Our Nest on Wheels

We recently made our third trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We first went in 2014 as part of a rim-to-rim backpacking hike in early June. Early June is pretty hot at the bottom of the Grand Canyon--107 degrees Fahrenheit to be exact. Our second trip was in January of this year, when we scored a last-minute cancellation at Phantom Ranch. We were at the Grand Canyon again in October, on our way back to Tucson for the winter. When we were making our fall plans, we saw an opening at the Grand Canyon trailer village in October for six nights, so we grabbed it. This being the only RV campground in the park, it fills up way in advance, so if you see an opening, you'd best take it. The last time we stayed in the trailer village, elk came through the campground every evening. No elk this time, but there's always something new to see, like this RV built on a M1078 military truck platform.

The day after we arrived at the canyon, I checked online to see if there were any openings at Phantom Ranch. This was on a Thursday, and there were openings in the dorms for both Sunday and Monday nights. After reviewing the weather report, we booked it for Monday night. Now, you may know that it is extremely difficult to get a reservation at Phantom Ranch. It books up 13 months in advance, and demand is so high that there is a lottery. We met people on the trail who had tried unsuccessfully for 2 1/2 years to get a reservation at Phantom Ranch. But as it turns out, the mules that take riders to the bottom had gotten sick, and the park had to cancel the mule rides for a couple of days. This left some spots open in the dorms at Phantom Ranch, and we took advantage.

If June is hot, and January can have snow and ice at the rim, October should be just right. And the temperatures were pretty much just right for hiking: around 60 F at the rim and mid-70s at the river. But we were also dodging rain and thunderstorms this time. Fortunately it never rained very hard on us, although we could see rain not too far away. And the thunderstorms were around 10 miles away. Nevertheless, we did not stay on the ridgeline of the South Kaibab trail any longer than necessary. Sometimes we could see a rainbow below us, and sometimes we were hiking down into the clouds.

Also new for us this time was the color of the Colorado River. We had been in Moab, Utah, earlier, where we had five days of rain. And there had been significant rain in Arizona and Southern Utah in October--5.5 inches in Phoenix, for example. This meant that there was lots of run-off water carrying the dark red dirt, which turned the Colorado from it's typical green color to the color of chocolate milk.

Here's a pic looking down at the beach near Phantom Ranch where the rafters all stop.

Even Bright Angel creek, which gets most of its water from roaring spring, was looking pretty muddy.

Another new sight for us this time was this rather large spider we encountered on the trail in Phantom Ranch. I think it was probably a tarantula, but I wasn't going to get close enough to find out for sure.  It was about the size of my fist. And it didn't seem to be too scared of us.

Also new on this hike was the amount of green in the canyon. Thanks to all the rain, there was green grass growing all along the Bright Angel trail. We joked that the rangers would need to start mowing the lawn, and rangers that we met commented that they had never seen so much green in the canyon.

The final new thing we saw in the canyon on this hike is something that was old and is new again. We came across someone taking pictures with a 4x5 view camera.

Most people we see take pictures with a smart phone or a digital SLR. A few use a tablet, and we like to use a pocket digital camera. But you rarely see something like a 4x5 view camera. This is not an old camera, but a modern incarnation of an old design. It uses film, not digital image capture. And it's the format used by the professional photographers whose photos sell for thousands in art galleries across the west. I guess that nothing can match the level of detail that you get with this type of large-format camera.

The young man operating the camera, Drew Nikonowicz, owns the company that makes them and was returning from a convention in San Diego. He had not been to the Grand Canyon before and had just come a mile or so down the Bright Angel Trail to take a few pictures from a different perspective than you get on the rim. I'm sure he got some good pictures, and he'll probably return someday. If you want to read more about the cameras that he makes, go to Standard Cameras, I think you'll find it fascinating.

When we did our rim-to-rim hike, people told us that we would likely return to the bottom of the canyon, as there's always something new to see. We saw many new things on this hike, just as we did on the last. We now know that October is an ideal time to do this hike, at least for the temperature. And we know that we can expect to see something new each time. Will there be a next time?  If so, what will we see?

by Steve

Utah is home to five national parks--the "Big Five," as they are called: Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, and Zion. We managed to visit them all this year. In addition to these parks, southern Utah has several national monuments and recreation areas.We visited Escalante in the spring, so this fall we allocated time to see Natural Bridges, Bears Ears, and Glen Canyon.

Natural Bridges National Monument is the oldest of this group, set aside in 1908. It has three large bridges that you can hike down to. Wondering what the difference is between an arch and a natural bridge? The Natural Bridges National Park website gives this explanation: Bridges and arches are both fragile, natural rock sculptures. Both are formed with water and time, but with different processes. Running water carves natural bridges, while seeping moisture and frost shape arches." They bridges in the park not always easy to photograph, as you need to get close to get sky in the background, and then it's too hard to fit them into a picture. The picture above is a four-shot composite.

The three bridges in Natural Bridges are easily accessed by a loop road, which makes it pretty easy to see and hike the whole park in a day. Definitely worth a visit when you are in the area.

Bears Ears is one of the newest national monuments. And until recently, it was one of the largest, covering a large area of southeast Utah surrounding Natural Bridges and extending north to Canyonlands National Park. Bears Ears is named for the two buttes that from a distance look a little like the ears of a bear. If you squint. And have a good imagination.

As a new national monument, it doesn't really have any facilities yet. No visitor center, or maps, or paved roads... But what it does have is the potential for uranium, which is why the current president has greatly reduced the size of Bears Ears. The land that Bears Ears sits on is still BLM land, but since it doesn't have the protection of a national monument anymore, it is now open to mining. For more information on filing your mining claim, please go here. 

The Bears Ears area is not really conducive to farming; it's too dry. There's also no timber here, or other resources, other than uranium. But it is home to many many ancestral sites. The ancient people who lived here hundreds or thousands of years ago managed to eke out a living, and they often left cliff dwellings. We found a few of these places, either by asking locals or by asking at a NPS visitor center. They are not well advertised since the park service doesn't want people ruining them. And while they're not as impressive as Mesa Verde, it's pretty cool to hike off trail and locate them on your own.

Here's one we found when hiking on a trail in BLM land. We knew that there were cliff dwellings located in some of the side canyons, but that they were not marked and there weren't established trails to them. Finding them was rather exciting. Of course we did not touch or enter the sites.

This one is also located in a side canyon, with no real trail to it. It took some scrambling to get here, and the dwellings are still way high overhead on a ledge. We could see holes and marks where a ladder had been placed, so we know how the ancient people got in and out.  

We can only imagine that the whole Bears Ears area is dotted with ancient sites like these. But what will happen to them if we start mining for uranium in the area? It may be helpful to look at what happened with past mining projects. There's a massive cleanup going on just outside of Moab, Utah. After a uranium mining operation shut down, it left a huge pile of tailings alongside the Colorado River. The massive fish die-offs indicated that there were toxins (ammonia in this case) leaching into the Colorado. The cleanup has been going on for years and is currently estimated to cost the taxpayers around $720 million. Read more about the Moab Uranium cleanup and the UMTRA Project. 

We had seen the uranium mine cleanup project in Grand Canyon National Park (another multi-million dollar cleanup, completed in 2009) as well as old abandoned uranium mines in Capitol Reef. You can't help but wonder if the costs of cleanup greatly exceed the value of uranium extracted. The mining companies walk away with the profits and leave the cleanup of their mess to the taxpayers. Will we be dumb enough to let this happen again?

Our last stop in Utah was Lake Powell in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. This huge lake was formed when the Glen Canyon dam was built in the early 1960s. At 188 miles long, most of the dam isn't visible except from a boat. Currently the lake levels are down about 100 feet from the high-water mark.While there is normal water level variation annually due to the snow melt in the Colorado Rockies, this year the lake level only rose 4 feet instead of the more typical 40 feet. The reservoir is at about 38% of capacity, and it would take a decade of above-average rain and snow to restore it to full capacity. The future of boating here doesn't look good.

We really enjoyed southeast Utah. But as winter is coming, it's time to continue working our way south to winter quarters in Tucson. But not before another stop at the Grand Canyon, which will be our next installment.

by Steve

In October, we had a week in Moab, Utah, and then four days in Blanding, Utah, about 70 miles south of Moab. These towns make good base locations to see Arches, Canyonlands, Natural Bridges, and Bears Ears. Somewhat surprisingly, we had five days of rain, despite assurances from the locals that "it never rains here."

We had been to Arches National Park once before, when our children were little and we were on a family vacation. It was summer, and it was hot. Really hot. We didn't see much of Arches then, as we limited our time in the 100+ degree temperatures. So Jane and I decided on a return trip this fall. And this time we could include Canyonlands National Park.

The photo above is of Delicate Arch, one of the iconic arches in the park and the symbol on the Utah license plates. We hiked here on a nice sunny morning, and while there were a fair number of people here, we did manage to get a few pictures without too much of humanity in them. This is a "must visit" if you go to Arches.

Some of the more interesting arches are a ways off the road and take a bit of a hike. This is nice because it thins out the crowd. The hikes are much more manageable in October than in the heat of summer.

Above is Delicate Arch, one of the longest of the formations in the park. It's about a mile down the trail. The last time we hiked this trail, we caught up with a 96-year-old man hiking in the early morning. After chatting him up a bit, Jane asked him the secret of his longevity. "Don't stop moving" was his reply. Good advice.

Further down the trail is a trio of arches: Portal, Navajo, and Double O. The trail involves travel along the top of one of the "ribs" of rock. This gave Jane an opportunity to work on her fear of heights, sharp drop-offs, and long falls.

Here's Double-O arch. The people in the picture just came though the lower arch and give the picture some scale.

Navajo Arch is much smaller, almost like a tunnel, and straddles a small puddle, the result of recent rains.

Arches is a fairly small national park, and with planning and good weather you can see most of the sights in a few days. By contrast, Canyonlands is a vast park, with much of it accessible only by 4-wheel-drive vehicles or by backpacking. There are three districts, each with its own entrance, and you can't go from one district to another within the park. Plan for some lengthy drives.

The most visited district is "Island in the Sky". It's basically a mesa with lots of overlooks down into deeply eroded canyons. You can visit all the lookouts and do a few short hikes in a day. We had a rainy day with some thunder and lightning, which kept us from any hikes where we would be exposed.

If you have a Jeep and the stomach for it, you can take this road down from the mesa to the plateau below, which overlooks the Colorado River. This Jeep road is a pretty popular trip to take from Moab. If you want to tour the entire road, expect to be out for two days. We stayed on up on the mesa and dodged rain.

We also visited the Needles District. It's an area of rock formations and lots of hiking trails. Not many places that you can go with a car, so plan to park it and get out the backpacks.

Here's a distant view of the Needles. Read the trail signs and carry a map, because it all looks similar and confusing. it has some really interesting terrain.

These formations are called mushrooms, and you can see why.

Some of the trails are a little narrow.

But they lead to great views.

We had a day in the Needles. There's more to see than we were able to do, but we felt that we had a good experience there.

The third district is called "The Maze" and it's accessible only by four-wheel drive.  We'll save that for some future trip.

In our next installment, we'll cover highlights of our time in Natural Bridges and Bears Ears, two national monuments in southeast Utah.