After breakfast on Monday, we headed north out of Moab and drove past the town of Green River. There was a lot of snow on the flat plain so in parts the countryside was completely white. Then we headed southwest past Hanksville and the Capitol Reef National Park with towering red and orange buttes and we stopped at one point beside the Fremont River to see petroglyphs of bighorn sheep and anthropomorphic figures carved on the red rock walls.
We passed through the small town of Torrey before getting on the Scenic Byway 12 towards Bryce Canyon National Park. We drove up to 9,600 feet on Boulder Mountain and just outside a viewpoint saw a small group of female deer. They looked in great condition but moved off when we stopped and got out of the car. The mountaintop was spectacular with deep snow, large green conifers, and bare birch trees and incredible views over the red mesas and canyons to other snow capped mountain ranges. We had just pulled out and gathered speed going downhill when we came around a corner to find a larger group of female deer including young ones standing in the middle of the road. We braked and they froze and then darted in all directions.
We stopped to have a picnic lunch at the entrance to the Calf Creek Recreation Area in the Escalante National Monument Park. It was warm down by the small river running through the canyon. We soaked up some sun while we ate our lunch. When we went down to the creek to wash our hands, we found some paw prints which may have been from a mountain lion and a fish shot off from the shallows.
After lunch we headed off again and at one point the road ran along a ridge with steep canyons falling away on both sides! We kept driving but had to keep stopping for photo opportunities so that we only reached the Bryce Canyon National Park at 4.00 pm. We scooted around the Sunrise, Sunset, Bryce and Inspiration viewpoints which offered views of different points around the Amphitheatre. From the canyon rim we looked down on thousands of different spires of red and orange below falling away for miles across the valleys. The scenery was magnificent. There were cliffs, canyons, mountains, mesas and pinnacles covered in a thick blanket of snow as far as the eye could see.
We exited the park thinking ourselves lucky to see three national parks over the last three days. The scenic road went through two natural rock arches in quick succession as we headed for Page on the edge of the massive Lake Powell, reputed to have a longer shore line than California. We arrived at 7.00 pm and checked into a Best Western without bothering to check anywhere else. We went out for dinner to Mexican Fiesta and bought lunch for tomorrow from the Safeway supermarket before retreating to our room.
On Tuesday, we woke up at 7.00 am, had a rushed breakfast in the hotel and then checked out. The drive to Monument Valley located within the Navajo Nation on the Utah-Arizona border took us about two hours. Monument Valley is one of the most famous American Wild West landscapes having featured as the backdrop in several classic cowboy and Indian films. At the entrance gate, we paid our park entry fees, and then paid a quick visit to the Visitor Centre to have a look at the gift shop and admire the views of the rock formations from the balconies.
Inside the park we drove along an 18 mile unpaved loop road to get a closer look at the monuments - sandstone mesas, buttes and spire rock formations. The monuments in the park all had names, and we had quite a bit of difficulty reconciling the names to the monuments. Obviously we were lacking in imagination! It took us an hour and a half to complete the drive. We had lunch and then decided to tackle the Wildcat Trail – a 3.2 mile trail that took us around the base of the West Mitten Butte and gave us a sense of how enormous the monuments were.. It turned out to be a very easy walk across some soft rock bed and sand dunes through the native vegetation including Juniper trees, yucca, Sagebrush, Russian thistle (Tumbleweed) and Navajo Tea.
After we left the park, we drove to the Grand Canyon National Park, a steep sided canyon carved out by the Colorado River in Arizona. The drive took us about three hours and the sun was just beginning to set as we arrived at the park entrance gate. The helpful lady at the ticket office directed us to the Desert View Point, half a mile from the gate where we arrived in time to see the canyon turning a rosy pink in the setting sun. From the Desert View Point, it was a twenty five mile drive to Grand Canyon Village within the park. We had dinner at the Yavapai Cafeteria and after viewing an expensive drab-looking room without WiFi, we decided to drive to the nearby town of Tusayan where we checked into a lovely room at the Canyon Plaza Resort and settled in for the evening with a bottle of wine.
We slept in until 8.00 am on Wednesday, had breakfast and then headed over to the visitor centre. At the visitor centre, a very enthusiastic local lady helped us so we knew what to do for the day.
We drove back to the rim and parked the car at the Shrine of Ages and walked to the rim trail. We walked along the rim stopping at every lookout, watching out for ice patches and trying to soak up sun. Every few hundred metres there was a polished rock sample with name and age and as we walked the rocks on display got older. The last rock was an Elves Chasm gneiss 1,840 million years old. Of course there were breathtaking views of the canyon with all its side canyons running off at right angles looking very good in the clear air and sunlight. We saw a lady with what looked like a TV antennae and she was waving it around in the air with faint crackling sounds coming from a battery pack she was carrying. We thought she might be a new age nut, of which there are plenty around – listening for aliens possibly. She left abruptly so we had no answers.
We reached the Bright Angel Lodge and turned down the Bright Angel Trail into the canyon to the Phantom Lodge down by the Colorado River. The trail zigzagged back and forth but unfortunately large sections were iced over and it wasn't long before Suzie fell over so we had to turn back. We did manage to get through a natural rock arch and saw a couple of cowboys bringing a line of mules up from the bottom. How they didn't slip over on the ice was amazing. We watched them but only one hoof seemed to slip at a time. Apparently there were two bridges over the river and the mules would not cross by the bridge with gaps because they could see through to the river below. Only the solid bridge was deemed safe enough by them!
We wandered on several miles further, but we had to walk a long way to get a different perspective as the panorama was so vast. Eventually we turned around and headed back to the Bright Angel lodge where we enjoyed a battleship burger and a tortilla salad. We had a look at the interesting display about Fred Harvey from England who started as a dishwasher and decided that there was money to be made from food services – particularly on the railway routes. He ended up building the Bright Angel Lodge and when he died they had 47 hotels, 23 dining cars on trains, and serviced one cruise steamer. As we walked out we saw a beautiful blue jay and followed it into the balcony of a tourist shop. We lost the bird but saw some great Grand Canyon photos including the California Condor. Keith bought some genuine imitation Indian stone arrowheads.
Afterwards, we caught the free shuttle back to our car. Then we drove out along the Hermit Trail past where we had walked stopping at numerous lookouts. At one lookout the lady with the weird antennae was waving it around so Keith approached her and it turned out that actually she was quite sane and was tracking the 75 tagged California condors living in the canyon between here and Utah. We had a good laugh with her and headed back towards home. We did stop once more at Mather Point on the eastern side of the park to see the last sunset light up the canyon walls.
On Thursday, we packed up and checked out of the hotel. It was a beautiful day as we drove out of the mountains and down to Phoenix, to stay with Keith's cousin Tom and his family. As we approached Phoenix, we started to see the long fingers of saguaro cactus on the surrounding hillsides.
We had some lunch and then drove to Tom and Claudia's to meet them, their children Iain and Madailein, and the five dogs (Boomer, Izzy, Baxter, Lola and Jelly Bean). We spent all afternoon chatting to them and we were joined later by Uncle John and his dog Chloe. Keith and Iain played soccer while Tom cooked up the barbecue. The soccer stopped when Boomer knocked Keith over and Keith broke his sunglasses heading the soccer ball!
We had a delicious dinner of tri-tip steak, salad, spaghetti squash, corn, and Spanish rice with vermicelli. We drank a pinot noir, a zinfandel and a cabernet sauvignon (Charles Schwab – three buck chuck) and tried some of Tom's Guatemalan rum. It tasted like a smooth scotch.
We had a really relaxing day on Friday. We spent a leisurely morning playing with the kids and then headed out to the Mexican Ranch Markets to buy some supplies for tonight's Thai dinner. It was just like being in a Mexican supermarket - there were a lot of unusual ingredients and we found at least eight different types of dried chilli!
Back at home we met Tom and Claudia's friendly neighbours Rich and Linda and admired their beautiful red Corvette sports car and Dodge station wagon. We saw a rabbit at last light and then we went inside and started peeling and chopping in earnest. We started off by making some Thai green curry paste and Thai red curry paste in Claudia's food processor. After that, we put together the ingredients for a prawn tom yum soup and chicken and vegetable curry. In the process Keith broke a kitchen cupboard door and had to drive to Home Depot down the road for a bottle of Gorilla glue. On the way home he saw a coyote trotting along beside 7th Avenue. We fed the kids and after Claudia arrived home from work, we had the tom yum soup, followed by a red chicken curry and a green chicken curry. Despite several improvisations, the meal was delicious.
On Saturday, Tom was at work and Claudia took us shopping. We went to Kohl's down the road first and bought clothes until it was time to go home for lunch. We had a great time going through the clearance racks and finding pretty decent clothes for ridiculously cheap prices. Claudia, who is an amazing bargain shopper and makes Suzie look like an amateur, had a coupon so on top of the already discounted prices, we received another 15% discount!
After lunch, we went to some factory outlets a few miles away. After some more purchases of clothes and shoes we went home just after dark. Then we all went out for dinner at Chili's close by. We had guacamole, salsa, and corn chips, Buffalo wings, Caribbean salad, and baby back ribs with chips.
On Sunday, we had a family barbecue and early birthday celebration for Tom, with Uncle John, Aunt Maura and Lloyd (Tom's brother) and Rich from next door. It was a really beautiful day and we were able to sit outside on the patio for lunch. The food was delicious – marinated skirt steak, plantains with sour cream, pico de gallo, gallo pinto (rice and beans), avocado salad and Nicaraguan tortillas. We had pears poached in red wine and Tom's tiramisu birthday cake for dessert.
After everyone left, we had a big clean up and then spent the evening relaxing in front of the TV, booking our accommodation for Las Vegas and reading about the next stage of our trip.
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