Wonders of the American West
Day Seven – 4 June 2011
Bryce Canyon – Grand Canyon
Weather: Bryce 10 and sunny. Zion 30 Sunny
I was up minutes after sunrise and decided to walk the rim of the canyon. Silly me didn’t bring any water with me. Highly recommended even if you plan a short walk. If I had had water with me, I think I could have done the full walk.
I went up to sunset point, which gave me a really good look at the sunrise.
But from sunrise point, I got the light against the wall of the canyon.
I walked along the rim to sunrise point and decided to do a short part of the Queen’s Trail where there was a pinnacle that looked like Queen Victoria but I didn’t get that far since I didn’t have water.
The views were nothing short of magnificent. With the sun rising behind me, the colours were brilliant. The most interesting photo, I think, were the shadows of the trees against a wall of rock. Another shadow extended to the top of the rock where a little tree sat, so it looked like the shadow ended in a real tree.
I walked down until I realized it would take quite a bit more distance to get back in among the hoodoos, so I sat down next to a tree and watched the colours change for half an hour.
Awesome.
There wasn’t a sound anywhere.
I couldn’t remember the last time I experienced such silence.
Not that having tinnitus helped.
Other people from the tour passed by in both directions. By 7:30, I decided to head back up and took my time.
I ran into Gordon, and even though I wasn’t really feeling the need for water, he offered and I took a few gulps.
The worst was the dry mouth from the air.
By nine, I was up on the rim and across to sunset point. I took the last of the two hundred photos I had taken in two hours and returned to the hotel.
I had to repack so I didn’t have time to go to breakfast.
Not that I’ll starve.
As I finished with the repack, I noticed my battery charger still plugged in the wall.
Oops.
Gordon said we’d never believe the number of batteries and chargers that hotels have in their lost and found.
I’d believe it. So if you forget one, check with the next hotel’s lost and found.
Luggage was out at 9:45 and we departed at ten. Gordon has said the hotel at the Grand Canyon had to be changed from the Grand Canyon Lodge to one in nearby Jacob Lake. The change was the reason that we had so much time in Bryce and I was very happy to give up the Grand Canyon Lodge for this opportunity.
In fact, Insight, if you’re listening, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that this become a two night stop. There was so much to do here. If I had the day, I would have taken the horse trip into the canyon and walked some more. Even some of the older couples said that if they had had a full day, they could have done the trails since they could have taken their time.
(Update: Someone may have been listening as Bryce Canyon is now a two night stop).
We made a quick stop at the visitor’s centre so that those with National Park passports could get them stamped. They were booklets with all the parks listed that you can get stamped like a passport at each park you visit. This tour was a bonanza to them.
Our first stop was at the Salt & Pepper Shakers in Red Canyon.
We got a quick photo stop and then it was on to Mt Caramel for a maintenance stop. The bus needed gas and the phone booth needed to be emptied. Surprisingly, this was the first time the bus needed fuel since it was in South Dakota on the last tour. And it only took $500 to fill up. Far better fuel economy than I expected from a bus.
Gordon mentioned that there was a trail at Zion that we could do and that if we wanted to do it, we should pick up something to eat at the station – which had a Subway attached. Too easy.
Then we entered what was familiar territory to me. I drove this road twenty years earlier and recognized the checkerboard mountains immediately. They’re formations on the surface that look like…well….a checkerboard. It was formed by the freeze-thaw cycle.
We passed through an area of low, off-white hills and cliffs and I went back to the two free back seats and jump between them taking pics. We saw some pronghorn antelope along the way.
Then we were stopped at a tunnel. This tunnel was build decades ago – long before they imagined motor coaches or RVs and it wasn’t designed to take vehicles that big with cars going in the opposite direction, so the rangers have to stop the cars on one side while the larger vehicles crossed through. They had to pay for the special treatment.
The tunnel had windows along the side that give you a preview of the Zion valley.
Just as I remembered it.
We came out into a steep valley with a huge Blind Arch at one end (a blind arch hasn’t cut through the rock. It’s like an alcove). This one was some ninety feet deep.
Once out of the tunnel, we went down a steep switchback that had some of us holding our breath. It was a spectacular ride to the bottom. When we exited that portion of the canyon, we turned left into the main canyon which is also a box canyon.
Looking back, I could see the window in the tunnel.
We pulled into the very busy Zion Lodge. It was Saturday and Las Vegas was only three hours away, so a lot of people go to Zion for the day or weekend. Gordon gave us the time for our tram ride deeper into the canyon and we took off for the trail to the Emerald Pool.
The altitude was much lower than Bryce. The Grand Staircase was just that – a staircase with Bryce being the highest step and then Zion was a step down. I thought the Grand Canyon would be a step down, but it’s actually a step up – five hundred feet higher than Bryce.
The walk was well worth it!! The Emerald Pools were a waterfall (with not a lot of water falling over it) but you could walk under the overhang.
With a blue sky as a backdrop, it was beautiful. (Gordon was surprised to hear that there was water coming over the edge. Later in the season, it’s too dry).
We made it back to the lodge with time to board the tram for the tour.
The canyon was perhaps two or three miles deeper with steep rock faces on either side and the Virgin River at the bottom.
We stopped at the end and got some pics of the box end of the canyon.
En route, our guide showed us a walking trail that was cut out of the side of the mountain with people climbing it hundreds of feet above us (white peak in centre below). They looked like ants on the side of the rock face. She said the last eight hundred feet was not for the faint of heart as it moved along a knife-edge with drops on either side and no railings.
Wouldn’t be me.
She showed us areas where water no longer flows off the mountains as waterfalls, but instead, it seeps through the mountains, staining the rock black.
At one hill, she showed us a contraption set up on the top and said that when the Mormons settled the region, it was easier to haul ponderosa pine down from the top of the canyon to the bottom to build their homes by cable. The original wooden contraption for the cable remains on the top of the mountain. The last pines to be taken were used to build the original Zion Lodge.
The tour lasted an hour and Gordon gave us a few minutes for a bathroom break before we move on. I finally found an ATM and got enough to cover the well-deserved tips.
Which reminds me…ATMs were pretty rare up to now, so having a bit of cash is probably a good idea. I paid for most of my purchases with visa so I wasn’t desperate for cash, but if you think you’ll run short the next day or so, start looking for an ATM right away. We walked by one in Blanding but I didn’t think I’d need cash at the time.
We left Zion at 3:30 and had to retrace our steps out of Zion via the same switchback and tunnel to Mt. Caramel. Once there, we turned south and found ourselves on a flat plain. We made a stop in Kenab for a break and shopping. As we left the town, Gordon told us to set our watches back an hour. Arizona is on Mountain Time but doesn’t observe DST, so for the summer, it’s on Pacific Time.
We entered the forest of tall pines that I remembered from twenty years ago. Back then, I never imagined that we’d have to drive through fifty miles of forest to get to the edge of the Grand Canyon. I always imagined it was surrounded by desert.
At Jacob Lake, we pulled into the hotel/motel/cabins/campground.
We got the hotel portion.
<whew>
Thought it wasn’t really designed with a motor coach in mind. The hotel was located on the edge of the campground and a couple times we weren’t sure the bus would make it around the tall trees. We got our luggage in quickly and set off for the included dinner. Originally, dinner wasn’t included on this night (which was supposed to be at the Grand Canyon Lodge) and as compensation for the hotel change, Insight covered our dinner including one drink.
I was delighted with the extra hours at Bryce. This was just gravy.
After dinner (which was so much quicker than the previous two nights) we did some serious shopping and found the prices reasonable. I picked up some gifts like dream catchers which were priced as much as $50 at other locations. They were much cheaper at Jacob Lake.
The sun set much earlier with the time change, so it got dark roughly an hour earlier than at Bryce.
The room was pretty basic. No safe or kettle and the furniture was like something out of the fifties or made from logs. The shower was nice (no bath tub).
And the walls were like paper.
But wifi was free.
Come to think of it, this was the first tour I’d taken in which I didn’t have to pay a single cent for internet connection.
The next day was Grand Canyon day. We expected photo stops, free time, dinner at the Grand Canyon Lodge and a sunset show before we returned back to Jacob Lake.
Go to Day Eight
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