Vacation Day 5: Moab to Flagstaff

Sadly we left Moab this morning with little fanfare and some unfinished business, mainly a visit of Arches National Park, which we did not do.  We amped up on morning coffee by going through Wicked Brew, a drive-thru espresso place in Moab.  With plenty of gas we were on our way to Flagstaff.

From Moab, US 191 climbs gradually to Monticello.  The terrain becomes greener and the Abajo Mountains to the west become larger.  From there, the road descends back into the desert to Blanding and then Bluff.  Always in view are various sedimentary rock units in the cliffs and canyons.

We left US 191 and then turned onto US 160 shortly after crossing into Arizona.  We made a lunch stop at a Burger King in Kayenta.  An emergency vehicle with siren and lights passed us before we turned into Burger King.  I commented that I expected they were responding to an accident that could delay us.  After lunch two aid cars were going passed us in the opposite direction.  Soon we were passing the accident scene, a car apparently missing a curve and crashing through a guard rail.  Sobering.

We made a planned stop at Wupatki National Monument to view some of the pueblo ruins built by the ancient Pueblo people some 800 years ago.  Ever since visiting Chaco Canyon in 2006, I've been fascinated by the ancient Pueblo, also known as the Anasazi, but this term has fallen out of favor as it is now a well known fact the the existing Puebloan peoples are descended from these ancient peoples.

Next we made the short loop drive to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.  We were short on time but managed to make a few quick stops.  This cinder cone erupted about 900 years ago and the resulting lava flow looks as fresh as if it was erupted last year.  This part of Arizona has a lot of volcanic features, including the San Francisco Peaks, which resembles Mount Saint Helens in shape, and likely had the same explosive eruption that blew out the side of this stratovolcano.

There is a fire going up in the San Francisco Peaks and we could readily see the smoke and smell it.  Some of the fire burned into a portion of Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.  We could see some of the blackened ground but it did not appear to burn up into the forest crown at this location.

We finally made it into Flagstaff and checked into the Little America Hotel, a vintage 1970s hostelry that still retains that look.  The room was large and clean with horrid decor that would look good at the Madonna Inn.  Still, it was roomy and comfortable.

We ate dinner at Salsa Brava, a well known Mexican restaurant in Flag.  My wife and I both ordered margaritas.  The food was excellent.  I had a gordito burrito.  My wife and older son had carne adovado tacos, very spicy.  Younger son had a plate of nachos.  We went back to our room and instantly fell asleep.

Tomorrow the Grand Canyon.

Vacation Day 4: Evening Hummer Tour

After snoozing away most of the afternoon in the air conditioned comfort of our hotel room, we met up again at 6 pm for the evening Hummer tour.  This was easy, just sit back and let the guide crawl the Hummer over rock and sand.  This tour is kind of the stock tour for the couch potato class.  We embarked with four full Hummers, each holding eight people.  We shared our Hummer with a family from upstate New York, a notoriously conservative part of the country, somewhat the antithesis of western Washington.  They weren't very chatty and we weren't either after spending the first part of the day canyoneering.

Our guide Steve, was a former science teacher and, as I found out later from him, he is the high school principal.  One of the other guides was a police officer in town.  I got the impression that if you had connections in Moab, you could moonlight as a guide and collect juicy tips from tourists.

Our first stop was to look at dinosaur tracks, which were difficult to see after being run over thousands of times by Jeeps, Hummers, Unimogs, and a few mountain bikes.  Steve talked about the dinosaurs and Navajo sandstone.

The Hummers are amazing vehicles.  However, unless you are a serious off-road enthusiast who likes fixing broken things, you probably wouldn't want to take your shiny new FJ Cruiser on these tracks.

This sunset tour was a great way to end our stay in Moab.  Tomorrow Flagstaff, another six hour drive.

Vacation Day 4: Canyoneering

Today was another early start.  We showed up at the Moab Adventure Center at 7 am for our next adventure ... canyoneering.  We piled into a big Suburban along with a couple ladies from New Jersey and another young couple from another part of New Jersey.  Our guides on the trip were JC and Chris of Moab Cliffs & Canyons.

We drove just a few miles out of town and parked at the top of a rise.  We were given daypacks that included water bottle, climbing helmet, harness, and the rappelling hardware, a locking carabinier and brake device.  We started hiking out across the slickrock then began our descent into the politically correct named Negro Bill Canyon.  We learned about cyptobiotic soil and the Navajo sandstone, the main cliff-forming rock unit here and a rock formed from blowing sand dunes.  There is a narrow band of limestone within the Navajo sandstone that represents an incursion of a shallow sea.  The limestone unit forms an aquitard where springs issue from the overlying sandstone.

We only had about a mile to hike before our first rappel.  On the way we had to make a short hop across a shallow cleft in the sandstone.  Normally this would have been routine hop for me.  I launched from my right leg and landed on my left but it didn't turn out too graceful.  As my left leg planted I lurched forward and felt instant pain in my upper left calf muscle.  Yep, I pulled a muscle and probably tore more than a few muscle fibers in the process.  I knew I could make the rest of the trip as long as I was careful.  There was a certain movement that would induce instant pain and I took great care not to make that movement.  The guides were naturally concerned and asked me all sorts of questions about where it hurt and the nature of the pain.  Again, I knew I could make it the rest of the way.  I also knew it would hurt a lot more tomorrow (I was right).

We reached our first rappel station and Chris had moved ahead of the group and had it already set up.  I went first in our family so I could get pictures from the bottom.  The first rappel was 90 feet.  Although I had rock climbed and rappelled before it was still a little scary.  It had been more than 20 years since I had done this.  Once I was underway, I got more comfortable.  Next came older son, then younger son, and finally my wife.  It took some coaxing to get the boys to commit and get underway but once they did it and completed it they were ecstatic.

The next rappel was just a little further down.  This second rappel was 120 feet of which more than half was over an overhang leaving you freely hanging in space with no rock to touch.  This rappel was also right next to Morning Glory Natural Bridge, the seventh largest natural bridge in the world.  At the bottom there was a spring and the beginning of a creek that flows along the bottom of Negro Bill Canyon.

Our hike out was two and half miles following the creek and crossing it several times.  I brought up the rear for a good ways along with the two Jersey women who, being about the same age as me, were not very sure-footed.  However, they didn't pull any muscles like me.  I was careful and made good time, the leg not bothering me too much as long as I didn't do that one movement

Hiking along the canyon bottom was spectacular.  High sandstone walls, a clear running creek, and cool shady places among the canyon bottom trees.  A small gopher snake made an appearance.  We eventually made it to the parking lot where Negro Bill Canyon joins the Colorado River and then drove back to Moab Adventure Center.

We hit Subway for sandwiches and went back to the hotel room.  We napped for a few hours before our next adventure that day, the sunset Hummer tour.

Vacation Day 3: Westwater Canyon

We had to be at Moab Adventure Center at 7:30 am and by golly we made it.  We went through the usual formalities, signing releases etc.  I struck up a conversation with Clint, the lead guide and another guide Jen who grew up in Lynnwood and graduated from Meadowdale High - Class of 1999.

We rode a bus to the put-in, an hour and a half trip that might have been more pleasant had it not been for the blasting air conditioning.  The put-in was at the Westwater Ranger Station, off of Interstate 70 a few bumpy road miles.  The Bureau of Land Management manages Westwater Canyon.

The guides got all the rafts ready, fitted us into life vests, and soon we were launched into the current, three paddle rafts and an oar raft.  We had nine people in our raft, us, another family of three, and two women from Minnesota.  Our guide was Mack, a soft spoken guy, probably late thirties.

The first part of the trip is about seven miles of relatively flat water.  We spotted a couple bald eagles that had a nest in a big cottonwood tree.  The canyon gradually narrowed and the walls grew higher.  We paddled and paddled for what seemed like an interminable time.

The cliff forming unit of the canyon is the Wingate Sandstone, late Triassic to early Jurrassic, roughly 200 million years old.  The Wingate is formed from ancient sand dunes and one can readily see some nice cross bedding in the cliffs.  The Wingate sits atop the Chinle Formation, also late Triassic, composed of softer shales and sandstones formed in lakes and meandering rivers.

What is really unique about Westwater Canyon is that it cuts into Precambrian metamorphic rocks, the black-colored Vishnu schist, which itself is cut by granitic bodies known as the Zoraster granite.  The only other exposure of this rock is in the Granite Gorge of the Grand Canyon.

As we floated down the river, looking at rocks and pontificating about their origins, it became evident that there was another geologist in the group, Andy.  Andy was in our raft with his wife and son, the family being from Massachusetts.

We pulled off for lunch on a sandy bank.  The guides prepared a sandwich bar, which in our experience is the standard raft trip lunch.  After lunch, we received a thorough safety briefing before we launched into the next leg, where we'd hit a series of rapids, including Funnel Falls, Skull, and Last Chance.  The river was flowing about 11,000 cfs and the rapids were rated about Class III.  Still, we hit some good sized waves and got thoroughly splashed.  It reminded me a little of the Wenatchee River, only much warmer.  Mack deftly maneuvered us through the rapids and we didn't lose anyone.  One of our rafts had a couple swimmers go in at Skull.  They were quickly back in their raft.

The last stage of the trip was over flat water, more miles of mindless paddling.  At least the scenery was awe-inspiring.  We finally made it to our take-out at Cisco.  We loaded back into the bus and drove for another hour and a half back to Moab.

We had dinner at the Moab Brewery which was excellent.  I had the Scorpian Pale Ale, a hoppy brew to finish a great day.

Vacation Day 2: Twin Falls to Moab

Another long day of driving, but not as long or far as yesterday.  The weather was much nicer today.  We breakfasted at the hotel in Twin Falls.  When all was said and done, we hit the highway around 9 am.  We made a rest stop near the Idaho-Utah border where we started seeing some nice mountain scenery.  We made the outskirts of Salt Lake City around 1 pm.  We stopped at a Costco in Bountiful for gas and lunch.

I've been to Salt Lake City several times over the years for project work and a couple times during college for skiing.  The drivers in Salt Lake, for the most part, have that furtive lane changing, catch up to the next guy style, constantly speeding.  No one seems to want to get into a groove and chill at a comfortable speed.  I was glad to leave SLC behind.  People, a monster truck is not a sports car.

The drive over the Wasatch backbone on US 6 was very scenic.  From there it just got better and better.  As we got closer to Moab it started to look like LA smog.  We speculated that it was from the fires in northern Arizona.

We finally made it into Moab about 6 pm.  We had a passable dinner at a place called Zax.  We have three nights here at the Hampton Inn.  Tomorrow rafting down Westwater Canyon.