Lake Powell to Bryce Canyon

Lake Powell

At this time we had spent the better part of 3-weeks on the Colorado Plateau. This area covers a huge amount of real estate over 4-states and is rich in history and native American culture. As such, you spend a lot of time on Indian Reservations. Very little cell service or internet access. It's odd, you can travel all over this country and once you enter a reservation you notice the same things: lousy roads, a lot of litter (strange for a people who pride themselves on great respect for mother nature), an uncanny desire to collect old cars, a lot of new cars being driven, relatively small homes in all states of disrepair. Now I do not mean to sound racist; this is just one mans observation.

Lake Powell is a reservoir created by Glen Canyon Dam. Half of the land flooded is on the Navajo reservation. There is some animosity between the local "non-native" folk and the Navajo. There is also a lot of discord between the different Indian peoples we have met and spoken to over the past 3 weeks (Hopi, Navajo, Peublo, Anasazi, Ute,Unitah and Ouray) although we did not meet any of these folks who really knew much about the others (or have anything good to say about each other).

Lake Powell is beautiful! The marina (you can see in the picture above) is full of houseboats. Not little ones: 45-75 foot long ones. Renting for up to $10,000 per week! The lake is about 180 miles long with incredible canyons to explore. This is a place we would like to come back to and perhaps rent one of these behemoths (with a lot of people to help defray the cost).

We ended up here on our way back north to Bryce canyon. On the second night we experienced thunder and lightning like I have never seen. Rainfall of over 2 inches (very unusual for this part of the country). Someone said there was a tornado 50 miles to the south and we were hit by 95 MPH winds: quite an experience in a travel trailer (yes we were parked. The guy next to us in a smaller rig said his RV moved 6 inches). Well, we are not in a hurry, and the weather is lousy in Bryce, so we hung out for 3 days getting caught up with school work.

Bryce Canyon

Uncle Grant and his family told us that this place was great. They were right! You could miss the magic of this park completely if you only drove the roads and viewed the overlooks. Yesterday we hiked 3 trails for a total of about 6 miles. One was a rim top trail which was OK; but the other 2 took us down into the bottom of the canyon (lots of switchbacks and sweat), and was a different perspective altogether.
I guess Patrick knew what he was talking about. You are a tourist on the top of the canyon, and a visitor when down below. The hike was moderately strenuous, but definitely worth every bead of sweat.

This picture is taken down the Queens Garden trail. You can make this a loop by adding a section of the Navajo trail to it and hiking back on the rim top trail. Only about 3 miles. I wish it had been longer!

It has turned to rain, with evening temps below freezing (well, it is October at 8,000 feet elevation). Time to get caught up on our schoolwork again. I'm not ready to leave this park, and the roads into Zion are blocked due to landslides for a couple of days. It is nice to not be on a schedule.

Our best to all of you.

The Paton's