Days 11-15: Hoodoos and Canyons and Dinosaurs, oh my!

When last we saw our intrepid travelers, they were bravely soldiering on with limited WiFi and no cell signal at Bryce Canyon Lodge. The scenery more than made up for the primitive conditions. 

Ok, back to first person.

On Sunday we hiked down into the canyon and climbed back out (because what was the alternative?) I've never seen anywhere like Bryce Canyon. I'm not sure there is anywhere else like Bryce Canyon. The main section of the park, the Amphitheater, is full of hoodoos. What's a hoodoo, you ask? It's a spire of rock with an easily eroded column and a more resistant cap. The name comes from a variant of "voodoo." The Indians who were displaced by the white settlers believe that they contain the spirits of their ancestors, and the aforementioned white settlers thought this was like voodoo, also known as hoodoo. Because of course you know I looked that up. Hoodoos look like this.

And like this.

We look like this.

There was also a natural bridge because Bryce can't let Arches have all the fun.

And more hoodos.

The landscape looks like the kind of sandcastle you make by dripping sand onto a pile to make a tower.

And they are really that orange. Bryce is also at 9,000 feet elevation at the rim of the amphitheater. The hike in and out was only about three miles and we felt every single step. We heard thunder as we climbed the last few feet and embraced the opportunity to spend the rest of the day sitting on the balcony watching the intermittent rain and enjoying the fresh air. We ate dinner at a lovely restaurant in Tropic (yes, that's a town in Utah) and slept very well that night.

Sunday morning we packed up, replenished our ice, and headed for Zion Canyon National Park. We stopped for a couple of short hikes on the way out of Bryce. If there's a waterfall, we will find it.

The sheer scale of the cliffs at Zion is impossible to describe. It's overwhelming. The campground in the park was much more scenic and much less dusty than the one in Moab. Also quieter - no road noise and no neighboring rooster. We got ourselves set up and of course made cocktails.

When I woke up I had company on my way to the bathroom.

After breakfast we took the shuttle into Zion Canyon and hiked up to the Emerald Pools. Did I mention I love waterfalls? 

Zion is appreciably hotter than Bryce in part because it's 5,000 ft lower. When we arrived on Monday afternoon it was in the 90s and by the time we got down the hill from the Pools on Tuesday it was well into the 80s. We took the shuttle to the end of the line, ate some lunch in the shade, and then walked as far as we could toward the Narrows, so named because the canyon is at its narrowest. Along we way we saw some amazing hanging gardens.

To hike through the Narrows you walk in the Virgin River, and it's still running too high after a lot of snow and a rainy spring, so we turned around and took the shuttle back to the campground. 

One of David's geologist friends was in the area so we invited him over for (of course) cocktails and dinner. A fun evening!

Wednesday we drove up to Kolob Canyons in the backcountry of the park. Not nearly as crowded and very beautiful in yet a different way. I have been amazed at how different each landscape is everywhere we go. We walked down to Taylor Creek and then hiked upstream about three miles past a homesteader's cabin to an impressive double arch alcove. Totally worth the effort. Also: more waterfalls.

On the way down David asked me to take a photo of him in front of this fold. Because structural geology.

We ate lunch on the way back to the car and then drove into St. George. We've been following The Roadside Geology of Utah as we drive along and when we were on our way to Bryce we read about the plethora of dinosaur fossils and trackways in Utah. Turns out one of the most impressive sites is in St. George. The trackways were discovered in an alfalfa field in 2000 and they've built an incredible museum around the outcrop - literally. The center of the exhibit floor is an outcrop with trackways that is in situ. They built the building around it. Active research and preservation is ongoing and will be for a very, very long time. It's stunning. If you're anywhere near St. George, UT, GO. 

We made a stop at the St. George Art Museum and decided to drive back to Springdale (the town right outside the park) for a lovely dinner preceded by cocktails, all of which was overshadowed by the view.

Then we returned to the campsite and started to pack up. We made an early start this morning and despite rain and traffic we were in our AirBnB in Salt Lake City by 3:00 PM, ready to shower (OH THANK GD) and do laundry. Lots of laundry. Lots of sweaty dusty laundry. I may take another shower in the morning just because I can. Oh, and just outside of Zion we saw a California condor! We were driving and couldn't pull over in time to get a picture. Still so exciting! There are 347 condors free-flying in the wild and 70 live in the area around Zion. We didn't know that until we rode the shuttle into the park. I was disappointed not to see one - and there it was as we left town! There was really no question about what it was once we realized how HUGE it was.

So that's the end of the outdoorsy part of our trip. Six National Parks, one National Monument, one State Park, five nights in a tent, and 48 miles total walked and hiked. I have a deeper appreciation for the scale and magnificence of this part of the US. The news and photos from back East remind me of the fragility of that inheritance. 

Tomorrow is a driving day - at least eight hours to get to Ogallala, Nebraska. The trip is winding down - one more big adventure to go! Stay tuned.

Days 9 and 10: Halfway

I'd planned a long post full of photos of the past two days since we're staying at Bryce Park Lodge and they have wifi. Turns out the wifi at the campground in Moab was significantly faster; you may be reading this after we get to Salt Lake City. We watched the moon rise, came inside to defrost, and then went out again to look at starts. Between the full moon and the clouds, we didn't see a whole lot of stars. Still worth it. Now defrosting again before bed. Today we had the highest temps we've seen so far (mid-80s when we stopped for lunch in Green River, UT) and we're headed for the lowest tonight (mid-30s here in Bryce).

This is Day 10 - halfway through the trip. Total miles driven so far: ~2700. Total hours in the car: ~52. National Parks visited: 5 (Mesa Verde, Canyonlands, Arches, Capitol Reef, and Bryce). Highest elevation: 9200 feet as we crossed a mountain pass this afternoon (sorry, we didn't stop to get pictures of the remaining patches of snow). Train rides: 1. Meals cooked on our camp stove: 3 (two breakfasts, one dinner). We've listened to part of the first season of Jill Lepore's podcast "The Last Archive" and a few episodes of history podcasts about Bleeding Kansas and John Brown as well as a whole lot of Spotify. We've eaten some very good food (Desert Bistro in Moab, I'm looking at you) and drunk some excellent wine (along with a few nice cocktails here and there, of course). 

This is a very different trip from any we've done before. It's not just that we have the luxury of more time and enough money, so we're camping when and where we want to and not staying in a KOA near the highway just to keep costs down. We've learned a lot about ourselves and each other in the 31 years since we last drove across the US. David is more willing to stop at random historical markers and I'm less likely to roll my eyes at the inevitable geology explanations. (I still can't tell a syncline from an anticline. He tries.) Turns out after more than 40 years together we enjoy each other's company even more than we used to.

On to the travelogue:

When I posted something on Facebook about this trip months ago, someone suggested we go to Canyonlands. I don't remember who it was and I really wish I could thank her? him? them? because WOW. Canyonlands National Park includes the confluence of the Green River and Colorado River. There are canyons (duh). 

This arch apparently didn't realize it was in the wrong park.

I think I'll do a photo dump post when we have beefier Internet. The photos don't do the place justice. Consider these coming attractions.

From Canyonlands we wandered to Dead Horse Point State Park. Someone was very happy.

It amuses me that Utah has designated scenic roads. As if the whole damned state wasn't scenic. It is also dusty, and we were hiking in the highest temps we've seen so far. All that adds up to a desperate need for a shower and since the campground was equally dusty and not particularly scenic (which is why I haven't posted any pictures of our campsite) we decided to head into town for dinner. If you're ever in Moab, eat at the Desert Bistro. It would be best if you made a reservation. They seated us anyway (helps to arrive at 5:30) and served us these gorgeous cocktails. 

Paper Plane for me, Violet Blues for him.

Also bison for him and tuna for me. So so so good. 

We broke camp the next morning and headed toward Bryce. It took all day to get here because we didn't exactly go directly. We stopped to look at petroglyphs 

And to climb up a very scary (to me, anyway) steep slope to a dinosaur trackway. Worth it.

David's hand for scale

More dinosaur trackways down the road a bit. This was all within 20 miles of Moab - before we got to the interstate.

By the time we got to I-70 it was nearly lunchtime so we stopped in Green River for a bite to eat. Then we headed off down the road and decided to follow the signs to Bryce instead of the route WAZE mapped for us. The state of Utah promised us a scenic route and I'd say they delivered.

Random spot to pull off and gape.

Next stop: Capitol Reef National Park. David had heard of it, of course. I had not. I find it amazing that everywhere we go looks so different. There's always sandstone and there are always remnants of Mormon pioneers who I guess went unquestioningly where they were sent. "Go to this place in the desert and try to grow things. Oh, and when the Indians try to kill you, kill them first, because you were sent by Gd." In Capital Reef they succeeded in growing fruit trees. We'd like to come back because it's a big place and we had very little time. If we do, we'll aim for fruit season because visitors can pick and eat the fruit. What we saw was, of course, gorgeous. Oh, and more petroglyphs.

We then continued on Scenic Highway 12, which is not misnamed.

Despite the heaviest rain we've run into so far, we made it to Bryce about 5:30, checked in, ate dinner, and walked out to the amphitheater just in time to see the moon rise.

I've been waiting to come to Bryce since I wrote a report on Utah in fifth grade. For those keeping track, that's more than 50 years. This place exceeds any expectation I could ever have had.

Coming up on Day 11: hiking among the hoodoos!

Days 7 and 8: In Which We Set Up Camp and a Crisis is Averted

 Oddly enough, I am writing this at a campsite with WiFi. More on that later along with the crisis that wasn't.

Yesterday I was introduced to the Navajo Taco at a small restaurant in Cortez, CO. Sorry - no photos - it smelled too good! Fresh green chili on Navajo fry bread. Mmm. 

Once fortified, we visited Hovenweep National Monument. Our hosts insisted we drive up there; I'd never heard of it. My ignorance sometimes astounds me. The Monument straddles the CO/UT border and is home to innumerable sites of ancient Pueblean architecture. They built with adobe bricks - no cliff houses - incorporating the existing boulders and cliffs into their structures. We imagined kids running up and down the canyon while their parents made bricks, tended crops, processed corn and other staples, and made pottery. 

The natural landscape isn't too bad, either. 

We finished the evening with delicious homemade food and two remarkable bottles of wine. Good food, good wine, good friends we don't see often enough. Nothing better.

The initial goal of this trip was to see Bryce and Zion National Parks. When I mentioned this on FB, someone suggested (well, insisted) that we should also visit Canyonlands. We looked it up online and decided that sounded good. If this was the old days, we would have looked at a map of Utah and realized that Canyonlands is pretty much right next to Arches National Park. Since we looked up each park separately online and never looked at the regional or state map, we only figured that out a week before we left, by which time it was too late to get timed reservations for entry in Arches in advance. Luckily, they release a certain number of tickets at 6:00 PM the night before. 

Originally we planned to try for a campground at Canyonlands National Park for tonight - they're first come, first served. When we looked at the information more closely and realized how long it would take to get there from Mancos, we reconsidered. I'd like to be the sort of person who can drive two hours to an area I don't know at all and not worry about where I'm going to sleep that night. I am not that sort of person. We ended up with a reservation at a commercial campground on the southern outskirts of Moab, UT, which turns out to be about 30 minutes from Canyonlands, and right at the entrance to Arches. David signed on to the NPS ticketing system at 6:00 PM exactly last night and scored us a ticket for 1:00 PM this afternoon. We left our friends about 7:30 and headed west toward Utah. Since we had time, we stopped at Newspaper Rock. The ancient Pueblo people left petroglyphs here almost a thousand years ago and European colonizers chimed in.

Then we stopped for lunch (BBQ) and drove to Arches. The outdoor store in Moab has a quote in the window: "It's like Mars but with more atmosphere." Yes. This isn't the first time on this trip I've found myself without words to describe the experience. I expect it won't be the last. 

As we drove out of Arches toward the campground, David looked at me and said "Did we pack sheets?" Um, no, we didn't. The nearest Target is an hour away. It was 5:30 PM. Since I am a very privileged white woman, I've never shopped at a Dollar Store. There's one in Moab. Turns out they have sheets. Phew.

David grilled steak for dinner, I made three or fours trips up to the communal kitchen to do the dishes because I kept forgetting things, he managed to rustle up enough quarters to wash the sheets, and now we're waiting for them to come out of the dryer so we can go to bed. Tomorrow: Canyonlands. 

Days 5 and 6: Mountains Majesty and a Reckoning with Colonialism

 They're not purple, but the mountains of Colorado are definitely majestic. 

We can add Durango, CO to the list of places I'd like to come back to. We had a little time before dinner on Sunday to wander around and that was about it. Monday morning we packed up right after breakfast (it's amazing how much stuff we can strew around a place when we're there for less that 12 hours and spend more than half of that asleep) and headed out to catch the train. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is justifiably famous as one of the most scenic railroads in the world. None of the photos do it justice. I'll show you a couple anyway.

Photo credit David Smith

No, this is not Switzerland.

Clear the tracks....no, wait.

We got off the train about 6:30 and headed north to Mancos to visit with friends. We got there just in time for sunset.

Tuesday (which I think was yesterday? Yes. Yes it was) our hosts took us to Mesa Verde National Park. The entrance is about five miles from their house. The Ancestral Pueblo people lived in Mesa Verde from about 500 CE to the late 1200s. They built permanent dwellings which became increasing complex over time. We weren't able to get tickets to tour any of the cliff dwellings, which I didn't mind. What we saw from the overlooks was amazing enough and I didn't have to climb up or down a 30-foot ladder over a sheer cliff. 

The first European to excavate this structure assumed it was a temple in part because of this carving. What does it mean? We have no idea.

Cliff Palace. See below.

I had the same experience here that I had in Rome and that I expect I will have in Israel when we get there in November. I can't wrap my mind around how long ago these buildings were built. I used to say I studied American history in college because there's so much less of it - only about 500 years to deal with rather than millennia. Of course what we saw yesterday is American history. What I studied as "American history" is really the history of European colonization. The anthropology and archaeology studies at Mesa Verde started with the same biases and assumptions that infected my education. Fish can't see water. Of course the Ancestral Pueblos had a hierarchical society. Of course the most important/wealthiest/most powerful people lived in the Cliff Palace (which of course was a palace) because it looked the most imposing. Of course they lived difficult and hardscrabble lives. Of course all the pottery and weaving had to be functional. Of course  they were"surprisingly sophisticated." The word sophisticated itself carries a load of unquestioned implications. The National Park Service is starting to replace some of the dated and racist commentary with documentation that shows a more sophisticated understanding of ethnography (see what I did there?). They are beginning to privilege and amplify Native voices. The museum in the park is being renovated to reflect these changes, and they've already removed all human remains. Now if they could only use BCE/CE instead of BC/AD.

In the evening we drove into Mancos, wandered around some galleries, had some excellent cider from Fenceline, and ate dinner in town. After walking around all day at 9,000 feet we were ready for bed.

Today: Canyon of the Ancients! Oh, and more mountains. And probably Navajo tacos.