Arches & Marches, Ridges & Bridges

Aloha all,

Southern Utah is even more spectacular than I realized. It’s also good for our post-Germany diet and detox plan. We’ve been hiking a lot (due to Utah’s beautiful scenery) and drinking very little (at least partially due to Utah’s strict liquor laws). Sandra and I had been to some of the highlights in this area 26 years ago on a whirlwind road trip. Back in 1993, we covered more miles in three weeks than we have on this entire trip since May. I also came though here on the road trips with my nieces. It’s always been spectacular, but this time around, we particularly enjoy that we have no time constraints at all. We can always stay as long as we want, visit anything that interests us along the way and we are never in a rush to get to anywhere specific. We can really slow down and smell the roses. Well, not literally roses since they don’t grow here, but we do occasionally stop to smell the ponderosa pines. Did you know that they emit a butterscotch smell from their bark?

Yes, we are still very comfortable here in Utah

But while it’s nice to have the time to visit some lesser known sites, we also went back to the big national parks in the area: Capitol Reef, Canyonlands and Arches. But first we continued to get our kicks on route 12. This truly scenic highway through and around the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument offers so much more than just beautiful vistas of this rugged and remote area. We hiked along, across and even in the Escalante River to a natural bridge that we had all to ourselves. We were also lucky to get a great campsite at the Lower Calf Creek Campground and to meet a very nice young woman from Quebec, giving us the chance to brush up on our French while we hiked to a beautiful waterfall together. Surprisingly, we have heard more French than German lately. No idea why.

Making friends and practicing our french
 at Calf Creek Falls

We arrived at Capitol Reef National Park in the afternoon, did the scenic drive and almost continued on because the campground was full. Luckily, we realized that spending just half a day in a national park is not our style. We found some free BLM land outside the park and came back the next morning to really see the park. First on a ranger guided hike, which was educational, enjoyable and entertaining as always.

Slot canyon on a ranger guided hike in Capitol Reef NP

We hiked to some small slot canyon and overlooks I did not know existed and we did the spectacular Grand Wash trail through a steep canyon. Usually you’d have to hike down into a deep canyon for those kind of views, or walk through water like in the Narrows at Zion. Here, you can drive to either end of the wash and hike along the surprisingly flat and totally dry riverbed. 

Grand Wash in Capitol Reef NP.
Yes, the small dot is Sandra

I will admit: Another highlight of this day was that the remote campground east of the park, which warned that there is no cell service and no wifi, actually had a wifi signal so I could get some work done. Not that I enjoy my work as much as the hiking, but it is what allows us to enjoy ‘the best of both worlds’.

We had enjoyed the Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon so much that we decided to also visit their cousins, the Goblins at the Goblin State Park. Goblins like Hoodoos are formed when columns stay behind, protected by harder rock on top of them, when everything else around them is eroding away. It makes for some pretty interesting shapes. Just to give you an idea how much we enjoyed walking around the Goblins: They also had a disc golf course in this park, but we liked the goblins way better, not only because we had some terrible throws and a hard time finding the tee boxes, also because the Goblins are really cute.

Goblins State Park

Goblins come in all kinds of shapes!

The small town of Green River might not be the epicenter of civilization, but it was the first time we were on an interstate since the day we left Las Vegas and we needed a day to take care of things; doing laundry, getting propane and most of all:  buying and installing new batteries for Joy. It was getting to the point where we did not dare turn on a light at night in fear the battery will not make it through the night. Now we enjoy the lights (and even the furnace on cold mornings) even more.

Sandra enjoying the view over Canyonlands

We remembered Canyonlands as a pretty remote national park and I did not expect big crowds after Labor Day. But I guess word is out how spectacular it is and that the fall is actually ideal, since it’s not that hot anymore. Canyonlands has three distinct areas separated by the Green and Colorado River. We  got lucky and got one of only 10 campsites in the park’s most accessible area, the “Island in The Sky”. That’s a very appropriate name since it’s on a plateau with panoramic views into the canyons below almost all the way around. The canyons stretch for miles and miles. One could even argue that it’s a better view than from the rim of the Grand Canyon, since it’s not as deep and therefore the inner makings of the Canyonlands are visible; but after our epic week rafting through the Grand Canyon this summer, I can’t get myself to say that anything is better than the Grand Canyon. 

Canyonlands National Park - not as dangerous as it might look

Besides to some great viewpoints in Canyonlands, we also hiked to the ‘Upheaval Dome’. I remembered from my trip with Ronja how refreshing it was that the scientists don’t know how it was formed. I am usually so amazed that humans can figure out exactly how a mountain was formed many million years ago. But not here, at least not yet. I am glad to report that they still don’t know, even though they think it might have been a meteor.

Dead Horse Point SP - 26 years later

But I can’t blame the geologists for not knowing what happened at Upheaval Dome so many years ago. Apparently, Sandra and I don’t even remember what we saw 26 years ago. That was the last time we had been to Dead Horse Point and we both remembered looking down at the horseshoe shaped turn in the Colorado River below. In fact, Sandra has a picture of us at this very site on her nightstand in Maui. We both remembered seeing the whole turn of the river below. But to our surprise, in real life, part of the view of the river is blocked by cliffs that I am sure have been there for more than 26 years. To our amusement, we overheard another couple saying the very same thing. They were also surprised that the view they remembered was now blocked. This is how little you can trust human memory. I guess in our memory we combined the still very spectacular view we saw with some aerial photos we saw later. 

Delicate Arch in Arches NP

Arches has always been one of my favorite national parks. Judging by the fact that the next campground availability was for February, I guess I am not the only one. But of course we had to go back there anyway to make sure that the Landscape Arch and the Delicate Arch are still standing. 

Yep, even Landscape Arch is still standing!

We got lucky with a campsite, too. There is a small campground along the Colorado River just 5 miles outside of Arches. It was already completely full when we got there in the morning, but this nice couple from Quebec offered to share their site with us. So not only did we get a site, we got a great deal and another chance to practice our rusty French. And the site was large enough that we were able to accommodate even a third RV from our special guest Annie who came to visit us from Aspen for a few days.

Fun to see our friend Annie from Aspen...and her perfect bacon!

Annie suggested a hike south of Moab we had never heard of. Since it was her birthday and we are always up for something new, of course we agreed and it turned out to be very special. It’s already a treat to walk along a little stream in a desert canyon. Then we had somewhat randomly agreed to walk for two miles before turning around. At exactly 1.99 miles according to my apple watch, we heard a waterfall. We climbed down into the little canyon and found this perfect cave with a perfect waterfall. It was so perfect and so private that I was even able to wear the appropriate suit for Annie’s birthday. 

Our own private, perfect waterfall!

Afterwards, we went to the “Hole in The Rock”. This house/apartment/dwelling, whatever you want to call it, is built into the sandstone rock. The couple who built this actually lived in it for decades, they even had a restaurant in there for a while. It seemed so comfortable that I am surprised there are not more houses like this. Maybe living in it is not as comfortable as it appears. The family who bought it has never lived there, but preserves it as a cute and quirky tourist attraction.

Next, we went to “The Needles”, which are also part of Canyonlands National Park. This is a little more remote and required a ten mile hike to get to the actual needles, but the landscape is just beautiful and we were again lucky and got the last available campsite. We liked it so much that we stayed two nights and got to go to two very interesting evening campfire programs about the food of the ancestral publeoans and about water in the desert. I learnt for example, that 100% of the water of the Colorado river gets used, meaning with very few exceptions, not a single drop of this mighty river makes it to the Pacific!

Viewpoint at the end of our hike
to the Needles in Canyonlands NP

We left Canyonlands via the scenic Harts Draw Road, found a nice Steakhouse for our farewell dinner with Annie and camped at a spectacular BLM site right by a lake all by ourselves. Yesterday, Sandra and I went to the ‘Edge of the Cedars’ State Park and Museum. They have some great exhibits about the rich native American history of the Four Corners region. We are still pretty clueless about this arguably most important part of America’s history, but at least we know a little more now. Not many presidential sites in this area, so we have to broaden our historic horizon a little bit. The only presidential connections we heard of around here are the National Monuments that Trump has shrunk and that’s just sad. And as I wrote before, we are interested mostly in the first 44 presidents.

Today, we visited the Natural Bridges National Monument. In case you want to know what the difference between an Arch and a Bridge is: Natural Bridges are formed by flowing water while Arches are formed by any other form of erosion. Either way, the end effect are beautiful sculptures, which make for great hiking destinations and photo opportunities. 

Natural Bridges NM

We already spent over three weeks in Southern Utah. At the pace we are going, we might not even make it to Oklahoma on this trip. That would mean our state count would still be at 49 and we’d have to go on another trip next year. Who knows, maybe it even works out that we see our 50th state on my 50th birthday. For now we just take our time and smell the ponderosas or whatever else we find along the way.

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra

A walk in 8 parks, thinking of Mormons and Morons

Aloha all,

it’s not just a walk in a park, we’ve been back on the road for only two weeks and we’ve already walked in 8 national and state parks. Maybe it’s just like with the pretzels: Because I miss the good soft pretzels in Germany, I might overdo it a litte bit when I am there. But then again; is there such a thing as too many pretzels…or too many national parks?

Let's get Rocked! Def Leppard concert in Las Vegas

We flew back into Las Vegas and Def Leppard greeted us with a bang! It was my third time seeing them, my T-shirt from the 1992 tour is real vintage by now. Sandra has been listening to them even longer. It’s pretty impressive that they have been doing this for 42 years and are still going strong. Obviously, they are no spring chickens anymore, but they sound as good as ever. And it’s mostly the original members, but what do you expect from a band that keeps their drummer after he looses an arm? Another perspective: Even their “newest” member has been with the band longer than Jim Morrison has been alive. What a fun way to start the second half of our road trip!

Looking from Red Rocks Canyon to Las Vegas

 It was still very hot in Vegas, so when we had seen enough of the water fountain shows at the Bellagio, we drove up into the mountains. First to the very scenic Red Rocks Canyon and when that got too hot, further up to the Spring Mountains. We did a really fun hike into a slot canyon there, but we were not the only ones trying to escape the desert heat, so the campgrounds were full.

Slot Canyon in the Spring Mountains

The next best campground happened to be at the huge Clark County Shooting Complex just outside of Las Vegas. This campground overlooks the Strip, but is far enough to be very tranquil...until about 7am. But you can’t complain about people shooting at a shooting range, so we thought we join them. Neither one of us has ever fired a real gun, so it would have been something really special to do on our anniversary. Unfortunately, our German attitude got in the way. We felt it would be wise to get at least a short lesson before we start shooting, but lessons were not available that day. Maybe we’ll do that on our next anniversary, if we can’t think of anything more romantic.

Instead, we had a very nice anniversary lunch on our way out of town. My silly humor almost ruined the lunch though: It was 110F (about 43C), so I thought it was funny to ask for a table “outside in the sun”. The hostess did not blink an eye. You should have seen my face when she actually escorted us outside. Well, we all had a good laugh and then enjoyed our lunch in cool, air conditioned comfort. Usually, we are not big AC fans, but somewhere in the triple digits, my attitude changes dramatically. 

Sunset at Snow Canyon State Park

People often ask us how we find the places we go to and how we decide what to see. Usually, it’s a combination of looking at maps, listening to fellow travelers, stopping at visitor centers and researching online. But I want to add ‘dumb luck’ to the list. The only reason we went to the Snow Canyon State Park was that it was the most affordable campground we could find with electric hookups to run our AC in Joy. But what a beauty this little park turned out to be. We went on a great sunset hike and another one the next morning, both to spectacular viewpoints on top of petrified dunes. What a hidden gem!

Less hidden, but still a gem: Next, we went to Zion National Park, where we got really lucky with the campgrounds. Two out of three days, we even got to camp right next to the river with our own little bathing spot. We had been to Zion before, but I got to go further into “The Narrows” than I had been before and we got to do the famous “Angel’s Landing” trail for the first time. It’s less than 6 miles, but very steep and dramatically scenic. The last part of the trail goes along a ridge with a 700 foot drop on one side and a 1000 foot drop on the other. But for the parts where the trail is sometimes as narrow as 28 inches (71cm), they installed a chain to hold on to. I am not as fearless about heights as I used to be, without that chain I would have had to stay behind and wait for Sandra to return. From the top, you have a great view of Zion Canyon, including the rock slide area right across. For those of you familiar with Zion: The whole Weeping Rock area is closed indefinitely due to a massive rock slide that happened just two weeks ago. You can  watch the video a hiker took from Angels Landing (just search for ‘Zion rock slide cable mountain’), it’s a true miracle nobody got killed. Luckily, the popular trails below were closed for unrelated maintenance. The rock slide happened in the afternoon, normally there would have been dozens of hikers on those trails. Some guardian angel must have actually landed at Angels Landing and watched out over the hikers that day! He also protected us on the way down. There is a sign at the beginning of the trail, advising hikers how many people have fallen off the trail (9 since 2004). There wasn’t a lot of space for double digits, so I am glad we did not add to that number.

Angels Landing
Yep, the trail goes up that ridge behind us.

We also joined as many ranger programs as we could, including a ranger walk with only one other German couple, a bus ride with a ranger to some places the regular shuttle does not stop at and three ranger evening programs about rock climbing, animal adaptions and arches at Zion. I am constantly amazed by the consistent quality of these programs. The National Park Service might struggle with the budget cuts and with the overcrowding due to its own success, but in my view it’s still America’s best idea. 

Red Canyon, just outside of Bryce Canyon NP,
 if you want to avoid the crowds

On our way to Bryce Canyon, we stopped at the Red Canyon campground for a night. What a nice surprise that was. It’s almost as pretty as Bryce and on our morning hike we only met one other person. That’s a striking difference to the Angels Landing trail where it was super busy even though we started off before sunrise. Red Canyon is perfect if you want to avoid the crowds at some National Parks. I like most humans, but if want to stay away from them, there is still plenty of unspoiled, quiet beauty left in this country. We are so grateful that we have no time constraint on this tour and can linger in an area for as long as we want.

Colors and Shapes of Bryce Canyon
The gods most be crazy!

It’s been 26 years since Sandra was at Bryce Canyon. I had been there with Ronja three years ago, but since it’s one of my favorites, I was happy to go back and hike the hoodoos with Sandra again. Those formations and colors are just unbelievable. I have a vague idea how they have formed, but it all still looks unreal to me. On the first day, we looked at some view points and did a ranger led walk along the rim. On the second day, we did a longer hike through the hoodoos with a really nice lunch break at the historic lodge. That night we were invited to a little private star party by a fellow camper with a professional grade telescope. On the third day, we drove to the end of the road to see the other view points. They are not as spectacular as the ones in the main amphitheater, but we met a few very nice humans. Mostly a couple from the Jura region in France, who took a picture of Joy, because they were trying to collect license plates from all 50 states and we were the first “South Dakotans” they saw. We meet Germans all the time, but it was way more special to meet people from the Jura, where we had just gone with my parents a month ago. I think they were pretty excited, too, that someone knew their little home town. Hopefully we get to visit our new friends next time we go there.

Our new friends from the Jura region in France

Our last stop in Bryce Canyon was at the Mossy Cave. But more impressive than the cave was this ‘artificial’ waterfall. One more proof how industrious and hard working the Mormons are. Mormon pioneers dug ditches for two years in the 1890’s to divert water to the valley they wanted to settle. It’s still flowing there today, providing the residents with water and us with a nice photo opportunity.

Speaking of photo opportunities: Our next stop was literally named for that: The Kodakchrome Basin State Park is called so because Kodak came out with their color film just in time to capture the colors of this pretty area. We got to camp, hike and take pictures there.  All very nice, but surprisingly, the shower facilities were the highlight of the park. I’ve stayed in 4 star hotels with less luxurious showers than this remote state park; or as a fellow camper put it: Come for the scenery, stay for the showers. I actually went back to take a picture of the shower, but you’ve seen pretty showers before, so I rather include a picture of the campground in this beautiful setting. :

Kodakchrome Basin State Park

Now we are at the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We haven’t seen much of it yet, in fact we won’t see most of it at all, because it’s very rugged and remote and Joy does not handle unpaved roads that well. This area was the last area of the mainland to be mapped for a reason. We went to The Escalante Heritage Center that tells the story of the so-called ‘Hole-in-the-wall Expedition’, which made the Lewis & Clark expedition look like a walk in the park. 

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Only a mormon would look at this landscape in the 1800’s and think: Let’s go through here and see who we can convert. 

And only a moron would look at this landscape in 2019 and think: Let’s take away some of the protection of this land and open it up for commercial use. 

You might have read about it in the news or you can guess who that moron is. Trump wants to shrink this National Monument to almost half its size. I’m not sure whether it’s because some donor or buddy wants to profit from deals that would be available if the protection of the National Monument is taken away or whether it’s only because Obama had enlarged it and he enjoys reversing anything Obama did whether it makes sense or not. Overall, on the road it’s a lot easier for me than at home to ignore all the silly drama Trump produces. But when it comes to my beloved National Parks, it gets under my skin. But for now his plans to shrink this park are still held up in the courts and hopefully will be for a while. And if our sampling of opinions of park rangers is any indication for the next election, it looks pretty good that someone else will be in charge before the courts decide. But park rangers might not be representative of the whole electorate and we have not made it to Oklahoma to poll some regular folks yet. 

Aloha from the still truly grand Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument,

Chris & Sandra