Spirit of the Desert Tour with Tauck Sept. 2012

For just the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/103487700054521552182/TauckSpiritOfTheDesertSept2012?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOGRlIbT6sbXwQE&feat=directlink 


But for the narrative, first, the trip before the trip-

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.