Although I should have stayed home, done laundry, and packed for the weekend I ran down to UC to see my folks (who were not home). My sister and her nubbins were at my folks, so we grabbed dinner (after a very long wait) at the Purple Turtle.
Saturday:
A&B picked me up around 7:30, and after a quick breakfast stop in Lehi we were headed down south. We stopped in Cedar City to pick up the rental car (better to put miles on it) and B continued on to St. George. A & I made our way to Kolob Canyon (on the northern edge of Zions National Park) and purchased a National Parks Pass.
Let me say a word about the National Parks Pass...it is a total bargain at just $50 it covers entrance for everybody in the car with the pass holder to any and all federal fee areas. Just this trip alone paid for it, and it is valid for a year from the end of the month it was purchased.
Kolob Canyons has a 10-miles round trip scenic drive with pull-outs and view points all over the place, and (I've been told) is pretty much never crowded. From Kolob we drove to Springdale, had lunch at the Bumbleberry Inn, and caught the shuttle to the Zions visitor center. Cars are no longer allowed through the canyon, but they are allowed up to the Visitor Center. However, their parking lots generally fill up by 10:00 a.m. and the free shuttle is a pretty good way to go. Once at the Visitor Center, I flashed my pass and we were off to catch the shuttle through the canyon. The shuttle takes a not very spectacular route (you can see Angel's Landing *shiver*) and drops you off at not very spectacular trailheads. You have to hike to see anything of note. Some trails are relatively easy, some extremely difficult; regardless, come prepared with good shoes and lots of water!!
After a trip through the canyon, we headed back to town and stopped at Bumbleberry's for a slice of their famous pie. Yummy! A fairly quick trip to St. George brought us to A&B's house and a total collapse of exhaustion. Luckily, B grilled steaks before we completely collapsed.
Sunday:
We left the house around 9:00 a.m. for the 2½ drive from St. George to the Grand Canyon's North Rim. The quickest way is to travel over the Arizona border through the twin cities of Hilldale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona both of which have been in the news quite a bit as of late. They are the polygamous cities belonging to the FLDS church and their leader Warren Jeffs...a top 10 most wanted federal fugitive captured just days before our trip. We didn't see a soul in either city; no people, no animals, no movement what-so-ever, and they were both run-down, oppressive little towns.
We were also surprised by the Fredonia, Arizona Marshall just waiting to catch someone speeding through their tiny hamlet, but on closer inspection he turned out to be rather stiff. We nicknamed him Officer Stiff-y.
After the Grand Canyon-Lake Powell split the landscape becomes more and more forested and uninhabited. By the time we reached the Jacob's Lake turn-off the country store and inn was a very welcome site. Jacob's Lake sits in the Kaibob National Forest which borders the Grand Canyon.
At the North Rim entrance, I again flashed my pass and we drove straight through until we reached the lodge. Lots of trailheads and the little cabins that look exactly like life-size versions of the Lincoln Log cabins we would build as children. If they only had yellow chimney's I'd have sworn they were a giant's toy. We walked out to Bright Angel Point along a trail with no handrail and alternately up and downhill (both very, very steep), but the walk is fairly easy and the view is spectacular. We hung around marveling at the grandeur and then headed back home.
We stopped at Jacob's Lake for lunch, took pictures of Officer Stiff-y in Fredonia, and when we reached Pipe Springs National Monument on the Paiute Indian Reservation (entrance fee totally covered by the National Parks Pass) decided to stop. Let me say, I didn't think the "fort" was either interesting enough or well preserved enough to merit a special trip, but if you are so inclined to stop it won't kill you. The fort was built into the hillside on top of a spring that was flowed under the floor boards of the living room, underground across the courtyard, and into a trough in a room that served as the fridge for the milk and butter produced by the dairy farm. It was also set up to continue through a tiny door in the bottom of the wall, down the hill and into 2 big, man-made ponds just below the fort. Pretty cool set-up, except that about 6 years ago there was a very minor earthquake or other geological event (they aren't really sure) that caused the bedrock to shift just enough to cut off the spring. If it still existed the visit would have been much cooler!
Monday:
A very long drive back to Salt Lake with a stop at the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork,
and a BBQ with my folks where we reviewed the prints from our recent family picture photo-shoot. We picked out the best of the best (our photographer did a great! job), and ordered them all. I am getting pictures of the whole family (all 28 of us), the 4 sisters, and all 13 nubbins.
So, 3 days and 2 more places down...with another 4 places (all in Mexico) planned for the next couple of months
