Hello, Sunshine

After a restful night of sleep at Desert Pearl Inn, we again woke to a cloudy morning and fresh snow on the ground.  For breakfast, we decided that we had found a good thing the previous morning and returned to Oscar’s Cafe.  We even had the same thing to eat.  We are easy to please:)

While we were eating, we noticed that there were glimpses of blue sky through the clouds.   The thought of blue skies, white snow, and red rocks had Woody absolutely beside herself - thoughts of beautiful photographs floating around her brain.

We decided to leave Springdale via the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway.  That road climbs and climbs in elevation out of the east side of the park.  Woody was so enthralled with the scenery that she completely forgot about me!  But given the beauty of Zion, I can hardly blame her. 

Eventually she remembered me and let me join in the fun.  Did I mention that I am an awesome co-pilot?  

 

 

With my wild animal magnetism, I knew we would see wildlife and I was not wrong.  Say hello to my little friend.

 

 

As we descended in Kanab, Utah, we were greeted by these gorgeous vistas.  Just south of town, we had to make a little detour to Pipe Spring National Monument so Woody could get her park stamp.  Has she told you about this obsession she has with visiting national parks?  So trust me when I tell you this was a little detour, just 1/2 hour out of our way.  She has been known to force us to drive several hours to visit a park.

This little detour also played a part in Woody’s master plan.  It made the route on the less travelled road seem like a logical choice.  Off we went.  We went up in elevation.  And up in elevation.  And up in elevation.  Woody seemed very excited by it all.  The ice on the road was apparently not part of her plan so she ignored it.

But the less travelled road took us to some fun places.  Like the crazy lady’s house.  Sometime back in the 1920s, she was travelling and her car broke down.  She was forced to spend the night on the side of the road.  She loved the place so much that she bought the land and stayed.  The land that she purchased was a huge boulder field.  So she used the standing rocks as part of her house.  Each room that she needed was built around a rock.  We thought it seemed like a pretty harsh place to live.

Woody’s route also led us to Navajo Bridge.  It is the last crossing of the Colorado River until you reach Hoover Dam, a distance of several hundred miles.  And let me tell you, it was WINDY on that bridge.  But it was a beautiful place.

Our next stop was Cameron Trading Post.  We were starving.  Did you know that eating establishments are few and far between in middle of nowhere Arizona?  We had been told to try the Navajo fry bread and that’s just what we did.  Harley Rider had a Navajo taco, which was a nacho-like dish but served on fry bread instead of chips.  Woody had the Navajo Hot Beef, which was roast beef in gravy served atop fry bread.  Both were really good.  And both were big enough to be shared!

From there, it was a straight shot to the south rim of The Grand Canyon.  Everyone needs to visit this place.  Words cannot describe the beauty.

 

Did I mention that there was snow?  The south rim had received over a foot of fresh snow during the previous evening.  Oh yeah, that is some serious snow!  But even cold, you just can’t help but look and look and look.

Once we were thoroughly frozen, we headed to our accommodations for the evening, Maswik Lodge in Grand Canyon National Park.  It wasn’t the best place in the world to stay but the other rooms were around the $200 mark for one bed and we needed three beds.  So we went with it.  Thankfully, it was just for one night.

Three Hours Later

After driving through a deluge, we arrived at our hotel in Springdale, Utah – Desert Pearl Inn.  It was a fantastic place.  Our room faced the Virgin River and a fantastic view of the canyon walls of Zion Canyon.  We were dead tired and fell into the bed, dreaming of the weatherman’s promise of a sunny, 55* day for hiking.

We woke to the knowledge that the weatherman could not have been more wrong!  There was about 3” of snow on the ground and more was coming down.  And the temps were hovering in the 30s.

But we decided that snow was better than rain and left in search of food.  Since it was the off-season, our options were limited so we chose one of the two places that the lady at the desk recommended for breakfast – Oscar’s Cafe.

She was right.  It was really good.  Vol Fan and his brother, Harley Rider, thoroughly enjoyed the huevos rancheros while Woody enjoyed her usual vacation breakfast of pancakes and bacon.  I can’t remember what Vol Fan’s mom had – only so much room in this brain o’ mine.

After breakfast, we headed to Zion National Park.  Even though it was overcast and spitting snow, we were blown away by the beauty.  It was decided then and there that we will return.  Our next trip will be during the warmer months:)

We drove very slowly up the canyon.  Vol Fan learned long ago that Woody speaks in code.  When she says, “That is beautiful” or “Wow. look at that!”, it means “Pull over so I can take a picture.”  So we did a lot of stopping along the way.
We also did several short hikes.  This photo is from the Court of the Patriarchs viewpoint.  I think they are standing in front of Jacob.  Abraham and Isaac are to their right.





Our next stop was Weeping Rock.  Thanks to the recent rain, the waterfall was flowing.  I enjoyed sitting on the shoulder of my best friend and admiring the view. 

We also hiked up to the alcove behind the falls.  The ice and snow was very slippery and I had a little mishap.  Thankfully I land a  little more gracefully than Woody and nothing was seriously injured.

As we ventured further and further into the canyon, the walls got steeper and the canyon got narrower.  It is a place that almost demands quiet so you can soak in the beauty.

We walked along the river in The Temple of Sinawava which is otherwise known as The Gateway to the Narrows.  The Narrows is one of the hikes that we are planning for our return trip.  But it must be warm since the majority of the hike is in the river!

After that hike, we were cold, wet, and hungry.  So we returned to the inn to change clothes and socks and shoes.  We chose Switchback Jacks for lunch.  It was a casual place that had a friendly vibe.  We chose a fireside table and thoroughly enjoyed our lunch of burgers and quesadillas and margaritas.

We took off back toward the interstate to visit Zion Harley-Davidson so Harley Rider could get a t-shirt.  Smart people would have called to see if they were open before driving for 30 miles.  No one ever called us smart. However, we enjoyed the scenic drive.

We still had several hours of daylight so we headed to Grafton, Utah.  Grafton is a ghost town and it was used in the film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  The local people had done a lot of work to keep the buildings from crumbling in on themselves so it didn’t seem much like a ghost town.  More like a town where everyone was gone on vacation and were expected back shortly.  But it still was an adventure to enjoy.

Next, we headed back to town to visit some of the shops while killing time before dinner.  We chose Zion Pizza and Noodle for dinner.  Woody claims that the pizza was very good, making it into her 10 Ten Pizza Joint list.  She is a little weird, eating only cheese on her pizza.  She claims that you cannot improve on perfection.

After filling our bellies, we headed back to Desert Pearl Inn for a good night of rest.

I Really Didn’t Sign Up For This

Hello! My name is R. L. Monkee. And I go on adventures. Pretty clever since that is the title of my blog, right? No one asked if I wanted to go on adventures. They just take me. They being The Incredible Woody and her husband, Vol Fan.

Sometimes Vol Fan doesn't want to go either but we like to keep Woody happy. Like the old saying goes – If Woody ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.  Thus the adventures.

So sit down. Kick off your shoes. I'll tell about my most recent adventure.


Last Saturday I got stuffed in this backpack.  And let me tell you, it was cramped in there.  Cameras, lenses, cords, etc all pushing into my most delicate areas.  They better be glad that I am one tough monkey!

Then they hauled me to the airport.  And we waited and waited.  And waited some more.  Finally it was our turn to go.

I was excited about looking out of the window but there was nothing to see except clouds.  For the entire trip – nothing but clouds!!

Several hours later we landed in Las Vegas!!  We gathered our luggage, rented a car, and headed out of town.  Wait!  What?  Out of town?  We were in Las Vegas for goodness sake.  Why would we want to leave?  But Woody had ideas and ideas lead to problems for me and Vol Fan.  So we set off on a 3-hour drive....