Another Giant Hole: Utah Lots of Parks part 11

Day 12: I potentially bought a curse and later channeled my inner Jodie Foster.

We left Holbrook in the early morning and headed further down I-40/Route 66. Our plan was to drive south through Petrified Forest National Park and pick up hwy 180 on the other side and take that toward New Mexico.

Petrified Forest National Park has a large collection of 225-million-year-old petrified wood among badlands of eroded sedimentary rock. You also get views of the Painted Desert, the original Route 66 and thousand-year-old petroglyphs.

Ready to check out that old wood.

Another Giant Hole: Utah Lots of Parks part 10

Day 11: Ouch. I got my kicks (in the head) on Route 66.

We’re hungover, we’re in the desert, and things are looking bleak. A quick check on Yelp tells us that the nearest bacon is around the corner from our hotel at a place called The Toasted Owl. Oh, Toasted Owl, your fine breakfast fare and cute-as-hell mugs made me fit enough to sit in a moving car for the next few hours.  Beyond that, I was a wreck.

We headed north on US89 to check out Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Wupatki National Monument. What I remember from both were, “Oh my God it’s hot,” and “ow, head, ow.”

The scene of the crime.

Another Giant Hole: Utah Lots of Parks part 9

Day 10: That’s how you die in the Grand Canyon

A while ago I came across the book Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon which is basically a chronicle of over 500 people who have died in and around the Grand Canyon in the past 150+ years. Most have fallen, drowned, or died of exposure. Needless to say the statistics of the book spell out that if you’re male and in your 20s that you’re probably going to die if you go to the GC.

None of this stopped us of course. We didn’t fit the profile so we put on our jellies, grabbed a bottle of booze and practiced our sweet parkour moves before heading out for the day.

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks part 8

Day 9 aka We Finally Reach the Mecca of Giant Holes in the Ground

 

 We left our campsite in Virgin fairly early, beating the heat and headed south on 59 to the Arizona border. Needless to say, we were sad to leave Utah. What a stunningly beautiful state. I am in forever in your thrall.

So we cross over into AZ and it’s boring. Boring, boring, boring. So out comes the guidebook. Discovery: the “Arizona Strip” is the land north of the Grand Canyon south of the Utah border. It’s the state’s most remote and least populated regions. Many of the only 3000 inhabitants in this area are polygamy practicing fundamentalist LDS weirdos. And let me tell you, stuff looked rough out there. Later on, after we left the North Rim we drove thru another juicy nugget of Arizona called Lees Ferry, where a guy named John D Lee took part in the massacre of 120 emigrants from Arkansas. He fled with his 19 wives and 50+ kids to an outpost and ran the ferry that was there. He was eventually tracked down and executed, but they decided to name the town with the ferry after him. Oooookay.

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks, part 7

Day 7 (continued) & 8 – A Heathen Reaches Heaven

We left Bryce that afternoon with promises to come back someday. Hopping on US-89 we made our way the 70 miles southwest to Zion’s east entrance. Coming into Zion my emotions were all over the place. I was excited to see another park, but not excited about how most of it was only accessible by shuttle. Also, the only lodging we could find was a tent site about 12 miles west of Zion in an RV park. All signs point to that this place is busybusybusy.

I had bragged for months about how I was going to climb up Angel’s Landing. In fact, that climb was probably the #1 reason Dan and I went on this trip–we saw it written up on some hiking blog over a year before and drooled all over the description ever since. Buuuuut, add in a total freak-out on an unexpected “scenic drive,” a heavy helping of high-wind jitters, and a dash of fish-out-of-flatlands syndrome and you’ve got nerves so bad that you cringe stepping out onto a 2nd story balcony.

Number 5!

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks part 6

Day 7 – Bryce “slap yo momma” Canyon.

This post is very picture heavy. Bryce Canyon, y’all. It taunts you into draining your camera battery.

In the morning we grabbed some breakfast-to-go from a local coffee shop and headed in to Bryce Canyon. As you can see from the picture taken at the sign, the drive into the park feels like driving through any Midwest pine forest. Nothing to see here, move along.

Yes, I’m wearing a skirt. Athleta makes skirts that have shorts attached. They’re stretchy and amazing!

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks, part 5

Day 6 – THE drive. 

Good morning Utah.

It was an early morning for us at the Valley of the Gods B&B, what with the total lack of noise (city girl can’t hang) and the sun coming into the bedroom like a bright white heat gun. But man, what a gorgeous view.

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks, part 4

Day 5: The Needles and Valley of the Gods

We woke up early and got on the road, but not before we had to make the absolutely necessary stop at a drug store to get pumice stones for our heels. Dry weather + hiking all over = surface of the moon. Also, we’re a bit precious. We took our purchases and ourselves south toward the Canyonlands Needles District.

On our way out of Moab. Who gets the job of repainting those letters?

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks, part 3

Day 4 : Scenic road of DOOM and Canyonlands, Island in the Sky

This was the plan: take the scenic drive to Canyonlands and the highway back to Moab. That way we’d see more of the landscape than if we took the same road in and out. Much later, when we were ashen and still shaking and talking to a couple about how they looked up on YouTube a particular road they were thinking of driving, I had the clichéd palm-meet-face moment. Before that day, to me “scenic drive” has meant any or all of the following

• paved or level dirt/gravel
• curvy
• slight hills
• nice vistas

To people who didn’t grow up in Flatlander, USA, scenic drives consist of

• deep sand/gravel/dirt/half-buried boulders/washouts
• hairpin turns
• insane grades
• “Can’t look at the vistas, too busy focusing only on a spot 5 feet in front of the bumper to impede vertigo.”

Here’s how it all played out.

Another Giant Hole : Utah Lotsa Parks, part 2

Day 3 : Arches National Park

We got our Camelbaks filled (they recommend 1gal/per person a day) and headed out to Arches. It was a hot, amazing, and WINDY day. Forewarning, this post is image heavy. I got seriously trigger-happy.