Day 16 of 16—Leaving the Grand Canyon; Viva Las Vegas!

Woke up again at 5:30 to do work and take a shower. This morning was a busy day for the tortoise passengers, who had breakfast (fruit salad and cereal) and then needed to wash and dry and scrub all the dishes and utensils and tables for return from their final use. I took off at 10am to bring back the bus and it took a bit longer than planned because the shuttle was late and Dave had turned off the battery. I figured that out finally and after I got the brakes up to pressure, drove off and arrived back at camp at 11am. After strategic loading (some passengers getting off at Las Vegas, some in SF), we were off to the one in-between stop of Route 66!

So how many of you remember either the song “Route 66” (Nat King Cole) or the show with George Maharis and Buzz Murdoch? These were my formative pre-teen to teen years of course. I just remember these two cool dudes in their (always top-down) Corvette, which I hear was red (on color tvs which we didn’t have until 1965 after the show).

This road is also called Highway of America or the Mother Road (haha). Lots of old cars and memorabilia on all 3 blocks, living off the tourists (and why not?)

We got to Las Vegas at about 5pm and will be there until 11pm. People will stay here or go back with us to SF. Some are going straight to the airport. I'm sitting here at the Luxor Casino bar typing this end to my blog. The passengers gave Dave and myself nice tips (thank you!) and as it's Nadja's birthday, a bunch of us are going to take her to dinner at 8pm. This is my final drive night and probably the longest, though there won't be any tricky turns--straight freeway until I can't do it anymore. Then Dave takes us into SF and back to the barn in Oakland. With any luck I'll be back in Fort Bragg mid-afternoon!

Day 15 of 16—The Grand Canyon, second day

How nice to stay in one place for awhile—for once I could leave my stuff in the tent and not break camp! After breakfast our little troop of 7 (Ana/Francis from Spain/France, and the Polish family) took off for the shuttle to go the Grand Canyon Airport. Our flight was at 11am and we arrived early enough to watch another flight de-plane and everyone was smiles!

The kids were super excited. I bought them some junior pilot wings at the airport concession to give when we part company in a few days.

We boarded an overhead wing prop plane (better to see the sights) and were told to put on earphones and switch to the channel of our language.

I was surprised at how moved I became as we crossed over the rim of this vast canyon to see the impressive chasm. Didn't know the Colorado River changes colors depending on the various tributaries and their minerals, from brown to green to blue. Apparently the Spaniards saw the canyon first and decided to ignore it as impassable and unproductive for farming or habitation. So the first person to actually explore the canyon was the one-armed retired Calvary General Powell, who in 1864 went down in row boats, and again a few years later. Not all his party survived these trips, in fact only a few boats made it. So while the soil is red with iron, there are many minerals under the surface. And there are remnant mines, usually silver but also uranium. Silver mining was marginal but demand for uranium made it profitable. When uranium mine production became noticeably damaging, a bill was passed to close the mines and protect the park from this use. The plane took us over both the south and north rims. I was very surprised to see such vast forests surrounding the park.

After we landed I took the shuttle to Hermits End to see more of the northwestern rim—it’s a 45 minute round trip loop that are only accessible to the GC shuttle busses. As they run every 10-15 minutes, one can get off and on at will. I did a few stops but found myself sleeping after we started going back and I think I still had bus “lag” from the late night driving previously. I stopped at the market near our campsite and bought more firewood and s’mores supplies. Dinner prep was arranged early so we could leave to see the sunset by about 6:30pm. Most of the hikers had returned and we had a big dinner of pasta with red sauce chock full of vegetables and a green salad. For hors d’oeuvres we had dates stuffed with feta.

Right after sunset, a huge thundershower scared everyone back and into their tents. I had decided it would be another short one, so started to make a nice campfire. But only a handful of people ventured out of their tents to enjoy it. So much for s’mores, but I was given a beer and sat to enjoy it and the fire, the thunder, the lightning, and the little bit of rain falling between thunderclaps. Finally the last contingent of canyon hikers returned (all the Chinese were together and they had gone ½ way the first night and all the way the next day, hiking a total of 15 miles!) I offered them cold dinner which they gratefully accepted after their shower. And finally I went to bed and passed out.

Day 14 of 16—The Grand Canyon, first day

I mentioned in my last installment that I went online at 4am this morning after my drive. What I didn’t mention was it was only a 127 mile drive from Page, AZ leaving at 11:00pm to get to my last stop outside the Grand Canyon entrance, where we would gas up and switch drivers. My assignment was to drive as slow as possible so as not to get there before 4:30 am! Even at 30mph it was difficult to stretch a 2 hour drive into a 4.5 hour drive, and I found myself speeding up to 50mph a few times. I finally ran out of road, so pulled into the planned truckstop in Flagstaff at about 3:30am. While Dave took a shower there (free with fill up!) I crawled into bed, but it was too hot to sleep and there was wifi, so what the hay.

Woke up at the southern entrance of old Grand Canyon (south rim), where they have the old GC train station and a cafeteria in the lodge for a hot breakfast. I got up and joined the others for breakfast, and some of us needed to arrange our plane trip over the Grand Canyon. I had decided to go with them because it was affordable and a good way to see the Canyon if you don’t have time to hike all over. About ½ our group was hiking to the bottom tonight for a campout, but we still had to take care of the rest of the crew. Anyway the flight was arranged, and we were back at the bus after our 3 hour breakfast/wifi stop. It was time to go to our campsite!

There will be more pictures tomorrow when I have a chance to explore.

The group campsite we went to was Mather, about ¼ mile south of Marketplace Visitor Center. From there you can catch a shuttle to one of the Grand Canyon main visitor centers a mile or so north, and transfer to any number of free shuttles to see the park. We unloaded the bus completely and I took the bus to the bus parking at the visitor center, and spent some time looking at the exhibits. Then Dave texted me to go back to the bus and get the tent poles as a thunderstorm was threatening and we might need to set up the tarps. When I got back the hikers were preparing to leave for their overnight at the bottom of the canyon. Then it was time to help with dinner, and afterward we made our first campfire since leaving Yellowstone. I didn’t last long with 3 hours sleep the night before but woke up a 5:30am ready to work on my tournament coming up!

Day 13 of 16 – Jeeps or Horseback riding through Monument Valley (Navajo-guided tours)

 

Yup, the sunrise was well worth getting up early for!
On the menu today is horses, jeeps, or nothing at Monument Valley. I chose jeeps since it’s a drive night for me, and the temperature was well over 100 degrees by 10am. Although the horse people say they trotted most of the way, I made the perfect choice. This was more fun than the Raiders of the Lost Ark ride at Disneyland. It wasn’t a jeep but a safari set up over the back of 2 Silverado pickups. 24 of us were grinning ear to ear in the cooling breeze as we took off to see the most amazing views of the Navajo desert nation. The ride was just as bumpy and full of accelerations and turns like the Disney ride, and the symbolism of each rock structure was not lost on us. There were of course 3 separate stops to purchase souvenirs, and one of them sold Indian fry bread, to which I indulged myself with an ice cold soda for $2. At the arch dome called “ear wind”, we were treated to a short performance of indian flute and drum by one of the tour guides while we crouched along the wall in the shade.

Sorry no pictures of the trip through Monument Valley yet since I left my camera phone in the bus charging. I will grab some pics off another person’s camera.

The next stop for us was Lake Powell at Glen Canyon dam for a well-deserved swim, and dinner out. Since I was driving I decided to do takeout fish tacos and hang out in the bus to do the blog. But of course that attracted passengers back to the bus and not much blogging got done until 4am after the drive (wide awake).

Day 12 of 16—Petroglyphs and Laundry

Finally a “chill” day. I asked Dave a few days ago when we were going to have a chill day where we didn’t have to get up early and be on the road at 9am. I was mostly joking. His answer was if I want to chill I’m on the wrong tour—we are going to experience as much as we can in the time we have. Okay, fair enough…I can always come back and take my time later! But this day actually qualified as a chill day in my book. 

We broke camp at 9:05 (the new people are getting better!) and Dave took us to a special stop on the highway that has Indian Writing on the sandstone walls. After pictures we took off for Moab again, with the promise of free time for shopping, internet, laundry, and showers (finally!). I got more done on this blog finally! But there’s never enough time, so I settled for getting up to day 6 on the blog while the laundry washed, then took a $6 shower at a nearby campground, walking distance to downtown. Back on the bus we headed for a group campground called Goosenecks State Park (Teec Nos Pos according to my phone GPS) on a gorgeous mesa above the San Juan River Canyon (feeder to the Colorado). We were only a stone’s throw from the Arizona border.

The vista from this cliff was so peaceful and inspiring, people sat at the edge for about 3 hours after dinner (veggie chili and tossed green salad) until the last of the light was gone. They were still sitting there when I went to my tent. The sunrise promises to be even better over the red rocks to the east.

Day 11 of 16—Arches National Park

Arches NP is like I would imagine the Mars landscape. All the rocks are red and stick up in funny shapes from the horizon. I felt reasonably awake so took off for the trailhead with a few others, and we saw most of the ‘Devil’s Garden’. Along this route are several famous “arches” which are holes leftover from giant sandstone walls eroded from below. Some of the arches look like windows; others are truly arches and thick or thin in the middle. The 20-somethings of course had to walk on top of them while I volunteered to take pictures from below. The hiking was challenging in some high winds walking over rocks 30 feet up with nothing on either side. I got some amazing pictures. As we were heading back, droves of tourists were just getting started going up. I was glad we started early!

Arches was my favorite park so far, but I was disappointed not to be able to walk in the crevice of the giant walls further south. That area is called Fiery Creek, and requires a guided tour by reservation only. We stopped by the visitor center and then on to the city of Moab for shopping and lunch.

Camping this night was at a campsite alongside the Colorado River. Just as we were setting up our tents we experienced a fantastic Rocky Mountain thundershower, and the booms and cracks of lightning were extra great. This was my first ever. We were drinking beer outside under an awning and watching the action. Afterward several people went swimming (in the shallows) while dinner was being made. I collapsed in my tent at 8:30pm!

Day 10 of 16- Bryce Canyon

From Zion we packed up a little slower with the new people who weren't in our routine, and were on our way to Bryce Canyon at about 10am, arriving at about 12:30pm. We had until 5:30pm of free time, and this night would be a “driving night” for me. Having already overdone it hiking at Zion the day before, I decided a short hike was the most I should do so I could shower and rest up. So I signed up for a free 3 hour bus tour to south end of Bryce which among other things, promised we would see the Bristlecone Pine, oldest tree in the world.  And that we did! The nice thing about a bus tour is you have someone pointing out all the sights, plants, animals, and telling stories about the history of changes and fires. The driver also had some very corny jokes so I told him a few of my own, including one about a harvest in the Bristlecone forest. Got a chuckle.

Got back and found the GT bus just in time to help start dinner, though I was told I could rest up for the drive. Failing to sleep and noticing some bars on the phone, I started to publish this blog finally and make up the mailing list.

The drive was uneventful, though we were on the lookout for meteor showers. When I pulled off every few hours for potty stops, no one seemed inclined to look at the stars, but I did notice one falling star while driving. At 2:30am my leg was finished, so I crawled into the sleeper berth. I was too early so finally at 4:30 Dave took off for Arches NP, where I awoke just in time for bite from breakfast and another invitation to hike.