On the Road with Anna and Noel

What a week it has been. I have been in love with slot canyons ever since I saw a picture of one in National Geographic. Slot canyons are narrow canyons carved out of sandstone by water. In another few million years, they will be huge canyons, but for now, they are just wide enough to get a few people in. And they are gorgeous!

About 17 years ago, when we brought Jason out here, I had researched slot canyons and all of them were way out in the desert, inaccessible to most and required climbing and repelling skills I was not up to. So imagine my delight when I found out there is now tours that take you right up to the front of one and guide you through it! Yippeeeee!

So we took these people movers, along with a few hundred other folks, on a bumpy ride out into the desert: -

There are 8 more of these to my right - we're talking a lot of people.

Right to the entrance of the slot canyon. No hiking involved!

the entrance, looking pretty non-descript, but just wait....

there is magic inside!

I was giddy with excitement, and then began to panic when my photos just were not coming out they way I wanted them to - I kept playing with the shutter speed and f-stops, and the tour guide kept pressing us along like cattle. I was about to cry when I finally figured it out. Ahhh....the perfect picture - a photographers orgasm!

It looks like a bear, doesn't it? The wonderful tour

guide showed us just where to stand to get this shot! See it?

The sun creates these gorgeous colors and shadows as it shines

through the slim openings at the top.

Don't be fooled. There is a crowd of people

all around me, and just out of the shot is

a tour guide poking the sand to make

it trickle!

See what I mean? Elbow to elbow

This is the smile of one happy girl at the end. We got to go back

through in the opposite direction, but I used the second

time through to take it all in without worrying

about getting the perfect picture. Another

entry checked off the bucket list!

So we spent the last few days in Page resting and recovering and then packed it all in again and headed to Utah. We stopped for a stretch break at a pull off we saw for a National Parks Historical Site called Pipe Spring. It was an interesting history lesson about how the native Paiute Indians, the Mormon Pioneers and the Federal Government struggled over who controlled the water springs, over culture clash and polygamy. To read about it, check out this website: http://www.nps.gov/pisp/index.htm

The house is built right over the spring

A spiny lizard. You know I love me some lizards!

I love old linens, so of course it caught my eye on the house tour

A cute doll in the kids room

The early travel trailers....and I thought WE were roughin' it!! LOL

We are staying in a beautiful campground called Willow Woods in the town of Hurricane, Utah. Its beautiful here - this is the bank parking lot. Can you imagine seeing this everyday?

We drove into Zion National Park. I had picked out two of the easier trails from the park brochure. The first one we went to was called the "Canyon Overlook Trail". It involved driving a series of switchbacks, winding back and forth as we drove higher and higher, and then through a mile long tunnel straight through the rocks.

See those squiggles in the valley? That's the road, and then we drove through

the mountain on the left side of the picture...

Good thing we weren't pulling the trailer, because

larger vehicles have to have an escort through the tunnel so

they can drive right down the middle. They have to stop

all other traffic and charge $15 to do it.

So once you are pretty high up, we had to jostle for a parking space at the trail head, and climbed up some steps. The rest of the trail was fairly even, but pretty treacherous in places, with narrow paths and steep drop offs. This trail had hand rails, some of the trails in the park don't. So we trekked to the end of the 1/2 mile trail, and wow, it was worth it!

If this is an easy trail, I'm glad I didn't go for the hard ones!

Noel didn't think I would be fast enough to catch him.

I have the reflexes of a Ninja!

Noel hates heights, but even he admitted the view

was amazing! And the chinese tourists up there were cracking

us up. We didn't know what they were saying, but

"oooooohhhhhh" is universal!

We saw some really pretty wildflowers along the way!

I was SOOOOO excited to see big horned sheep

as we got back to the parking lot

Someone pointed them out, or I would never have seen them!

So we went back into town for some lunch and stopped a rock shop (surprise!)

Since the park was so crowded, the parking lots were full. Most of the park is not open to vehicles, but shuttles take you through the park. It eliminates traffic congestion and is a lot easier on the wildlife. So we took the shuttle:

to the Emerald Pool trail. There are three of these "pools", but we only hiked to the first one on the paved trail, but it was a beautiful walk, and there were a few trickling water falls by the pool. We saw some beautiful birds, some mule deer, and we kept hearing this loud chorus of sounds that we finally figured out were TREE FROGS! Specific to the Virgin River, these golden tree frogs echoed through the canyon.

We were watching this raven - he would carefully stalk, then strike, and every single time he got a frog. I took a bunch of pictures, and of course he would always have his back to me, but I managed a few pics. If you look carefully, you can see him thrashing the frog in its beak, then pulling it apart to eat it!

Don't forget you can click on the pictures

to make them larger....

Poor little frog....

And so ended our Zion adventure. Today I rested while Noel took the truck in to get two new tires. Turns out that unpaved road through Monument Valley left a pretty good sized gash in one of the side walls of the rear tires. Sigh. Its always something! Tomorrow, its Vegas or Bust!

After the hullabaloo of the "stolen" purse, we kept climbing in elevation as we drove north to Flagstaff. We found a nice KOA campground at the base of a mountain, with tall pine trees and cool breezes. Only a few hours north of the Sonoron Desert, yet a world away.

This is what we've been living in for the last 8 months!

The bedroom and living room "slides" to allow for more space

when stopped. Makes a huge difference.

The western squirrels have cute long ears

The ravens out here are huge!

We explored Flagstaff, a college town that reminded me a bit of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Quirky, artsy, and outdoorsy - there were lots of cute art shops, outdoor outfitters, hiking, skiing, rock climbing, etc.

Cute local art co-op

Church in Flagstaff

Historic hotel in Flagstaff

"Yarn Bombed" bike stands in Flagstaff art district

Just outside the city is Sunset Crater National Park - this volcano blew up about 900 years ago and the area is still covered in cinder. It was like being on the moon it looked so different. We mostly drove through the first section of the park and walked a short trail, but it was enough to get a good feel of the area.

walking the lava rock path

That is the actual cinder cone of the volcano

Black, rough lava rock, even after 900 years, has little soil

A nice view of the San Francisco mountains; still

with snow on its peaks

We left Flagstaff and continued north, stopping at the Cameron Trading Post on part of the Navajo Nation Reservation.

How sweet is this little face?

Beautiful handmade Kachina

Sand paintings in recycled glasses and baby food jars!

Tapestry and Kachinas over the fireplace in the restaurant

part of the trading post

Navojo weaving....incredible, and incredibly expensive!

We ended up in Page, Arizona. Again, only a few hour drive, and yet again, the terrain and landscape is completely different! Page is a town that was founded in the 1950s during the building of the Glen Canyon Dam.

Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona in the United States, near the town of Page. The dam was built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the upper Colorado River Basin to the lower. Its reservoir is called Lake Powell, and is the second largest artificial lake in the country, extending upriver well into Utah. The dam is named for Glen Canyon, a colorful series of gorges, most of which now lies under the reservoir. (taken from Wikipedia)

The landscape is basically rocks as far as the eye can see in all directions. And its almost always windy here. We're talking WINDY as in hold on to your hat and your skin, because the sand is picked up in the wind and its like a full body dermabrasion treatment. And that same sand that is pelting your face is pelting the rocks, creating weird, windswept patterns in the soft sandstone (basically petrified sand dunes).

More strange rock formations, jutting out of the earth

Rocks as far as you can see

Rocky landscape

Windswept sandstone

We drove a few miles along Lake Powell:

Our first full day in Page we just got our bearings, explored the town, stopped at some scenic overviews and went to Horseshoe Bend. Horseshoe Bend is an iconic picture seen in about every publication about the west and the Colorado River. According to the article we had clipped out of the paper for directions, it was 5 miles out of Page and while you couldn't see it from the road, it was just a short walk to this beautiful scenic overlook. Short walk my A@@! The sign said it was .7 (that's POINT 7 - not even a mile). Does this look like less than a mile to you?

Those are people way out there.

So we walked down to the overlook - which was so much more beautiful than any pictures could show. There were about 75 people on the trail coming and going, 99% of them foreign tourists, and we got a kick out of how many asian tourists climbed out of one van! LOL

People kept getting so close to the edge!

Horseshoe bend - I didn't get close enough to the edge

to get the full picture. Sandstone is soft and you never know what

has eroded underneath you, which is how people are killed

here on a regular basis. No rails, so you are supposed to use

common sense - obviously not so common anymore

Funny story: As we were walking at one of the overlooks, I was taking pictures of some of the flowers growing out of the rocks. One plant in particular had a wonderful smell, so I plucked a leaf and crushed it between my fingers to get a good whiff. I poked it under Noel's nose so he could smell it. There were two couples walking towards us, and one of the women was looking directly at me and I thought was listening, so I walked up to her and said "Doesn't it smell wonderful?" and poked that leaf right under her nose. Well, they didn't speak English and were quite taken aback by this large stranger trying to stick something under their nose! LOL Wouldn't you know, at the next stop at Horseshoe Bend I was taking pictures when I saw a little lizard in the bushes. I saw out of the corner of my eye some people walking with a camera, so I stopped them and pointed to the lizard so they could see it too. Wouldn't you know, it was those same people, who again looked at me like "Why is this crazy American women bothering us again?" I finally gestured enough for them to understand I was just trying to show them the lizard, but I was pretty embarrassed, so no more talking to tourists for me!!

Here, SMELL THIS!

I wonder how you say lizard in French?

What the article about Horseshoe Bend failed to mention is the 3/4 mile back to the parking lot is pretty much ALL uphill, and mostly in deep, soft sand. About 1/2 way up I would have gladly paid a LOT more in taxes for an escalator and oxygen station. Its one thing for me to hike uphill on a paved or rocky path, but that sand about killed me. It was only about noon, but I was done for the day. I went home and took a 3 hour nap.

Even the next day I couldn't leave the trailer I was so exhausted and in pain. But there is too much to see here to miss it, so the next day we drove out to Monument Valley Navajo National Park. Its about 150 miles from Page, and most of the park is a 17 mile unpaved dirt road through the valley, so it didn't require too much hiking, just hopping out of the truck to take some pics, than back in my extra cushioned seat (Noel takes such good care of me). Monument Valley is on the Navajo Nation, and we made one stop along the way at the Navajo National Monument, an Anasazi Indian Ruin.

The ruins are at the base, inside the alcove

Mind you, this thing is huge - hard to capture in pictures

breathtaking views

As we drove through the Navajo reservation, we saw lots of wild horses (they call them feral horses), and it looked like the set of a western move! And again, the terrain was changing...

I can't help but wonder how/why these giant rock buttes jut out of the earth in the middle of an otherwise flat field....

Beautiful patches of purple flowers

every once in a while, you would see the Navajo artists set up

alongside the road selling jewelry, dream catchers and other trinkets

A giant rock just all by itself in the middle of nowhere

Another one - strange

We arrived at Monument Valley and it was everything we thought it might be - MAGNIFICENT! A lot of westerns and movies have been filmed in Monument Valley, but what you don't really get from the screen is the sheer size of the rocks and buttes and mesas, the deep colors of the rocks against the blue skies. And how darn bumpy that 17 mile road is through the park!

the only mammal we saw in the park

See the little white speck at the base of the rocks? That's a pick up truck!

That gives you an idea of the size of these things

The Three Sisters formation - dibs on being the skinny

one in the middle!

The little white specks at the base in the middle of the picture?

Those are people on horseback.

Driving home, we noticed a sign - is that what I think it is?

Yep - A yard sale - in the middle of no where! I wonder how many miles long their

driveway is? I wonder if they ever got any customers?

So today, Saturday, we had reservations with a Colorado River Outfitter to smooth water raft down the Colorado River. It started out with a bus ride, down through a TWO mile tunnel through the rocks, to the base of the Glen Canyon Dam. We had to pass through homeland security, and wear hard hats as we walked along the base of the canyon walls to the pier.

I think I've seen too many scary movies - I kept expecting to

see some creepy little girl in a white dress holding

a doll just appear in front of the headlights in this

pitch black, did I mention it is two miles, tunnel

The road bridge over the river

The Glen Canyon Dam

Our group consisted of Noel and I, a young couple from the Netherlands, two young men from Italy, a surfer dude and his girlfriend from San Diego, California, and a young couple from Rhode Island. We floated along, slowly meandering down the river. It was beautiful.

Fly fisherman

The arrow? That's a full size boat with three men. The walls of the

canyon are around 1100 feet high!

About two hours into the trip we pulled over onto a sandy beach area and were afforded a bathroom break, hiked down a path to see some indian petroglyphs and could have waded/swam if we wanted. The water temperature is 49 degrees. We passed on the wading part.

chuck walla lizards

There's a face only a mother could love!

Ancient drawings on the rocks

More petroglyphs

So as we floated down the river, we came to Horseshoe Bend - the same place we saw from above a few days ago. With my telephoto lens and with Noel's binoculars, we could see the teeny, tiny figures of people at the top.

picture of Horseshoe Bend from the brochure

Those are people up there! Good luck hiking back

you unsuspecting tourists, you!

And that's how people get killed - falling 1100 feet when a

rock breaks off - just to be "kind of the world" for 10 seconds.

I can't even look!

rocks are frequently breaking off and falling, as you

can see, because sandstone is very soft! That's a great blue

heron on the big rock by the water.

Speaking of great blue herons, there are rookeries (nesting areas) of herons along the cliffs, nesting in trees and maidenhair fern clusters. That was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

The trip down river was at a slow pace, the way back, our guide cranked it up and we began our way back to the dock.

First, we hit a shallow area and the propeller broke. She was able to quickly change it out with a spare. Then, the engine died abruptly. She switched to a back up gas tank, but upon starting it up it began to smoke. She quickly shut it off, and we began to drift. She couldn't reach anyone on the walkie talkie and had no signal on her cell phone. We continued to drift, having to shout to the fly fisherman our apologies as we drifted into their space so they could reel in their line. She finally had one bar on her cell phone so she texted for help. We drifted about 20 minutes when it was clear we were headed for a large rock in a small rapid, (one that we had avoided on the way down). There was only one oar, so she started frantically trying to steer us. One of the young men grabbed the broom and between the two of them we avoided the rock. We finally drifted close enough to the shore that the guide was able to jump out on the rocks and pull us to the shore while we waited for the rescue boat to arrive.

Another raft/boat arrived and we all transferred over to it for a ride safely back to the dock, back through the tunnel and back to the trailer safe and sound with a great story to tell and beautiful images burned into our memory banks! And in spite of the hiccup, I would highly recommend this trip. It was awesome, though I kind of hoped to at least get a free tee shirt for the unscheduled drama! (no such luck)