SEDONA TO THE SOUTH RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON

July 13th, Friday - July 21st, Saturday

On Friday, we drove down from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon hoping to get a spot in the Pine Flats Campground in the Coconino Forest. We traveled on 89A from Flagstaff towards Sedona. The campground was a half way point between those two cities.  What we didn't know was that there was a restriction on all vehicles over 50 feet long for part of the road to the campground. Our overall length is just about 50 feet, but we were already on the road when the restriction sign appeared and there was no turning back.  The reason for the restirction was that there are 2 1/2 miles of steep switchbacks on a very narrow road. It was one heck of a ride!

Just One of the Switchbacks We Traveled

We made it through the switchbacks only to find that the campground was full as the weekend was upon us. We continued through Sedona looking for another RV park and found one that would do in Cottonwood just south of Sedona. It was great because we actually had electricity, TV and all hookups which we have been without most of our time on the road.  We were only there for two nights but it gave us an opportunity to see a little bit of Sedona, do a little shopping and gave me time to pack up for my trip to Philly to see my daughter, Kelley, for the week.   On Saturday,Tim took me to the Chapel of the Holy Cross which he had seen before on a previous trip to the area.

Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona

 It was really an architecural feat. It's built into the red rocks of Sedona and was absolutely packed with tourists. We were told they never hold Mass there because it only has room for 75 people and the priest only goes out to it for private events such as weddings. I thoroughly enjoyed our short visit to Sedona for the day and understand why everyone is so taken with the natural red rock beauty surrounding it.

Red Rock outside of Sedona

On Sunday, the 15th, we left Cottonwood and parked the RV in Pine Flats Campground in the Oak Creek Canyon Valley. Tim took the canoe and the bikes off of the car and we headed to the airport in Phoenix where I was to take the red-eye to Philly. I was at the aiport about 8 hours early so that Tim could drive the 4 hours back to Pine Flats in the daylight and not have to drive in the dark over unlit canyon roads. My flight was cancelled, naturally, but I was able to get on another one with a stop in Denver. The red-eye was just that!

On July 16th, Monday and July 17th Tuesday
 Tim did some relaxing after his long drive on Sunday. He did a few RV repairs (nothing serious) and then he took a short sightseeing ride through Sedona so that he could decide what he would like to do with the rest of his time there.

The morning of Wednesday, the 18th, with waders on, he hiked into areas which had steep rock formations so that he could get to streams and fly cast.He was amazed to find out that the areas that are "catch and keep" are well known to the fish and they don't bite, but the "catch and release" areas are also well known to the fish. In these areas, they greedily grab the hook knowing that they can have their bait, eat it and get released. Tim did just that for five trout! He did do some "catching" he just couldn't keep them. In the afternoon, he hiked the areas near the campground and left the fishing pole home.

Thursday, the 19th, he went to Montezuma's Castle National Park which is an Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwelling similar to the ones we saw in Mesa Verde but much smaller. This structure housed thirty five people but never Montezuma. It got it's name because early on historians thought it was a Mexican conclave for Montezuma, but he never came this far north.

Montezuma's Castle

 Tim also visited a campground called Dead Horse Ranch west of Cottonwood at which we were to stay further along on our journey. It was a big open flat piece of desert with no trees and not much in the area to do so Tim decided that we would change our itinerary and visit Las Vegas instead. He cancelled those reservations.

Friday, the 20th, he loaded the canoe and the bikes, hooked up the car and without the sage advice and help of his co-pilot (his words, not mine), he  headed back up through the Oak Creek Canyon and the 2 1/2 miles of switchbacks at 15 mph and then on to Flagstaff on the way to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a three hour drive with no problems. He set up the RV and planned one day of exploration before he would be driving back to Phoenix to pick me up.

So, on Saturday the 21st, he did a bike tour on the eastern end of the South Rim.  Along the route he came upon a Ranger about to lead a bike tour of the area so he joined in. He biked four miles with the tour and another ten miles on his own to the west end and the lodges on the Rim. The bike trails are paved and the elevations are relatively mild, so he really enjoyed his day riding and seeing such gorgeous vistas. He was surprised how crowded the South Rim is compared to the North Rim.

View from the South Rim Bike Trail

On Sunday, the 22nd, Tim took a six hour drive from the South Rim to Phoenix to pick me up. As my flight arrived at 10:45pm, we stayed in Phoenix for the night. We drove back up to the Rim on Monday the 23rd with a quick side trip to Montezuma's Castle so that I could see it as well. We'll explore the South Rim together starting tomorrow, that is if we're both not too exhausted to move.

GRAND CANYON NORTH RIM PART II

July 12th, Thursday

Today was our day to head back into the North Rim and tour the 23 mile Cape Royal Scenic Road. This road is extemely windy, steep, and narrow. It offers some incredible views of the Canyon. We stopped at several places and did short hikes out to the overlooks.

 We learned that the Ancestral Puebloans populated this area as well as the rest of the Canyonlands from Mesa Verde to here. Here they lived in the valley by the Colorado River in winter and moved up to the Plateau in the summer where they grew the same crops of corn and beans. It is amazing to us that these ancient people populated so many areas and grew the same things and had many of the same customs. Was it a nomadic existence or did they all just figure out how to survive on the same human level of survival of the fittest? There are documented dwellings here as there are in the other Canyonlands National Parks but none to the extent of Mesa Verde. The Hopi are said to be the relatives of these people as well as the ones at Mesa Verde. The Navajo say they are "Anasazi" or in other words, "not one of us."


Point Imperial was our first stop.

Mount Hayden

Vista Encantada

Next stop was Roosevelt Point which had a brief .2 miles walk

As Teddy Roosevelt said, "Leave it as it is......" To see the entire quote, double click on this picture.

We crossed the Walhalla Plateau and stopped at the Walhalla Overlook. This is where we saw the Ancestral Pueblan ruins.

And finally, to Cape Royal trail with a round trip of about a mile out to some incredible sights, including the Angel"s Window and the Colorado River.

Angel's Window with View of Colorado River

We finished our day by 2pm and headed back to the RV. We have decided to cancel our reservations in the park and head down to Sedona. This will bring us closer to Phoenix for my flight on Sunday to see my daughter for a week. While I'm away, Tim will be in Coconino National Forest just outside of Sedona where he will hopefully do some "catching."

COLORADO RIVER RAFT RIDE

July 11th, Wednesday

Something we have always wanted to do was to take a raft ride down the Colorado River. Seeing there were no white water day trips, we settled for a leisurely ride on a raft from Page, AZ to Lee's Ferry, AZ a fifteen mile ride that would take five hours.

We were able to book it for this afternoon and drove the two hours to Page to meet the raft company for 12:30pm. We were early so we went to the Glen Canyon Dam National Recreation Area. It is the dam that holds the water back from Lake Powell at the headwaters of the Colorado River. It is only slightly smaller than the Hoover Dam down river. We toured the Visitor Center and Tim was most impressed with a digital readout showing the amount of revenue generated from the power from the power plant here. It showed between $2 and $5 every second.

Looking Down on Rafts From Top of Dam

Dam From Below

We were very surprised at the amount of people waiting to go on the trip with us. There were three bus loads of people driven from the raft company down through a two mile tunnel to the base of the Glen Canyon dam at the bottom of Lake Powell.

Lake Powell

When we departed the bus, we were given hard hats to protect us from falling rock on our walk down the dock to the rafts.

Walking to the Rafts At the Base of the Dam

The temperature was up to about 102 and the rubber rafts were quite hot to sit on, but we gamely jumped on board, straddled the pontoon and we were off. There were not too many people on board so we had plenty of room to move around and relax. With lemonade and water provided, we were quite comfortable for a while. Of course, the Frogg Toggs cloth which we wetted and wrapped around our necks didn't hurt either.

Frogg Togg on Tim's Neck

 As long as you keep them wet, they stay cool. Wonderful invention! The temperatures in the canyon rose as high as 115 and we were really feeling the heat when we stopped on the shore where there was a path to the cliffs where there were petroglyphs from the ancient tribes that populated the area  900 years ago.

Ancient Petroglyphs

While we were stopped, people were jumping in the frigid water to cool their bodies down. We hadn't worn our bathing suits as we got  misinformation from the person who booked our trip. She told us that no one goes in the water because the river was way too cold. However, the majority had worn suits and were happily cooling off in the ice cold water. Of course, the children had a ball running in and out and coaxing their parents to join them. Tim and I watched for a few minutes, decided our clothes would dry quickly and waded in to our waists, splashed water on our faces, dunked our hats and our Frogg Toggs and were able to get some relief as well.

The ride itself was very pleasant. The Glen Canyon walls were about 700 feet high and we cruised around the bends seeking the shade and, a few times, stopped against the cliff and sat in the shade for a few minutes.

Raft Against Canyon Wall in the Shade

We would see the other rafts on the water,but they weren't close by so we didn't feel like it was a crowded ride at all.  The views were great and we even saw wild horses and desert mountain goats on one of the cliffs.

Wild Horses

Mountain Goat

Glen Canyon

It was a great ride down through the Glen Canyon.

GRAND CANYON NORTH RIM PART I

July 10th, Tuesday

We left Zion taking the southern route out of the park as we did not want to venture out the east exit through the tunnel we had driven through on the way to Bryce. We would have had to leave the car off the tow and drive it out separately and then hook it up once we found a level place the other side of the tunnel. Probably would have been about 21 miles before we could do that. The ride was uneventful and we arrived in Jacob Lake about an hour outside of the North Rim around 1pm. Our reservations inside the park are not until the 13th and since we had the extra 3 days that we did not go to Bryce, we came up into the cooler air sooner than originally planned. The North Rim Campground had no opening for these 3 nights, so we will stay just outside the park until the 13th.

After setting up and having lunch, we drove into the Grand Canyon North Rim Park and went to the Lodge. Once there, we could not resist a 30 minute hike down to the Bright Angel Point Overlook. And I mean hike! It's not very long, only .5 miles, but it is extremely steep and very narrow at a couple of points where the walkway dangles (not really, but it felt like it) over the canyon. In a couple of places, I just could not look down without getting dizzy and scared to death. I was not alone. I saw a few other folks hugging those rocks too! The sights were spectacular and a wonderful introduction to the Grand Canyon.

Views from Bright Angel Point

After a cooling drink, we headed back to the RV to make our plans for the remaining time in the area.

ZION NATIONAL PARK PART II

July 9th, Monday

Morning temperatures were in the 70s so we decided we would take our bikes to the top of the scenic road by shuttle bus and ride down the mountain. We had talked about doing this the other day when we were on the bus and checked out the downgrade and turns of the road. It didn't look too steep and there were lots of places to stop if we needed to, so off we went.

We didn't go all the way to the Temple of Sinawava as we knew there was a steep hill to climb up from there to Big Bend where the road leveled off and began its descent.  We got off the bus at Big Bend, put on our helmets, our backpacks and our  biking gloves and waited for the next shuttle bus heading down hill to come by.

Waiting for the next shuttle bus to come down hill

The shuttle buses will not pass anyone on bicycles because their second car will swing and they are afraid they might hit someone. So the rule here is that, if you are on a bicycle and a shuttle comes up behind you, you need to stop and let the shuttle pass you. With that in mind, we waited and when the shuttle passed us, we hopped on and followed it down the road.

 We stopped at every turnoff looking for wildlife and taking pictures of the various sights along the Virgin River.

The Great White Throne

View Along the Way

 We would time our starts from these places to coincide with the shuttles so that we never had to stop on the road to let one by. They ran about every 8-10 minutes so we always had a good block of time on the road by ourselves. The only cars on this road were from people that stayed at the lodge and we only saw three of them the entire ride down. It was really nice to ride on a beautifully paved road with no traffic to worry about and the scenery was gorgeous.

A Brief Reprieve from the Heat

Swimming Hole at the Falls

A Quick Dip in the Virgin River ..BRRRR!

As we reached the Canyon Junction at the bottom of the Scenic Road, we climbed down the bank to the river and went for a dip in the frigid water. We had seen people here when we rode the shuttle that first day and it looked so refreshing, we just had to try it. We had worn our bathing suits under our clothing for just this purpose. What a great relief from the heat which by now had climbed to the low 90s. Still better than 104!

I really did go in.. honest!

Falls on the Par'us Trail

From there we got on the bicycle trail, Par'us Trail, and continued our ride along and over the river back to the campground. We rode about 10 miles in all but it was the easiest bike ride I ever had.

On the Par'us Trail

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK

July 8th, Sunday

When we started our trip, we had planned to spend a few days in Bryce Canyon, but, when we hit so much heat in Arches, we decided to cancel the original three nights here and journey over one day while we were at Zion with air conditioning. We would not have had that luxury in this park.

This was our day to see Bryce. And what an extraordinary day it was. From the first view to the last view, we were enthralled.

We left Zion by the East Entrance over a very narrow and windy road that brought us through a tunnel that was one mile long. All RVs require an escort through the tunnel and if they are too big, they are not allowed at all. We were in the car this day, so we could go through with no problems. On the other side of the tunnel, we stopped to see if we could spot a desert long horned sheep as this is said to be the spot where they habitate. We saw none, but we did see some very interesting rock formations.

No specific name, but I loved the colored swirls in it.

Patterned Rock

From here we proceeded on through Red Canyon which is just before Bryce and is sometimes mistaken for part of Bryce, or so say the folks at its Visitor Center.

Red Canyon Formations

Arch on Scenic By Way 12 in Red Canyon

When we arrived at Bryce, we found that they also have a shuttle bus that is not mandatory, but recommended as parking is limited in this park as well. We parked at the Visitor Center, boarded the shuttle and rode it to the end of the line at Bryce Point Overlook, elevation 8,331 feet. We walked to the overlook and saw the most spectacular hoodoos (stacks of rock.) They are everywhere!

 Of course, the geological causes for the creation of these go back millions of years and I'm not sure we clearly understand it all. The gist of it is that these rocks were formed from beds of sediment that were compressed into rock and pushed up from 3000 feet to 9000 feet in elevation. Their coloring comes from plant roots that helped oxidize the iron to give the sediment a reddish color. The literature tells us that technically Bryce is not really a canyon as canyons are caused by the flow of a river or stream. The hoodoos in Bryce are constatnly being changed by acidic rainwater that dissolves the limestone and rounds the edges of the hoodoos and we learned that the freezing and thawing of water does most of the sculpting of Bryce Canyon.

Our next stop on the tour was Inspiration Point. Here there were three observation points, one of which was when you deboarded the shuttle, but the other two were a definite challenge. We climbed about 400 feet in elevation in about a half a mile. Very steep, but the sights were worth it.

Tim is experimenting taking panoramic pictures

Hoodoos

View From Inspiration Point

When we got back on the shuttle, a thunderstorm erupted so we got off at the Lodge for lunch to wait out the weather. The rain stopped and we continued our  journey to Fairyland Point.

Fairlyland Point

Breathtaking views surrounded us all day long. You could take pictures until the cows come home and you would never fully capture the beauty of it all.

On the way home on the Zion side of that mile long tunnel, we stopped and took a couple of photos of the tunnel wall and the window openings placed intermittently in it to give light inside as well as photos of the serpentine road.

Panoramic View of Tunnel Wall with Window Openings

ZION NATIONAL PARK PART I

July 7th, Saturday

Zion Park is a very popular destination. This being a Saturday, the Park was packed. There are limited parking areas in the park itself, but there is a shuttle bus that will take you up the scenic drive and drop you off and pick you up at most of the various overlooks and all of the trailheads.

We were camped at the Watchman Campground which is just next to the Visitor Center and the shuttle bus stop. Behind the campground runs the Virgin River where the kids were having a great time floating a short ways down the river on their tubes, getting out, running up the bank and doing it all over again.

We decided to take the shuttle to the top of the scenic drive and work our way back down to different stops/overlooks and trails that we wanted to see/hike.


The stop at the top was the Temple of Sinawava where there is an easy one mile riverside walk on a paved trail along the Virgin River that leads you to the trailhead for the Narrows. The Narrows is a strenuous hike through the river and up in to the narrow slot canyon for over fifteen miles round trip with an estimated time of eight hours. It's also a very dangerous one as you have to watch for flash floods from storms that might come through . They can turn this narrow passage from two feet of depth to ten feet of depth in a matter of  minutes. The park monitors the weather very closely and, in fact, this trail was closed the day before.  Needless to say, we didn't do that one, but we did venture into the river for a short walk to see where the Narrows started. It wasn't our intention to do any of it at all so we didn't have our water shoes on. We had our hiking boots on and we did have our walking sticks. This water was very cold and the rocks were a bit slippery but the walking sticks saved the day more than once so that we didn't end up totally drenched. We walked up the river until we were midthigh in water. When we looked up and saw the folks ahead of us up to their waists, we turned around and headed back out of the river.  We had to cross the river six times on the way up and so we had to cross it six times on the way back down. Each step was an opportunity for total dunking, but thankfully, that didn't happen.

Tim Doing The Second Crossing

View Up The Canyon

Kate Catching Up

Squishy Shoes!

 It really was a fun, unexpected event for the day. There were people everywhere.. in the water, up the river, getting off the shuttle in expectations of doing part of the trail as we did and some saying, "never, not me, too cold."

We sloshed our way to the shuttle stop and took the shuttle all the way back to the RV. We changed into our dry shoes and socks and got back on the shuttle to continue our tour of the park.

Our next stop was the Weeping Rock. The trail up was a short  one, but very steep and honestly wasn't worth the hike. Basically, the rock had the water seeping through it so that there were some flowers growing all around it. Not as many as we thought there would be and not one of the most impressive sights we have seen.

Back on the shuttle and off at the Grotto. We wanted to hike to the Emerald Pool, but the trail was closed for repairs. The other trails from here were very strenuous and with the heat, we opted to skip them.  Instead, we walked the half mile Grotto trail down to the Lodge where we had a late lunch and hid from the sun for a while. The temperatures today were 104 and we found the shade as often as we could. Late afternoon found us back at the RV. Since we had electricity here, we were able to use our air conditioning. What a blessing.