We finally took another trip that was worth putting on the blog. Our plan was to try to hike the Grand Canyon from South Rim to North Rim and then back again. We were not able to obtain the permits on the days we needed though so we decided to go north to Utah and see Zion National Park, since neither of us had been there. It ended up being quite a nice trip.
The beautiful autumn leaves in a meadow heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. If you look close you can see snow on the ground!!!
Nick freezing on the north rim.
The view of the canyon from the north rim. We should be hiking up this canyon right now.
Pulling into the Kolob Canyon in Zion National Park. We did two days of hiking in the less populated north section of the park before doing the small day hikes to the popular part of the park.
A huge split in the rock. This is at the beginning of our hike. We hiked out about 7 miles, spent the night, and hiked back out. It was really beautiful.
We arrived at our designated camping spot to find this cow resting right where our tent needed to be set up. We got her to move out of our area, but she stared at us for a long time wondering why we had to bother her. We named her Anna Bell.
At the end of the hike we got to see the Kolob Arch. It is really big, but we were not able to get very close to it.
This is the first small hike we did in Zion Canyon. This is the end of the Riverside walk, and the beginning of The Narrows. We are hoping we get to hike The Narrows some day!!
Okay you might have to blow this picture up to see him, but there is a climber on that rock. He is on the big rock on the left about 3/4 the way up. I can't even imagine climbing that!!!!
This is the Angel's Landing hike. The last .5 mile is up this ridge. They have put chains in to help you from falling. I decided not to continue on this ridge, but Nick ran right up it.
Nick at the top of Angel's Landing.
The view from Angel's Landing down Zion Canyon.
Looking straight down to the road...it is at least 2,000ft.
An angel landing.
This is looking down at the ridge he just walked on.
This is the last trail we did while we were leaving the park. This is overlooking the lower portion of Zion Canyon.
This is Checkerboard Mesa. The wind and water has made the rock look like a checkerboard.
Heading east from Zion we stopped by Bryce National Park. This is at Inspiration Point.
This is at Sunrise Point.
This is at Rainbow Point. They call this the Poodle Rock... can you see it?
We continued east from Bryce into Escalante. We really liked this area. The scenery was really unique and beautiful. From here we look a random road through the area that had a sign that warned us to travel at our own risk. It was a pretty exciting 75 miles in the dark through canyons and washed out gullies.
A natural bridge at the Natural Bridges National Monument.
Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.
We took a tour of "The Balcony" cliff dwelling. It was really interesting!!! The guide said this room was used for storage. He explained how in the 13th century some group was doing some major killing of Native Americans. So this group of people hid in the cliffs.
This is a kiev in The Balcony. This is 12 feet deep, and the bottom of this is the natural flooring of the alcove. That means they hauled in that much dirt to build the rest of the floor up. This was not an easy place to get into. They did not put up permanent ladders or ropes...people had to use a series of toe and finger holds and then follow a ledge 300 feet to find the dwelling. I cannot imagine hauling in all of this stone.
Like I said this was not an easy place to get to. After you went down the finger and toe holds you have to climb through this tunnel. They had a person waiting on the other side to club you if you were not invited.
This is us leaving the dwelling.
After Mesa Verde we made one last stop at The Great Sand Dunes National Park. The biggest sand dunes in North America.
Nick dying while trying to climb up the sand dunes to the "High Dune", the highest dune on the east side of the dunes. It is 650 feet high. It was hard work!!!
Waves of sand.
Leaving the sand dunes. They look so small in comparison to the big mountains in the background.
The beautiful autumn leaves in a meadow heading to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. If you look close you can see snow on the ground!!!
Nick freezing on the north rim.
The view of the canyon from the north rim. We should be hiking up this canyon right now.
Pulling into the Kolob Canyon in Zion National Park. We did two days of hiking in the less populated north section of the park before doing the small day hikes to the popular part of the park.
A huge split in the rock. This is at the beginning of our hike. We hiked out about 7 miles, spent the night, and hiked back out. It was really beautiful.
We arrived at our designated camping spot to find this cow resting right where our tent needed to be set up. We got her to move out of our area, but she stared at us for a long time wondering why we had to bother her. We named her Anna Bell.
At the end of the hike we got to see the Kolob Arch. It is really big, but we were not able to get very close to it.
This is the first small hike we did in Zion Canyon. This is the end of the Riverside walk, and the beginning of The Narrows. We are hoping we get to hike The Narrows some day!!
Okay you might have to blow this picture up to see him, but there is a climber on that rock. He is on the big rock on the left about 3/4 the way up. I can't even imagine climbing that!!!!
This is the Angel's Landing hike. The last .5 mile is up this ridge. They have put chains in to help you from falling. I decided not to continue on this ridge, but Nick ran right up it.
Nick at the top of Angel's Landing.
The view from Angel's Landing down Zion Canyon.
Looking straight down to the road...it is at least 2,000ft.
An angel landing.
This is looking down at the ridge he just walked on.
This is the last trail we did while we were leaving the park. This is overlooking the lower portion of Zion Canyon.
This is Checkerboard Mesa. The wind and water has made the rock look like a checkerboard.
Heading east from Zion we stopped by Bryce National Park. This is at Inspiration Point.
This is at Sunrise Point.
This is at Rainbow Point. They call this the Poodle Rock... can you see it?
We continued east from Bryce into Escalante. We really liked this area. The scenery was really unique and beautiful. From here we look a random road through the area that had a sign that warned us to travel at our own risk. It was a pretty exciting 75 miles in the dark through canyons and washed out gullies.
A natural bridge at the Natural Bridges National Monument.
Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.
We took a tour of "The Balcony" cliff dwelling. It was really interesting!!! The guide said this room was used for storage. He explained how in the 13th century some group was doing some major killing of Native Americans. So this group of people hid in the cliffs.
This is a kiev in The Balcony. This is 12 feet deep, and the bottom of this is the natural flooring of the alcove. That means they hauled in that much dirt to build the rest of the floor up. This was not an easy place to get into. They did not put up permanent ladders or ropes...people had to use a series of toe and finger holds and then follow a ledge 300 feet to find the dwelling. I cannot imagine hauling in all of this stone.
Like I said this was not an easy place to get to. After you went down the finger and toe holds you have to climb through this tunnel. They had a person waiting on the other side to club you if you were not invited.
This is us leaving the dwelling.
After Mesa Verde we made one last stop at The Great Sand Dunes National Park. The biggest sand dunes in North America.
Nick dying while trying to climb up the sand dunes to the "High Dune", the highest dune on the east side of the dunes. It is 650 feet high. It was hard work!!!
Waves of sand.
Leaving the sand dunes. They look so small in comparison to the big mountains in the background.
