pretty neat. Back to the trip . . . our guide (Leanne, I think was her name) must have really done her homework, because she was quite informative. There was an earth science teacher on the trip who was asking her question after question (playing stump the guide, perhaps?) and she held her own just fine. She pointed out lots of interesting rock formations (kind of like seeing things in the clouds), where to look for wildlife, and tidbits about the local history. We were so happy to have booked the early trip, as the weather on the river was delightful with a cool breeze and the morning sunlight glinting off the river. We stopped about midway at Petroglyph Beach and took a short hike into the canyon to view ancient Native American drawings chipped into the sandstone where it was darkened by “desert varnish.” Then we had some time to wade (or swim as a few hardy folks did) in the 48 degree water before we floated on down the rest of the way to Lee’s Ferry, getting a great sighting of gray herons.


We were taken back to Page on the same tour bus that had taken us through the dam tunnel. The return trip took us over Navajo Bridge, and after that I’m sure we passed through some pretty country, but neither of us can tell you a thing about it because we both flaked out after being in the sun all morning. As we returned to Page, the bus driver gave us the lowdown on all the good places to eat, so we gave in to a high fat, fast food splurge, savoring a good old-fashioned cheeseburger, onion rings, and chocolate shake at R.D.’s Drive-In. While eating we got a call from Nick’s work that led us to discover a near-crisis with the laptop. Nick needed to send an email, but when we tried the laptop would not boot up; it just kept going to a black screen. After trying all the troubleshooting I knew to do, we gave in and took it to a computer shop we had noticed close by. I was in freak-out mode not just because I had so many of our photos loaded on it and not yet backed up, but also because I had a lot of work files on it.


Anyway, the computer guru we went to turned out to be a real character (another former sailor), who chewed the fat with us about everything from his time in the Navy during Desert Storm to the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, while working his magic on the computer. Since we had a 3 o’clock tour to catch, we trustfully left the laptop with him and rushed over to the site where we were to get on a Jeep to go onto Navajo land and take a photography tour of a slot canyon.


The Jeep turned out to be a four-wheel drive pickup truck with benches in the back. Think bouncy, blustery, and burning hot. The delightfully cool morning on the river was a thing of the past as we bounded our way through town and out to the wilderness of the Navajo reservation with Rosie as our driver and guide. There are several slot canyons on the reservation and you have to have a Navajo guide to get to them. Slot canyons are very narrow and maze-like, with twists and turns in the rock formations and slim openings that allow shafts of sunlight to shine through. Rosie explained how both the monsoon rains and the more gentle rains cause the rocks to shift and the floor of the canyon to build up and wash out at different times. She also helped us with the lighting and finding shapes in the rocks as we took our pictures in this mysteriously beautiful place. Once in the canyon, the intriguing sights helped my completely forget about the computer woes.


After our slot canyon tour we made it back to Page and retrieved the laptop in good working order and setting us back only $45.00. All was right in the world again, and our next stop was Walmart to buy some CDs! Then we visited the scenic lookout of the Glen Canyon Dam right in Page and the scenic lookout of Lake Powell just north of town. We stayed there for the sunset. The sun sets over the mountains in the distance to the west and brings out the colors of the canyon surrounding Lake Powell to the east. Nick took pictures lakeside and I took pictures on the sun side.


By then we were hungry even though we had eaten way too much for lunch. So, we ended the evening at Stromboli’s, enjoying a small white pizza and salad. Next day, the road would take us back to Phoenix where we had tickets to a Diamondbacks game waiting for us, thanks to my cousin John, who offered us a pair of his season tickets.


Saturday morning we were up and on our way around 8 a.m. We broke up the four hour drive back to Phoenix with a stop at the Cameron Trading Post. This is a huge gift shop full of beautiful Indian handicrafts and such, as well as a lodge, campground, and restaurant. After making a few purchases, we decided to try the Navajo fry bread that we had been seeing on all the menus the last few days. It is served with honey and butter for breakfast, used as a base for Navajo tacos, or simply served like bread. It was kind of a cross between a doughnut, a pancake, and a pita: round and large enough to fill the plate, fried, but light and airy. It not only made for a filling breakfast, it allowed us to dine in the midst of beautiful Navajo rugs, pottery, and artwork.


When we arrived at the Rio Verde house, we unloaded the jumble of dirty clothes bags, gift bags, supplies, and everything else that made up the mess in the back of the car. Then it was time to spruce up, meet up with my relatives, visit for a few minutes and get our tickets. Next we made our way through downtown Phoenix to find Chase Stadium. It was great to see John, who I had not seen in about 25 years, and meet his son and wife. As for finding the stadium, we managed pretty well, thanks to good directions and the fact that the whole Phoenix area seems to be a well-planned community with great signage. The only problem at this point was that I was in a tizzy again, this time because I couldn’t find my camera. I was certain we had left it at the hotel in Page, and even called them twice. What really troubled me wasn’t the camera, but the two days’ worth of pictures on the memory card. The backup gods were really after me! So, we took Nick’s camera to the game and tried to forget about it until later.


Our ball game tickets were great; we were on the fourth row, just to the side of the visiting team’s dugout. We had a great view of first base, the pitching mound, and home base. The Diamondbacks were playing the not-so-faraway San Diego Padres, so the crowd was pretty enthusiastic for both sides. It looked like the Padres were going to win for most of the game; they were ahead by four runs at the top of the seventh inning. But the Diamondbacks rallied in the seventh to tie the game, took the lead in the eighth, and held it in the ninth. It was very exciting, but that wasn’t the end. After the game, the stadium roof was retracted and we were treated to a great fireworks show. Nick was especially tickled because he had wanted to go to the fireworks on the 4th, but we (really me) couldn’t manage to finish our packing for this trip in time to make it.


Finally back at Rio Verde at 11 p.m., I found the camera under a pile of clothes. Apparently in our dash to unpack, do laundry, and get ready for the game, we had laid some shirts on top of the camera. So once again, our memories were safe and sound, and the next morning I was making another back up CD!


Final rambling thoughts for this entry:
Hope this entry is not too long. I’m trying to combine days to get caught up. Have I mentioned we’ve been through two bottles of Excedrin?! With all this alternating between cavorting and car sitting, we are in serious need of a massage, and might add that to the agenda! At least there is a hot tub here at Rio V. You might think we are going to slow down here in Phoenix, but stay tuned, we have one more pretty crazy adventure to report.


Until later,
JoNick
Formerly vagabonds, now desert drifters

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Photos

Setting out on our float trip
Just beyond the Glen Canyon Dam

Brrr!
Wading in the 47 degree Colorado River

Antelope Canyon
Slot Canyon on Navajo land

Our perch and lookout
Hey, when did Nick get that halo?

Gray Heron
Spied on float trip