Go West Old Man

This past September, Michelle and I took a trip that we have both wanted to do for a long time. We flew to Las Vegas NV and rented a car. From there we took off on a sort of grand tour of a number of the western National Parks in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona along with a train ride into the Rockies, a ride through the Four Corners country, and a stop at one of the world's best known movie locations. Not to mention a glimpse into the lives of some American Indians both ancient and modern.

We flew into Las Vegas McCarran Airport, arriving in the afternoon. From the airline terminal,a shuttle took us to the airport rental car center (no more individual lots and buildings for each rental firm - they have been combined into one huge terminal and garage) where we picked up our Ford Escape - a small, fairly fuel efficient SUV. It turns out that we were to be glad of the all wheel drive and especially the higher ground clearance.

That evening we stayed in a casino resort hotel called the South Point. It's located about six miles south of the Vegas Strip but still on Las Vegas Boulevard. Our main reason for staying there was that it had gotten fairly good reviews, was inexpensive, and located about thirty seconds from an entrance to I-15 north. It was actually a pretty nice place with attractive rooms, comfortable beds and decent food. I guess I'd recommend it to anyone who didn't care about being near the Strip. But for us, it was just a place to sleep on our first night. The next morning, we were on the road by 7 AM and heading up I-15 toward Utah and Zion National Park.

The South Point Casino Hotel - Their website is: www.southpointcasino.com

After about a four hour drive, including a stop for breakfast, we arrived at Springdale Utah and the main entrance to Zion National Park. I should mention that Springdale is a nice little town with a kind of a "new age" feel to it. It has a number of motels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, and gift shops. But we already had a reservation for the night at a Best Western in Springdale, so we pressed on to the park just down the road.

Now getting old is no fun, but it does have its occasional perks. The U.S. National Parks Service has a program for senior citizens (62+) whereby you can pay a one-time fee of $10 and recieve a lifetime pass for all national parks. I bought my pass at the entrance to Zion National Park and for the rest of the trip, Michelle and I got into all the National Parks for free. Not a bad deal.

The entrance to Zion N.P.

We parked just outside the entrance to the park, and after crossing a small foot bridge, we gained entrance to the park and the free shuttle which is provided for visitors as a way of sparing the park the ravages of private auto traffic. Only guests who stay at the lodge inside the park are permitted to drive their vehicle into the valley and then only as far as the lodge.

The busses were very comfortable, eco-friendly (they ran on propane) and ran about every six minutes with many stops at major points of interest.

A Zion Park Shuttle

A typical rock formation in the valley.


The "Court of the Patriarchs" Left to right: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Named by a Methodist Minister who visited the area in 1916

The shuttle makes its way up the valley to a point where the valley becomes so narrow (in fact the area is called "the Narrows") it would be impossible to build a road through it. It then makes a loop and heads back to the park entrance. There is also another road, which is actually Utah route 9, which cuts across the southern part of the park and takes one out to Mt. Carmel Utah. More about that road later.

The sheer rock walls of Zion are popular with rock climbers. While riding the shuttle, we saw these folks about two-thirds of the way up their climb (inside the red circle)

Another view of the canyon

Zion Canyon is carved from a huge area called the Colorado Plateau, which covers much of SW Colorado, Southern Utah, and Northern Arizona. The rocks which make up the canyon walls, like many of the western canyons (the Grand Canyon included) are made up of layers laid down over millennia as ancient sea beds etc. The canyon itself was carved over more time by the erosive force of a river and the sand and rock particles which it carries. This erosion is still going on today.

The Virgin River which is responsible for the formation of Zion Canyon. The Virgin is a tributary of the Colorado River. It is apparently named for a pioneer named Thomas Virgin.

One of the effects of the rock layering in the walls of Zion Canyon, has to do with permeability to water. It seems the upper layers of the rock are water permeable and ground water, rain, snow melt etc. have no trouble percolating through it. However at a point part way up the walls, there is a non-water permeable layer. This forces the water to seek its way out between the layers.

One of the stops on the Zion shuttle is a trail to "Weeping Rock". This is a short but steep hike which takes one up to a natural alcove in the canyon wall. The junction between the permeable/impermeable layers, called the "spring line" is just above this alcove and once there we found ourselves behind an actual water fall.

Here is a short video taken by Michelle from the alcove under "Weeping Rock". If you look to the left of the scene you can see some of the water drizzling down.

After "Weeping Rock" the bus continued to the end of the road near where the Virgin River emerges from the narrow slot canyon which marks the northern end of the paved and developed area of Zion. Beyond this, hikers with permits can follow the course of the river for several miles and more.

The Virgin River as it emerges from the "Narrows"

After spending some time wandering around the entrance to the "Narrows", we hopped a shuttle and rode down the canyon to the Zion Lodge where we had some lunch.

Zion Lodge

After lunch, we rode the shuttle back to the park entrance and set out to our motel to check in . After a brief rest, we went looking for a place to have dinner. We found a restaurant called "The Spotted Dog" where we had one of the best meals on our trip, albeit it was a bit pricey but worth what we paid. Then back to the Best Western Zion Park Inn for a good night's sleep and to press on in the morning.

Best Western Zion Park Inn-Springdale UT

Next: Bryce Canyon

North to Alaska

This seems to be sort of turning into a travel blog, but Michelle and I just got back from a two-week jaunt to the 49th State. Thought I'd post some thoughts on it here.

Our first stop was Vancouver B.C. where we were to board the Royal Caribbean Lines' "Radiance of the Seas" for the north bound journey to Seward AK via several stops on the Alaska Panhandle (the Southeastern part of AK that stretches alongside Canada toward Seattle). We got there the day before we were to board and stayed overnight at a hotel near the Vancouver airport in order to preclude any horror shows perpetrated by late flights, lost luggage etc. As it turns out, everything went smoothly with flights and luggage. Also, due to the vagaries of flight scheduling and time change we arrived in Vancouver about 10:30 AM. At that point we made a decision not to spend our one day in the city sitting on our butts in the hotel but instead to take a Vancouver city tour and see the place. It was a good decision. We booked a four-hour city highlights tour for the afternoon and off we went.

Vancouver seen from the top of the Harbour Centre Tower

Vancouver is a really lovely city with what seems to be an excellent quality of life and it is surrounded by considerable natural beauty. It's located on a peninsula among various bays and river deltas. As a result it has excellent deep water port facilities along with many recreational areas such as beaches and small boat marinas. Our tour was on a bus with a number of stops throughout the city. The tour guide was very knowledgeable about the city, but he was also a bit of a character. For one thing, he ended every statement with "eh". Now I know this is supposedly a common practice in Canada, but he did it so much it was almost a caricature - he reminded me of the Mackenzie brothers, the two beer-drinking mock Canadians on the old Second City TV show. He also claimed to be a drummer in a rock band and an expert on the city's various micro-brews. He may have been that last thing-I tried a pint of his recommended beer and it was quite good. Anyhoo, the tour took us to Stanley Park, a green oasis of a peninsula adjacent to downtown, and various sections of the city including Chinatown, "Gastown" (a kind of hip restaurant and shopping district) and a stop to take the elevator to the top of the Harbour Centre Tower which is their version of the Space Needle but not as tall (but with a great view of the city). My favorite stop on the tour was called Granville Island. It is a small, artificial island in a creek near downtown and is sort of the Vancouver Greenwich Village. Lots of galleries, shops, theaters, and restaurants crowded into a walkable space and surrounded by water and boats. We ate dinner there in a Tapas bar called the Sandbar - it was quite good. To sum up: it was an enjoyable first day of vacation and the next morning we were up bright and early and off to the "Radiance of the Seas".

"Radiance of the Seas"

We showed up early for the boarding - they said 1:00 PM, but we got there at around 11:00 in the morning and pretty much walked right on the ship. We had a nice cabin with a balcony and kind of a sitting area; also, the bed was very comfortable. As for the public areas of the ship they were very tastefully done - lots of wood and artwork. The ship was fairly new so it had a huge central atrium that ran from deck 4 to deck 11 with glass-enclosed elevators. It had the other usual cruise ship stuff: a theater for evening shows, a casino (where I actually won at Blackjack unlike Las Vegas) and lots of bars including a nice piano bar with a fairly talented chap who played and sang requests. Of course since it was a cruise they pretty much fed you continuously in various places around the ship. Unfortunately, the food was for the most part not outstanding. It was decent but I've personally had much better on other cruise lines. But we went to see Alaska, so stuffing our faces was secondary. Enough description of the ship, if you've been on one modern cruise ship, you've been on them all.

After a day at sea we docked at our first port: Ketchikan Alaska. We booked two shore excursions there: a crab boat trip and "feast" and "The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show". The crab boat trip was on a sort of enclosed patio boat where they took you up an inlet to some crab pots which they hauled out for some marine biology type measurements on the Dungeness crabs they caught. They then let the crabs go. It was moderately interesting. The best part was the "feast". They took us back to a lodge along the inlet and fed us mass quantities of steamed Alaskan Dungeness crab. These are not the king crab caught on the "Deadliest Catch" TV documentary. They are actually caught like our east coast blue crabs in salt water inlets and bays. They resemble our crabs a little but they seem to be meatier and the meat is sweeter. Eating them is similar to eating the blues - basically a slob's convention of cracking claws and digging out meat with bits flying all over the place - great fun! The feast included one beverage of choice. Fortunately one of the choices included a pint of Alaska Amber beer. Mmm, steamed crabs and good local brew. Doesn't get much better than that.

Me, stuffing my face with Dungeness crab

After the feast they bussed us back to the dock and it was a two-block walk to the lumberjack show. It was fun watching them saw huge logs and climb tall poles and try to log roll one another into a pond. It was staged in the form of a good natured competition between two teams with lots of clowning and shouting. After that, it was back on the ship and off to Juneau. More on that tomorrow.

The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show

The Accidental Blogger

So anyway, I just set out to post a snide comment on my niece and nephew's blog and Blogspot led me down some sort of twisted path which resulted in my having my own blog. Hmmm. Well, I suppose I could rant about George W.Bush etc. etc. but some huge percentage of the people on line seem to have that covered, so instead I'll rant about airlines in general and Continental in particular. Namely how last weekend (St. Patty's Day actually) Continental stranded Michelle and me in Las Vegas by cancelling our flight to Newark and informing us that they could get us home by Wednesday or possibly Thursday. The annoying thing was that while they said the problem was weather related - and the NY airports were closed Friday and part of Saturday due to a snow/ice storm- our flight wasn't supposed to get to Newark until 9:30 PM Saturday and Newark Airport had opened at noon (needless to say the weather on the Vegas end was perfect). I suspect that the problem in such a case really lies with a lack of back up planes, crews etc. In other words, there is a lack of depth in the airline industry's ability to deal with these situations that causes a one day airport closure to result in a cascading series of flight cancellations that can stretch over days. I'm sure the whole thing has to do with saving money (for the airlines) but the public ends up paying the bill.

Now, granted, there are far worse places to be stranded than Vegas, but it cost us a bunch more money and Michelle two extra vacation days that she had not planned on and couldn't afford to give up. We had to scramble to find another room for three nights since we had already checked out of the Venetian where we had been staying -the Venetian has amazing rooms and a good location but they're not cheap and to stay Sat. night would have been outrageously expensive. Thanks to a call to my sister-in-law in Florida and some fancy footwork by her on the computer, we got a room at the Luxor in the pyramid. Well, I always wanted to stay there, and it was kind of neat to ride an elevator that went sideways, but frankly, the place is not what it used to be.

The upside was that we got to spend St. Patrick's Day night listening to Irish music while playing Blackjack machines outside the fake Irish pub at New York, New York. Since they were charging $25.00 a head cover charge just to get in the pub that night, I think it was less expensive to sit and slowly lose money in the machine. Did I mention that there are walkways from the Luxor to both the Mandalay Bay and the Excalibur? From the Excalibur there is a pedestrian bridge across Tropicana avenue to NY, NY. So anyway that's how we ended up there on St. Patty's day.

We also had to extend the rental car for another four days, but we did get a break in that the weekly rate then kicked in and it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

To add insult to injury, the losing streak we were both on during the time we planned to be in Vegas, continued for our unplanned stay. Yeah, I know we could have stopped gambling, but, c'mon, it's Vegas. What else is there to do?

Well, thanks to some more fancy footwork by Michelle we were finally able to get back home on Tuesday - but the only flight we could get was into LaGuardia via Cleveland. When we changed flights in Cleveland we saw stacks of cots piled in the Continental Terminal where people had obviously spent the weekend (like I say, worse places than Vegas). Fortunately, thanks again to my sister-in-law, we got a limo service to pick us up at LaGuardia and take us to where our vehicle was parked at Newark Airport.

Anyhow, I guess I've bitched enough for my first blog post.