Hello Everyone!
It’s been a great couple of weeks out here on the road. I spent two weeks guiding a tour for Austin College, a small university based in Sherman, Texas (far from Austin, Texas – the school is named for Texas hero Stephen Austin). The tour was for a class on environmental concerns in our National Parks, a topic quite near and dear to my heart. It consisted of 10 students and their professor and took us from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the desert. I really enjoyed these young people and I got along really well with the professor, Dr. Baker, as well.
I met the group two weeks ago on a Tuesday night here in San Francisco. They invited me to join them for dinner at House of Nanking in Chinatown which is a pretty cool place to eat as a group and we all enjoyed quite a feast. It was interesting to hear what the students were studying and what their specific area of interest was for this particular class. Their topics ranged from birds to flash floods to water conservation and all of them were really important to our western parks.
We spent the next three nights in Yosemite, hiking and meeting with the rangers to discuss the park’s key issues. There was still a lot of water in the valley and it was great to see everything so wet and green. On our first full day we hiked up the Mist Trail to Vernal and Nevada Falls and there was a ton of water coming over those waterfalls. Everyone got absolutely soaked, but thankfully it was a sunny day and we dried out quickly. The last time I did that hike was last November when those waterfalls were barely a trickle and the trail was completely dry. The next day we went out and hiked to the Giant Sequoias in the Mariposa Grove in the south of the park and it’s always awesome to see these massive 2-3,000 year old giants. In our meetings with the rangers and staff, we discussed fire management and bear conservation and the conversation was quite interesting. Leaving the park we headed south and around the mountains and ended up in Barstow for the night. We did some serious grocery shopping and then enjoyed a nice dinner at Peggy Sue’s 1950s Diner just outside of town. That night we had our first group discussion and I really enjoyed hearing the student’s opinions about Yosemite and what they had seen and heard over the previous few days.
We left Barstow early the next day as we had a pretty long drive to Grand Canyon that day. We stopped in Seligman to get our kicks on Route 66 and then headed on to the South Rim. Some of them had been before, but for those who hadn’t we blindfolded them and led them to the edge so that their first view was a good one. Over the next couple of days they hiked the Rim Trail and the South Kaibab Trail to Skeleton Point and met with a water conservation expert to discuss the challenges facing the Colorado River today. She was great in explaining all of the different perspectives that needed to be considered when making management decisions and how complicated the whole thing is. The simple answer is not at all popular out here – that every person, farm and company needs to cut back and better manage their water use. I’ve spent a lot of time at Grand Canyon in my life and I enjoyed getting an expert’s perspective on the challenges that park and the region are facing.
From Grand Canyon we made our way on to Monument Valley on the Navajo Reservation. Along the way we stopped at Cameron Trading Post to check out some of the amazing Native American art which they have on display. We also stopped at Navajo National Monument to take the short hike to the overlook of the Betatakin Ruins, an 800 year old town under a cliff overhang abandoned in the 1400s. We got to Monument Valley in mid-afternoon with enough time to pack up our overnight bags and use the flush toilets one last time before heading out for an overnight tour with Cody, our Navajo guide. Cody did a great job of offering his perspective on his people’s cultural history and showed us some of the most beautiful places in the Tribal Park. We had some delicious Navajo tacos for dinner and then there was storytelling, singing and dancing around the campfire as Cody and Harold, one of the company’s owners, shared their Navajo culture with the group. We ended the night in a cozy Navajo hogan, a traditional desert home which looks a bit like a mud igloo. We were up super early in the morning to see the sunrise, grab some breakfast, pack up our stuff and head on down the road.
It was a short and easy drive to Page where we visited the Glen Canyon Dam to learn more about water and power in the Desert Southwest. Lake Powell, the lake which the dam has created, is 200 feet below the level I first saw it at back in 2000 (which was when it reached its historic high mark). Winter rain and snow have been flowing into the lake recently though, and it is rising at a rate of about a foot a day which is remarkable. We went for a little swim at Lone Rock and then I dropped the group off at the hotel, went to the grocery store and picked up some pizzas for dinner. We finished off the day with a walk out to the Horseshoe Bend overlook for sunset, a spot which has certainly grown in popularity over the years and isn’t the secret it once was. It was nice to sleep in a bed, but it was a short night as we were up early again the next morning. We spent the morning kayaking on the lake to give everyone a much closer look, and then hiked up into the lower end of Antelope Canyon to get some photos of the beautifully shaped sandstone slot canyon. We had a young Navajo guide named Sky who was great with the group and offered them a little bit more of a youthful perspective on Navajo culture. They really appreciated this since he was much closer to their age than our guide in Monument Valley had been.
When we finished our kayaking and hiking excursion there were dark clouds moving in so we had a quick lunch and then got moving up the highway. Our next stop was beautiful Bryce Canyon which never disappoints. We spent a little bit of time in the Visitor Center and Dr. Baker was able to arrange an impromptu meeting with a ranger to discuss the issues which the park is facing for the following day. We spent some time at the rim overlooks and then got our camp set up. We had planned on a night hike under the full moon, but the clouds kept us in camp for the night. The next morning we headed down the Navajo Loop Trail and spent some time down among the hoodoos before coming up the Queen’s Garden trail back to Sunrise Point. Our afternoon meeting with the ranger was great as she was very well informed and passionate about the park and her role there. That evening we did go back to the rim to see the full moon and what stars we could which was really cool. Sunrise the following morning was awesome and it really is the best time of day to see the beauty of Bryce. Once the sun was up, we headed back to camp, broke down and headed on to Zion.
Sunrise at Bryce Canyon
Zion was our last stop on the tour and it was really crowded as the summer season is in full swing there. After finally finding a parking spot we hopped on the shuttle bus and went all the way up the canyon to the Temple of Sinawava. The river was too high and too fast to hike into The Narrows, but we did go up the Riverside Walk to its end and enjoyed lunch along the Virgin River. In the afternoon we hiked the Pa’rus Trail from Canyon Junction back to the Visitor Center. I really like the Pa’rus Trail and think it is often overlooked for more popular trails which offer far less in terms of views. It was pretty hot out there in Zion so when we got back to the van we stopped for ice cream which really went over well. The following day we hiked The Watchman, another favorite of mine in the park which is a very reasonable hike for most people and which the students really enjoyed. We spent the afternoon back in camp by the pool as they had projects to finish up and journals due the next day. The following morning we met with two Zion rangers for two hours and had an excellent discussion with them before packing up and heading on to Las Vegas where I dropped the group at the airport and said goodbye after a wonderful two weeks together.
It was a great trip but a tiring one and I was grateful to have a day and a half in Vegas to sleep, relax in the pool and enjoy the city before the long drive back to San Francisco. I’ve had a couple of days here in the city to clean up my gear and myself, relax a little bit and prepare for my next tour which begins tonight. It’s a similar trip to the one I just completed except we will go to Death Valley instead of Barstow and will do the desert loop clockwise instead of counter-clockwise. It’s also a hotel trip instead of a camping tour which should be comfortable and there are only two passengers on it so it will probably be pretty quiet. That’s what I’ll be doing for the next two weeks, but I should have access to wifi so hopefully I will get some more photos published and I really hope I will get this newsletter out next week as well. Summer is coming on strong out here and it’s great to be back to guiding. It’s nice to reverse the tides on my bank accounts and I always enjoy showing people these beautiful places. I hope you’re all enjoying a good start to your summers, wherever you are. Have a great week out there and thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike