Brace for Bryce

Ruby's proved to be a surprise.  Located out in the middle of nowhere, at the intersection of two state highways, there suddenly appears a complex of buildings containing stores, gas stations, restaurants, gift shops, repair services, and more.  It's Ruby's!  A place that started out as little more than a gas station in the 1920's, is today the main private venue located on the outskirts of Bryce Canyon National Park.  My fears about accommodations and services were immediately assuaged when I opened the door to my room and found a desk, a table, two queen-sized beds, a flat screen T.V and a coffee maker, in other words, all the things a decent motel ought to have.  Meals (dinner and breakfast) were served from a large, well stocked buffet, which is apparently the standard for find dining in this part of the west.

Sorry to leave after only one night, and having purchased a splendid piece of Navajo pottery in the "indigenous" store, we boarded the bus for Bryce Canyon National Park, only a few miles away.  In a few minutes we began our climb to 8,600 feet to the Bryce Point overlook, and an amazing view it was!

First sight of Bryce Canyon

One of the first things we were told about Bryce Canyon is that it isn't really a canyon.  It's an amphitheater, and the erosion that created it is entirely different than that which shaped Zion.  Here a fault in the Colorado Plateau caused highly erosion-prone rick of the Pueblo sandstone formation to be exposed to the elements and rapid deterioration of the facade has created this wonder of nature.  We also learned that the shapes have all been given names.  There are wall, fins, windows and hoodoos.  Walls, fins and windows are pretty self explanatory, but a hoodoo requires and illustration.

Behold! the Hoodoo!

The formations at Bryce Canyon are beautiful in their coloring and intricacy.  It is almost impossible to look away because each glance brings a new sense of wonder and awe.  The overall impression one gets is of almost lacy sculpture from the imagination of a master tatter.  Stunning spires and crashing abysses compete for attention, and if one is lucky enough, as we were, to witness changes in light, an entirely new perspective is offered moment by moment.

A "crashing" abyss!

I walked the accessible area of the canyon rim and felt quite satisfied with the thouroghness of my exploration.  Some of our number felt compelled to do more in depth explorations and followed trails down to the bottom of the canyon.  I briefly considered making the trip with them, but quickly realized that going down was only half the story, and resigned myself, without much disappointment to exploring the Park Lodge, which is one of the few original National Park Lodges which has not burned down.  I feel that it was a much better use of my time and energy.

Bryce Canyon National Park Lodge.

We suffered and unexpected delay in our departure from Bryce Canyon due to two ladies from our group losing track of time in the gift shop, and then, not being able to find their way back to the bus.  Eventually, they were retrieved and we continued on our trek to Escalante,, Utah, where we ate a very nice lunch on the patio of a local farmer's home.  It was called a "Dutch Oven Dinner," but it seemed like an old fashioned country picnic with potato salad, beans and barbecue, pulled pork on a bun, with a little ice cream and a brownie for desert, to me.  The farmer invited people to take apples and pears off the trees in his orchard, and there was a mad rush to gather bounty from some members of the group.  I was able to resist such temptation, having concluded that I had little need for extra produce on this trip.

From Escalante, we made our way along Utah highway 12 to a thriving town of less than 200 whose name I did not write down and which I cannot recall.  It is the home of the Coombs Site,one of the sites of the archaeological remains of the Anasazi culture.  These are a mysterious people, who thrived in this arid and inhospitable land for some 900 to 1,000 years, and then simply pulled up stakes and left.  The current thinking is that their descendants can be found among Hopi, Zuni and Northern Pueblo tribes of today, but no one knows for sure.  The Anasazi produced fine arts and crafts and lived in permanent villages made of stone and mud.

 Remains of an Anasazi "L" house.

Anasazi round house.

This was followed by a presentation from the local expert in the life and history of the Anasazi.  He curated the museum associated with the site and has degrees in archaeology.  However, he seems to be struggling with senility, and his lecture, while providing some insight into the life of the Anasazi, was rambling and incoherent.  At one point he asked for questions, which he couldn't seem to remember long enough to answer.  Over all, disappointing, frustrating and embarrassing.  Apparently this same man has been "presenting" for Road Scholar for many years.  I'm afraid he has out lived his usefulness to this program.

We finished up the day with a long-ish drive to Torrey, Utah through some more spectacular scenery.   We were not told what the area is called, but it was the last area in the continental United States to be mapped.  Desolate does not begin to describe it.  I suppose it is safe to simply call it Canyon country.  It was beautiful in its starkness.  However, in what I think is a mistaken itinerary, there was no provision for a stop, even for pictures, a great loss of  an opportunity to capture more of this amazing territory in pictures.

Once again, we arrived to a wide spot in the road which serves as the jumping off point for Capitol Reef National Park, and once again, checked into a first class motel, before heading out for dinner at a local restaurant.  This time there was no buffet.  Instead, we were offered three entrees from which to chose, steak, trout, or rigatoni.  Quick and passable.  After a day of hiking at high altitude, I could not have asked for anything more.

We;re Marching to Zion, Beautiful, Beautiful Zion!

Well, maybe not marching so much as entering via luxurious motor coach, complete with adjustable seats, loads of water, a P.A. system and electrical outlets for re-charging mobile electronics!  The first glimpses of Zion National Park were already spectacular.

Approach to Zion National Park, Utah.

Our instructor, Dave, continued in his efforts to make us all more appreciative of the history of rocks, and as far as I can tell, he included a great deal of information that would be fascinating to any interested geologist.  Nearly all of it went completely over my head!  Zion was created by the raising of the Colorado Plateau, 65,000,000 years ago.  Rock which had been 3,000 to 6,000 feet underground was suddenly thrown up to where the curious could examine, analyse, comment and obsess about it,  In other words, not me!  My fascination comes with witnessing the sheer magnitude and scale of the aftermath, and a good deal of awe over it's stunning, and I would guess, unrivaled beauty.

Our excursion into the park was focused on a two mile hike up Zion Canyon, which has been formed over eons by a combination of natural erosion and geological activity.  The Virgin River flows through the canyon and creates a beautiful flood plain by which explorers such as we can take in the amazing sights leading up to the place where the canyon narrows and only the young, the sturdy and brave choose to go.  There are no restrictions to prevent traveling further, except most of it is in water, which is very cold, and good sense.   The hike through the"wide" as opposed to the "narrows," was truly eye opening.  Rather than try to describe the scenes or explain the rock formations, I think a few pictures will serve better.

The River Walk, Zion Canyon,

 Weeping Rock, Zion Canyon

 Hanging Gardens, Zion National Park, Utah

The Narrows!   Not for amateurs like me! 

Unexpected visitor.

Following the River Walk, we enjoyed a box lunch by the riverside, and proceeded to the Visitor's Center, where we saw a Park Service film presentation about, you guessed it, the history of rocks.  All that was left for the end of the day was to exit Zion National Park via the mile-long tunnel excavated out of solid rock in the 1920's to our evening destination "Ruby's," where we found far more satisfactory lodgings, a very nice buffet supper and a good night's sleep after an active and eye-opening excursion into unfamiliar terrain.

It was a stunning day, and a redemptive one for Road Scholar.  I may not have become more articulate about rocks, but the experience of the power and resulting  magnificence of mighty geological forces at work registered deeply in my consciousness, and opens the way to a deeper and more authentic humility.  Memorable in every way.

In the beginning......

I'm getting a late start on this series.  There are two mitigating factors.  One, just getting to St. George Utah was pretty exhausting.  Two, the initial accommodations is a former girl's dorm at Dixie State University were so deficient in their amenities that there was not even a satisfactory place to set up my computer to write!  More about that, later.

Not at all true to form, I was pretty well packed and ready to leave the night before D day, August 27.  My flight to Phoenix, Arizona was scheduled to leave from O'hare at 7:15 am.  Counting backwards from that time, two hours before flight to get through security and check in, an hour to the airport (just in case), an hour for early morning ablutions and final inclusions, meant that rising time was 3:00 am.  Everything went perfectly!  I was up at the correct time, called the doorman to signal a cab at 4:00 am, sharp, in the time it took to descend in the elevator, the taxi was waiting, and a very friendly and chatty Nigerian cabby got me to the airport at 4:50.

I had some concerns about checking in since this was the first trip I'd taken in a long time without a passport, but Bill, the trusty travel agent and coach assured me that I'd be able to check in with my driver's license.  Wrong!  The driver's license will get you through security, but it takes a credit card to check in.  Fortunately I have one.  I arrived at the gate with an hour to spare before boarding, just enough time for two McDonald's Sausage Biscuits and a cup of Starbucks's dark and a glance at the A.M. news.

The flight left, exactly on time, and was pretty uneventful.  No food, of course, and meager beverage service, but the flight was smooth and afforded some interesting sights from 35,000 feet.  As we neared Phoenix, I started to notice buttes and bluffs emerging from the landscape and wondered why I was so unaware the of rugged typography of the southwest.  We landed in Phoenix a little early, and had just enough of time to change to a much smaller plane to Saint George.  We landed in Phoenix on one side of the airport and the departure for St. George was at the other end, a goodly distance, I can assure you, with nothing but moving sidewalks to traverse the distance.  Still I made it with only moments to spare.  A quick trip to the bathroom, at we were boarding.  Soon we taxied out and there the story stalls.  We sat or inched our way to the take off for the next 50 minutes.  I began to fret about the arrival in St. George because I had hired a taxi/shuttle to take me to the motel and start of the tour, and my appointment with it was 1:15 pm. (an inflexible time frame, according to the shuttle company)

I had nothing to worry about.  We gained an hour flying to St. George, and the taxi/shuttle was delayed. And so, it didn't pick me up until 1:30.  I had built in some wiggle room in case there was a delay in retrieving the hold baggage.  I needn't have worried about that either.  The St. George airport is so small (and efficient) that my luggage was delivered withing minutes of me arriving.  I arrived at the Dixie State Motel (!!) at 2:00 pm local time, exactly twelve hours after my wake up time.

The end of the first day was spent in dismay over my motel room; (no morning coffee, no television, to courtesy goodies, table or desk, one lamp at bedside, oi weh!) having dinner in a university dining room, and a welcome session of introductions and orientation.  I couldn't wait for it to be over.

The worst room I've had since church camp!

Day two promised to be a little more interesting.  It began with breakfast (basically a cold buffet with a toaster and oatmeal) and a lecture on the geology we were going to encounter on the tour, given by Dave who had a career in mining before he switched over to captivating old people with the story of rocks.  One of his more illuminating discussions was to illustrate the history of the earth with a 25 foot tape measure.  Human history is less than the last 32nd of an inch of that tape.  The point being that rocks are a lot older than we are.

Dave illustrates earth's age.

We walked through the Snow Canyon State Park outside St. George and took in some of the desert beauty of the region and got a brief introduction to the plant life of this arid place.  Some of the terms we heard in the geology lecture started to have meaning as we saw actual ash cones from inactive volcanoes and took in Navajo Sandstone up close.  Impressive in its magnitude and beautiful in its own way.

 Million year old Navajo Sandstone in Snow Canyon State Park, St. George, Utah

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting an introduction of the Mormon historical sites of St. George, including one of the original homes, the original court house, the temple, to tabernacle, the irrigation system and it's rules, and the opera house with a "visit" from one of the original apostles who told us about the arduous trip across the prairie in hand carts and covered wagons.  There is no question that the early pioneers started with nothing and built a pretty remarkable functioning village in the middle of no where.  It proves, I guess, that a well organized and obedient group of committed people can accomplish amazing things.  I was particularly impressed with the extraordinary quality of the workmanship displayed in the tabernacle, which was build to seat 1,000 people when there were only a few hundred living in the area.

Mormon Tabernacle at St. George, Utah.

We finished our day off with dinner an Chuckarama, a local "favorite" eatery.  Buffet with many locals.  Bedtime couldn't come soon enough.  Tomorrow will be a better day!  We leave for Zion National Park in the A.M.

Westward Ho!

One week from yesterday, on August 27, 2018, I will begin a new adventure in the great west.  It will be the first "domestic" trip that I will undertake as a retired traveler.  It was always my plan to attempt one "foreign" and one domestic trip each year, while I am still able.  For a variety of reasons, the in-country trips have not occurred, buying a condo, moving, professional commitments, etc., all have frustrated the fulfillment of that worthy intention.  Finally, three years into retirement, I'm going to begin exploring parts of our great (it's always been great, despite some claims otherwise) nation that I have missed in my wanderings.  There is no particular reason to have chosen this one, other than it came up at the right time and it peaked my interest.

Trip #1-D is, once again, with Road Scholar, with whom I have been very pleased, not withstanding some disappointments in the Great American Get Together in Banff,  This will be in the small group format of the trips to China and Southeast Asia.  We will be touring the national parks of Utah, including a peek at the Grand Canyon, which, believe it or not, I have yet to behold.  Considering the recent attempts by our deranged president to severely reduce the area and services in these parks, I think the timing is especially fortuitous.  I'll be able to visit these grand, natural wonders before they are down-sized to picnic areas to accommodate the special, commercial interests of the few!

Getting to Saint George, Utah, our debarkation point, proved to be more than I could manage on my own.  So, I called upon my friendly travel agent, Bill, who found the magic route that will get me to my destination on time with minimum hassle.  I'll have to leave 27J at 4:00 am to catch the flight from O Hare to Phoenix, and from there to Saint George.  But I've talked to the doorman, who assures me that there is no problem attracting a taxi at that hour.  Who can believe it?

As in some of my past adventures, I will attempt to record and post day to day happenings that might be of interest.  My relatively new Dell computer served me well in Banff, and will be my companion on this trip as well.  I feel no sorrow at the demise of the iPad.  I've moved on.  Stay turned..........

And in summation .....

It's been roughly a month now, since my return from Banff.  The dust has settled and the clothes washed and put away, and the travel kit is replenished for the next adventure.  It seems a good time to sum up the experience.

Overall, the trip was fine....just not up to what I have come to expect from Road Scholar.  It seems as though it was a kind of throw-back to what Elderhostel once was, brief educational experiences housed in college dormitories which were empty for the summer.  My accommodations would certainly qualify under than banner.  My room felt like the R.A.'s apartment for a dormitory than a state of the art hotel room.  The furnishings were pretty basic, albeit showing evidence of a final project in design,  trendy, without being functional.  Lighting was terrible, and the heating system was uncontrollable, and the service (cleaning, replacing courtesy items like coffee and tea) were intermittent and seemed like to kind of job one would expect from college students doing a summer job, which, I sure, was exactly the situation.

The program, itself seemed disorganized.  Maybe the planners knew exactly what was supposed to be happening, but as a participant, it seemed to me to be a lot of last minute decision making and not much communication before the fact.  I also thought the "educational" component lacked much depth.  For example, it might have been helpful for those of us from the lower 48 to have a brief introduction to Canadian history, beyond the building of the railroad.  And while we heard about obscure pioneer women, we heard nothing about the indigenous people, now called "First Nations" and had no cultural encounter with them at all.

Over all, this tour seemed more like a promotional effort for the Banff Center and Banff tourism than I would expect from Road Scholar.  I'm glad I made the trip, but I found it worth the money only if I ceased thinking about what it could have been.

Road Scholar has a chance to redeem itself in a few weeks when I travel with them, again to Utah and the National Parks there.  It seems like an important trip to make at this time, before more National Parks are down graded or reduced by the short-sighted policies of the Trump administration.  God help us all!

My concluding pictures with be of my room, which I rate at below Motel 6!  You can decide for yourself.

A bed with a view of a service road.

Minimalist Desk and Chair