day 7, travel, Bryce and GS-E

The nearest place to Escalante to have some real auto repair done was Bryce Canyon City. It's just outside the park, and consists mostly of Ruby's, a big motel and tourist trap. They also have a nice big service station and a couple other places. I had planned on going in that general direction this day, so it wasn't much out of my way.

But I wanted to turn off Highway 12 before Bryce, and head south to Kodachrome Basin, Grosvenor Arch and Cottonwood Canyon. Cottonwood Canyon Road is another dirt road, much like Hole-in-the-Rock Road, only maybe worse. It cuts straight down through the middle of Grand Staircase-Escalante N.M. I stopped at the nearby visitor's center, and the ranger said it was going to rain later, so I'd have to go sooner. I couldn't go then because of the tire, and I couldn't come back later because of the rain. Sigh. So I went on to Bryce.

Fixing the tire should have taken about half an hour, but it ended up taking an hour and a half. I could have hopped a shuttle into the park, and come back whenever I felt like it, but I waited. I stood around for a while. Then I talked to Cyn for a while. Then I paged through Muley magazine, and read a couple of articles about hunting mule deer and bagging the buck of a lifetime. Finally it was done, I paid my $250 and drove down to Bryce Canyon. This time I went farther into the park. The main vistas are near the entrance at the north end of the park, but there is more farther south. At the end of the road at the south, Rainbow Point is 9115 feet.

After a couple of hours at Bryce (where my National Parks pass paid itself off), went back the way I came, a few days ago. Back down through Orderville and Mt. Carmel Junction, to Kanab, where I checked in at the motel around 3:00. From there, I drove on to the Paria Contact Station, where I'd hoped to learn about the permitting system for the next morning. I just missed them. I was very near the entrance to Cottonwood Canyon Road, so up I went.

The ranger I spoke to earlier in the day said the road is about two hours long. Shorter than I expected, looking at the map. Now I figured I'd just drive as far as the weather or the light held out, and see what would happen. So I did. And I got to The Cockscomb. That was what I really wanted to see. The entire road is in a narrow, straight valley. It's not an eroded canyon, it's caused by a fault line. Or rather where two plates are colliding. The layers are folded and broken. The Cockscomb itself is a line of humpy hills. You can see they layers up on their sides, and the hills are rounded over and spaced very regularly. There are many different colors of rock layers in the area, so I was fascinated by the pictures. I didn't go up far enough to see the whole thing, or some of the other features of the area, like Yellow Rock, but it was still very cool. Then I drove back down a ways to Paria Box Canyon.

I had learned about a lot of these sights and destinations through Google Earth. You can zoom in anywhere, and most places have photo links (through Panoramio.com). I had seen some fabulous painted canyons at Paria Box, so I took a hike up the river there. It turns out that some photos were misplaced on Google Earth, and they were really at Paria Town Site. This was a nice little hike, but I was disappointed at missing the other one.

I went back past the Toadstools, and there was still a little light, so I stopped. This one is near the road, so it gets a lot of tourist action. There was another photographer in the parking lot, so we walked up together. His name was Andre. He was an investment banker from NYC with an expensive hobby. I say "another" photographer, even though he's professional enough to sell his work. I need to dig up his web address so I can see his work. The light was pretty far gone, and the site a little less impressive than I had expected. Andre was disappointed because he was thinking of a different site. The Wahweep Hoodoos, which I had also hoped to see, but it was not in the cards. He was on a whirlwind tour of all the photographic hotspots, including The Wave, so I would see him the next morning where we got our permits.

When I was driving between Cottonwood Canyon and The ranger station, I saw a hitchhiker. He looked like yer average guy - short brown hair, glasses, a not-too-warm coat, and a black briefcase sort of bag sitting at his feet. I wondered if I should pick him up. But I was only going to the Toadstools down the road. But a horoscope that Cyn had read to me before my trip said I should pick up a hitchhiker. I decided that if I saw him again, I would pick him up. When I left the Toadstools, he was standing at the entrance. I picked him up. On the way over from Kanab, I decided this was the longest, boringest stretch of road I had taken. It wasn't a bad drive, but relatively speaking, much of it was kinda dull. By the time I got this guy, it was pretty dark, which makes it even more boring. So now I've got this guy in the car for an hour's ride. I guess I would have been content to ride in silence, but Brian, wanting to be friendly, came up with things to talk about. Like an Indian tribe living in caves in the Copper Mountains of Mexico. And the weather. And a friend of his in Flagstaff where he stayed, not long ago ("she put me to work hauling wood"). He said he came from Charlotte and was heading to a conference in Oregon. A conference? In Oregon? That's a long walk. He had set out from Page that morning, and mentioned something about trying to find a bridge to sleep under. He didn't smell too good. I dropped him off on the far side of town when I got to Kanab, gave him some food, and drove back to my motel.

day 8, Page

My original plan was to try to get a permit to hike into Coyote Buttes to see The Wave. If I got it, I'd head to Grand Canyon that day, see The Wave the next day (permits are handed out for the following day), and back to Grand Canyon the third day.

I showed up at the Paria Contact Station at the appointed time. They have only ten permits to hand out, so they use a lottery system. There were fifty people besides me. I decided I didn't really need to see The Wave that badly. The Wave is in North Coyote Buttes. From what I'd seen, South Coyote Buttes was even more spectacular. The wave is a formation of tightly layered and cross-bedded sandstone, that is eroded in smooth hills and valleys. It's quite fascinating and beautiful, but South appealed to me a little more. The Wave is an icon that everybody has to see, but I decided I'd skip it. I was the only person that applied for South, except for Andre, who picked up a permit when he didn't get into North. I didn't see him out there, though.

By the time I got my permit, maps and directions, I decided I'd skip the Grand Canyon that day. I couldn't really imagine spending two whole days there, so I went into Page.

First, Antelope Canyon. It's another must-see icon, but it really is that beautiful. See it if you're anywhere nearby. There is an Upper and a Lower. Upper is the more popular, since it's easier to get into, physically. You can just walk in at ground level, but Lower has some stairs/ladders, and it's kindof a long climb out at the end with a walk up the hill. I believe there are two companies that do tours of Upper, that are located in downtown Page, across the street from each other. They drive you out to the canyon in the back of an open pickup. Lower Antelope Canyon has one company that does tours. You drive out there, and there's a little wooden shack where you buy your pass. It's six dollars to be on the reservation, and twenty for admittance. Tours go down every half hour, I think. If you're a photographer and have and SLR and a tripod, you can get a photo pass. Same price but you wander around on your own for up to two hours. Nice deal. From what I heard the guides don't tell you much. "See that formation? It looks like a bear."

I got my pass. I went down with a tour group, so I got the initial spiel, including the story of eleven tourists who were killed there during a flash flood. Almost every park I'd been in had narrow canyons, so I was well aware of the fact that you don't want to be in one if there was a storm. It was cloudy, and there was rain in the distance in various places. They actually have emergency rope ladders that they can lower in the event of an event, and a boat horn to warn people to exit. Anyway... did I mention all the dust in the slot canyons at GS-E? My gear was inundated. My big lens grinds a bit due to all the sand in it. So does the battery door and the lens cap. I couldn't even get the lens hood back on at one point. I'd heard stories of all the sand in the air at Antelope, so I made sure to have my old lens on (even though the damage was done already). It turned out not to be dusty at all, even with the winds up above. With the clouds, the light wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. It hardly matters at this place. It's amazing. My tripod is not a good one, and it's useless for vertical shots, so I took a lot of pics at less then optimal settings, and it shows.

I was down there for a little while, when it started raining. I was kinda wondering... I kept moving along, even if I wasn't hurrying. Then a tour group was coming up behind me, and I heard the guide telling everyone that they had to hurry and get out of the canyon. I packed up and started hurrying. After a couple of minutes, I didn't hear them anymore. I wondered if they had gone back up the canyon instead of down like I did. Or if I'd misunderstood the guide's directions, and they were still sauntering along. I started shooting again. By the time I reached the end, the group had caught up, and everyone was told they had to exit the canyon due to rain. I had only been in there an hour, but they were nice enough to give me a coupon to come back later that day for my remaining hour.

I called my great aunt and uncle, and told them I was in town and would like to stop by for a visit. I hadn't called them earlier, since I didn't know when or if I'd be in town, but they were home and happy to hear from me. I said I'd stop in later in the day.

I went down to Glen Canyon Dam and looked around the visitor's center. I looked out at the dam, then walked out on the bridge to see it and the canyon. It was pretty cool. Then I drove up to Horseshoe Bend. Every bit as pretty as you'd expect from the pictures. Very windy, though. It pushed me around a bit. And there was a lot of sand in the air. Rain at Antelope Canyon, mostly cloudy at the dam, and mostly sunny at Horseshoe Bend.

Then I went back to Antelope. The kid gave me an hour and fifteen on my pass. This time the sun was out (mostly), so the light was great. I had already seen half the canyon, so I was able to take my time. Of course, once you start taking your time, you run out of it quickly. I almost made it back to the shack in 1:15. Man, it was beautiful. You never run out of rock to shoot. Remember I said there wasn't a dust problem in the morning? I took my big lens in... and the air was full of dust. And my gear is still full of it.

Then I went into Page to visit Richard and Jewell. They had moved to Page when Richard got a job working on the Dam. He said the first day he was given a broom and told to sweep the sand out from under the bridge bearings. Once the bridge got going, he was on the crews moving the concrete forms upwards. After the dam was built, he worked in maintenance. He said that even after he retired, he could bring friends in and show them around. That all changed after 9-11. Anyway, they took me to a Chinese buffet. It was pretty good. Then they drove me to a couple of vista points where I could see the dam and Lake Powell. It was a good visit.

From there, I drove to Jacob Lake, north of the Grand Canyon. I drove up out of Page, through a ridge, where you could look out across the Colorado River canyon (south of Horseshoe Bend, north of Grand Canyon). I drove down the cliff-side, and then out across the bottom of the valley to the historic Navajo Bridge. The sun was going down so I didn't spend too much time there, but the old bridge and the new bridge alongside it are pretty high up over the river. The the road went west along the base of the Vermillion Cliffs. That's a long straightish road. Sunset in the west, storms in the south and east. By the time I got to the base of the Kaibab plateau, it was getting dark. Up I went, and the snow started (around 7000 feet). By the time I got to Jacob Lake, there was half an inch on the ground, and a little more came after that.

Jacob Lake Lodge is kinda nice. Homey and lodgey. They've got a little restaurant and bakery, and a big gift shop. And a fire going in the big fireplace. I got the key to my cabin, which was just behind the gas station. The cabin was a duplex, and the wall was pretty thin. The room was really small too. I didn't mind that, but it was very cold. There was a heater mounted in the wall, but, just like every other motel, there's only a sheet, a thin blanket, and a bedspread on the bed. I was cold almost every night of the trip, but this was the coldest. And there was no heater in the tiny little tiled bathroom, so I hardly went in there. I slept in my clothes.