16th April: Zion to Bryce to a campsite near Lake Powell
From Wd
Gavin's diary—7.20pm Monday 16th April 2007, somewhere in Utah between Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell
We've hit a minor low point: we're in the middle of nowhere, seemingly to help out a former TrekAmerica group leader who bought the site but now can't make it pay. Furthermore, Ron is asking us for $22 each for a couple of meals. And we've run out of beer.
The Navajo Trail in Bryce Canyon was much harder work than I remember it being 27 years ago. Admittedly today I was carrying much more weight—both in my backpack and on my body—and, if it makes any difference, I think I went the other way round the trail, from Sunset to Sunrise Point.
Jinny's Blog
The next day was de-camping, for we were leaving for Bryce. I woke up at 6.00am again and it was very dark, went back to sleep and woke up at 6.30am. Still very dark and Nat’s alarm didn’t go off though she had set it for 6.30am. I wondered why. Went to take a shower, came back and it was still dark and not a soul was moving, not even Chuck who usually was the first one to awake and start coffee. I went back to sleep fully dressed and in my boots. By now my confusion with the time-zones had already begun without my realizing it.
It was going to snow in Bryce and Ron suggested camping at Lake Powell for two nights instead. We were all one in our agreement. Setting up and bringing down tents in sub-zero temperature is no fun. Besides, while the rain slides off the tent, the snow would stick and then freeze. We passed the upper portion of Zion on our way out and a tunnel they said couldn’t be built due to the sandstone. The upper portion was side-swept by the wind and the appearance was very different from what we had seen so far. We passed the Red Canyon and the town of Summit at 7,777ft elevation. We drove on scenic byway 12, the most scenic route in Utah.
We parked at Sunset point at 8,000ft for lunch at Bryce Canyon. The hoodoos of Bryce were amazing. They were the BEST sight so far! Rather creepy tall human shapes. Apparently the chief of the native Indian tribe would tell his people that hoodoos were tribe members who had been turned into rocks and that if they did something wrong he would turn them into hoodoos as well. “See that hoodoo with one eye, that’s the dude who didn’t look after his cattle”
It really was a spectacular view, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I imagined every hoodoo to be a person who was watching us as we walked through them. Many of them had eyes and nose and some even smiled! When we got down, it was sunny and warm and yet it was snowing a bit. Weird.
Portions of the bottom looked like sand dunes from up above and I what fun it would be to ski there. Apparently you can ski in parts of Red Canyon. We came up to sunrise point and walked back to Sunset point. We saw neither a sunset nor a sunrise at Bryce though I am sure it’s a wonderful sight what with the deep brown-red colors on the hoodoos.
One the way to Lake Powell, Peta, Nat, Gavin and I played Scrabble in the van. This time I had Collette helping me on the side—she is a scrabble champion, she says. We were racing ahead of others when we ran into a controversy over the word EQUINES (we put an S at the end of EQUINE and along with a few other tiles made three words giving us about 39 points with that one play). Gavin and Bevan didn’t think it was a word. Collette threatened to stop playing if they questioned her knowledge. I was winning, what I did I care? I stood by Collette. I won and agreed to look up the word in a dictionary when we got a chance (or maybe not).
