Comments on my visit to the 1996 SW USA
Here I am with all of my traveling gear (primarily cameras). As of April 2002
I still had all of those clothes - although the pants have been used on every other
vacation since then and they are almost worn out.
I was fortunate in this trip as I had a friend attending school in Santa Barbara and she was
able to borrow sleeping bags, tent and cooking supplies. That was very fortunate as I was
connecting thru Los Angeles and on the return flight my plane from Santa Barbara was delayed
several hours. Only the fact that I only had carry-on luggage allowed me to catch my plane
home in time.
This was a fun trip but exhausting in that it was a lot of driving - about 6500 mi or 10,000 km
in only 2.5 weeks.
We tried to visit as many national parks as possible and were only slowed down because it
was April / May and some parks north of the Grand Canyon were still closed due to snow. Snow
does not melt at the higher elevations until mid June.
In order here are most of the parks which we attended:
Grand Canyon NP, Wupatki NM, Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest NP,
Mesa Verde NP, Arches NP, Dead Horse State Park, Canyonlands NP, Natural Bridges NM, Glen Canyon NRA,
Capital Reef NP, Bryce NP, Cedar Breaks NM (closed), Zion NP, Great Basin NP, Yosemite NP.
Still the parks were amazing. There was plenty of hiking and the mix of desert and mountain
regions were just wonderful. I didn't have time to do half the hiking I wanted. The early
spring was a great time to go. In some parks not all of the tours and campgrounds were open
but the parks were much quieter than they would be in summer. Also the heat wasn't bad and
we didn't loose any days to rain.
Camping at higher elevations was definately cold and it took a day or so to get used to
hiking at those elevations.
In particular I regret not having spent a few days at Yosemite because the hiking looked
wonderful. That park was also very busy with tour buses! I'd also recommend going into
Zion NP at both entrances. I did not hike down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon but have
friends who made it down and back easily in a day. There are actually two ways down - the
older, steeper way and the one they use these days. You may not appreciate the things they've
done to reduce the heli and plane tours but I do. I wonder if they've also banned glider
tours. I'd love to see the area from the above - and a silent glider would be a wonderful
way to do it.
In hindsight I saw the Grand Canyon first and didn't come to appreciate it until I looked
at my pictures weeks later. One of the more memorable things had to be getting up really
early and not noticing that the main street was one way - and getting stoped by a policeman
in some kind of super persuit car (looked like a blower on a large block!) for driving the
wrong way on the street. Then there were the times we were driving 130 km/h and getting
passed by police as if we were standing still. This is a large and open land and there
are often not any speed limits. However, cattle are not fenced in so you have to keep an
eye out.
Here is a picture of the California countryside from somewhere around Barstow. This was a
first taste of the strange sites (for someone who has not seen the desert) to come.
Comments from my diary to integrate with the above comments
May 3 9:50 am - car 2124 mi
9:10 pm - hotel in Williams, good shots that we could not stop for
May 4 - 3 hours driving - canyon busy, tour buses
May 5 - Walnut canyon closed till 1 hour later, 1100 mi driving so far
petrified was neat, expanses of pink, cold mornings
45 min. to drive across Mesa Verde, switchbacks, narrow road, snow caped
mountains in Colorado, 7 pm cold, mosquitoes
May 6 - Mesa Verde NP cliff tour (600 dwellings?), Cliff Palace in late 1800's
tours by bashing and taking, varying quality, so many dwellings
- shower $0.85
May 7 - 2 hour drive to Canyonlands (Needles) 7 mi hike 5 hours!? with desert
and oasis
- drove to Arches, campgrounds full, hotel full, Canyonlands campground full
found hotel, Canyonlands at end of long road, hiking looked all similar
May 8 - 3667 mi, 7:40 pm camp on roadside, all parks full, quick tour of
Arches NP then 2 hikes in Northern Canyonlands + dead horse State Park
Balanced Rock, Garden of Eden (no pics), Double Arch, North & South Window
Turret Arch, Delicate Arch, zoomed at 200 mm
Devil's Garden, Landscape arch, Partition Arch (great views of valley) and
Navajo arch, northern Canyonlands - great view thru arch - 2 wide
Colorado river at Dead Horse,
May 9 - Valley of the Gods 3830 mi, 14 mi drive out - 30 min.
6:30 - $55 Inn in Caineville - pool & hot tub - gray sandstone
Parks full everywhere, , Glen Canyon crossing was amazing, white rock,
red walls with excellent canyons on drive to Hansville
May 10 - Thru Capitol Reef NP at 1 pm - hike upto Hickman Bridge then did
Scenic drive - storm clouds, ice rain,
3:00 leaving Anasazi State Park & Museum, picture of ruin, smallish with
replica works
6:15 Bryce NP, 7000' high, getting cold (Jacket
May 11 - Queens Trail at 8:30 (1.5 hours), stunning, Pinecone hike at end
of drive, shower $2, hiked rim trail for 2 hours
May 12 - Fairlnad trail - 90 min
Cedar brakes - snow, road closed
2:10 finished 40 min. hike at northern Zion NP
(Kolob Canyons), part of Taylor
Creek hike, very hot here, forest fires - smoke in canyon, biting bugs, no
showers, lots of hiking here
May 12 - cold morning, hazy sky (smoke), Checkerboard Mesa picture, hiked
Canyon Overlook - smoky shot of canyon (6 forest fires)
3 hours hiking Hidden Canyon then visitor center, 4pm swim in stream (cold!)
no smoke at night - Canyon hike - never found end - but others coming back
May 13 - 12:00 Lehman Caves (4630 mi), 2 pm cave tour (1.5 hours in park)
30 min drive up 11 miles of scenic drive to 10,000' - road closed
7:30 pm 3.5 hours at 75 mph in Toponeh, $30 hotel with showers
houses/ranches easily 100 mi appart, tioga pass at Yosemite closed
May 14 - Yosemite NP was washed out in flood (Jan)
3:30 - 5:00 Mercer Grove hike, picture of big cedar
central campground is filled/pre-booked all summer, slow driving in park,
hilly and $15/night, no showers, 60+ min drive to other side of park (25 mph)
lots of biting bugs
May 17 - cool morning, Winona campground (2.5 hours to get campsite and into
Yosemite), 90 min. hike, 2 hour hike up waterfall, busy expensive and takes
a long time to get into park - but looks good, lots of police ticketing
"royal arches" are rock cracking and falling, shuttle bus system, nice
walk-in campground, Falls hike was 3.7 mi at 1 mph listed, steep slipery
May 18 2:15 hike in redwook then Santa Barbara
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