Day 10

Dan here…

We got up this morning earlier than we have been lately. It was time to head to one of our most anticipated stops. We were headed east before turning north to make it to the entrance to Bryce Canyon. We had heard some wonderful things about the park and were very excited to visit it. It did not disappoint. As we drove into the park, there were many places to stop as you drove. The first view was the Sunrise Point, which offered some beautiful scenery of the canyons.

We stayed there and looked around for quite a while. We were allowed to hike down a ways into the canyon and we walked down a hundred feet or so to give us a different perspective. After we were done, we hopped in the car and drove up to the next point called Sunset Point. Here we spent a lot of time. We got out and looked around and decided it was time for another hike. After our very difficult hike the day before… we couldn’t imagine it being any worse. The hike was the Navajo Loop. It was very much worth it. We pretty much started hiking straight down into the canyons and ended up in an area about 10 feet wide with shear cliffs, a couple hundred feet high on each side. The rocks are an orange color and the sun was shining at this point. The lighting was beautiful.

The second half of the hike was pretty challenging and was straight back up the cliff. The drop offs on our side were pretty much straight down and no guard rail. It just added to the openness and scale of the area. It was quite a beautiful place. Kari and I highly recommend Bryce Canyon. When we come back though, we are going horseback riding through the canyon. We didn’t have time on this trip, but it looks like the best way to experience the park. Next time…

We got back to the car and continued on into the park, stopping by all the viewpoints. We almost got caught by rain. We walked away a couple hundred feet from the car at one point, and we could see the trees in the distance disappearing into a gray cloud. It was only a few seconds later that… drip… drip… We took off running and within about 30 seconds, it was a down poor. The storms sneak up so quickly there. As we continued into the park, we pretty much rode the edge of the storm and didn’t get wet for the rest of the day. Lucky us. It was time to go and we needed to head south into Arizona, where we were going to take the H-89A to the Vermillion Cliffs.

As we drove south, we passed through Kanab, AZ and headed south to the cliffs. We’d seen pictures of these cliffs on the internet and they looked like rolling waves of water. They were supposed to be really smooth and multi shades of reds and yellows. We were really looking forward to it. As we approached the Vermillion Cliffs, they got bigger and bigger. They cliffs are HUGE. Some of the biggest we saw in our entire trip. They were also a very deep red. They’re even redder than Sedona’s cliffs. If someone was ever going to make a movie about Mars, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t film it here. It reminded me of the surface of Mars in the movie Total Recall. Kari and I didn’t see the rolling cliffs we were looking for though, so we pulled into the only gas station we’d seen for hours. There was an Indian man behind the counter that was incredibly friendly and talked to us for a while. He explained to us that the cliffs we wanted to see are called The Wave. It was a 6 hour hike into the canyons to see them. Damn! We hadn’t done our full research on this, so we had to save The Wave for another trip. We are adamant to see it though, so Kari and I will definitely be back here soon. During our conversation with the man, we told him that we were headed to Page, AZ near Lake Powell and wanted to visit Antelope Canyon. We are lucky we did this, because he told us that Antelope Canyon was closed because of flooding. This was one of the main reasons we were going to Page. After hearing this, we altered our route and headed straight south at the nearby junction to Flagstaff. It was time to call it a night.

A few hours later, we arrived in Flagstaff, and decided to grab a bite to eat before heading to our hotel. We went to a local brewery and restaurant. It was full of people… probably because the weather was around 75 degrees outside. It was a nice evening. We then headed to our hotel and checked into the Courtyard Marriott. When we walked into our room, it sounded like there was a party outside. We called the front desk and they said they’d check it out. Apparently, there was a large concert going on down the road for the college students starting up their semester. The front desk manager apologized and decided to upgrade us to a sweet on the other side of the hotel. It was more room than we needed, but nobody turns down an upgrade, right. Besides, it was quit. It was getting late and we called it an evening. We needed rest, because tomorrow, Kari was going to get to see the Grand Canyon and I couldn’t wait. Goodnight!