Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Rocks and Canyons
Due to a poor internet connection, there are no photos with this installment. Photos will be posted in a separate entry once we get better WiFi connectivity.
This installment covers Monday (September 10) through Wednesday (September 19).
Monday was a travel day from Moab to Torrey, Utah, near Capitol Reef National Park. En route we stopped in Green River at a museum that documents the first real exploration (in the late 1860s) of the Colorado River Valley. Next we stopped at Goblin State Park. The park has some unusual rock formations which in some ways are reminiscent of Bryce Canyon. After a group dinner in the campground this evening, we enjoyed a half-hour talk (by a former museum director) on one of the groups of Anasazi Indians who lived in this area for about 75 years between 1100 and 1200 A.D.
Tuesday was a free day, and we explored Capitol Reef National Park in our car. At the end of a scenic drive into the park, we hiked about 1.5 miles (3 miles round trip) through Capitol Gorge. In the canyon we saw Indian petroglyphs and a wall where early settlers had signed and dated the canyon walls in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the far end of the hike we scrambled 0.2 miles up some rocks to visit the “tanks,” where water is trapped in an otherwise dry area. We had a late picnic lunch after the hike, then returned to the visitor center to watch a short movie on the park. We then stopped at another petroglyph site and picked a few apples in a U-pick Orchard in Fruita.
On Wednesday, we drove from Torrey to Bryce Canyon. One segment of the drive was on challenging Highway 12, part of which runs along a high ridge with big drop-offs on each side of the road. The highest elevation on this segment was 9600 feet. En route we stopped to see an Anasazi Museum and some roadside views. At the campground we socialized for about an hour and a half before walking to Ruby Inn for an excellent buffet dinner with our group.
On Thursday, Carol and I went sightseeing in Bryce Canyon. In the morning we walked the 1.6 mile roundtrip Queens Garden Trail, which goes about 320 feet down into the canyon. The trail ends at a viewpoint for the Queen Victoria formation. After struggling back uphill, we drove to the far end of the canyon and worked our way back through all the sightseeing stops along the way. We also stopped for a picnic lunch, and later at the Visitor Center where we saw a short film on the park. After a couple of hours back at the RV we drove back to Sunset Point to see the park at sundown. The sunset did not make as much difference in coloration of the canyon as I had expected.
Friday we drove from Bryce Canyon to St. George, Utah. Just past the 10,000 foot summit, we parked the RV and drove the toad a short distance into Cedar Breaks National Monument. This high canyon was very much like Bryce Canyon. It was windy and cool at the monument. We then drove down into St. George, a booming retirement community which (in the summer) is consistently one of the hottest places in Utah. In the evening we had a group buffet dinner at a performing arts center, followed by the musical Cinderella in an open-air amphitheater. The play, which included real horses pulling carriages, was very entertaining. In particular, the two women playing the wicked stepsisters were quite good. On the bus ride to dinner and the play we saw sand dunes where some western movies have been filmed, and a range of lava mountains formed when rock was pushed up through a crack in the earth’s crust.
On Saturday morning we took a bus to Zion National Park. The owner/operator of the RV park (and his 9-year-old son) served as our tour guide(s). In Zion, we had to debus and travel on one of the park shuttles. We rode to the end of the park where we walked a portion of the riverside trail. After stopping at one scenic viewpoint on the return trip, we stopped and walked to Weeping Rock, where rain that fell 1200+ years ago and seeped through the limestone has finally hit an impervious layer and moved sideways to drip out the side of the mountain. On our tour, we learned that the rock at the top layer of the Grand Canyon corresponds to the bottom layer of Zion, and that the top layer of Zion corresponds to the bottom layer of Bryce. After lunch at the Zion Lodge, we saw an IMAX movie on Zion and some of the other parks in Utah.
Sunday was a free day. In the morning, we drove the CRV north to the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. This area features a number of box canyons. At the end of the scenic drive, we hiked a 1.0 mile trail to a high overlook. On our return to St. George, we had a late lunch, shopped a little, then saw a western – “3:10 to Yuma”.
Monday was a short driving day from St. George to Jacobs Lake, located about 40 miles from the north rim of the Grand Canyon. En route, we stopped at Pine Spring National Monument. This is an early home – purchased by the Mormons from a rancher in the late 1800s – which sits atop a natural spring. We had a ranger-guided tour of the fort – the main house that has 2 feet thick walls, a lookout tower, and gun ports on the top. It was operated for years as a “tithe ranch,” where livestock that were tithed to the church were raised.
After arriving at Jacobs Lake Group Campground, where we dry camped, we drove to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Carol and I tried to see all the overlooks. One of the overlooks on the road to Cape Royale was the Angel’s Window, a natural arch or bridge through which you can catch a glimpse of the Colorado River. We finished the day at the North Rim’s Grand Lodge and saw a sunset from a lookout on the Bright Angel trail. On our trip back to the campground after dark, we passed a large number of mule deer. We also stopped at a roadside pullout to spend a few minutes watching the stars – the roadside at that time of night was both dark and quiet.
Tuesday was our shortest driving day yet, from Jacobs Lake to a campground in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. After setting up camp, Carol and I explored downtown Page, had the car serviced while we shopped, stopped at an overlook of the Glen Canyon Dam, then stopped at the (closed) visitor center from which we snapped a few photos and walked out on the dam-side of the bridge across the Colorado River. Back at the campground for the evening, we had social hour with the other members of our caravan,
On Wednesday morning we had a 3-hour boat tour of a very small portion of Lake Powell, the man-made lake behind Glen Canyon Dam. We sailed up Navaho Canyon to see the Navaho tapestry – also known as desert varnish, or manganese oxide – which makes black designs as it washes down the rock cliffs. The water level in the lake is about 100 feet below its all-time high, and the cliffs generally run another 300-400 feet above that. We also sailed into Antelope Canyon, a much narrower canyon that we are scheduled to visit tomorrow by open-air 4-wheel drive vehicles. The lake is home to an amazing number and variety of houseboats – a boat slip at the marina costs $25,000 plus $1,200 per month, but from the size of the houseboats, it looks like their owners can afford it.
After the boat tour, Carol and I returned to the Glen Canyon Dam visitor center. While there, we took a 45-minute guided tour to the top and bottom of the dam. We learned that the concrete in the center of the bottom of the dam is only 98% cured, and that it continues to dry to this day. We also learned that as the water in the lake rises seasonally, the dam itself moves as much as two inches due to changes in the water pressure. The Glen Canyon Bridge, just downstream from the dam, was built before construction on the dam started; prior to construction of the bridge, it required a 100+ mile trip to a downstream crossing to get from one side of the canyon to the other. Following the tour, we walked out onto the bridge again, and got some more pictures of the dam and the Colorado River.
Wednesday evening, we had an excellent group dinner at the Wahweah Lodge, overlooking Lake Powell. This name is a Piute word meaning bad or bitter water, the Indian’s original name for the Colorado River in this area.
This installment covers Monday (September 10) through Wednesday (September 19).
Monday was a travel day from Moab to Torrey, Utah, near Capitol Reef National Park. En route we stopped in Green River at a museum that documents the first real exploration (in the late 1860s) of the Colorado River Valley. Next we stopped at Goblin State Park. The park has some unusual rock formations which in some ways are reminiscent of Bryce Canyon. After a group dinner in the campground this evening, we enjoyed a half-hour talk (by a former museum director) on one of the groups of Anasazi Indians who lived in this area for about 75 years between 1100 and 1200 A.D.
Tuesday was a free day, and we explored Capitol Reef National Park in our car. At the end of a scenic drive into the park, we hiked about 1.5 miles (3 miles round trip) through Capitol Gorge. In the canyon we saw Indian petroglyphs and a wall where early settlers had signed and dated the canyon walls in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the far end of the hike we scrambled 0.2 miles up some rocks to visit the “tanks,” where water is trapped in an otherwise dry area. We had a late picnic lunch after the hike, then returned to the visitor center to watch a short movie on the park. We then stopped at another petroglyph site and picked a few apples in a U-pick Orchard in Fruita.
On Wednesday, we drove from Torrey to Bryce Canyon. One segment of the drive was on challenging Highway 12, part of which runs along a high ridge with big drop-offs on each side of the road. The highest elevation on this segment was 9600 feet. En route we stopped to see an Anasazi Museum and some roadside views. At the campground we socialized for about an hour and a half before walking to Ruby Inn for an excellent buffet dinner with our group.
On Thursday, Carol and I went sightseeing in Bryce Canyon. In the morning we walked the 1.6 mile roundtrip Queens Garden Trail, which goes about 320 feet down into the canyon. The trail ends at a viewpoint for the Queen Victoria formation. After struggling back uphill, we drove to the far end of the canyon and worked our way back through all the sightseeing stops along the way. We also stopped for a picnic lunch, and later at the Visitor Center where we saw a short film on the park. After a couple of hours back at the RV we drove back to Sunset Point to see the park at sundown. The sunset did not make as much difference in coloration of the canyon as I had expected.
Friday we drove from Bryce Canyon to St. George, Utah. Just past the 10,000 foot summit, we parked the RV and drove the toad a short distance into Cedar Breaks National Monument. This high canyon was very much like Bryce Canyon. It was windy and cool at the monument. We then drove down into St. George, a booming retirement community which (in the summer) is consistently one of the hottest places in Utah. In the evening we had a group buffet dinner at a performing arts center, followed by the musical Cinderella in an open-air amphitheater. The play, which included real horses pulling carriages, was very entertaining. In particular, the two women playing the wicked stepsisters were quite good. On the bus ride to dinner and the play we saw sand dunes where some western movies have been filmed, and a range of lava mountains formed when rock was pushed up through a crack in the earth’s crust.
On Saturday morning we took a bus to Zion National Park. The owner/operator of the RV park (and his 9-year-old son) served as our tour guide(s). In Zion, we had to debus and travel on one of the park shuttles. We rode to the end of the park where we walked a portion of the riverside trail. After stopping at one scenic viewpoint on the return trip, we stopped and walked to Weeping Rock, where rain that fell 1200+ years ago and seeped through the limestone has finally hit an impervious layer and moved sideways to drip out the side of the mountain. On our tour, we learned that the rock at the top layer of the Grand Canyon corresponds to the bottom layer of Zion, and that the top layer of Zion corresponds to the bottom layer of Bryce. After lunch at the Zion Lodge, we saw an IMAX movie on Zion and some of the other parks in Utah.
Sunday was a free day. In the morning, we drove the CRV north to the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. This area features a number of box canyons. At the end of the scenic drive, we hiked a 1.0 mile trail to a high overlook. On our return to St. George, we had a late lunch, shopped a little, then saw a western – “3:10 to Yuma”.
Monday was a short driving day from St. George to Jacobs Lake, located about 40 miles from the north rim of the Grand Canyon. En route, we stopped at Pine Spring National Monument. This is an early home – purchased by the Mormons from a rancher in the late 1800s – which sits atop a natural spring. We had a ranger-guided tour of the fort – the main house that has 2 feet thick walls, a lookout tower, and gun ports on the top. It was operated for years as a “tithe ranch,” where livestock that were tithed to the church were raised.
After arriving at Jacobs Lake Group Campground, where we dry camped, we drove to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Carol and I tried to see all the overlooks. One of the overlooks on the road to Cape Royale was the Angel’s Window, a natural arch or bridge through which you can catch a glimpse of the Colorado River. We finished the day at the North Rim’s Grand Lodge and saw a sunset from a lookout on the Bright Angel trail. On our trip back to the campground after dark, we passed a large number of mule deer. We also stopped at a roadside pullout to spend a few minutes watching the stars – the roadside at that time of night was both dark and quiet.
Tuesday was our shortest driving day yet, from Jacobs Lake to a campground in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. After setting up camp, Carol and I explored downtown Page, had the car serviced while we shopped, stopped at an overlook of the Glen Canyon Dam, then stopped at the (closed) visitor center from which we snapped a few photos and walked out on the dam-side of the bridge across the Colorado River. Back at the campground for the evening, we had social hour with the other members of our caravan,
On Wednesday morning we had a 3-hour boat tour of a very small portion of Lake Powell, the man-made lake behind Glen Canyon Dam. We sailed up Navaho Canyon to see the Navaho tapestry – also known as desert varnish, or manganese oxide – which makes black designs as it washes down the rock cliffs. The water level in the lake is about 100 feet below its all-time high, and the cliffs generally run another 300-400 feet above that. We also sailed into Antelope Canyon, a much narrower canyon that we are scheduled to visit tomorrow by open-air 4-wheel drive vehicles. The lake is home to an amazing number and variety of houseboats – a boat slip at the marina costs $25,000 plus $1,200 per month, but from the size of the houseboats, it looks like their owners can afford it.
After the boat tour, Carol and I returned to the Glen Canyon Dam visitor center. While there, we took a 45-minute guided tour to the top and bottom of the dam. We learned that the concrete in the center of the bottom of the dam is only 98% cured, and that it continues to dry to this day. We also learned that as the water in the lake rises seasonally, the dam itself moves as much as two inches due to changes in the water pressure. The Glen Canyon Bridge, just downstream from the dam, was built before construction on the dam started; prior to construction of the bridge, it required a 100+ mile trip to a downstream crossing to get from one side of the canyon to the other. Following the tour, we walked out onto the bridge again, and got some more pictures of the dam and the Colorado River.
Wednesday evening, we had an excellent group dinner at the Wahweah Lodge, overlooking Lake Powell. This name is a Piute word meaning bad or bitter water, the Indian’s original name for the Colorado River in this area.
