Adventures in the 63 Big Baddies
Hiking into the Grand Canyon is a classic national parks experience. So is staying at Phantom Ranch, which most people reserve 15 months in advance. Here’s how we managed a last-minute stay. … More How We Got a Last-Minute Reservation at the Grand Canyon’s Phantom Ranch
Okay! Rested, recharged, and off for more adventures. We failed to win the lottery for the Wave again this morning, so we implemented backup plan The-Wire-and-Teepees. These hikes both require a day-use pass, which Dustin was organized enough get well in advance. (Don’t to forget to do this, kids! You can buy them online, but data connections at the trail head are iffy at best.) … More Laura’s Journal: Vermillion Cliffs National Monument
Welcome to southern Utah, a place where you cannot throw a rock without hitting a National Park (or a hiker – don’t actually throw any rocks). We’re staying in a lovely little town called Kanab, centrally located between a solid dozen parks and sites. It’s also the location of the lottery to win a permit for hiking to “the Wave” – a famous and stunning formation in Vermillion Cliffs NM. This town was originally intended [for us] as an overnight stop only, on the way to Capitol Reef NP, but having failed to do much research, I’d had no idea how gorgeous this place was, or what great access Kanab gave to all of it. We decided to spend a couple days and see if our lottery luck would hold. … More Laura’s Journal: Day Off (and a bit of Grand Staircase-Escalante NM)
Poor geology museum! My plan for today was to show up on their doorstep at opening time and camp there literally all morning, reading every single display, touching every sample rock, and bothering the staff with questions until I understand how this vast and gorgeous rockscape works. … More Laura’s Journal: Being a normal, nerdy Grand Canyon tourist
It turns out going to bed at 9pm does not come naturally to me, even when I was up a 6am and have hiked 17 miles in the last two days. I’m sure I was just starting to drift off For Real when the alarm went off at 4am, but I got up anyway. We had a disgusting breakfast of freeze-dried biscuits and gravy (my least favorite of the pouch meals, but you don’t start this hike on an empty stomach, and even if I wanted to pay for another $30 breakfast, early service doesn’t start until 5am. That’s what I get for thinking 6:30 as “late” service is funny). … More Laura’s Journal: Hiking out of the Grand Canyon
Standing on the edge of the Colorado River 4,700 feet below the rim of the Grand Canyon is not the awesome experience you’d expect it to be – at least, not for the reasons you’d think. All sense of scale is lost. The depth is unfathomable because it is literally extraordinary. … More Laura’s Journal: Bottom of the Grand Canyon
The great thing about playing it loose with your travel plans is that you have all the flexibility in the world to adjust your schedule to spend more or less time at places that interest you more or less than you expected. The downside is when you find out that doing the really cool things in those places required you to make a reservation. Six months ago. … More Laura’s Journal: Grand Canyon – Going Down
There are cliff dwellings, and then there are entire canyons full of cliff dwellings. Walnut Canyon is stunningly beautiful as a natural phenomenon. It’s very easy to see why people would want to live here, but less easy to imagine fighting the challenges of the cliffs in order to construct a home. Before descending the very gracious stairs to do the walking tour, even tourists are warned: … More Laura’s Journal: Walnut Canyon National Monument
If Tuzigoot was today’s equivalent of last week’s visit to Wupatki, Montezuma castle parallels last week’s visit to the cliff dwellings at Tonto NM. In this case, we couldn’t enter the buildings, only admire them from the footpath below, but they are very admirable. … More Laura’s Journal: Montezuma Castle National Monument
Wednesday, April 28, 2021TUZIGOOT NATIONAL MONUMENT Tuzigoot (an anglicization of the Apache word for “crooked water” given to this Sinaguan site by a member of the excavation crew in the early 1900s) is a hilltop pueblo that bears many similarities to the pueblo at Wupatki. Whereas Wupatki was mainly a non-residential trading hub, Tuzigoot was … More Laura’s Journal: Tuzigoot National Monument
Thither & Yon 