The 2011 national parks tour
It was late May and Sanjana mentioned she wanted to see Akshay before he went off to Berkley. So we started thinking about how to make that happen. After batting around a few ideas we came up with sending the kids on their own to Cali and getting them back to Phoenix - from there we'd drive to Utah and see the national parks there.
Of course - time moves at a frenetic pace, and the vacation was upon us in the blink of an eye! The 28th of June arrived - time to put the kids on the flight. That morning, nothing moved for me. I was a no-show to a meeting that I set up. I was in a state of limbo until I heard from Sanjana that they were on the flight from Denver to SFO and then I heard from P that he had them safe! They (the kids) of course were too excited to be off on their own and didn't feel any angst at all!
The week flew by - where we thought we'd be looking at each other and not know what to do without the kids, we ended up getting things done at the house, visting friends (Sonal just had Junior a new addition to her family and it was Ivy Aunty's b'day) etc. Before we knew it, we were on the car enroute to Phoenix.
We made good time on Saturday, considering that we gained 2 hours (we didn't realize that the entire state of Arizona did not honor daylight saving's time, and so gained another hour). We decided to stop at Saguaro national park where it was a mere 115 degrees! The Sun stung any exposed skin. We decided we were better off looking at the cacti from within the confines of the car, and just emerged to take a few pictures.
We reached Sandhya's house in great time and spent a wonderful evening. Nighttime came along, and it was time to pick up the kids. I was not as nervous this time as they were on a direct flight, and Jayanthi had dropped them off at the gate. I was able to go up to the gate to pick them up. I like PHX and expecially the terminal we were on as it was a quick pick up. We were on our way home less that 15 minutes after the flight got to the gate. It took the kids longer to alight then for us to exit!
Sunday came and after an excellent lunch of keerai and rasam with pudina chutney we were on our way to the South rim of the Grand Canyon. The first view of the canyon is arresting, and will remain in memory for a long time. We were well armed with cameras and other picture taking devices - so much so that we had to laugh at ourselves - we took a picture of Srikanth taking a picture of us! We wanted to catch the sunset at the canyon, but were worried at the clouds in the sky. We were assured at the visitor's center that sunsets rarely fail, and the sun unfailingly obliged! What a beautiful sight! We stayed at the Yavapai lodge and had a surprisingly nice stay. We didn't expect much from the lodge as it was inside the canyon - but I liked the cleanliness and the attention to preservation shown at the lodge.
We had decided to walk down (a little way) into the canyon on Monday. We decided on the South Kaibab trail and walked up to the Ooh-Aah point. Just the sound of that point was exciting - so how could we NOT do it! Going down the trail was a piece of cake, as we all enthusiastically took in the scenery and gushed over the vistas. The canyon is so overwhelingly beautiful it is hard not to mull over each of the views. We started back up, and I immediately realized how out-of-shape I was! I was out of breath by the first turn up! Luckily we each had packed a backpack/slingbag with water, gatorade and some snacks (as recommended by the park rangers). This saved me! I went through what seemed like a gallon of water by the time we climbed back. Suvedh got tired of all the rest stops and decided to keep going. Sanjana joined him too. They claimed they waited for us for 15 minutes before we reached the summit!
The rest of Sunday went by quick as we drove to the other view points at the canyon. By late afternoon, it had started to rain in the west. That made the canyon look even more pretty as there was bright sunshine on one side with dark clouds hovering at the other side. However, with the drought raging throughout the region though, every rain took on the characteristics of a thunder storm. We wanted to be careful. As we kept driving towards the east rim, the rain kept moving east - it was chasing us! We got a few sprinkles at the east rim, but were able to beat the rain while driving out of the canyon. The vistas past the canyon were also pretty as we drove through pretty kaibab national forrest and the painted dessert enroute to Kanab Utah. We had a bonus with Lake Powell and the Powell Dam. What a gorgeous lake with the water so mesmerisingly blue! We reached Kanab in time for dinner, and got ready for Zion the next day. Dinner was at a popular restaurant run by a Texan (from Umble). We managed to meet another couple from Sugar Land who were also driving through the areas! We found that they lived within a couple of miles of us. What a small world!
The drive into Zion National Park is humbling as the peaks tower over you. The curving roads hint at the grandeur of the sights to come. The further you drive on route 9, the more excited you get about what is yet to come. We decided to watch the obligatory visitor center video as soon as we got to the park (as opposed to at the grand canyon where we watched it after we saw half the park just because the timing worked out that way). We bargained with the kids and decided on 4 hikes (Suvedh, of course, wanted more and Sanjana wanted fewer!) The best part of the park was the weeping rocks. The rocks were so porous, they weep - water from precipitaion just seeps through and down the rocks. The formations around the park were a wonder as they were all caused by erosion. We got a hint of what the Colorado Plateau was all about.
Lesson: Chinese food in the middle of Utah is not a good idea. Srikanth saw a Chinese place on the way back to our hotel and had a hunkering for Chinese food... the food was palatable - that's the best I can say about it. Next time, we'll stick to the popular places!
Bryce Canyon was by far the prettiest I have seen of all the parks in this trip. The delicate structures carved by mother nature defy gravitational and engineering laws. How the rock eroded in some places while not in others is quite a marvel to ponder. The book I used as my guide (National Geographic's guide to our National Parks) had great insight as to how to tour the parks. Following this book, we made great time in seeing what needed to be seen, and skipping parts that the book recommends skipping. This made visiting the parks quite easy. Bryce canyon had sevral view points, each with something unique that took your breath away. Suvedh and I walked a 2 mile stretch from Bryce point to Inspiration point and enjoyed some beautiful scenery. Of course, by the time we got to the destination, Srikanth and Sanjana had already reached (by car) and were tapping their feet impatiently at us. It didn't help that they got worried at the looming dark clouds. We got lucky as it didn't rain on us. The saving grace was that the clouds brought in a nice cool breeze that we all enjoyed. We left the park after a longer-than-anticipated lunch at the Bryce lodge - it turned out to be a sit-down lunch as opposed to a cafeteria style place. So we relaxed and ate to our fullest.
We decided to drive through Capital Reef to make it to Moab that afternoon. This made more sense as it was closer than going backwards and catching the highway to Moab. The drive was just breathtaking and made me wonder if perhaps the entire area should have been declared a national parks area. The roads curved through mountaineous regions. The striations on the hills were as if someone took a paint brush and drew different colored lines through the mountains. Each had markings of sheer beauty and made for a wonderous journey across Utah.
Capital Reef National Park was menacing. I can't describe the feeling of inadequacy in the midst of the imposing reef. The area was quite sparsely populated (and visited). We were one of three cars (as far as we could see) in the entire park. We went part way through the scenic drive and decided that we were better off on our way to Moab. This wasn't a destination originally on our list, and so what we did see was enough for us. The rest of the drive to Moab was quite picturesque as we saw the La Sal peaks, the Henry Mountains and the Abajo Peaks. These are mountain peaks formed by bubbling magma that receded, but left the peaks, and left the entire Colorado Plateau exposed to erosion in all forms.
Canyonlands was the next on the list. This park is so huge, that we couldn't hope to see all of it. So we attempted the Island in the Sky - the easiest accesible portion of the park. Monument basin, a set of canyons deep in the gorges of the park looked like a gigantic monster had walked through wet mud and created footprints. With a little imagination, even the Buttes rising out of the basin were raised the way wet squelchy mud rises when sticking to a foot as we walk barefoot! I was more incluined to believe the meteor story at Upheaval dome (made more sense than the salt deposits story). This was an area with the land turned upside down - an inverted dome, with a butte rising from its innards! My personal highlight of the park was the mesa arch. I loved the openness and the fact that we were able to get right up to it. If we had a 4WD, we could have driven on the dirt path along the rim of the canyon. Skip!
We were finished earlier than expected, and so decided to see half of Arches National Park and finish the rest on Friday. Arches is so close to CanyonLands, but has quite different landscape. It is a marvel of nature that land so close behaves so differently in light of erosion. The same forces of nature has differing effects. Arches had the gargoyle-like structures put together with some amazing arches that will remain in memory for a long time to come. Arches also tested our strength (both physical and mental), as there was quite a bit of climbing to do and body contortions and feats to perform to get close to the Arches. This made it both exciting and intensly tiring. We were glad we broke it up into two 1/2 days. We were in the Windows section when nature decided at one of the climbs decided that Srikanth had taken too many pictures. His camery battery fell off in one of the areas! Ironically, someone found the battery, and tried to ask if any of us had lost a battery. Miscommunications ensued when Sanjana tried to ask Srikanth (as I yelled from the bottom of the rock) while he was concentrating on the climb. To make a long story short, the battery was lost, and we didn't realize that until it was too late. We just assumed that it was our luck that both mine AND Srikanth's cameras needed the batteries recharged at the same time! The kids' cameras served as fill-ins. Much to Sanjana's chagrin, we kept bemoaning the fact that our cameras were unusable! Luckily for us, an electronics store in Moab had a replacement battery, and we were able to catch up on pictures the next day!
The trip to Delicate Arch (Utah's prideful symbol used in quite a few places including the Salt Lake Winter Olympics) tested our metal as a family. This time, we climbed UP slick-rock - a 1.5 mile climb. Srikanth and I took our time. The kids (Suvedh in particular), by now impatient with us for our lack of youthfulness, decided that they would go ahead rather than wait for us to catch our breath. It turned out that the trail up the mountain was not that well marked. They followed other climbers up the mountain, who happened to go off-trail... We slowly made our way to the summit, reached the arch... only to find no sign of the kids! Srikanth made his way all around the arch to see if they were on the other side - to no avail! So we started making our way back down guessing that we had somehow missed them. Luckily, we found them within 5 minutes of our descent. They (the kids) had realized they were not on the marked trail and had retraced their way back and were just continuing up. They were reticent and did not panic which worked in their favor. We had mother nature and luck watching out for us!
Sandstone arch in this park is a structure on beach sand! Of all things, beach sand in the middle of Utah is most unusual - but is a result of oceans that existed in the paleozoic era. The rest of the arches were not as memorable - as they held no more adventures! On one of our discussions during the trip, we had realized that one of the states we hadn't visited (or set foot in) was Colorado. Sanjana had mentioned Four Corners, and I took her up and charted a route that took us through the four corners national monument. What a tourist trap! It is a point which was already built, and the Navajo charged for entrance and set up a bunch of stalls so you would spend more money! Oh well, we can now add Colorado to our list of states visited :)
Saturday was spent (just like the previous one) all in the car. We got to Albuquerque the previous night, and wanted to make it home. The temptation to sleep in our own bed at night was just too much to resist. So we pushed it, and made it! We were home at around midnight! This trip was possible because Scamp was well looked after by Anu and Milind. How lucky for us!
We managed to take (between the 4 of us) a whopping 2500 pictures. We also managed about 2700 miles on the car (that's what the reading on our Odyssey's odometer reports!) A great national parks trip indeed!
Thank you for reading.
Of course - time moves at a frenetic pace, and the vacation was upon us in the blink of an eye! The 28th of June arrived - time to put the kids on the flight. That morning, nothing moved for me. I was a no-show to a meeting that I set up. I was in a state of limbo until I heard from Sanjana that they were on the flight from Denver to SFO and then I heard from P that he had them safe! They (the kids) of course were too excited to be off on their own and didn't feel any angst at all!
The week flew by - where we thought we'd be looking at each other and not know what to do without the kids, we ended up getting things done at the house, visting friends (Sonal just had Junior a new addition to her family and it was Ivy Aunty's b'day) etc. Before we knew it, we were on the car enroute to Phoenix.
We made good time on Saturday, considering that we gained 2 hours (we didn't realize that the entire state of Arizona did not honor daylight saving's time, and so gained another hour). We decided to stop at Saguaro national park where it was a mere 115 degrees! The Sun stung any exposed skin. We decided we were better off looking at the cacti from within the confines of the car, and just emerged to take a few pictures.
We reached Sandhya's house in great time and spent a wonderful evening. Nighttime came along, and it was time to pick up the kids. I was not as nervous this time as they were on a direct flight, and Jayanthi had dropped them off at the gate. I was able to go up to the gate to pick them up. I like PHX and expecially the terminal we were on as it was a quick pick up. We were on our way home less that 15 minutes after the flight got to the gate. It took the kids longer to alight then for us to exit!
Sunday came and after an excellent lunch of keerai and rasam with pudina chutney we were on our way to the South rim of the Grand Canyon. The first view of the canyon is arresting, and will remain in memory for a long time. We were well armed with cameras and other picture taking devices - so much so that we had to laugh at ourselves - we took a picture of Srikanth taking a picture of us! We wanted to catch the sunset at the canyon, but were worried at the clouds in the sky. We were assured at the visitor's center that sunsets rarely fail, and the sun unfailingly obliged! What a beautiful sight! We stayed at the Yavapai lodge and had a surprisingly nice stay. We didn't expect much from the lodge as it was inside the canyon - but I liked the cleanliness and the attention to preservation shown at the lodge.
We had decided to walk down (a little way) into the canyon on Monday. We decided on the South Kaibab trail and walked up to the Ooh-Aah point. Just the sound of that point was exciting - so how could we NOT do it! Going down the trail was a piece of cake, as we all enthusiastically took in the scenery and gushed over the vistas. The canyon is so overwhelingly beautiful it is hard not to mull over each of the views. We started back up, and I immediately realized how out-of-shape I was! I was out of breath by the first turn up! Luckily we each had packed a backpack/slingbag with water, gatorade and some snacks (as recommended by the park rangers). This saved me! I went through what seemed like a gallon of water by the time we climbed back. Suvedh got tired of all the rest stops and decided to keep going. Sanjana joined him too. They claimed they waited for us for 15 minutes before we reached the summit!
The rest of Sunday went by quick as we drove to the other view points at the canyon. By late afternoon, it had started to rain in the west. That made the canyon look even more pretty as there was bright sunshine on one side with dark clouds hovering at the other side. However, with the drought raging throughout the region though, every rain took on the characteristics of a thunder storm. We wanted to be careful. As we kept driving towards the east rim, the rain kept moving east - it was chasing us! We got a few sprinkles at the east rim, but were able to beat the rain while driving out of the canyon. The vistas past the canyon were also pretty as we drove through pretty kaibab national forrest and the painted dessert enroute to Kanab Utah. We had a bonus with Lake Powell and the Powell Dam. What a gorgeous lake with the water so mesmerisingly blue! We reached Kanab in time for dinner, and got ready for Zion the next day. Dinner was at a popular restaurant run by a Texan (from Umble). We managed to meet another couple from Sugar Land who were also driving through the areas! We found that they lived within a couple of miles of us. What a small world!
The drive into Zion National Park is humbling as the peaks tower over you. The curving roads hint at the grandeur of the sights to come. The further you drive on route 9, the more excited you get about what is yet to come. We decided to watch the obligatory visitor center video as soon as we got to the park (as opposed to at the grand canyon where we watched it after we saw half the park just because the timing worked out that way). We bargained with the kids and decided on 4 hikes (Suvedh, of course, wanted more and Sanjana wanted fewer!) The best part of the park was the weeping rocks. The rocks were so porous, they weep - water from precipitaion just seeps through and down the rocks. The formations around the park were a wonder as they were all caused by erosion. We got a hint of what the Colorado Plateau was all about.
Lesson: Chinese food in the middle of Utah is not a good idea. Srikanth saw a Chinese place on the way back to our hotel and had a hunkering for Chinese food... the food was palatable - that's the best I can say about it. Next time, we'll stick to the popular places!
Bryce Canyon was by far the prettiest I have seen of all the parks in this trip. The delicate structures carved by mother nature defy gravitational and engineering laws. How the rock eroded in some places while not in others is quite a marvel to ponder. The book I used as my guide (National Geographic's guide to our National Parks) had great insight as to how to tour the parks. Following this book, we made great time in seeing what needed to be seen, and skipping parts that the book recommends skipping. This made visiting the parks quite easy. Bryce canyon had sevral view points, each with something unique that took your breath away. Suvedh and I walked a 2 mile stretch from Bryce point to Inspiration point and enjoyed some beautiful scenery. Of course, by the time we got to the destination, Srikanth and Sanjana had already reached (by car) and were tapping their feet impatiently at us. It didn't help that they got worried at the looming dark clouds. We got lucky as it didn't rain on us. The saving grace was that the clouds brought in a nice cool breeze that we all enjoyed. We left the park after a longer-than-anticipated lunch at the Bryce lodge - it turned out to be a sit-down lunch as opposed to a cafeteria style place. So we relaxed and ate to our fullest.
We decided to drive through Capital Reef to make it to Moab that afternoon. This made more sense as it was closer than going backwards and catching the highway to Moab. The drive was just breathtaking and made me wonder if perhaps the entire area should have been declared a national parks area. The roads curved through mountaineous regions. The striations on the hills were as if someone took a paint brush and drew different colored lines through the mountains. Each had markings of sheer beauty and made for a wonderous journey across Utah.
Capital Reef National Park was menacing. I can't describe the feeling of inadequacy in the midst of the imposing reef. The area was quite sparsely populated (and visited). We were one of three cars (as far as we could see) in the entire park. We went part way through the scenic drive and decided that we were better off on our way to Moab. This wasn't a destination originally on our list, and so what we did see was enough for us. The rest of the drive to Moab was quite picturesque as we saw the La Sal peaks, the Henry Mountains and the Abajo Peaks. These are mountain peaks formed by bubbling magma that receded, but left the peaks, and left the entire Colorado Plateau exposed to erosion in all forms.
Canyonlands was the next on the list. This park is so huge, that we couldn't hope to see all of it. So we attempted the Island in the Sky - the easiest accesible portion of the park. Monument basin, a set of canyons deep in the gorges of the park looked like a gigantic monster had walked through wet mud and created footprints. With a little imagination, even the Buttes rising out of the basin were raised the way wet squelchy mud rises when sticking to a foot as we walk barefoot! I was more incluined to believe the meteor story at Upheaval dome (made more sense than the salt deposits story). This was an area with the land turned upside down - an inverted dome, with a butte rising from its innards! My personal highlight of the park was the mesa arch. I loved the openness and the fact that we were able to get right up to it. If we had a 4WD, we could have driven on the dirt path along the rim of the canyon. Skip!
We were finished earlier than expected, and so decided to see half of Arches National Park and finish the rest on Friday. Arches is so close to CanyonLands, but has quite different landscape. It is a marvel of nature that land so close behaves so differently in light of erosion. The same forces of nature has differing effects. Arches had the gargoyle-like structures put together with some amazing arches that will remain in memory for a long time to come. Arches also tested our strength (both physical and mental), as there was quite a bit of climbing to do and body contortions and feats to perform to get close to the Arches. This made it both exciting and intensly tiring. We were glad we broke it up into two 1/2 days. We were in the Windows section when nature decided at one of the climbs decided that Srikanth had taken too many pictures. His camery battery fell off in one of the areas! Ironically, someone found the battery, and tried to ask if any of us had lost a battery. Miscommunications ensued when Sanjana tried to ask Srikanth (as I yelled from the bottom of the rock) while he was concentrating on the climb. To make a long story short, the battery was lost, and we didn't realize that until it was too late. We just assumed that it was our luck that both mine AND Srikanth's cameras needed the batteries recharged at the same time! The kids' cameras served as fill-ins. Much to Sanjana's chagrin, we kept bemoaning the fact that our cameras were unusable! Luckily for us, an electronics store in Moab had a replacement battery, and we were able to catch up on pictures the next day!
The trip to Delicate Arch (Utah's prideful symbol used in quite a few places including the Salt Lake Winter Olympics) tested our metal as a family. This time, we climbed UP slick-rock - a 1.5 mile climb. Srikanth and I took our time. The kids (Suvedh in particular), by now impatient with us for our lack of youthfulness, decided that they would go ahead rather than wait for us to catch our breath. It turned out that the trail up the mountain was not that well marked. They followed other climbers up the mountain, who happened to go off-trail... We slowly made our way to the summit, reached the arch... only to find no sign of the kids! Srikanth made his way all around the arch to see if they were on the other side - to no avail! So we started making our way back down guessing that we had somehow missed them. Luckily, we found them within 5 minutes of our descent. They (the kids) had realized they were not on the marked trail and had retraced their way back and were just continuing up. They were reticent and did not panic which worked in their favor. We had mother nature and luck watching out for us!
Sandstone arch in this park is a structure on beach sand! Of all things, beach sand in the middle of Utah is most unusual - but is a result of oceans that existed in the paleozoic era. The rest of the arches were not as memorable - as they held no more adventures! On one of our discussions during the trip, we had realized that one of the states we hadn't visited (or set foot in) was Colorado. Sanjana had mentioned Four Corners, and I took her up and charted a route that took us through the four corners national monument. What a tourist trap! It is a point which was already built, and the Navajo charged for entrance and set up a bunch of stalls so you would spend more money! Oh well, we can now add Colorado to our list of states visited :)
Saturday was spent (just like the previous one) all in the car. We got to Albuquerque the previous night, and wanted to make it home. The temptation to sleep in our own bed at night was just too much to resist. So we pushed it, and made it! We were home at around midnight! This trip was possible because Scamp was well looked after by Anu and Milind. How lucky for us!
We managed to take (between the 4 of us) a whopping 2500 pictures. We also managed about 2700 miles on the car (that's what the reading on our Odyssey's odometer reports!) A great national parks trip indeed!
Thank you for reading.
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