Cathedral Hopping
When you purchase a high-end tour package or cruise these days, there are almost always pre-trip or post-trip add-ones that represent some logical and generally in-demand extensions to the baseline trip. These add-ons are usually driven by the location of the original trip. For instance, when we went to the Baltics a few years ago for a cruise, we were able to add-on a few days in Iceland, presumably getting a better deal through collective purchasing by the tour operator. Of course, getting a chance to go into the Blue Lagoon with 5,000 of your closest friends is reason enough to take this add-on. Earlier this year we went to Egypt with an upscale tour company that offered an add-on of a few days in Jordan, where we went see Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. That enabled us to spend a freezing night in a Buckminster Fuller geodesic Bedouin dome room in the desert that almost killed Lawrence of Arabia. We even created our own add-on by starting the trip with a few days in Rome before we jumped across the Mediterranean to Cairo. Rome was perfect as always. I don’t think we are the only people who think about add-ons this way since they are offered by so many operators. I suspect that this is a thing because determining the perfect length of a trip is always hard and there are so many neat places we all want to see before we die. For years, when I planned domestic motorcycle trips I hit on five days as the perfect length. Some people added on before or after, but every time I tried to organize a baseline trip longer or shorter than five days, it didn’t work so well. I’m not sure how to explain it, but five days seems to be a good solid trip length for a domestic sojourn and a three day add-on seems just right if one has the time and inclination.
So, when Kim and I planned this family gathering that just finished, we chose to do it for five days. I am tempted to say that its like that old Senecot laxative commercial that says in reference to the problem with using prunes, “one too few or six too many?” Utah is not a terribly long way away for many of us, but it takes at least a day or two to get there from anywhere and another day or two to get back home. We didn’t choose to add-on to the front end, but rather just logically stopped in Las Vegas to dine with my sister, Barb. But the back end was too good to pass up for an add-on. So, we are on just such a three-day add-on where we are doing Zion National Park, The North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Antelope Canyon (the famous slot canyon), the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and, just for fun, Oatman, the authentic ghost town.
We have been quite surprised that in the middle of July, the great attractions of the Southwest do not seem to be so very busy. We saw it in Capital Reefs, Escalante and Bryce Canyon, and today we saw it again in Zion. I personally suspect that this summer slow spell has mostly to do with the heat dome over the Southwest. I would call Zion the grandaddy of them all and we always expect Rt. 9, the one way in and the one day out, to be very slow and very crowded. Instead, there were perhaps a few dozen cars in the line to pay to enter and perhaps a dozen to go through the main tunnel into Zion Canyon. Other than that, it was incredibly uncrowded, perhaps even less people than I am used to seeing in May, technically the shoulder season, when I usually come through it. The good news is that Zion is no less spectacular with fewer people looking at it. The cavernous canyons of red, with their unusual and age-old striations running in every imaginable direction, were as spectacular as ever. It was especially pleasant to show it all to my daughter and her girls, Charlotte and Evelyn. Since Carolyn’s husband John positions himself in the far back of our van, out of reach of my normally loud voice, I think he is enjoying the majestic tour as well.
We ended our first add-on day in Kanab, a town that has come a long way since I first wandered through thirty years ago. We found a nice restaurant with an outdoor patio, but the patio shade sail was a mess and at one point it actually dumped dirt on our food. Maybe Kanab still has a ways to go. We left Kanab early the next day and headed to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Whether due to the record heat dome in Arizona, the early time of day we headed to this remote National Park, or because the North Rim Lodge suffered a water main break and was not accepting lodgers yet (including cancelling our reservations), the place was eerily devoid of visitors and attendants alike. We were able to go onto the terrace of the lodge and hike the Bright Angel Trail down the canyon a bit, but the lodge was otherwise closed, as were the gift shops. In fact, only the visitor center was open with its small array of souvenirs. We were literally one of a handful of cars in the visitor lot at this usually rarely visited, but never abandoned cathedral of the Colorado River. That cathedral is a mile deep and eighteen miles wide that runs for a total length of 277 miles…hence the use of the modifier Grand. The canyon itself is bigger than Rhode Island.
After our quick and lonely stop at the North Rim, we headed east adjacent to the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument that defines the northern border of Arizona and is its own cathedral even though its not a park per se. That route took us to Page, where we were taking my son-in-law John for his tour of Antelope Canyon, an amazing slot canyon, owned and operated by the Navajo Nation and probably the most photographed slot canyon in America. Kim and I have been through Antelope Canyon and wanted to share that find with John. Meanwhile, we took my daughter Carolyn and little Charlotte and Evelyn to Horseshoe Bend, where they hiked a mile and a half in 98 degree heat to peek into yet another cathedral cut into the red sandstone in this primordial ocean bottom.
That left us a couple hours from the south rim of the Grand Canyon just before sunset. This side of the canyon is closer to civilization and has developed into an entire Arizona industry of significant scale. The contrast with the North Rim is stark. The number of hotels and restaurants in the park alone, make the South Rim more like Disney World than a natural wonder of the world.
We have one day left in this trip add-on. We have hit all my favorite cathedrals with the possible exception of Monument Valley, which lies 180 miles to the northeast. At one point near Vermillion Cliffs, my daughter asked me if this was the Forrest Gump Spot where he famously stopped running. I had to explain that such a designated spot actually exists in Monument Valley. But we were done with cathedral hopping for this add-on. Maybe next time.