Text 24156, 100 rader
Skriven 2009-05-18 02:03:06 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Trip Report 2
=====================
We had been to the Grand Canyon 30 years ago.  It was still as
spectacular as we'd remembered, and I think we got to see more of it
this time.  Both times we were on the more popular South Rim.  This trip
made stops at several vantage points, but did not go to the new (and
controversial) viewpoint built over the canyon on an Indian Reservation
which was hundreds of miles away.  Dinner was not included this night,
and our tour guide warned us of very long lines in the restaurants near
our lodging in Canyon Village.  We had about an hour after unloading at
the lodging before a local tour bus was to take us to a vantage point
for sunset.  I took a local shuttle to the grocery store and bought
bread, sandwich meat and cheeses for later dinner in the room.  The
sunset tour was spectacular.  At first, sunset looked like it would be a
dud as the sun dipped below the canyon wall, but then began to put on a
real show.  We took several pictures.

On day 4, we left the lodge and made one more stop at a vantage point
along the south rim.  Then we went to Lake Powell and had lunch there.
Lunch was a grilled chicken on Chapati bread -- good but not
exceptional.  In fact, for the most part, I'd say that the provided
meals were all good but not exceptional.  Breakfast was included each
day and tended to be the typical motel buffet.  Some lunches were
included and typically were fairly good.

That afternoon we took an optional tour cruise on Lake Powell.  In some
places the boat was within 50 feet of canyon walls on either side.  Very
pretty.

The next day's high light was Zion National Park.  Both Gail and I
agreed that this was our favorite park.  Although the Grand Canyon was
much bigger in scope, in Zion you get to travel along the canyon floor
with majestic cliffs on either side of you.  Zion was the only place
where we could do that.  In the Grand Canyon and other places, one could
get to the canyon floor but it took more time and effort than we had
available.  Lunch was included here at the lodge.  It was a buffet and
had some very good dishes.  The choices were mostly Mexican theme, e.g.
beef or chicken tacos, a good beef soup/stew, a mixed bean dish, etc.

After Zion, the coach drove to a motel at the edge of Bryce Canyon.
This was a rustic place in the middle of nowhere.  Dinner was not
included, and there the only choice was the motel restaurant.  This was
a family run place, and not any sort of chain.  I ordered rainbow trout
off the menu.  When it came, I had to call the waiter over to ask.  It
did not look like any rainbow trout I had ever had -- usually 8-12
ounces of whole fish on the bone.  This was a 12 ounce filet that looked
and tasted like salmon.  The waiter said that the difference was that it
was wild caught, not the farm raised rainbow I was accustomed to.  All I
know is that it was an exceptional piece of fish and that I enjoyed it.

The next day we drove into Bryce Canyon.  As you can see from the
photoshack pictures, Bryce is very different from the other canyons we
had been to.  It is full of very narrow ridges and tall spires called
HooDoos.  If we were hikers and had more time, it would have been neat
to walk down the trails to the canyon floor in amongst the walls and
spires. After Bryce, the coach took us to our night stay at Escalante.
This is a small town in southern Utah.  The tour company had cultivated
a relationship with one of the town residents who became a step on guide
for a tour around town, with many antedotes about the local color. After
the tour, he and his family served us dinner which consisted of boneless
BBQed country ribs, slaw, potato salad and beans cooked in a dutch oven
in an open fire pit.  His wife served up what she called scones.  These
were very good, but not like any scones I have had.  Usually when I
think of scones, I think of a British bread which is sort of like an
American biscuit, but heavier and often filled with "stuff" such as
raisons or currents.  These were about biscuit size, but were really a
fried dough -- sort of like the beinet of New Orleans -- very light and
hollow inside.  After dinner we had entertainment by a couple of local
singers.

Day 7 took us from Escalante to Moab.  Along the way, we had the same
local step-on guide to give us some more local color of the area.  When
we dropped him off, his wife was there to pick him up and to provide us
with a "box" lunch consisting of a turkey, ham & cheese sub plus other
stuff.  The lunch site was a picnic area in a small town where fruit
groves had been planted by the original Mormon settlers.   I had only a
few bites of my sandwich, and decided that I was not feeling well and so
put it back for "later".   Later that afternoon, I had to make use of
the facility in the back of the coach (which is what makes it a coach
and not a bus).  I fell victum to a flu-like illness that had been
making the rounds of the coach, hitting someone new every day or two
since the beginning.   The coach drove into Moab for a two night stay. I
went to the room, collapsed and hardly remember the next day.  Gail was
still feeling ok, and spent the time doing laundry.  We both skipped
what had b een a planned optional excursion of a two-hour "extreme" ride
in the back country on a beefed up Hummer.  In talking with others
after, it would have been a fun ride.  There were spots where the driver
was navigating up and down steep rock formations with only two of the
four wheels on the ground and the other two up in the air.  It rained
and hailed that afternoon and so the people on the hummer tour got very
wet.

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) comcast (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)


... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 02:05:28, 18 May 2009
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30

--- Maximus/NT 3.01
 * Origin: Owl's Anchor (1:261/1466)