Connie left on Sept. 9th for San Fran to visit Jill,
Graham, Ravenna, and Theron. I followed her to SF on Friday, the 14th.
My trip to S F was easy except for a lot of lost time due
to my trouble navigating the airport and BART. I checked us into the hotel in
the middle of Berkeley and near the U. Then I went over to Jill's to meet
Theron. He is a very cute, very big baby who looks just like Ravenna did at the
same age. Ravenna is very well behaved around Theron and calls him "Baby
Boy".
C and I took Ravenna on BART back to the Shattuck Plaza
Hotel to take Connie's overnight bag (she is getting a 2 night break in the
hotel but then back to the guest room at Jill's- Ravenna has moved into the old
guest room where we stayed before). Apparently Ravenna likes the bus better
than BART but enjoyed the rides anyway.
C made riboletto for dinner and then we got a real SF
treat on the way back to Shattuck on BART- we got to ride for about ten minutes
near a ranting guy who spoke in rap talk including a lot of the usual
unacceptable words and an associate who agreed with everything the ranter had
to say.
In the morning C and took an hour plus walk around
campus. We were disappointed we could not get into the stadium, enjoyed the
college atmosphere, noted the Tulane like variety of architecture, and stopped
at the International House (which has a sign saying it is situated in a
seismically active zone).
In the afternoon we visited Jill and family (the Ron's
first outing to a restaurant) and were joined by Beth and then saw a stream of
friends at Jill's- Graham's best man Jeff and wife and one year old, one of
Graham's friends from work and two of his children and then even a candidate
for a daytime baby sitting job for Theron. Dinner was very spicy chile (Jill
thinks there was a typo in the recipe).
Now for my trials on the 16th attempting to get to Reno
and then to the Arc- I took a cab to the airport which only took 25 minutes
(compared to about an hour on BART which was not running because of the early
hour). After a few misdirections outside security I got to the gate. As I
walked up they announced a long list of cancellations due to fog and a closed
runway, but my flight began with 71 and all the cancelled ones began with 66. I
had a nice breakfast and some coffee and was reading a book when they went thru
the list again. This time I paid more attention and noticed my flight had two
numbers including one that was cancelled. I spoke to the airline lady and she
could put me stand by on a flight in 3 hours and definitely on one in 6 hours.
I did the math counting the wait, the 3 hour drive from Reno to the Arc, and
the 5 hour drive thru (hantavirus infested) Yosemite and decided to drive it.
The one good thing is that I learned I still am a Hertz Gold member.
I got to the Arc in time to meet Rich Guess, catch 2 tiny
fish, and have dinner with JDG at Nevado's.
Monday, Sept. 17- on the Owens River at the Arc Richie
and I got up and started fishing at the bottom of the property at about 9:30. I
quickly lost John's nymph rig and moved on to dry flies- PMX, Parachute Adams,
and Elk Hair Caddis. Fairly quickly there must have been a catch because I
started catching fish, albeit very small ones. I did catch one club sized fish
right near the bank on a bend with an Adams and another almost club size with a
streamer in one of the deep pools.
After lunch we continued upstream and I was using my
Tenkara rod. I caught another nearly club fish on it (how to handle a big fish
on the Tenkara is a question) and I lost one even bigger along the edge when he
chomped the line. All in all we both had a 20+ fish day, with the size average
in the 8-10 inch range.
Richie left at the crack of dawn the next morning so I
was on my own. It started off very slowly but at about 10:30 someone threw a
switch and I could not avoid catching fish- same flies plus a Caddis emerger.
It slowed down after lunch but I caught a nice one out of a pool by drifting a
crayfish. The Tenkara was lots of fun. At the end of the day I moved up to the
picnic table area to try hoppers. I caught one and then went back to the Adams.
I ended the day with at least 40 fish caught of all sizes but a slightly higher
average than the day before. I also broke the tip section of my Tenkara rod
when I was putting it away.
Wednesday, Sept. 19- early drive to Reno to meet Connie
in Phoenix and on to Grand Junction Colorado and the 90 minute drive to
Redcliffs Lodge near Moab. Friendly, chatty Christina drove us and told us
about the landscape and more.
The view at Redcliffs
Thursday, Sept. 20- this was our day of leisure before
meeting the Tauck tour in the evening. We went for a walk for about an hour and
a half and then lazed around the hotel. One of the surprises about Redcliffs is that there is a Moab/ Monument Valley Movie Museum in the lodge. It all started in Moab in 1949 with Rio Grande and John Ford and John Wayne. Other films shot there include parts of Thelma and Louise, some other known ones and lots that didn't make it. Compare this picture from the movie museum to the view above from our room:
And then I have to add this one just to show off:
Friday, Sept 21- The Tauck Dawn Patrol, as recommended by
Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan, caused us to get up at 5 am today. We had a bus
ride in the dark into Arches National Park so we could catch the changing light
at the Windows arches. We also saw Turret Arch, Balancing Rock, Delicate Arch,
Ham Rock, and Park Avenue. The director, Cindy Walker, is quite knowledgeable
and has a good voice for early am bus rides. New terms include crypto- biotic
crust and desert varnish. After lunch back at Redcliffs, we had a 3 mile very
gentle raft trip. No wildlife but lots of big sky and red rocks.
Saturday, Sept. 22- Group photo looking into the sun this
morning, then Connie went with the group to Castle Rock (after which the
vineyard here is named) and the Lasal Canyon. I went for a hike on the red rock
horse trails across the road from the lodge. The uphill grade got my heart
pounding hard (we are at about 4000 feet this only added a few hundred more)
but it led to great views of the lodge property, the cliffs, and the Colorado
River valley. Downhill was easier but still a good strain on the legs.
Castle Rock is 2000 feet above ground level here, with 3
or 4 acres on top, and is the location of those car on the top of a butte ads.
When Connie and the rest got back, we were very fortunate
to have a lecture by William Yazee, who is a full blooded Navajo Indian and is
retiring from the Park Service in a few months. He spoke about Navajo religion,
language, history of the people in oral tradition and from anthropologists,
reservation life and government, dress, marriage and other customs (they
celebrate a baby's first laugh), and the WWII code talkers.
We went into the town of Moab for lunch (can't write
about that experience but ask if you want) and then to Canyonlands NP. There we
went thru Island in the Sky to Mesa Arch (see Connie on top of Mesa Arch) and then to Grand Viewpoint. No use
describing- just look at the picture. We had a picnic dinner in Utah state park
called Dead Horse Point, from which you can see the area where Thelma and
Louise's car went over.
Actually the high point of the day was that we got to
ride most of the day in the bus with Karl Tangren who is 81 (today) and has
been a wrangler, cowboy, restaurant
owner, movie double and uranium miner around here since 1949 (when John Ford
came to shoot Rio Grande here). He regaled us all with stories for about 6
hours on and off the bus.
Sunday, Sept. 23- Sadly, We leave Moab for flight seeing
over to Bryce Canyon in single engine Cessnas. This area has been just amazing
in the scale and scope of the geology, and the lodge has been great. Also for
the rest of the trip it is one or two night stands in the lodges which means a
lot of time packing and unpacking.
The Capitol Reef, which seemed insurmountable
to the pioneers coming west (I don't know why it changed font).
The weather was cloudy with some showers visible in the
distance- actually this was the first day we have even seen a cloud. We flew
over a mesa of slick rock, the Green River drainage, more of Canyonlands, then
the Henry Mountains and Capitol Reef, and then into Bryce. It was our first
glimpse of hoodoos which look a lot like drip castles. When we got to the Lodge
we could walk right up to the canyon rim and see the hoodoos a lot closer.
Dinner at the Lodge.
Monday, Sept. 24- we got up at about 7 and went for a
hike along the rim and down into the amphitheater a way to see the hoodoos a
little closer. Then after breakfast more hiking along the rim at Bryce Point
and Inspiration Point. Connie saw a Stellers Jay on the ground and I saw one in
the air.
The group hit the road in the bus after lunch to go to
Zion. Again there was striking geology and views but different from all the
prior places. After being at 8300 feet at Bryce Point, at Zion (place of
sanctuary to the Mormon settlers in the 1870s) we are at 5500 feet truly in a
canyon, with trees, and a small river after so much dry country, looking up at
huge rock walls. We saw mountain sheep on the cliffs and wild turkeys in front
of the lodge. 2 lectures- one on the Utah Park Company which ran the parks
early in the 20 century until 1973, and then another on the condor restoration
program- both excellent.
The Narrows
Right now I am going to check some strange noises outside
my window.
Tuesday, Sept. 25- second in Zion. We got up at first
light and went for a hike, or actually a combination of 3 or 4 hikes. We went
to Lower Emerald Pool, then Middle, then Upper, then the Kayienta Trail and
then the Grotto trail back to the Lodge. All in all it might have been 2.5 or 3
miles, but we saw it all- hanging gardens, dripping rocks, misty waterfalls,
pools, cactus, and good views of the Virgin River.
Next up was an open air tram ride to the upper canyon
where our guide identified a lot of the mountains, including one called Angels
Landing which is where the condors roost, the organ, the pulpit, the throne
among others.
A little later we came back to the end of the Upper
Canyon by tram and hiked in to the Narrows. As we went upstream the riverbed
took up more and more of the opening in the rocks until we were in a slot
canyon. One can go further up for miles but one needs to ford the river so we
went back.
As I was catching up on emails a buck, a doe, and 2 fawn
mule deer walked right by me on the porch.
2 lectures today too, one on the railroad as sponsor of
the parks and the other on what animals see and sense.
Off to the North Rim tomorrow.
Wednesday, Sept. 26- this was a travel day by bus from
Zion to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and the lodge there. Upon leaving
Zion we went thru a number of Mormon communities and even some supposedly
populated by fundamentalist LDS people (the ones who still believe in
polygamy). We stopped at a place called Pipe Springs which is located within
the Paiute reservation. It was built like a fort over a spring, has really
thick stone walls, and had a history as a tithing farm for the Mormons- the old
rural Mormons would pay their tithe in cows.
Then we went on to Kaibab National Forest and the Jacob
Lake Inn for lunch where I bought a really interesting Navajo rug woven by
Kathleen Nelson.
A couple of more photo opportunity stops including
Imperial Point where got our first view of the canyon and then we came to the
lodge. We are now at 8300 feet compared to perhaps 4400 feet at Zion. Today we
drove thru desert scrub then meadows then forests with a mix of evergreen and
quaking aspens.
Thursday, Sept. 27- Grand Canyon Lodge at the North Rim.
Last night we had a special lecture by former park ranger who is retired and
used to manage Zion. He was very sincere and devoted park employee who loved
his work and loved the parks.
This was a free day and so, after taking some sunrise
pictures, Connie and I walked the Transept Trail out to the campground and then
the Bridle Trail back to the Lodge. While on the trail out Connie called
Deborah (cell service in the true middle of nowhere), and I talked to her for a
moment while we were going up a hill and could really feel the altitude.
What can be said about the Grand Canyon? One of the
quotes often used by the various guides is that the visitor often leaves with a
"troubled sense of immensity". That about says it- it is huge, awe
inspiring, silent, and magnificent.
In the afternoon Connie went for a burro ride on Homer
down into the canyon and I relaxed and went for another hike. On the way back
in one parking lot I counted license plates and came up with 30 different
states.
Friday, Sept. 28- Flight seeing day in 14 seat Otters
over the canyon and then into Boulder, Nev. When we got to Las Vegas Connie and
I walked down the east side of the strip as far as the Palazzo. We liked the
Venetian but mostly Vegas is like going to the State Fair. I had another
"troubled sense of immensity" with the addition of cheesiness.
At night we had the farewell dinner and from the volume
of noise in the room you would have thought it was a 5 year class reunion.
Saturday, Sept. 29- home via Mnpls. I am glad we changed
the flight home to today because the President is coming to Vegas tomorrow.
One more note- not many new birds- Western BlueBird, Mountain Bluebird and Steller's Jay only.
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