Another Day, Another National Park

Today it was Zion National Park - surprisingly VERY busy for a Monday. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the park is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year (it was declared a National Monument on July 31, 1909, and became a national park in 1919). The Zion Canyon portion of the park was closed to private vehicles in 2000 due to excessive traffic; instead, the Park Service provides continuous free shuttles up the canyon road with multiple stopping points along the way.

We took the shuttle up to the end and hiked the River Walk trail, an easy 2 mile round trip. Of special interest are the "hanging gardens" along the walk - although the climate is generally dry, the rock walls along the trails "weep" water, providing a rock foothold for a variety of plants.

Another interesting points about Zion: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was partially filmed in this park in 1968.



An observation: from the time we reached the greater Four Corners area last weekend, we've noticed an inordinate amount of foreign travelers, many touring the west via RV's rented from companies such as RVAmerica, CruiseAmerica, and others. To be more specific, the RV renters are typically Europeans (our neighbors at Monument Valley on Friday night were two couples from the Netherlands), while the Oriental visitors usually travel by bus.

The Grand Canyon

We arrived at the Grand Canyon early Saturday afternoon and checked into "Trailer Village", an RV area about a mile from the South Rim.

I know that we've used superlatives to describe many other national parks, but the Grand Canyon to me is still, well, the "grandest"! We had previously visited here in 1985; as soon as we saw it this time we knew that we'd be back again in far less than another 24 years. (Actually, being a seasonal ranger or employee sounds tempting to me, although I don't know about John :-) ).

When we visited last, I made it a point to wake up early on our second day in order to see the sunrise in the Canyon (excuse the cliche, but that was indeed a "religious experience"). At the time, John decided to sleep in, regretting it since and determined not to do the same this time. We signed up for a Sunrise Bus Tour, meaning that we had to wake up at 3:30 Arizona time to get dressed, get the dogs walked and settled, and walk the half mile to the bus stop by 4:30. Fortunately, we had just come in from Utah which is one hour ahead of Arizona, and hadn't bothered to change our watches for the one night -- adhering to Utah time, the sound of getting up at 4:30 didn't seem quite as painful.

So, here are some of those early morning pictures --- as is typical, they don't come near doing justice to the real thing! Keep in mind that the average distance across the Canyon is 10 miles and the average depth is one mile.

Southwestern Colorado/Southeasthern Utah

Mesa Verde National Park is striking not only for the 13th century Anasazi cliff dwellings, but for the views it provides of the surrounding countryside.





Heading west into Utah, however, what struck us was how quickly the terrain can change from dramatic to desolate and back to breathtaking. Leaving Cortez Colorado towards Monticello and Blanding Utah, we found the small farming and reservation towns depressed and bleak, emphasized by the cloudy, hazy skies. As we progressed southward towards Utah towns like Bluff and Mexican Hat, the winds picked up and we found ourselves in quite the sandstorms as we headed into Monument Valley.

We found a campground in the heart of Monument Valley, with the following picture taken a few feet from our campsite. Unfortunately, because of the wind-driven sands, we couldn't enjoy too much time outdoors but had to spend most of the evening inside the RV.

A final post-script to the day: our campground and the surrounding area have little or no grassy space, just red sand. Gracie and Abby are decidedly Vermont dogs and need green space to "do their business" - it makes for very long walks outside while they search for that one little blade of grass!

Million Dollar Highway

Not too many words tonight; just pictures (which don't come close to doing it justice): don't ever pass up the chance to take the drive on Colorado route 550 from Ouray to Silverton to Durango Colorado. Even the hair-raising hairpin turns and sheer drop offs are worth the views. (OK, John's making me add this: it might even be more fun in a Porsche)

My only regret: some of the scenic views were on John's side of the vehicle, leading us to a discussion about adding a turret to the top so that I could sit there and take pictures in all directions.

More of Colorado

We camped in Buena Vista, Colorado, in an area that promised views of the "Collegiate Range" of 14,000 footers, including Mount Yale, Mount Princeton, etc. The rain as we arrived late in the afternoon precluded any views, and we woke up this morning to limited mountain visibility due to low clouds. As we started on our way for the day, however, the Collegiates finally made themselves known above the clouds.

The literal high point of our day was at over 11,000 feet when we crossed the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass (we don't want to think about the mileage we averaged on the climb up!).

The figurative high point for our day was a side trip to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park - an unexpected gem between Montrose and Gunnison that our neighbor Sharon had recommended to us.


P.S. An update about Gladys - she remained quiet most of the day (she's more talkative in cities and crowded interstates), but when we asked her for department store references in Gunnison, she found us a J.C.Penney's......or so we thought. Her voice calmly led us through the streets of Gunnison, then proudly announced "J.C. Penney on your right", but the only store there was a small private clothing store. It turns out that the nearest J.C.Penney was in fact over 50 miles away in Montrose. Hmmm....

Rain on the Roof

We spent the night in Limon, Colorado - although part of the Rocky Mountain state, the terrain is the same as the western half of Kansas (ie, flat). The weather, however, was more reminiscent of an east coast nor'easter: 45 degrees, 30 mph winds, and driving rain; not a good start with two labrador retrievers eager for their morning walk at a campground with dirt roads.

The weather improved as we approached Colorado Springs 70 miles to the west, but we were disappointed that the low clouds obscured our first glimpse of the Rockies.

Nevertheless, we got the chance to walk around the Garden of the Gods and continue on our way westward before getting rained in again at Buena Vista.

It doesn't help to keep hearing the locals say "we don't usually get this type of rain this time of year".

We can only look forward to improvements in the coming week.

Kansas

Kansas isn't flat: it's an inclined plane. Kansas City at the east end has an elevation of 763'; as we progressed westward today, Gladys kept us informed of our steady elevational progress - through Topeka (940'), Abilene (boyhood home of D.D. Eisenhower at 1155'), Russell (birthplace of Bob Dole at 1826'), on to the Colorado state line at over 3,000'.

The eastern third to half of the state seemed to us to be hillier than Indiana, and the "Flint Hills" (deposits of limestone and flint) made for some interesting scenery. Also of interest was a massive windfarm that extended along at least 10 miles of I-70.

All that said, the western half of the state had us playing our favorite betting game of "how many miles do you think it is to that grain elevator on the horizon?"

One unexpected gem was the largest reproduction of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", in the town of Goodland, known as one of the top sunflower producers in the country.