Walt & Martha traveled to Tropic, UT, on Tuesday, September 28th, to take an ATV tour with Grand Staircase ATV Tours (https://www.grandstaircaseatv.com/). We rode with our guide, Jerry, in a UTV and another couple rode ATVs behind us, into the national monument south of Cannondale, UT. Jerry’s dad had worked for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for many years and Jerry was very familiar with the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument from its creation in 1996 to the present. We rode many backroad trails viewing canyons vistas of the area. We also visited the Willis Creek Slot Canyon (https://www.visitutah.com/things-to-do/slot-canyons/willis-creek-narrows). Willis Creek had created a narrow canyon that we hiked down through the creek. The walls closed in over us and the creek narrowed as we proceeded. We also visited Bull Valley Gorge (https://dyeclan.com/outdooractivities/canyoneering/?page=bull-valley-gorge). This is a slot canyon that was crossed by a dirt road. In 1954, three young men died when their truck slid off the road into the canyon. The bodies were removed, but the truck remains. Slot canyons are really interesting and can be found in many locations on the Monument.
Walt and Martha rested in the morning and then rented a Jeep from Escalante Yurts (https://escalanteyurts.com/) on Wednesday, September 29th. Their main business is renting yurts (round Mongolian origin tent structures) for overnight stays. These are really elaborate dwellings.
To really see the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument you really need to have an off road vehicle. Our Chevrolet Equinox doesn’t cut it and so we have rented side by side UTVs four times and now Jeeps twice. Although we really like the Equinox, we are now seriously considering trading it in for a Jeep.
Taking the Jeep on Thursday, September 30th we drove north out of Escalante on the Hell’s Backbone road toward Boulder. This was the only access to Boulder before Route 12 through the Calf Creek Canyon over the Hogsback and the road over Boulder Mountain were built in the 1930’s. The road follows the mountains to the northeast and over the Hell’s Backbone, a high ridgeline and bridge with steep canyons on either side. From Boulder, we headed south on Route 12 almost all the way to Escalante then south on the Hole in the Rock road. This is a 50 plus mile dirt road that the early Mormon’s used (in fact created) to reach the Colorado River. To get to the river, they had to drive their wagons through a hole in the rock and then lower them on ropes down hundreds of feet to the river level. We drove about 10 miles of this road to the Devil’s Garden, a protected area featuring hoodoos, natural arches and other sandstone formations that stretched up the ridge to the west. We had brought our dogs and we walked them around the formations then ate lunch. South of Devil’s Garden we turned west onto Left Hand Collett Road. This was a fantastic jeep route that drove up a streambed with lots of rock ledges, twists and turns. A great deal of fun. We turned to the north and returned to Escalante via the Smoky Mountain road over the Kaiparowits Plateau.
Walt returned to Bryce Canyon on Friday, October 1st, to hike into the canyon. He attempted to park at Sunset Point, but the parking was all full, so he returned to the Visitor Center and caught the park service bus. This was the way to travel in the park – no parking hassles and the bus visits all the major vista points. Arriving at Sunset Point, he walked north on the Rim Trail to Sunrise Point, then descended into the canyon on the Queen’s Garden Trail and passed the “Queen Victoria” hoodoo. He continued along the bottom of the canyon to the Navajo Loop Trail and took the southern leg to climb up through “Wall Street”, named for the high hoodoos on either side to the rim. At the rim, he continued south along the rim to Inspiration Point (a big climb) and then to Bryce Point. At Bryce Point, you are out on top of a spire that gives you a 360 degree view of the canyon. Walt rode the bus back to the Visitor Center and drove home to Martha and the motorhome in Escalante, very tired but satisfied.
We spent Saturday, October 2nd, resting and doing laundry.
We said goodbye to our dog walkers and finished packing up on Sunday, October 3rd. The girls gave us a gift of a portrait of our dogs that we have hung in our living room.
We left Escalante and traveled to Springdale, UT, home of Zion National Park on Monday, October 4th. We traveled back west on Scenic Route 12, past Bryce Canyon and down Red Canyon. The most direct route would be south on US 89 then west on Utah Route 9 from Mount Carmel Junction through the Mount Carmel tunnel into Zion Canyon. We had driven this route 20 years ago in a smaller RV, but didn’t feel comfortable in our motorhome. The max height is 13 feet and our rig is 13’1”. Instead, we drove north on US 89, through Panguitich to Utah route 20 west to Interstate 15. Turning east on Route 9 at Hurricane, we followed the Virgin River into Zion Canyon.
We arrived at the Zion Canyon Campground and RV Resort, our home for the next 15 days. The campground office was in a shipping container and there was a big construction site next to it. On June 30th, there was heavy rain and a flash flood came pouring out of the east side of the canyon, overflowed the drainage canal under Route 9 and demolished the campground office and the hotel that was on site. The only fixture left was the staircase to the now non-existent 2nd floor of the hotel. You just can’t imagine how powerful these floods are.
We had booked this campground at 2:00 AM on January 2nd, when the bookings opened. We reserved the campsite right on the Virgin River at the south end of the campground. This was a very large campsite with lots of room for people and activities. We would need that room, as all our kids (Brenna, Rebecca and Michael), Brenna’s husband, Greg, Greg’s sister, Sara, and Greg’s parents, Matt and Georgia would all be joining us later on.
Zion National Park, is a relatively small park with most of the visitors going into the inner canyon. Springdale, right at the south end of the canyon is the ultimate entry point to the park. Driving in the park is restricted and parking practically non-existent, so most people walk into the park. Our camp was about ¼ mile from the walking entrance and was perfectly situated. As they say, “location, location, location”, and so the camp was also very expensive ($110 per night), the most we paid on the entire trip.