Days 37-40 Canyons

Before we went to our first canyon, we drove down the Las Vegas Strip so I could see all the crazy buildings! My favorite was the Luxor. It was a pyramid with a sphynx outside.

We spent the next few days hiking through the canyons of Arizona and Utah. We started at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with a two night stay at the lodge there. There weren’t many people around, so it was like we had the whole place to ourselves. We spent time hiking out to points along the rim and just enjoying the views. We listened to a few ranger talks and learned about the Condor, Deaths at the Grand Canyon and some of the geology of the area. The Grand Canyon is deep and I’m glad I didn’t go hiking down into it!

The next park we went to was Zion Canyon. It was steaming hot when we went there, but we still went on a hike with a lot of stairs and a lot of shady spots (thank goodness). When we got to the end, we had a great view of a twisty road below that we would soon be on. When we got back into the car, we were the first ones in line to go through the tunnel. The tunnel was one mile long with little windows every now and then giving us a peek at the mountain beside us. Otherwise it was pitch black. The rest of the day we were inside the canyon on a shuttle bus that was cooler than walking (both better views AND better temperature).

Bryce Canyon was wonderful because of the formations it had. There were mesas, buttes, and hoodoos. Hoodoos are skinny sandstone columns with a limestone cap on top. We drove along the long rim of the canyon, but it did not seem that long because we kept jumping in and out of the car to see the neat rock forms.

From Bryce, we headed to Capital Reef National Park. We weren’t originally planning to go to Capital Reef, but the geologist at the Grand Canyon North Rim talked about the neat formations there. On the way, we stopped to help an Italian couple whose Hertz rental car had broken down. They barely spoke English, but we didn’t care…they were really nice and needed our help. So Pa hopped into their car and drove them to their nearest overlook. We called Hertz and gladly waited there for at least 4 hours with them until they got their replacement car. Then we went on to Capital Reef. Even though it was dusk, it was still one of the prettiest canyons yet. The roads seemed like they were going right into the giant walls surrounding us.

The next morning we got up early to go on a hike in Arches National Park. There were a lot of arches…not just one or two. We saw…Landscape Arch, Pine Tree Arch, Tunnel Arch, and Delicate Arch. Going into the park, it was so sandy we wouldn’t be surprised if Star Wars had been filmed there. On the hike I played on the rocks and went into a pretty big crevasse (on purpose).

On a whim we decided to go to Canyonlands. We had to stop there so we could buy the Utah Rocks shirts that have all the parks listed on them. Mom said we couldn’t get the shirt if we hadn’t visited all the parks. We made two stops in Canyonlands. First was an arch that we could right up to. When I looked through the arch, the land dropped straight off into a really deep canyon and I was right on the edge of it. The last stop overlooked a thunderstorm in the distance. We hopped in the car and got out of there ASAP.