Today we start ascending the area known as the Grand Staircase – a series of mesas, canyons and cliffs that encompass the Grand, Zion and Bryce Canyon areas. Grand is at the bottom, Bryce is at the top, we were headed for Zion in the middle.
We headed out around 9:00 a.m., opting for a lazier morning. We headed up 89A to Fredonia passing through more of the Kaibab Forest. On the way, and not quite ready to leave the woodsy, pine-filled area, we stopped at a scenic overlook.
Apparently, the Kaibab Forest was a favorite hunting ground of Teddy Roosevelt. One of the signs had a picture of Teddy perched on a horse – looking very much like Robin Williams in Night at the Museum. Isaac was looking at these signs with me and when we both viewed this one, Isaac said, “You mean that was real?”
We hopped back in the car and continued north and west to Zion. Ross and I looked out the window as we passed into Utah, gazing at the successively higher
vermillion, white and pink cliffs of the staircase. Occasionally, we could hear from the back, “Dude, watch that Green Turtle.” “Dude! Peach as a red turtle!” “Dude, ,make sure that you hit the boxes with the question marks.” “Dude, I hit him with a red turtle and then he got hit by a blue turtle.” Apparently, Mario Cart is much more fascinating than Mother Nature to the younger set.
At Kanab, Utah, we were ready for a brief stop again, so we pulled off at a roadside attraction explaining that it had movie sets to look at – for FREE. Turns
out that in the back of the massive store full of moccasins, hats, western movie t-shirts, rocks and plastic tom toms, was a back yard with some of the remaining set pieces from the Outlaw Josey Whales.
The movie was apparently filmed on location near Kanab, Utah and the producers had donated several of the buildings to the museum. We had some fun and took pictures
playing among buildings that Ross and I definitely remembered. We also had the boys feel the walls, which were made of fiberglass, but looked very much like mud and straw.
Then it was back in the car – Zion, here we come! Our first impression of Zion as we drove through the gates was that it was massive and cool. The cliffs and rock formations in Zion are the remains of a massive, deep dessert – considered to be one of the deepest in the world – that was present in the area millions of years ago. As a result, the sandstone mountains lie angled in 15 and 30 degree angles characteristic of ancient sand dunes.
Coming in from the east, we got to experience the one mile long Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel – an engineering feet that was beyond cool. The boys were the most excited about this part of the drive, even though we did have to wait about 10 minutes so that an escorted tour bus could drive through.
Once on the other side of the tunnel, we wound down into the depths of the canyon past ribboned layers of sandstone and majestic pink, orange and red rock. It was, in a word, gorgeous.
We exited the park on the west side and entered the tiny town of Springdale. We got to the Pioneer Lodge – our home for the next three days just in time to eat lunch at the hotel restaurant. It was too early to check in, so we left the car standing and caught the free shuttle back into the park to kill some time and orient ourselves to our surroundings.
Isaac got his junior ranger information at the Visitor’s Center and then we hopped the shuttle to the Human History museum to watch the orientation video. We wandered around in the museum for about 30 minutes looking at the exhibits and then hopped the shuttle back into Springdale.
We unloaded the car and set up our little homestead. Our room had a living room, bedroom, a full kitchen and two bathrooms. Heaven. While the boys watched TV and Ross took a nap, I headed to the nearest grocery store for breakfast and dinner supplies.
Once those were obtained, I grabbed the laundry and the boys and I headed for the pool. The
laundry room was located right by the pool which made it very easy to keep cool and keep a watch on the clothes at the same time. I was also able to help a mother from Germany who was trying to figure out how to run the machines.
We ate a quick dinner of eggs, toast, veggies and fruit, discussed our hiking plans for the next day and headed to bed.
We headed out around 9:00 a.m., opting for a lazier morning. We headed up 89A to Fredonia passing through more of the Kaibab Forest. On the way, and not quite ready to leave the woodsy, pine-filled area, we stopped at a scenic overlook.
Apparently, the Kaibab Forest was a favorite hunting ground of Teddy Roosevelt. One of the signs had a picture of Teddy perched on a horse – looking very much like Robin Williams in Night at the Museum. Isaac was looking at these signs with me and when we both viewed this one, Isaac said, “You mean that was real?”We hopped back in the car and continued north and west to Zion. Ross and I looked out the window as we passed into Utah, gazing at the successively higher
vermillion, white and pink cliffs of the staircase. Occasionally, we could hear from the back, “Dude, watch that Green Turtle.” “Dude! Peach as a red turtle!” “Dude, ,make sure that you hit the boxes with the question marks.” “Dude, I hit him with a red turtle and then he got hit by a blue turtle.” Apparently, Mario Cart is much more fascinating than Mother Nature to the younger set.
At Kanab, Utah, we were ready for a brief stop again, so we pulled off at a roadside attraction explaining that it had movie sets to look at – for FREE. Turns
out that in the back of the massive store full of moccasins, hats, western movie t-shirts, rocks and plastic tom toms, was a back yard with some of the remaining set pieces from the Outlaw Josey Whales.The movie was apparently filmed on location near Kanab, Utah and the producers had donated several of the buildings to the museum. We had some fun and took pictures
playing among buildings that Ross and I definitely remembered. We also had the boys feel the walls, which were made of fiberglass, but looked very much like mud and straw.Then it was back in the car – Zion, here we come! Our first impression of Zion as we drove through the gates was that it was massive and cool. The cliffs and rock formations in Zion are the remains of a massive, deep dessert – considered to be one of the deepest in the world – that was present in the area millions of years ago. As a result, the sandstone mountains lie angled in 15 and 30 degree angles characteristic of ancient sand dunes.
Coming in from the east, we got to experience the one mile long Zion-Mt. Carmel tunnel – an engineering feet that was beyond cool. The boys were the most excited about this part of the drive, even though we did have to wait about 10 minutes so that an escorted tour bus could drive through.
Once on the other side of the tunnel, we wound down into the depths of the canyon past ribboned layers of sandstone and majestic pink, orange and red rock. It was, in a word, gorgeous.
We exited the park on the west side and entered the tiny town of Springdale. We got to the Pioneer Lodge – our home for the next three days just in time to eat lunch at the hotel restaurant. It was too early to check in, so we left the car standing and caught the free shuttle back into the park to kill some time and orient ourselves to our surroundings.
Isaac got his junior ranger information at the Visitor’s Center and then we hopped the shuttle to the Human History museum to watch the orientation video. We wandered around in the museum for about 30 minutes looking at the exhibits and then hopped the shuttle back into Springdale.
We unloaded the car and set up our little homestead. Our room had a living room, bedroom, a full kitchen and two bathrooms. Heaven. While the boys watched TV and Ross took a nap, I headed to the nearest grocery store for breakfast and dinner supplies.
Once those were obtained, I grabbed the laundry and the boys and I headed for the pool. The
laundry room was located right by the pool which made it very easy to keep cool and keep a watch on the clothes at the same time. I was also able to help a mother from Germany who was trying to figure out how to run the machines.We ate a quick dinner of eggs, toast, veggies and fruit, discussed our hiking plans for the next day and headed to bed.
