Getting to the Grand Canyon

North America » United States » Arizona » Tusayan
November 19th 2006

Published: December 2nd 2006

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Well… Today is the day, we find out whether we will be able to hike all the way into the Grand Canyon - something that both Carl and Maria both said was a “must” for the trip, but at least one is having second thoughts… Getting up early seems to have been a habit for this part of the trip, and today is no exception… the only difference is that today we frittered away some of that time sitting in the parking lot at the only places where the hotels wireless internet connection worked so we could publish the blog!

Statistics

Starting Destination: Mt. Carmel Junction, Utah
Ending Destination: Tusayan, Arizona
Ending Destination GPS: We forgot…
Miles Driven: 280.4
Most Inappropriate Sign: Seen advertised at several Indian Curio Shops - “Nice Indians”

Deviating from the Plan…

Last night as we were sitting in the hotel room without internet connectivity both Carl and Maria read the tourist “blurb” that was included in the hotels information binder. Surprisingly, it contained a lot of interesting information… including details about two sights that we would have definitely bypassed. So, we decide that we are going to deviate from our original plan - streak across the desert as quick as possible towards the Grand Canyon - and try to investigate. After publishing the blog we set off… continuing along highway 89 south towards Arizona. Our first turn off is just 8 miles out of town, along a road that is marked as just a track in our atlas - towards the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It isn’t long before we spy some dunes peaking over the top of a rise along the road - in the early morning light they look a little more orange than pink, but they are definitely not your typical “sand” color! Further along the road we come to the park entrance where we decide to go in and investigate - so we drive to the first set of informational signs, don some cold weather gear and walk up to a viewing platform that overlooks the dunes… this must be another big ATV recreation area as there are tire tracks all over the dunes, however before 10am on a Sunday morning in November there is not an ATV to be seen! On reading the informational signs we find out two interesting facts: (1) that the coral pink color comes from our friend from Arches National Park - the Navajo Sandstone; and (2) that three mechanisms are at work to create the dunes, most interesting is Saltation where the wind bounces the sand grains along the surface of the dune field - the uniformity of the ripples in the sand represents the average ‘bounce’ of a saltating sand grain. Retracing our steps back to the main road we decide to take a “short cut” that is not marked on the map - thankfully it takes us back to the main highway just short of Kanab, our next destination.

We stop in Kanab briefly, and then continue following Highway 89… Where Maria spends much of the next 30 miles trying to get photographs of the Pink Cliffs, White Cliffs and Vermillion Cliffs - the next three steps in the Grand Staircase… two of which we have missed by taking our Sand Dunes detour. Our next stop is the turn-off for the Paria Movie Set - a western town that was used in several movies and then restored by local volunteers. It wasn’t until we had decided that we wouldn’t drive out to the set so we could “pretend” that we noticed the sign… Vandals committed arson in August of 2006, totally destroying the set. Further along the road was the turn-off we were looking for… both Carl and Maria thought they remembered (we didn’t copy the description/instructions from the hotel) that the road would take us to a canyon where the rock was twisted into weird shapes - Maria thought it was 6 miles along the road, Carl 10… So we started off down the dirt track knowing for sure only that it connected with Highway 89A in about 35 miles! About 6 miles along the track there was a trail head for Buckskin Gulch - but that didn’t sound like what we were looking for. Again at about 10 miles along the track there was a trail head (much more popular judging by the number of vehicles: 10 vs. none) for Wire Pass - but that didn’t sound like what we were looking for either! Conscious of the time we decided to retrace our steps… lessons learned for today - one, don’t rely on memory to get you to where you want to go… write it down; and two, not all adventures end in success! However, the scenery was definitely worth the detour… we would have investigated at least one of the trails, if we had had more time.

Patches of Blue and Green… In the Desert!

Our next destination along the road, and the main reason for us taking this route was the Glen Canyon Dam… First we stopped at an overlook where we could see Lake Powell - we were both struck by the blue of the lake and by the low level… Carl had read in one of his outdoor magazines that the lake was so low that slot canyons submerged when the lake was created were now accessible - people were able to investigate and compare conditions with the pre-dam days. Our next stop was the dam visitors’ center - we didn’t have time to investigate fully so we had to satisfy ourselves with taking some photos… unfortunately Carl forgot to leave his pocket knife in the truck - so only one of us could enter the visitors’ center at a time!

We drove through Page (the closest town) and stopped briefly at the overlook downstream of the dam - Maria ran down, snapped a few pictures and then showed the view to Carl… oh, the wonders of digital technology! Driving out of town we both commented on the green of the golf courses… it almost seems unnatural - the blue blue of the water and the green green of the grass in an area that is mostly arid desert! We followed the road down the last set of cliffs for the day and onto a plateau - the road was pretty steep, but the view was fabulous. Next time we will have to take Highway 89A and see the cliffs from the bottom instead of the top!

Finally… The Grand Canyon

Before the Grand Canyon turn off we passed through Cameron where we stopped briefly to look at the steel truss suspension bridge - the bridge is on the historical registry, but interestingly it was sold (we presume) to one of the local pipeline companies as a pipe support and thus the pipeline company is responsible for maintenance. We also noticed a log home construction company - we hadn’t seen one of these since Montana and our first thought was “why here, it’s a desert,” and logs would need to be transported from quite a distance. Later as we got closer to the Park we passed through the Kaibab National Forest, hmmm… a good source of logs!

But first we passed the Little Colorado Gorge - both Maria and Carl remembered stopping here on previous trips, but not the $3 entrance fee… so we bypassed the “official” view and stopped further down the road and snapped a few pictures. It was about 4pm when we reached the entrance station for the Grand Canyon National Park… after a quick look at Desert View for the new glass walkway that several people had mentioned to us and that Carl thought had been built in this location we moved on. We both decided that we would try and make the 5pm closing time for the back country office to see if there were permits available for tomorrow… So we bypassed all the lookout points except one - where we parked briefly, jumped out of the truck, snapped a few pictures and then moved on! What we should have done was applied for a permit weeks ago, but… not knowing exact timing and other unforeseen events meant that we didn’t. However, permits are also available on a ‘standby’ basis if you show up in person at the back country office - this is what we were hoping to be able to do. We arrived at the office about 4:40pm, waited for the ranger to finish with the couple before us in line, and then it was our turn… unfortunately the last two permits for the Bright Angel Campground at the bottom of the Canyon had just been given away. But, wait!

There was another option… two permits were available for the Indian Gardens Campground, about ½ way to the bottom of the canyon from a distance perspective. The ranger thought there were 2 options… one - hike down to the river along the South Kaibob trail (shorter and steeper), then up to the campground via the Bright Angel trail, stay the night and then walk out the next day (he was going to do this later in the week so he could collect T-Shirts available only at the bottom for his relatives) or two, hike down the Bright Angel trail to the campground, spend the rest of the day in the area and then hike out the next morning… We didn’t really like either of these options, so… we decided we would hike down the Bright Angel trail to the campground, set up camp and ditch our heavy packs then take a day pack down to the river and Phantom Ranch then back, spend the night and hike out in the morning. So, the decision made, all we had to do was make sure we had the gear we needed (we needed to rent larger backpacks and find more salty snacks), pack tent, gear, food and water (hopefully its not too heavy), eat a good dinner (with plenty of carbs) and get a good nights sleep - we would be starting plenty early in the morning!!

Carl’s Travel Trivia

Yesterday’s Answer: 96%!o(MISSING)f Kane County is owned by the Government.
Today’s Question: The Hoover Dam is how many feet taller than the Glen Canyon Dam?