Granpa Decides To Go Home Thru...

...the east entrance of the Grand Canyon - hoping for some sunset pictures!  Aw, isn't he sweet!

See the Colorado River at the very bottom of the photo, at the very bottom of the Canyon.

They aren't as stunning as we had hoped, but that's okay - because God had another surprise in store for us.  LOL!

Not just one, but two!

Folks.  You hardly ever have to even leave your car to see the things that we see!  

What's stopping ya'?

Headed back to Kingman Again

Since we have to pass Bryce Canyon (unless we want to take a dirt road due south to Paige - which I would LOVE to do, but Granpa says no)  Since we have to pass Bryce, and I have my Senior Pass into all National Parks, we decide to do a quick drive through Bryce.  I still love the hoodoos!

A few of the deer look at us like we're crazy.  "Hey, guys!  Weren't you just here a week or so ago?"

I suspect a few of you think we're crazy, too, but you have to understand our belief in God's blessings in our lives - and who are we to waste a single solitary one of them.

The Fog Thins - Barely

Granpa grows impatient.  He's determined to get some pictures because he's wanted to come to Kodachrome for decades.  He remembers passing what he thought would be an easy path to walk. We're two old coots, totally alone in this isolated place, in a fog so thick even the sun can't peek through.  What can go wrong?

Things start out easy enough.  The trail is flat and leads back between two high rock faces. If we stand close enough to each other we manage pretty clear pictures.

The path begins to rise.  Wish I'd worn different shoes.  Granpa is ever the gentleman and offers his hand up, is very patient as I search for the best footing.  It's not that the climb is that steep, it's just that I'm cognizant of the fact that we are very, very alone out here.


The fog lifts just a bit, but still not even a hint sunshine.




We're now on the top of the mesa.  It's pretty. The trail is clearly marked, so we just keep moseying around.  Pretty soon we realize we're not finding a "down" trail.  The harder we look for one the more interesting things we find - like the tracks of a mountain lion, and they're fresh!


We've had no breakfast, and the hiking has really made us hungry.  (I wonder if the cat is hungry, too!)  We are very ready to get off this mesa no matter how pretty it is.

I begin to imagine crouching tigers and hidden dragons everywhere.  I love a vast and vivid imagination - except when the imagining may be all too real!  Grandpa is laughing at me, but he seems to be lookin' for a way down a bit harder than before.  (Can't fool me, old man!)

Ultimately we decide to backtrack instead of going farther and farther afield, er, a-mesa.

Still, the fog hasn't left.  We feel as though we are between heaven and earth.  We can see greater distances, but sound is still muted. We feel very much alone.  I can just imagine a mountain lion on the top of that rock, waiting to pounce.  I'm glad I learned to wrestle with our Great Dane.  Makes me feel like, uh, I don't know... like maybe I wish our Great Dane was with us!

Kodachrome Basin State Park

Out of the east portal of Zion into the deepening dusk.  We pass herds of deer grazing on the side of the road - 20 to 30 deer in a herd.  There are wild turkey mixed in with the deer, too!  I try for some pictures, but it is just too dark.

We have confirmed reservations at the family-owned Grand Staircase Inn on Kodachrome Drive.  For the last half-hour of the drive, we had passed no other cars from either direction.  We arrived at 8 p.m. to discover that we were the only guests of this large hotel.  The owners of the hotel weren't even staying there; they arrived at almost the exact same time that we did, checked us in, and left. There was a heavy fog rolling in - odd for the desert. It was all kinda spooky ... Do-dee-do-dee!

The room was absolutely spic-n-span clean, big ol' flat-screen TV, enormous shower and sumptuous bed.  All for $54!  We were pretty tired from the days driving and sight-seeing, so we showered and crawled into bed.  The cell phone alarm was set for sunrise-minus-a-few to allow us to capture some amazing color in Kodachrome.

Rise and shine!  Throw on a few clothes, open the door and ... the freezing fog is so thick that we can't see our hand in front of our face!  Ever faithful, we get in the car and inch our way down the road toward the State Park.  Things lighten up a bit with the sunrise, but the fog seemed determined to hang tough.

Granpa turns off the ignition and hunkers down to wait for the fog to burn off or lift.  Remember the phrase, "freezing fog?"  I plug in the inverter, pull out my teapot and brew a nice hot spot of tea.  

Kinda romantic actually.  Two ol' coots cuddled up together feeling like the only people on the planet, listening to love songs from the 60's ...  Love IS eternal especially in a fog.

Getting Out the East Portal of Zion

Granpa has paid hundreds and hundreds of dollars for his cameras over the years.  We have thousands of pictures just from the last five years of traveling.  The newer cameras take great pictures because they have a gazillion digital pixels.  Even the cell phones take good pictures!

But looking at a bunch of snapshots is absolutely NO reason to say you've been there.  You can't imagine the grandeur.  You can't see the panorama - even though we have cameras capable of doing a panorama shot.  You don't see the subtle changes in light when a cloud passes.  You can't smell the things around us or feel the wind or sun or snow!  It. is. not. the. same.

When we're runnin' down Route 66 you don't get the sinking feeling in your stomach due to the ups and downs or get goose bumps when there's a screechingly tight hairpin turn on the side of a mountain - with no guard rail!   You don't get the thrill of going into tunnels drilled through mountainsides, honking the horn and feeling the sudden darkness surround you.  It's just not the same, is it?  Or being absolutely stunned by what presents itself when you come out the other side.

Someone once said that if I put too many pictures out there, you won't feel a need to go.  If that's true, I'm guessing you've never seen anything like this in person.  Otherwise these photos would make you crazy to get there yourself.

Where's "there"?  Oh yeah, this is how you get outside the east end of Zion - through a bunch of tunnels that even have giant windows in the side to let fresh air in.  Because we were there in the off -season, and it was getting ever closer to sundown, we could chance stopping in the tunnel long enough to snap a quicky.

Leaving the Box Canyon of Zion

Turning 180 from the last picture in yesterday's blog post you can see how we drove into - and therefore can drive out of - this box canyon.  At our feet is the Virgin River.

I simply cannot get over how drastically and completely the color of the geology changes around here!!













                           I love it !!

So, we're tootlin' back out of the box canyon and are just about to the bridge that would take us to the Grotto, and what do we see?

Now isn't he just simply beautiful??!!  Look at those colors! and the variety of feather's shapes and the way they layer differently!!

Yes, there's a fence behind him, but he's not "fenced."  And he's not alone!

How cool is THAT?  A whole flock of wild turkey, and as healthy as the turkeys our son is workin' his tush off to raise back home.  YUM!!

Well, we need to hightail it outta here 'cause, like I said, it's gettin' nigh onto dark!

"The Stonebruise" by James C. McCormick

Mercy, how time flies!  When Granpa and I first married, a friend from Dallas, Mary Ladd, phoned to ask if I would be interested in typing up a manuscript for her boss, Jim McCormick.  Typing is to me what playing the piano or knitting is to others, so I said sure.

Mr. McCormick wasn't certain how our long-distance (Dallas to Tyler) transfer of information would work because he didn't trust any electronic stuff.  We ended up mailing edited manuscript back and forth, or I would drive up to Dallas to pick up original copy.

What I thought might take a few weeks at the most turned into several years as he completed his manuscript on a yellow legal pad, in pencil, and as he edited the printed manuscript that I turned out for him. I think I still have some of that stuff on a shelf in a closet somewhere - even after 28 years!

The book was so good that I increased my typing speed exponentially because I just couldn't wait to find out what was in the next sentence and paragraph and chapter!

One of our sons sent me a link a couple of weeks back where I could purchase a copy of that manuscript-turned-book-turned New York Times best seller.  So, I purchased it.

Yup.  It's the right one - just look at the dedication:

It's a historical novel encompassing a young East Texas boy growing up through Roosevelt's CCC camps, through World War II and a friendship with none other than Clark Gable, to his return to Texas and the building of a successful company.  It is, in fact, a sort of autobiography of Mr. McCormick's life. 

At the time that it was published my father-in-law was getting very debilitated by Parkinson's Disease and vision problems. Daddy John had grown up in East Texas, gone to the CCC, and worked with airplanes during World War II - even encountering Jimmy Stewart!  My mother-in-law began reading "The Stonebruise" aloud to him. He was so enthralled with the story that he would have Granny Beth read until she lost her voice!  As soon as she could speak again he would insist that she read more.

As Alzheimer's took over Daddy John's thoughts, Granny Beth cherished that book as a very special time that she was able to share with Daddy John at the end of his life.  That makes the book even more cherished by me, too.

I thank the Lord, and Mary Ladd, for bringing "The Stonebruise" into our lives long, long ago, in a faraway time and place...

Hiking National Parks and the "Box" Part of the Canyon

The National Park Service does their very best to make it possible for each of us to see what God has wrought.  If you ask me though, I think mankind can "wrought" some great things, too!  This walkway and wall are amazing to me.

As you can see by the previous post(s), in a National Park you don't even have to get out of the car to see the wildlife.  But when you realize how non-active you can be and still mosey along to see the sights, maybe you will start to venture out of your homes and towns to quite literally expand your horizons!



























They mark the trails, they pave the trails, they even have Ranger guided tours up and down some of the trails.  Also, folks following the same path as you are are quite willing to use your camera and take a picture of you for you.

You can backpack the less traveled ways and even do back-country camping if you happen to be of a more rugged stripe.  The beauty you see from the easy pathway is nothing compare with what you could see if you ventured a bit farther afield.

I believe it was The Grotto that we stopped at years ago.  It was summertime and none too cool.  It was crowded, and people were playing in the Virgin River.  This time it is off-season, very uncrowded, and refreshingly cool.  We drive on past The Grotto, and this time we get to see the "box" part of the canyon.

This is it.  Unless you are a well-equipped mountain climber you will NOT be getting out of this box canyon any other way than the way you came in!!

Well!  Looky here!  Well-equipped mountain climbers!!  And they are way, W-A-Y up there!!

What's really concerning to me is that it's getting on toward dusk.  I have no clue how they think that they can get to the top before the sun fully sets!!  I don't know.  Maybe they're planning on popping open a tent on the side of the mountain and sleeping right where they are!  I know folks can do that. (FOLKS might do that - but not ME!!!)

Zion South

It really is beautiful up here.  Kinda has a Smoky Mountain look to it.  See how the mountain range just goes on and on?  That's what fooled the pioneers.  The Smoky and the Appalachia and other eastern ranges were just a row of north to south ranges, up and over and you were done.  Out west, the peaks seem endless.  Wave after wave of mountains as far as the eye could see - north, south, east and west - to cross.  If you were late arriving and there was an early snowfall, it could be the death of you!

It's not too much of a drive at all down to Hurricane, Utah and over to the south entrance of Zion National Park.  Now we're down looking up.

See the buses at the lower right corner?  This entrance leads into a box canyon - one road in, one road out.  In the summertime it gets jam-packed with tourists, so the Park requires folks to take a bus. This is off-season, so we get to drive our own vehicle.  I like.

Zion National Park -The Kolob Canyons

There is this magnificent stretch of Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and St. George than my brother told us about.  I think it's the prettiest Interstate drive we've ever made!  Cutting through the mountains of Nevada, Arizona, and into Utah we simply want to stop every ten feet and take pictures!

But, alas, it wouldn't do any good.  You just have to see it for yourself!  You just have to!

Another six days off, another road trip.  Don't cha just love it!  We're headed to Zion National Park this time.  We were there years ago on one of our visits to Bryce - but we weren't greatly impressed. I've been studying maps, though, and there are a couple of entrances to Zion, too, so we're willin' to give Zion a second chance just like Yosemite.

There's this north-western entrance at Kolob Canyon, but it doesn't take us very far into the Park.  It's about ten feet off of the Interstate though, so we'll give it a shot.  Then we'll drop down to Hurricane, Utah and Highway 9 to get to the southern entrance - and come out the eastern exit.  I'm thinkin' that'll pretty well cover everything they have to show us!

It has some pretty stuff to show us:

I would love to hike back into there.  That is what Zion is probably best for - the serious hiker.  I mean, they have over a dozen marked trails that are rated "moderate" or "strenuous."  They sound wonderfully romantic:

Kayenta Trail connects The Grotto to the Emerald Pools;

Taylor Creek Trail (4 hours) is limited to 12 people per group and takes you past two homestead cabins to the Double Arch Alcove -- often snow covered;

Kolob Arch (8 hours) again limited to 12 people and takes you to one of the world's largest freestanding arches -- often snow covered...

And a few sound plum dangerous!  For example:

Hidden Canyon Trail (only 2.5 hours) long drop-offs, not for anyone fearful of heights.  Follows along a cliff face (!) to the mouth of a narrow canyon -- may be snow covered and icy!

Ah, to be young and foolish again!

The Kolob Canyons and Hurricane Cliffs are at the western edge of the massive, uplifted Colorado Plateau (and the south-western corner of Utah.)  Encompassed in Zion you will find Navajo sandstone, Kayenta mudstone (full of dinosaur tracks) Moenave deposits, Chinle shales containing petrified wood, and conglomerate that is composed of Moenkopi rubble.  There are slot canyons that resemble the Antelope Canyons near Page, Arizona (see our post:  http://thetravelerstwo.blogspot.com/2013/10/upper-antelope-canyon.html )...  Just an endless variety of things to see!

Above, you can see from the contrast between the vertical shafts of rock and the tilted rock in the foreground that massive geological changes have gone on here, not to mention the volcanic residue at the top of the formation.  The always gorgeous blue sky does tend to make a pretty picture.

Here we have one of the Cheetos Indians (left over from lunch) admiring the scenery around him.

(Lil' feller really gets around, doesn't he!)

As you can see there are days and weeks and even months worth of places to climb!  But we're moving on to the south entrance to Zion, so it's back to the Interstate for us.

The Icy Road Home

We stopped for a photo of a snow covered cactus because it seemed to be such a contrast.  We were surprised to see a tiny little bird "dancing" around on the cactus and rocks.  (Can you see him?)  We couldn't decide if he was jumping for joy or had freezing feet!

This being a part of the old Route 66, we were not surprised to find this old, old gas station.  It of course has turned into a tourist trap - which was closed because of the weather.  Be it still gave us the gift of a few photos:

Bonnie and Clyde drove one of these, yes?                                      Might be, because this is a cop car!

A bit farther down the road and I had to turn around for this beautiful picture.

The sun had warmed things up just enough to cause a bit of melting 

which instantly froze into icicles.

Take a few steps to the left and this was our last shot of the day.