Wonders of the American West

Day Six – 3 June 2011

Lake Powell – Bryce Canyon

Weather: Lake Powell 31/sunny. Bryce – ice age by comparison.

For the first time, I slept until my alarm clock woke me. I looked outside to see if it was worth checking out the sunrise but it was clouded over. I went down for breakfast and we were the only tour in the restaurant. Actually, I believe we were the only tour in town. Up to this point, we had come across very few tour buses as so few tours visit the locations that we do. That will change with Bryce Canyon onward.

We departed at 7:15 with box lunches provided by the hotel for $10 each. Gordon planned to have lunch at a park in Capitol Reef. We headed north and Gordon pointed out some of the houseboats complete with water slides on the back.

Cool.

He told us a story about a friend who rented a houseboat during a hantavirus breakout. So, when they rented the boat, the agency gave them mouse traps to set inside the boat. Gordon said none of them slept well that week.

As we drove north, we started paralleling snow capped mountains to our right. Gordon said we were going to be on the other side of them by the end of the day.

We stopped in Hanksville at a place called Blondies. They had really good cinnamon buns and we all got one. Or rather shared them. They were huge.

Did I mention that I ate way too much on this tour?

Well, my shorts still fit. That’s a good sign.

I picked up a Lake Powell t-shirt but chuckled at the one that says Where the Hell is Hanksville?

Now, if I ever see anyone with that t-shirt, I can say “Utah!”

Anyway, we turned west towards the Waterpocket Fold which is a hundred mile long uplift between the plateaus and it was a formidable barrier to early settlers.

We made several stops including one at a formation that may have been the reason the park was called Capitol Reef – because it has a dome formation that looks like the dome of the Capitol building in Washington and Reef because the Fold resembles an underwater reef. There were an unimaginable variation in the rock and colours.

At eleven, we stopped at Gifford’s House and Museum. It had a store that sold great apple pies.

Yes, I did mention I ate way too much, right? Okay. Just checking.

We made a quick stop to view the Fremont Petroglyphs in a picturesque spot.

These petroglyphs were made between 600-1300 CE by the Pueblo people who lived here at the time.

Gordon told the hikers in the group that there was a trail we could take that would take the whole hour, but we could eat the box lunch on the bus afterwards. We jumped at the chance.

I only went so far and when I figured there wasn’t much more to see, I turned back and took my time walking back (as the bus wasn’t leaving until everyone else started to pass me on the way back). It made for some nice photo opportunities.

The rest of the hikers made it back right on time. Impressive.

We continued on, chowing down on our lunch and pie in the bus. We made several more photo stops that gave us an idea of what the Fold is really like.

We crossed the Boulder pass and got more photo ops with the Henry Mountains in the background and then we entered the Grand Staircase Escalante. This is a National Monument created by Clinton to protect 1.7 million acres of amazing land.

It was the last area in the US to be mapped and had few roads and fewer visitors. The farmers were not happy with the designation as they could no longer graze their cattle inside the park but they have since found ways to make money by milking the tourists instead.

Gordon noted a sign that pointed to a road called Hell’s Backbone. He went over it once and said that if we thought having a thousand foot drop off one side of the bus was nerve wracking, try both sides.

No. He didn’t go over it in a coach.

And neither did we.

But we did go over one pass that had a thousand foot drop off on both sides, but with some shoulder. We made a stop where we could take photos down a thousand feet on one side, cross the road and take pictures of another thousand foot drop on the other. Spectacular!!

The temperature was variable too. We didn’t know whether or not to take our fleece with us when we went out to take photos. It was very brisk on the Boulder Pass, but as we got closer to Bryce, it got warmer even though the temperature there that morning was minus three.

Bryce Canyon isn’t a canyon as such. It used to be at the bottom of an ocean and was layered with mud and silt that solidified into stone. When the plateau was uplifted, the stone was easily eroded and the harder stone erodes slower than the softer stone. That formed the hoodoos – a staggering colourful display of spires and towers in a natural amphitheatre. Before we stopped at the hotel, Gordon gave us a half hour at the Inspiration Point lookout.

AWESOME!

Mrs. Bryce was right. It was a hell of a place to lose a cow.

After taking far too many pictures, we headed to the hotel. Gordon told us that Trafalgar stays at the entrance to the park while we were in the park itself. There was some advantage in that we could walk to the rim of the canyon in a few minutes. Trafalgar guests would have to take a shuttle and they only run from eight to eight. They would miss sunrise and sunset.

We got our rooms sorted out and had to pick times for the included dinner. Some of us decided on earlier rather than later, but like the night before, the dinner took so long, we lost valuable sightseeing time. We sat down to dinner at 5:45 and didn’t finish until after 7:30.

The dinner was delicious. I had the chicken and then someone mentioned the brownie and ice cream.

Yup. I ate too much. Way too much. But, holy cow, was that brownie ever delicious.

We finally got out to walked to the rim by eight. The sun was already down behind the hill so that the hoodoos were not lit. Some people wanted to do the walk down into the canyon – there were several trails – but it was much too late. We were not going to leave till ten the next morning, so we would get a chance to do some of it in the morning.

I checked my email in the lobby and finally settled into my room by ten. It was as simple as the last hotel in a National Park. Kettle, shampoo and stuff, hair dryer…but no TV.

Luckily I have some entertainment on my computer.