Trip to Grand Canyon 2003

Red Canyon is a strange area just outside of Bryce.  The area is covered with odd red gravel with soft red stone towers that are constantly eroding away.
 

Bryce is incredible.
Atlhoug it was fairly warm, we had some snow showers while we were there.  The snow made it just that more interesting.
 

This is probably the most famous view of Bryce Canyon.  It is appropriately called The Amphitheatre.  To get a perspective of the size of the tall stone spires called Hoodoos, note that the green matter in the lower right corner is tall pine trees.
 
 
 

On Easter morning, we toured the rim and then hiked down into the canyon.  The size of the Hoodoos, the tall rock towers, were even more spectacular from below.  At the bottom of the canyon was a beautiful forest of Ponderosa pine trees.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Scattered throughout the canyon are balancing rocks like this.  They were created by erosion.  No, I did not really try to push that rock over.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wall Street is a narrow passage through the rock.  In the middle of it is an enormous pine tree that is hundreds of years old,  reaching up to the sky.
 
 
 
 
 

This passage was really beautiful to hike through.  Getting back out of the canyon was a little treacherous.  The trail of switch backs had patches of ice and snow and other areas were just plain slippery mud.
 
 

Coming from Vermont, where there is seldom a shortage of water, we were often stunned by the dry river beds and empty ponds like this one behind our hotel.  We spent two nights at Bryce.
 
 
 

We had not planned to visit Zion, but since it is near our route to the Grand Canyon, we decided we had to at least drive through.  Although it is quite close to Bryce, the landscape is entirely different. We would love to go back there and do some serious hiking.
 
 
 

When you first see the Grand Canyon, it is so much more awesome than you can imagine.  It kind of takes your breath away.
We visited only the south rim since the north rim is closed in the winter and doesn't open until May.
 
 
 

Here is the view from a popular spot on our first day.
 
 
 
 

Here is the view from the same spot on the next morning.  Fortunately, the snow squall did not last long and we were able to spend the rest of the day touring the canyon.
 
 
 

It took a little persuasion, but Kathy agreed to try a hike into the canyon.  Notice Kathy a hundred feet below  on the switch back trail.
 
 
 

The view from below was beautiful and it was fun to hike on the well maintained trail.  This trail is called Kaibab and we hiked down about 3 miles.  The bottom of the canyon can be reached with a 7 mile hike - a little more than we could tackle in a single day.
 
 
 

Notice the cactus.
 
 

Many who go to the floor of the canyon take a ride on the mule train.  There is a ranch on the canyon floor where one can spend the night. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

The colors are most spectacular in the sunset light.
 
 

On the next morning, we were surprised with four inches of fresh snow.  It is good we had done our hiking the day before, because with this snow, the  trails would not be so easy to hike on.
Our destination this day was Canyon De Chelly, at the eastern side of Arizona.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This is a traditional Navajo home called a Hogan.
 
 
 

If you look at the distant rock wall, about a quarter of the way from the left of the photo and half way up, you should see a small crack.  In that "crack" is the remains of an ancient Indian community. We hiked down into the canyon to get a closer look...
 
 

About 800 years ago, this was a community of about 100 Pueblo (or Anasazi) Indians.
 
 
 
 

From Canyon De Chelly, we headed off for the northwest corner of New Mexico.  Here we are trying to decide if we should cross the tall mountains in the distance.  We got some mixed reports regarding the condition of the road.  The last thing we wanted was to get stuck in the snow or mud.
 
 

Well, we went for it.  There was more snow on the mountain road than we expected, but it was manageable.
 
 
 
 
 

On the other side, in New Mexico, our desination was Shiprock.  This tall rock is an ancient volcano core.  The rest of the volcano has eroded away.  Shiprock is also the name of the town where Kathy lived for a few years as a child.
 

With some good directions from Kathy's Dad, we were able to easily find the small house.  It was in bad shape and abandoned.  We asked around  and found out that it was due to be demolished soon to make way for some newer homes.  We were lucky to have seen it when we did!
 

Everywhere  you go in the Navajo and Hopi reservations you encounter natives making and selling their traditional craft work.
 
 

Near Shiprock is the only place in the U.S. where four states meet in one point.  Here you see Kathy simultaneously in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado.
 

We drove for a few miles in Colorado and came across Mesa Verde National Park.  We hadn't planned it, but decided to enter the park and see what was there.  Here we found more fascinating cliff dwellings.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Our next stop was Arches National Park back in Utah.  Kathy remembers a picture of her standing in about the same spot as a 5 year-old.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

We returned to Salt Lake City where we were to catch our plane home.
We had just a little time to spare and managed to see the Morman Temple at sunset.