South Rim Grand Canyon - Wednesday, October 7 2015

South Rim Grand Canyon:
The South Rim is the more well known and heavily visited section of this iconic National Park.  Over
four million visitors from around the world visit the park each year.  The traffic was heavy and there were many people on the trails and overlooks.
Highlights:
The Rim Trail:  The Rim Trail stretches along 13 miles of the canyon.  Much of it is paved and wide with little elevation gain, making it an easy and popular trail.  Best of all, Maddie was allowed to join us for a morning walk through the Grand Canyon Village National Historic Landmark District.  It is home to the grand El Tovar Hotel and the Bright Angel Lodge, both built in the early 1900s.
Bright Angel Trail:  This trail descends 4,500 feet in 7.8 miles to the Colorado River.  It is Grand Canyon's most heavily used trail.  We hiked about 1.5 miles roundtrip - with the downhill portion much more enjoyable than the uphill climb!

View of Canyon & CO River

Desert View Watchtower:             This is one

'Upper tunnel' - Bright Angel Trail

of several structures in the park, including the El Tovar Hotel, that were designed by Mary Colter.  Using native stones to the area, her designs were heavily influenced by American Indian architecture and art.

Desert View Watchtower

North Rim Grand Canyon - Tuesday, October 6, 2015

North Rim Grand Canyon:
Although only 10 miles as the raven flies from the South Rim, the North Rim offers a very different visitor experience.  It too has awe inspiring views, but with a slower pace.  Unfortunately for us, the views were limited due to heavy clouds that descended into the canyon.

Highlights:

Grand Canyon Lodge

Point Imperial: This is the highest viewpoint in the park at 8803 feet.  It was engulfed in cloud cover.

Bright Angel Point Trail

Grand Canyon Lodge & Bright Angel Point Trail:  The historic Grand Canyon Lodge has a wonderful back porch for viewing the canyon.  One can only imagine how wonderful it would be to enjoy cocktails there at sunset.  Unfortunately we experienced it in the rain & clouds.  Bright Angel Point Trail is a 0.5 mile roundtrip trail leading from the lodge to a couple of rock overhangs.

Point Imperial in the clouds

Bryce Canyon National Park - Monday, Oct. 5, 2015

Natural Bridge Overlook

Looking down on the Hoodoo from Rim Trail

Trail:  Bryce Canyon Scenic Drive
Distance:  18 mile one way
Difficulty:  Easy & paved
Time:  1 hour
Scenic Overlook:  Natural Bridge


Hike:  Rim Trail
Distance:  1.0 - 11.0 mile (we did a small portion)
Difficulty:  Easy
Time:  1 hour
Bryce Canyon National Park is part of the larger Colorado Plateau.  We were mesmerized by the kaleidoscope of colorful (orange) rock layers and formations known as Hoodoo's.  From the Rim Trail we were able to look down upon the impressive canyon of them.  Even in the rain, it was an amazing site!
There are many scenic overlooks along the Bryce Canyon Scenic Drive, unfortunately we only had time for a select few.  It rained off & on throughout our tour. 

Zion National Park - Monday, Oct. 5, 2105

Canyon Overlook Trail

View from Canyon Overlook

Road:  Zion Mt. Carmel Hwy
Distance:  12 miles
Difficulty: Easy & Paved

Hike:   Canyon Overlook
Distance:  1.0 miles
Elevation Gain:  63 feet
Difficulty:  Moderate
Hike time:  45 minutes, round trip

The Zion Mt. Carmel Hwy is a 12-mile Scenic Hwy that connects the South & East entrances to Zion.
The road travels up steep switchbacks and through the historic Zion - Mt. Carmel Tunnel.  This tunnel is 1.1 mile long and was finished in 1930.  It's purpose was to provide direct access to both Bryce National Park & the Grand Canyon from Zion.  It was built too narrow & tall for today's RVs to pass side by side.  Often traffic is forced to flow from one direction at a time, causing long lines to form.

The Canyon Overlook Trail has long drop-offs, mostly fenced.  It is a rocky and uneven shelf trail that ends at a viewpoint of Pine Creek Canyon and lower Zion Canyon. 

Capital Reef National Park - Sunday, October 4, 2015

Trail Name:  Capital Reef Scenic Drive
Total Mileage:  24 miles round trip
Difficulty: Very easy
Hike:  Capital Gorge - 2 mile round trip
Total Time:  2.5 hours - 1.5 hours for hike

Capital Gorge canyon hike

Captial Reef Scenic Drive

The 16-mile round trip Scenic Drive is a narrow paved road that goes along Capital Reef's colorful  towering cliffs.  The Capital Gorge hike passes through a deep canyon with historic inscriptions, which leads to a short switchback trail to three waterpockets.

Notom Road to Burr Trail - Capital Reef National Par - Sunday, October 4, 2015

Trail Name:  Notom Road to Burr Trail
Total Mileage:  50 miles
Difficulty Rating:  Easy
Total Time:  2 hour

This trail traveled through both Capital Reef National Park and private land.  The washboard Notom Road ran next to the Waterpocket Fold, a giant buckle in the earth's crust that stretches across south-central Utah. It was not very distinguishable from the road and we found this part of the trail rather disappointing.
The Burr Trail started with a dramatic climb with many switchbacks and took us into more interesting

View from Burr Trail

terrain.

Switchbacks on Burr Trail

 

Schaefer Switchbacks, Potash Road - Canyonlands National Park - Moab - Oct. 3, 2015

Trail name:  Shafer Switchbacks, Potash Road

Thelma & Louise Point

Starting point:  Canyonlands Natonal Park
Finishing point:  Moab
Difficulty:  Easy - but with narrow steep switchbacks
Distance:  18.5 miles
Time:  3 hours

The most challenging and exciting part of this trip were the Shafer Switchbacks.  This steep, narrow ledge road demanded Charlie's undivided attention, but provided me with amazing views of the Canyon & the La Sal Mountains beyond.
Within walking distance of the Potash Road is Thelma and Louise Point.  *The surprise ending to this movie when Thelma & Louise  decide to 'end it all' & drive their car off this cliff.   It is a memorable moment in the movie & even more dramatic to see the real thing.

The Shafer Switchbacks

Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky - Oct. 3, 2015

View of canyon from Island in the Sky

The Island in the Sky Mesa District of Canyonlands National Park rests on sheer sandstone cliffs that tower 1,000 feet above the surrounding terrain.  The Green & Colorado Rivers carved the canyons that we see today.

Kathy on the Grand View Point Trail

The 34-mile roundtrip scenic drive allowed us to tour the entire mesa.  At the end

Charlie on a rock outcrop along canyon

we hiked the 2 mile Grand View Point Trail that provided a stunning 'out & back' walk that showcased spectacular panoramic views as it followed the canyons edge.

Fins & Things - Sands Flats Recreational Area - Moab - October 2, 2015

Trail name:  Fins & Things - South side
Difficulty:  Difficult
Distance:  2.4 miles
Total Time:  One hour

This trail had steep slickrock climbs and descents.  Some of the large ledges had bypasses, but not all of them.  It was challenging & fun.  Unfortunately, our bike rack had a malfunction and we were forced to abandon the North side of the trail.  The good news is we did not damage the bikes, but did have to replace the bike rack.

Sand Flats Road

Steep Slickrock descent

Gemini Bridges - October 2, 2015

Trail Name:  Gemini Bridges
Total Mileage:  13.4 miles
Total Time:  2 hours
Difficulty:  Easy

View from Gemini Bridges area

The trail starts as a twisting shelf road high over Hwy 191 and then descends into a wide valley.  We then climbed a steep hill & at mile 7.7 took a short hike to see Gemini Bridges.  This unique formation was carved by water eroding the rock below it.  The bridges are narrow with a 250 ft drop off.  The remainder of the trail was easy - much like an Iowa country road exiting on Hwy 313.

Gemini Bridges

Hidden Canyon Overlook (Moab area) - October 2, 2015

Trail name:  Hidden Canyon Overlook
Total Mileage:  5.5 miles
Total Time:  1.5 hours
Difficulty:  Moderate

Wide open Slickrock area

Trail Description:  The trail is narrow, steep & sandy in spots and has a wide open area of slickrock  at the overlook.    It is not at all clearly marked and we were confused virtually the entire trail.  We had the trail to ourselves which was especially nice after dealing with all the tourists at Arches yesterday.

Hidden Canyon Overlook

Arches National Park - October 1, 2015

 Since Charlie & I are on a mission to visit our country's national parks, this year we chose to tour Utah's "Mighty 5".............. Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capital Reef and Zion.
We begin the journey............

Arches National Park is known for containing over 2,000 natural sandstone arches, in addition to a variety of unique geological formations.  Forty three arches are known to have collapsed since 1977.
The wide open areas of the park are desolate and desert like, making the huge sandstone formations

Sandstone towers

rising from the earth especially impressive.  We hiked to several of the arches until the heat (94 degrees) got the best of us.

Balanced Rock

Long Canyon Trail- Moab - October 1, 2015

Trail name:  Long Canyon
Difficulty:  Easy - A wide gravel road except through Pucker Pass where it is narrow & steep.
Starting point:  The trail is best driven from the top to the canyon to the bottom so that the great views over the canyon are in front of you.
Distance:  7.5 miles
Time:  1 hour

Passing under the giant rock

Features:  Outstanding views of the canyon from top to bottom.  A unique aspect of the trail is at mile 3.5 where you pass under a giant rock.

View of canyon from mid section

Delta - Nucla Road - September 30, 2015

Trail name:  Delta - Nucla Road
Total mileage:  42 miles one way
Difficulty:  Easy - partially paved
Starting point:  Delta
Total time:  1.5 hour

The Delta to Nucla Road is an easy 42 mile mountain back road over the Uncompahgre Plateau.  It passes through flat country and canyon country.  There were very few vehicles, one cowboy on his horse, a couple of park employees and several free range cattle on the road.

Utah Hwy 141 from Nucla to Moab is both scenic and a driver's dream with many sweeping turns and long straight aways.  We passed many exotic sports cars clearly on a road rally - Charlie was missing his 911!

Free range cattle on Delta to Nucla Road

View down valley from top of Delta/Nucla Rd.

Eagle/Thomasville Road & Cottonwood Pass - September 2015

Eagle/Thomasville Road

Upper alpine lake

Trail name:  Eagle/Thomasville Road & Cottonwood Pass
Total mileage:  Eagle/Thomasville Road - 44 miles one-way
                         Cottonwood Pass - 30 miles one-way
Difficulty Rating:  Easy
Starting point:  Thomasville
Finishing point:  El Jebel
Total time:  Approx. 5 hours

Access:   Eagle/Thomasville Road
Follow the Fryingpan River Road out of Basalt and towards Reudi Reservoir for 20 miles.

In the late 1800's & early 1900's, Thomasville was a station on the CO Midland Railroad and a settlement around the St. Louis & CO Smelter.  The Bessie mine just outside of town provided ore to the smelt.  Many of the original buildings of this mountain ghost town remain. 

The road is a beautiful and easy drive through aspen forests and some meadows with wildflowers.

Access:  Cottonwood Pass
Southwest out of Gypsum

An easy mountain backroad that passes through ranch land, gentle rolling hills and a broad valley before climbing through the corner of the White River National Forest to the Pass.  From the Pass, the road descends through similiar country before exiting on CO 82 in El Jebel.