The Grand Canyon

Of the millions of people that visit the Grand Canyon each year, it is said that the average stay is only 4 hours. We stayed two days, but barely left the rim. Small kids and all.... I am destined to return and hike rim to rim. (Mule-less). There is a lot to see on the south rim. This was our second visit and we still haven't taken it all in.

Make no mistake about it, the weather is brutal in the summer. Bring lots of water.

We stayed on the rim in the Kachina lodge as the El Tovar was full. Make your reservations early to avoid this. Hey, we had rim facing rooms so I really have no complaints. I went to bed late and rose early to see the sun rise over the canyon - doesn't get any better than that.

Some of the little critters are a bit too friendly in the lunch area behind the lodges. This is because some AH's don't know how to read - "Don't Feed the Animals".

Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef National Park

Highway 12 from Bryce to Torrey, UT is referred to some as the most beautiful stretch of highway in the United States. It is spectacular, but having traveled a lot of highway in this country, I believe that the most beautiful stretch of highway belongs to Montana's Beartooth Highway from Red Lodge to Cooke City, MT near Yellowstone's northeast entrance.

Hwy 12 winds its way through the red rock country, briefly through Grand Staircase Escalante NM. This stretch of road winds up and down so much one of our passengers tossed their lunch in the back causing an emergency stop. A couple days later, after the car baked in the desert sun, that was a nice smell. We actually found large patches of snow along the highway - one of which proved to be a good stopping point for our snowball fight - in late JUNE (despite the fact we were melting only hours earlier in Bryce Canyon).

Just south of Boulder where we spent the night is the infamous "Hogback" stretch of road where the ground drops off sharply on both sides of the road - not a good time to be taking in the scenery. One wrong turn here and its "game over"!

More Bryce Canyon

Bryce offers a LOT of the famous Hoodoos. These sandstone features are the result of years of erosion and have created the appearance of thousands of sandstone people in the amphitheatre viewed from Bryce Point.

There are several unique features in the canyon that are also the result of erosion over the millenia.

Thor's Hammer, The Poodle (look closely at the pix), Natural Bridge, and the Amphitheatre are in these pictures.

Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon offers a lot of different things to see and do in a fairly small national park. Don't miss the short side trip prior to going through the park service entrance to Fairyland Canyon. It is easy to miss with only a small sign on the left side of the road. Therefore, it is generally without the crowds you get at the other larger spots in the park.

We hiked down from Sunset point. The further down you go, the slimmer the crowd gets - figuratively and literally. This is a tough hike in June. By mid-day it was HOT. Make sure you carry a LOT of water. We had three kids with us and we went through our water on the way down. I had my daughter on my shoulders most of the way down and out again. A position I have been in before, and would be again on this trip. The climb out was steep, (at least as steep as it looks in the pictures), but well worth the trip. Did I say BRING WATER....well, bring water!

Bryce Canyon Here We Come

It is probably a 60 -90 minute drive from Zion to Bryce depending on how fast you drive. There is plenty to look at along the road, but it is basically a two-lane open road through the high desert.

By 9am its hot. Mid-June and you know that mid-afternoon will be Africa-Hot! If/when I return, I will spend more time at Bryce than I did this time. We basically spent a long day here. It was going to be a full moon there and the Park Service offers full moon tours on these nights. There is plenty of light to hike by on a full moon night. And, there is too much to see and do in a single day regardless of how long you are at the park. Don't be one of the 90%-ers that ride the park bus to the end of the canyon road, look around, and then leave. You need to take a hike into the canyon. Our hike started out as pretty popular with the crowd, but it was not long before the herd thinned itself out - too hot, too steep, too (fill in the blank) for the arm-chair americans.

Zion National Park

On the way out of the park, we stopped for the short hike to overlook the canyon from the east side. The trail head is just outside the tunnels and there is very limited parking. It is an easy hike and worth it for the view. We did this just before sunset and the weather was not too hot.

Checkerboard Mesa in one of these photos and some other erosion features like hoodoos are near this east exit as well. While the Checkerboard Mesa is a well known landmark, it is probably a bit overblown - take a picture and move on.

We did the hike around dinner time. As you look around in the hills, there is no one around - all gone for the day. Your "cave man" instincts kick in and you have the sense of being watched. Followed by the knowledge that if a mountain lion were to be in the area, this is where it would choose to live. Puts this simple hike in a whole different light - it put a bounce in our step and we did not hang around too long at the overlook, but were glad we went.

Zion National Park

We actually were able to avoid the "are we there yet", "my feet hurt", etc cries of the kids. They were mesmerized by the opportunity to climb on rocks and the 2000 ft cliffs on either side of the canyon. We saw a fair amount of wildlife like turkeys, deer, etc. One deer and her new fawn played in the woods in this picture. Just enough to keep the kids occupied. This fawn had obviously just finished its Mountain Dew for the day - it looked like it was running from a cheetah. I was able to get the picture after panning with it several times as I took the picture. Even the squirrels were not running away which usually indicated people have been feeding them - bad people.....

Zion National Park

At the top is what has become my obligatory wade in local waters. This water is cold, but refreshing. We were early to rise and anxious to get to the park. After the delay at breakfast at the resort we stayed at, we headed west to the park. Unless things have changed considerably, pass on the meals at the resort.

We took a hike from the Zion Lodge (http://www.zionlodge.com/) in Zion NP into the narrows. It was early enough that we weren't too concerned with the heat and the crowds were at a minimum. Private vehicles are not allowed in the park with a small exception to pass through (between the south and east entrances). The park provides buses to shuttle you to various points in the park to begin your hike or rock climb.

There are a lot of hikes in the canyon. We did a short hike to the Weeping Wall which is at the beginning of the hike to Angels Landing - This hike looks awesome if you have no fear. Simple google searches and sites like Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/) provide great guidance and insight into this hike.

We did not go all the way in to the narrows with small kids and a hint of afternoon rain. Even a little rain in the desert southwest can turn these canyons into flash floods.