4/7/12 – Lee’s Ferry

It's not easy to cross the Colorado River.  The canyon through Arizona and Utah is deep and dangerous.   

Lees Ferry was built in 1873, and replaced in 1929 by the Navajo Bridge.  In 1995, the original bridge was replaced.  The new one is longer, higher (only 3 feet, but a statistic is a statistic), wider (we don't drive Model-T's anymore!) and (surprise, surprise!) cost a whole lot more!  Can you identify the modern marvel?

After you cross the Navajo Bridge, you drive past the Vermillion Cliffs and the balanced rocks. 

Lees Ferry is at the start of the Grand Canyon, 85 miles upstream from the North Rim.  There's no ferry there anymore, but they still launch rafts for trips down the canyon.  A couple of big ones were taking off when we got there.  

 Then I met some people who were heading off on a 21-day raft trip--way smaller rafts! 

We took a little walk down to the Lees Ferry historic district.  Part of the fort is still standing, and there's some junk for an old gold mine.

  

There's a trail that goes along the river, but I told George that I wanted to go on a hike, not a trail.  He asked, "What's the difference?"  I smiled at him, took one final picture downriver to the beginning of the canyon and headed for the truck.  (Check out the blog entry for Cathedral Canyon if you'd like to see for yourself.)  

More pictures of the Lees Ferry area:  Lees Ferry

4/3/12 – Toadstools Trail

We drove to a BLM Visitor Center at Big Water, UT, in Grand Staircase-Escalante Natl Monument.  (Yeah, I'd never heard of it either!  It's even more confusing when they abbreviate it to GSENM.)  You can't tell from this picture but the building is shaped like an ammonite fossil.  Lots of dinosaur fossils have been found nearby.  I suppose it easier to build something that looks like a spiral shell than a T-Rex.

The Toadstools Trail heads out through a sandy wash along the Paria (rhymes with Maria) Rimrocks to the Toadstools and Hoodoos.

Toadstools look like big rock formations with another rock balanced on top. They're formed when the different layers of rock erode at different times because the bottom later is softer rock. They come in red and white, most with black caps on top, which make them look like giant mushrooms. Since they’re non-edible, they call them toadstools. Hoodoos don't have capstones.  

 There's a bit through the badlands that's kind of interesting. 

Then you see the hoodoo garden up on the hill. 

You have to hunt to find the second trail past the red toadstools to the white ones.  It's a bit of a scramble but well worth the hike.

 Link to lots more pictures of toadstools:  Toadstool Trail  

 

4/3/12 - Glen Canyon NRA

Winter’s over, and we’re back on the road again!  We met some wonderful people while we were in the Verde Valley, but we're both glad to be traveling once more. 

We drove north to Page, AZ—this is the view out the window of the RV at the park where we’re staying.  It’s great fun to climb on...unless the wind is blowing and then it's scary!

Page was founded when they started building Glen Canyon Dam in the late '50s.  It’s close to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and the dam (naturally), Lake Powell (of course), plus some of the sculpted sandstone cliffs and canyons of Grand Staircase-Escalante NM and Vermillion Cliffs NM (stay tuned). 

First stop:  hike to the dam overlook. 

On the way back up, some guy told us we must be in better shape than the people who came up before us—they were really huffin’ and puffin’!  (Apparently all the walking I've done all winter actually worked!)

A Navajo girl in costume and her friends were heading down to take her picture.  I wonder what the occasion was?  (Apparently the guy up above was impressed too.)

Next it was back in the truck, across the bridge to the Glen Canyon NRA Visitor Center.  We met some folks there from Belgium, on a month's tour of the US--chatted with them for a bit. 

On the advise of a ranger who gave me several suggestions for hikes, we went back across the bridge to the Hanging Garden trailhead.  It's a short hike across the sand and rocks to a sheltered garden of maidenhair fern, quite a surprise in the middle of the desert. 

 

 

 

The wildflowers are starting to bloom along the way--there are more pictures if you follow the link below; this is my fav--but I don't know what it is! 

I've got two links this time; one for Glen Canyon NRA:  Glen Canyon
and one for the trail:  Hanging Garden