Day 12 – 3169 miles … Canyons, landscapes, roads and a marathon drive

A work colleague several years ago told me something that has stuck with me ever since and made a significant change in some of my outlooks. He explained to me that time could not be gotten back. No matter how much money, or how hard you try, once time is gone, it is gone. For me, this changed my outlook towards being on time for things and appreciating the time that I have. It also made time an incredibly valuable thing. Last night I went to bed thinking about the almost 1000 miles left in front of us, and the need to be at there at a specific time.

We wanted to see some of the signature canyons in Utah … more importantly, we wanted to see Bryce Canyon. Today, I got up at 545, packed up the site while everyone slept and slowly backed out, and headed onto the road … today was going to be a marathon driving day.

Our goal was Bryce canyon, but to be truthful, the drive to Bryce Canyon left a larger imprint than the destination. The destination in this case, acted like the perfect accent at the end of our daylight drive.

For the next 300+ miles we traversed many canyons, climbed several mountains and made it over a couple of passes. Our elevation never dropped beneath 6000ft and we had one pass at 10000ft. The landscape changed every couple of hours. This we all found unbelievable and at times surreal. We’d be in this scrub brush “flat” area, with bright red soil, make it over a pass and the next section had no vegetation and jagged rocks. We’d go down into a valley to find orchards of peaches, then climb out into what I can describe as grey dirt mountains. Come over a bend, and Lake Powell stood in the distance … weird to see the contrast of water in this setting.

We’d continue another hour and find ourselves in smooth mountains that had a purple hues to them. Cross another range and it was basically one giant yellow rock. We stopped countless times to take pictures and take in the views, let alone for me to rest my eyes. There was one section that was a stark contrast to our trip so far out here … beautiful Ponderosa pine and Aspen forests … truly weird when you put it in the context of our last  couple of days. We made one stop, that had ancient (and modern) petroglyphs. Hard to believe that someone carved their initials onto the cliff walls next to these 700 yr old drawings. I wonder if these ancient petroglyphs are not just examples of graffiti, and the elders of the time chastised those who “defaced” the rocks … hmmm

The road, in decent condition for the most part, had countless twists, climbs and descends. Our average speed through all of this was about 35mph, not bad considering. One section of the road truly stuck out. We’d been driving along a “flat” part, actually a mesa top, and you could see in the distance to the right a canyon … cool. A couple of minutes later, you could make out that the canyon on the right was getting closer, also cool. A few minutes later and you could make out a canyon on the left … very cool. A few more minutes and it became obvious that both these canyons met at a ridge … which happened to be the location that our road occupied. Not cool!

Now this section of the road is called Hogsback, it runs on ridge between 2 canyons and descend at a 14% grade for about 4 miles. As we approach this, the road, on the ridge, is the ridge … so, visualize this … 2 lane road, no shoulders, twisting downwards with several hundred ft drop off on either side. As I see this several things go through my mind …. 1. What civil engineering idiot designed this road? 2. Who was this built for? 3. Now what do I do? … my mind was filled with countless movie scenes of cars driving off cliffs … none of which ended well for the passengers.

I pull over to the scenic overlook … so that I could survey the final resting place of the Alonso RV Adventure. I get out and start taking some pictures, trying to ignore the road ahead. I think to myself … that this should not be called Hogsback, but Sphincter Ridge and this outlook should be called Anxiety point.

I muster my confidence and step back inside … I put on my seat belt, not that it would make a shred of difference, we put a movie on for the girls (so they’d be occupied), Michelle explains to them that daddy needs to concentrate and I set off. Michelle looks at me and says, “Stay on the road.” … hmmm … then she adds, “If we go off, it’ll be bad.” …. hmmm … followed by, “drive slow.” … hmmm … 1. Not a needed comment, 2. Didn’t she think I got the gravity of it, 3. Where was the confidence in me, 4. What the heck … here we go.

I descend at a blistering pace of 10 mph, the 15 minutes it takes us, felt like an hour … I saw nothing of the views :) I heard Genna say a couple of times “beautiful” … quickly followed by someone saying “shhhh.” … for the entire descent, I had the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse music playing behind my ears … We got to the bottom, once again cursed the engineer that drew this road and continued on our way. To be fair, the road wasn’t all that bad, and the views, for those who looked over the side would have been unbelievable. The road is/was a true engineering challenge.

We continue on our way, making Bryce Canyon by 4P. We drove the last 2 hrs to Bryce in the rain. On one pass, we could see that it had hailed recently and this kids got out to touch the white stuff. The temperature outside was about 40F. We go to the visitor center, get our booklets for the Junior Ranger program, and find out that this park requires that the junior rangers attend a guided walk, last one at 5P … perfect, we made it on time.

Bryce … is … spectacular. Another park that we plan on spending more time in for a future adventure. The only unfortunate part of such a beautiful place, is  that there are countless (and I mean thousands) of people everywhere … on the plus side, it was late, so the crowds had thinned … but still, to many people, making too much noise, doing the wrong things … which took away from the place. Our next visit, we will come up here very early in the morning, trying to beat the crowd.

Bryce is not a canyon, as it doesn’t have a river flowing at its base. It is, as the ranger explained the weathering of a ridge.  But calling it “The weathering of Bryce Ridge” would be too wordy and not very sexy.  As the girls listened to the talk, Jack and I wandered around the rim of the ridge watching people. I continue to be amazed by the stupidity of some … just when I think it can’t get any worse … it does.

The geology at Bryce is that of very loose rock and soil. Which makes the entire area “slippery” to walk on. From the top rim of the ridge to the floor below is several hundred feet. The rim is well marked, with lots of railings, fences and posted signs. The trails heading into the “canyon” are very well maintained, and heavily posted warning everywhere. The postings (I will paraphrase) … you are very high above 8000ft elevation, the ground is loose, you need to be in good shape to hike, you need good hiking shoes with ankle support and treads for traction. There isn’t one of these signs, there are dozens. The other signs say … stay behind the fences and barriers … as they mark the edge where you will fall.

  I (and Jack) watched countless people in flip-flops and deck shoes climb over the barriers, walk to the edge, on loose gravel for their photo opportunity … while I want to see no one harmed, I found myself willing them to slip … ugh … As we watched more of the “prepared” hikers descend into the canyon in their beach attire and footwear, we saw a ranger team bringing someone out on a stretcher. I walked to the nearby ranger who explained that the person had fallen and twisted their ankle. This happens 3-4 times a week, in peak season daily. They have 2-3 serious injuries a year and have had 3 deaths in the last 18 yrs.

To bring someone out of the canyon requires 8 rangers. One in front leading the way and getting people to stand aside. One at the head of the stretcher to steer (the stretcher has a single large bicycle wheel in the middle of it), one at the rear of the stretcher to act as the brake, and 4 on the sides to do the balancing and provide the power. There is an 8th person at the  end of the group who caries much of the medical equipment. As I watched them extricate the obese woman, I noticed a very pretty pair of flats that she was wearing … this is a “free” service that the park provides, no medical insurance needed … I asked how many real hikers they rescue … he said none in the 8 yrs he’s worked there … anyways … sorry for the tangent, this kind of stuff really bothers me.

We girls completed the 1hr tour, got their booklets signed off and then handed them in at the visitor center. We left Bryce at 8P heading towards Las Vegas, as we had to make some time, as our timed commitment was coming up. We stop for a steak dinner (which I was craving), converted the RV to sleep mode and set off around 930P.

From Bryce, you drive a nice highway south west, but at some point have to cross a range to get to Interstate 15, which leads into Las Vegas. Kate was my navigator, she sat up front and we had a great talk as we ticked off miles. Michelle, who was putting Jack down (I think sleeping), told us to follow this road until Highway 24 then turn right until we got to the interstate. Well, we got our turn-off, made the right turn (now around 1030P) and started seeing some interesting signs … “Winding Road next 15 miles, drive with caution” … “14% grade next 8 miles” … “Tractor trailers not recommended” … “Pass elevation at 11000ft” … “Snow chains required Nov 1 to Apr 1” … "Turnaround here” … yep, we turned around.

Our turnaround brings Michelle to the front (wakes her I figure) … she and Kate look at the map and we have only one option to head west, which is the road that goes through Zion National Park. Kate heads up to sleep and Michelle and I turn onto the Zion road around 12P. Now this road had no signs, except … “no commercial traffic” and “pay park fees” … Ok … not as scary as the last road.

But … If a National Park is there because of canyons or mountains … the road in and out of the park, especially one that traverses the park … will be … steep, small and winding … and it was. Luckily, unlike “Sphincter” Ridge … it was really dark and I couldn’t see what was on the sides … I will tell you that we had dozens of switchbacks, one tunnel cut into the rock and one that had multiple curves and was over 2 miles long. The entire drive was downhill, 15 miles … just over 1 hr.

We finally get off the mountain and end up in Hurricane, UT at a Wal-Mart for the night… started driving at 6A, stopped at 2A.