Day 90: Page, AZ to Zion National Park, UT

After a huge wind and rainstorm last night, we were thankful that the Upper Antelope slot canyon was open for tours today. We found out that the Lower Antelope Canyon had closed the day following our visit earlier this week due to flooding and still hasn’t reopened. Luck was with us in both booking the dates we did and the order of the tours, for sure.

Upper Antelope Canyon was accessed via a short tour bus ride on a washed out road, rutted and muddy from last night’s rain. We bumped up and down in the back of the bus and the boys loved it. The tour guide showed us all the best photo opportunities and the tour, while certainly busy, was less crowded than the Lower Canyon tour. This part of the canyon was A shaped (narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, note the Lower Canyon was V shaped) making the Upper Canyon darker inside with less daylight filtering in but more comfortable to walk through because of the wider base. We all agreed that the Antelope Canyons are a bit like the Northern lights - they are amazing to see in person but they actually look even more fantastic in the photos than in real life. The Upper Canyon was gorgeous and the photos really make it look incredible. The colours are stunning.

These were all bus loads of people hiking in sequential guided tours through the canyon! It was like a tour assembly line.

Crowds waiting for their tour to start at the entrance.

Looks like a cathedral. So beautiful.

Looks like the shark in Jaws.

Angel wings.

Looks like an eye.

Our guide played us a haunting song on his flute for us after the tour.

After a quick stop at the Walmart in Page (since we’ve heading into some more remote places where groceries may be more limited or expensive), we zigzagged through Arizona and Utah to end up at the South Entrance of Zion National Park. We couldn’t enter through the closer East Entrance because the mirrors on the truck make it too wide to meet the new size restrictions for using the tunnel that went into effect last month. Going around to the South Entrance added 20 minutes to our trip.

It seems we used up all our luck in Arizona because we very sadly missed picking up our permit to hike the Subway tomorrow by mere minutes (we were exactly three minutes late to be exact). Very frustrating. Losing an hour when crossing into Utah, the Walmart trip and gas fill up, the need to take the longer detour to avoid the restricted tunnel, and waiting in the line of cars to enter the park - all combined did not work in our favour today. This means our plan of starting the hike early tomorrow needs to be revised since we now need to pick up our permit when the Wilderness Information office opens again at 8 am. Not ideal, unfortunately.

We checked into our campsite at the Watchman campground in Zion and found ourselves surrounded by little lizards. They are everywhere here! We also saw a mule deer fawn and a hawk.

Our evening was spent attending the Junior Ranger program where we learned about the sounds made by the animals in the park. The frogs and big horned owl make especially unusual sounds. The owl sounds like “Who’s awake? Me too!”

We’re expecting tomorrow’s hike to be really tough so we hoping for deep, restful sleeps tonight. Wish us luck and Ian a Happy 45th Birthday tomorrow!

Day 89: Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness, AZ

Today we hiked The Wave in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness. It is a very popular adventure that requires winning a lottery through the National Parks Service. It was incredible. It rivalled Lower Antelope Canyon as one of the most beautiful places we have seen.

This is a back country hike into pretty remote wilderness with extreme heat in summer and little shade. We were up at 3:30am to ensure that we were at the trailhead (which was an hour drive from our campsite, first along the highway followed by a bumpy ride down a rutted dirt road) by sunrise. Our aim was to be done by noon so that we weren’t hiking in the 40 degree heat.

Everything went to plan and we ended up meeting the family we did our safety screening with yesterday at the trailhead. We hiked out together which added some reassurance since one member for that family had done the hike before - last Fall. There is no “trail” since much of path is over unmarked sandstone so having an informal guide was amazing.

The hike had a very Star Wars or Zelda feel, like we were explorers on a foreign planet. It was incredibly cool. We hiked the first part before sunrise while the temperature was enjoyable (about 24 degrees Celsius). The trip to The Wave was only about an hour and not too difficult at all. 

The Wave formation was definitely worth the effort. It was beautiful in the shade and then the rock looked like it was glowing once the sun hit it.

It was a balance waiting for the sun to get high enough to avoid shadows but also realizing that this was coupled with rapidly rising temperatures that would make the return hike more difficult and potentially dangerous. We took some beautiful photos, explored a second wave formation and then headed back via a loop to see an area called the boneyard with fantastic box formations similar to ones we saw in Wind Cave. 

The box work pieces were scattered haphazardly around the boneyard. Very odd.

We also passed a series of three-toed dinosaurs tracks. They were smaller than the ones we saw a few days ago but more plentiful.

Looked like a bunch of chickens running around.

We also saw what looked like lacework on the rocks, swirling red and white rock which looked like cliff paintings (but weren’t) and a bunch of teeny moqui marbles (spherical mineral concretions).

Moqui marbles.

The return hike was tougher; it was hot. We arrived back at the truck at 11:45 am. Right on time. It was 39 degrees Celsius. We were tired and hot but it was a successful adventure.

Liam made a friend.

The rest of the day was very low key. We swam, ate lunch and post-hike ice cream sandwiches, and hung out at our campsite. Dinner was jalapeno poppers, watermelon and s’mores on the campfire after the sunset. For our last full day in Arizona, it was a great one.

Ice cream at the pool!

It is extremely dry here. No grass and our tree is dying so not much shade either.

Our campsite is next to the bathroom, which no one but us seems to use making it our own private bath house.