We had a fantastic trip in September/October 2015. Linda was able to tic off 2 items on her bucket list – Antelope slot canyon and the Mighty 5 national parks in Utah. We have many beautiful photos, so many that I’m starting to forget places and names. So I’ll try arranging a few photos which summarize the national parks.
As an introduction, touring the Mighty 5 has been on Linda’s bucket list for a long time. We had the opportunity to do this by combining a couple of other trips. AHIMA’s 2015 national conference was in New Orleans the end of September. New Orleans has been on Christine’s bucket list. Also, we had planned a cruise 6-pack (now 5-pack) at Barb and Shelley’s in Reno in October. So, we capitalized on these and flew from New Orleans to Las Vegas, rented a car and drove to Page, AZ to tour Antelope slot canyon (I’ll talk about this in a subsequent post), and then drove around Utah visiting each of the Might 5. Here’s a brief overview of each of the parks.
Arches – This is the first park we visited. It was mostly spectacular red rock formations. Arches contains over 2,000 arches and one sees them everywhere, across every vista. The most famous arch in the park is probably Delicate Arch. It was a grueling 3 mile hike up slick rock and around ledges to get there. But it was very special, even though the experience on the ledges was terrifying for Christine. The other interesting sight is how many of the rock formations reminded us of people.
To the left you see what we called the 3 sisters.
The one below reminds me of 2 people sitting with heads bowed.
Canyonlands – This park is comprised of 3 very distinct sections, Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. We limited our visit to the Island in the Sky section. The Island in the Sky mesa rests on sheer sandstone cliffs over 1,000 feet above the surrounding terrain. Every overlook offers a different perspective on Canyonlands’ spectacular landscape. Most of the scenic overlooks had no railings so that 1,000 feet drop was even more impressive!
And no, we did NOT drive down this road!
Capitol Reef – This park is a hidden treasure filled with cliffs, canyons, domes and bridges in the Waterpocket Fold, a geologic monocline (a wrinkle on the earth) extending almost 100 miles. The area of Capitol Reef has been a homeland to people for thousands of years. Petroglyphs etched in rock walls and painted pictographs remain as sacred remnants of the ancient Indians’ saga.
Mormon pioneers and others arrived in the 1800s, settling in what is now the Fruita Rural Historic District. They planted and nurtured orchards of apples, pears, and peaches. Although it was a little past harvest time, we were able to pick some yummy apples. The Fruita schoolhouse was the social center of the community. It sits right at the base of towering rock cliffs and its a wonder it didn’t get smashed by the boulders tumbling down.
This may be our favorite park as it was such a wonderful combination of rocks and greenery, history and beauty in a less overwhelming display, although we had hundreds of “wow!” moments touring around this park.
Bryce Canyon – Bryce is known for its crimson-colored hoodoos, or spire-shaped rock formations.
We hiked 2 lovely trails. The first was Mossy Cave trail and we did this first thing in the morning and it was our introduction to Bryce. We walked along a small creek that was quite rushing – sounded great. There was a little waterfall as well. But the most beautiful part was the pink color of all the earth, what I imagine is eroded red rock.
We then drove through the park, stopping at most of the scenic overlooks. At the far end of the scenic drive we hiked the Bristlecone Loop Trail. This took us through an alpine forest and edged along some really spectacular views overlooking a vast area of rocks and forests. There’s a bristlecone pine in this picture, the tree that looks dead on the left, but it is very much alive. It’s a centuries old tree and is amazing to see it clinging to a rock ledge and enduring all the weather changes. Bryce is a beautiful park and it would be nice to return and really take our time getting to know it.
Zion – This was the last park we visited. It seemed by far to be the biggest in terms of the size of the rocks and the vistas. It is also crowded. We drove into the park via the Mount Carmel-Zion Turnpike. This 12-mile road is a true feat as it goes through 2 tunnels, the second being 1.1 miles long. I can’t imagine the effort that went in to tunneling through the massive rock in the 1920s. And then there are 3 miles of switchbacks to get down into the valley. Amazing!
Here’s the first short tunnel where you can get an idea of how massive the rock is.
To avoid the crowds, we traveled 30 minutes north to the Kolob Canyons section of the park. It was very much less crowded, and nonetheless spectacular.
We did 2 hikes – Taylor Creek and part of Timber Creek. The Taylor Creek hike took us up and out to a fantastic overlook where you can see for miles. It was really windy out there! The Timber Creek hike was along a very small creek. We had to cross it many, many times. It was a very pleasant walk through lovely pine groves and narrow canyons.
Christine stopped for a rest in a quasi-cave, and we had a lovely picnic lunch there.
The Mighty Five was a really terrific trip and we have a couple thousand photos to remind ourselves of all the fabulous things we saw and the beauty of our country. Thankfully, to prepare for this trip I had created a binder of what I wanted to do in each of the parks, so I’ll always have that for reference. We hope to do this again, although I have a goal of visiting as many of the 58 national parks as I can. We’re looking forward to our next great adventure!
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