Grand Circle - Grand Canyon

Day 5 – It was difficult to leave St. George and our wonderful camp host & guide. Boy did they spoil us.

About 20 miles outside of St. George, as we climbed an incline, we saw Noah’s Ark Rock Formation.

On our way to the Grand Canyon, North Rim, we stopped at Pipe Spring. Anson and Emmeline Winsor ran Pipe Spring for the first six years (it was established in 1870) and they called it Windsor Castle. This ranch was part of Brigham Young’s vision for the growing Mormon population. Mormons often tithed to the church in the form of cattle and the growing tithing herds needed more space. He also needed a source of beef and dairy products to feed hundreds of laborers working on the Mormon temple and other public projects in St. George. Pipe Springs was the perfect place because of the presence of water.

In 1879 the ranch was running more than 2,200 head of cattle. Even before the fort was completed, a relay station for the Deseret Telegraph system was installed, connecting this remote outpost on the Arizona Strip to other Mormon settlements and Salt Lake City, Utah. In the 1880s and 1890s the remote fort became a refuge for wives hiding from federal marshals enforcing anti-polygamy laws, which was an early Mormon doctrine. (we saw the homes of current polygamists as we drove through Colorado City). From 1881 to 1923 Mormon couples from Arizona stopped at Pipe Spring on their way to be married in the St. George Temple, which is why the road running by the fort was called the Honeymoon Trail. Faced with the confiscation of church property and the declining range, the Mormon Church sold Pipe Spring ranch in 1895.

We ended our day with a munchies party, hot dog & baked bean dinner and smores to top it off. Nothing like cooking over an open pit fire.

Day 6 – Grand Canyon, North Rim was a ride share day. It was much easier for everyone to go on their own so that they could spend as much time as they wanted in the different areas. It was great to find someone from our group at all of the different overlooks.

We could hardly contain ourselves from jumping out of the car to take pictures as we drove up the road to the lodge. We wanted to visit the lodge first (rub the donkey’s nose for good luck)

and then stop for pictures on the way back. The view was spectacular. The Grand Canyon is a must see because you just can’t imagine the true beauty, and to think the little ole Colorado River carved the Grand Canyon and the Kaibab Plateau.….

We started out at the Transept Trail

and the Bright Angel Trail. Looking across the canyon, you can see evidence of a fracture in the earth, the Bright Angel Fault. Bright Angel Canyon traces the route of the Right Angel Fault.

Faults are fractures in the earth’s crust along which movement occurs. On the opposite cliff, an offset in the rock layers (light colored Coconino Sandstone) demonstrates the shift. The layers on the right of the fault rise about 150 feet higher than on the left. Bright Angel Fault is still active, producing small earthquakes which visitors sometimes feel.

This is a photo looking down into the canyon.

Major John Wesley Powell stated in 1869 that the Colorado River was “too thick to drink and too thin to plow.” Hmmmmm I believe I heard that while on the Lewis and Clark trip, but they said that about the Missouri River. I’ll have to look that up to find if our guide told us wrong about the Missouri River, or if Major Powell said that about several rivers. There are a few different theories on who the Colorado River cut through the Kaibab Plateau. Maybe they’ll figure it out in our lifetime—something to look forward to.

Next onto Cape Royal

And Angel’s Window (my favorite) which is the most dramatic view of the Colorado River. During the uplift of the Kaibab Plateau, stress and strain caused the rock to fracture forming vertical joints that intersect horizontal bedding planes. Weathering along these planes and joints has eroded a hole in the Kaibab limestone and enlarged it to form a window.
The top of the opposite side of the rim is the Desert View, which is about 8.5 miles away.
The top of the cliff to the left of the photo is Vishnu Temple, which is 2 miles away.
The Walhalla Plateau was the home to Anasiazi Indians 900 years ago. They are believed t be the ancestors of the Hopi Indians who live east of the Grand Canyon. During the winter months, they would be forced to live down in the canyon, while the summer months some of the people lived at the rim, an arduous 2 day walk. Archeologists have identified more than 300 prehistoric sites on this plateau, most of them close to the rim. The largest site contained a complex with 25 rooms. About 1150 A.D. these people left the Canyon, possibly because of a decline in rainfall.

Our last overlook stop was Roosevelt Point. On the far side of the Canyon most of the land is Navajo Indian Reservation. Beyond that on the distance horizon, lies the Painted Desert and the Hopi Indian Reservation.

Before we left the Walhalla area, we found a small area to stop and grab a few more pictures.

While at one of the overlooks, we saw a sign that said the rim is a favorite striking point for lightening, so if you have a lot of static electricity in your body, you might want to take cover during a storm!

Grand Circle Caravan - St. George, Utah

Day1-4

We are here in St. George, Utah, and have a wonderful group of people to join us on the Grand Circle Caravan Tour. Two couples joined us on the East Coast Trip and we were able to visit with them when we were in their area while on the Lewis & Clark Trip and now we will be enjoying another 29 days with them!

The weather is “a little” better than Las Vegas, but during the day it is still hot. We started off the trip with our orientation and a welcome dinner.

This is a FABULOUS RV park. The amenities are endless, pool, not one but 3 pool tables, air hockey, ping pong, etc., etc., etc. PLUS Ira, the owner’s son who is managing the park, was a wonderful guide. He is a 5th or 6th generation in this area and knows all the ins and outs. He’s great!

We took the St. George Live City Tour, which included the Tabernacle built in 1863 and completed in 1871, the courthouse and Brigham Young’s Winter Home.

When we arrived in the courtroom, we found a mock court trial about ready to start. It was the case of the water thief. It seems that the town gets irrigation from a mountain spring which runs through the town in the street gutters. Each resident was allowed 4 hours a day about once a week to have the water irrigate his property. In order to do that, they had a manual system of routing the water to their property. It seems that the townspeople used to cheat (can you imagine that….) By placing a stone under the board, which routed the water, unless you looked closely at the curb, you might not realize that water was being taken illegally. They said stealing water was worse that stealing a horse. The judge announced someone in our group was the accused. And 4 people were selected as the jury. It was a pretty funny skit.

It was an early day, so Marcia, Bobby, Bill and I took off on our own and visited the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm and Rosenbruch Foundation World Wildlife Museum.

The Johnson Dinosaur track has a dinosaur raised print – there is only one other like it in America. It was found while the owner of the farm was digging on his property. It started out with just a tent like structure over the area and is now enclosed in a building with many dinosaur tracks that they found, along with eggs (Baby Louie is the most complete dinosaur hatchling ever found in a group of eggs) and fossils. It is the original discovery track-bearing surface and contains over 1000 tracks of all shape and sizes. For anyone who is into dinosaurs, they found tracks for Anomoepus, Grallator, Eubrontes, as well as some unidentified tracks. It’s hard to believe that dinosaurs were running around this area and even harder to believe that they were discovered in our lifetime!

The World Wildlife Museum is the 5th largest animal display in the world. Animals from all over the world are in real life poses. I like the way they laid the museum out, by country.

Our first “full” day of touring was to Zion National Park. We started out early ready for the “heat” of the day, only to find, it was a little chilly. It wasn’t until almost noon that it got warm. It was just as I remembered it—BEAUTIFUL!

You will notice some of the tops of the formations are while, while the lower part are reddish. The color is due to “staining” from the minerals as the rains suck the minerals out of the sandstone.

We stopped at Temple of Sinawava, where the river canyon narrows abruptly, Big Ben, Angel’s Landing, Weeping Rock, where a dripping spring feeds the hanging garden of ferns and mosses.

Because the cliffs’ Navajo sandstone is porous, it acts as a vertical reservoir. Snowmelt percolates down through the sandstone. When it reaches an impermeable layer of siltstone, the moisture travels along cracks until it emerges from canyon walls, punctuating the cliffs with damp micro-habitats. Life concentrates in those green niches.

Checkerboard Mesa has lines in a checkboard shape on the entire mountain.”

Angels Landing is where many deaths each year occur….. Two weeks prior to our visit a young mother was posing for a photo and fell off the top of the cliff…..

Our ride home found some nappers.

Our last day in St. George was a free day where we decided to visit Snow Canyon.

While driving through the canyon, we found remnants of the black lava.

We found the volcano just outside of the park.

Our last night in St. George, Marcia and I fixed dinner for our group. Of course, the fact that we had leftovers from our welcome dinner, made it a lot easier for us! And we had a wonderful ice cream social provided for by our campground (boy they spoiled us!).

Tomorrow, on to Jacob Lake, Arizona.