Heading North Then East

Kanab, UT to Panguitch, UT (more sightseeing!)

June 3 - 5, 2016

We used Panguitch (rhymes with sandwich) as a hub to see Bryce Canyon National Park and Kodachrome Basin State Park.  Panquitch is a nice little town situated at one end of a long valley.  We had a nice view of the mountains to the east from the campground.

We'd also been to Bryce in 1986 and wanted another look at the beautiful and unusual formations here.  Bryce is located in the 8-9,000 foot altitude range and up.

High

Higher

Highest!

It was a very bright sunny day when we were there.  Not the best for great photographs
but I think you can appreciate the unusual rock formations that make Bryce unique.

These formations make me think of organ pipes in a church.

I think this looks like a small contingent of soldiers waiting on a ridge.

At one scenic overlook we saw this VW bus and noticed they were selling postcards to help pay for gas.  It turned out to be a young couple from Argentina who were attempting to drive from Argentina to Alaska.  The postcards were pictures they had taken along the way - always with their bus in the picture - and had made into postcards. They had them printed someplace in Mexico.

As you can see, they stuck the postcards under the windshield wipers
and hung a plastic milk bottle there for  whatever donation you wanted
to give them.  We bought a couple of the cards - one from Guatemala
since our ex neighbors and friends are from Guatemala - and one from Chili
with the bus in front of a volcano.
They were so sweet and obviously having such a great time.

Under the back window it says "Argentina to Alaska."
What an adventure.

Don't know what all was on their roof rack except we did see some bicycles.

From Bryce we drove about 30 miles east to see Kodachrome Basin State Park.  Once I saw the name Kodachrome I just had to see it.  How many of you remember Kodachrome film?  Sadly it's no longer made but it was known for its wonderful color.  We loved this area and were glad we took the time to see it.  There's a nice campground here as well.

We tried to take a short hike towards an arch in this area but the
heat did us in so we beat a path back to the car.  Whoo - it was HOT!

This area is known for it's "monolithic stone spires called sedimentary pipes." 

There are some 67 of these "sedimentary pipes" in this area.

Lots of beautiful purple blue flowers blooming alongside the road.

Can someone please explain how that brick looking area below the solid rock was formed????
Nature is just a marvel!

On to Red Rock Country

Jacob Lake, AZ to Kanab, UT (more sightseeing!)

May 31-June 2, 2016

We made Kanab, UT our next sightseeing hub.  It's a nice town set in the red rocks of southern Utah.  From here we set out to visit Zion National Park, Cedar Breaks National Monument and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park.  If you've never been to southern Utah then please put it on your bucket list.  It is an amazing place!!!  I don't know if Utah has the most National whatevers (Parks, Monuments, Historical Parks, Memorials, etc.) but they surely have more than their share and they are beautiful. 

The southern portion of Utah is part of what is called the Colorado Plateau and it consists of amazing and colorful rock formations which you have to see to appreciate.    Inland lakes and salty oceans once covered the area leaving deposits hundreds of feet thick.  Dinosaurs roamed across this area and left tracks and their bones in the mud. The earth was raised up from the pressures within and from plate tectonic action, then it was worn down by water, ice and wind.  It took hundreds of millions of years for all this to happen.  I can't really grasp 100's of millions of years - can you?  At any rate - we now have a geologist's heaven.  We often wished we could have our ex-neighbor Mike along with us to explain some of the geology.  We've read lots and lots about the formation of ridge or that valley but how they even figured all this out is beyond me!  I just enjoyed looking at the rocks.

Our first trip out of Kanab was to Zion, having last been there in 1986.  Things have changed!  In general we "love our National parks to death" - coming in droves to see them.  In 1986 you could drive through the park on your own and I don't recall that it was excessively crowded.  Now you must park at the visitor center (or even farther down the road in the next town) and take a free tram through the valley.  You can get off and on as you desire at any of the 8-10 key spots on the valley floor.  There are trails you can hike from almost every stop, the most popular of which is the hike to the narrows at the far end of the canyon.  You may luck out like we did and see climbers scaling the steep canyon walls as you view the canyon walls from the tram.  But screw all this talk - let's get to the pictures.

Roadside scenery as we drove to Zion from Kanab.

More scenery on the drive in.
This is petrified sand which has cracked forming a checkerboard pattern.

Heading down some switchbacks to the canyon itself.

Some pretty fantastic rocks hey?

Climbing these rocks must be quite a thrill!

The canyon floor,

Not a sign you see every day - but pay attention to it if the weather is threatening rain.

The Virgin River which cut down through these
 rock walls forming the canyon we see today.

Steep red rock walls.  The black you see on the walls is called desert varnish.

Our next trip was to Cedar Breaks National Monument.  We missed this on our 1986 trip across southern Utah so we wanted to be sure to see it this time.  The "Cedar" portion of the name is actually a misnomer.  The original settlers in the region mistook the numerous Utah Juniper trees for Cedars.  The word Breaks is a geologic term which I just looked up so I could get it right!  Geologically it means "a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other."  The monument is at an altitude of over 10,000 feet - thus the snow in some of the pictures below.

Just proof that the area was over 10,000 feet high.
That's snow, not rock, under the sign.

It's a bit like Bryce Canyon.

Doesn't the snow add something special to the scene?

Winter quarters for the park rangers.  This is a popular cross country skiing area
as well as snowmobiling and someone's got to keep the crazies under control.

So beautiful!

Snow lingers in areas protected from direct sun.

Saw acres and acres of lava on our way to and from Cedar Breaks.

And lastly we drove to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park which is fairly close to Kanab.  We'd been here before but because of it's uniqueness, we wanted to see it again.  It's a beautiful place, much loved by ATVers who are allowed to run up and down the dunes in portions of the park.  There's a nice campground here as well.

There are two ATV'ers running along at the base of the dune.

As vegetation grows, the dunes become "stabilized."

See all the footprints in the sand!  It was hard to walk in!

To the North Rim and beyond!

Flagstaff, AZ to Jacob Lake, AZ (more sightseeing!)





    
May 25-May 30, 2016




Having seen the South Rim of the Grand Canyon many years ago, we decided to head for the North Rim.  It's kind of a dull drive and could aptly be called "bad lands" but once you get to the vermillion cliffs it just gets more and more picturesque.   

Vermillion Cliffs

At the cliffs you turn left, skirt along side them for quite awhile, then you begin to climb.  The North Rim is over 1000 feet higher than the South Rim and the scenery gets better and better.  This picture was taken at a pull off where we bought several items from some Navajo women.  The kicker was that two of the three women had a "Square" attached to their tablets, allowing us to use our credit card to charge our purchases.  This, as you can see, in the middle of nowhere!!!  Isn't technology wonderful.

We decided to stay in Jacob Lake (well actually all the campgrounds were full in the park itself) and drive to the rim in our car.  It's 42 miles just to the North Rim lodge itself, and that doesn't include some rather lengthy side trips that must also be seen for the complete experience.  We got up the next morning and headed south and almost immediately ran into snow!  It didn't last long but the skies were overcast for much of the day.

 

Due to the weather the gift shop was doing a brisk business in cold weather clothing.  We bought the requisite Tee-shirt then gazed into the canyon and marveled at the power of the Colorado River to create such an amazing place. Had a quick lunch at the cafeteria then we retreated back to Jacob Lake.  By now all the snow was gone but the sky was still overcast.

Grand Canyon from the North Rim looking west from the lodge.

Grand Canyon from the North Rim looking east from the lodge.

The next day we drove north to Pipe Spring National Monument, a place with a very interesting "Native American / Mormon / Ranching" history all revolving around the presence of "water" in a very dry place.

The Paiute Indians called this area home for generations before the white man came. The local springs provided their water.  Mormons came and bought the land, then built a "ranch house" which covered the access to the spring.  They used the area to graze huge herds of cattle that members had tithed to the church.  The area was severely overgrazed and really hasn't recovered even to this day.  Wives from plural marriages where sometimes hidden at the ranch house to protect their husbands from prosecution.  Butter and cheese were made and sent weekly from this lonely outpost to St. George, UT to feed the workers who were building a Mormon temple there.  It was a busy place in it's day.  The monument is now on Paiute land and is jointly managed by the park service and the Paiute nation. 



Exterior of the Ranch House at Pipe Spring



Interior courtyard of the ranch house.



Kitchen

One of the bedrooms.

Cheese and butter making room.  The spring water flows through the wooden
trough then out through the wall as shown below.

 

The water continues across a courtyard and into the man made reservoir below.

A lovely place to sit and enjoy the shade.

Part of an extensive fenced in area for cattle, horses and gardens.

The weather was back to sunny so we decided to return to the North Rim so we could complete our tour.  We lucked out because the local herd of bison decided to make an appearance about half way to the rim.

The lodge (hotel, restaurants, bar, etc.)

The weather was perfect so we spent all day exploring.  Here are a smattering of pictures - none of which do justice to the beauty there. What makes the North Rim unique are the numerous side canyons stretching northward from the river below.  They are the result of water running southward along the north plateau toward the Colorado river.




We walked out on this "fin" of rock as you can see below.

 

 

 

The north rim gets about 500,000 visitors a year - only 10% of the number of visitors to the south rim.  It's also closed from about October to May due to snow.  Never-the-less, big buses full of people are now a common site here.