Summer Vacation Trip - Day 12

We woke up early in our cabin (0600) and, after seeing the schedule for the on-site restaurants, ate breakfast (snacks) in our room.  We immediately headed out on the trails near the Lodge so we could beat all of the other visitors to the viewpoint trails.  We were able to take in the views of the canyon in relative peace and cleared out of each area as soon as those places got too busy.  Mollie wanted to get some souvenirs so we checked out of the Lodge (0830) and drove a short distance to the nearby Campground Store.  I bought a new shirt and Mollie got some good gifts for her sisters (0850).  We then drove to the nearby North Rim Sinclair (gas) station, where we got old-timey full service from a nice old man.  He gave us lots of ideas about where we should go next.  We also experienced another one of the time-zone change issues when we were impacted by the hour difference between the Grand Canyon time (matched Arizona) and the area along the Utah border where we were exploring.  Following the advice of our service station attendant, we decided to explore the Cape Royal and Point Imperial areas.  We drove to the former spot first and stopped at various pullouts along the way.  In the beginning, the only people we came into contact with were a geologist from LA (who was visiting for the weekend) and an older couple who was looking (through their binoculars) for ruins down in the Canyon.  There were a few more people at the main overlook for Cape Royal but not so many that the quiet air of the canyon was compromised.  The pleasantness didn't last long, though, and the parking lot was almost full by the time we left.  We had to backtrack down the road to reach Point Imperial but found that it was about the same (views and crows).  We just snapped a few photos and got back on the road.  Our time visiting the Grand Canyon had been great but Mollie didn’t want it to end without a bit more wildlife viewing.  On our way out of the park, we tried very hard to spot some bison in the meadow where they’d been for most of the previous day but they were nowhere to be found.  Sadly, we departed via AZ-67 and drove north until we reached the town of Jacob Lake.  We stopped at the Inn there (it was really crowded) and decided to pick up some lunch (sandwiches) to go.  At this point (1215), I asked Mollie if we could go exploring along the UT-AZ border.  I pointed out that we’d been getting passport stamps for Mollie throughout the trip but there were some other parks (i.e., not in the Passport Book) that I wanted to see (e.g., Vermilion Cliffs and Grand Staircase-Escalante, both National Monuments).  These parks weren’t really on the way to our next stop for the night but I figured it would be smart to go there anyway since I didn’t expect to be back anytime soon.  She grudgingly agreed (because she wanted to go to an animal rescue facility nearby).  We then drove east on US-89A, continuing through pretty alpine forests until we reached an overlook for a huge valley.  After leaving the highest elevation of the day (8800 feet), the road took us quickly down into this valley (which was probably at about 5000 feet of elevation).  We found that the temps were above 100 in that area and it didn’t make us happy.  On the left side of our car, we found that the Vermilion Cliffs paralleled the road.  There were a few signs but no visitor facilities.  The formation consisted of an impressive plateau of reddish rocks that stretched for more than 30 miles.  We learned later that the Cliffs run southwest to northwest in an open, backwards “C shape.”  The sandy interior, popular with ATV users, is only accessible from the west.  We didn’t try to get into that area and continued east.  We passed through some little towns at the base of the cliffs but didn’t stop until we reached an NPS outpost at the Colorado River (Historic Navajo Bridge).  We were able to walk out onto a pedestrian bridge to see the green waters below and it was an impressive sight.  The Marble Canyon was much shallower than the huge, wide, deep canyon we’d seen earlier in the day but it was quite pretty.  Mollie actually did get some more new stamps for her book.  It was so hot that we didn’t spend a lot of time at the location.  Instead, we crossed the river and continued following US-89A.  The road went back up onto cliffs on the other side of the valley (almost 7000 feet again).  Eventually, we reached US-89 and turned northwest.  We stopped for milkshakes at Burger King in Page (1355) and then admired several good views of the southern end of Glen Canyon NRA.  It was clear that Lake Powell had the capability of generating a significant amount of hydroelectric power but I didn’t get a chance to “get my geek on” about the power plants.  Instead, we viewed it from high on the hills.  There was a Visitor Parking area (with shuttle busses) where we could have stopped for a trip to view Horseshoe Bend but Mollie was in the mood to get back to the cooler temperatures (and I didn't argue).  A short time later, we crossed back into Utah.  Just then, for the first time on the trip, it started to rain (just sprinkling).  Mollie took this opportunity to tell me that she didn’t like all the driving and just wanted to take a day off to relax.  I told her I'd try to set up an opportunity like that soon.  At about 1500, we stopped briefly at the Grand Staircase-Escalante BLM Visitor Center in Big Water.  The unique building was designed in the shape of a fossil shell and was filled with information about the types of dinosaurs that have been found in the area.  Mollie got some more passport stamps and then we drove about 30 miles west to the Vermilion Cliffs Contact Station at Paria.  This location allowed us to learn about that National Monument (we hadn’t seen any information signs during our circumnavigation).  The lady who worked there told us how the ubiquitous cliff formations in the area were labeled on maps by their colors (Chocolate, Vermilion, White, Gray and Pink).  She also described the “Grand Staircase” of these colors that were visible between Paria (in the Chocolate layer) and Bryce Canyon (in the pink layer).  The helpful Ranger suggested we take a drive through the Johnson Canyon, located about 25 miles to the west, so we could see all of the cliff levels.  Mollie agreed to let me explore this area and we soon located the 16-mile road (oriented north-south) that the ranger had mentioned.  Driving along that road was like taking a journey through the five geological eras.  Eventually, the paved road turned to sand/gravel and turned toward the west.  We found that this resulted in another 16-mile drive for us in the backwoods.  As we carefully made our way back to blacktop, we actually got passed by a speedy four wheeler.  After we reached US-89 again, I realized we hadn’t taken any pictures!  We drove north until we reached UT-12 and (despite construction delays) made it to UT-63 in good time.  By 1800, we arrived at the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.  We immediately stopped off at the Visitor Center so Mollie could get her passport stamped.  She came back to the car with news that there was an the astronomy festival going on that night (we had seen signs for on our way into the park).  Much to our dismay, though, the ranger had also told her that the festival (along with all stargazing ranger programs) had been cancelled due to the cloud cover.  When we thought about it, we decided that we should be too upset because we had attended star party at the North Rim the night before.  The end result, though, was that we had a completely free night on our hands.  We checked into the Bryce Canyon Lodge and enjoyed a nice dinner in the main cafeteria (done at 1850) before going to visit our room in the “Sunset Building.”  We took a short drive to the laundromat to see if we'd be able to do laundry (we really needed to do some!) but found that it had already closed.  We then relaxed in our room.  At around the time for the sunset, we took a short walk from our room to the canyon rim to see it for the first time.  Mollie told me she thought it was “incredibly pretty” and "completely different from the other canyons" we had seen on this trip.  We stayed for a little while, snapping pictures, and then headed back to our hotel room.  We relaxed some more in our “TV-free” room, reading and looking at brochures of the park.  Mollie was able to connect to Wi-Fi somehow and wrote a great Facebook/Blog post about our visit to the North Rim.  We ended up going to bed early (2200) so we could wake up early the next morning to watch the sunrise!