Vacation, day 3

[sauergeek]

My apologies for the sudden cutoff in updates; none of the hotels between Zion National Park and Las Vegas had useful Internet access. I will post the remaining updates as I have time to do so; I expect I'll be done no later than Wednesday.


The weather was clear this morning. Finally, we would get to do our canyon hikes. After packing up, we tried going to The Spotted Dog for breakfast. Once again, we discovered it was closed. We headed over to the hotel lobby to check out, and asked why the restaurant was closed for breakfast. The person behind the counter told us that breakfast at The Spotted Dog was seasonal, and began… tomorrow. D'oh. He did recommend two places for breakfast, Pentimento (where we ate last night), and Pioneer Restaurant. We opted for Pioneer.

Both of us went for Pioneer's chuckwagon breakfast: two pancakes (buckwheat, though buttermilk is also available), two eggs (scrambled for both of us), and meat (bacon for jiapa, a sausage patty for me). The pancakes were huge, plate-covering monsters, with the expected buckwheat flavor. In addition to maple syrup, the restaurant also has a boysenberry syrup, though neither of us tried it. The breakfast was good, basic breakfast food. My only objection was that there was an off flavor in the eggs. My thought was that they were from a different kind of chicken than we're used to; jiapa's thought was that they were cooked in too much of some kind of artificially flavored cooking oil, like Pam, and the flavor soaked into the eggs. It wasn't an obviously bad flavor, but it stuck out. I'm not even sure I can properly describe it.

Once done with breakfast, we headed into Zion Canyon, and onto the scenic drive again. Our original plan called for three hikes: Lower Emerald Pool, Weeping Rock, and Riverside. All of these are paved-path trails, though as we found out, they were mostly iced up so the paving didn't help much. We did the roughly mile-long Lower Emerald Pool first (photos still not online, will post later). The trail was mostly packed slush, though some of that melted away as the day wore on. The views from the trail were gorgeous, and the ice formations from the waterfall feeding the Lower Emerald Pool made for some spectacular photos. However, we did not stay particularly long at Lower Emerald Pool. Trees dumping snow on my head make for a brief chill and a wet head. The rocks at Lower Emerald Pool had a lot of icicles hanging on them -- which would occasionally fall. We took our pictures and got clear of the falling ice.

The Lower Emerald Pool hike was tagged "easy" in the guidebook. The Weeping Rock hike was described as easy to moderate with a couple points where you had to scramble. Between wanting to avoid falling on the likely-still-slippery trails and wanting to avoid getting soggy from the melting snow and ice, we decided to punt Weeping Rock. So, on to the two-mile Riverside hike. Again, the path was full of packed slush and, in spots, true ice -- both slippery. There was one uphill section where both jiapa and I had to inch our way up in what little snow was available on the edges of the path. Again, the scenery was gorgeous. This trail got us right up next to canyon walls in spots, so we both have a few shots straight up the walls -- I hope they come out. There are a number of plants clinging for dear life to the canyon walls. In some cases, the plants are clinging to the underside of an overhang! I don't know when flowering season will be for these plants, but I expect that when it happens, the natural hanging gardens are spectacular.

One note about the Riverside hike: while the path runs out about a mile from the end of the Zion Canyon road, it is possible to continue up the Virgin River by wading upstream. We were passed by no fewer than three groups of people intending to do just that. You could tell them by the odd plasticky sound they made as they were walking: all the groups were wearing nearly-full-body waterproof gear. About the only parts that would get wet if they fell into the water would be hands and head; the cuffs and collars were all rubber, and sealed against the skin. I overheard one of them saying that they expected the river to be about waist high near the beginning of the wade (presumably from snowmelt), and then for it to get down to about knee high later in the hike. This is something I'd like to try doing when the weather wasn't quite so cold -- but not in the height of summer when there is a much greater danger of flash floods.

Once we were back in the car, we headed Grand Canyon-ward: a 250+ mile drive to the South Rim. The North Rim is 100 miles closer, but it is closed this time of year due to snow. Our first, and as it proved, most significant obstacle was the series of switchbacks to get up to the level of the Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel. The first five switchbacks were fine, though driving close to a steep dropoff without much in the way of guardrails[1] is somewhat nerve-wracking. The road past the fifth switchback was still a bit icy, as was the sixth switchback itself and a good bit of the road from the sixth switchback to the tunnel mouth. This segment of road had not yet seen the sun. We made it up without incident, albeit slowly.

The tunnel was peculiar. It had large windows in it every tenth of a mile (maybe a bit longer), to allow in natural light. Otherwise, the tunnel was completely unlit. There were curbs blocking what were likely pull-outs at some of the windows; these windows were the largest of all, and looked as if they were originally designed as overlooks for tourists. No more, however: there were signs saying "no stopping in tunnel", and the pullouts were blocked off with curbs. I was expecting that the tunnel was bored straight through the mountain, but given these windows and likely overlooks, it was carved just below the surface of the mountain.

Once up[2] the tunnel, we came out the other side to significantly different rock formations. The red sandstone so prevalent in the canyon itself gave way to a whiter rock -- given that this whiter rock appeared on the tops of some of the rock formations in the canyon, I suspect that out here the red sandstone was still below ground level. The road wound through the odd rock formations, presumably to take advantage of what little level areas there might be. We stopped at Checkerboard Mesa to take pictures. There, we talked to a pair of motorcyclists who we'd been following for a couple miles. They recommended that we take US 89A to the Grand Canyon, instead of US 89, as we would go higher (8000+ feet instead of 7000+ feet), through part of the Kaibab National Forest, and have a spectacular view of the Vermilion Cliffs that we would simply not see if we drove the easier US 89[3]. We decided to take US 89A.

We continued along the road, and discovered the eastern boundary of the park was well-chosen: the spectacular rock formations ran out pretty much at the eastern part of the park[4]. Once out of the park, the drive became less interesting for a while; we followed Utah Rt. 9 east to US 89 south, then picked up US 89A where it split off of US 89. However, shortly after we made that split, we came into a beautiful, open, empty plain in northern Arizona, part of the Arizona Strip[5]. There is some vegetation in the area, but not much. There were barbed-wire fences set quite a way back from the highway, but I don't know if there were ranches on the other side, or if the fences were there to deter people from wandering around away from the road. We saw no domestic animals of any sort along this stretch, and as for wild animals, we saw only a few birds -- including some huge black birds that could only be ravens.

Pretty much upon entering the plain, we could see mountains on the far side, and the road stretching out toward them. I knew we were in for a climb, and the mountains seemed a likely candidate. It turns out that most of the mountainous section nearby was the Kaibab National Forest, and US 89A went right through it. The road was twisty, with lots of ups and downs, and a great deal of fun to drive. I wished I had my Miata instead of a Dodge Stratus, but the Stratus would do[6]. I don't know exactly how high we went, but I do recall seeing a sign saying "Elevation: 7,000 feet" on a straight-ish section after we'd been descending for a while.

In the lower part of the descent out of that section of Kaibab National Forest, we started to get glimpses of what were obviously the Vermilion Cliffs: they were cliffs, and they were vermilion. Conveniently, there was a scenic pullout at a curve in the road, where we stopped and took pictures. After finishing the descent, we were once again on a large plain, with a similar sort of vegetation as the plain we'd left before, and a similar lack of domestic or wild animals. This side, however, had a few buildings here and there, including the tiny towns of Cliff Dwellers, Vermilion Cliffs, and Marble Canyon. We stopped briefly at Vermilion Cliffs in hopes of visiting a local artist's shop we saw along the highway, but it was closed. We did get some more pictures.

A few miles later, we saw the Colorado River for the first time on this trip, when we crossed its gorge at the Navajo Bridge. Parallel to the Navajo Bridge is the Historic Navajo Bridge. The Historic Navajo Bridge is the original bridge built across the gorge in 1927. It was turned into a footbridge after the construction of the newer, stronger Navajo Bridge in 1994. Here, in an area technically considered part of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River gorge is over 400 feet deep. We stopped and walked across the footbridge, taking pictures of the gorge and surrounding scenery on the way. There's a visitor center on the north side of the gorge, though it was closed for the season. We walked back, and continued on our way to the Grand Canyon. By now, the sun was starting to go down.

South of the Colorado River is the Navajo Indian reservation[7]. The land is even drier here than north of the Colorado. There are houses and shacks in various stages of construction, repair, or decay. There were also a lot of roadside stands advertising Indian silverwork, rugs, pottery, and other things. Even though some of them claimed to be open, all were empty. I suspect that the poor house construction and the abundance of roadside stands is because the reservation residents (as seems to be the case with many Indian reservations) are dirt poor, and the stands are their only source of income. As we headed further south through the reservation, we saw progressively more houses and other buildings, though there was still an enormous amount of empty land.

By now we were getting hungry, and didn't want to take the last 75-80 miles to Grand Canyon Village on empty stomachs. We detoured to Tuba City (I'd wanted to stop there already, just for the name!) and found Hogan Restaurant, which was a plain, basic restaurant attached to a Quality Inn. One of their daily specials was barbecue ribs, which we both ordered. It came with a small bowl of vegetables and a choice of side: fries for jiapa, onion rings for me. The ribs were liberally covered in barbecue sauce and fun to eat with fingers. They were well-done; the meat was fairly easy to eat off the bone. We both ended up with our faces covered in sauce. The vegetables were, unfortunately, somewhat overcooked -- but at least the veggies were broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, instead of mushy brown peas or overdone corn. For dessert we split a piece of pecan pie. This one was relatively thin, with a good pastry crust, but no attempt had been made to mix the pecans throughout the filling. Even so, it was served warm, with ice cream, and superior to the one from yesterday's lunch.

Fed, we got back into the car for the final leg to Grand Canyon Village. It was now dark; the last of the sunset was fading in the west. We knew we didn't have hotel reservations[8], so we tried to call and see what might be available tonight; however neither of our cell phones could get enough signal to make a call. So we enjoyed the stars and what little scenery we could see. Shortly after turning onto Arizona Rt. 64, we found ourselves back in the Kaibab National Forest -- it turns out that Kaibab is both north and south of the Grand Canyon. Once again, we were climbing, and in trees. Several miles later, we entered Grand Canyon National Park. All the entry booths were closed along the 25 mile road from the park border to Grand Canyon Village. We bypassed several scenic points along the way, though brief glimpses through the trees told me that visiting them at night (we are nearly at a full moon) could be spectacular. Perhaps tomorrow night instead.

When we arrived at Bright Angel Lodge, we walked into the lobby to be greeted by a "no rooms available" sign. However, our guidebooks had said that all the hotels in Grand Canyon Village were run by the same company, so we asked the person at the counter if he could check the other hotels for us. He could, and said that there were still 10 rooms available at Yavapai Lodge, and that we should call them from the lobby phone rather than take the chance of them all being rented before we could make the (at most) 10 minute drive there. jiapa called to get a room, and succeeded in doing so. It turns out the only reason that those rooms were vacant is because someone else had just called and cancelled a block of 10 rooms -- we got lucky.

We're now in at the Grand Canyon, and will be looking into what hikes we want to take tomorrow.

1. There were occasionally low mortared stone walls along the road, though in many cases these seemed more decorative than anything, as they were spaced, with about equal-length gaps, in a regular pattern along the edge of the road. In other places, there were no rails or walls of any sort: if you went over, you were in for a long way down.

2. Even the tunnel was uphill, in addition to the long climb up the switchbacks.

3. On Saturday, when the snow was still falling and there were road closures here and there, we'd gotten a recommendation to take US 89, as it would likely be clearer, and there was far less climbing to do. So, that was our original plan. However, two days later, with plenty of time for roads to be plowed or to melt, US 89A sounded promising, and would likely be clear.

4. The western boundary of the park seems more arbitrary; there is similarly astonishing geography both in and out of the park. I suspect that the western boundary had more to do with having enough space to install buildings in the widening canyon than anything else.

5. The Arizona Strip is that part of Arizona isolated from the rest of Arizona by the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River.

6. The Stratus had difficulty accelerating uphill at this altitude; combustion requires oxygen, and there's less air in general this high up. I suspect the Miata would have had acceleration difficulties as well, but the Miata is significantly lighter. It may have a bigger engine too.

7. The area also contains a smaller Hopi reservation, entirely surrounded by the Navajo reservation. In turn, there is a small, isolated part of the Navajo reservation entirely surrounded by the Hopi reservation. I have no idea why things are laid out this way.

8. Every guidebook says that you should have reservations for the Grand Canyon well in advance. We figured we could get away without because this is the off season. This proved to be somewhat boneheaded on our part; we were able to find in-park lodging for two nights only because we lucked into rooms both days, but the rooms were not in the same facility! Call ahead, even for off-season.

Comments

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

wow, just wow. this really makes me want to go see this stuff. nature isn't as fun for me when it's over run with a lot of people though. did you see lots of other people while you were hiking?

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

There were a *lot* of people on the Riverside trail. The Zion Canyon road used to get so crowded in summer that they finally banned all cars on the road and took everyone in by shuttle bus. We were there early enough in the year that we could still drive the road (the shuttles were not running), but even then, some of the pullouts for hiking were entirely full of cars.

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

Per one of the guidebooks, it's fairly easy to escape the crowds in Zion by simply going elsewhere. I suspect that backcountry hiking is also far less crowded than the paved paths we stuck to.