Zion National Park

Our final stop and national park in Utah was Zion National Park, another sandstone wonder in the southwest of the state. We'd been to Zion before, briefly, and remember walking the trail up to where The Narrows hike, up the canyon, begins. (Rebecca and Rachel will remember Prime Minister Take-a-Leakie there). Little did I know how much The Narrows impressed Vicki then, but I was to learn  on this visit very shortly. Our first couple days in Zion we did the visitor center and gift shoppe, the museum and film, and a few short hikes, up to the Emerald Pools and back up The Narrows Trail to where the maintained trail ends...

Zion's basically a canyon or two or three above which rise the
remains of the usual sandstone mountains; none of the
mountains are big--few rise more than 1,500 feet above the
canyon floor, I would guess--but they are nonetheless unusually
picturesque, comparable in that regard to the Dolomites or the
Lofotens

Ditto

From the campground; Virgin River in foreground

More canyon, more mountains

More ditto

From the museum courtyard; most of the mountains were named
by Mormon pioneers and thus mostly have names from the Iron
Age Abrahamic religions; alas, I did not bother to learn any of
their names

One of the more interesting and beautiful arches...look down
the left-side ridge to where the angle lessens

Thus; don't see that kind of thing in the Tetons or Alps; or the
Himalayas

Another view, from near the campground

It's the evening alpenglow where things get really spectacular

Not enhanced at all; that's really what you see all over the
canyon; and I have never seen more people with big assault
cameras and tripods, lining up and down the highways and
pull-outs to get these shots; it's obviously a photographer's
wonderland

More peaks; the pinnacles here are mostly sandstone hoodoos

Vicki, about to walk through the water-fall from the Middle
Emerald Pool

Middle Emerald Pool

Sideways panoramic attempt
at capturing the Upper
Emerald Pool to the cliffs
way high above

Extremely ominous foreshadowing: the view up The Narrows
from where the established (paved) trail ends...Ringwaifs: this
was for me the Dimrill Dale...

Lottery Losers At The Wave

So probably the toughest ticket in the Southwest, or possibly the world, is The Wave, one of Nature's more extraordinary desert sandstone displays, the six mile hike to which is controlled and administered by the BLM. Such is its popularity. We had never heard of The Wave before, but, seeing some photographs in various places, we were hooked; totally. Of course, you need a wilderness permit, to be obtained at the BLM offices in Kanab. And what you discover, upon presenting yourself there for application, is that there is a Wave Lottery, conducted daily (including weekends and holidays), at 9AM, via which ten persons per day are permitted to make the journey. Part of our staying in Kanab an extra day or two was to enter the Wave Lottery for a Thursday hike.  

The Wave; off the web

Ditto; just Google/image Wave, Utah and you'll come up with lots more;
it's one of the landscape photographer's ultimate dreams

So we arrived extra early Wednesday morning, Veterans' Day, assuming punctuality
might carry some weight...Fortune favors the early bird...right?

So there were 77 contestants that Wednesday morning; here, the Lottery Goddess
is explaining the process, eligibility, the hike, the risks, etc; she was good...I have
never felt better informed and prepared...seriously

1/77 isn't bad, certainly better than Powerball; and I was feeling unusually optimistic

But it was not to be our day to visit The Wave

Maybe next spring, or fall, I'll post some pix like this of us hiking The Wave...

Kanab, Utah's Little Hollywood

The town of Kanab prides itself on being the epicenter of Utah's once-formidable Western film and TV industry. Beginning with Tom Mix in 1924 and then the big studios a few years later, Kanab saw a parade of some of the greatest stars and film-makers for half a century. Not a small part of all this was the entrepreneurship of the Parry brothers, who promoted the landscape and lore and who provided the lodge that would be production headquarters for countless movies and TV shows. Parry's Lodge is still there, and there is a free Museum of Little Hollywood (and Trading Post), but the main interest to us were the many plaques lining the main drag. For those of our vintage (and with an interest in both western and cinema history), it was a fun stroll, full of memories and a few discoveries.

It all started with this guy, but the big studios
were not far behind

Another of the Immortals

Did you know that the Rat Pack originally was
founded by Bogey and that the name was
bestowed by Lauren Bacall? Extra credit: name
a western in which Bogey played a supporting
character

OK, this would have been a Western in the 18th
century

Just a flesh wound; OK, so where is Cleavon
Little (of Blazing Saddles fame)?

North, east, south, or west, this guy was funny

Just passed away...into a Technicolor Heaven,
hopefully

Never played the bad guy...except in real life

Never played the bad guy...

Also a snake whisperer

Everyman's Everyman

She and Roy and Trigger were going through a
rough patch...

#1 TV Western

#1 movie cowboy; also never played a bad guy...

Outside the Little Hollywood Museum

Among the many sets at the Museum, this from The Outlaw
Josey Wales; made of styrofoam or somesuch, of course

Presumed origin of the Blazing Saddles
character; bonus question: who was the referent
of Mel Brooks' character, Governor William J.
Lepetomane?

Entrance to Parry's Lodge

Grand Canyon, North Rim

We first visited the Grand Canyon in 1970, on our first-ever cross-country road-trip. We took Rachel and Rebecca on spring break in 1992 and did the hike down to Phantom Ranch and back up. And Vicki took a group of high school students on the Phantom Ranch hike again a year or two later. But all this was from the south rim. We'd always wanted to see the north rim, but it was always an extra day or two's drive and not that high a priority on limited vacation time. Things are different now in our Golden Years, but winter was closing in, and we were fearful the next storm might be the one that closed down the road, Arizona 67, for the season. So we made straight away from Bryce toward the north rim...

Spending the night in a dispersed camping area in Kaibob
National Forest

Everything is closed, of course; well, oddly, the gift shoppe
was open, but not doing much business

But we were there

The closed visitor center

Vicki takes it all in from the lodge balcony

Side canyon

Now walking out to Bright Angel Point

Panning around, toward the Canyon

Thus

Us, there

Looking toward Phantom Ranch (middle, down, well out of
view)

More panning around

Ditto; the light was actually not all that great, looking down
into the depths, so we said good-bye, crossing another one off
our extensive bucket list; we did see one young couple
departing for the rim-to-rim hike; that may still be on our
list, particularly if Vicki's knees continue to hold up...but not
in the cold season

Descending the Kaibob Plateau toward Fredonia* and Kanab:
my own photo of the vermillion, chocolate, white, grey, and
pink cliffs, aka the Grand Staircase

*not Freedonia (look it up)