Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Days 44-47: Catch-up Time! More Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Canyonlands, and Arches!

I haven’t been able to upload my blog for a few days since the WiFi at our campground has been either nonexistent or not working, so I have a lot to catch up on! The “Coffee Bean Dreams” project is at an interesting point, anyways, since I’m lucky enough to be taking this road trip vacation, and my morning coffee reflections are being done at actual locations of natural beauty rather than just reading about them online. So here is a quick catch-up on what we’ve been doing. I tried to shorten it a bit since it’s several days rolled into one blog, but it still turned out kind of long!

Day 44 (June 21st) – We visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. On the first day we did the Rim Trail. Portions of it are paved so we took Amelie in the stroller so that she would be nice and shaded, since it was sunny and hot! There are portions of the path that are not paved and don’t work with the stroller, so we took the free shuttle between those. I do have some baby carriers that I like to hike with her in, but it’s so hot right now that having her wrapped up in a carrier and right against me was just too much heat. It was not as adventurous as some hikes I’ve done in the past, but it was beautiful nonetheless, and I didn’t have to worry about Baby Girl getting too much sun or getting too hot. In the evening the temperatures at the Rim dropped significantly, and I ended up even putting on a hoodie while we watched the sunset over the canyon, which was one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen! On the second day we were at the Grand Canyon, we checked out the desert view side, which had some great views as well. We didn’t spend as much time there, though, because we just drove the road and stopped at the lookout points instead of hiking- we wanted to get to our next stop, Monument Valley, before dark!

Enjoying Sunset and cooler temperatures at the Grand Canyon's South Rim


I should mention, since I’ve been talking about the seven wonders of the natural world, that the Grand Canyon is on the list! The Grand Canyon, while not the steepest or longest canyon in the world, is on the list because of its overall size and scale and beautifully colored landscape. It’s 277 miles long, has widths ranging from 4-18 miles, and a depth of over one mile. It was formed by erosion from the Colorado river over millions of years. You can read more about the Grand Canyon here: http://sevennaturalwonders.org/the-original/grand-canyon/ and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canyon. I feel very lucky to have been able to see this beautiful canyon, and have seen one of the seven wonders of the natural world!

Day 45 (June 22nd) – Today we explored Monument Valley, which is located in Utah right near the Arizona/Utah border. Monument Valley is essentially a series of huge rocks jutting up into the landscape. It’s pretty incredible to see. The rocks are at various stages of erosion: mesas are the first stage of erosion and are wide, stable rocks that look like tables; buttes are the second stage of erosion and are smaller than mesas; and spires are the final stage of erosion and are narrow, free standing rock formations. Monument Valley has a wide range of these giant rock formations in all of these stages of erosion. The land these rocks sit on was at one time underneath the Gulf of Mexico. Through millions of years of the sea withdrawing and uplift of the Earth’s crust creating the Colorado plateau, the forces of this uplift and erosion left behind these giant rock formations and now we have Monument Valley, which, of course, is still eroding slowly today. (More on Monument Valley: http://www.navajonationparks.org/index.htm).

There is a 17 mile round-trip unpaved road that takes you right into Monument Valley. You can pay a per-car fee to do a self-guided drive of this road. The road is a little rough and very dusty. Thankfully, we had a four-wheel drive vehicle, so it was no problem. In fact, Baby Girl seemed to love the rough spots in the road, and when we went over a particularly bouncy spot, she would often laugh, which, of course, made us laugh as well! The self-guided tour was awesome- you basically travel right through and around these giant structures. It was nice to be in the air conditioned car, too, because it was HOT! We only pulled Baby out for a few quick minutes to snap a photo of her- too much sun and heat for such a little thing!

The view from our campground at Monument Valley. Not too shabby!

Driving the rough road through Monument Valley. Notice the person and cars in the photo to get a sense of scale.

A quick photo op with Baby Girl at Monument Valley


Day 46 (June 23rd) – We drove to Canyonlands National Park in Utah and went to the Needles Portion. (The Park is divided into three areas: Needles, Island in the Sky, and The Maze: these sections are not directly connected to each other so visiting more than one in a day is pretty difficult). The Canyonlands are another area of the Colorado plateau where rock deposits and erosion have left behind impressive rocky cliffs, mesas, canyons, and river gorges. (More on the Canyonlands: http://www.nps.gov/cany/naturescience/index.htm).

There are several challenging hiking trails, and many very challenging 4x4 trails. We hiked a few easy trails and just made sure Baby was covered from the sun with her hat and a light blanket. Although I enjoy challenging hikes, those will have to wait a few years now! Honestly, though, it was so hot that maybe it was nice to have a valid “excuse” for not doing the more difficult trails! In any event, the scenery available from the trails we did and the lookout points on the scenic drive was still well worth the trip!

Canyonlands. It's hard for a picture to give a true sense of scale here.




Day 47 (June 24th) – Today we spent the morning seeing a few more scenic outlooks in Canyonlands, and then drove to Moab, Utah because we are planning to spend some time at Arches National Park. (We spent a few minutes at Arches watching the sunset, which was gorgeous!) The Anticline Outlook at Canyonlands was beautiful, although the bugs today were out in full force. I’m not sure exactly what they are, but there are all these little gnat-like bugs that were incessantly flying around every time we got out of the car. So today’s hikes were a little short, but we did see some beautiful spots in Canyonlands. And, bonus- our new campground in Moab has working WiFi, so I can upload these updates to my blog! I must say, however, there is something nice about being completely off the grid, unconnected to the rest of the world and just enjoying nature! I’m excited to explore more of Arches tomorrow, but as you can tell, it’s been a great several days full of many opportunities to take in some truly spectacular natural beauty! 

Baby Girl and I enjoying the sunset at Balanced Rock in Arches National Park

Whew, that was a lot! I hope you enjoyed catching up on the last few days!

Xoxo,
Diana

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