Toto drove us up highway 89, across the river, in front of the Glen Canyon Dam, and up the highway some more. We found a gas station, got gas, bought ice (and ice cream) and then decided we only had enough time to head back and maybe stop at the dam visitor center (hehehe, DAM visitor center, hehehe). We learned some cool stuff there. The Glen Canyon Dam construction began in 1958 (I think) and it was completed in 1964. Lake Powell (the reservoir behind the dam) took 20 years to fill up. The water from the Colorago River was needed down stream so only one of the two bypass tunnels through the cliffs on either side of the dam (that were built to reroute the river during construction) was shut off. That allowed the people downstream to continue using the water but also allowed the lake to start filling up. It didn’t explain this on the large photographic time line on the wall and Toto and I were all sorts of confused so we went and asked the kid behind the counter (by kid I mean mid twenties, probably just a few years older than me). He explained it to us. We discussed a few other things and then I gave him the link to this blog. Mr. Dam Info Dude, if you’re reading this, HOLLA!!
Up by Page, there are a ton of slot canyons. A slot canyon is a crack in the sandstone that gets eroded by water and winds over time. They are these little crevices with a flat sandy floor and the sun comes down into them in such a beautiful way. Google image search them. Do it now. You’ll understand why we went. Toto has been dying to see one for ten years, so she was not going to let this trip go by without going to one. These canyons used to be open to the public but people got destructive: they would graffiti the walls of the canyon, some people shot guns at the walls, so the National parks people closed it down and relinquished power of them back to the Navajo Nation because they are on their land. So you have to prearrange a tour through one of the tour agencies. They will pick you up at your hotel, drive you out to the canyon, then they guide you through the canyon and tell you where all the great pictures are (if you’re like Toto this just annoys you because you like to take your own photos), they give you lots of information and then they drive you back to your hotel. The whole process takes about 2 hours. The only bad thing is that there a ton of people in the canyon. The 1:30 tour we went on had 6 or 8 truck loads of people. Each truck had its own tour guide, but they all went in at the same time. But everyone worked well together and stood out of the way when someone was trying to take a picture. Toto took a million pictures, to see the majority of them go to my facebook. When we got to the tour office from the hotel there was a wide selection of four by four rigs to truck us out to the canyon. There was one in particular that Josh wanted to ride in. It was a bright blue (the tour company color) 1977 Chevy pick up that had a six or eight inch lift and 35” off road tires on it. He requested us to sit in that one and went to save us a seat. When Toto and I got out to the truck, Josh was at the very front of the bed, and the only two seats left were at the very back. But he was happy because he got to sit squished up against a cute girl from Switzerland. The ride out to the canyon was fun. Obviously. We were in the back of a pickup, and it was a bumpy ride along a dried up creek bed.
It was perfect temperature, probably 93ish or so, and windy and it brought out the redneck side of me that would be content with life if I had nothing but a big truck and a farm. When we got to the canyon we filed in and heard some interesting things from JR, our gigantic Navajo tour guide. The way the slot canyon is formed, they have an open top. You can’t always see the sky, but the wind up above will kick up sand and throw it down into the canyon which then lands on you and your camera. This doesn’t occur the entire time you are inside, just once and a while and it isn’t as annoying as you would think. The falling sand gives you a beautiful photographic opportunity, and you forgive the minor irritation it causes to your eyes as you take the picture that will make your friends wish they had been there with you.
After the slot canyon (or slut canyon as one of my friends is calling them now), we went in search of a light lunch. There was some disagreement over just where the Subway was, and in the long run I was correct and I got to say “I told you so.” Ok, side note: in Oregon when you get a meal at Subway you get the little paper 21 ounce cup with your sandwich and chips. Apparently, EVERYWHERE ELSE gets the big plastic 32 ouncer with their meals. I think we’re getting jipped Oregon. We need to write an angry letter. After our food we went back to the Grand Canyon. But this time we went to the North Rim, and on the way there we made a few stops. We stopped at a bridge over the Colorado River down near the Vermillion Cliffs. This is the Navajo Bridge. It was built in 1929 and was the only bridge over the Colorado River for 600 miles. It opened up commerce routes (obviously) and made life better for everyone nearby. It is now a walking bridge, with a newer one built right next to it for the highway. Kind of like the Crooked River bridges in Central Oregon. We also stopped, very briefly (like did not get out of the car) at a little wide spot in the road at a marker called “People who live in rock houses” (see photo below). Toto says “People who live in rock houses shouldn’t throw glass.” It was retarded but funny. We may have been stuck in this car a little too long.
We got to the Grand Canyon’s North Rim between six and six thirty. We walked out to this view point that actually puts you out in the canyon. It was pretty amazing. It was windy, and cool (somewhere around 70 degrees), and clear. The sun was higher than it had been the day before, so Toto had better light for pictures. There was a large rock next to the view point that Josh wanted to climb. We wouldn’t let him. Toto has always worried that God blessed us with Zack in case Josh does something stupid and we “need a spare.” So we wouldn’t let him go anywhere near climbing the rock. There was a lower ledge on it that I was sitting on, so we let him go up there, but then he was getting way too close to the edge and I freaked out on him a little. He finally got the point and came down from there.
We helped a few people and took their photos so they could all be in the picture together instead of in groups. We struck up a conversation with one group of these people. Toto asked them “So where are you guys from?” The wife answered “Oh we’re from Delaware.” Upon hearing the word Delaware I screamed “WHERE IS YOUR CAR!!??” (We were fairly certain this was the last license plate we needed) at the same time as Toto asked the same thing, grant it not quite as emphatically as I did, and we scared them half to death. They probably had this brief moment of horror thinking we were psycho lunatics on the loose, until I recovered and apologized and explained that we collect license plates while we are on trips and theirs was the last one we needed. They then apologized and said that they had flown in and rented a car. Their vehicle was in the parking lot of the Philadelphia airport. Pooh. We chatted with them for a few minutes, and then we went on our way. On our way back we discovered the lodge. It was slightly reminiscent of Timberline lodge and the lodge at Old Faithful in Yellowstone. It was just a huge old stone mason building with huge timbers in the ceiling. We put our name on the list for the restaurant and had an hour to kill so we decided to wander around. The gift shop was just across the porch from the main hall, so we headed over there. I found a T-shirt and a sweatshirt that I liked so I bought both. The t-shirt looks like it must have been from the same company that made the sweater I bought in Louisville on our way out of town in April. The design was the same, but the words were different. Toto just got a T-shirt and Josh got a flashlight key chain that said Grand Canyon and Josh on either side. Then we went over to the sun porch that overlooks the canyon. It had gotten dark though, so we couldn’t see much. I started playing with the camera. I was messing around with the F-Stop (which adjusts the amount of light that comes into the camera and adjusts your focal depth of field) and the shutter speed to get lighter pictures without using the flash. I only got one picture that I really loved. The others were alright.
Dinner was amazing. I was dickering over three or four items on the menu, one of which Josh was getting, until I read them to Toto and she decided for me. I had a Frontiersmen Panini. It was salmon and cilantro and red onions smothered in BBQ sauce on Italian bread (that was suspiciously like whole grain sourdough). Served with home made sweet potato chips. I was so happy that I got that instead of the pasta Josh got. It was a parmesan encrusted chicken breast over a bed of noodles in a butter cream sauce with asparagus in it. It was good, but the sauce tasted really standard, and for how much the food cost I would have expected it to be better if it had been my dinner. I stole bites of his asparagus though. Toto got a salad of spinach with sun dried tomatoes, walnuts and goat cheese drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette dressing (ladies and gentlemen, we have left the south behind with its horrible-for-you-food). I tried a new drink too. By now you all know that I love cosmopolitans (the drink). Well they have their own version of a cosmo there. Its almost like your regular one but instead of regular vodka, it has Prickly Pear Vodka in it. It just makes it a little crisper. It was good. Toto and I shared it.
It was 10:15pm when we got in the car. The North Rim is 125 miles from Page. It took us two hours to get back. Josh was sleeping in the back seat (again, I joked with Toto that its not really like he is even with us when we’re driving, it’s a little like the first leg of the trip), I was super sleepy but I knew Toto needed me to stay awake to keep her awake. When we did get back to the hotel I was in the shower within 45 seconds. After all that sand getting dumped on us I needed a good scrub. We only stayed up late enough to look at the pictures for the day (and by we I mean Toto and I, Josh crashed). We had some pretty entertaining ones. The lights went out at two, and we went right to sleep. It had been a good day.
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Josh Turner
Awesome pictures of the slot canyon and the grand canyon
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