Day 47
July 26
Las Vegas - Springdale, Ut
Temp 104-67
We are having a lazy boring before we meet up Brian at
Pita Pit. I get a call from him that the
clutch cable broke right around Treasure Island. Thankfully he had a replacement and fixed
it. He drove off and we tried to catch
up with him on I-15. Due to construction
and a 75mph speed limit it was hard to find him. We both stop in Mesquite, but one exit
apart. More road construction, a few
snack stops and Brian meeting a friend rode we get to Springdale in 5 hours,
but it should have taken 2.5.
On the road we passed through St George, a beautiful town,
but didn’t’ get any pics as we needed to get going on the road!
We made it to the best Best Western in
Springdale, Utah. Seriously, if you need
a vacation go there. Our view was of Zion canyon walls. Went swimming, had dinner and played put
put. We also met a lovely couple from
Boise (Ron and Juanita) who taught us how to play a game called 3-13. Sullivan was dying to finish up dinner so we
could get back to them and learn the rules.
The breakfast was amazing! And
the views while eating breakfast were amazing! AMAZING!
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| View from the room |
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| View from the pool |
Day 48
July 27
Springdale, Utah to Cortez, CO
We left around 8:30 AM.
We had a long way to go today so instead of stopping/hiking we just drove
thru Zion ($25). Brian hooked the motorcycle back on the van. We did stop once
to fix the chains. At that stop we
found a big fat caterpiller and saved it from crossing the road and getting
squished. The tunnel thru Zion was very dark and very long – 1.3 miles. At one point it was so dark I couldn’t see
anyone in the van.
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| Rescued Caterpillar |
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| Zion |
Grand Canyon North Rim ($25)
This is an amazing view but still a far cry from the
South Rim. Must go back there someday,
but not in the summer. We walked out
what we thought was Bright Angel trail, hoping to walk down into the canyon a
little, but what we found we Bright Angel POINT. It was nice, but not what I was hoping
for. While there, we were yelling at our
kids to not leap/fall to their death. A
mom came up to Brian and asked “Do you have a Sully? We have one too.” He was 12 years old. The two seemed to have a penchant for getting
yelled at so they don’t do something that would get themselves hurt. We were there about 90-120 minutes. In the meadow on the way in and out we saw
deer and wild turkey.
Just like the old timey infomercials you need to wait! There is more! When planning this day we were originally
going to stay the night in the nearby town of Page. It was crazy expensive so we changed our
minds and decided to forage on to Cortez.
We thought it would be a 4 hour drive from Springdale to Cortez. HAHAHAAHAHA.
I don’t know how I got the mileage/drive time so wrong, but I did. It was a long day. It didn’t help that we scattered stops along
the way, but that is part of the fun, right?
The journey getting there. It IS
fun, too a point.
The road into Page from the North Rim area was closed due
to a simple thing like the road collapsing!
ACK! So we were detoured all the
way around to Tuba City THEN we were to go back west 114 miles to Page. (look at a map) WHEW!
Thank God we cancelled our room in Page and were only going to drive
through it. I would have been going
crazy if we had to drive that far back west to sleep.
We found yet another place to climb on rocks and when we
pulled up we found Seth’s doppelganger!
At one point Brian yelled over to our Seth and the other ‘Seth’ turned
to look. Hmmmm was that his name?
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| YOu tell me which one I am related to. |
There were rain clouds in front of us and rain clouds
behind us, but we hardly had a drop hit the van. The clouds were dark and heavy and it looked like
it was pouring - sure enough, it was. We
drove by a dry wash for much of the way, but it wasn’t a dry wash then! It was a raging wild river with 3 ft swells
of muddy chocolaty looking water.
Naturally, we stopped to get a better look at a gas station in the town
called The Gap or Gap, either way, it is a funny name for a town . Further down
the road we found the dry bed. (Cue
screeching tires and the motorcycle holding on for dear life) We stopped the
van, got out and waited for the river to come down to us. While waiting we met a cowboy, that is how he
described himself, who said this was the most rain and water in the river bed
that he has seen in years. We were kept
back from the wash by a barbed wire fence.
Boooo. So my video and pictures are not a glamorous as I wanted them to
be, but oh well I have the picture in my head.
The sludgy water trudged around the corner of the wash and crept towards
us. It really did move quite slowly at
first. But, once it has more liquid and
less sand and debris the water really took off.
By the time we left it was
flowing like a real raging river. The cowboy told a story about many a camper
who sets up tent in a wash without realizing how dangerous it could be,
especially in the middle of the night when sleeping. I’ll let your imagination take the rest of
the story from here.
Decisions, decisions.
Do we drive the quick way to Cortez and swing through 4 Corners or drive
the longer way and see Monument Valley.
Day light was getting scarce. No
one in the care cared about 4 Corners (if I had a notary I could prove
it). We saw all the Monuments you think
of when you hear about Monument
Valley. Very pretty. We did a drive by and got pics, but didn’t
get too close to them.
We drove through another funny named town, Mexican
Hat. Where true to form there was a rock
formation that looked a dude wearing a sombrero.
Oh for the love of God , Southwest Utah, can you re-do
your roads? They are bumpy and windy and
cows are feeding ON the road. Finally
got to the Best Western in Cortez at 9:30 pm.
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