On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Paul in St. Augustine
A bit of Hawaii, Monument Valley, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.
I spent a week visiting Hawaii, spending time in Honolulu to hike to the top of Diamond Head, boating along the Na Pali Coast State Park on Kauai, and Maui to take the Road to Hana, tour the Island via helicopter, and visit Haleakalā National Park. The crest of the volcano is at 10,023 feet above sea level. When I visited in 2004, you would encounter dozens of bicyclists at the top, waiting for the sunrise. Which meant that you had to avoid them as you made the drive down the volcano.
The vast majority of people going to the Grand Canyon visit the South Rim, so I decided the North Rim would be my home for three nights. The elevation at the North Rim is 8,000 feet. I will say that for a Floridian who lives at sea level, spending time at that elevation is taxing on your body. The mountains on the horizon are the San Francisco Peaks. I spent an afternoon on the patio of the lodge, sitting in a rocking chair with a book and some wine, and watched the sunset.
Angel’s Window is at the end of Cape Royal Road. You can walk over the arch itself, where the view from the edge of the trail amazes anyone who makes the time to take this trip. Be sure to leave your vertigo at home!
Waking up on the morning of what would have been my third night, I began to feed mild effects of the change in altitude, so I altered my plans and decided to take a 15 mile smooth water rafting trip from the base of the Glen Canyon dam to Lee’s Ferry. This tour ends just before the Colorado River enters the park. This is where the smooth water rafters exit the river, and the folks doing white water rafting enter.
I did say smooth water! Both sides of the river have towering red sandstone cliffs hundreds of feet high.
The primary stop along the river is named Petroglyph Panel, where several different scenarios were carved into the wall.
I wish I remembered what the name of the fault is in this part of Arizona that crosses the Colorado River. Whatever it’s name, here it is.
Monument Valley, located on the Navajo Nation within Arizona and Utah. John Ford made several movies back in his day. These are some of the less photographed buttes.
jl
Thanks for very beautiful pix. Makes me want to revisit some places and see some others for the first time.
But, if Paul is in St Augustine, how did he get pix way out west? Har har har. A little BJ commenter humor there.
Benw
Very cool shit. Thanks for sharing
Origuy
On my drive to the South Rim from Four Corners, I could see Monument Valley in the distance. It wasn’t in the schedule that trip, but maybe someday. I’d love to take the trip down the Colorado River, too.
Thanks for the pictures. I especially enjoyed the petroglyphs.
trollhattan
Hiked into Haleakala crater a few years ago. Best stand-in for a Marscape I’ve ever encountered. And holy fuck, if you want a sunburn that’s your spot. Spotted Mauna Kea and Mauna Lowa popping above the marine cloud layer from the Big Island.
NB Hike down from the rim is easy. Hike back out made more interesting by the volcanic soil that has one sliding back 50% with each step forward. Trekking poles are your friend.
Wapiti
We spent a night in Monument Valley when I was a kid. We stopped to render aid at an accident and couldn’t get out of the area before nightfall. We made it to a rest stop for a dinner of chocolate bars, peanut butter, and crackers, then slept in the picnic area.
Gin & Tonic
Some years back we spent a couple of nights at the North Rim right before it closed for the season. I’d go back. The South Rim, not so much.
NotMax
Those bicycle tour businesses are cash cows. They’re required to pull over where there is the ability to do so to allow local traffic to pass. One company is very diligent about that. Others, not so much.
(For those who may not know, the bicyclists are led at a regular pace by a mini-bus type vehicle in front of them.)
NotMax
@trollhattan
It ain’t called Sliding Sands Trail for naught.
;)
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
There was a tour service that would bring you via snowcat into a North Rim campsite with yurts, from which you could ski, snowshoe, etc. to your heart’s content in winter. If that still exists I want to do it. Who wouldn’t want to see the Canyon from there in the clear winter air.
Guessing since they shut down the Navajo coal-fired generating station this year, air quality in the Four Corners Region will be better than it has been in decades.
trollhattan
@NotMax: Hoo boy, what a workout! Haole status was grudgingly accepted that day.
NotMax
@trollhattan
Related (WaPo link).
Mary G
Those are beautiful and now I want to go smooth water rafting.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: That winter tour sounds very cool.
stinger
What great pictures! Never heard of smooth water rafting before, but now I really want to do it. And to glide past those petroglyphs and the Whatever Fault.
StringOnAStick
@trollhattan: That would be a fabulous trip, yurts are quite comfortable. The North Rim is such a wonderful, undeveloped area; the South Rim can be a bit of a zoo with tourist traffic. Shoulder season is better; there’s just a lot more humans now than when the parks were established and facilities built.
JanieM
@StringOnAStick: The last time I hiked into the Grand Canyon was shoulder season — November 1984. It snowed on the rim the morning we headed down and was like a nice July day in New England at the river. We spent a few days camping at the base of Zoroaster Temple.
That was the third of two or three trips I made there — the first was in 1972 and was a couple of weeks long. We never quite made it all the way to the north rim, so most of my hiking was on the Bright Angel, on the South Kaibab (just once), or horizontally from the Phantom Ranch area upriver (I don’t remember the name of that trail, it ran along partway up the wall of the inner canyon).
I don’t remember the rim crowds being too bad in those days, but even in 1972 the Bright Angel Trail per se was a zoo, what with the mule trains and the people on foot who never should have hiked down so far in the first place and were now trying to get back up under their own steam. Going down is so easy! Going up…well.
I was lucky enough to do a lot of hiking out west when I was young — and of all the places I saw, the Grand Canyon from the rim looked the most like the postcards. From the inner canyon it’s a different story.
It’s a beautiful, amazing place — I’m glad I got down in there when I still had knees that could stand the climb in and out.
JanieM
P.S. Great pics — the first one is an enticement to put Hawaii on the post-pandemic travel list.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@NotMax: Pro-tip if you do sliding sands, bring duct tape. wrap it around your shoes, socks and pants. you do NOT want a cinder in your shoe over a 12 mile hike. (if you are coming out via switchbacks).
edit: basically for everyone else who wants to do the hike.
frosty
North Rim was on our busted itinerary last spring. We’re going to try for it in 2021, along with the other parks we missed. Fingers crossed.
Mike in Oly
We had planned to take a road trip to the southwest this coming spring, ending in Las Cruces for the national iris convention. Sadly does not look like we will be doing that. Would love to get back to that area tho. Thanks for the reminder of how beautiful it is.
HinTN
@JanieM:
They sell a nice ventilated tee shirt at one of the GC gift shops these days. It says, “Down is optional, Up is mandatory. ”
I would love to visit the North Rim. Even with the crowds, it’s possible to find solace space on the South Rim.
Paul in St. Augustine
@j1; @Benw; @Origuy; @stinger; @ JanieM thanks for the nice words.
JanieM
@HinTN:
That’s great. I would have bought one of those if they’d had them when I was there.
Funny, though, in the long run I’m pretty sure it was going down (and playing basketball) that wrecked my knees.
Next lifetime I’ll be wiser. ;-)
Ruckus
@HinTN:
I’ve been to the South Rim twice, we stopped there when I helped lead Route 66 motorcycle tours. Solace was easy to find there. North Rim is on my bucket list. It’s a big bucket with a small budget so not sure if I’ll make it.