The grand circle trips were in many ways what started the journey of Third Eye Diary. These visits to the American Southwest were responsible for me catching the travel photography bug! The collage here is a collection of images from some of the iconic landmarks of the southwest. Read the following posts about many of these destinations or read the travel blog below.
Prologue
The west always ends up being the winter destination for us, be it mountains or otherwise! This time it’s the grand circle. Naturally, I have been hawking the weather websites for two weeks — because if it snows, the mountains can be giving but can be unforgiving too if we are not careful. The predictions of course kept flip-flop-ing until the last couple of days — expecting reasonable weather for the Arizona leg of the tour: South Rim, Sedona and Page.
Jan 1: At PHL
The nasty weather on new year’s eve has finally cleared up. The flight is on time, and we are in early. It’s better to be early than late — and it continues to be a struggle to make that point to Rumpa. Traffic, parking and security were a breeze. I guess few choose to travel on new year’s day.
Jan 1: At ATL
Airline horror strikes! Flight to Vegas is two and a half hours late, which makes an already tight situation precarious. In the best case, we may be able to reach our hotel in Kingman at 1 o’clock; in the worst case, 3 o’clock. The announcer just said — “Your flight has been updated to 7:50, because the flight is coming in a little late”. Updated! Give me a break! Talk about not owning up to your responsibility — at least have the decency to use the word “delay”. Hypocrites!
In the end, they did show some decency by offering meal vouchers for, well, a mere seven bucks. The flight didn’t take off until shortly before 9, so we are bracing ourselves for a sleepless night.
Jan 2: Grand Canyon
After a thankfully uneventful short night’s sleep at Kingman, we headed towards the grand canyon. The drive is quite unremarkable, and as we chose to directly drive to the desert view overlook, the canyon suddenly appeared on our left, and kept playing hide and seek for 26 mile drive. The alternating views of the rocks and the snowy green landscape on the east rim drive provided a delightful contrast.
Desert view allows you to look at a considerable length of the main gorge, and was one of two spots we visited where the colorado river can be seen clearly. The north rim face boasts big buttes, but not a lot in the way of color contrast, except for different shades of rocks at the six different layers. Also, the weather was a little too good, the bright sun had robbed the buttes off some contrast. The south face, on the other hand, had a lot of vegetation, and snow — I guess because in the winter, it doesn’t get that much sun. It ended up looking much prettier. We also managed to hike about 2 miles along the rim trail, but couldn’t try a trail that descends into the canyon — too icy. Sunset was quite a letdown, except for the glow that you get on the upper layers right before. Sunrise, likewise, wasn’t anything to write home about. We had a good time spending the evening with Tirtho, Sumana and Adi — had dinner at the Bright Angel, and even played a few hands of cards afterwards!
Jan 3: Sedona: “Grander”
Somebody in the blogosphere had said, “God created grand canyon, but he must live in Sedona”. I would simply say that anyone who visits grand canyon — and pretty much everyone who comes here in the grand circle area in Arizona does — you can’t not do the two and a half hour drive to Sedona. We were glad that we switched our second day at south rim to a whole day visit to Sedona. Oak creek canyon vista looks just like a typical Himalayan overlook, with winding roads visible on the neighboring range, and is dotted with pendoresa pines. San Francisco peak scenic road before Flagstaff also is lined with the pines, but offers spectacular views of the snowy peaks with a huge expanse surrounding the highway. After a lot of green and white, we reached Slide Rock State Park, our first encounter with red rock country. We were simply bowled over. The vivid colors were a real treat to the eyes. At that point, we hadn’t realized that rest of the day the red rocks would continue to amaze us, with each vista trumping the previous one. I am the one that is usually blamed for taking too many photographs with no human beings on them, but this time it was Rumpa’s turn to go crazy with the camera in hand.
After a forgettable “free lunch” at the Pink Java cafe, we drove to Bell Rock vista and the chapel of the Holy Cross. Then came the pink jeep tour — and the best part of it was not the off-road roller coaster that we went through, which was awesome — but rather the fact that now we were able to get inside the Coconino forest and get up close with all the red cliffs we were only able to zoom in on so far! In other words, it made up for our lack of hiking skills! Submarine rock and chicken point both provided a stunning panorama of geologic wonder. And, Bob, our guide was so knowledgeable about the area and its geologic history that it really added another dimension to the whole experience. And of course, there were the incredible maneuverings of the jeep — we had to see it to believe that a vehicle can negotiate this landscape! It is impossible to capture on camera the spell that Sedona cast on us. Like they say on the Pink Jeep leaflets — “You gotta do it!” It applies to not just the jeep tour, but the whole area. The day ended with the view of the glowing red rocks in the setting sun (above), and we got to our hotel just after six and had a very satisfying “bhaat-daal-aluseddho” dinner after the luncheon disaster.
Here is my first attempt at building a panorama. This overlooks the city from the Airport Road viewpoint.
Jan 4: San Francisco Peaks, Sunset Crater and Lake Powell
Today we drove from Flagstaff to Page taking a detour through the Wupatki National Monument loop road just outside of Flagstaff, took a tour of the lower antelope canyon, and ended day at the pristine Lake Powell. The contrast between the different places we visited was enormous, and at every level – color, landscape, vegetation and geology. The towering San Francisco peak kept us company for a long time, and we photographed it every which way.
These were surely the views closest to a snow-covered Himalayan peak so far on our tour. At sunset crater volcano, it provided a stunning backdrop to the black lava cliffs. Everything around us were lava, some pitch black and some reddish — topped by snow. This was nature in black and white, literally.
We continued along route 89, and the landscape changed dramatically, particularly after Cameron, giving way to yet another heavy dose of red rocks.
But these red rocks had a distinctly different texture than the smooth, solid hematite rocks we saw in Sedona. These almost looked like huge dumps of loose red clay and pebbles, with a layered structure from top to bottom with different shades of red. As we neared Flagstaff, we did our first hike of the day to the Horseshoe Bend. We had some trouble finding antelope canyon — and the GPS failed when we needed it: this was the first time we had put it to work! As a result, we lost a valuable half an hour of photography inside the surreal slot canyon. It was too late to see the famous light beams, but we still managed to get some good looks, in between climbing and descending metal stairs and somehow squeezing past the the narrow canyon alleyway.
The antelope canyon hike was our first lesson in taking pictures with a tripod, just bought it the same morning! After several futile attempts, we still could not get the full depth of view from the dark inner walls of the canyon to the bright blue sky above. There is a lot to be learned there for sure. We wished we had more time in there to fully explore the canyon. By the end of it, the Indian guide had to basically throw us out of there.
With a couple of hours of daylight remaining, we reached Glen Canyon dam and Lake Powell. It’s a prime example of how humans have literally imposed a new landscape on nature, the submerged red rock cliffs on the crystal blue water isn’t something that nature planned for.
We couldn’t take a boat cruise because they don’t run in the winter, so we had to contend with exploring a couple of vistas, ending with the Lake Powell viewpoint from atop the hills, where we also watched the sunset.
Jan 5: Vermillion Cliffs, UT-12 and Grand Escalante
Today we completed the Arizona leg of our trip and got into Utah, but not before driving through the scenic route between Bitter Springs and Fredonia. The Vermillion cliffs are majestic. There were even shades of aquamarine, in addition to vermillion. The scattering of big black and red rocks at the foot gives an eerie feeling, like an army of ghosts keeping watch on every traveler.
We spent the rest of the day driving as far East on the scenic UT Route 12 as we could. This is the All American road that many believe is the most diverse and scenic road in America. We couldn’t get to Capitol Reef, but drove through plenty of picturesque areas, which included Red Rock Canyon and Kodachrome Basin State Park.
Red Rock Canyon, with its rich color and the tunnels was the first. Then came Kodachrome Basin State Park – we surely would have regretted it if we didn’t take the hour long detour from Canonville. I was lamenting the fact that we couldn’t drive through Cottonwood Canyon road and see Grosvenor’s Arch, as it was impassable, and I wouldn’t have risked it with a rental car anyway. However, Kodachrome Basin more than made up for it with its uniquely shaped rocks.
Other parts of Route 12 offered great views as well, and even though this was the most driving we did on the trip – we kept it at less than 4 hours of drive time each day so far – we didn’t regret it. Tomorrow is perhaps the most anticipated segment of our tour – Bryce Canyon. I have a hunch that it will be a tough tussle between Bryce and Sedona for the day of the tour!
Jan 6: Bryce Canyon and Zion Mt. Carmel Highway
I was right. The hoodoos of Bryce Canyon did rival the red rocks of Sedona. We watched sunrise at, of all places, sunset point. Most of the overlooks do have spectacular glow in the morning sun as the Bryce Amphitheater faces East, so it didn’t matter as much that we missed the sign for sunrise point! We spent the morning driving through the park south of the amphitheater, stopping at all the overlooks — Yovimpa point and Natural Bridge definitely were the highlights. Something strange happened then. The ranger at the visitor’s center didn’t sound very hopeful about us being able to negotiate any trail dressed the way we were, unless we got snowshoes or chains or something like that. No matter – we gathered enough courage to at least try first twenty feet or so of the Queen’s Garden trail, which was snow packed as were all the trails going down to the amphitheater.
Twenty feet became forty, then sixty, and we soon realized that if were careful, and with the help of the hiking sticks that I had packed in without Rumpa’s knowledge, we could actually surround ourselves with hoodoos! That’s exactly what we did, and was it rewarding! We almost made it to the floor of the canyon, and hiked up in time to eat lunch and check out from Ruby’s Inn. Afterwards, we visited probably the two most gorgeous overlooks — Inspiration Point and Bryce Point. The hoodoos didn’t want us to leave, or so it seemed, particularly after we got real close to them! If I ever came back to Bryce, I would surely do a couple more trails. Bryce is a small park, but its beauty is so unique that you never get bored of watching the hoodoos from all different angles in their colorful glory.
We left Bryce in late afternoon, in hopes of catching the sunset at Zion, and also see at least a part of it since the weather forecast tomorrow didn’t sound promising. We drove through the Zion Mount Carmel highway on our way to the visitor’s center. We didn’t know what to expect from Zion, because unlike many other parks we visited, we weren’t aware of a single signature feature of Zion, but then anybody we talked to said it’s great. And we knew why as soon as we entered the park. From the
Checkerboard Mesas to the towering cliffs along the highway that displayed a multitude of colors and formations, this was certainly the most diverse scenery we experienced within an hour’s drive in a single park! We ended the day with a hike up the Watchman’s trail to see sunset. The changing colors on Watchman’s rocks just before sunset made for a better sunset than any we had seen so far on our trip, save Sedona.
Jan 7: Zion and Kolob Canyon, Valley of Fire
Our hotel was right in the canyon, so I was hoping to capture a good sunrise shot or two — but this turned out to be the only cloudy beginning of the day on our trip. The drive through Zion Canyon road was unremarkable, partly because there was no sun, and partly because the Mount Carmel highway last afternoon looked so much better. The other thing we realized is that seeing Zion Canyon must involve doing some of the hikes. Unfortunately, some of the ones we wanted to do, particularly Weeping Rock, had slick packed ice – it was impossible to hike. We did try the Grotto trail, but apart from a Bird’s eye view of the river in the canyon, it wasn’t anything spectacular. We walked for what must have been more than mile on a 2.6 mile roundtrip trail, yet couldn’t see the Emerald Pool. The sun came out by the time we drove to the Kolob Terrace road – we went as far the road was plowed. Some views were pretty good, but nothing that we hadn’t seen in some form. By lunch time, it seemed like after starting off with a bang in the eastern part, western part of the park would disappoint us. Boy, were we wrong! We decided to drive the 5-mile Kolob Canyon road, a short detour on our way back to Las Vegas. This Northwest corner of the park is a hidden gem. The looping road through the heart of the canyon was breathtaking. The sun was shining through, at the same time some cliffs had a mist around them, and some were covered with thin clouds. Zion did end on a positive note.
We left the land of canyons for Las Vegas at around three in the afternoon. We did have a couple of little “unfinished businesses” from last year’s trip to Vegas which which we wanted to wrap up 🙂 Even so, we realized after a while that we would probably be there too early to kill five hours in Vegas (sounds strange, isn’t it ?). Right then, we saw signs for the Valley of Fire State park 18 miles away, and Lake Mead at 23 miles. I had vaguely remembered some folks had recommended this as a great detour on the way from Zion to Vegas. Gas was running low, but I figured we would be fine with a 46 mile round trip off the interstate. The fiery cliffs emerged out of nowhere after a few miles of driving through the muddy mountains. Even after the kaleidoscope of rock formations we had already witnessed, this had something new to offer. Glowing red with interesting formations like seven sisters, but not as high as some of the other places. Lake mead, however eluded us – we never got to it with enough gas in the tank. And right when we decided to turn around, the low gas light came on. The drive back became somewhat of an adventure, and I taught myself a good lesson in driving most of a 27 mile up-and-down terrain with the gear shift in neutral. Only if I drove that way all the time, would have saved a bundle! The GPS failed one final time when we asked it to take us to the nearest gas station. Or maybe it didn’t, because halfway on our way back, it did say the nearest gas was 7 miles away. But it was a detour from the way we came, and by then the GPS had lost our trust to depend on it in a critical situation. We got to the gas station at the freeway entrance in time, and in another half an hour, the Vegas lights were visible, always a shocking sight after touring the desert for a week! We had time to take snaps at the Vegas sign, briefly visited Caesar’s Palace, and took a peek at the Fremont Street Experience before a nice dinner at Tamba: all things we didn’t have time to do last year.
There was one final airline horror waiting for us. Our flight was cancelled, and Delta had rerouted us through two connections. After what seemed like a neverending sequence of getting on and off an airplane, we reached Philly at about ten in the morning on Friday.
Epilogue
When we began the trip, we knew that as long as the weather cooperated, the Grand Circle wouldn’t disappoint us. The weather gods indeed were on our side, with abundant sunshine for all but a couple of hours in the entire trip! Winter visits to this part of the world obviously has its limitations: some of the best trails are inaccessible, and there is less daylight hours. However, the added dimension of snowcapped hills, the thin crowd (there were places where we didn’t see another car, allowing us to just stop in the middle of the road several times to look around and take pictures), and a far more comfortable weather than the searing heat in the summer more than made up for the disadvantages. The places that we expected to be great based on friends’ recommendations all lived up to the expectations, like Bryce and Antelope Canyons. Yet, what made the trip more satisfying were the places that we didn’t know what to expect from, and were pleasantly surprised by, particularly Sedona and Kodakchrome Basin State Park. All in all, it was awesome!