Bryce Canyon

Thanks to Wifey's mom we obtained shuttle tickets for Zion National Park for 11:00 am today!  These tickets went on sale (at $1 each) well before we planned our trip out west, and again the day before at 9 am Mountain time.  Sadly for us, at 9 am Mountain, we were on Bert and Pumpkin!  Anyway, due to the time of our tickets we slept in a bit and began getting ready around 8 or 8:30 am.  Wifey did a double check on the requirements for using the tickets and noticed a limitation that the named purchaser of the tickets had to be there for check-in.  Our tickets were under Wifey's dad's name! 

Do we risk it?  We found an old ID with Wifey's maiden name that maybe we could use to talk our way on. It'd sure be a shame to drive to the park, and not be able to get in!  Maybe we could just switch our Zion and Bryce days and buy new shuttle tickets under our names .... in 30 minutes when they went on sale!  Cue ... more debate!  Risks v. Rewards!  

We decided to give it a try and were refreshing the Recreation.gov website at 9:00 mountain sharp.  Between 300 and 400 tickets were available per hour.  Wifey added 7:00 am tickets to our basket.  She second guessed and went back to the home page ... now around 40 were available per hour (it was about 9:02).  She added 8:00 am tickets instead.  And we checked out.  Now we were good to go for tomorrow and would head instead to Bryce today!  

The drive to Bryce Canyon is about 2 hours from our AirBNB.  We had lunch already packed for the day and ended up eating in enroute due to the late start.  (We arrived at Bryce between 12 and 1 pm).

  

We looked for coffee along the way without much success, eventually stopping at a Subway with Espresso on its sign just outside the Bryce Park entrance.  We received a sugary mess, but with 2 shots so we decided it was a success!  

We began our experience at Bryce at the visitors center, gaining an understanding of the park layout and suggested hiking trails. 

Our first stop would be at the far end of the Canyon where we listened to a ranger discuss the Grand Staircase and the geology of this area. 

LOVE the Social Distancing Stickers on the ground! 

From here we slowly made the drive back to the front portion of the canyon for an additional ranger discussion of the formation of Hoodoos, taking pictures of the scenery along the way.  

  

We saw some fantastic scenery ... along with some evidence of #COVIDTRAVEL

Hubby decided to share with the world HIS view for most of the trip :) 

After arriving in time, we 'enjoyed' the second ranger talk.  Honestly, it was in the sun and pretty duplicative of the displays inside the visitors center.  

Upon its conclusion, however, we embarked on a 3 mile hike of the Hoodoos!  We took the Queens Garden Trail down to where it intersected with the Navajo trail and then followed the Wall Street portion of the Navajo trail back up the canyon.  See below 2 videos of our hikes - one in real time and the other in 8X speed.  

The view from within the canyon is stunning and worth the effort to hike down.  The bottom of the canyon is full of trees which provide a pleasant shade for the middle section of the hike!  

We were even able to pull out the selfie stick and capture us together :)  Aweee!  

As a reward for our hike (a reward we're pretty sure is actually meant for kids, but who cares!!) we received these stickers!  

Back on top of the canyon, we spent some time taking pictures of each other instead of the scenery.  You may have noticed these pop up on our FB profiles :)  

Kanab AirBNB

Leaving the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, we proceeded to the town of Kanab, just north of the AZ/UT state line.  Kanab is nestled in a valley of sorts and is surrounded by stunning red cliffs. 

Around 3:30, UT time we messaged our AirBNB hosts and asked if it would be possible to check-in a bit early.  They agreed and we proceeded to their home. The view from the front walkway is amazing! 

Marcia and Mark greeted us as we entered their AirBNB designed home. Wifey had emailed previously and already knew they had built this home specifically to host AirBNB guests.  The front door access is controlled via coded keypad and opens into a foyer.  From this foyer 3 doors open.  Two are to guestrooms (also keypad controlled and the third, a double door opening into Mark and Marcia's private area of the home.  As we came and went during our stay, these doors were usually open during the day and closed in the evenings.  

Also in the foyer were snacks and toiletries available for guests along with hand sanitizer and relevant business licenses. 

Each of the guest rooms has its own ensuite bathroom!  and mini-kitchen stocked with coffee!  The mini-fridge includes a function freezer compartment which we loved as it allowed us to freeze water bottles for our cooler and upcoming hikes.  

By the end our our stay, we enjoyed chatting with Mark & Marcia and even toured their portion of the home as well, taking notes of brilliant design choices we may just incorporate into our upcoming build. 

If you're visiting Southern Utah ... STAY HERE! 

Vermilion Cliffs

 After spending the day with Bert and Pumpkin we headed further north to check into our home for the next 3 nights, and AirBNB in Kanab, UT.  We detoured along the way to kill some time before our 4:00 check in, visiting the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument.  We expected this to be a statue or something similar.  It was not. We followed our GPS and reached the entrance!  

We figured the monument must be on up ahead so we began our drive down a dirt road, with red cliffs to our right and more traditional desert landscape on our right.  

About 6 miles in, we reached a (closed) trailhead.  

We took selfies in both directions .. desert view:

And red cliff view:

Check out this cell-phone screenshot showing where google maps shows the monument and where we quit driving 6 miles in (the blue "you are here" dot).  

Bert and Pumpkin

We woke bright and early and COLD for our day at the North Rim.  We had pre-loaded the car last night so all we had to do was dress, caffeinate, brush our teeth, and hit the road!  

Our drive back to the park was uneventful and before long we were waiting on the shuttle to take us to the trail head.  Our fellow participants were respectful, wearing their masks and sitting distanced on the bus for which we were appreciative!

We opted for the 3 hour ride down to the Supai Tunnel along the North Kaibab Trail offered by Canyon Trail Rides.  Our reasoning was the desire to descend into the canyon vs. just go along the rim.  

   

Upon reaching the trailhead, the guides asked each participant about their horse riding experience levels.  We ranged from "some" to "none" (that'd be Wifey!).  Then they assigned mules based on temperament and lined us up in reverse order of experience.  Hubby's mule was named Bert and Wifey's named Pumpkin.  Both were male. 

We began our descent in single file and got a feel for riding.  The mules tend to prefer the outside of the trail, but have strong self-preservation instinct so we were never in danger.  Apparently the cannot however use the bathroom while moving so whenever your mule stopped to do so, you were to hollar "Pit Stop" so the rest of the group knew to wait on you.  Awkward! 

As much of a cliche as it may be, the mules were quite sure footed and made accessing the lower areas of the canyon much easier.  It was certainly an interesting experience.  Would WE do it again?  As a day trip - probably not.  

If you cannot make this type of hike yourself, DO IT!  Being down elevation is valuable.  

Wifey would absolutely consider doing a mule ride to the canyon bottom simply as a reasonable means of transportation.  As an end to itself, eh.  

At the bottom of our route, we disembarked our mules and had a restroom/picture break.  Compared to our experience on Bright Angel Trail, it was unimpressive.  

Our fast motion video of the experience:

And a real-time video showing Hubby embarking his mule to begin the ride back up; a meta video of wifey filming hubby; and a quick lesson on mule aspirin!

Moving North

For reasons undetermined, I associate visiting the Grand Canyon with mule riding.  Due to the last minute nature of our trip, most tours are long since booked.  Early Sunday morning, we made one last, valiant attempt at calling the North Rim tours directly and asking about openings for the next day!  Not only was a tour available, the staffer shared some 'flexibility' with a pesky regulation on which we were balanced like a knife edge.  

In order for our mule riding adventure to began with check and weigh in Sunday afternoon, we first had to move about 11 miles north.  This 11 mile distance, however, is blocked by a little something called the Grand Canyon and Colorado river. In order to avoid this pesky detail, we took the long way around .... a 4:59 drive.  

After parking and getting prepped for check in, we approached the North Rim visitor center along the way hearing someone call out Wifey's name.  Apparently some friends from church were also at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that afternoon preparing for a rim-to-rim hike the next day!  Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world.

 

Check in went smoother than we could imagine, with our knife edge issue being a non-issue in the end!  Leaving check-in we celebrated with a quick dinner at the only restaurant open for 60 miles north of the Canyon, the Roughrider Saloon.   

Due to COVID, only to-go dining was available, so we took our Burger, Pizza, and Chili back for an in-car picnic! 

      

After dinner, we checked into our hotel for the night at the Kaibab Lodge.  The North Rim is less frequented than the South, and has far fewer amenities available.  Our options for North Rim lodging were essentially to stay in the park and pay around $300 a night, stay at the Kaibab for $106 a night and drive 18 miles (26 minutes) back and forth, or to stay at Jacobs Lake, 44 miles (53 minutes).  

The Kaibab is ... rustic.  No Wifi.  No cellular service.  No TV.  Yes incredible view out the cabin door:

If you look right in the middle of this picture, you can barely see Kaibab Lodge.  

Our cabin - on the right side with the door open! 

View from the front door looking in: 

And the first view of the bathroom, straight on back:

And last, a view of the opposite side of the room while standing in the bathroom door facing outwards:

The night we stayed at Kaibab we were pretty tired and actually fell asleep around 7:00 pm, leaving early the next morning ... for our mule adventure!