Canyoniers use a rating system to describe the difficulty, nature and duration of their routes. Our route has been variously rated 3B, 3BII 3BIII and 3AIII, all reviewers agreeing that the general difficulty merits a Class 3 designation: Class 3 – Intermediate Canyoneering – Rappels or technical climbing and/or downclimbing. A rope is required for … Continue reading
We realize now that our hikes in Arches NP and Canyonlands NP were consecutively more challenging: slick-rock and cliff edges on our way to Delicate Arch; scampering across fins at Upheaval Dome; climbing and stemming in narrow slot openings in Fiery Furnace; and, ascending and descending high-elevation fins in Devil’s Garden. Now, time to put … Continue reading
Keeping with our Old Testament theme, we next hiked the Devil’s Garden, its trailhead being at the end of the Arches NP scenic Park Road, 18 miles from the Park entrance. When Arches was designated as a National Monument in 1929 by Executive Order of President Herbert Hoover, only Devil’s Garden and The Windows were … Continue reading
Unlike the descriptive names of the various hikes and features in Canyonlands NP, the location of our hike today in Arches NP bears the mysterious title: “Fiery Furnace.” What few references I have been able to locate claim that This surreal geologic labyrinth earns its name from the deep red and orange glow of the … Continue reading
Arches NP lies due north of Moab. To the southeast is another National Park: Canyonlands, NP, the largest in Utah. Between the two is Dead Horse Point State Park, the bluffs of which you can see in the photograph, below, in front of the distant La Sal Mountains. The road into the northern district of … Continue reading
It’s a little over 150 miles to Moab from Torrey where we had camped while exploring Capitol Reef NP and environs: east on UT-24 to Hanksville; continue on UT-24 northeast to I-70; east on I-70 to US-191; then south on US-191 to Moab. With the exception of I-70, the entire drive is 2-lane roads, many … Continue reading
The trailhead to the Hickman Bridge is just 1.5 miles east of the Capitol Reef NP Visitor Center. It’s a leisurely 2-mile walk with a 350 foot ascent. And, because it’s near the Visitor Center and easily accessible from the road, it’s a fairly crowded hike. Nevertheless, with patience, I was able to get a … Continue reading
Capitol Reef, established as a National Park on December 18, 1971, is the most recently designated and second largest National Park in the State of Utah (Arches NP became a National Park just 36 days earlier; Canyonlands NP is 40% bigger). But Capitol Reef NP is not the capital of anything, nor was it ever … Continue reading
Even after being reduced in size by President Trump from 1.7 to 1.0 million acres, Grand Staircase-Escalante NM is still, by far, the largest of all the National Monuments and National Parks in Utah. Consequently, in order to really appreciate it, you need to drive it. We have already driven into the Monument from the … Continue reading
After Zion, we spent several days in Escalante, Utah, exploring the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The Monument was established by President Bill Clinton in 1996 pursuant to the Antiquities Act of 1906, by which Congress granted the president the power, in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and … Continue reading
We remained near Zion for a couple more days after our trek in The Narrows, but decided to take a break from hiking. As a diversion one day, we decided to go rock-hunting outside of the Park by driving north from Virgin to the Kolob Reservoir. The road to the reservoir, paved the entire way, … Continue reading
The two most popular hikes in Zion for the adventurous are Angels Landing and The Narrows. The former, Angels Landing, is a 5-mile roundtrip up a 1,500 foot tower via two sets of switchbacks, followed by a 0.4 mile finish across the “Spine,” a narrow sandstone ridgeline with 1,000 foot drop-offs on both sides. This … Continue reading
Zion National Park sits in the southeast corner of Utah where the most popular features can only be accessed via Utah’s Highway 9, a State Scenic Byway. Leaving Page, Arizona, we retraced our steps on US Highway 89 west to Kanab, Utah, where the road dipped briefly back into Arizona as AZ-389 before rising again … Continue reading
It was a 265 mile drive north from Phoenix to Page, Arizona, near the Utah border, up I-17 to Flagstaff, then continuing north on US Highway 89 and, finally, UT-20 to the Page Lake Powell Campground. I am older than the town of Page (pop. 7,500), founded in 1957 as a community for housing the … Continue reading
If you’re going to visit the National Parks of the Colorado Plateau and want to enjoy it, get up and get going early; otherwise, expect crowds and heat. From the bar & grill near our campground, it’s an easy half-mile walk to the canyon’s rim, from which the Rim Trail continues east for about 4 … Continue reading
Leaving Bryce Saturday morning, we drove west on UT-12 to US Highway 89, taking that road south to Kanab, Utah. Jim and Von opted to continue south from Kanab into Arizona on US-89A through the scenic Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness area. Dale and I stayed on US-89, heading east to Page, Arizona, which lies just beyond … Continue reading
Just outside of Bryce Canyon NP, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, is a hidden gem of a trail, widely known to the locals, but kept secret from the multitudes of tourists visiting the nearby National Park. Since only a handful of people read this blog, I’m going to let the cat out of the … Continue reading
Our travels to Bryce Canyon were coordinated to meet up with our friends, Jim and Von, who were driving down from Madison, Wisconsin, with their dog, Daisy, making stops to hike and paddle along the way. They arrived in nearby Tropic in the late afternoon and we met up for dinner after our canyon hike … Continue reading
Leaving Fort Collins on Labor Day, we avoided the high passes of I-70 and the holiday traffic in and out of Denver, driving north on US Highway 287 to Laramie, Wyoming, then west on I-80 around the northern peaks of the Rocky Mountains. We left I-80 and Wyoming on WY-789, which soon became CO-13 (photo … Continue reading
My favorite month to be in Bellingham, Washington, is September. But, this year, we will be elsewhere: visiting our daughter, Kelly, in Colorado; our son, Trevor, and daughter-in-law, Alicia, in Arizona; and, traveling and hiking with our good friends, Jim and Von Gern, in Utah and the Grand Canyon. Anxious to get to Colorado, we … Continue reading
We ended our day with a tour of the Mormon’s Conference Center, completed just a little while before the 2002 Winter Olympics that were held in Salt Lake City. The Conference Center is huge! It will hold 21,000 people, covers 1,800,000 square feet and has a four acre rooftop park, complete with pine trees and … Continue reading
On the ground floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Mormons have a computer facility for genealogical research. Most Mormons have researched their lineage because they believe that they can bring salvation to their ancestors through prayer but, first, they have to know who to pray for; ergo, their interest in genealogy. The main … Continue reading
We heard that the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which was originally built as a hotel, had a restaurant near the top, called the Garden Restaurant. Much of the building still feels like a hotel and though it is (I think we were told) 100 years old, it has been immaculately rstored and maintained. The lobby … Continue reading
The first church building the Mormons built was the Tabernacle, built while the rest of the USA was involved in the Civil War. Utah was a territory at the time, not a state, so the War did not affect the Mormons to any significant degree. The Tabernacle has a very distinct dome-like appearance. The roof … Continue reading
It took the Mormons 40 years to build their Temple in Utah. Most of the building was constructed from hand-hewn granite, hauled from over 20 miles away on ox-carts. It is a very impressive building. That,s the front of the Temple behind us. The Temple is only open to members of the Mormon Church. Several … Continue reading
The Road Less Traveled 