THE ROAD TRIP TO KANAB

February 25-28:

Road trip…Omaha, Nebraska…Oklahoma City, Oklahoma…Albuquerque, New Mexico…Kanab, Utah…

26 hours of driving!

-entertained Doug with 70’ trivia, listening to a book about an inept guy hiking the Grand Canyon and listening to Dateline episodes

-entertained myself with entertaining Doug, embroidery, making a list of truck names, looking up random stuff when we had questions, playing games on my iPad

HIGHLIGHTS: good driving weather, singing with the oldies, Spam Museum, looking for postcards in tacky gift shops, trying to find Route 66, discovering Foss, Oklahoma and visiting the Foss Cemetery, buying a UV light to look for bark scorpions, eating sopapillas and discovering that Albuquerque is one of the most crime ridden cities in the United States (proven by the number of guards and patrol seen in our immediate vicinity)

March 1: Recovery from driving and orientation to the Kanab area

– Amazing rental! Tons of space and interesting decor. Doug gave me the bedroom suite with the giant bathtub!

– Great sleep!

– Tasty breakfast at Jakey‘s, stop at post office, lots of places closed on Sundays here!

– Groceries are about 30% costlier than at home

– Sitting on the front porch now with a wide view and perfect weather, I needed an escape from Minnesota!!!

Made a little investigative trip to Tilted Mesa Park…walked a bit to review which paths we might bike and hike tomorrow. I was filled with wonder at the rock formations and forbidding dryness.

March 2nd-Applied for the second time to The Wave lottery. I wonder if we will lose every day for three weeks!? Then we went back to Tilted Mesa for a hike and a bike ride. My walk was easy peasy and the scenery was quite striking. Doug’s ride was less straightforward. He took a wrong turn ending up in treacherous terrain so there was some walking of the bike! He returned to the car frustrated. I returned to the car happy!

March 3- Returned to Tilted Mesa. This time I took a wrong turn after changing route in order to see Chocolate Canyon! It was a wonderful walk. I am in OK shape! Doug had a much better ride today.

In the afternoon we tried to go to The Great Chamber, a cool land formation. I had a bit of difficulty with the definitions of OHV, 4WD and AWD so I assumed our Subaru was good to go! I was wrong. On one hand, Doug is foolish to trust me but on the other hand, he has little speed or aptitude for planning. Our first problem was a wide, deep channel in the road that had to be carefully straddled. After plowing through deepening sand, we turned around, barely, one mile in.

March 4-Applied for permits again! Such losers! The deal is that it is protected land and only 64 people total are allowed to be in the area of the trail each day. I think that is wonderful except for when I am one of the people trying to get on the trail.

We ventured to a different place, about an hour away, near Page Arizona. They are billing it as the NEW Wave hike. It was splendid! So many ripples of texture and millions of lines etched into the rock… Wonderful shapes and colors… It was a simple 2 mile walk and didn’t cost us a dime! When we returned from there in the evening, we checked our lottery and I lost again. The good news is, I am married to somebody who won! I love him so much!

March 5-today has been a lazy day after waking up early for our permit pick-up and the orientation for hiking The Wave tomorrow. I am so psyched!!!
It is very nice that it rained and was a bit chilly today because I have lots of stuff to catch up with! We are headed to Kanab to ride and bike in Dry Canyon now that the rain has stopped. I am afraid that Dry Canyon might be DAMP CANYON now! Dry Canyon was stunning. I left my poles in the locked car and Doug was biking with keys. I walked carefully anyway, and it was well worth it! I will do it again, later in the trip, to complete the whole route! 

March 6-WAVE DAY!!! I am sitting in the car, jumping up and down, waiting for Doug. It will be nearly an hour’s drive to the trailhead and three hours each way to visit the wave. It is sunny with highs in the 50’s and a breeze. Perfect! The wave did not disappoint!

From the beginning outhouse it was a pleasure. First I met some young women, Joanna and Anna. Their phones weren’t working so I paid for their permits. They repaid me in cash, relieved not to be risking a fine. We joined a number of people on the Wire Head Trail which would split off to the Wave Trail which required special permits, tagged on to backpacks. The hikers and nature world vibrated with excitement and beauty. The sky was a deep bright blue with bleached masses of clouds. The rock formations, so unique made a gorgeous contrast with the sky and the clouds. At the end of one narrow sand path near the start we came to a rocky “wall”…okay, we could walk upright on the steep slope but it was hard work! We used our devices to follow the path or we would have been quite lost! 70% of the path was without footprints or paths since it was rock. We walked on sideways slabs, ripply slabs, steep slabs, and flat slabs. It wasn’t as daunting as some parts of the Superior Hiking Trail, but it was consistently challenging. We met a Wave Patrol, another Anna, when we were nearing the end of the path to the actual Wave formation. She pointed out where we were going. It was a crack of sand with rocks on either side, heading precariously upward to reach a gap. We navigated the rocks, imagining ourselves tumbling down and breaking our necks but we made it!

When we stepped through the tiny pass there was an immediate change in the smoothness and exaggerated contrast of the curves within each formation. And the colors were rich oranges and yellows and reds and browns. Then when we turned the corner into the most amazing view, the one from the classic Wave photos that started my obsession with seeing  it, in person. It was breathtaking! It flowed serenely and twisted and turned and rose and fell and nothing interfered with the Zen it created. We sat and enjoyed it for a while and started back to the real world.

Doug was suffering a painful leg anticipating, unhappily, the walk back. It wasn’t at all helpful that I was hyperactive and giddy after my immersion into that beautiful experience. all the way back, he was walking slowly and valiantly and resting frequently. I was walking from side to side in zigzags to get more steps without losing him. Annoying, I know! I did run back to hug and kiss him from time to time and I’m sure that is what made it possible for him to go on! It all ended happily ever after! 

March 7-Recovery day for Doug, but I made my way to town and bought my reward for walking The Wave. A Wave T-shirt, of course! Later, I did a solo hike to the sand caves. I used my body full length to get up the first level of rock giants! This was a local venue for neighborhood parties and sleepovers for teenagers back in the day, including the people we are renting the house from. As a result, there is all kind of graffiti carved into the stone wall around the caves. I really don’t understand the need to destroy beautiful things so that you can write your name on it. The caves were very cool and had a view for a long distance. 

Doug and I did a much hyped drive into Johnson Canyon. It was a good idea, but it needs to be updated. There was something they called the set of Gunsmoke, but only one of the buildings was still there. We found the scenery to be much more enjoyable than the items they were trying to point out to us!

March 8-Spent a lazy morning catching up on sleep! This is a lot of hard exercise for an old lady! Early afternoon found me back on the Kanab Trail, specifically the Squaw Trail. This time I went all the way to the top and the views were amazing! One man was jogging up the one and a half miles! And down! I had all I could do to complete the hike at a moderate pace without breaking anything!

March 9- I had avoided doing the Mansard Hike as the description made it sound quite difficult. Then, the people who own the house we are renting told me I would be just fine on it, considering my experience. So I set off in the morning with my front pack. The path was delightful! Lots of switchbacks and some heavy-breathing-uphills but really a great walk. I got off trail, once, and had to crawl up a hill to get back to the trail. Then, I hit a wall, literally! A smooth rock face, taller than me, stood taunting me with smooth cheeks and couple of shallow footholds. Rocks which I had to stretch high to reach were there to pull myself up. I got my feet and hands in place, counted to three, and gave a big pull. The rock in my left hand cracked off. The big hunk slid down the wall with me. As I hit the ground, I ended up on my back, but I already knew I wasn’t hurt. I aborted the hike and will attempt it later.

We had a marvelous lunch at Adria‘s Café. The owner, Adria, bonded with us immediately! Such a brilliant, energetic, talkative woman! She insisted on a hug as we left, and I would like to go there again. That is a great way to get return customers!

My final item for the day was to drive 40 miles each way to see the toadstool formations on a short hike. It was a very full day of wonderful things to see!

March 10-It was a slow morning, and I debated where to walk. I ended up at Tom’s Canyon, which was a sweet hike. A little zig-zagging up the side of the canyon, walking on the fairly green canyon floor,  slogging through some sand and zig-zagging back to the car. There was a lot of red canyon walls (quite shocking😉) and more greenery than I have seen anywhere else!

March 11-We took the scenic route along Highway 12 today. To get to highway 12 is quite a long drive from here. The views along Highway 89 are of endless bluffs and mesas and hills of rock. Once you turn onto the scenic route the beautiful scenery just gets more and more stunning! It was absolutely incredible how the reddish-orange formations started to show a very creative variety of shapes. Parts of the stone formations poked out or bulged out or lined up into similar shapes all in a row. The sun gave everything around us a fiery glow!

We visited Kodachrome Basin State Park and it was a great name for the place! It was an irresistible photographic inspiration. Every step of the short trails showed another view of white, orange, pink and gray layers in  fascinating configurations. The slot canyons were tiny and only tiny insects might get through them!

Friday the 13th of March- Today begins a new chapter in our vacation. Doug and I will drive to St. George to pick up April and Maya tonight. At midnight!!! I did a hike around Kanab today and took pictures of some of the things that give it its flavor. I will do another flat walk before we leave for the 1 1/2 hour drive to the airport..I feel like 3 miles is nothing at all without elevation, deep sand and rocks obstructing my path!

March 14- Today I took April and Maya to Walk Tom’s Canyon Trail which I have done before and remembered it as being just about the right difficulty for people that hadn’t been doing much hiking recently. It did not disappoint, except as we got further up the trail I realized that we were on a different trail altogether! It was called K-Hill. It was a little bit more strenuous than the one I had intended, but April and Maya were absolute stars and conquered it easily. Maya did it in Birkenstocks! 

After a break at home for a little lunch, we headed to the toadstools hike, which I had done before, but knew they would like. And it has the advantage of being quite short. It was windy and we had our tonsils, eyeballs and teeth, power-scrubbed by the sand blowing at us. .

Sunday, March 15th-Maya, April and I traveled to Bryce Canyon and hiked the combined Queen‘s Garden Trail and Navajo Trail. It was absolutely stunning. The trek down into the canyon showed us one spectacular view after another! The hike back to the top was also impressive! Impressive that we made it! Maya and April were reluctant to complete the 1/2 mile to the car once we hot the Sunset Viewpoint. I did the Super-Grandma thing and hiked to the car and picked them up. My good deed of the day!

March 16-I sent Doug, Holly, Kim, Maya, Colton and April off to adventure while I spent the day alone. I really needed the me time. I baked a cake for Holly’s and April’s birthdays which have recently occurred. And I blew up 10 pink balloons for them! Just a quiet evening planned here with the hot tub in the yard and the birds chirping and the weather just gorgeous!

March 17-Doug bought a fancy tire pump so Holly, Kim, Colton, Maya and Doug could take a long, slow trip up to a place called White Pocket. Somebody had to stay home since only five could fit in to the 4WD vehicle. I stayed and Maya, my granddaughter, suddenly opted to join me so it was another day on non-challenging roads near the rental. The White Pocket gang returned tired but satisfied, especially Doug and Kim who LOVED the challenge of the terrain!

March 18th-Holly and I hiked the Wire Pass trail to some marvelous slot canyons. It was so great to spend time alone with her. Like so many places here the forms that the earth takes are magical and soothing.