Hello Everyone!
I hope your summer is starting out as great as mine is. The summer solstice is upon us and I’m trying to make the most of the long days. This week I’ve been guiding a trip for two wonderful ladies from San Francisco to Las Vegas via Yosemite, Death Valley, Zion, Bryce, Monument Valley and Grand Canyon. While I definitely prefer guiding a larger group, the three of us have clicked well and have been having a good time out here. We’ve had some windy days, but they’ve also been sunny and bright and of course these parks are truly magical places to spend time.
We left San Francisco early Monday morning and made a beeline for Yosemite. I was happy that route 120 was open again after being closed due to road damage on the final decent into the valley. That closure caused me to detour around to the 140 on my last two trips, which added about an hour to the drive and threw my regular route, landmarks and commentary out the window. It was nice to do things a little differently for a change, but I was happy to fall into my familiar groove on that drive this week. Unfortunately by the time we were dropping into the valley in the afternoon, it had clouded up and there was some rain falling. This should be quite normal for this time of year, but after 20 years of drought it doesn’t feel normal. El Capitan was in the clouds and Half Dome wasn’t even visible. Thankfully the waterfalls were going strong and we stopped at a couple of viewpoints to check them out. The rain slowed to a drizzle and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the old Ahwaneeche village behind the visitor center and visiting Galen Clark’s grave in the old cemetery. Clark came to the valley in 1851 after being diagnosed with consumption (tuberculosis) and having been given just a few months to live. He fell in love with Yosemite and decided to dedicate the rest of his life to preserving it. That life was supposed to be short, so he dug his own grave and planted Giant Sequoia saplings around it. He ended up living another 54 years but was eventually buried in the grave he dug for himself. After I told that story and we paid our respects, we headed to our hotel out in El Portal for the night.
Zabriskie Point in Death Valley
We returned to the valley on Tuesday morning under blue skies and sunshine. Linda wasn’t convinced her knee would hold up on long ascents or descents, so we stayed on the valley floor for the day. We went out to Mirror Lake in the morning which was as full as I’ve ever seen it (it turns into Mirror Meadow pretty early in the summer most years). Then we wandered back to the Ahwanee, Yosemite’s classic park lodge. We had lunch in the Great Room and a nice chat about the afternoon. From there we made our way out to Lower Yosemite Falls which is still raging pretty hard right now and putting out plenty of spray. It’s awesome to spend some time there and the ladies really enjoyed it. Then we headed back to Yosemite Village for a coffee and then back to our hotel for the night.
Red Canyon in Utah
Wednesday was kind of a quiet day. We chose a late start and then made our way down to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias. The shuttle is finally running again, cutting out the 4 mile roundtrip hike to the grove from the parking lot. We enjoyed our visit to the big trees and then spent some time in historic Wawona, checking out some of the cool old buildings from Yosemite’s past. In the afternoon we returned to the valley for a quick coffee and then made our way back to the hotel. I’d been eating salads for a few days so I decided to grab a pizza which was nice. My knee was giving me some trouble too so I was grateful to be able to ice it and rest for the night.
Bristlecone Pines in Bryce
Since the Tioga Pass over the Sierras is still under many feet of snow and likely won’t open until August, I had to make the long drive around the mountains to get to Death Valley on Thursday. Not only is this route far less scenic, but it also adds 2-3 hours to the drive. It wasn’t a fun or beautiful drive except at the very beginning or the very end, but we got there. I haven’t been to Death Valley in years, and we were greeted with a cool 107° when we arrived. It was a bit cloudy though so it didn’t feel overwhelmingly hot. We were staying at Stovepipe Wells, so we got checked in and had dinner at the saloon there. After dinner we went out to the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes for a wander. There were storms all around us and it was really cool out there to sit and watch the distant lightning. It was too cloudy for a sunset, but it was still a nice evening. Later that night I sat in the parking lot for a while and watched an incredible lightning show behind the Panamint Mountains which was really something to see.
The next morning we did a little bit of touring around the valley before we took off. We went down to Badwater, the lowest point in the United States at 282’ below sea level. Then we took the scenic drive around to the Artist’s Palette, a colorful formation of greens and yellows and oranges and reds from the chemical makeup of the soil out there. We stopped in briefly at Furnace Creek where the second hottest temperature ever recorded was taken, but it was only 93° when we visited. We made our last stop at beautiful Zabriskie Point before heading on to Vegas and then to Zion. It was a longer day than it should have been and we lost an hour going into Utah, but we finally made it into the park around 6pm local time. We’d been sitting in the van for hours, so we stretched our legs on the flat but beautiful Pa’rus Trail which goes between the Visitor Center and Canyon Junction. I love this trail and its beautiful views of the Virgin River and the surrounding cliffs, especially The Watchman. Afterwards we headed on to our hotel in Springdale which has awesome views up at the cliffs, especially around sunset. We had a nice little wine and cheese spread and enjoyed watching the light fade over Zion.
Sunrise Over Bryce
On Saturday we headed back into the park and hiked The Watchman in the morning. This is one of my favorite easy hikes in the park and one of the best things about it is that you don’t have to ride the shuttle bus to get to the trailhead. It took us about 2 hours to get up and down with a nice long break at the top. One of my trusty hiking poles, which I’ve had for the last 18 years or so, broke on the hike which was disappointing, but they’ve served me well. Also it could have happened on a more challenging hike which would have been worse. Regardless, it was a lovely morning and we were down before the heat of the day got too bad. We stopped in at Bumbleberry in Springdale for some of my favorite ice cream in the area and then took a nice long siesta in the afternoon. We had a nice dinner at Zion Brewpub and then went back into the park to take a water sample for a project my company is working on testing global water DNA. When we finished up our sampling, we headed out to Grafton, an old Mormon town abandoned many years ago but still loved and cared for by the locals. It’s a cool spot to get some history, a little peace and quiet and some great views of the cliffs as the sun goes down. We poked around Grafton’s old buildings for about an hour and then headed back “home” in time for one more quick dip in the pool before bed.
Natural Bridge in Bryce
We got out relatively early on Sunday so we didn’t have to wait in too much traffic at the Zion entrance which has just gotten out of hand in recent years. With an early start we still waited 15 minutes, but that was nothing compared to what it is later in the day, especially on a weekend. We cruised through the park and then out the east entrance and on to Mt. Carmel Junction. From there we cruised north and then east again to Bryce Canyon National Park, one of my favorite parks in the country. We stopped in for our first look at Sunset Point in the main part of the park and then headed all the way up the scenic drive to Rainbow Point. From there we set off to see the Bristlecone Pines on a one mile loop trail. While they aren’t the oldest Bristlecone Pines in the region, the ones in Bryce are still up to 1800 years old. I absolutely love these old trees and can spend all day wandering around and imagining the times they’ve lived through. They aren’t grand like the Giant Sequoias or majestic like the Coastal Redwoods, they are gnarly old trees which live in the country’s most inhospitable environments, clinging to cliff edges and scrabbly rock soil. They can also go dormant for years and then spring back to life when you least expect it. After our time with these gems, we returned to the main part of the park and hiked down to Queen’s Garden and back, a nice little hike which can be quite exhausting if you’re not used to the altitude and the sun, but which is quite rewarding as well. It was Father’s Day and I enjoyed seeing so many dads out there hiking with their kids. After all of that walking, we headed for our hotel and then a delicious dinner at the restaurant at Ruby’s Inn. Later that night I went into the park to check out the night sky under the new moon and it was spectacular.
Sunrise is my favorite time to see Bryce Canyon, but this time of year it’s pretty early. We left the hotel around 5:45am to see the sun come up from Bryce Point, definitely my favorite viewpoint to catch the show. When we got back to the hotel, the breakfast buffet was open so we had a nice big breakfast and then got on the road. We stopped in Page to hike to beautiful Horseshoe Bend and then grabbed some lunch and took off towards Monument Valley on the Navajo Nation. With the sun setting so late, our tour didn’t start until 5pm and I was happy my friend Cody was our guide for the evening. He did a great job relating to Linda and Virginia and took us out for a good tour. After exploring the valley for a couple of hours, we enjoyed some Navajo tacos for dinner and some stories and dancing around the fire. We came out of the park around 9, and it still wasn’t quite dark out as we made our way back to our hotel in Kayenta. It was a very long day, but one we really enjoyed.
We slept in the next morning and then took off for Grand Canyon. We got our first view of the canyon from Desert View and stopped at Grand View on the way to the main part of the park. I got the ladies onto their scenic helicopter flight in the afternoon and then we had a delicious dinner at the Bright Angel Lodge. That evening I went for a quick beer down at the tavern because they have a nice outdoor fire pit to sit around. I ended up chatting with the couple sitting next to me and gave them some pointers on the road trip they were in the middle of. I’m always happy to help people out with their plans, but it wasn’t the quiet relaxing beer I had hoped for. On the walk back to my room, the stars were amazing. I stood out in the parking lot for a while and really enjoyed the night sky out here.
I spoke with my manager earlier this week and they slipped a 6 day tour into the 6 days I was supposed to have off next week, so I had to get a lot of work done today to get ready. I actually don’t mind the extra tour at all since it’s summer and it’s time to make hay while the sun is shining, but it means that the more I can get done now the less I will have to do when I get back to San Francisco. I cleaned out my van, got some laundry done and got most of my paperwork and accounts finished up. I met up with Linda and Virginia for our last dinner together and then came back to my room to finish up this post.
I’m winding up this tour tomorrow in Vegas and then I’ll head on to Bakersfield for the night so that I can have a shorter drive on to San Francisco on Friday. I hope to get a few hours to myself before starting this next tour on Saturday. It’s a six day hiking tour in Yosemite with a nice full group so I’m really looking forward to it. When it finishes, I’ll do the same trip again with about 36 hours off in between. It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks and our hotel in Yosemite doesn’t have wifi, so I don’t think I’ll get this post done next week. I have been getting through some California photos from this winter though so hopefully I’ll get some of those published while I’m in San Francisco. I promise I’ll be back with you as soon as I can. Have fun out there and enjoy the long days while they last. Thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike