Ed and Colleen in the Southwest: Last Day in Bryce Canyon

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Last Day in Bryce Canyon

We reckon to be feelin' slightly country this mornin' cuz the place we're bunkin' wuz featurin' some good ol country music last night. And shit howdy, we're startin' to feel some Merle Haggard coursin' thru our veins. ....Or perhaps that's just the coffee kicking in.

Actually we were happy to have heard not a single twang from the band last night. However, their tour bus woke us up at 6:15 AM to the cheery morning sounds of a big diesel warming up right outside our window. Then revving up. Then backing up... beep beep beep beep... then finally pulling out but by then we were quite irrevocably awake. So we are heading out for our last hike at Bryce Canyon National Park, down into the canyon to Tower Bridge.

Evening now... Today's hike is a less popular (read that crowded) hike than the Queen's Garden/Navajo Loop we hiked yesterday but every bit as beautiful. A little shorter in miles but taller in vertical feet. Also a warmer day today. And not enough sleep. Ed neglected to mention the bus doing some idling outside our window at 10:00 P.M. as well as 6:15 A.M. So we are beat tonight, but it was Oh So Worth It! Here are some photos...

An intricately carved fortress.

And the Tower Bridge...

...and then the climb back out. We made it! Then spent our last afternoon in the park taking many more pictures from the rim...

As testament to the forces at work here, the plateau in the background used to be at the same level of this vantage point. It is now 2500 feet higher. The tilting slab in the foreground was broken off in the process.

This shows just one section of Bryce Canyon. It's actually about 15 miles of this landscape.

The last time we were at this spot, the snow was nearly to the top of the railing.

Tomorrow we head to Zion National Park. We are hoping to hike into The Narrows, but only if there is no rain forecast anywhere close by. We are also hoping for no buses parked by our cabin tonight!

However, we'll need to take one more (hopefully) quick excursion into Bryce. Colleen wants to see Prairie Dogs that inhabit a few specific areas. She very much hopes to have a Prairie Dog picture to share tomorrow.

2 comments:

JackieOctober 11, 2015 at 2:13 PM
I missed a few days (due to being so busy with kitties, imagine that!) and wow, have you done a lot! Once again your spectacular photos and wonderful daily diary make me feel like I'm (practically) right there with you, and yet enjoying the comforts of home with a warm, snuggly cat (or 2) on my lap. :-) =^..^=
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Ed and ColleenOctober 12, 2015 at 6:47 AM
(or maybe 5) hehehehehehehe Thanks for doing so much for the kitties while I am away!!!!!
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Itinerary

October 4&5 - Great Basin National Park, Nevada...a place we've never been. The combination of high elevation, low humidity and no light pollution makes this one of the darkest places in the country, and therefore one of the best places to watch a night sky. Darker yet is the underground world of the Lehman Caves, which we will explore in this park.

October 6&7 - Cedar Breaks National Park, Utah....another new spot for us. This is a high-altitude natural amphitheater with brightly multicolored sculptured rock, similar to Bryce Canyon. It is surrounded by a lush subalpine forest.

October 8-10 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. We visited here on our honeymoon, but because a freak snowstorm covered all the trails, we were only able to look down into this spectacular canyon. This time we hope to be able to hike down into the hoodoos.

October 11&12 - Zion Canyon National Park, Utah. We were so knocked out by this park the first time, that we had to come again. As long as no flash flooding is expected, we'll explore some slot canyons. Since our first visit, when I (Ed) chickened out of the Angels Landing Trail, Colleen has seen photos and videos of terrified hikers clutching a chain while navigating a narrow spine of rock with a 1,000 foot drop on one side and a 1,200 foot drop on the other. So she has agreed that we will not attempt this trail. Whew!

October 13-15 - Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona. This is the less-visited side of the canyon, and far less commercialized. It is also about 1,000 feet higher elevation than the South Rim, so the vegetation is more forest-y here, and generally cooler.

October 16 - Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona. Not an easy place to get into, as it requires obtaining one of a very limited number of daily permits in advance (Colleen got ours within minutes of them becoming available online!) And you either need to be a serious desert backcountry traveler, or be part of a 4wheel drive tour to access this area. But if you see photos of this park you'll understand why it's worth the effort. We hope to take some photos of our own that do it justice.

October 17-19 - Page Arizona. Antelope Canyon, another spot that is heaven for photographs, is on Navajo land, and as such requires that we be part of a tour. We also may take a boat tour on Lake Powell which provides access to the other end of the canyon and we will most definitely walk to Horseshoe Bend.

October 20 - Monument Valley, Utah. We'll explore around the vast sandstone buttes, mesas and pinnacles.

October 21&22 - Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Much of the park will be closed this late in the year but we will explore as much as we can.

October 23-25 - Farmington New Mexico. We will explore Chaco Canyon and other archeological sites in the area.

October 26&27 - Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, Some of the best preserved archeological sites of the Pueblo culture are here. We will explore the rim and take a tour of the canyon with a Navajo guide.

October 28-31 - Sedona, Arizona. Hiking and photographic opportunities abound in this beautiful country. On the way there, we may stop to see Meteor Crater. And if we want to see something so spectacular that all other sights pale by comparison, we may stop in Winslow, Arizona. There we can see the statue of Jackson Browne in Standing On A Corner Park.---No, we are NOT making this up!

November 1-3 - Grand Canyon, South Rim. We shall brave the tourist hordes to see this, but since we're staying right by the rim, we should be able to get out on trails before the tour buses from Vegas arrive. Colleen was here once, long ago, with a guy whose idea of exploring was to look over the edge and say, "OK, we've seen it. Let's go." This time, Colleen will get as far into the Canyon as four senior-citizen legs dare go, without hiking to the bottom. We may also splurge on an aerial tour of the Canyon.

November 4-6 - Joshua Tree National park, California. We'll spend a few days hiking the desert landscape, hopefully with some more excellent night sky views.

November 7&8 - Now, for something completely different, we will skirt Los Angeles and come to rest near Malibu. We'll use this as a base to visit a couple of Getty Museums.

November 9-11 - Heading back toward home, we'll take a few days to explore Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The last time we were here, we were too young to remember much of anything. So, as with almost all of this itinerary, it will essentially be a first visit.