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Post by nycgirl on Jul 2, 2012 3:54:47 GMT
The following day, my husband got the flat tire fixed, but decided it was best to keep driving on the spare tire and use the bum tire as a backup. We didn’t have any more incidents with the tire, so it worked out. That day we had a reservation to rent a boat on Lake Powell. We took the gorgeous Cottonwood Canyon Road on the way. We picked up the boat, along with some water toys and a couple of fishing poles, and towed it to the lake. We loaded the boat and got it into the water without a problem (except for the fact that my iphone took a dip into the water as well, but anyway...). A few facts about Lake Powell: it was named for explorer and geologist John Wesley Powell. Powell led a dangerous, groundbreaking boating expedition through the canyons of the Colorado River, an especially big accomplishment considering he lost his right arm during the Civil War. (My husband said it must have been rough paddling the boat in circles. Lake Powell, located on the border of Utah and Arizona, was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam. The dam provides hydroelectricity and distributes water among 7 states. However, the move was and continues to be controversial among environmentalists. Also, the lake buried many Native American archeological sites underwater. For these reasons, I do feel guilty about enjoying the lake, but we did enjoy it immensely. The day was a scorcher with a high of about 100F, but we couldn’t tell cruising on the water with the wind blowing on our faces. We all took turns tubing and driving the boat, and we also hopped in the water for a swim. It was a wonderfully surreal experience, swimming in a huge lake surrounded by towering canyon walls. We found a nice little bay to dock the boat and set up camp. For dinner we had sandwiches and chips, washed down with cocktails (for the adults, that is). My husband showed the kids how to fish. My niece caught a good-sized bass on her very first cast and reeled it in by herself. We perhaps should have looked for a more isolated spot, because it turned out that we had docked across a caravan of houseboats full of party people. They were a jubilant group, blasting crappy music and letting off fireworks at midnight. The fireworks were quite pretty and I did enjoy watching them, but I'm sure they're not allowed. Huge fire hazard. The seating on the boat was soft and roomy, so my husband and I and the kids slept on the boat while the others camped on the shore. The night was warm and the stars were spectacular, even with the interfering light from the houseboats. The next morning we did a little fishing, then packed up and grabbed a bite to eat at the marina. Next, we drove the boat to Rainbow Bridge, the largest natural bridge in the world. Standing at 290 ft, it is nearly the height of the Statue of Liberty. Early explorers endured a treacherous, multi-day hike to reach it; for us, it was just a short walk from the dock. We did some more tubing until the tube got a tear, and that ended that. The temperature again reached 100 F, so we found a little side canyon and took a refreshing swim. We returned the boat in the late afternoon, then headed over to Kanab and checked into a hotel. We ate dinner at the Rocking V, my favorite restaurant in the entire Southwest. The staff was very friendly and the food was terrific. The meals were all served with delicious homemade soup and we ended with some wonderfully decadent desserts.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 2, 2012 3:55:59 GMT
Remind me sometime to tell you about our dead battery adventures. Sure, let's hear it!
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Post by Kimby on Jul 2, 2012 13:34:10 GMT
(I don't want to hijack your excellent thread, nyc. Perhaps we need one for travel mis-adventures. I seem to have lots of those types of tales...)
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2012 22:08:34 GMT
Don't forget the "Ports of Call" branch which is designed for travel anecdotes.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 3, 2012 18:28:34 GMT
The next day, my sis-in-law was unfortunately sick with a bout of sunstroke. It had hit her like a ton of bricks the night before. She rested up at the hotel with her husband while the rest of us went on a free morning tour at the nearby Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Best Friends is the nation’s largest no-kill sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals. I had first learned about them from National Geographic’s moving show, Dogtown. We took a bus tour through their sprawling, beautiful property located in Angel’s Canyon (formerly a movie location for many films and TV shows, such as The Outlaw Josey Wales and The Lone Ranger).The sanctuary houses over 1,700 animals, mostly dogs and cats, but also birds, horses, pot-bellied pigs, you name it. On the tour, we got to visit the dog and cat houses. Here we are in the cat house (not that kind of cat house). The cats in this particular room all have feline leukemia, but they are friendly, playful, and completely adoptable. They can even live a normal life span. In other shelters they would have been euthanized simply because most shelters don’t have the resources to keep them separate from the other cats. On our last visit, my husband and I volunteered with the animals, but we couldn’t fit it in this time. We went back to the hotel and collected the parental units, then headed for Zion, one of my favorite parks. We had a tasty lunch, then grabbed food for our next hike. It was decided that my sis-in-law and her husband would book a hotel so she could rest up, then they would meet us the next day. Meanwhile my husband and I and our friend would take the kids overnight on a backcountry hike called the West Rim Trail. The parents were nervous, but we assured them we’d take good care of the kids. We were dropped off at the trailhead at Lava Point, named for the black lava deposits strewn about. We got a late start, so it was a race against time to cover the 6 miles to our campsite before sunset. The hike was through a pristine alpine forest and the dying evening light cast a lovely glow on everything. We paused briefly to check out the horned lizards and snakes and take in the gorgeous vistas, but we managed to make good time. The light was gone by the time we found our campsite, but we managed to pitch our tents in the dark. As we were getting settled, the loud rustling of the grass announced the presence of something... big. It drew closer and closer and closer, completely unafraid. We soon saw that it was a bull elk with a huge rack of antlers, munching on the grass no more than 40 feet away from us. I longed to take a photo, but I was in the middle of changing my dead battery and by the time I finished, he had wandered off. Later a couple of mule dear came by, a stag and a doe. This guy was pretty curious, probably transfixed by our headlamps. My husband loudly commented "Nice rack," which amused the kids so much that they repeated it for the rest of the trip. Good job, Uncle. Hubby and friend stayed up a little while, taking photos of the sky. This is my husband’s first star trails shot. It’s a pretty good first attempt. The rest of the night was uneventful until my nephew woke up shouting about something outside of his tent. It was probably just a deer. Everyone teased him about it the next day.
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Post by tod2 on Jul 4, 2012 7:58:27 GMT
This is a most enjoyable read Ncygirl - Your husband did REAL GOOD with his 'star' photos! Night photography can be very difficult. I noticed, after I read through the whole report a second time, that you guys were wearing life-jackets when you took that cooling dip after Rainbow Bridge. Is this your own precaution or is it a law of the area? Here we are required to wear them if out boating, Jet ski-ing or any activity in proximity to boats. About your bad luck with tyres - It's very disheartening. We SHREDDED two tires in Namibia. How can a 4X4 do that we thought? When we had to spend time getting new ones fitted(which you have to bring with you BTW!) we learned that when BMW's arrive in this country, they are fitted with SNOW TYRES. No -one tells you this and of course they couldn't cope with hard rocky roads......!! Luckily you can't buy snow tyres here so the ones we put on were made for the job but it took a lot of time to get it all OK again.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 4, 2012 23:52:21 GMT
Thanks, Tod! I don't have the ability or inclination to tackle night photography, but I'm glad my husband is trying his hand at it. In fact, I coaxed him to stay up and take those shots instead of getting into his warm sleeping bag. But I left him to it and hopped into my sleeping bag immediately. It's required to have a life vest for every person, but you don't need to wear them on the boat. Pretty sure it's required to wear one for water sports; you'd be crazy not to. For swimming, we wore them so we could relax and float around. It can be exhausting swimming in freshwater. Snow tires... that's just crazy!
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Post by nycboy on Jul 5, 2012 4:28:19 GMT
(I don't want to hijack your excellent thread, nyc. Perhaps we need one for travel mis-adventures. I seem to have lots of those types of tales...) I want to hear more about the flash floods too
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 6, 2012 3:23:52 GMT
In the morning, we cooked our freeze-dried dinners for breakfast. I had spicy Thai rice with peanut sauce. It was flavorful and hearty and had about a million calories, which was perfect considering how many calories I was going to burn off. We packed up our tents and pumped water from the nearby spring (the kids were very helpful and self-sufficient) and we were off. The first half of the 16 mile hike was through forests and meadows, with an array of wildflowers scattered about and majestic views of red and white domes and mesas. As we continued, the trail got pretty strenuous, taking us up and down the side of the mountains. The drop-offs were pretty scary, but we made sure the kids stayed close to the wall, away from the edge. Meanwhile, my sis-in-law was feeling better and she and her husband decided to hike the popular Angel’s Landing trail, which intersected with ours. My husband managed to get cell reception at one point and we made plans to meet up. This is the view of Zion Canyon from the Angel’s Landing trail, taken from sis’s camera. As we approached the meeting point, we heard a cacophony of piercing shouts and screams. It sounded like a bunch of people goofing off, but it did cross my mind how horrible it would be if it turned out there was an accident. We reunited with my sis-in-law and her husband without a problem. They were glad to see that the kids were fine. More than fine, in fact- they had more energy I did. We all sat down and took a break to catch each other up on the past day. I found out that the commotion I heard came from a group of NYC kids on a school trip. They were having fun listening to their voices echo in the canyon. It turns out they were traveling all over the Utah and Arizona, thanks to some school program that footed most of the bill. Lucky kids. From there, we split up again. Sis and her husband finished the remaining one mile to the top of Angel’s Landing, which is stunning, but the rest of us were too beat, so we headed down. We descended Walter’s Wiggles, a series of killer switchbacks. By now I was good and exhausted, but at least it was downhill. Here’s a photo of them that I took from the internet, since I couldn’t possibly shoot from this viewpoint. We finished up the trail, caught the shuttle bus into town, and crashed as soon as we checked into our hotel. After a much-needed nap, we roused ourselves and got cleaned up by the time sis and her husband got back from their hike, and all of us went out for another superb meal. On our last day, we did one of the most beautiful hikes in the entire Southwest, a fantastic slot canyon carved by the Virgin River called the Narrows. It was another blazing day, but it felt good hiking in the cool water in the shadows of the soaring canyon walls. Most of the walking is done in the river, stepping on round basalt rocks, so we were careful and took our time. The calm, clear water ranged from ankle deep to waist deep and there were sections that were swimmable. I’m so glad I got to do it, because the last time I came in 2010 it had just rained and the river was a muddy, raging torrent. And here’s the last group shot we took, surrounded by the hanging gardens of the Narrows. That night we stayed in Las Vegas (a visual spectacle of an entirely different kind) and got on our respective flights the next morning. My husband and I got home without a problem, but it wasn’t over for my sis-in-law’s brood- their flight was cancelled and they were stuck staying in Houston overnight. Expect delays, indeed. But we all had a incredible trip, full of adventures and family bonding.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 7, 2012 16:26:55 GMT
One more random photo. I'm guessing that there isn't a lively bar scene in Utah.
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Post by mich64 on Jul 7, 2012 18:11:57 GMT
I really enjoyed this thread nycgirl. So many beautiful photos, the one of you all swimming, the mountainside with the incredible switchbacks and the night sky full of stars are my favorites.
Cheers!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 7, 2012 18:41:14 GMT
Going down "Walter's Wiggles" must be so much better than walking up!
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Post by nycboy on Jul 8, 2012 16:00:02 GMT
Brutal in full sun
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 9, 2012 16:30:22 GMT
What a privilege to have you two sharing this wonderful adventure here. I so much admire your spirit and resilience. The fact that you all did it with another family, albeit loved ones, with all the compromising & flexibility that entails and ENJOYED it, speaks volumes about your characters. Kudos!
And the pictures! I have to say, after all the monumental shots, the one that really knocked me dead was of the gazillions of stars through the pines. Descriptive powers fail, so I'll just say that's one of the prettiest things I've ever seen.
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Post by nycgirl on Jul 9, 2012 17:35:37 GMT
Thank you, that's so sweet of you to say! My husband was cold and tired and didn't feel like bothering when he took that shot, but I'm glad I forced him. Yes, it is hard traveling with a big group and compromises have to be made, but it worked out and everyone had a great time.
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Post by Kimby on Jul 9, 2012 19:06:24 GMT
Excellent travelog, well done nyc girl & boy!
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