Trip to Moab, UT, Arches N.P., Canyonlands N.P., Monument Valley, Page, AZ, Glen Canyon Dam, Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado R., Rattlesnake slot canyon, Upper Antelope slot canyon, north rim of the Grand Canyon, and Bryce Canyon

We flew into Salt Lake City on Thurs July 26, 2012, arriving about 1:00 PM, rented a car, and drove down to Moab, Utah.  It was a pretty drive over the mountains on highway 161 (?) and took about four hours.  We stayed at a very nice B&B with a nice view over the valley and red sandstone bluffs on the far side.  It had a very large commons area for the guests to relax and watch TV, play pool, and drink complimentary wine or soft drinks.  The owner, Keith, and his wife build the B&B about 15 years ago and then she unfortunately died a couple years later.  They designed and built it themselves except for pouring the cement foundation.  Keith is also a pretty good artist and designed a lot of the art works in the house.  A lot of his work is metal work.  Sean the cook came every morning to make us a great breakfast.  Our first morning he made “desert flowers” which is a flour tortilla put into a muffin tin and baked and then filled with essentially a quiche with sausages.  We stayed at the B&B four nights and hiked several times in Arches National Park, and the Islands in the Sky division and the Needles division of Canyonlands National Park.  It is so beautiful in that area.  We also met interesting guests at the B&B.  There was a young Italian couple from Venice.  Her English was pretty good and his was maybe just a little weaker.  He owns two fish/seafood shops in Padua.  They were in the U.S. for about three weeks and seeing many sites in CA, NV, AZ, UT and CO.  There was another couple from Henderson, KY – Bill and Paula although she is originally from Boston.  He was a retired chemical engineer.  And then there was one other couple from the San Francisco area – Carl and Katherine.  They were both retired chemical engineers too that worked for Chevron.  She was actually a Romanian Jew that had defected during the communist regime.  She didn’t defect for religious or economic reasons since as a chemical engineer she enjoyed a good salary, car, and apartment.  She just wanted freedom and so she defected when she was able to take a trip with her son to a conference in Italy.  She had been out of the country on a previous trip and when she returned, her friends asked her why she had returned.  But she couldn’t leave her son behind.  She was granted political asylum in the U.S. but had a hard time getting a job here since her chemical engineering degree wasn’t really recognized in the U.S. and she didn’t know the English technical language.  So she started at the bottom at Chevron as a technician and went to school after work to get a U.S. degree.  She eventually rose to a high position. 

We did several hikes in Arches and Canyonlands.  Since Arches was closer and had more scenic hikes, we went there several times.  It was only about 10 minutes from our B&B.  We did try the Delicate Arch trail our first day but we didn’t get there until about 10 AM and it was already pretty hot.  The trail has a significant elevation change with no shade.  We got probably 80% of the way and most of the elevation change out of the way but Janis thought it would be best to turn back due to the heat.  The rest of the days weren’t as hot but we still tried to go early or late.  Since breakfast wasn’t until 8 AM, we could get up early and do a hike first.  We did a hike in the Window area, hiked to Landscape Arch which was neat since you hike through some narrow passages between big “fins” of sandstone, and also did the Park Avenue trail.  Then on one morning we went out to the Islands in the Sky section at Canyonlands where we did the Mesa Arch trail which is very popular and frequently photographed and also did the Upheaval Dome trail.  The next day we went down to the Needles section of Canyonlands with a brief stop at Newspaper Rock which is covered with a lot of petrographs.  In the needles section we did the Slickrock loop trail.  It was interesting and pretty.  The trail is pretty much all solid rock rather than sand and you have to be on the lookout for the next Cairn which were the only signs of where the path was.  The trail is not particularly hard but it is a lot of up-and-down and very exposed.  There isn’t a good trail map or signposts so you aren’t really sure where you are or how much farther things are.  There were a lot of pretty views.

From Moab we drove down to Monument Valley, AZ.  The buttes were beautiful and we started down into the “valley” to drive the loop road.  The person at the information desk at the visitor center said that it shouldn’t be a problem for cars to drive the loop but after going about ¼ mile, the road was so rutted, potholed, and bumpy that we turned around.  We were afraid of damaging the car.  All in all Monument Valley was a bit of a disappointment.  It looks great in the old John Wayne movies but Arches and Canyonlands were more enjoyable.  We also stayed two nights in Page, AZ.  We toured the Glen Canyon dam, went to the scenic overlook of the Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River and another often-photographed view of the dam and bridge.  We also drove over to the north rim of the Grand Canyon which was spectacular, of course.  It was 55 degrees there at 2 PM.  Monday July 31 was a real highlight though with guided tours through the Rattlesnake and Upper Antelope slot canyons - incredibly beautiful and everyone has seen photos of Antelope Canyon.  The canyons are about 20 feet or so deep and very narrow with near vertical walls.  The walls are sandstone that has been scoured by the flash floods so that the walls are very smooth and have a flowing feel.  We had Rattlesnake Canyon all to ourselves but there were probably about a hundred people being herded through Upper Antelope.  (Lower Antelope Canyon is where 11 tourists were killed by a flash flood in August 1997.  Most were foreigners and the guide survived by knowing a little about kayaking rapids.)  Our guide was Josh who is a Navajo.  He gives guided tours in the summer and goes to a community college the rest of the year in Mesa, AZ.  He ultimately wants to open a camera equipment shop and photo studio.  He was very good a setting our cameras for the best color and brightness and giving us the best angles.  We stayed at a B&B the first night in Page and at a Best Western the second since the B&B was booked.  That was just as well since the B&B was not what we hoped.  It was just an old split foyer house that used the bedrooms in the bottom level as guest rooms.  There were two shared bathrooms which we didn’t care for and not really a common area.  But the hosts were very nice. 

We left Page Tuesday July 31 to drive back to Salt Lake City with just a brief stop at Bryce Canyon which we had visited before.  We stayed at another nice B&B in SLC just north of downtown, Ellerbeck Mansion.  We walked to a great bakery called Gourmandise and also saw the new downtown redevelopment called Creekside.  It’s an urban mall built around a creek.  Before leaving for the airport the following morning, we had to revisit the bakery and go to a rare and used book store where Janis bought an old mystery book and I bought a first edition book of Charles Addams cartoons from the New Yorker.  

Ironically, it rained four out of the six full days that we were in the southwest but it was generally sunny.  The first day in Moab was very hot but it wasn’t too bad after that especially if we did our hiking early or late in the day.  It was also interesting that there were so many European tourists.  We heard a lot of German and French.  They must be fascinated with the U.S. west.  In our group of seven at the Antelope Canyon tour, there was a French family from Versailles, France (another engineer although an electrical engineer this time).  They were on a month long visit of the west and this wasn’t their first trip.  There was also a couple from Spain and one person from Slovenia although she now lives in the U.S.  We asked about whether most Parisians can really speak English and just refused to do so which is what so many people have told us.  Our tour companion said that most of the older French really do not know English but the younger generation mostly does.  This is consistent with our experience.