Honeymoon Part II: Lake Powell, Zion, etc.

Where'd we leave off?  Let's see... We got to car at midday and headed to the Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge.  Went in hoping to find a room.  The front desk people were kinda short with Anita (plus they were unable to give us a room) and that set her outlook on the place from the beginning.  Turns out all the staff were pretty lax.  They were mostly youngsters hoping to have a good time, and didn't care much about guests.  The view was spectacular.  We watched the sunset and I had a couple of cold beers.  We stayed at the nearby campground that night and got up at the crack of day for the sunrise, which was pretty, but all the tourists kinda put a damper on it for me.  I prefer seeing it from Point Sublime with just me and my family/friends.

First sun striking Angel's Gate as viewed from the N. Rim G.C. visitor center.

We decided that hanging around the N Rim Lodge wasn't for us and that Anita was hiked out for the moment.  Heard about a California Condor release happening 100 miles to the NE in the Vermillion Cliffs, so headed there.  Was an interesting affair.  Learned about how the main cause of death of Condors is lead poisoning due to the lead fragments in the gut-piles left during deer hunts.  Even if the main part of the bullet is found, small pieces have gotten into the guts.  Condors eat that stuff and it apparently kills them or their young.  The people orchestrating the release were called the Perigrine Fund -- they used to be focused on Perigrine Falcons, but the Perigrines are in better shape now and so they switched to Condors.  Headed to Page, Arizona.  I thought Anita might be interested in seeing Glen Canyon Dam and we could do some swimming in Lake Powell.  The dam is an impressive, if somewhat abhorrent sight.

Glen Canyon dam.

Giant dams are feats of engineering something like the Egyptian pyramids.  But this one covered up some exquisitely beautiful canyon country with a very thick layer of sludge.  We went swimming near Lone Rock.  There, vehicles are allowed to drive willy nilly across the sandy beaches and in the surrounding hills.  Good ole boys have swarmed the area with their trucks.  I would've traded the AWD Kia Sedona for one of their trucks a couple of times as the thing bogged down in the deep sand. I was concerned that I might have to ask some drunk dude to help pull me out of the sand.  Swimming was nice especially since it was about 95 F outside.

Stayed that night with a Mormon couple who ran one of two B&B's in Page, AZ.  Well, we stayed with the couple (grandma and grandpa) and a large part of their family.  And the photos of the remainder of their family were plastered all over the B&B.  But what do you expect at a Mormon B&B?  In the morning over breakfast (and they did make some pretty mean pancakes), I kinda egged the very nice grandpa into telling me about his political views.  I was intrigued b/c he worked at the large local powerplant for 30 years.  One of his opinions is that Obama is a communist who is trying to control every aspect of our lives.  Also, God made the earth for humanity, so whatever we do is right.  Strangely, though, he is in favor of nuclear power instead of coal.  Go figure.  Blames environmentalists for stopping nuke power from taking hold in the US.  Dude also had some very strong opinions about gun rights.  Of course, he feels that Obama the communist is trying to strip him of all guns.  All Obama wants to do, as far as I know, is to prevent every good ole boy from having an AK-47.  Another insult the guy made to his own intelligence was that volcanoes pump out more CO2 than humanity does by burning fossil fuels.  He had a good buddy who was sure volcanoes put out more CO2, and this dude believed that his good buddy would never lead him astray.  I signed heir guest book and asked him to send me his reference about CO2 output.  Here's an article on this issue:
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/volcanic-co2/

All the breakfast banter provided good conversational material on the way to Zion Nat Park that morning.  We discussed gun rights.  Anita thinks guns should be banned in the US; I disagree -- my understanding is that the founding fathers felt that people should have guns so that they could overthrow the government if they had to.  This radical view came about from experience under British rule for so long, and the success they had overthrowing it with their guns.  Anita and I agree that Obama is probably not a communist :)  We got to Zion, hit the visitor center, and did a couple of short hikes.  While at the visitor center, I had the wildlife experience of the trip -- a little caterpillar!  He was crawling into the sidewalk danger zone.  He was two inches long and half an inch in diameter.  Beautiful markings.  I prodded him and he stood up on his back legs and sprouted some ugly, mean looking horns.  Awesome!  My mom identified the critter as the caterpillar of a western tiger swallowtail butterfly.  We went on to visit a hilltop food storage site of some ancient Anasazi.  Then did the Watchman hike.

Tiger swallowtail caterpillar.  Has "horns" that protrude when it gets riled up.

Next day, we hit the Zion Narrows.  We got to the part where you have to wade and Anita pulled up like a horse that spotted a snake.  She was spooked and though she did cross the first water, it was with the utmost reluctance.  I'm afraid I didn't give her enough time to settle in to the notion that the water crossing would not be dangerous before rushing her across.  This was what's known as a "dumb young husband move" and resulted in some emotional suffering.  I continued a bit further than she did, wading into nearly neck-deep 55 F water.  Intense.  Anyway, this hike was crawling with tourists and was paved until the last half-mile.  Of course, you could continue on another 5+ miles and escape the crowds.  We went back down-canyon and hiked the Emerald Pools trail.  The pools were a dirty brown in the fall conditions.  In the spring, I'm sure they're much more attractive.  We did spot a tarantula on this hike and a snake (non-venomous).

 

Anita and I on the trail near Emerald pools with Virgin riviera below.

On our final day in Zion, we hike to the Subway.  It's about an 8-mile round trip.  I figured it would take us about 4 hours.  Wrong.  Even the most gung-ho hikers would require 6 hrs.  We took a leisurely pace at first and took a wonderful break at a pool that had banks covered with cute little frogs.

 

A tiny frog near a pool on the Subway Hike.

Once we realized we were going to run out of daylight, we picked up the pace and finished in 8 hrs.  The huge upturned sandstone blocks covered with dino tracks are an impressive sight.

 

A dino track.  Amazing how this area was muddy, then suddenly changed such that this track was preserved.

 

These two large sandstone slabs are covered with dino tracks.

We tried to keep dry on the way up until the last mile or so when it is obvious that you gotta get wet.  On the way down you save some time by just sloshing down through the creek until the last mile which requires a climb out of the canyon.  At the top, we were treated to the beautiful Subway itself.  It's a highly unusual formation.  It's a bit like a slot canyon, but at the bottom of the slot, it opens into a wide tunnel -- like a subway!  The floor of the canyon at that point is immaculately carved by eons of gentle erosion so that there are deep blue pools here and foot-deep slots of rushing water there.  Amazing. 

 

The mouth of the Subway.

Looking down the Subway.  Anita took this photo which I think is suitable for Nat. Geographic.

Overall, it is a rough hike.  I whacked my head against trees and slipped cartoon-character-style into a completely horizontal position before plummeting to the wet, slimy, and very solid sandstone.  Anyway, we survived all the ups and downs of the hike and reached the car just before dark.  I ceremoniously leaned my trusty agave hiking stick, which I had plucked in the Grand Canyon, against the trail signpost for the next hiker to enjoy -- it was quite useful on this hike with all the water challenges.

On our last day, we hit the town in Vegas for a few hours before catching our plane back to MN.  We stopped into one of the casinos and found some penny slots that suited us perfectly.  I almost won $2 after starting from $1.  Then I got greedy and lost the entire wad.  Anita didn't fare any better.  But it was kinda fun.

Overall, I think it was a very successful honeymoon.  We could've had a good time in some
tropical or otherwise exotic place, but plane tickets would've cost a lot more, we probably
wouldn't have gotten nearly as much exercise.