georgecollins

What a great trip. We accomplished 95% of the plan. A big Thanks to all the Fodorites;
Your suggestions of things to see, restaurants, itinerary order, driving time required, etc-- worked out far beyond our expectations.

emalloy
utahtea
Meyer
RVvababond
peterboy
sharondi
spirobulldog
Dayle
Booklover44
J62

Below is the original agenda and our comments after each day.

But first a quick net of our trip: Things started messy as my boots(Merrill Moabs) were backordered and had only one week to break them in(then I found out no break is required—what great boots). Next United changed our outbound flight, added 2 hrs flight time and arrived 12:30 PM in LAS, where we spent another hr lost trying to find the hotel.



Our favorite Places (in no particular order)
Islands in the sky
Both Arches hikes
Little wild horse canyon
Lower calf creek falls
Bryce

Favorite Restaurants
Hampton Inn-MV –great Fajitas—full house, take out w/ wine in room
Singha –Tai restaurant (Moab)
Slot Canyon Inn(Escalante) Seared steak on sizzling obsidian block
Desert Bistro—Buffalo tenderloin with enough left over for two lunches in Arches
and a great wine cellar—we had a Spanish Rioja
Café Diablo-copilot who rarely eats red meat now likes a good steak. We talked to
the wait staff and Chef for a hour.
Hell’s Backbone Café(Boulder)

pics-- http://img.gg/G9VNhR8 -- Nikon URL—shows GPS and pics—punch slideshow

Aug 31----- Ga to LAS, rental car to Hotel Alexis
Sept 1-LAS to MV- -Drive 7 hrs.
AM—.Horseshoe Bend, Glen Canyon Dam---
AM--Wind Talker Monument-Hampton Inn

Mesquite Walmart—cooler and supplies
Glen Canyon 45min tour was interesting and a nice break after driving. Horseshoe Bend short hike an easy hike for the hikes to come
Wind talker Museum was closed and would not open for hours after we left the next AM. Did MV drive thru this day. Hampton Inn dinner—perfect with our wine
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Sept 2 ---To Moab via-MV ride thru- Drive 3-4 hr
Valley of the Gods/Cedars Museum/Needles OL
Canyonlands Visitor ctr-Hampton Inn/Desert Bistro
PM-4hr-Islands in Sky/Green river/Arch hike/Grand view

Perfect day-6:30 AM start--one hr. at Edge of Cedars museum, Blandings- spent 5hrs in islands. Mesa Arch/green river/ Grand view hike –easy hikes and views. Bison and Spanish wine at Desert Bistro.
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Sept 3 – Arches/ ……Moab Diner--bkft
AM--4hr---- Devils Garden hike/ Sushi Picnic
PM--3hr---- Delicate Arch hike-
Possible night pgm.

--Bkft at Hampton Inn: Lunch was Bison tenderloin. Great suggestion to take lunch in for the day to eliminate all the back and forth driving. 100^ and we were happy for the early start and Shade on the way.
Petroglyphs were neat.
Devils Garden was tough hike after the morning hike. We saw 5 more impressive arches. Drove to windows and stopped at Visitor’s Ctr on the way out.
Way to tired for night pgm--------Desert Bistro dinner//Hampton Inn
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Sept 4-To Torrey(R128N)-Hanksville /Mine-Drive-3hr
AM--3hr-Goblin overlook drive/Little wild horse hike (narrows)
PM ---1hr--Chimney Rock/Capitol Gorge drive
1hr--Hickman Br. Trail—Gifford House
--Best Western/-Café Diablo

R128 on the way out was beautiful and the ride nearly 100% in the shade after a full day of Sun. All the campsites on the Colorado were full.
Met a herd of pronghorn at the highway intersection.
Enjoyed Goblin but Little Wild Horse was Fabulous—we did 4 slots -4 hrs.
Skipping Antelope Canyon(growds) was a great recommendation LWH was special and we saw only a few people and a great Dane named Jasmine..
Hickman Br. Trail and Arch was tiring after the Slot Canyon and the Arch a yawn after Arches.
Entered Torrey without finding our Best Western motel. Had to backtrack as I knew it was on the road before Torrey. Name was changed and no longer BW and no longer free bkft. So friends-find someplace else.
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Sept 5---to Boulder/Escalante-----Drive 2-3 hr
----------Anasazi Museum—bkft Hells Backbone Grill Boulder
3-4hr---Burr Trail / Wolverton loop-Slot River inn/dinner

Boulder Mt ride was quite a change—great vista, trees, herds of deer, cows everywhere, Elk calling.
Burr ride with a full belly from Hells Backbone Grill and was nice break after all the hiking. Beautiful ride and copilot by now only showed faint white knuckles on her death grip around the switchbacks.
Wolverton loop was closed –even impassimpassable with 4WD. Moved Devils Garden up one day. Another great day and a break from long hikes. Goblins were impressive and as recommended-bigger and better than Goblin..
Slot Canyon Inn and their restaurant was first class. Room with view of river and big tub . Outdoor ,covered patio for drinks and dinner.(basic wine selection).
Dinner and Bkft—perfect. Steak was served with a 10x10x10 in cube of very hot obsidian to sear each bite of steak as you ate it. The aroma and taste were very much enhanced.
Bkft—Special Buckwheat pancakes, eggs, bacon, ham, quiche, pastries, the whole 9 yds.
************************************************** ************************************************** ***
Sept 6 - Escalante ----------------Drive 2hr
AM---4 hr--Lower Calf creek hike/River Bridge/
PM---2hr------Devils Garden drive
--2hr------Willis ck.-(option)
Late PM -- to Bryce--Bryce cabin/ Lodge dinner late.

Lower Calf was a fun hike—and it takes a full 4 hrs. We were 2.5 hrs in, ¼ hr. at falls and copilot set a pace for the return trip in 1 hr. 15 min. Saw turkeys, marmots, rabbits and deer. Boots off to cool feet at the beautiful waterfall. Young girl went swimming in that very cold water.
Ran out of beer and wine again and stopped at the Outfitters. And has a liquor store
We decided to skip Willis cr. As LWH was so great. Went to Bryce early.
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Sept 7 Bryce
Rim Walk/Mossy cave/Queens landing-Lodge dinner
add Bryce activities

The Cabin has a big tub, fireplace, etc. and 40yds to the rim. Don’t remember much about dinner due to the hot tub and scotch.
Bryce is very, very impressive.
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Sept 8 Bryce-----------cabin
AM--open, option / Willis ck2 hr/go to Zion
PM---Drive to Zion/Visitor station
4-5hr-Weeping rock/Emerald lower pool/Riverside walk

Did the Rim AM&PM, Queens
Also did the Navaho trail—this place is sooo interesting.
Added the overview ride thru entire Park.
Left to go to Zion early. Mossy cave on the way—nice easy hike(we were getting tired)

This trip to Zion turned out to be frustrating as our cabin Ponderosa was outside the east entrance. So we had to backtrack thru the tunnel which was now one way only, we were also stopped 2 additional times for rockslide cleanup on the road. After lunch in Springdale we headed back to the Visitors Center. Zion--We enjoyed the easy riverside walk, emerald pools and weeping rock that afternoon.

Back to the east thru the tunnel, another landslide(it is now raining hard) and about 8 more miles north to the cabin. We would have saved several hrs of driving by staying in Springdale.

Started raining around 1PM And it rained all night. At Bkft, We were informed that R15 was washed out and had to reroute our trip to Flagstaff.
Soooo—we were exhausted, had enough sun, and we did not want to go back thru the tunnel and probably more rockslides: our easy 3 hr rtn. trip was now going to be 8 hrs—got in the car and headed south. Hiking was out of the question, and the rivers were over the road.


Sept 9- Zion,
AM—Canyon Overlook-12hr.(sunup)// petroglyph panel
3hr-Scout”s Lookout hike-after Bkft
PM-2hr open
Whiptail Diner, Springdale then Kolab Reservoir
At bkft we were told R15 and R93 were washed out and we had to go thru Flagstaff to get to LAS.

This whole day at Zion was scratched –Did a scenic ride thru Az and the Hover.

LAS to Alexis Hotel(midnight)------------Drive 3hr

When we finally arrived, copilots phone told us good old united had cancelled our return trip. We found it unbelievable that the new routing was exactly the same flight that I arranged in March and was told the flight no longer existed. I am now out of frequent flyer miles and will never do that airline again.

We logged 1933 miles in the 10 days. Lodging in Springdale would have saved 60 miles and about 4 hrs driving / delay time. Additional time would have been saved knowing the relative proximity of the Slot Canyon Inn, Lower Calf Creek and Devils Garden. So best case to save 100miles over 1900--pretty darn good. Thanks

Recommend this trip to be done in the reverse order as Bryce, Hickman and a few other venues were so-so after our previously mentioned favorites. Also the Zion crowds we overwhelming –all other places we not so busy. Canyon Lands/Arches/ non park venues were not crowded--as they are much more spread out.

Found that Gatorade G2 was always refreshing and we believed reduced our volume need for water. We also wrapped our cold drinks in a space blanket-the cool drinks were great. .By getting into the parks early, we were able to find shade on the hike and to keep the drinks cool in the car.

Gas stations were never an issue—they are even in nowhere.

Fantastic trip; will return to Utah/ Az. in a couple years.

Thanks again for all the great incite--anybody guess at location of each pic??

jerry

J62

Great trip report - vicarious travel is better than none.

Love the pics too!!

Myer

I'm glad you had a great trip.
I see you went to Horseshoe Bend.

My question is, who suggested you skip Antelope Canyon.

Little Wild Horse and Antelope Canyon are not interchangeable.

georgecollins

emalloy posted:

Since you are going to other slot canyons, if it isnt a sunny day on Aug 31, don't bother with the time/expense of doing Antelope Canyon, when it is sunny it is spectacular (see my afternoon pics at www.flickr.com/photos/emalloy2009 in the 2008 album) but not so much if it is overcast or rainy. If you want a break in the driving and you are in Page, go out to Horseshoe bend overlook or just to the Best Dam view.

We had time to do Antelope,but we were there 10AM. And as we read about it and then saw the crowd, trucks, portapotties, huge crowd--happy to skip it.

The 4 unique slots at LWH were my personal favorites and we were so impressed(spectacular), we skipped Willis creek. We also saw only a half dozen people the 4 hrs at LWH.

jerry

Myer

Little Wild Horse and Willis Creek are probably interchangeable.

Antelope Canyon is not an ordinary slot canyon in terms of hiking, etc.

I do agree that Antelope Canyon should be seen when the sun is relatively high in the sky and obviously on a nice day with a lot of sun. It's the reflections that are amazing.

emalloy

Thanks for the TR, I relived some of our trips in the past and hope to get out there before too long.

Loved your pictures and if you get back there when it is less crowded and cooler, maybe late September early October, you can do Antelope Canyon. It sounds like skipping it made sense for this trip.

The southwest is great for a re-visit, there is so much to see and sometimes it looks different the next time.

georgecollins

emalloy--maybe you are right again----BUT, to us Antelope had too many commercial drawbacks and we avoid truck rides and crowds.

Meyer-

Little Wild Horse was done midday and the colors, complexion, reflections(especially off the pools of water) were impressive. I went back to review the pics of Antelope and feel we missed little or none.
We also spent 4 hrs thru all the sections. One reason no one was there was a hudge body of water at the entrance that required some cliff scaling to get in.

Someday, maybe we will do Antelope--just to see if it could possibly be any better than LWH.(LWH is a great memory)

peterboy

Thanks for the report..sorry we missed you in Torrey...arrived late and tired....grabbed a burger at Slackers and crashed.

So sorry to hear about your troubles getting home. We were concerned about the big I-15 detour but they managed to get one lane open in each direction by the time we needed to get from Springdale to Vegas.

Yup, Springdale for Zion all day long.

georgecollins

Too bad we missed the connections--we were still at Cafe Diablo around 10 pm

jerry

Dayle

Hi Jerry and Peterboy,

I was wondering how you did with the incredible rainfall! Glad it didn't have too much impact.

jerry, I guess I didn't know you planned to stay at the Ponderosa east of Zion. People just don't realize what a drive and waste of time it is and I always recommend NOT staying there on short time-critical trips.

Glad you enjoyed the rest of the trip - you will be back. Thanks for the TR.

Peterboy, we want a TR from you and Sharondi - I'm always curious about where you explore!

Happy trails!

mlgb

Funny, we were in Mesquite on 9/14. I hate Zion with the crowds and the shuttle bus, but would agree that Springdale is really the best option. We have been there before so ignored contrary advice, and drove straight through (with a slight tunnel delay) to Kanab. One day earlier and I think we would have been caught in the cleanup.

sharondi

Great trip report, georgecollins. Really sorry we missed you but it sounds like you had a wonderful adventure.

Hi Dayle. I am working on a report, especially since we haven't posted one the past two years. We brought our good friends along on this trip - they've been so anxious to come along with us to see southern Utah. This trip was a little different than our recent explorations - focused more on the "highlights" since our friends had never been. But it was lots of fun, and Peter and I had a chance to re-visit some of our favorite hikes that we haven't done in years.

We also had a chance to meet up with some incredible people that Peter has communicated with (via computer) who live and work in this amazing region. Can't wait to get back next year for more adventures! I'll post soon. Thanks again, georgecollins.