Ed

[Today's Photos]

We left St George right on time, and had an educational ride to Zion. Our resident geologist filled us in on details of the local terrain that we never would have noticed or known. We had just done this drive two days ago -- today, we learned what we missed.

Zion was chilly, enough for me to use my windbreaker. Ginger and I decided to depart from the crowd and hike on our own. We got to see Weeping Rock, an area of sandstone where the water seeps out. We've heard differing accounts of the time it takes water to seep through, but it's between one and four thousand years from the time rain falls on the top of a formation to the time it seeps through the side. The trail to Weeping Rock was damp but easily hiked in 5 minutes. The morning's rain had the waterfalls going strong, and we got to be behind one.

From Weeping Rock we took the shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava, then hiked the river trail for 30-40 minutes, then hiked up to Menu Falls, another spot where water seeps through.

We had to skip our afternoon hike because of weather reports from Bryce. It sounded like it coult be bad, so we skedaddled early and made it to Ruby's Inn. More on that later -- it's 7:30 and time for our lecture on Geology!

Rain!

We woke up to sprinkles. For a while it even poured -- but only for a while. A nice desert rain. Pictured at right is our bus. It is almost entirely full. About four empty seats.

We're on the bus now, leaving St George for Zion. Our resident geologist is telling us about the local terrain, so I'll sign off for now.

[Today's Photos]

Coffee. I miss coffee. Oh, I'm going to be missing coffee for the next week and a half.

We stayed in the St. George area today, getting an overview presentation in the morning, then to Snow Canyon for some light hiking and exploring, then to a Dinosaur Tracks museum. The photo at left is of some sandstone formations called Moki Marbles. They're deposits in the sandstone: as the water flows through the sandstone, it stops and accretes into little (inch or so) round formations. These are then exposed by erosion. We were walking all through these in Snow Canyon.

The Dinosaur Tracks museum was a bit raw, but geologically fascinating. A fellow named Shelton Johnson was having fun with a backhoe in his property, slicing up rocks, picking them up, and moving them. One accidentally flipped upside down, and he noticed some unusual signs on it. He called up his son, a geologist in the town university, and his son identified them as dinosaur tracks. Well, they've found a lot more and there are people busy studying them. Many rare tracks, such as signs of a Somethingsaurus dashing down to the lakebed, sqatting down to eat his fish dinner, getting back up and popping off back home.

This afternoon we had a presentation on the history of St George and of Utah in general: from the Mormon perspective. Yeesh. Ask me about it some time.

Tomorrow it's off to Zion. As always, net access is iffy. If you don't hear from us, stay tuned.

[Today's Photos]

Breakfast today was a unique experience. The motel served a "continental" breakfast, out of which the least unappetizing item was instant oatmeal. I made sure they had hot water, took a couple of packets of oatmeal, and went to the hot water dispenser. It said Do Not Touch. That left... coffee. A word to the wise: instant oatmeal with coffee is Not Good. It is rather impressively Not Good. And it gets worse with every bite. You may have to try it to believe it!

But enough of that. We drove through Zion and stopped for a short hike up the Canyon Overlook Trail, just before the big tunnel. This is gorgeous country. And so wet! There's water seeping everywhere, and lush greenery in the most improbable places. Lots of crevices and lots of growth in them.

Today's photo was taken from the top of the trail. It's a nice overlook of Zion Canyon. Just a 15-minute hike to the top, and the vistas are oh so worth it. Click on the picture for a full version.

From Zion we drove to St George, where we meet up for Elderhostel. St. George is, in a word, nasty. That's not something I like to say, but I can't take it back. The Elderhostel people are delightful, but there are some real jerks elsewhere in town. It's a very crowded place, and traffic is almost Bay-Area bad. Rudeness is the norm. Never yield to anyone. Yellow means "go", even if it means blocking the intersection. There's a traffic circle in town, and I can understand why some people in Los Alamos are so emotionally upset at the idea of them: the traffic circle here flows well most of the time -- even with pedestrians -- but there are indeed a lot of idiots who just race through. Screeching brakes and honking horns. Not often, but enough to make an impression.

No WiFi in St George, so I don't know when or how I'll post this. Nobody even knows what WiFi is. There's a spot that claims to be an Internet Cafe, but it was closed and there was an angry lady sliding some papers under their door when I went. Her server has been down for four days, she's been trying to contact them to bring it up, and they don't respond. She's losing business because of this. I tried the library; no WiFi, and I'm not local, so I "can't use their computers anyway". How friendly.

Wow, this is sounding really negative. Sorry! I'm in good spirits, and just trying to convey some of the spirit of the day. And I'm not even going to go into the tour of the Tabernacle...

Some people would call this part of the country ugly and boring. Their point of view isn't necessarily wrong... but it's sad. This beholder sees only exquisite beauty.

We drove through some incredible terrain today. Wide vistas, deep canyons. Red rocks, light green grass, dark green shrubs. Black mesas against a deep blue Southwestern sky. The land was constantly changing; every mile was different.

The photo at left is of (we think) Leche-e Mesa near Page. It's a striking mesa, visible for a long part of our drive.

We stopped for the night in Page, Arizona, right by Lake Powell. Had a surprisingly good dinner at Fiesta Mejicana: an appetizer of sauteed mushrooms with lots (LOTS!) of garlic, then Mole Enchiladas for Ginger and a Milanesa for me. The Milanesa (basically a latin american chicken-fried steak) was exquisite, a good cut of meat with great butter flavor. The Mole was a bit sweet for us, but still tasty.

After dinner, we drove around and stopped at a vista spot right after Glen Canyon Dam. Two young ladies were showing no fear of the canyon edge. I recommend clicking on the photo for a full-scale version. Gulp!

We're off to Utah, on an Elderhostel program with Ginger's folks. It should be a decent and educational experience... but I wonder what they mean by "easy to moderate walks"? I bet their idea of "moderate" isn't the same as Ginger's.

We leave Sunday morning for St. George. Ginger has managed to catch a bug, so she hit the sack early tonight in hopes of fighting it off. St. George is about a day's drive from Los Alamos, and we have two days to get there, so we'll take it easy.