Page / Colorado River / Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah (April 26)

Odyssey Unlimited description of today's activities: 

Our long, but incredibly scenic day of travel begins with a rousing motorized rafting excursion on the smooth waters of the Colorado River. Controlled by a series of dams and reservoirs, the river provides hydro-electric power, irrigation, and municipal water supply to nearly 40 million people in the western U.S. Our adventure begins at the base of one of these structures: the 710-foot-high Glen Canyon Dam. The dam holds back man-made Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest artificial lake at 186 miles long and with nearly 2,000 miles of shoreline. As we drift downstream between soaring sandstone cliffs on either side, we’re on the lookout for ancient Native American petroglyphs on the canyon walls, as well as local wildlife. We continue on to southern Utah and Bryce Canyon National Park, stopping for lunch along the way. We dine together tonight

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Looking out from the hotel across marina and Lake Powell.  Note the steam from
the power plant in the distance rising vertically.  A nice, calm morning.

This morning's activity was a wow!

We left the hotel about 7:15, returning to Page. We arrived at Wilderness River Adventures where after a bit of a wait, we had a safety briefing preparatory to our still-water rafting trip on the Colorado River. 

Leaving the briefing, we walked through a door in a wire fence and into a building where TSA agents were waiting to inspect our belongings and have us pass through a metal detector.  Coming out of the building we were beckoned aboard a 'secure' bus.  Followed by an escort vehicle, we proceeded to Glen Canyon Dam.  We then drove down the one-mile tunnel that vehicles and other equipment use to get to the base of the dam.

Disembarking the bus, there was no time to look around.  We each received a hard hat that would theoretically give us (a false sense of) protection should something fall, or be thrown, from the top of the dam. We walked down a ramp to where River Dan and our rigid inflatable awaited us.  He was wearing a real coonskin cap! Now that's showmanship.

We pulled away from the tie-up for a 15-mile trip from Page to Lee's Ferry where Glen Canyon ends and Grand Canyon begins. Within the Grand Staircase rising from Grand Canyon National Park (Chocolate Cliffs step) to Bryce National Park (Pink Cliffs step), Glenn Canyon is the second step; the Vermillion Cliffs.

On the stretch of the Colorado River we covered, the few rapids we encountered might generously be rated a 0.5 on the 1-10 scale for rating the intensity of rapids. Our voyage might best be described as "still water rafting" where we were carried by the current sometimes, but most of the time pushed by a 150-horsepower outboard.

Fortuitously, for the first leg of the trip I wound up on the starboard side, all the way forward, and so had an unobstructed view ahead.  

Fishermen, kayakers, campers and other people using this part of the river come upstream from Lee.  There are no public launching areas or tie-up facilities above Lee and below the dam.  

example of Desert Varnish

During our rafting adventure, we saw canyon walls ranging in height from 600' near the beginning to 1,400' near the end.  Many of them were so close to vertical that it would be difficult or impossible to scale them.

After about an hour, we came to Horseshoe Bend, a 270°bend in the river.  It is a tourist destination that has seen explosive growth (think an increase of 500,000 people in one year) growth.  At the beginning of the bend River Dan beached the boat and we all went ashore.

After using the self-composting toilets (made in Haverhill, MA - almost a little bit of home) installed there, we followed River Dan along a trail to the site of some (too?) well-preserved petroglyphs. 

Back at the boat, you-know-who had to test the water. We had been told the temperature.  She confirmed that it felt like 47°.

Having had the front seats during the first leg of the trip, Pam & I went aft to sit by the engine, changing my primary direction for pictures from ahead to astern.

River Dan explained that after a Wilderness River Adventures boat drops off its Glen Canyon Dam passengers, it speeds back upriver for another load, sometimes taxiing the previous mentioned kayakers, fishermen and campers part way.

We came across a herd of wild horses, the star of which was a colt appropriated named Star.  

Eventually we came to Lees Ferry, where 'still water' rafting ends.  The Grand Canyon section of the Colorado River begins here.  In it, some rapids are rated a 10.  

Kayakers on the dock hoped our boat was the taxi they had been waiting for to ferry them upriver.  It wasn't.

Rafters preparing for the Grand Canyon section of the Colorado.  Trips take 3-5 days.  Once started, participants are committed; there's no turning back or opting out.

From Lee's Ferry, we continued working our way up the Grand Staircase, driving about 90 minutes to Kanab, Utah where we had a good lunch at the Rocking V Cafe. While queued up to use the rest room, I noticed a large Mosler Safe embedded into a (reinforced) wall. The cafe was at one time a bank.  The safe now served as a wine cellar.  The wine in it should be secure.  Mosler advertised that its safes could withstand a nuclear blast, several of them having done just that at a bank in Hiroshima. 

Until we got there, little did I know that Kanab had played a vital role in my childhood entertainment. Death Valley Days, Have Gun - Will Travel, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Rin Tin Tin, Wagon Train and other westerns (and not-so-westerns - e.g. Daniel Boone, Planet of Apes) were filmed in and around Kanab. 

Guests at the Parry Lodge included Ronald Reagan, Omar Sharif, John Wayne, Alan Ladd, Charlton Heston, Ann Bancroft. Maureen O'Hara, Frank Sinatra and many others. The Parry Lodge website contains more information on the celebrities who stayed there, and the movies/TV shows filmed in the area. 

Signs like this one appear all over town.

Not everything in Kanab is retro.

We continued on to Bryce Canyon.

As we approached, before arriving at the Bryce Canyon Grand Hotel (the name perhaps a tad upscale for a Best Western), we had a few glimpses of what we will tour tomorrow.

For dinner, we went across the street to the Ruby's complex (restaurant, general store, ATV tours, horseback adventures, etc.) for a generally tasteless buffet in a sterile private dining room.

Since arriving at the hotel, we had all noticed that the weather was chilly.  Some members of our group even thought they had seen patches of snow on the ground on the last part of our drive here.