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Published: February 11th 2008
The Good Stuff
No not me silly the formation behind me!9-24-07
I got up around 7 and had some oatmeal. When I have a big hiking day I usually eat oatmeal as that really provides me with a lot of energy and seems to burn very clean. Went to the Visitors center with my map of Zion and asked them where they recommended going if I have only one day. She mentioned Angels Landing and followed that up by asking if I was afraid of heights. I told her I am not too keen on heights, but in a manly response added but then again I am ok with them. She said there is a long section of this trail where there are sheer walls on both sides on like a 4’ wide path. I with a quivering voice asked her what other trails does she recommend? She said Observation Point is a nice trail, but there is a little height issues here too, but not nearly as severe as Angels Landing. She sad you have a nice view of Zion Canyon. I said ok I will do that. It is around a 8 mile hike with lots of elevation change. She then said the riverwalk is a nice easy trail
This is Observation Point in Zion.
I would say it lives up to its name and then some. that is about 2 miles that allows you to see several different environments in one small area. I said ok and then she finished recommending the trail to the Emerald Pools. I said that is good and I wanted to check out the Canyon Overlook on my way out. She said if you do all those you will have had a full day. I left and jumped on the shuttle bus. At Zion you are not allowed to drive your own vehicles up the canyon, but instead must park and ride the buses to the designated locations.
I jumped on the bus and enjoyed the bus drivers commentary. He was very friendly and informative. He pointed out the mountains we were seeing and pointed out a couple mule deer bucks bedded down just off the road. They looked a little scrawny to me, but had decent horns. I made it to the riverwalk and quickly walked the 2 miles. It was ok for me. There were a lot of different plant life, but I wasn’t overly impressed with it. I think walking in the stream further up the canyon would have been cool, but I did not have gear
for walking in the water. From there I jumped on the shuttle and jumped off at the next stop to take a picture of the Angels Landing rock that I had decided not to do, because of the sheer cliffs on both sides of the trail. There is a chain barrier on one side of the Angels Landing trail, but I still decided not to do it. I jumped back on the bus right away before the bus left as I knew I had lots of hiking yet ahead of me.
I then jumped off the bus at the Weeping Rock stop and headed up Echo Canyon to the Observation Point lookout. It has some sheer cliffs on the way, but nothing too bad. The trail is 8.0 miles roundtrip with an ascent of 2,148 ft. Not too bad, but still you feel like your doing something. I made it up in decent time and enjoyed the view. This point provides a great view of Zion Canyon below. Similar to most of my mountaineering trips I spent about 15 minutes at the top then came back down. I am fast in descending and at times am almost running. The
Bryce Canyon
These are what they call Hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park. Amazing! entire trip was supposed to be about 5 hours and I had done it a little under 4 hours. From there I hopped on the Zion Canyon shuttle only to get off at the next stop the Grotto for the Emerald Pool Trail. This trail was pretty easy and only took about an hour. I did not return to the Grotto, but continued the hike to Zion Lodge, where I got on the shuttle returning to the visitors center. The total hiking today tallied about 12 miles in about 5 ½ hours with elevation ascent of 2,200 ft. Not too strenuous, but I knew I had not just sat in my truck all day driving either.
I jumped in my truck at the Visitor’s center where it was parked and headed towards Bryce. As I headed out of the canyon to the east I saw what they call the Great Arch. It is simply a section of the sandstone that came out of the rock and what remains is an arch looking indentation in the rock. You can not see through this arch as there is rock on the backside. From there continuing up the road you come to
Utah
One of my favorite states in the Union a tunnel where only rv’s can travel through with no oncoming traffic. The sides of the tunnel are arched and the rv’s drive right down the middle of the road. After waiting for several rvs and cars to pass in the opposite direction, we were allowed to continue through. They only stop traffic in both directions when there is an rv going through and I was about the 5th car behind an rv. I looked back on the Canyon to the west and the view was pretty cool. This is the same view I would be seeing when I hike the Canyon Overlook trail just on the other side of the tunnel. When I got to the otherside of the tunnel I parked and got out, but was a little sore and realized the view is not going to be that spectacular this time of day as the sun will be right in my eyes and for sure there will be no good pictures since I would be photographing into the sun. For those reasons I decided to forgo the hike and proceed onward. The last thing I wanted to see was the Checkerboard Mesa patterns on the sandstone right
before exiting the Park.
I drove quite the ways and was amazed by the sandstone and all the color it provides. I pulled off the road at the sign indicating the Checkerboard Mesa patterns in the rock. The symmetry is cool as you do not see that kind of symmetry in nature as it formed a very nice grid pattern on the rocks. I took a few pictures and headed on. Zion is a pretty cool park, but I do not consider it an awesome Park like I found Yosemite to be. It is probably a top ten or top fifteen park in the US though. Definitely a must see as the parks in the US are awesome and this is a very tough competition.
I left there on my way to Bryce. I stopped at the Mount Carmel Junction and checked emails and grabbed a soda. I continued north on 89 to the 12 turnoff, which takes you to Bryce. On 12 I came across Red Canyon Park and found this place to be awesome. I took a couple pictures and decided to come back there tomorrow for more pictures as this was incredible. The only reason
I would not come back is if Bryce just blows this place out of the water, which I could not believe that would happen. Red Canyon was like nothing I had ever seen.
I pulled into Bryce and was amazed at the touristy feel of the area. There was some Rubys complex right before entering the Park. I stopped first at the Visitor’s center and asked them what hikes they recommend if you only have the morning. They suggested going to Bryce Point first thing in the morning for pictures and then do the trails at Sunset Point. They said those are the “Must Sees”. They were forecasting the temperature to be in the mid 20’s and it already felt cold there so I was a little concerned about that. There was a ranger’s talk at the lodge at 7:00 that I wanted to attend so I had to hurry to eat before then. I hurried back to the campsite got set up, got cooking, got eating, got paying the fees and got back to the lodge right at 7:00. I could not believe I made it back in time although I had to eat some of the food
Sandstone Formations
The sandstone Formations in the Colorado Plateau are awesome. That is found in Utah, Arizona, Colorada and Nevada. while driving back to the lodge. I hadn’t gotten as much done at my campsite as I liked, but I got a lot done but would have to do the dishes when I got back. The talk was ok but nothing great. I got sick of the guy talking to his kids or grandkids throughout the talk right in front of me. Earlier in the presentation he turned around and looked at me when the wrapper on my Milky Way was making noise too. I was tempted to just make a little more noise with my wrapper just to irritate him as he talked to these kids during the whole program, but I didn’t. Maybe I was a little tired. The ranger giving the talk said there are two black bears in the park that they know of and several mountain loins. The camp host told me there are no bears in Bryce and I was a little concerned about the stuff I left on the picnic table at the site, but everything appeared untouched when I returned. I washed the dishes, did some typing and called it a night. I pretty much knew I was going to struggle staying
warm tonight as my gear does not do well when the temperatures are in the 20’s. Goodnight from Bryce Canyon National Park. I have not seen much yet and was surprised by all the trees in the area. I expected red rock everywhere and I have not seen much yet. We will see what tomorrow brings but so far I am not impressed.
9-25-07
I was pretty cold last night and the whole side of the truck that I slept on was iced up. You could see my breath at each exhalation. Now we are having fun! Actually I like this kind of struggle. It makes me feel like I am doing something. I think with sports you get engrained that with no pain there is no gain. I guess even though my type A qualities are more type B these days, I still am type A in certain respects. I am traveling pretty hard with the driving force being, once this year is over I will not have vacations again for a long time so I need to see as much as possible.
I got up around 6 and headed down to Bryce Point immediately as instructed
by the park ranger to see the best Hoodoo action. Yes that is not a typo. A Hoodoo is a pillar of rock usually with fantastic shape as defined in the Bryce Canyon handout. I laughed when the lady told me that and asked if she was kidding me. She said no. I told her if I start feeling pin pricks and see a doll that looks like me I am leaving this park faster than she can say Hoodoo. She then went onto say that the word has something to do with Voodoo, which I was obviously referencing, but I forgot exactly how the connection is made.
I made it to Bryce Point and saw the sight and my mouth dropped and I drooled all over myself. It was a similar reaction to what I saw at St. Peter’s Piazza and Basilica in Rome. Holy Crap Batman, this place is awesome. Out of the woods springs this bowl like area with all these Hoodoos. Gothic looking points cropping up all over the place. I walked to the observation point and there were already about 30 people there with there cameras and tripods as the sun begam coming up.
Some of these people are a little obsessed with picture taking. One guy I talked to took pictures for forensics and is now retired. He said I made a good living doing that and I said yes I bet there is not many people that can stomach that. He said he just thought of them as objects and not people. Another overweight person from St. Louis in his late 20’s I assume, had his tripod up and camera with about 10 inches of lens sticking out. He had the camera on timer and about every 30 seconds it would automatically take a picture. That seemed a little crazy to me, but to each his own. I guess being that overweight limits your hobbies to a certain degree. There were several other people going goo goo and ga ga all around the area as I was and there was a big pool of drool that you had to walk through whenever you were near the fence. I got a few good pictures and the other folks got several hundred good pictures. I then began walking out around 7:30 as did most other people. On the way I saw a good naturally
framed picture and opened the shutter a few times to capture that seen. The lighting was phenomenal as well as the sun lit up the Hoodoos in this one area making it appear like there was a light behind them. I felt really good about these pictures as know one else was getting them except the people who just got off the tour bus and saw me taking them. Even the heavy set guy with the $10,000 worth of photography equipment didn’t get these pictures. I felt good about the morning and was ready for some eggs for breakfast. I was getting a little tired of oatmeal which is what I eat every day while camping. I am thinking I could do hard boiled eggs while camping, but other than that there are not many breakfast options as I do not want to pack a cooler with me or fry anything.
Went back out of the park to the Rubys complex and had me a nice breakfast. Most places you can have a nice breakfast on the cheap. Here I got 2 eggs sunny side up just the way I like them, hash browns, wheat toast and water
for $4.00. Not too shabby. I used the wifi there and then went back into the park. At the Park entrance I had difficulty finding my National Park card, but fortunately eventually found it. Man these National Park passes really pay for theirself in a hurry. Within 4 Parks you have paid for the card and I have been to probably 15 since buying this card. Man the west has some National Parks! I had no idea.
I went to Sunset Point and hiked through Wall Street, which was recently reopened as one of the hoodoos collapsed and they just recently made a path through the collapsed section. Man there is a picture around every corner along this trail while walking past the hoodoos. This is a very cool place like no other in the world as one English Lady put it. I saw the overweight man again and he was shooting pictures like there was no tomorrow. He must spends hours wading through all his pictures. I will be doing the same thing after this trip is over, which is going to be a monumental undertaking.
From the Wall Street trail you can connect to the Queens
Garden trail,which is an amazing spectacle. This is my favorite conglomerate of Hoodoos. I took lots of pictures of these particular Hoodoos. At one point I saw three planes above them and I was trying to get the planes in the backdrop, but my camera doesn’t refresh quick enough to allow for another picture right away and as a result I couldn’t get them all in the photo. I learned that night too that that would have been a phenomenal shot as the plane I did get showed up well. Oh well what are you going to do? “Just keep on keeping on,” as my friend Joe Dirt says!
I talk to several people while on this trail. I ran into a group of four from St. Louis, a couple from Ohio, a couple from Europe who now lived in New Zealand. This is what I like. It seemed I was meeting more people from Europe than I am people the United States during my US travels. I think I am more interested in them these days. It is funny how that works. If you live in a small town you will know more people than if you live
in a big city. I got to know more people in Europe than I do in the US. I think I need to start going to more bars and couchsurfing again if I want to meet people. I have only been camping lately. It seems the Europeans love it as well when they run into someone that knows about their countries as well. I am pretty good now in talking a little about pretty much every country in Europe. That is cool.
I took loads of pictures at Queens Garden. I wanted one of those pictures to be a keeper, so I tried several different angles for pictures. Not sure if I got any keepers out of the whole deal. Sometimes the dice are lucky sometimes they are not. Not sure that is a saying, but maybe it should be? It seems to make since. I moved up and out of the Hoodoo area as it was getting a little spooky and I could feel pin pricks ever so often. I made it up to Sunrise Point and walked back to my truck at Sunset Point. I was ready to hit the road as tonight I needed to start
making my way to Sedona. I was excited about seeing Sedona.
I packed up and headed out. The Red Canyon State Park area was on the way as I was backtracking down 89 to head down to Sedona. I was curious as to see what the Red Rocks at Red Canyon looked like now, having seen these crazy Hoodoos. I arrived there sooner than expected and it seemed the Red Canyon just over night changed from something that was totally awesome dude, to just awesome dude. Having the images of those Hoodoos permanently burned into my retina Red Canyon is not as awesome. We as people are always comparing. That is how we learn. What was amazing one day becomes just ok the next because of our experiences. Interesting how that works. I still think these rocks are nice, but they are not on par with Bryce Canyon. It is funny the guy that formerly owned Bryce Canyon responded when asked what do you think of that Canyon and he replied, “It is a helluv a place to lose a cow.” That would definitely be true. I made good time down highway 89 and ended up in a town
called Kanab. I was getting a little sleepy so I pulled in to a restaurant to grab a shake. I was tempted to stay in the local RV place there, but I decided to go a little farther.
Jim Keeton said I should just pull off the side of the road near Page and camp on the Bureau of Land Management ground. He was employed by BLM before he retired. I did see a sign and drove way off the road as the visitor center was closed and drove way back to some really primitive camping spots. I decided no go for this place as it really was just tent camping. On the way out I thought of the crazy drive to Darwin Falls near Death Valley as this drive was similar.
Finally back on the highway and saw Lake Powell. At first I thought I was seeing the entire lake, but learned later this was just a finger of the Lake. This is a huge lake and is lots of miles in total length. The area I pulled in to wanted a ridiculous amount of money. It was like $25. I said no way to that and
hightailed it out of there. The person at the gate told me roughly where the fence opening is for the BLM ground. He was very cool. I decided first however to check out the other site as he said you just drive your truck onto the beach and camp there. He said there is no designated camp sites.
The lady working at the gate for the beach camp ground was very nice as well. I told her I was going to drive over to the BLM ground and she too told me where it was at. She then went onto say you do not want to camp out there as there are snakes out there. She said just go and camp down here on the beach and she winked at me. I said great thanks so much. This area is quite cool and has a huge rock out in the middle. On my way down I saw a kid and his girlfriend who had their truck stuck. He had a strap so I told him I would pull him out. I told him I would, but we needed to be very careful as I did not want to tear
anything up on my truck. Some reason the lady jumped in to drive it as the man had gotten it stuck. Man this seams totally backwards and really scared me 😊 , but I gave her a few instructions like once we get this thing out do not keep backing into me. We attached the strap to the front of my truck as there were recovery hooks there that are meant for pulling or being pulled. I told him at first my four wheel drive had not been working, but I learned it does for 4-wheel low just not on the high side. I pulled her out nice and gentle without much trouble I heard the straps sounding like they were going to bust, but they held. The sand really does make it pretty easy to get stuck. He thanked me and I told him it was no big deal and to do something good for someone else sometime. That’s what Jim Keeton told me one time when he had done something for me and I thought that was a great thing to say.
I motored down to the beach and was impressed by the setup. A great view
of mesa in the east and the big rock out front in the water. The lady had told me the water is 76 deg which was perfect for swimming as long as you stay active. I jumped in and swam for awhile. The water was great and I swam for about 15 minutes. I was pretty much exhausted from not sleeping due to the cold the previous night so I tired easily.
I saw some European plates on the RV near me and the guy walked towards me. I asked him if he was from Germany and he said no France. I of course talked to him for awhile. He said him and his wife and 3 kids are traveling for a year. The kids who were having a blast playing in the sand appeared all to be under 6. He said he quit his job and is traveling with his family for a year. They are heading into South America soon. He said it cost them $2,700 to ship the RV all the way across the Atlantic. This was about $700 more than the Swiss kids which makes sense as the French guys RV was much bigger. He
These are the Hoodoos.
The original owner of this plot of land was asked what he thought about it. He said, "It is a helluva place to loose a cow!" Amen to that brother! invited me over a little later and I told him I would show him some pics of Carlsbad Caverns as he said they are headed that way but did not know if they were going to the cave. I mentioned the cave is defintely worth seeing.
I drove around for awhile trying to get some sunset photos and talked to the guard one last time to make sure I was not going to get a hefty fine for staying down there for free. She said the ranger would just make you come up and pay. I got a couple good photos and headed back down to my beach site. I typed for awhile and went over to talk to the French couple. They were already talking to some other people and I joined in. We drank my last decent bottle of home made wine and the French guy said that is a unique taste, but his wife seemed to actually like it. It was a very sweet concord and really is not too bad of a dessert wine. They called it a night around 10:00 so I walked over to see what our rowdy neighbors were up to as
they were playing folk music. I was feeling pretty good having consumed about half of my potent wine. They offered me a chair and I listened. It was an interesting group. They said every full moon they congregate here and kayak under the moonlight and then play music. I really enjoyed their songs. One was a song slamming Bush. It talked about his religious beliefs followed by the hypocrisy of taking us to war. Two of the musicians actually played in a band they said. None of them were the next Boss, but they were good and in this setting their style of music was perfect. They played until about midnight and then I left and called it a night. I was really beat as it was a long day and I was only going on probably 4 hours of sleep after experiencing the frigid tundra of Bryce Canyon the night before. This turned out to be a great night. The moon was absolutely awesome. I hope other people are experiencing this beautiful full moon tonight. Goodnight from the Beach on Lake Powell in Arizona.
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Nancy R
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Halloween?
I just saw the pictures of the Springsteen concert and you at the Dr on Halloween? Did I miss the written part of that, or have you not journaled that turn of events?