Trip Report - "A Canyonlands Adventure"

Program #8718, Northern Arizona University's "Absolute Southwest:  A Canyonlands Adventure," is a wide-ranging program covering a wide variety of areas:

• Montezuma Castle and Navajo National Monument
• Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, and Flagstaff
• Grand Canyon National Park - South Rim to Desert View (East Rim)
• Monument Valley and Navajo Tribal Park
• Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River
• Big Water and Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument
• Zion National Park

Trip Report - Short Version

We found this trip to be an excellent introduction to the Southwest.  The program was carefully organized, ably led, and featured wonderful accommodations and food.  The program was structured in such a way that one could opt out of any or all of the numerous walks.  And there was a gratifying emphasis on interpreting the natural history of all the areas visited.  As usual, we found the attendees to be a bunch of friendly, funny, and inquisitive folks.  We would recommend this program to anyone who wants to see as much of the Southwest as possible in just one trip.

Narrative - Phoenix to Flagstaff

(Caution:  This is a rather lengthy narrative.  But...hey...it was a 10-night trip!)

Our Northern Arizona University (NAU) lead coordinator, Jeff (along with Bruce, replaced in Sedona by Ken), provided numerous lectures covering the geography, geology, and history of these areas.  Most of the lectures were given in the field on-site, rather than in a classroom setting.

We left Phoenix in two 10-passenger vans, which were comfortable and provided good viewing and a chance to talk with the drivers.  From about 3000 ft, we climbed in altitude, and the warm sunny weather quickly turned cold and rainy.  Our first stop was at Montezuma Castle, where ruins of the ancient Southern Sinagua people could be plainly seen in a cliff and on the floor of the adjacent canyon.  This settlement was started around 1300, but abandoned by the early 1400s.

Photo by Dave Owens

Following our overnight stay in south Sedona, we climbed up the Colorado Plateau to Flagstaff via scenic Oak Creek Canyon.  We eventually climbed nearly 4000 ft, and there was now over a half-foot of snow on the ground.  The snowfall resulted in some dramatic scenes in this rugged canyon.

After stops to gas up the vans at NAU and have lunch, we stopped at the Museum of Northern Arizona.  There, docents showed us the museum's six galleries, demonstrated how the original people used tools to enhance simple spear-throwing, and explained how the modern Hopi developed a mural for their kiva display.

Grand Canyon National Park

In the late afternoon, we arrived at the Grand Canyon for our first views of this magnificent park, then checked in to Maswik Lodge for our two-night stay.  The accommodations and food here were excellent (also true for our two-night stops at Monument Valley and Zion National Park).

That night, another storm moved in and over four inches of new snow fell.  We had hoped to walk down a part of the Bright Angel Trail, but abandoned this plan when we saw how slippery the trail now appeared.  Instead, we walked along the Rim Trail and visited numerous lookout points, the El Toval Hotel, Hopi House, and the Bright Angel Lodge.  The latter featured a fireplace built of rocks from the same formations and in the same sequence as the Grand Canyon itself.  We were able to make some sense of this sequence, thanks to Jeff's lecture that morning - complete with some bizarre mnemonics one could use to remember each layer, from Kaibab limestone at the top to Tapeats sandstone near the bottom.

Photo by Dave Owens

That night, a park ranger explained how the water supply system of the South Rim area had been developed, and how it was being maintained today (think helicopters - lots of expensive helicopters!).

More snow fell that night, making for a cautious drive to Moran Point and Desert View the next morning.  Despite cold temperatures and a biting wind, we were treated to beautiful views of the East Rim, bathed in snow and intermittent sun.

We left the park through the East Entrance, seeing just a single car waiting in line to get in.  We stopped for lunch at Cameron Trading Post.  This place featured wares ranging from inexpensive jewelry to artwork and Navajo blankets priced at over $22,000!  By mid-afternoon, we were in Keyenta, AZ, where we stopped at a Burger King featuring an exhibit on the famous WWII Navajo code talkers.

 

Monument Valley to Page

We arrived at Monument Valley on the AZ/UT border amid a sudden snow shower and gathering darkness, and checked into Goulding's Lodge.  At this site, Harry Goulding and is wife "Mike" set up a trading post in 1923.  Harry lobbied Hollywood to use Monument Valley as a locale for westerns, and John Ford and others eventually did just that (think John Wayne and "Stagecoach" or Henry Fonda and "My Darling Clementine).  The trading post they erected (and lived in until they died) still exists and is maintained on the site as a museum.

That night, we were entertained by Navajos Garry and Miesha Holiday, in the Hogan of the Monument Valley High School.

Photo by Dave Owens

The next morning we began a tour of the Navajo Tribal Park, starting in the southern portion known as "Mystery Valley."  This area featured numerous sandstone bluffs carved into strange shapes by wind erosion.  We were also treated to petroglyphs and a cliff dwelling.

After lunch in a canyon, we moved north into the Monument Valley area, where those iconic buttes and spires of the Western movies are clustered.  We expected John Wayne and the stagecoach to pass by any minute.

Photo by Dave Owens

Our next stop after leaving Goulding's was Navaho National Monument.  After venturing down a paved trail, we arrived at a viewing platform on a canyon wall.  On the opposite side of the canyon was a deep alcove (Betatakin) containing well-preserved cliff dwellings.  Ancestral puebloans lived here from 1250 to 1300, then, for unknown reasons, left.

We continued toward Page, AZ, past Navajo Mountain and a huge coal-fired power plant.  At Page, we stopped by the visitor center at the Lake Powell dam, then checked into our motel.  This beautiful motel, with an adjoining golf course, sits out on the plateau overlooking Glen Canyon below Lake Powell.

Glen Canyon and the Colorado River

The next morning, we made a short trek to the lip of Glen Canyon, where we could look down 550ft to the floor of the canyon and the Colorado River below.  We could see tiny boats moving downstream - in a few hours, that would be us!

Photo by Dave Owens

To begin our Glen Canyon rafting trip, we first had to have our bags checked by security personnel, then we rode a bus through an access tunnel to the bottom of the canyon, beneath the dam.  There we boarded our pontoon boat and started down the river.

Our guide provided a running narration during this 15-mile trip, frequently shutting off the motor while we drifted downstream.  The silent and steep canyon walls provided an eerie touch - this is where parts of "Planet of the Apes" was filmed.

We came ashore at a picnic area - complete with petroglyphs! - for lunch.  We then traveled several more miles to the Lees Ferry area, where Jeff and Ken were waiting with the vans to take us back to the motel.

Photo by Dave Owens

Page to Zion National Park

The next day we left Page, stopping at the Big Water visitor center several miles west.  This center is at the edge of the Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument, a series of colored cliffs (Chocolate, Vermillion, White, Gray, Pink, etc.) that stair-step their way from the Kaibab Plateau to higher plateaus.  The area is a treasure trove of fossils, from simple ammonites to dinosaurs.  (The center itself is designed in the form on an ammonite!)

We entered Zion National Park at the park's East Entrance, where Jeff stopped to explain how Checkerboard Mesa came to look the way it does.  Next we passed through two tunnels, then worked our way down a steep series of switchbacks past the Great Arch formation.

After lunch, we went to the Zion Canyon Visitor Center, where Jeff used their big 3-D model of the park to show us where we had been and where we would be going.  Our first excursion was a walk on the lowest of the three Emerald Pool Trails.  Here we could see picturesque waterfalls and actually walk behind one of them.

Next we checked in to our excellent accommodations at the Zion Park Inn.  Many of the park's beautiful rock formations towered right over the Inn, making for striking sunset views from the Inn's balconies.

Photo by Dave Owens

Before sunrise the next morning, we were off for a walk down the Pa' Rus Trail, from Canyon Junction to the South Campground.  Jeff pointed out the formations and plants we passed by, as we criss-crossed the North Fork of the Virgin River.  As the sun rose over the dim light of the canyon, the heights of the nearby Altar of Sacrifice and West Temple formations were brilliantly lit above us.  Then it was time for breakfast and a few hot cups of coffee!

Following a visit to the Zion Human History Museum, we left for The Grotto and a box lunch.  Our first afternoon walk took us to Weeping Rock.  Here we found a waterfall with a rainbow, and next to that, water cascading down a broad area of the cliff, forming a constant rainfall.

Our final walk was up the paved Riverside Walk, from the Temple of Sinawava to the beginning of The Narrows.  Here the paved trail ended, and the walls of the canyon became so narrow that there was little room for anything but the Virgin River itself.

Photo by Dave Owens

That night, Jeff gave us our "Final Exam" - a multiple-choice, semi-"tongue in cheek" oral test covering all the things we had seen and been lectured on.  We didn't get everything correct...but we did remember "DUDE = Deposition, Uplift, Downcutting, & Erosion," and "hard rocks = cliffs, soft rocks = slopes."

The next morning, we drove along the Virgin River, down the Colorado Plateau, and ended our trip at Las Vegas.

Dave and Judy Owens
Mint Hill, NC
3/27/10