Hike and Bike: the Grand Staircase in Utah

Day One

Sculpture outside Vdara Hotel

The REI Store in Hendersonville, NV sits in an upscale mall in an upscale suburb of Las Vegas, and after two days of Vegas glitz, crowds, and openly crass commercialism, I am daunted at the prospect of 6 days of physically challenging hiking and cycling.

My trusty husband, pleased at my introduction to the opulent hotel casinos of Vegas, the good food and the better shows (Jersey Boys and the Cirque d' Soleil Beatles' Love), is dutifully dropping me off on this odyssey.

 Directed to a back room at the REI store, I meet my adventure mates.  The first shock is that three of the four intrepid travelers are at a senior end of middle age similar to mine. I am probably not the oldest. The youngest is forty-something. We are from Alaska, Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin, and our guides are from Arizona.  

None of us has the appearance of a life devoted to extreme bicycling. For no good reason, it occurs to me that I may not be the only one who hasn’t had an easy life easily lived. We are none of us by appearance professional athletes, though our two young guides do appear to be strikingly fit and athletic.

Tom and Maryanne

 I learn later that looks can be deceiving.  Gil, and his son Eric have between them and together competed in 100 mile races in the dead of winter in Alaska, Iron Man races, and more bicycling races and trips than I can absorb. 

Gil out on a cliff

Gil and Eric playing in the waterfall

Diane

Diane will finish our six-day trip and go back to New Mexico where she will participate in a century bike ride next Sunday. 

Perhaps it is only I that have taken on the challenge of this trip to remind myself that I am able and strong and that I can still use that ability and strength to push into new frontiers.

We load and board the van and begin what should have been a 2.5-hour drive to the entrance to Zion National Park.  A runaway trailer on a highway hill ahead stops us for an hour.  It is a 100-degree day and my fear of heat exertion in the days to come is further fueled.  At dusk we arrive at Springdale, a lovely resort town at the south end of Zion, for dinner at the Spotted Dog Cafe.  The trepidation and the heat fall away with the wonderful food and lively conversation and with the last light we enter Zion National Park as the magnificent limestone peaks fade into darkness. We will spend the next two nights at the Zion National Park Lodge.

Day 2.   

We eat 6:30 breakfast in the only cool the dawning day will afford.  By 7:45 we're on the hiking trail toward Weeping Rock and the Echo Canyon overlook.  After three miles of climbing, we are nearly 1500 feet from the canyon floor and have spectacular vistas alternating with intimate views of the Great Artist's canvas. It is drawn in the medium of geologic wonders, canyon trees (Pinyon and Ponderosa Pines, Canyon/Gambel Oak, Rocky Mountain Maple, and 'snowing' Cottonwood) and wildflowers. As in the other gorgeous examples around the 130,000 square mile, 11,000-foot high Colorado Plateau, the ancient desserts and seas, volcanic and tectonic activity, and the power of the Virgin River and erosion have carved magnificent colorful cliffs and canyons from sandstone and limestone. The plateau steps down, beginning with Bryce Canyon, then Zion and finally the Grand Canyon in what is known as the Grand Staircase.  For a special treat, a family of longhorn sheep grazes the summit of the Great White Throne, directly across from our vantage point.

 

The heat and exertion of the six-mile hike seem to heighten the grandeur, and after a fine picnic lunch of salad and chicken wraps, we cycle the flat canyon bottom from one end to the other for twelve miles of red limestone roads, and a path crisscrossing the Virgin River, mountain peaks towering in the afternoon light. Today was about finishing, and the heady freedom to be in the moment.  There are no worries, no deadlines, no constraints outside remaining safe in the heat, and hydrating ourselves with joy and water.

Day 3

A 6:15 a.m. hike to Emerald Pools begins the day and we share the morning cool with deer, "goat" frogs (they really sound like goats) and the color show of the rising sun finding the face of Lady Mountain.

Lady Mountain, sunrise

Virgin River, Zion, morning hike

Ice in Mossy Cave

Falls at Red Canyon

After breakfast, we transfer to Red Canyon and begin the 20 mile ride to Tropic, UT and Bryce Canyon National Park, At mile 16, an errant rumble marker catches my tire on one of the only highway rides we're doing and I fall spectacularly.  I earn a lovely road rash on knee, hip, elbow and shoulder, several impressive bruises, and a nice little dent in my helmet, but nothing is broken and after a little roadside patching, I am able to hike the final mile long walk past Mossy Cave (where there’s a little patch of ice remaining from the winter…) to the waterfall below.

Amidst the otherwise idyllic day, the fall is a sober reminder of how fleeting our joy and even our safety can be. For brief moments I dwell on the easily returned-to rumination that my life has already had enough lessons about how to recover from derailments large and small.  I guess not. Then I remember that we can choose to stay in the moment and be grateful for the opportunities that remain. I was a lucky girl today.   Tomorrow may require some pharmaceuticals to ride the 25 miles and hike three comfortably! It can all change so quickly, but I'm resolved not to lose a single second of this spectacular place.

Day 4

Today’s was a delicious ride from Tropic, UT to Kodachrome Basin State Park, part of the Escalante National Monument.  13 miles each way with a 2 mile hike in the park to an overlook of the magnificent sandstone chimneys that characterize this area geologically.  The hills are gentle and the roads fairly empty with the temperature in the 70s; perfect cycling weather.  Another display of beautiful rock formations is just the warm-up for the sunset hike along the rim of the spectacular amphitheater at Bryce Canyon. The signature hoodoos formed because of erosion patterns with the particular layers of sand and minerals compressed into rock over the last 200 million years are an otherworldly wonder to add to the others of the Colorado Plateau (Zion and the Grand Canyon). Starting at Sunrise Point and hiking to Inspiration Point, the continuous changing beauty of late light on the magnificent colors of the claron formation and the bizarre shapes of the hoodoos create a breathless and disorienting vision of a wonderland. Continuous exertion at 8300 ft. elevation also may have something to do with the effect!  A friend of my son’s posted a quote on Facebook: For the raindrop, joy is entering the river.  For anyone who aspires to be an artist, the creation of Bryce is indeed the river.

Rim walk- Amphitheater- Bryce

Day 5

Face the challenges you must; choose the ones that mean something.  Today was the longest, hardest ride, and the occasion, in rapid succession to 1.  Curse the decision to take on this challenge, 2. Begin the 17-mile cycle that climbed 2000 ft. to an elevation of 9100 ft. with several 6-8% grades, and then 3. Bless the power that allowed me the strength to ride past one spectacular vista after another punctuated by glimpses of antelope, deer, and pine forest.  Near the top, with the steepest climbs, I gasped for every molecule of the thin air, and my legs shook, and I released the last of my self-recrimination for having taken the option of a lift for four of the continuous climbing miles near the beginning of the ride.  I did the other 13 including these harshest final 3 miles and I was going to make it, the rising wind driving head on while I visualized turning just the next corner, and then the next until the wind-twisted pines at the overlook signaled the first flat ground in two hours. I'd done this sort of warrior quest on a bike trip to Spain and I recognized the fine mix of intense physical exertion, exhilaration, pride of accomplishment and awe at the beauty of the landscape.  These visits to the source of my essential energy are nourishment of the deepest part of what is important in me, and too seldom frequented.        

Picnic on the ride down from Rainbow Point- Bryce

Day 6

A fine rain with the potential for slick roads on a severe five mile climb keep our intrepid crew from cycling this morning, but we enjoy our last hike to the scenic viewpoint over Kolob Canyon on the west side of Zion National Park. An invigorating walk with one of the best wildflower displays of the trip is a final reminder of how much I love the mountains, even if I am a committed Great Lakes girl. I think of my father, who spent the best times of his youth skiing and hiking and dreaming in the German Alps, and I send a special packet of my enjoyment to wherever he’s roaming now.

Kolob Canyon, Zion