National Parkapalooza

The visitor's center at the Grand Canyon National Park reminds one of Disney World, yet it is as informative as it is touristy. We decided on a three-mile round-trip hike into the canyon via the Bright Angel Trail. Initially we had hoped to hike deeper into gorge, but at that time we were ignorant with regards to the time and energy that would take. As it was, the chosen hike would be plenty challenging. Ice and snow narrowed the trail and made it quite slippery, so while the hike back up was strenuous, the hike down was equally taxing as we had to take care with our footing on the precarious path.

The hike was exhilarating yet exhausting so we traveled back at the campsite and relaxed around a fire. As an aside, I think I have perfected the s’more.

Our second day at the canyon was spent hiking the Rim Trail and driving to various overlooks along the park’s main drag.  So often we snap pictures knowing that they do no justice to the spectcles surrounding us, still we hope that they are able to convey some measure of the majesty we feel so lucky to witness.

On our way out of the park, Jared made a new friend:

From the Grand Canyon we continued north stopping in Page, AZ for the night. Page is a small, sleepy town that is home to the southern edge of Lake Powell at the Glen Canyon Dam.  This area is surrounded with the red rock that, although commonplace at ths point, still inspired awe.  In the morning we took a short trail down a steep, rock staircase to an area that offered nice views of the dam and the Colorado River.

Lake Powell is equally impressive; its expansive blue waters are interrupted by islands of humungous rock. We walked around the marina and were taken aback…these people’s boats have boats, and you ain’t nobody without a waterslide affixed to the back of your yacht.

We were met with some extraordinary views as we continued north along Glen Canyon.  Climbing under a barb-wired fence off the side of the road allowed us to walk among the rocks for a nice close-up.

It wasn’t long before we were in Utah at the southwestern edge of the Grand Staircase National Park. Unfortunately, we could only drive the outskirts of the park as wet and cold weather had made the roads that lead to the interior impassable, yet it was another stunning drive.

Jared impressing me with his mad climbing skills:

We were in Bryce Canyon by late afternoon. It seemed that inclement weather was to be the theme for the day as all hiking trails at Bryce were closed due to snow. The main road through the park was clear however, so we drove that route jumping out at most of the designated scenic overlooks. While it would have been nice to be outside of the car dirtying our sneakers, after days of red stone and sand at every turn it was a refreshing change of scenery to see the massive rocks draped with bright snow.

We found some more friendly animals.  (We did not feed them!):

We left Bryce at dusk hoping to reach Zion National Park in time to get a campsite. Snow had been forecasted, and we had seen a few flurries throughout the day, yet the driving was manageable until about fifteen miles outside of the park. The road had no lighting, and we were in the middle of a complete white-out. It was one of those situations where we knew we should stop, but we kept going given that we were just minutes from the entrance. We crept along at twenty mph with our hazards on unable to see the lines on the road beneath us. Finally we pulled into the parking lot of a gift store situated a mile from the park gate, reclined our chairs, thanked God and went to sleep.

The descent into the canyon from the east entrance of Zion is replete with sharp turns and switchbacks, although the highlight of this passageway is the 1.1 mile tunnel cut directly through the stone. Both the drive and the views it affords are spectacular, easily our favorite patch of road to date.

Zion features several hikes through its sometimes forest, sometimes desert, always rocky terrain. After April 1, the only way to access the trailheads is via a tram that runs from the welcome center every seven minutes, following along the bottom of the canyon as it narrows. After picking out a near-perfect campsite, we boarded a tram and road it to the farthest stop to the two-mile Riverside Walk. This path follows alongside the park’s Virgin River and passes by waterfalls, feeding dear, rapid-riding ducks, beaver dams and staggeringly high cliff-side walls.

Riding the tram back “up canyon” brought us to the Weeping Rock Trail: more giant rocks, more feeding deer, more trickling water.

Easter weekend was upon us, and the mob was thickening. Still, the walks were enjoyable and not particularly overcrowded. At the campsite we had some chores to do. I washed dishes while Jared went into town for some essentials. In the Grand Canyon we made the mistake of too little firewood, so I was glad when Jared returned with two large bundles of wood. I whipped up some spaghetti and garlic bread (a favorite meal), and Jared built a fire so huge we could have filled the canyon with those tasty, roasted confections.

As an aside, our campsite had an amazing view of the mountains surrounding us. Before packing up the next morning, we took a few moments to document this score:

Our final hike at Zion was the combination of the three Emerald Pool Trails; algae growing in these pools give them their name. As it was a beautiful Saturday morning, the masses were upon us, and we joined the pack headed up to the first pool. The real attraction of the first stop was the waterfall above cascading into the small pond at our feet.

A mountainous stairway scattered with flat patches of clay led to the second Emerald Pool which was really a collection of pools mixed with large rocks made for resting. We stopped to enjoy our surroundings and a peanut butter fiber bar.

Our intention was to climb to the third and most elevated pool, but upon the advice of someone who looked like they knew what they were doing we got a little taste of some back-country hiking. After a few minutes of scaling boulders and tree roots and limbs, we determined that the road less traveled would remain that way. We gave up on the final pool, but made up for it by jogging back to the trailhead.  Later, our experience encouraged us to forge our own trail.  We pulled over to the side of the road and climbed down to a somewhat dry riverbed.  Jared found a waterfall he could climb, and after much scouring I found a piece of petrified wood among the many rocks. 

The Grand Canyon was astounding. Bryce Canyon was stunning. Zion National Park with its running waters, flora and fauna all accessible and around you was our favorite park. Reluctantly, we motored back up and out of the canyon heading for less civilized parts of the southwest: Vegas.



(PS to Facebook readers: I updated the photo slideshow on the main blog.  I'm not nearly as smart as Google's Picassa, so I can't figure out how to break apart AND post various albums...sorry!  But if you go to the site (http://www.nostateunturned.blogspot.com/) and click on the album slideshow to the left it should bring up a new window that allows you to "thumb" through the pictures.  Much love to all!!!)

From Reservations to Red Rock

It isn’t everyday that you aren’t woken up to the sound of someone pushing a cart full of groceries and miscellaneous household items past your “bedroom” window, so we savored every moment of hotel life checking out a little late. The route we travled from Albuquerque to Arizona took us through the Acoma and Zuni Reservations. The Acoma land was beautiful, but we could not tour “Sky City” as there was a religious ceremony that shut down the reservation to tourists. Never-the-less, we were thankful for the opportunity to drive through their land, as the rock formations were captivating.

At the Zuni Reservation, we shopped from within the car, purchasing some fetishes (small animal figures carved from stone) from a Zuni tribesman. We now have several mascots, including S. Dot Masterson,  the skunk on whom all the odd sounds and smells are blamed (and if you know Jared, you know that skunk takes A LOT of heat!).

The Zunis are famous, at least locally, for the bread they bake in their outdoor stone ovens which are reminiscent of igloos. The owner of the bakery (which was really just a house with breads stacked on the kitchen counter) took us out back to show us the inside of the oven and explain the baking process to us. The oven can be used for more than just breads; the Thanksgiving Turkey is cooked inside of this clay structure as are soups, corn and pies. When cleaning the oven, a broom made of juniper branches is used explaining the sweet perfume I smelled when we crossed into the reservation. The bread itself is a little dry, but we enjoyed it with peanut butter and jelly one day and as garlic bread the next.

It was nearing sundown as we crossed the Arizona border via a small, empty highway.  The holes in the sign made me a little nervous about exactly the type of folk poised to welcome us:

Our destination was the Petrified National Forest, but we stopped in nearby Holbrook, AZ for the night as the park closed at 6pm.  The back of the Motel 6 seemed a perfect hiding spot for our quasicamper so we settled into sleep.  At about 5:00am a floodlight beamed through our window, but after thirty minutes of playing dead, the Holbrook officer left us in peace.

The northern section of the Petrified National Forest covers the Painted Desert.  Short hikes from various overlooks allows you to appreciate the colors up close.

More Petroglyphs, including Newspaper Rock:

The Petrified Forest is full of rock-sand hills and mesas littered with pieces of wood turned to stone. The wood is striking, but there are STRICT rules about taking bits of the wood. I believe it was the rules themselves and not the majestic beauty of the pieces that tempted Jared so. Still, when we were stopped on our way out, we honestly answered that we had taken none. Some pictures from a hike we took within the park:

Jared found a dragon:

After leaving the park, we managed to get into Flagstaff with some daylight left so we went searching for Sunset Crater National Monument. Both the GPS and our own eyes told us it was not far:

We figured out how to get onto this thing, but it turned out to be just another brightly colored pile of volcanic ash turned rock and not the monument for which we were looking. It did have value as a potential camping spot, so we saved the location and went to walk the streets of downtown Flagstaff.

The shops in Flagstaff cater to sportsmen and those looking for trendy, touristy items. It had the feeling of an Urban Outfitters meets REI. After walking a bit, we settled down for dinner at Alpine Pizza. While the wings and Pizza were delicious, the atmosphere at this established eatery was even better. Locals lock their personal steins into a cabinet near the bar and carving into the wood tables and walls in not only allowed, but expected.

The camping spot we had found earlier in the evening was occupied upon our return. With some persistence and patience, however, we managed to find the real Sunset Crater National Monument. All of the campgrounds were closed (still snowy in these parts), so we tucked in next to a “no overnight parking” sign and called it a night.  The heated and unlocked restrooms at the visitor's center provided sufficient amenities for us to clean up the following morning, and after doing so we drove through the park.  It looked as if the volcano had erputed the month before instead of hundreds of thousands of years ago.

From the craters we drove to Sedona which takes you through Cococino National Forest. A winding road descends through the forest, and we enjoyed a nice hike through the trees and cacti and along the Verde River.

Sedona itself has more tourists than you can shake a pointed stick at...and perhaps rightly so as it is beautiful!  The downtown area made for a nice walk, and we meandered in and out of shops housing mostly Native American pottery and jewely.  Finally, we drove to a Catholic Church set high upon the red rock.

One of the most anticipated stops on our trip was the national parks in northen Arizona and southern Utah, so after our time in Sedona we drove back through Flagstaff and to the Grand Canyon (finally!!)  We pulled into the park just in time to see the sun set against the implausibly steep walls of this natural wonder.

Luckily, we found an open site within Mather Campground which is situated in the middle of the park and managed to fall asleep; the excitement of the magnificient vistas and hikes ahead tempered the discomfort of our ever-sagging air mattress.

NEW Mexico?? But it's full of OLD Mexicans! (Title courtesy of Jared...clearly!)

After about an hour of navigating the dark, curvy roads of the mountains east of Santa Fe, we pulled off into a rest area, a term here that means a gravel semi-circle to the right of the highway. We prepared the car for the anticipated snow and were lulled to sleep by the engines of semi trucks rumbling by. We awakened to find ourselves surrounded with mesas backed by snow-covered mountains. Moreover, it had snowed east and west of us, but somehow our little alcove remained untouched.

In Santa Fe, every building is a pueblo. To us, this was the most notable aspect of this town. We must have passed hundreds of these structures, yet every time we saw a familiar logo affixed to the front of a pueblo our reaction was the same: Really? In a Pueblo?!

(Nothing says "time for a siesta" like a pancake house in a pueblo!)

Some pueblos downtown:

This is the state capital. You can’t tell from the picture, but yep, it’s a pueblo.

To recap: Santa Fe=Pueblos. So, with help from the Santa Fe Visitor’s Center (yes, a pueblo), we devised a route that would take us north to the Bandolier National Monument, through the Jemez (HAY-muss) Mountains and then back south towards Albuquerque.

The most trafficked hike through Bandolier National Monument takes you past mountain walls with holes where ancient peoples, appropriately-named “cliff-dwellers” made their homes. You were able to climb relatively short ladders (8-12’) and enter these caves to check it out for yourself.

About three-quarters the way through the hike we took an off-shoot trail and continued a half mile more to the mother of all cliff-side abodes. A 140 foot vertical climb up a series of four ladders allows you to walk inside of a large cave that was used as a banquet hall with a ceremonial basement called a keva.

Jared getting his “Indiana Jones” on:

Another twenty or so miles through the Jemez brought us to our next stop: a small, gravel pull-off marked the starting point of a half-mile trek to Spencer Springs. After our disappointment at Hot Springs, we were psyched to learn of this spot. The first part of the hike brought us down to a river crossing, and then we climbed up to a series of rock pools overlooking the snowy peaks. The water was a warm 95 degrees; we doffed our clothes, jumped into our suits and marveled at the sunset.

The random dude pictured above is Dave from Cody, WY. He told us about a bunch of different springs in the Southwest we hope to visit. He also recommended Las Olas for dinner in Jemez Springs. The entire town, which was little more than several homes along the side of the road, must have been gathered at this Mexican restaurant/liquor store/bar with local, live music. The food, our first Mexican faire of the trip, was simply incredible…the locally grown* Chili Rellenos were the star of the “Macho Plate.” Without question, this day was our favorite of the trip so far.

On our way out, the singer of the band stopped us on the front porch and asked us to stay so he could play us a song. I requested “Moving Right Along” by Kermit and Fozzie, and we got through a verse together. Once Jared’s accent became apparent, the guy got excited because Massachusetts was the last state he needed for a license plate bingo game he was playing with his wife. Jared misunderstood and advised him to just take the front plate off of the next MA car he sees: “No one uses that one anyway.” I suppose you can take the boy out of Lynn…

The next day we visited the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque. This monument featured several trails through mesas where ancient, native peoples carved images into the rocks. The images aren’t like hieroglyphics where the symbols stand for particular words; petroglyphs might represent something religious or familial, and most if not all the meanings remain a mystery.  I'm also fairly certain that these carvings were the inspiration for modern children's animated television.

We did some shopping in Old Town, a touristy, pueblo-filled area of the city.

Finally, we checked into a hotel, only our second of the trip. (We’re proud of that fact.) We each took a nearly thirty minute shower, watched TV and enjoyed a do-nothing afternoon and evening. Our next stop is Arizona; we're moving right along.

*I contend that we have no idea whether or not they were locally grown. Jared says that’s like eating an apple pie in the middle of an orchard and questioning the origin of the fruit.