The Ray Adventures: Page, Zion and Bryce

I have some catching up to do!

Thursday, May 1, our last day in Page. We took an early (for us) tour of Antelope Slot Canyon located on Navajo land, led of course by a native. The tour "bus" was a pick-up truck with seats in the back that seated about 20 or so people. Once we left the paved area we drove a couple of miles through loose sand, a bit nerve wracking it seemed like we'd get stuck any minute. The canyon itself was so beautiful, a spectacular sculptured sand dune created by water and wind, it was really awe-inspiring piece of Mother Natures work. It took about 1 hour 45 minutes for the trip. After lunch we took the Glen Canyon dam tour (or as granddaughter Alyssa said many years ago, "the dam tour". I guess you'd have to have been there. Built in the 1950's and early '60's it took 5 million yards of concrete to complete.

Friday, May 2, we left Page headed towards Zion, neither Gary or I have been to the canyons of Utah except for a 'quickie" trip through Arches on our way to Colorado Springs. We drove on Hwy 89 through Kanab (another area we'd like to revisit) to the Mt. Carmel/Zion junction. We'd read earlier that rigs over 50 feet are not allowed through the 12 mile scenic highway because of of the 6 switchbacks down the hill. The highway was built in 1930 by the CCC. Also there are two tunnels, one of which is too low, we had to disconnect, when Gary got to the opening of the tunnel they stopped oncoming traffic so he got to drive down the middle of the tunnel all by himself. The tunnel itself is a mile and a half long, there are 6 "windows" along the way which helped with my claustrophobia. Driving myself down the mountain through all those switchbacks was stressful in my little Jeep I can't imagine driving a 40 ft motorhome. We drove through Zion National Park to our "home" in Hurricane arriving about 2:30.

Saturday, May 3, we drove up to the North entrance of Zion, the Kolob Canyon. It was a 5 mile drive through some majestic rock formations. At the top there was a mile and a half hike up to a look-out that Gary took, dogs aren't allowed on any trails in national parks, so Luci and I stayed in the parking lot. He did take some pictures so I could see the view. We checked on a doggie day care for Luci just outside of the park, we'd decided to do some hiking and didn't want to leave her in the coach for an extended amount of time. Afterward we stopped at Oscar's, a dog friendly restaurant for a late lunch.

Sunday, May 4, We decided to drive back to the Mt.Carmel/Zion hwy to see what we'd missed on the way down during our "white knuckle" drive in. The tunnels didn't seem quite so long this time and the 5% downgrade wasn't quite so hair raising. We had a picnic along the way and let Luci run on the rocks. The rock formations changed from red sandstone to a checkerboard mesa formed with horizontal and vertical lines that did resemble a checkerboard. Everywhere you looked was another amazing sight.

Monday, May 5, we dropped Luci off at Doggie Dude day care so we could to some hiking. You have to take a shuttle bus up the canyon, which is great, you don't have to hunt for a parking spot. It was a beautiful day for hiking, warm with a nice breeze. We took the bus to the end for the Riverside hike, an easy 2.2 round trip on a paved trail along the Virgin River. At the end there is another walk you can take called the Narrows, it is rated strenuous. We skipped that. The next hike was another "easy" hike up to the Weeping Rock, only a half mile but in places very steep. It felt like Oregon when we were under the overhanging rock with the water dripping down like rain. Our next hike was to the Lower Emerald Pools and onto Zion Lodge on a connecting trail, about 2 miles long, I wouldn't have rated this as easy. We stopped along the way for a picnic, met some interesting people from San Diego that we shared benches with. They were an "older" couple, she was a realtor that had recently sold a place in SD for a guy who was moving to Salem. By the time we reached the lodge my beat up old ticker had reached it's max. Good thing we didn't have any more hikes planned. We picked up Luci at doggie day care and went home to the coach. Our neighbors in the park Ben and Susan from Boise invited us for dinner, they were leaving the next day to go home. They have a cute little pop-up A-frame trailer for camping.

Tuesday, May 6, we hung around the park and did chores, including washing the motorhome and car.
The forecast was lousy for Wednesday, rain and snow in the higher elevations, since Bryce is 7000 ft we decided to hold off until Thursday to leave.

Wednesday, May 7, we decided to head into St. George population of almost 75,000 for a look around, I've never seen such a clean well kept town. It is also called "Dixie" because summers are warm and winters mild. The area was settled during the Civil War to grow cotton. On our way into town we saw a sign for a dinosaur exhibit, thought it sounded interesting so we exited the freeway. In the '60's a farmer excavating his farm for a subdivision dug up a large chunk of rock, when it fell off the backhoe he discovered the dinosaur tracks. That stopped all work on the project. The tracks are 200 million years, since the initial discovery they have found many more fossils in the area. We walked around the historic downtown with metal sculptures scattered throughout. Also a very nice park, especially for children with water features all over for them to play in. A bus load of kids were there playing in the water even though it was cool and rainy. Yes, rainy, there went my clean car! We had lunch in a historic café then headed back to the ranch.

Thursday, May 8, we loaded up and headed off to Bryce, the weather was dry and the snow was gone. I'd been feeling kind of lousy since the hikes but I mushed on. We stopped in Panguitch for lunch. We left the restaurant, got back to the coach and I told Gary I'd better see a doctor before we headed up to the canyon, my tired beat up ticker was acting up. Gary walked back to the restaurant and said "this might be an odd question to ask since we just ate here but is there a dr in town?" The population was only about 1,500 so we were surprised to learn there was a hospital just 4 blocks down the street. I was the only one in the ER and did we ever get great service. The doc was quick to come in an order tests, etc. He knew where Salem was, during his LDS mission he was in Keizer for about 6 months. Anyway I got to spend the night for observation and all was well, I had overexerted and was dehydrated. Gary and Luci went on up to Bryce to settle in.

Friday, May 9, I was discharged first thing in the morning and off to Bryce I went, but first of course, we picked up a couple of geo caches. After lunch we drove to the end of the road in Bryce Canyon to Rainbow Point and Yovimpa Point, elevation 9,195 feet. The view was breathless and so was I. On the way down we stopped at 6 overlooks. We'll finish the rest later. We went to Ebeneezeer's Barn and Grill for a western dinner and show. We were seated with a couple who knew the group leader, which made it especially fun, he and other members of the group stopped by the table. The show stared out with rope tricks, gun slinging and whips. (No chains) Western music generally isn't my genre of choice but these guys were great!

Thanks to all of you who responded to Gary's facebook post about my trip to the hospital.

Well, enjoy the pictures, it was hard to choose out of the hundreds Gary shot.

TTFN

Gary and Pam

Our tour bus to Antelope Canyon