After 11 hours on the road, we returned Sunday night from our nine day trip through Utah, Nevada, and Death Valley. We arrived at Zion NP early enough on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to catch sunset on the towering red rocks, then spent Sunday cramming in as much dayhiking as possible. We visited the Weeping Rock, the Hanging Canyon far above it, the famous Narrows, and climbed the most awesome Angel’s Landing.
Sunday night we made it to Bryce Canyon, so we got up early on Monday and headed into the park for sunrise over the hoodoos (love that word…). The day was spent oogling the views from various viewpoints and wandering down among the hoodoos - a nice mixture of hiking and sightseeing in a park I’ve never visited.
Tuesday morning we got up at the pre-crack of dawn to catch sunrise from another Bryce viewpoint. It was one of the most stunning sunrises I’ve ever seen, not that I wake up for many. It was definitely worth the below freezing temperatures and early morning wake-up call. It also forced me to take approximately two kerjillion photos, which is why nothing has been posted yet - it’s just taking me too long to filter them down to the best of the bunch. After sunrise we worked our way back to highway 15 through Cedar Breaks National Monument - normally closed due to snow, but currently open. It was another spot to stop and take in hoodoo views before heading back to Vegas.
We did the Vegas thing - saw a show (The Producers), ate too much (Eiffel Tower Restaurant), and spent too much (wine bar at Mandalay Bay). Before we got into too much trouble we headed out to Death Valley to meet the other Southern California hikers for Thanksgiving dinner and a few days of hiking and exploring. We met on BLM land just outside of the Furnace Creek side of the park at the location of an abandoned trailer park that once housed miners and their families. No trailers are left, but there are nice flat concrete slabs and spaces for camping/parking and fire pits. It’s a nice place to base camp for exploring the Southeastern part of the park. Nothing but classy accommodations for us - squatters in a trailer park.
Thanksgiving dinner was better than I imagined it ever could be with only a campfire, a campstove or two, and no running water to aid in preparation. On Friday we climbed Funeral Peak, and on Saturday we spent all day hiking and searching around a canyon for the location of a cave containing pictographs. It took several hours, but eventually Dave found them. It was an incredible site to see and I’m really pleased that we got to experience this rarely seen and preserved location.
So, after all of that, I have lots of photos. I’m slowly getting through them, hopefully I’ll have them posted over the next few days. As usual, it was a great trip with great people and I can’t wait until our next outing.
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Tags: bryce, death valley, desert, las vegas, thanksgiving, zion
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