West Utah Canyons - 2012 Family Travel

Planning Map for the Canyons 2012

This was our first family vacation in 2012.  It was not easy to have our two adult children join us now, as they have work to do and school to go to. The excuse was to celebrate my birthday in July.  But if we waited until then, the whole family would have had a hard time getting together for this one-week long vacation travel.  On the left is our planning map using Google Maps.  I also used Google Documents for a spreadsheet that had all the text information of this map and the lodgings and reservations for this trip. 
I cannot believe how easy and efficient it has become over the last thirty years to travel.  Now we have GPS, online maps, and cellular phones.  I still remember the planning we had to do with those AAA maps and Tour Guides.  The last stretch to the destination is always a challenge.  You are within a couple of miles of your friend's home, but you missed one turn and got lost.  There was no cell phone and there was no easy pay phone to get to. Retracing your steps and back to the main roads were the common recovery procedures.

Family Picture in Sin City at Palazzo, Las Vegas

We drove down to Irvine, California on Friday, June 15, to meet up with Michael, who is attending graduate school at UCI there.  We had a luncheon with my college classmates in San Gabriel on Saturday.  We headed to Las Vegas for the first night. We picked up Joseph in the evening, who flew in from San Jose, California. Las Vegas, the man-made Sin City, has many splendid and magnificent "Towers of Babel" of our time. We had our wonderful breakfast at Palazzo per Joe's recommendation.  I personally cannot never eat enough to get my money's worth.

Zion National Park 2012 Family Portrait

Our first stop was Zion National Park.
We visited quite a few national parks in Colorado and Utah when Jeanet had her college re-union in Denver about 10 years ago.  We were happy to visit this section of the southwestern states.  Because of time, we had to skip the Capitol Reef National Park this time.  I would like to go there some other time.

Mountain Goat in Zion National Park

We took the free shuttle service to see most of the canyon. It was quite convenient and environmentally friendly.

It took us by surprise to see a couple of mountain goats on our drive to the scenic Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. We took this picture from the window of our CR-V.

Bryce Canyon National Park June 2012

Our second stop was Bryce Canyon National Park

The picture on the left cannot reveal the grandeur of the canyon below. It is not just because of my simple and humble digital camera.  There is no true substitute for seeing it for yourself.  I still took pictures, although there are many better pictures out there.  The reason is the same for me and other people. I took them because we were in the pictures :-)  They are really just for memories.

There is also a free shuttle bus service in this national park for some key vista points. I really like this service.

Switchbacks in the Navajo Loop Trail

Here we learned the word "hoodoo," which is a tall, thin spire of rock.  This makes this national park unique.

We did a couple of short hikes in the park the next day including the "hoodoo hike" along the Navajo Loop Trail.  You got a close look at the hoodoo's.  It is well worth the workout.  This shot on the left shows the quick switchbacks on our way down to the canyon. Note that we had three people in the picture at various points of the trail. Michael was a distant dot at the top.

Deer Having Evening Meal in Bryce Canyon National Park

Deer families are common scenes in the Bryce Canyon National Park. They are so comfortable with the environment and they are not afraid of humans at all.

We went to a "star party" one evening for a nice ranger talk and Power Point presentation on where we are in the universe.  It was quite informative.  We are such a tiny speck of dust, but we are so conscious of our existence.  The human race is really a lonely tribe in the vast galaxies.  After the talk, we got a chance to line up to see the stars and planets through the many telescopes set up by hobbyists. The most stunning one for my family was Saturn.  That unmistakable ring was easy to identify. It is so much like a textbook picture.  For that matter, we could be fooled if they just put microfilm there on the eyepiece.

At the star party, I learned to identify the little dipper (Ursa Minor) by first locating Polaris, and the celestial swan (Cygnus) by locating the amber blue-green head Albireo and the bright tail Deneb, one of the Summer Triangle. In the past, I could only identify the big dipper (Ursa Major), Polaris, and Orion.  I hope that I can reliably identify the swan and the little dipper in the future.

Bryce Canyon National Park Lunch in the Picnic Area

We found a nice shady picnic table for our Subway sandwich lunch in the park. There were nearby Subway shops in the parks we visited.  The sandwiches were wonderful to have as lunch.  We had enough of them for the trip and would probably not eat that for a while.

Bison Herd at the Entrance of Grand Canyon National Park

Finally, we came to the Grand Canyon National Park North Rim.  Technically this is in Arizona, not in Utah.  We had been in Grand Canyon a couple of times before, but only to the South Rim.  The South Rim has better access and is more popular.

The drive to the North Rim was quite serene and beautiful.  I really appreciate the roads and infrastructure that get built and maintained. There are a couple of bison herds near the park entrance area. That was our first surprise.

Log Cabin in National Grand Canyon Park

This is the log cabin we stayed at the Grand Canyon National Park North Rim. We had no wireless access and no TV. That's perfectly fine with me.

Jeanet, Joseph and Michael's Mule Ride in Grand Canyon North Rim

We had a one-hour mule ride in the morning on the last day.  The trail was not difficult since this was for beginners. It went near the canyon a few times, but mostly we rode in the woods.

We remembered to slow down on our way back to look for the elk farm that we saw on our way in.  We stopped to take a few pictures.  This Sugar Knoll elk farm is in Glendale, Utah, which, is situated between Bryce Canyon National Park and the Grand Canyon National Park North Rim. We were hoping to find the ostrich ranch we saw on our way to Bryce Canyon National Park, but failed to find it on our way back.

The temperature went up to 110 Fahrenheit at one point near the California border on our way back.  We were glad to be in the car with air conditioning.  We were thankful that the trip was fun, safe, and uneventful.