A World of Orange Rock - Long Valley Junction, Utah

But first...

Page, Arizona - Lake Powell/Glen Canyon area:

At Lake Powell we stayed at the Whaweap RV Park just outside of Page, and inside the Glen Canyon National Recreation area. The RV park was beautiful, up on a hill with a view of the lake and surrounding mountains. There is a lot of controversy in the history of this place that was created by damming the Colorodo River in the Canyon. While Lake Powell is beautiful and as much of the canyon that survives is as well, I would love to see it as it was in its pristine state - without the huge monstrosity of the dam that spans it. But there is much beauty that survives. 

The view from our campground

  

Our first outing the next day was to Horseshoe Bend Canyon, about a three quarter mile hike down to the river overlook.

          

Next we headed to Antelope Canyon, which is located in a Navajo owned park. You can only get inside the canyon with a Navajo guide, so we signed on. We were with a small group and were driven about 3 miles down a sand dune road in an open back truck. The ride was an adventure in itself.

Our fellow travelers

We arrived at the slot canyon and our driver and guide, Aikman led us inside. He had tons of information, since he had lived in the area all his life and his great-grandmother was reputed to have discovered the canyon at age 13, while tending her sheep. She is now 93 and lives up in the hills above the canyon and still tends her animals. I love those stories...

Entrance to the canyon

Walking through the canyon is like wandering through a cave. There is only one path which is somewhat lit by the many holes and openings above but is very narrow. In most places we had to walk single file. Everywhere was the bright color reflected by the light and the positively surreal shapes all around us.

Looks like melted taffy, doesn't it?

Look sideways - see the heart shape?

And back out the other end

Aikman told us many of the Navajo legends about the canyon, and he also showed us evidence of how flash floods have shaped it over the years. There were high water and high sand marks, and some branches stuck in the rocks way above us, left behind by floodwaters. He was a great guide and storyteller.

Zion National Park & Bryce Canyon, Utah

On Friday, we departed Page and were quickly over the Utah border. The drive up Route 89 was one of the most scenic roads we've ever been on, with ever-changing mountains along the way. We passed through the town of Kanab, Utah which is in a valley surrounded by the distinctive orange hills. And that was only the beginning.

We pulled into Camp Lutherwood in Long Valley Junction on Friday afternoon. Lutherwood is about halfway between Zion and Bryce, so it would be easy to drive the car back and forth each day. Getting to the campground was a bit dicey, since the approach involved driving two miles down a dirt road with curves, turns and some steep hills - still in the moho, towing the car.



Right about when we started really wondering what we had gotten ourselves into, we came to the end of the road and found the campground. Things quickly got a lot better. It's a small park in a very scenic area, surrounded by mountains. Karen and Carl, the couple who are the campground hosts came out to meet us and from that point on it was like we had reunited with old friends. Carl helped Bill get the moho situated in our spot while Karen and I chatted in the office about the nearby national parks and other sites in the surrounding area. It's great to get information from someone who is knowledgable about the area, and they were the nicest and most accomodating camp hosts we'd ever met.

Some of our neighbors

A little rough on the Honda!

After setting up we decided to take a ride into Zion National Park, which is about 35 miles south. It was about 3:30, so we weren't going to spend much time there but we thought it would be helpful to get our bearing and plan our visit. And what a place it turned out to be...

Zion National Park

We have been fortunate enough to have traveled all over this country, all of our lives. We've been to many national parks and countless amazing places but Zion absolutely blew us away. This is not a collection of great areas - it's being completely immersed in awe. From the minute you approach the park, there isn't a single inch that isn't spectacular. I wish I could have taken pictures with my eyes, because I just wanted to save everything I was seeing - and no camera can do that. Here are some humble efforts that in no way even scrape the surface of what we experienced:

The smaller tunnel

Waterfall at the Emerald Pool

The main road through the park is 12 miles long as it winds around, down, up and through the canyons. Everything around is shades of orange and red - it's as if the world is bathed in orange light. I couldn't get a picture of the long tunnel, but it runs 1.2 miles through the heart of the mountain in almost total darkness - lit only by a couple of open overlooks along the way. It is just staggering.

We spent the next couple of days exploring Zion. Like many national parks today, there is a shuttle that runs through many of the areas that cars are not permitted into, and you jump off and on at will. It's a really good system, and with shuttles only a few minutes apart there is never a long wait. I have to wonder if it ever gets old for the people who work or live there - I can't see how. 

On Sunday morning we woke to a freak snowfall that had swept out of the Rockies overnight. Just a couple of inches in the campground, but very cold and windy.

We weren't planning to leave before Tuesday anyway, and by mid-morning we felt safe going out in the car. Now, we have driven on snow and ice all our lives but who knew that a dirt road turns to mud and becomes as slick as ice when it's wet? Not me! I was driving out in the car and the road had no snow on it so it appeared perfectly fine, but the car started skidding around on the first curve and totally freaked me out. I think it took me almost a half hour to get all the way out to the highway (2 miles!), in low gear and going about 5 miles an hour. But we got out ok, and since the campground is at an elevation of about 7800 feet, we only had to drive about 15 minutes down the road when the snow disappeared and the weather got a whole lot warmer. We had dinner in the little town of Springdale, just outside the west entrance to Zion. By the time we returned to the campground that evening all the snow had melted and the road was almost dry and much better.

Bryce Canyon

Monday we drove up north to Bryce Canyon. My friend Cheryl had told me earlier that after visisting Bryce she had a whole new appreciation for the color orange and I thought that summed it up pretty well. If Zion is bathed in orange light, Bryce looks as though the whole world around you is on fire. It is very different from Zion - towering spires and "hoodoos" which are tall skinny spires of rock that protrude from the botton of the arid basin. Some are taller than a 10 story building. 

We hiked up and down some of the trails to get to the best vantage points. There were many times when we just stood and looked out in silence because there just aren't words to describe it. 

Just outside of Bryce is Red Canyon. We just drove through that part because we could see snow coming in and we wanted to get back down to the highway before it hit. Bryce is at a considerably higher elevation even than our campground, and there was a lot of snow around some areas, especially in Red Canyon. 

It was cold in Bryce!

On the way back to the campground we drove through a snow squall but luckily we got through it before there was any accumulation on the road. We couldn't believe that it was still cold and snowing in mid-May, but that's life at elevations like this. The weather changes drastically just a few miles below as the elevation drops. 

We're gearing up to head out of this part of Utah this morning, and we'll be around Salt Lake City for our stop tonight.