Category: Colorado Plateau

April 27 – May 2, 2004

On Tuesday, April 27, we drove west on Rt 95 across the Grand Gulch Plateau to Natural Bridges National Monument, avoiding a mule deer and a cottontail rabbit crossing the road.

Stopped at the Mule Canyon pueblo ruins (750 – 1150) to see remains of a kiva (circular underground ceremonial room for men), sentry tower and tunnel-connected family rooms. Admired orange globe mallows, primrose, pink thyme(?).

The Natural Bridges were formed by rivers forcing their way through sandstone, unlike the arches, which are eroded by wind, frost and sand. There are three in this park, on the floor of the canyon at the Cedar Mesa sandstone level. We took the trail down through Douglas firs via two ladders to a view from a broad ledge under a cliff overhang of Sipapu, the second oldest of the bridges, named for Hopi ancestors’ “gateway to the upper world.”

Also followed the Kachina Bridge Trail to the lowest ledge overlook near the Knick Point Overpour (waterfall in rainy season). This is the youngest of the bridges and lost 400 tons of rock in 1992 to enlarge the opening. It has been named for the rock art on it similar to Hopi dolls.

A short hike brought us all the way down to the oldest of the bridges, Owachomo (Hopi word for rock mound on the east abutment). An old picture shows townspeople with horses and mules on top of what was then called the Edwin Bridge. Looking toward the Bear’s Ears Buttes we could see where the old pioneer road had come through.

Wed Apr 28 – Southwest on 191 via Mexican Hat to San Juan State Park. White bell-like blossoms on stalks of narrow leaf yucca along the road. From this high canyon rim we had great views of a double gooseneck in the San Juan River.

By the time we reached Monument Valley Navaho Reservation park, in Arizona, the wind had begun to pick up, so we opted against a tour in an open shuttle with possible sand in the eyes and instead Barbara bravely drove us over the bumpy road to view the massive structures rearing up from the valley floor and picturesquely named
Mittens, Elephant, Three Sisters, Totem Pole, etc. etc.

On to our Hampton Inn in Kayenta, and none too soon, as by our arrival time we were enveloped in a blinding Sandstorm visibility about 20 feet, which continued most of the night but happily had ceased by the next morning.

So on Thursday we went on to Navajo National Monument, which offered a one mile walk down into the canyon to view the Betatakin cliffside pueblo ruins (650-1200). Yellow western wallflowers.

Crossing the Kaibito Plateau (6800) we drove down to the the city of Page, which was established when the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River created Lake Powell. After some confusion of the motel name with the local Masonic Lodge, we were happy to locate the Glen Canyon Lodge Motel, recently renovated with a pleasant view, convenient to all our needs, and extremely reasonable.

After lunch we took a guided tour of the nearby Antelope Slot Canyon, walking through the narrow apertures and looking up at the light at the top which illuminated incredibly graceful, smoothly carved forms and figures in many shades of reds, oranges, tans and creams, an otherworldly experience. These canyons are formed by seasonal flash floods which enlarge sandstone cracks into tunnels from the top down. White baby’s breath in bloom at entrances.

That evening at the local Powell Museum we heard a slide talk on the Old Spanish Trail, a trade route briefly used between Santa Fe and San Francisco that passes through this area.

Next morning we did a couple of short walks at the Glen Powell Dam and Colorado River Overlook, looking down at the dam and then at the 700 foot canyon walls of the river below, showing what the original Colorado would have seemed like to John Wesley Powell and other early river explorers. Blue scorpionbush in bloom.

Another rim walk gave great views of the giant Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado.

In the afternoon we spent a couple hours on the Page recreation trail (part bike trail, part goatpath) along the rim of their mesa which looks out over Lake Powell. Beautiful cactus blooms – fishhook, prickly pear and claret.

Saturday we started back to California, stopping briefly at the Paria townsite historical marker. This Mormon farm and cattle town was eventually driven out by flash floods and Paiute raids.)

In the town of Panguitch we were delighted to find ourselves in the midst of a huge Greyhound Gathering. Delightfully costumed pairs of these elegant dogs were strolling on all sides with their proude owners, having arrived from all over the country for the annual get-together.

Toward midafternoon we stopped at Great Basin National Park in Nevada’s North Snake Range. (In a “basin,” runoff mountain waters do not flow to the sea but remain in depressions, ponds, lakes and some evaporate; witness Great Salt Lake, a remnant of the once huge Lake Bonneville We took the Wheeler Peak (13,000) scenic drive up into snowbanks, cloned aspen groves, Engelmann spruces and limber pines at 10,000′. Lots of mountain mahogany, which was burned by miners to make charcoal. Two retail hawks circled above the winding road. We did a short hike on the Osceola Ditch trail. This 18 mile wooden flume was built complete with a 600 tunnel through the rocks to carry water from Lehman Creek to placer mines. Eventually drought, water theft and leakage made the mines uneconomical. A rock squirrel was scampering on the shards of old flume lumber. Blue crescent milkvetch and Bur buttercups.

The less said about the last day’s drive through the boringly flat and monotonous Nevada high deserts, the better. What a relief to ascend to sunny views of Lake Tahoe on the California border and return to Barbara’s flourishing rose garden in Davis. Kudos on surviving 3000 plus miles at the wheel, Barbara!

April 21 through 26, 2004

Wed Apr 21 – On to Capitol Reef National Park via spectacularly scenic Route 12. Stop at Tropic for a walk on the Mossy Cave Trail along the Tropic Ditch, a ten mile diversion of the East Fork of the Sevier River dug to supply the town with water. Found snow in the cave, which had been hollowed out by seeping springs.

On to Kodachrome Basin (named by Kodak) Utah State Park and a short hike to a newly discovered arch, named for Tom Shakespeare, the ranger who found it. Mormon (also called Indian, Navaho) tea plant (actually ephedra!) has spiny leaves like horsetail clubmosses. Lots of junipers, called cedars by the early settlers. Grape holly and serviceberry in bloom.

Back in the car and past the massive Escalante River Canyon and up over the Hogback Ridge road to Boulder, Utah, first built by the CCC in 1940. Looking out we see distant rainstorms on both sides but we travel in sunshine.

A stop in Boulder at the Anasazi Indian Museum showing pueblo construction, pottery and other artifacts. Then up to the 9000′ level of Cap Reef through thick groves of aspen. We learned that these groves are actually a single tree connected by underground rootlines and containing identical DNA. Past six pregnant elk ladies in a south sloping grove. Snowbanks still cover the north sloping banks. A herd of mule deer on either side of road. In and out of minor snow squalls. Ponderosa pines and Douglas fir replace the aspen. Finally over the pass and down to high juniper drylands of Torrey.

Thursday light snow on and off all day. Drove down to Capitol Reef National Park (no snow there, only light mist). Views of Waterford Fold formations, tectonic plate movements which shoved up the entire Colorado Plateau. It is a hundred-mile buckled wrinkle of earth layers and almost impassable ridges called reefs by early seagoing frontiersmen. Indians called this area the Land of the Sleeping Rainbow. Mormons settled the fertile Fremont River Valley and planted it in fruit trees, where you can still pick fruit to eat free of charge. We took a picture of a little old Mormon blacksmith shop for Carl’s benefit.

Friday morning Alan brushed an inch of wet snow off the car and we descended from Torrey back past Cap Reef on Route 24 passing through light rain to clear skies. Lots of lava ashcoated frozen dunes.

At Goblin Valley State Park we wandered among bigheaded, squatty fat hoodoos shaped by flash floods. In the river washes rabbitbrush, vetch, Mormon tea flourish and we are told the dusty rattlesnake, scorpion, jackrabbit, kit fox and pronghorn can be seen in the cooler times of day or night.

Green River at the junction with the Colorado River is a popular place for river float trips. The John Wesley Powell River History Museum gave a very interesting pictorial record of those first dangerous descents through the mighty rapids.

On across the San Rafael Desert and down to Moab, crowded for the weekend with an antique car rally. The snowtopped La Sal Mountains (12-13000 feet) can be seen to the east.

Two short hikes in Arches National Park, whose solitude, once defended by then ranger Edward Abbey (“Desert Solitaire”) is now a tourist mecca. Two hikes on the Balanced Rock and Delicate Arch Trails. Red paintbrush, stalks of thick dock blossoms, white desert primroses, foamy white balls of peppergrass, yellow daisylike stemless woolybase.

Saturday we joined a ranger-led hike on the Windows Trail. Learned that Arches was underlaid by a huge salt bed which flowed and buckled under pressure. Overlying red sandstone cracked and weathered into fins and hoodoos and arches.

The ranger pointed out ancient blackbrush, which grows so slowly it can be thousands of years old. He also pointed out black patches of biotic crust, essential microorganisms that put nitrogen into the sand and so fertilize it for other plants to use. These take decades to accumulate.

We hiked to the North Arch, Turret Arch and South Arch and back with views of the Salt Valley and distant La Sal Mountains. We heard the call of the Say’s phoebe, somewhat like “C’mere, c’mere.”

On the Sand Dune Arch Trail we made our way through narrow passages and found families with kids sliding and playing in the accumulations of fine red sand in the shade of the eroded slickrock cliff fins. Yellow biscuitroot flowers along the path.

Another hike to the Skyline Arch. This arch was almost doubled in size in the 1990’s by having a huge chunk drop out of it. Took a walk past the base to admire the fallen debris. Saw two hawks or falcons.

Sunday we drove from Moab to Dead Horse Point State Park passing the Monitor and Merrimack buttes. There a one mile rim walk provides views of the Colorado River gooseneck as well as the La Sal and Abajo Mountains. (These are all laccolithic ranges pushed up by lava emerging and spreading out below.) Met Colorado chipmunks
and ravens.

Some of the antique cars had followed us to Dead Horse, but they did not go on to Canyonlands Island in the Sky section. As the name implies, this part of Canyonlands is on the rim looking out over the other two sections, Needles, which we visited next, and Mesas, accessible only to backcountry hikers. The view is very much like that at Grand Canyon.

Monday found us leaving Moab with our first stop at Newspaper Rock State Park along the bright green cottonwood-lined Indian Creek valley. Essentially this was a huge wall so called because of all the Indian petroglyphs on it.

In the Needles section of Canyonlands we walked the Roadside Ruin Trail to a pueblo granary under a cliff shelf. Then we took the Pothole Point Trail over ancient sandstone dunes containing scoured out potholes still full of water in which a half dozen types of marine animals manage to emerge and procreate in the short time the water lasts…tadpole and clam shrimp and others. Distant views of the “Needles” – candy cane red and white clusters of spires which can be reached only a longer hikes.

Stopped at the Big Spring Canyon Overlook at the end of the seven mile park road. Took the Cave Spring Trail which led to the cave sites of ancient pueblos more recently used by cowboys (their equipment still there) and up a couple of ladders to the tops of the cliffs.

Good sighting of a gopher snake (markings similar to copperhead) as we left the park as well as wild turkeys and a newborn calf being licked by its Momma at the Dugout Ranch.

Took an exciting winding route up over the Abajo Mountains to the motel in Blanding. Could see San Juans in Colorado as well as La Sals.

Here endeth Part 2 of our travels. Final section to follow.

April 13 – 20, 2004

We are writing up our trip for our memoirs, so you don’t have to read any more of it than you want to!

On 13 April we flew out of Manchester on Southwest Airlines on what was described as a direct flight. What they did not mention was that our flight sat down three times (Chicago, Kansas City and Vegas) before reaching Sacramento ten hours later. Guess that explained the cheap price ($238 RT). But we left cold rain and stepped out into spring blossoms, rose gardens and 70 degree temperatures.

Our first evening at Sister Barbara’s we were treated to a chicken barbecue with fresh strawberries at daughter Nancy and David Gray’s with children Emma (who introduced us to her rabbit and crane fly) and Ira (downloading at the computer).

The next day after shopping for trip groceries we helped Barbara bury her fatally ill old marmalade cat under the redwood tree and in midafternoon drove up the valley of the American River on Route 50, winding up into the ponderosa pines and snowcapped peaks of the Sierra Nevadas (7200 feet altitude in the pass). Coming down we were treated to the sight of a small elk herd in one grove and several mule deer in a meadow. We stopped for a quick look at a stormy Lake Tahoe before continuing to Carson City where the wind off the peaks blew us into a Motel 6.

Thursday we continued down to a high (4000) sage desert following the Walker River into Wilson Canyon where we paused under newly green cottonwoods and watched the ATV’s on nearby sand dunes. In Mason Valley the lilacs were blooming on old Mormon homesteads and tamarisks were putting out mauve flowerets around Walker Lake.

Hawthorne (US Army ammo plant and depot (mounded earth concrete bunkers) was a pretty arid scene, so we welcomed the sight of Boundary Peak (13,400) highest in the Nevada/California border range. Enjoyed Barb’s excellent bean salad at a rest area.

On through monotonously straight desert roads enlivened only by the unusual Joshua Tree cacti. What a joy to leave the flat valley and wind our way up into weathered cliffs, boulder screes and multicolored rock layers as we approached Zion National Park and the Hurricane, Utah, Comfort Inn.

Zion wisely does not allow cars past the visitors’ center but avoids gridlock by running frequent shuttles that stop at all viewpoints and trailheads. We hopped off for a short walk to view the Three Patriarchs, massive cliff blocks named for the Biblical Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Then on to the end of Zion Canyon and a hike along the Virgin River from the Temple of Sinowava to the Narrows, where hardy hikers waded across the frigid waters but we turned around.

We saw golden mantle squirrels, scarlet gilia and dusty penstamen, hanging gardens of maidenhair ferns, golden columbine and the tiny yellow flowers of creeping mahonia or ground barberry with hollylike leaves.

We got stiff necks from looking up at ancient dunes hardened on top of old sandstone seabeds alternating with red sandstone and shale washed down from the once 30,000 feet high Rockies. Using our binoculars we saw a nesting peregrine falcon pointed out by another hiker.

After a tailgate lunch we took a 45 minute walk down the river on the bike/hike trail, crossing a half dozen bridges. The Virgin is the longest river in Utah, descending 8000 feet and subject to flash floods, which were what discouraged early settlers from the Anasazi to the Paiutes to the Mormons.

Saturday morning our first stop before the Park was at LaVirkin Lookout for a walk to the Virgin canyon wall with a view out over the town of Hurricane as well as down into the deep river cuts. Orange globe mallows and purply blue vetch were along the path.

Then we took the shuttle to the Emerald Pools Trailhead for a three mile hike passing three waterfall-fed pools with some climbing toward the top. We heard the descending notes of the canyon wren. At each pool the wind would blow the spray onto the trail.

From the town of Virgin we decided to drive up the Kolob Terrace Road which runs up a high lava ridge, admiring lava flows on either side, to summer pastures on a high plateau at the height of Zion Canyon rim.

Sunday was our first rainy day, overcast with spit showers. We took the old Mt. Carmel tunnel road (built for Model T’s so today’s semis require a one-way escort) out through the edge of Zion National Park, leaving the desert for alpine terrain, spectacular red canyon walls crossbedded with sandstone.

We found the high pastures had been covered with rime and snow during the night. Two mule deer went boinging across a field as we passed. Nearing Bryce Canyon National Park we saw more and more hoodoo – misshapen columns eroded out of fins which had themselves cracked free of massive blocks of red and white sandstone. Our kitchenette unit at the Bryce Canyon Pines Motel was about a mile from the park entrance on a high (6000′) plateau.

At Bryce the park road is on top of the canyon and you look down on the fantastic rock formations (in contrast to Zion where the road is on the canyon floor and you look up). You travel through ponderosa pine and white or Douglas firs with stops at overlooks usually monitored by a stately raven who eyes you for handouts. We drove to the end of the 18 mile road and hiked the Bristlecone Pine trail from Rainbow Point. These thousand year old twisted pines endure drought and grow slowly. Half the time we walked on packed snow, panting slightly in the 9000′ altitude.

Monday (Apr 19) we hiked the Pink Ledges and Bird’s Eye “goatpath” trails in nearby Red Canyon, finding elk footprints, caves and a nest ledge (peregrine?) and limber pines with flexible drooping branches instead of bristlecones.

Tuesday we hiked the Queen’s Garden Trail 320′ down into Bryce Canyon off Sunrise Point on a hardpacked switchback with views of weirdly shaped figures in all directions. A stony Queen Victoria surveyed her garden at trail’s end.

In the afternoon we took a trail ride to the canyon floor, Barbara and I on black mares Lacey and Lara, and Alan on a big mule (Tool Time). Our steeds picked their way with slight concern for the dropoffs as we wound our way past bristlecone and limber and stunted ponderosa pines, cedars, and blossoming (red) manzanitas and yellow ground mahonias.

Here endeth Part One of our Trip Log. Next stop: Capitol Reef.