Cliff Dwellers and Corners

The last chapter of this adventure!  

Thursday, September 12, was Stephen's 65th birthday!  Easily the youngest 65 year old I have ever - and will ever - know.  Those of you who have indulged me in reading these narratives understand how not old Burr is.  We're still having fun!!

This is what 65 looks like?


After our breakfast silliness, we set off for Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park.  This is a place Stephen has always wanted to go, so that's where we were going! Raymond drove because Burr spent the day getting happy birthday calls, texts, and messages from kids, grandkids, siblings, and so many old and dear friends.  It was a milestone birthday and it was so nice to spend it with Ray and Rhonda and for him to hear from so many people.  

Mesa Verde became a National Park to preserve the Puebloan people's cave dwellings that were found here.  We took a ranger-guided tour through the largest community - Cliff Palace. It was fascinating.

With our ranger guide, Tim

We spent the night in Cortez, Colorado, and had a fabulous birthday dinner at a local Italian restaurant.  

Friday morning and we're off to Four Corners! This is the place where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado all meet.  It is the only place in the USA where four states boundaries touch.  It also happens to be on Navajo Land, so they are in control of the monument.

Rhonda is in New Mexico, Ray is in Colorado, Burr is in Utah, and I am in Arizona!

Stephen is everywhere.



Saturday we fly home.  This has been a great trip! We've seen amazing vistas, challenged ourselves physically, had fun dinners, stayed in interesting places, and we can't imagine sharing these adventures with any other couple.  As soon as we get home, we will start planning our next adventure!  Life is good - SO good.

Hiking in Devil's Garden with Angels

Please stay with this story until the end - that’s where paralyzing panic, guardian angels and saviors come into play.

Our day dawned with sunshine and no clouds - a perfect day for hiking.  Except for Stephen, who was up most of the night with - shall we say - intestinal distress.  5 or 6 hours on a hot, hard trail with no services just didn’t seem like what he should be doing, so Ray & Rhonda and I set off to see the arches.  

There are 8 arches, which you can only view by hiking to them.  The route begins with a very easy, paved trail to Landscape Arch, which is famous for having a huge piece of the arch part fall off in 1991 while tourists were hiking around it, relaxing under it, and - luckily - video taping it. It is an amazing piece of tape watching the piece fall off and people scatter.  The entire arch is more than 300 feet across and the piece that fell off was 70 feet long!

Landscape Arch

After Landscape, we had to embark on a more challenging trail to see the others - Devil’s Garden Trail.  The trail is not marked with signs or arrows, just cairns - little piles of rocks which denote the trail.  It was quite challenging indeed, with very little flat walking.  We were hiking uphill, (the hike began with a climb on hands and knees up a rock slope), climbing on rocks, figuring out ways to get downhill, and walking across the top of a “fin” - sort of a long upside-down U shaped rock - which was very high off the ground - for probably 100 yards.  I was so far out of my comfort zone, I couldn’t believe it, but seeing the arches was worth it.  The views were amazing, the trails were very hard but not impossible.  

We reached the halfway point of our 7.3 mile hike after about 2 1/2 hours, and had seen all the arches by that time.  At this point, we had to make the decision of how to make our way back to the parking area and we chose the “primitive loop”. Partly because we didn't want to go down the hard areas we had come up, and because what is the fun in retracing your steps? 

No markings, and VERY challenging rock climbing.  The rocks here are called “Slickrock” because they are just that - very smooth with very few places you can use as footholds.  They’re tricky because they’re most often at a slant and that slant leads to a drop-off.  We hiked along for about two hours and had pretty much decided this “trail” was really more than we had bargained for as it was almost all climbing.  (I had stopped taking photos - just concentrating on one foot in front of the other)

Here are a few of Ray's photos that show the terrain we were navigating.

This is the "fin"

Yeah - we had to go down from here.

Then everything changed.  We came upon an area that required sliding down a steeply sloped drop down 10 or 20 feet to the next level.  We made it down - mostly sliding on our butts - after much trepidation and debate as to how to best get down. 

Then came the next one.  Around a 40 foot drop that had to be negotiated by scaling a wall of slickrock down to the next level with no hand or footholds that we could see.  Our landing spot was a ledge about 5 feet wide with a much bigger drop-off beyond.

As we stood there wondering how in the world we were going to do it and even considering turning back and doing everything we had just done for the last four or five hours in reverse!!  It seemed absolutely impassible.  This is where our guardian angels stepped in.  Out of nowhere come these two young men who literally saved our lives.  One of them was a rock-climbing instructor and he went down first to figure out the best route to take, then he and his friend came back up, anchored themselves below us and guided us down.  They told us where to put our feet and hands, and when we couldn’t reach the “footholds” they made a foothold out of their hands and held us there.  These footholds I'm talking about were mere pockmarks on this wall of slickrock.  Some people just needed some guidance - I needed a miracle.  I am not ashamed to admit - I was absolutely terrified, to the point of panic.  That young man got me off that cliff with calm instruction, encouragement, patience and more kindness than I would have imagined.  My whole body was trembling.  He talked to me constantly, reminded me to breathe, and got me to a place where I could finish it alone.  I was sliding down the final drop, just planning to fall off onto whatever was there, and I heard this new voice saying “Just come down here to me - I got you”.  I just launched myself into his arms to a huge hug and him saying “I got you, I got you, baby, you did it”.  Rhonda came off right after me, but somehow Ray had gotten back several people in the line and we were waiting for him to work his way down.  The climbing instructor was on the ledge with us by that time because he had helped us all down and he couldn’t get back up, even though he tried to get to Ray.  Did I mention he was doing all this in flip-flops?  The people left up there were on their own!  At this point, he disappeared for a few minutes, and came back with another young man who had knowledge and proper footwear to go up there to help the remaining people, along with a guy named Jeff who had been hiking with us, who flattened himself on the wall and began guiding people’s feet as the instructor had been.  As soon as Ray started down with the new helper, it began to rain - great. Then it POURED.  The instructor was standing next to me on the ledge and said "This is an incredibly dangerous situation here."  Ray and the others got down finally and (after our heartfelt thanks) all our helpers took off to complete their hikes and we set off to find the end of our trail. Ray told us the rain made all the difference because the rocks had been so slippery with sand and the rain provided traction.  The rain stopped almost the second they all got off the wall.  Of course, we spent the remaining mile and a half or so discussing what had just happened.  How the hell does a rock climbing instructor appear on the scene at the very moment we needed his help?  Where did he find the reinforcements to help the others once he was down?  And then as I was saying how thankful I was for the guy who had literally caught me as I came off the rock Rhonda says - “What guy?”  “The guy who caught me! Very large black man in a bright red jacket - how could you have missed him? You were right behind me!”  “Never saw any such guy”, she says. At that moment - realized I had never seen him again after he caught me.

So add this all up and guardian angels have got to be the answer.   I am the first one to doubt anything that smacks of hippie-dippie other-wordly nonsense, but not today.  I KNOW what happened.  

A rock climbing instructor? Reinforcements when needed?  Fortuitous rain?  A man catching me and then vanishing?  Amazing day, to be sure.  They were always here for me in life, and they’re obviously still on duty.  I will forever be impacted by this experience.

ps.  The big guy in the red jacket was my dad.  I will never doubt that.

Rain? What Rain?

Monday, September 9 & Tuesday, September 10.

Monday morning we made our way from Green River to Arches National Park.  Our plan had always been to do the scenic drive on Monday afternoon and hike it on Tuesday.  We left Green River in rain, arrived at Arches in rain and did the scenic drive in rain!  Even in the rain, the arches are fascinating and we’re excited to see more. Our hotel here in Moab is the Gonzo Inn, and it matches its name!  Very funky decorating and vibe to the place.  As luck would have it, the Mexican restaurant across the street was claiming to have the best margaritas in town, so we had to see about that.  Seeing as how we have a very small sampling - only theirs - we’ll have to agree.

Balanced Rock

Double Arch

Nice rain hat, eh?

Up and at ‘em Tuesday morning!  This was supposed to be our day to hike among the arches for the day, but the weather was awful and looked to continue for the day.  Road trips have to be about flexibility, so we decided to go to Canyonlands National Park (only about a half hour away from Arches) to do their scenic drive and save the hiking for Wednesday.  Canyonlands was a complete afterthought on this trip - we figured we might do a drive-through as we were leaving Arches on Thursday if we had time.  Thank you, Mother Nature, for “screwing up” our plans!  The rain stopped, the clouds burned off, and Canyonlands was spectacular!!  

It is mostly a drive-through park, but we managed to get a few miles of hiking in on the Grand View Rim Trail - pretty moderate trails, but definitely some uphill climbing on rocks involved.  And edges.  Lots and lots of edges.  I’m working on it.  We probably wouldn’t have seen this park at all, and instead we spent the day there and loved every minute.

After Canyonlands, we went to Dead Horse Point State Park, which is kind of next door and also a very pretty place. It is so named because legend has it a herd of wild horses were corralled there back in the day, were forgotten and died.  Surely someone could have come up with a better name at some point in the last hundred or so years!

Colorado River

Dinner tonight was just weird. We went to the Sunset Grill, a beautiful restaurant which is on the very top of a huge hill overlooking Moab.  It was the home of a Uranium Magnate at one time and has been a restaurant for the last 20 years or so.  The phenomenal view from our table and the superb world-class food made up for what was probably the worst service we’ve ever had in a restaurant anywhere. We had to practically beg to get waited on, she spilled beer on us, got the orders wrong, the bills were wrong, and then she chased us down in the parking lot to complain about the tip!  Rhonda had a chat with the manager - poor guy.  Such a strange evening! 

But the view was wonderful!

Today was just one surprise after another.  We had no idea Canyonlands would be so fabulous, we had never even heard of Dead Horse Point State Park, and we had a wonderful dinner under very strange circumstances.

What a Difference a Day Makes with the Hoodoos

Saturday September 7 and Sunday September 8 in Bryce Canyon National Park.

Saturday - our non-hiking day (Thank God). We left our hotel near Zion after breakfast and took the eastbound route out of the park.  This was basically the only part of the park we hadn’t explored and it was spectacular. The views just got better and better - Zion is a marvelous place and I hope we get back here someday.  Somehow, we had worn Rhonda out enough the previous two days, so we didn’t get talked into any hikes.

We then made our way to Bryce Canyon National Park - only about an hour - and did the Scenic Drive through the park and were introduced to Hoodoos!  I've read all the geological explanation for how and why they exist and still have no understanding of them, but I'm intrigued nonetheless.  They look like stalagmites you see in caves, except they just fill the canyons here.  They are in rows, they stand alone, they’re fat-skinny-red-white-tall-short - fascinating formations.  We couldn’t stop taking photos of them.  I spent a lot of time trying to avoid the edges.

The weather was perfect, the skies were crystal clear and our photos reflect that. 

We stayed in Panguitch, Utah, (pronounced Pan-Gwitch)  at the Purple Sage Motel - the finest lodging there - it was $44 a night.  It has 15 rooms.  We ate at the best place in town - The Cowboy Steakhouse - ugh.......both left a lot to be desired.  Hey - it’s an adventure.

The plan for Sunday was to hike the Bryce Canyon rim trail and perhaps venture down into the canyon.  Of course, it rained and got very cold and the views disappeared!  These 2 photos were taken from the same overlook - the first on Saturday and the second on Sunday.  See what I mean?

I felt so bad for the people who were traveling like us, but had only this one day in Bryce.  As he day wore on, the clouds burned off a bit.  

People always trying to get me closer to the edge.

We hiked the rim trail - about 5 miles - and then decided to venture down into the canyon on the Navajo Loop which was only 1.3 miles but dropped over 600 feet elevation.  





VERY steep switchbacks down - a bit of flat land at the bottom then similar switchbacks to get up.  Grueling, but worth it.  

To give perspective - that's me right in the middle starting down the trail.

The switchbacks going down

Eye level with the Hoodoos

Looking down as we hiked out

From the top as we climbed out

As soon as that hike was done it started to rain in earnest (of course, it rarely rains here) so we went back to Panguitch, checked out, and took off in the direction of Arches National Park.  We spent the night in Green River, Utah, in the River Terrace Hotel - easily the nicest place we’ve been in so far and went to Ray’s Tavern and had a wonderful dinner!  It’s so cool to find these middle-of-nowhere places that are such gems.

That got me to thinking of all the places we have been with Ray and Rhonda.  How many miles by plane, road, train, boat, foot, diving, bikes - we should have kept a log.  We’ve explored Boston by foot, bike, and car (walked the freedom trail); San Francisco by foot, car, and cable car (walked across the Golden Gate Bridge); South America by cruise ship; Route 66 by car - 2800 miles; the Northwest by train and car, (climbed up Mt Ranier); explored Maine (hiked all over Acadia National Park) and the Maritime Provinces; numerous Caribbean Islands; Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park (lots of uphill hiking there!!) and The Badlands; rafted 190 miles through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River for 6 days; and traveled all around Italy on trains, planes, and buses.  Thank you Josh and Michael!  It is such a gift to find friends you can travel with, argue with, laugh with, cry with, and most importantly - just be quiet with.  As I think everyday when I wake up - We are SO DAMN LUCKY.