Day Six - Lake Powell to Bryce Canyon, UT (Aug. 1, 2013)

What to do?  What to do?  We could take out a speedboat and go cruising across the lake, wind in our hair, sea foam whipping around the boat, sea breezes tickling our noses, or we could take out kayaks and destroy our shoulder muscles to match our calves. What to do...

Getting ready to kayak

Kayaks it is!  Why be partially ambulatory when you can really go all out and head for Scooter City?  So we took out the kayaks.  The water temperature was absolutely amazing.  It felt really good when the paddle would come up and drip water onto my legs.  The clouds were out but we didn't think it would actually rain.  You could see the rain across the distance but it looked like it was heading away from us.  As we got comfortable on the kayaks we decided to row over to the small island across the lake and check out what looked like caves in the walls.

Heading to the caves, note the wonderful landscape

What were we thinking? 

You can't really see the caves on the picture above, but they are there.  It should give you an idea of how freaking far away we really were from the caves since you can't really even see them in this picture and they are right in the front of it.  Everything always looks closer than it is in this kind of landscape.  And speaking of landscape.  Or should I say MOONSCAPE or maybe DESERTSCAPE.  It was sand, rocks, sticker bushes, twig-like trees, sand, red ants, rocks, cacti, more sand, more rocks, and even some tumbleweeds thrown in for a laugh.  And what was I wearing?  Flip flops, of course.  Perfect for the sticker bushes.  They could hitchhike any time they wanted to on the side of my feet.  Insane.  Yes, the hiking was horizontal this time, but the plant life made it miserable.  Michael was having the same problem.  Steve was the only one wearing sneakers.  I was envious of his footwear choice.

Rock fight, anyone?

This better be worth it.  This rock cave or whatever.  This had better be the Golden City of El Dorado or the Lost City of Atlantis.  Stupid sticker bushes.  As we finally neared it, we saw that it was completely RIDDLED with scrawlings from other people.  The sandstone was very easy to etch into with rudimentary tools - sticks, rocks, pocket knives, and everyone had taken it upon themselves to leave their mark.  Some more mature than others, of course.

Speaking of mature, Michael and Steve had to have a rock fight.  Very mature.  This was to be an daily ritual at the various parks.  Such boys.

The cave was really not a cave at all since it went all the way through.  It was pretty neat, but not really worth the painful walk through searing heat and stickers.  Steve did get to put his own "mark" on the place, though.

Can you read the scrawl?

Like I said, very mature.  So after checking out the second cave, which actually was a cave (and therefore VERY boring since it wasn't even a deep cave) we headed back to the kayaks.  I really wish we'd spent more time kayaking and less time hiking through weeds, but it was what it was.  Again it took us quite a bit of time because of the terrain, the swearing, and the stopping to extract plant parts from various body parts.  We took the high road (literally) on the way back as far as we could running along the tops of the rock dunes until they ran out.   I also found that going barefoot was actually more comfortable and steadier than wearing shoes.  The dunes were that smooth.  It was pretty cool.   But they ended and then it was back to slogging through the brush.  The sun was up in full force at this point and my poor toes were starting to burn.  Oh, it was lovely.

Happy to be back afloat

So yes, we were happy to be back afloat again.   We paddled back across the lake and paddled a bit along the shore.  By then we'd been out for three hours and we were ready to head back to the dock.  I'm really not sure how much time was had kayaking and how much was had bushwhacking to the caves, but we felt we'd had enough and were ready to turn in our vessels and head out to Bryce Canyon-- the next adventure on our list of Western Adventures.  So we raced back to the dock (Michael won) and gave up our watercrafts.  Back to our waiting golf car(t) we go.  And on to Bryce.


Just as a side note:   Kayaking was a lot of fun and I'd like to try it again.  Strangely enough I was not sore in the slightest the next day.  Either the paddling didn't affect me or I was still in so much pain with my calves that any soreness suffered by my shoulders was to be ceremoniously overtaken by the calf pain. 

Dynamic Duo - Olympic Hopefuls for Rio 2016

Back to our story:  Before he headed to Bryce we had to change.  We were soaked from the kayak trip.  As I mentioned the water temperature was perfect so it wasn't uncomfortable but it would've been to drive that way.  In the restroom Steve happened to find an iPhone.  He called the "Mom" contact and left a message telling her where the phone would be and then turned it into the front desk.  Our Boy Scout moment of the day.

After we were changed, dry, and comfortable we went to the car and drove off.  I turned on my cell phone and just happened to check geocaches around the area.  Lo and behold, there was one only three miles away.  And we would get credit for Utah!  (At least I think we were in Utah.  We crossed the Arizona/Utah border so many times back and forth it was hard to keep track.)  We found it easily and logged it in.

The "Dub Taylor" Geocache

On our way to Bryce we stopped by Kanab for lunch.  Kanab is also known as Utah's "Little Hollywood" because of the number of movies and television shows that'd been filmed there or used for background shots.  It certainly has a very western/desert/wilderness air to it so it makes sense that movies would be filmed here for the scenery.  In fact, it is AMAZING to find out just how many were filmed all or in part in this town.  Stagecoach, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Daniel Boone, El Dorado, Planet of the Apes, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and over 100 other movies and television shows have been filmed here.  I find that absolutely amazing. I mean it's seriously just a little hole-in-the-wall town.  But apparently it made for an authentic background for these productions.

We ate at the Three Bears Creamery and had a delicious milkshake there.  I found another geocache right down the street from the restaurant and Michael and I sought it out.  It was located at this Hollywood marker (see above) down the street and the geocache was underneath it.  Pretty easy find.  I wish we could've spent more time getting some more of these Hollywood in Utah caches, but we were only going to get one night in Bryce so we wanted to get there as soon as possible.

Our cozy cabin

We made it to Bryce by 6:40 pm.  Our hotel here was also within the park which was the same as both the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell.  This one was a bit different in that it was more cabin that room, although, once inside, it was just a room with two double beds and a bathroom, but it was very cozy and even had a gas fireplace. 

The only hiccup?  The near fatal heart attack Michael had when he realized there was no TV and no Wifi.  Withdrawal is tough.  As it was he could no longer use his data download on his iPhone due to the fact that even though we have unlimited data, apparently when you are out of the AT&T network and have to rely on a partner network you actually are limited.  Seems that he'd already used 10 times the amount of data download that they allow with the partner network so they cut him off.  Cold turkey.  He still could use photo and text, but no data.  It was having a deleterious effect on him both mentally and physically.  The moaning was getting annoying.  So we decided to go to Sunrise Point to see the canyon before the sun set.  Hmm, maybe we should've gone to Sunset Point.  Oh well, too late.  Even though we were in the wrong "point" for the time of day, the view was spectacular.  Simply beautiful.

Seriously breathtaking

Wow.  I mean really wow.  The "hoodoos" as they call each column looked like drips of wet sand that had accumulated into a tower.  The ancient Indians thought they used to be people that turned to stone.  Silly natives.  Then, like a bolt of lightning, I had this great idea for a reality show.  I suggested they take a bunch of prisoners and put them in the bottom of the canyon.  If they made it out alive, they would earn their release.  Give them no food or water or any equipment.  Then I saw some people hiking, not realizing that the canyon could be hiked.  I mean LOOK at it!  So much for my goldmine of a series.  I was gonna call it "How Would You Do in the Hoodoo?"  Catchy, right?

So now that we realized we could hike down there, we decided to map out our route for the next day.  I didn't want anything TOO crazy.  I mean I didn't want to survive the Grand Canyon only to bite it in Bryce, you know?  My calves still weren't back to normal even though I'd been stretching them like rubber bands.

Not to generalize, but a group of Germans were here, too, at Sunrise Point, hogging the point view.  It was really starting to make me angry.  What the heck?  You don't see me going to Berlin and hogging the view of Alexanderplatz (I had to look that up on Google).  But you see what I'm getting at, right?  Sheesh!

After dinner at yet another pizzeria, we went back to the cabin and turned in.  The stars here were just as amazing as the Grand Canyon.   Spectacular.