2022 April Trip Out West

April 4
Travel Day. We loaded our two huge suitcases, each filled half with items for our river adventure and half with clothes for the other three weeks of our trip, into the car and headed to the airport. The man driving the shuttle from our parking spot lifted those two 50 bags like they were light weight. After checking the bags we headed to our gate. The airport was quiet this Monday morning which made security flow very fast. We fly to Charlotte and have a long walk to our connecting gate. Seems to be a theme with our travel. We get to the gate with 15 minutes to spare before loading onto a large jet that will take us to Las Vegas. Thanks to a three hour time change we land in Vegas about 5 pm and collect our bags. After getting the car rental paperwork completed Dean decides to take the huge suitcase down an escalator. Bad idea. He fell onto the suitcase and smashed/stoved two fingers. I’ve been concerned about the healing on my wrist, which has gone pretty well, and now he is the one with an injured hand. We got to the car and loaded the suitcases in and headed to a grocery to pick up some breakfast and snack supplies. Driving to the Club 36 condo a block off the Vegas strip was pretty easy. We get into our condo and unpack. Dinner was late, about 8:30 pm which was 11:30 according to our bodies. IT was a restaurant one of the women at checkout recommended in an out of the way casino. Seems all casinos have multiple restaurants here and they are all extremely busy. Dinner was simple food but was filling and hit the spot. It was a long, successful travel day thanks to the help of a lot of kind folks working in the industry.

April 5
Relaxing day to explore Vegas
We relaxed in the morning and late morning set out on foot to explore Las Vegas. It was about 85 degrees all afternoon which was warm while walking outside, but was comfortable in the shade. You don’t realize how huge each of the hotels are with their casinos, many restaurants, shopping areas and theaters. By the time we arrived back at the condo about 6 hours later we had walked 10 miles. The Vegas strip is very clean with beautiful/crazy/over the top decadent hotels. Each was unique and each was a maze inside. The MGM Grand is grand but the one person who made a difference in my day was the woman who had the fun job of mopping one of the women’s restrooms when two toilets overflowed. She was so concerned that someone would slip and ruin their vacation that she personally helped each woman around the slippery floor and stood guard over the area until a maintenance person arrived to fix the situation.
You can find people gambling 24/7 and we were surprised that many casinos allow smoking inside. This was an unpleasant surprise to my asthma. The only typical Vegas folks, other than the homeless, that we saw outside were the show girls looking to make money by having their picture taken with you. But, there were numerous places that were wonderful surprises. The Bellagio not only has an amazing fountain the size of a couple of football fields, but has a magical botanical conservatory full of live plants and colorful oversized modes of transportation and flowers and birds. It was fun for young and

old. The Flamingo had a wild life habitat filled with many kinds of birds, fish and turtles that was a very relaxing place to visit. The Wynn has a huge pool/fountain with a waterfall and in the evening the light show is pretty amazing. There were a couple of aquariums and many gardens to visit. One garden’s roses were so fragrant that they pulled you into the space. After a long rest we enjoyed watching the evening light show while having a drink and appetizer and had a late dinner at the Allegro Italian restaurant in the Wynn. The food was delicious and filling. We took some leftovers home for breakfast.

April 6
Death Valley
Today we drove early to Death Valley and hiked an area in the morning while the temperatures were still comfortable. By the time we got to the ranger station to get information the temperature was 90 and by the time we hade explored two areas and returned to refill our water bottles the temperature was 95. The rest of the afternoon, the temperatures were surprisingly brutal. Death Valley is aptly named due to its brutal heat and lack of vegetation in much of the park. Oh, and it is mostly brown dirt. It looked very much like a dried out dirt pile with mountains of dirt all around valleys. There is an area of sand dunes that was fun to explore. They even had a few hardy shrubs and small, white lizards.

There are large patches of white mineral in certain areas of the park. One of the white minerals is borax and this is where the original 20 mule team borax company was set up in the late 1800’s. A processing “plant” was in operation for 5 years but was abandoned once the company found deposits in another area of California that had much milder
climate. The borax won’t precipitate out of solution unless it is under 120 degrees so a good portion of the year the mineral could not be processed. The other white mineral is sodium chloride, table salt. It is found in the lowest flat areas of the park. One large area is Badwater Basin which is the lowest point in North America, 252 feet below sea
level. Sea level markers were seen on the road as we drove but the oddest marker was in this basin. Way up on a hill side was a sign that read “sea level”.

We hike very brown dirt, dead looking areas. It can get quite depressing in this part of the world with everything looking so dead and colorless. We both commented that it would be a perfect movie set for many of the sci fi movies. By the end of the day we were covered in dust and a coating of salt. One surprising area is called Artists Drive because a number of colorful minerals are ‘painted’ on areas of mountains. Greens, blues, reds and gold. They stand out as much as the bright white of borax and table salt do in certain areas. We found a couple of hardy birds, a raven and a small blue/grey bird. We also saw brown lizards and white lizards. Every once in a while we found a small flower. One was bright orange. One kind of shrub is filled with tiny yellow blossoms that five way to tiny white fuzzy ends that look like tiny pussy willows.

After hiking for hours until the sun started setting we hoped to see a sheep but did
not. During the day we filled up the gas tank of the car in the park. California gas prices are shocking! $8.09/gal for regular. One hour east of this station back in Nevada the gas was $ 4.89/gal. Still high but much more acceptable than California. We stopped at a Denny’s for dinner. Hadn’t seen one of these restaurants in a long time. It was a quiet place to have dinner. There was one waiter and he was working hard! Felt sorry for the guy but he was so friendly and helpful. Hope he got a lot of good tips.

April 7
Hoover Dam and Lake Mead

We spent the morning learning about and experiencing the Hoover Dam. It was interesting to learn how this huge dam was built in the 1930’s in 5 years, why it was built (control flooding, provide water for agriculture, provide water for millions of people in the south west and provide energy) and how it operates. Our guide was not only interesting but funny so he made a technical tour fun. We walked across the dam and enjoyed the amazing views of Lake Mead and the large bridge. We walked across the bridge and marveled at the dam. It was very much worth the trip to one of the only government projects that paid for itself and is costing $0 for the running and upkeep due to the value of energy

produced. Due to Dean always wearing a Purdue ball cap we met a family from Indiana who were excited to talk to fellow midwesterners. It is nice to chat to folks far from home with a little in common with us.

We want to spend a couple of days enjoying Lake Mead national Recreation area. The lake is down a lot because it is fed mainly from snow melt in the Rockies. There has been a severe drought in the western part of the country so the source of water is down. Also the population in the southwest has grown so need for water is up. Consequently, the dam is diverting 10% less water this year for the first time and is using less water for energy as there are other sources available.
We found our way to one of the marinas and had lunch. The dock was full of water fowl and the water was full of huge fish and water towel. They have at least 4 kinds of ducks which are quite different looking and fun to watch. There are sea gulls ( Dean said they must be lost), hawks and tiny birds that are hiding from the hawks. There are several kinds of lizards, the ring neck ones are the only ones that I can identify.

We decided to hike Owl canyon. It is a dried out canyon that we were told is able to be hiked because the drought lowered the water level so much. Owl canyon had a cracked earth bed with lots of rocks and numerous shells that look like clam shells. The walls of the canyon are the typical brown dirt of the Mohave desert but every once in a while we find granite or sand stone. It is very hot so we only hike a few miles and then head home. We met a family with a 4 year old boy and a baby in a carrier. They were very friendly and much braver than we would have been to take small children into a hot desert. They were all doing well when we met them as they got close to exiting the canyon.

After a rest and washing off today’s layer of dust we headed out for our fanciest dinner so far on this trip. We enjoyed an hour at the bar by the pool that has light shows every half hour. Tonight we discovered there are 7 different shows. By the end of the evening we had seen 5. They were very different and lots of fun. The restaurant was also on this pool of water. It was very nice with delicious food. About 11 pm we finished dinner and welcomed another night sleep.

April 8
Lake Mead
Today was a rest day. We had a relaxing morning and enjoyed a 90 minute boat ride on Lake Mead on a stern wheeler. It was a relaxing ride around the lake and got us to a very colorful canyon and the Black Canyon where Hoover Dam sits. We had a great view of the front side of the dam and the bridge. We learned about the geology around the lake. The white ‘layer’ is the ancient desert that is now white sand stone. The very dark layer is from the ancient volcano that blew and covered the sand. Black canyon is beautiful and we enjoyed the flying large birds, hawks we think, and many ducks and other water fowl. We even saw sea gulls and wondered how they got so far off course from the sea. After the boat ride, which was much more gentle than our upcoming rafting ride up stream, we headed to Boulder City. Boulder City, according to our tour guide, was the first planned community. It was built to house the folks who built Hoover Dam and then those who work at the dam and hydroelectric plant. It is a nice town filled with stucco homes with red tile roofs. We enjoyed a late lunch at a local pub/restaurant and returned to Vegas.
We wanted to walk around Vegas at night so we headed out and found a parking place in a garage off the strip as this place is busy! The streets are packed with people. We enjoyed the nightly shows of beautiful fountains and a volcano and decided we had enough of the huge crowds, the people hawking items, themselves, and the constant smell of pot. If this is what a state with legalized marijuana smells like on a Friday evening, we decided we are too old to enjoy the evenings. We headed back to our condo and tried to find a restaurant open after 9:30 off the strip. Not much luck, so we ended up with subway sandwiches and headed to the condo for a late meal.

April 9
Las Vegas
A second full day in Las Vegas. And it was hot again, high in low 90’s. We aren’t gamblers but Dean did place and loose one bet just to say he gambled here. The city is packed. It is Saturday and we noticed the cars rolling in last night. Lots of folks must come for the weekends. There are two huge concerts so the place is crawling with young adults. In the morning and afternoon we walked around and explored 5 more resorts. They are all so huge that you can walk 10 minutes in front of one in order to make it past on the
sidewalk. Each resort has a specific theme. A couple feel like you are in Disney but MGM owns them so this makes sense. Each resort has a huge casino in the center and it feels like a maze trying to find restaurants, the shopping malls or theaters. You can easily get a lot of miles in walking around this place. We feel that we have seen quite enough of Vegas to last us a lifetime. It has been a great base to see Death Valley and Lake Mead area which was our intent and spending 2 full days in Vegas and a number of evenings has been fun and plenty. There are enough restaurants here that you could eat out every night, and it would take months to work your way through all the restaurants, this doesn’t include the food courts or fast food places. We stopped in The Rainforest Café for lunch and enjoyed the various animal animatronics and enjoyed watching the kids have fun there. Late afternoon was filled with laundry and packing as it will soon be time to move on. Then had a nice dinner followed by a comedy show by Carrot Top. He was hilarious and gave equal opportunity at making fun of everything from politics to Vegas to current events. His comedy is definitely for adults and he had the room laughing for the entire show. He builds props for sight gags and has moved to digital gags, too. After the show we found a quiet bar in the hotel that smelled the least like smoke and enjoyed a drink before heading back to the condo.

April 10.
Today the temperature dropped 20 degrees with the high only being in the low/mid 70’s so we enjoyed a long day hiking in the Lake Mead park. There is a 7 mile trail that follows the old railroad track used during construction of the dam. There were 5 large tunnels cut out of the rock to carry concrete and other materials to the site. Because the ground was relatively flat, it was Sunday and temperatures were comfortable, there were lots of hikers and bikers along the trail. We talked with several people. One couple in their 70’s were biking. They pulled a wine bottle out of the saddle bag, sat down at our picnic table and shared the bottle. This was a first for us on a National Park Trail. They were very friendly and interesting to talk to while we downed our water and energy bars. Our “lunch” was healthier but they may have enjoyed theirs more.
We found a trail about 30 miles north of the areas we had been exploring and found ourselves in the middle of a mountain range. Since all the hills here are quite old they are not very tall compared to the Rockies but they have beautiful rock formations (almost no live plants) and many different shades of white, brown and red stone. We hiked to the top of one hill and the view was breathtaking. It is a hint of what we will be seeing in the Grand Canyon and the Utah National Parks.

After a long day of hiking, we came home and had dinner at a restaurant near our condo. The restaurants here a couple of blocks off the strip are not very buy so it was easy to get a table and enjoy a meal before heading back to pack. Tomorrow we head to Marble Canyon where we will start our rafting trip on Tuesday.

April 11
We drove from Las Vegas to Marble Canyon on the Grand Canyon north side today. The landscape changed from desert with little to no plants to desert with various small shrubs, to dry land with shrubs, small trees and some grass, to Ponderosa Pine forest and back to small shrubs in desert. We saw vast plains and many shapes and colors of
mountains. No matter where we were it looked like land that would be very challenging to live in but it is fascinating to visit. To make the day more interesting there is a wind storm that stretched our whole trip. By the time we got halfway large dust storms would pop
up. A couple of times when we stopped to enjoy the view we were pelted with sand that stung. It is evening and the wind outside is howling. It is blowing about 25-35 miles/hr and when a really strong wind comes up so does the sand/dirt/small stones. We are staying in a small hotel run by a Navaho family. This land in this area of the country belongs to the tribe. The room has some very old, interesting furniture and a Navaho blanket on the
bed. It feels like we are in the west.
We were going to hike today but gave up due to the wind/dust storm. But, we did walk across the Navaho bridge that crosses the Colorado River. It was the first bridge built in this part of the country and greatly helped with commerce and travel. The gorge that the river cut is deep and wide so this is an impressive bridge. It is actually two bridges, one for foot traffic and one for vehicles. We drove up river a bit and found our rafts and talked with the crew who were preparing the boats for our trip. It is predicted to be cold the first two days so we talked about all the layers and trying to keep dry.

We had dinner at the only restaurant which is part of the hotel. The food was good. We each had a taco salad on Navaho flat bread. I talked with our waitress about the flat bread as it was yummy. She told me exactly how they make it. I may have to try this at
home. The restaurant was full of river guides and people planning on getting on the river tomorrow. It was fun listening to the guides talk about their favorite rapids, craziest rapids, what they would do in a kayak vs. a raft. After taking our last shower for the next week, we double checked our bags and clothes to wear tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a big day.

As part of our 2022 trip out west to visit several National Parks, we spent a week rafting down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Several of our friends from a the “wine group” are on this part of trip and it was a wonderful adventure.

For a quick overview of the trip down the river check out video below.

April 12
Over night the wind gusted to 60 mph all through the night. We woke this morning to a much cooler day, 45 degrees, and the wind is down to 15 mph. Today everyone hit the restaurant at 6:30 am with everyone else in the area. One poor waitress got to serve us all. Our breakfast arrived at 7:15 and we were to meet our group at 7:30. Due to the wind, the group coming from Vegas from didn’t arrive until 8:30 so we had time to eat our a good breakfast. Two small planes made impressive landings on the tiny airstrip. We all went to the rafts, had orientation packed the two rafts and started down the river. The canyon is deep and beautiful. We are told it will get higher as we travel. We stopped for lunch and discovered that we will be eating very well this week. The four guides, Scotty, Justin Ben and Reese set up a large spread for us. We traveled a couple more hours and saw condors, ravens, and hundreds of mud wrens as we traveled. We also saw a long horn sheep family. The two babies were very cute.
It was cold all day with lightly blowing wind, but it was sunny. We arrived at our first overnight beech. We unloaded all equipment, learned to set up our tents, and had an amazing dinner. We have an appetizer, salad and main course and desert each
night. Tonight’s was delicious homemade spaghetti. By the time we cleaned up dinner it was getting dark (about 8 pm) One thing we are learning is that the sand that is along the Colorado gets into and on everything. Tonight we changed clothes out of our wet clothes into warm clothes for the evening. It didn’t take long for everything to have a coat of sand, clothes, tent and inside bags. One of the challenges to living on the river in a national park is that you pee in the river and your bm is in a special toilet that gets carried out of the park. All waste is also carried out. So, we are very careful not to leave anything behind and to pick up something if we see it.
It is a very cold evening when we crawl into our sleeping bags. All tents are very close to each other and we had three different snoring men close to us. Made for a rather unrestful evening

April 13
It is very cold this morning as the bugle calls to tell us coffee and hot water for tea and cocoa are ready and it is time to get up. We roll out of bed, change, tear down our tents and cots and pack our waterproof duffle bag and our day pack. No one is too thrilled to the possibility to get wet in the very cold river but we head off. The raft has three zones. The front zone is where you get the most fun ride and get soaked, the next level is where you don’t get as wet and ride on seats, and the third zone is farther back and is the quietist and driest, although you will get splashed no matter where you sit. Today, everyone sits in the back two zones. We head out and encounter a number of rapids in the first ten miles. We see several other groups riding the river, all in smaller rafts that they are paddling. Those trips take two weeks instead of the one week we will be on the river. No one in our group seemed too excited about the possibility of taking that trip. The sun was bright and the wind was much lower today. We moved farther into the canyon and the rock formations were different and interesting and were getting higher. We will drop about 1700 feet as we go through the canyon and the canyon is getting wider and the walls are getting

higher. We passed a place where cliff dwellers lived and learned a bit about their nomadic life and how they lived and protected their food from others in the holes in the wall. We saw lots of ravens today. We were warned that they are smart scavengers and will open your bags and try and steal shiny items and food. They descended on our camp site as we moved out. One new bird to day was a blue heron and we saw deer drinking from the river. We stopped and took a hike to a cave and one to an old ship reck and learned about the life of the folks who explored the river in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. It did get to about 60 this afternoon which was quite comfortable. When we set up camp for the evening lots of folks were washing in the very cold river and washing clothes, including us. It is Kris’s birthday so we had kind of a private dinner and then took her to the large group for a birthday cake. She was surprised and felt very loved. This is exactly what we hoped for. At dark, most people headed to their tents. Morning will come early.

April 14
Today we are up at 5:30 as the bugle blew to let us know it was time to get up and the coffee and hot water were ready. We had breakfast of blueberry pancakes and sausages, closed up camp quickly and started down the river for a long day. The dam up river let out some water overnight and the guides wanted us to go through a long series of rapids on high water. We did just that. We went through small, medium and large rapids and moved 60 miles down the river today. The large 9-10 level rapids had us doing roller coaster rides into deep holes and up again. Some of the rapids had holes so deep that we were thrown off out seats, multiple times. The strength of the water is frightening and awesome. There were a couple of injuries today. One guide was hurt while trying to save some women from falling off and getting hurt. One woman hurt her hand while trying to hold on. By evening both had swollen, colorful, body parts.
We were soaked many times today. We were all so wet at lunch time that everyone pulled off layers of clothes to let them dry in the sun. The afternoon had even more large
rapids. We passed many different types of geological formations today, saw more animals and birds, and saw some desert plants. There are several yellow flowers in bloom and some of the succulents are in bloom. We traveled about 1/3 of our distance today to get through some of the biggest rapids and to give us time tomorrow to do some fun hiking. Again the food was amazing with make your own sandwich for lunch and Mexican dinner. It is mild and warmer today and everyone enjoyed time sitting near the water listening to each other’s stories and the rapids flowing in the river. Later in the evening a guitar came out and one passager who makes guitars played while a guide played a keyboard. Who would have thought that we would end the day with beautiful music?

April 15
It is getting warmer every day. We woke this morning and it wasn’t cold to get out of our sleeping bags. After another hardy breakfast we headed off for a group of big rapids. The large rapids, level 8-10, feel like a bucking bronco. We have learned how to place our hands so that we can brace ourselves without hurting our wrists. We are getting plenty of practice as we go down the river. One stop today gave us a chance to hike to a
waterfall. All hikes include climbing/walking along large rocks. Hidden in a cove was a waterfall and swimming hole. The more adventurous jumped off the top of the waterfall into the ice cold water. After lunch we stopped for a hike in a long slot canyon. At the very back of the canyon was a small waterfall. The colors on the many layers in the curvy rock were gorgeous. Half way through the hike back two of our guides pulled out guitars and sang songs that one had written. They were all about rafting or the canyon. Some were funny and some were serious and quiet. We stopped a little early tonight and got to enjoy a long evening on the beach. We all swam/got cleaned up in the cold river as it is now about 85 degrees in the afternoon. It was a restful evening and tonight we decided to sleep under the stars. It was fun to watch the moon slowly come over the canyon. Stars started to disappear as the full moon put out so much light that it was like twilight. It started shining in my eyes so I turned over and put a sheet over my head. Everyone who got up in the middle of the night to us the portable potty said that no light was needed.

April 16.
This morning was the first one that I didn’t want to get up when the first bugle called. I was sound asleep. We had to wake up Kris as she was really enjoying sleeping outside. We had fruit, French toast and pork chops for breakfast. Breakfasts are filling but they say we will use up the calories. They make something they refer to as cowboy coffee. They have a huge metal pitcher that they dump coffee grounds in and fill with boiling water. They then have a funnel with a coffee filter that keeps some of the grounds out. Dean says it grows hair on your chest. I brought tea bags and enjoy a civilized cup of tea each morning. Today we start out with a series of big rapids. We are getting pretty good at these. There are 5-6 groups rafting this week. One group is rowing, yep rowing and their ride will take two weeks. We heard from another guide that a raft got caught on a rock yesterday in the first rapids we went through. They had to be rescued and were so worn out that the one company let them join them on their beach. Every afternoon it is a scramble to see which tour group gets to stay on which beach.
Our first stop is a two hour hike to a waterfall and then up the cliff above the waterfall to an oasis hidden up in a canyon. It was one of the most challenging hikes we hav had in a long time. It had everything, climbing rocks, slippery sand, skinny ledges, beautiful canyon and lots of water. There were a couple of minor injuries as people hit their heads on
rocks. After we returned we boated a short distance to a plane to stop for lunch. The wind had picked up a lot and one raft ran into the other one as we landed. One woman had a foot hanging over the edge and her heal was injured with a huge slash. All the guides are EMT’s and we had a couple of doctors and lots of nurses so they got her bandaged up enough to get her out of the canyon in a couple of days where she will need to get some stitches. She is a trooper but her two sons were pretty sad seeing Mom injured. Dad did his best to make them feel better. The youngest elated on the pile of bags behind her until Dad convinced him to get some lunch.
After lunch we road a few more miles down the beach and then found a place to stop for the evening. It is blowing like crazy and setting up tents felt like flying kites, but we got them all up and then relaxed in the water and on the beach. Tonight we had lots of time to relax. We watched our guides making dinner with Kris acting as commentator as you would hear on a cooking show. Since the desert was flaming bananas jubilee, this seemed appropriate. Due to the wind blowing so hard we slept in a tent again tonight. The moon is so light here that it seems like a light shining in your eyes. It is actually darker when we wake up and the moon is behind the hills than in the middle of the night when the moon is high in the school.

April 17
We woke to a beautiful morning. This our last full day on the river. We had a “typical” breakfast for us. Yogurt, bagels, cereal and fruit. After we tore down camp and loaded it all on the rafts we headed out for a very active river day. After two hours of rapids and smooth river ride we stop to hike to a waterfall. Today we stop in the middle of a rapids and tied off on a rocky cliff. We climbed up and down and up and down lots of rocks though a canyon with a river, lots of waterfalls and plants. It was quite the oasis! We had a couple of hours to explore and enjoy the water. We spent part of the time finding lizards and butterflies and interesting plants. In the afternoon we hit the only 10 rapid on the
trip. Dean road the front porch and Sue was right behind. Shortly after the big rapid Ben found a great spot for our evening camp. We unloaded the rafts, set up camp and had some time to clean up and rest. Tonight our small group is sleeping under the stars, so we only needed to set up cots and one tent for changing. By now we have all managed to walk in on someone relieving themselves or changing so some don’t even bother to put up a tent for changing. When the bugle blows for appetizers, the guides show up dressed in formal attire. Some may have black shorts rather than long pants, but they do look quite dressed up. They had each of us a shrimp cocktail with a lot more shrimp than you often get at a restaurant. By dinner time we are all lined up watching the cooking action. Our last supper is New York strip steaks cooked to order, salad, mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. To top it off they made cake in the Dutch ovens. We learned about how we would leave tomorrow and went to bed at dark and watched the sky full of stars as we drifted to sleep.

April 18
Today is the last day of our adventure. We are up at 5:30 as usual to Scotty’s bugle. First call is for coffee and hot drinks. Since we all slept out under the stars, taking down the camp went pretty quickly today. We all found our way to the river to relieve ourselves, or to our large cups or to the ports potty if you only needed to have a bowl movement. Who knew that a typical morning routine could be so complicated when you were to leave nothing behind when you leave a place. Breakfast bugle revealed eggs Benedict for our final breakfast. They have fed us quite well!
We load all the gear on the boat with some changes. Another group is getting on the raft when we leave. Somewhere in the bowels of the rafts are clean sleeping bags, sheets, etc. We help take the dirty stuff to a holding area and set up the new bags for the new folks. Then we ride several miles down river to a helipad in the canyon. It is so small we didn’t believe it was a pad until we climbed off the rafts with our duffles. We and our luggage were weighed and we were told who was riding the chopper and where to sit.

First group was those of us going to Marble Canyon. We had an amazing ride over the canyon to Circle 10 Ranch where we took hot showers and had access to real bathrooms before enjoying a sandwich bar.

An interesting sign in the men’s restroom at Bar 10 Ranch was “Wash your hands as if you were eating jalapenos and are now changing your contacts”.

It took six rounds to get everyone to the
ranch. As we watched our friends land and come in we were told that it was time to board our Grand Canyon airline plane and fly back to Marble Canyon. 5 of us and the pilot loaded a plane that could take 11 people. We road up the canyon for about a half hour watching the terrain change from above. It was surprising to see small patches of snow still on the Northern rim as we passed it. 85 degrees on the southern rim and still cold on the northern. Marble Canyon was about 80 when we landed at 11:30 am. It was hard to believe that we had torn down camp, had breakfast, loaded the rafts, rafted 3 miles, rode a helicopter, gotten a shower and lunch at a ranch, and rode a plane for 30 minutes and it wasn’t even noon! We relaxed a bit at the restaurant with some iced tea for Sue and a milk shake for Dean. Then we went hiking for a couple of hours in the Vermilion Canyon. First hike had lots of hills and it was getting hot so we decided to try a slot canyon. It was cooler but after a mile required hiking through some pretty disgusting looking standing, green, slimy water. We looked at each other and said “no” at the same time. So we turned around and walked back to the car and checked into the hotel, did some laundry and organized the chaos in our bags. After a relaxing dinner Dean announce that it was 8:30 and time for bed. Guess he liked the early to bed and early to rise routine.

Check out this link for some clips of flight out of the Grand Canyon.

April 19
Today is something I have been looking forward to. We will hike Antelope Canyon on the Navajo land. We enjoyed a slow breakfast and caught up on some of the communications that we lacked while rafting. Our trip got moved from 10:30-11:45 and from one tour group to another. Also, we were warned that time on the reservation can be off Mountain time by an hour. So we headed to Antelope Canyon early. At first neither tour company could find our reservation. After talking with the Viator person who changed our reservation we had a ticket and went back to Dixie’s tour building and they found our reservation. Tours on native land can only be given by the couple of native tour companies. By the time our tour was to start the wind began blowing hard, again. The tour went on even though sand was pelting everyone. We were required to wear face masks and most people had hats and sun glasses on so heads were pretty well covered. The guide said there have been as many wind storms this year as in 3 typical years combined. They also had a large rain storm that gave them a typical years worth of rain (2 inches) so the plants were blooming and it has been an extra pretty spring.
Antelope Canyon is an underground canyon so after a short walk we headed underground to a red sandstone cave that had curve after curve after curve carved by water. It was as beautiful as I had imagined. Our guide not only told us about the history and culture of the Navajo in this region but he is a very good photographer and showed us how to take some amazing pictures with our phones. He would take each person’s phone, set up the settings on the camera and take specific pictures. Then we would try the
technique. About 90 minutes later we emerged from the underground canyon. It had been an amazing tour.
We headed into the small town of Page in search of a restaurant. Our first choice was closed but the second choice was a hopping spot. We enjoyed our lunch outside on picnic tables at the restaurant and then wanted to drive to Lake Powell. One thing that we noticed in town was that there were 9 different churches and a seminary on one road. I don’t know if I have ever seen so many churches in a row anywhere. Dean said it would be easy to try out a new church if you tired of the one you attended.
Lake Powell is down 178 inches due to the severe drought. It looked even sadder than Lake Mead. It is a rather long skinny lake with some islands. It now looks more like the rivers that originally existed before the Glen Canyon dam was installed. We went to Antelope Point on the reservation and the long ramp that once led to the lake is now closed off because it no longer reaches the water. There was a small marina in a skinny river now. There were more large houseboats sitting in a huge “parking lot”. Not sure if they had to come out of the lake as it receded or if they always are out in the winter. They really looked out of place. We road to the dam and walked the bridge near the dam to enjoy the view of the dam. We drove around the western side and saw the one marina still operating on this part of the lake. It had a decent number of boats in the water but the water had receded quite a bit so the available space to enjoy ones boat has greatly shrunk. The wind was still blowing hard which made holding a camera or phone still while taking a picture quite challenging. There are no trails at this end of Glen Canyon so we mostly road around and got out to walk short distances as we observed the lake.

We found a bbq restaurant for dinner and enjoyed our meals. The meat was very tender and smoky with several choices of sauce. After dinner we came back to the hotel and organized our bags a bit more to be ready to leave tomorrow for the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

April 20
Jessie’s birthday and our day at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. We woke up early as usual and drove to the South rim of the Grand Canyon. We arrived at a desert walk area about 9:30 am and we’re greeted by a family of mule deers. They stared at us for a minute when we got close and continued to munch on the grass. The young deer hid but the two adults didn’t seem to mind us. A little farther down the road we spotted the first of a number of elk sightings. They didn’t consider us worth noticing as they munched the little green plants they could find in this arid region. The most plentiful, and dangerous according to the park service, are the squirrels. They come up and beg. As cute as they are they also bite. So we took pictures and kept our distance. We walked to the rim for our first look at the Grand Canyon from this vantage point. We stopped at a couple more lookout points on our way to the visitor center. The closer we got to the main tourist area the more we realized that there were a lot of people here. The first three parking lots that we tried were full. Finally we found a spot near the geology museum. We walked east on the rim to the visitor center about a mile away enjoying the awesome view. To our surprise the visitor center was closed. So, we went back to the rim trail and walked west to the village. It was about a two mile walk. There are many busses running through the park so most people hop on a bus and go to the next areas they want to visit. Because of this the crowd was very thin between lookout points and places of interest.

We saw more people in the first 30 minutes here than we did in a whole week on the river. Our guides had told us that 25,000 people a year raft the river and 5 million visit the Grand Canyon. This isn’t high season and the place is packed.
After visiting the historic village we boarded the red bus to see the 8 miles of trails that most people don’t visit. We rode the bus to the second to last stop and walked to the end of the rim. Out in this area we could clearly see the green Colorado River below and watched the shadows come to the hills as the sun set. It took three different busses to make our way back to our car but we made it. Busses were filled to capacity. I’d hate to be here during high season.
We made our way to the Yavapai Lodge where we are spending the night. Our room is comfortable and we enjoyed venison chili and burger for dinner at the Yavapai tavern. The line wasn’t too long to order and the food came quickly. Dean was happy because he finally got to try a Grand Canyon beer that he has been trying to get for the last few nights.

April 21
The sun wakes us up at 6:00, as usual. It was wonderful sleeping in a large comfortable bed and having a coffee maker for morning. There is a coffee shop in the hotel that had a line around the block that rivals a busy Starbucks so we went to the market and found the deli to have a nice selection of breakfast food and more coffee for Dean. Sue got to enjoy some of the good tea she brought from Cincinnati. We said hi to more elk on our way out of the park. Today we have a 7 hour drive to Capital Reef National Park, our next destination. There is nothing resembling a highway out here so we drive the two lane roads though the desert, by canyons and mountains, some of which are snow capped. We passed Lake Powell. It looks the same without the high wind and sand storm.
After driving for about 4 hours we enter Utah. About an hour into Utah the temperature starts to lower, there is grass or plants covering most of the earth, although a lot is brown and tumbleweed. Farmers are using irrigation and there are flowing rivers and periodic lakes. There are large ranches with cattle and sheep and large fields of hay instead of small dirt paddocks with a few horses. Yards have grass, mountains are snow capped. Homes look a little nicer and better kept. It looks like life is a bit easier and more prosperous. As we close into Capital Reef National park the land has free range signs warning of cattle crossing the road but what we are seeing are tumbleweeds flying across the road in the wind.
We have dinner and go to the park to Panorama Point, Goosnecks Overlook and Sunset Point. We watch the colors of the peaks change and deepen as the sunsets. Then we return to our hotel and walk to one of the outdoor fire pits. We meet a family who have sold their home and are traveling the country with two grade school age girls for at least a year. It is fascinating to hear their stories. We also enjoy talking to a couple from LA about their travels.

April 22

Capitol Reef National Park. We wake to our first day of rain. It isn’t raining hard but it is a let down along with 45 degree temperatures. We layer on the clothes and top it with rain gear and head to the visitor center to talk to a ranger. We were told that it is ok to hike unless it starts to lightening or rain too hard which could cause flash floods on roads and in the canyons. We decide to start on the hardest hike for the day to Cassidy Arch. It is a strenuous hike up a steep rocky cliff. The rain stops as we start hiking, yeah. The hike gets a bit frightening at the top with the smooth, wet sandstone but we make it to the arch which is impressive. After making our way back down the hill we walk a canyon which was nice an level even if it was rocky. The geology in this place is impressive and we enjoy this hike, too. Then we stop at a historical village and enjoy some fresh baked cherry pie as a reward for our active morning. It is fun seeing the old farm structures, the animals and learn about life in the valley in the 1800’s. We head out to our last hike to Hickman Bridge just as it starts spitting rain again. It was a good hike with great views, again, and the stone bridge was impressive. There were about a dozen kids running around under the bridge using up some of their energy. Our final stop was to the petroglyphs to try and find as many as we could on a sheer cliff and learn something about the people who made them over a 1000 years ago. It made it to about 50 today but was back to 45 when we returned home. It snowed a bit tonight but only enough to get things wet.

April 23
Bryce Canyon. We woke early, had breakfast and drove to Bryce Canyon this morning. It is cold and there is a light layer of snow on the ground after about an hour’s drive. When we arrive at Bryce Canyon visitor center it is snowing. Bryce is at a much higher elevation than the other place we have visited and so, is much cooler. It is on the plateau that has been eroded to form the other canyons we have visited. Today’s high is about 40 and the wind is blowing 20-30 mph. We are bundled as we start a driving tour. We decided to do this first as it gives the area some time to warm up. There are 13 stops on the driving tour to see the changing landscape on an 18 mile long drive. It turns out that there is some hiking to see Bryce Point, Inspiration Point and Paria Point but are they ever worth the journey! The cliffs and the rare formations called hoodoo’s are awe inspiring. The first time I looked down on them from the cliff above I said “Wow!” And meant it! We then hiked through the Navajo loop which has an unbelievable concentration of hoodoo’s that you hike deep into the canyon to be walking at their bases. We then hiked the Queen’s garden trail and part of the rim trail. It was a long, beautiful day of hiking. We saw lots of ground squirrels, a family of mule deers, and lot of Stellar Jays. This area is unique from others that we have been visiting because it is covered in a pine/spruce forest. How lovely it was to hike in a forest punctuated by these geologic marvels. There is a river running in the bottom of the canyon and a more varied series of plant in the canyon. We drove the full length of the park and got out at the various lookout points. By the end of the afternoon the wind was blowing hard at the 8000-9100 foot elevation of the park. It was cold but the views were amazing. We ended the afternoon hiking the mossy cave trail. It is protected by the hills and the river was running fast and the waterfall was full in one part of our
hike. The mossy cave gets its name because a cave behind a waterfall grows a lot of moss. There was still a couple of large chunks of snow in the cave and the waterfall had little water but the moss is clear in the cave.

April 24
We decided that we had seen all we wanted to at Bryce and decided to head to Zion National Park. We came in the East entrance and saw Bison and groundhog village (but the ground hogs were down in their holes staying warm). We couldn’t find a parking place to stop at the Canyon overlook trail and ended up quickly in a mile long cave followed by miles of switchback road that led us deep into Zion Canyon. There are a number of pull outs to stop and enjoy the scenery so we had a chance to be amazed once again at spring peaks and a valley which this time is green, it even has grass growing. The Virgin River cuts through the valley and there are numerous deciduous trees, bushes, flowers along with the cacti and other desert plants we have been seeing in this part of the
country. Parking is challenging to say the least. We ended up parking at our hotel and walking the mile to the visitors center. There we pick up the park bus and rode it to the final stop about 8 miles up the canyon. We enjoyed the Riverside walk which stopped at the slot canyon where people in dry suits walked “The Narrows”. After walking back along the river we hopped the bus for the lodge. Here we walked to the Lower, middle and upper Emerald Pools. There were multiple waterfalls to enjoy. Most didn’t have a lot of water as the snow melt that filled up the rivers happens in May. We hiked high on the west wall and took in the views of the canyon. It was beautiful! After riding the bus to the visitor’s center and another to town we checked into our room and then drove back to the Canyon Overlook trail. The trail is steep and very narrow in a number of places. The view from the top was amazing! The sun was starting to set as we enjoyed the view. We were surprised to find the young man behind us carrying a bag with a wedding gown. When we got to the top we found not one but three couples having pictures taken before sharing their vows at the overlook. Parents were there, some very dressed up, and guests were climbing up to the overlook as we descended to the road. What a great way to end the day. After a late dinner at a local Mexican restaurant we relaxed.

April 25
Zion National Park. Today we went to the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National
Park. This area is about a 45 minute drive from the main park is is much quieter and has a much lower population visiting. First we hiked 6 miles along Taylor Creek. It is reported that you cross the creek 102 times during the 6 miles. We didn’t count but do not question the number as it seems like you are walking a wave pattern all the way back to a gorgeous cavern and back. It was a beautiful hike with few folks. We got to know those we saw because there were so few of us. The creek gurgled beside us as we hiked. There were a couple of small waterfalls, lots of areas of small rapids and multicolored rocks large and small throughout the walk. The stream came from the end of the canyon where it closed to form a large cavern with swirls of various colored rocks. It was quiet and beautiful. As folks got to the end of the canyon they quietly found a place to sit and enjoy the

beauty. Then you turned around and headed back. Our second hike was at the end of the 5 mile Canyon Road. It was a hike to a look out point. As with all these hikes it ended at a point where you can see for miles to distant canyons, buttes and large walls. It was beautiful. We met a couple there and he grew up close to us. We had a long talk about northern Ohio, the Amish and our favorite parts of our trips so far. They are headed to Bryce Canyon next so they were curious what we did. They are camping in a trailer along the journey, something we could have done but chose not to do due to the Grand Canyon trip and no place to keep the trailer.

We returned to the main section of Zion for a late afternoon hike. It is in the mid 70’s now so we changed to cooler clothing. We hiked 368 feet up the Watchman Trail in the south end of the park. The view down on the visitor center and campgrounds and Springdale was amazing. They had markers naming the wildflowers which I enjoyed as I have been taking pictures of the flowers but had no idea what they are named. After hiking over 11 miles up and down over 60 flights of stairs each day we decided there was a reason that we were tired and deserved a nice restaurant. We headed to a restaurant that was built of huge Timbers and had windows looking out over all the mountains. The food was great and we enjoyed a long dinner enjoying the view and planning for our next stop at the Great Basin National Park.

April 26
Travel day. While getting ready this morning my Apple Watch hit the tile floor and shattered. It is very sad looking. Guess I’ll be relying on my iPhone for my health stats for a while. We head out for a 4 hour drive to Great Basin National Park after a breakfast at a Western themed restaurant. This place was about 10 miles from Zion and had fast service and good food and no crowds. Zion tops the overcrowded state with the Grand Canyon South Rim. We arrive at Great Basin about 11 am and there are 5 cars in the parking lot of the visitor’s center! After a chat with the ranger we take off on the scenic drive that ends about half way up the mountain because the snow hasn’t melted on the roads yet. It is 70 degrees at the bottom of the hill and cold and windy at 9000 feet. The view of the two snow covered peaks is beautiful. We decided to hike so we go down to about 8000 and hike the Osceola Ditch for several miles. It is beautiful with some snow and some spring flowers popping up. One young man walks by with a “Howdee” and two men stop to talk and tell us about what to expect to see down the trail and what trails are their
favorites. We then hike part of the Lehman Creek trail. The creek is flowing fast with spring snow melt. It was a good first day. The closest town, Ely, is an hour from the
park. Our original plan was to go back to the park after dark to look at the stars. It is partly cloudy and we didn’t see much along the way that would produce light so we decided to drive part way back the road until it was dark to look at the stars. It was a partly cloudy evening but we found a spot to enjoy the millions of stars. Dean tried to take a time lapse star picture. A couple of trucks came by and we weren’t sure if the software could take that short period of light out. The star map turned out ok but it didn’t find the stars with lower light. It was fun to enjoy the stars even if the star map didn’t turn out as great as the one he made in the Grand Canyon.

April 27
We are staying in Ely Nevada about an hour away from Great Basin, and this is the closest town with hotels. It is an old mining town with lots of casinos. We spent part of the morning in Ely looking at the murals that have been painted all over town. Then we went to Great Basin and enjoyed lunch in the restaurant. We talked a bit with the cook and the woman who managed the store and restaurant and waited tables. They were both interesting and fun. Then we took a tour through the Lehman Cave. It isn’t huge and has low ceilings but has the largest concentration of stalactites and stalagmites, columns and flows in a
space. It was spectacular. It also has hundreds of shields and turnips, rather unique formations in a cave. We are so glad we scheduled a tour here. The ranger was a great storyteller and was great at answering questions. After this we went on a 6 mile hike in Pole Canyon. It was up hill all the way up the trail and downhill on the return trip. There was a stream, lots of Aspen, pine and spruce trees, but no animals. We have seen proof of animals, scat, tunnels and holes dug, but did not see any. We hiked until 5:30 and it threatened rain much of the hike but still no critters. We came back to the hotel, had dinner and started packing as we leave tomorrow.

April 28 and 29
Travel days. April 28 we enjoyed a leisurely morning before driving to Las Vegas. Our hotel had a happy hour with a piano player so after finalizing the packing we enjoyed music and a drink before heading to dinner. We chose a pizzeria that had a good rating. It had a great Ceasar’s salad and unique pizzas. The surprise, it was run by a Chinese
family. Guess Momma learned to cook Italian somewhere! After dinner we filled up the rental for the last time and ran it through the car wash. The RAV4 served us well this month and it is now a shiny blue again!

April 29 we left for the airport about 11 am. We said goodbye to our car and enjoyed a relaxing lunch before waiting to board our plane.

Sue Matz
"A little white space around the edges of life leaves room for unexpected joy and opportunity."