What can I say, we are slow learners.  This morning’s itinerary called for a hike up the Mist Trail which is about 2.7 miles one way but about .8 miles on that trail, takes you to the Vernal Falls which is the only falls with water this time of year.  Eight tenths of a mile is nothing when you walk almost 4 miles each morning so why not.  We were not going to be suckered into that 5.4 round trip hike, but this was worth the effort.  So off we go not realizing we are talking about straight up to 5,338 ft elevation and bearing in mind the Parks Department is a government entity and our government lies.  We hiked almost 1.5 miles before we gave up and still hadn’t reached the bridge at the base of the falls.  We had gone about ¾ of the way when we decided to use the photo in the brochure.

The afternoon was going to be much easier at the Mariposa Grove, because there is a shuttle that takes you to the start of the grove and all you do is walk through the grove of Giant Sequoia trees and see the oldest and tallest at 250 feet named Giant Grizzley.  We had lunch at the Wawona Hotel and drove to the trailhead parking to catch the shuttle only the shuttle stopped running in August. 

But it was only a 1.9 gradual incline hike up to the Grove, so we agreed to give it a try and reassess after the first mile.  At the haIf-way mark, we decided it was not too bad, so we decided to go the rest of the way up, totally ignoring the fact that the sign was created by a government agency.  After 2.5 miles we arrived at the base of the Grove only to find out that GG was another .7 miles uphill.  We took these pictures and walked back down. 

This is where we found out about all those trees that had fallen.  In fact, on January 19^th of this year there was a strong wind storm with winds over 100 miles per hour and all those trees we saw were victims.

Our little 1.9 mile hike turned out to be 5.5 miles and we did a total of 8.5 miles today.  To make things even worse, California is experiencing a severe drought right now, so everything is extremely dry. That means all the trails are very dusty.  Our shoes and legs were covered in dust, and we felt really cruddy.

I guess Tylenol and a hot shower are definitely in the itinerary for tonight.

After almost 2 weeks on the road it was time to do laundry, and just plain get our lives back together. In Vegas is a Marriott Vacation Club location and we reserved a one bedroom apartment complete with washer and dryer, pool, and all the amenities we need to unwind and get ready to move on.

The road to Las Vegas took us straight through Zion National Park which was on the list places to go but we were able to take lots of good pictures without even stopping. There is a famous 1 mile long tunnel on the route that was built in 1929/30 right into the mountain.

Our hotel in Vegas is just across the street from Planet Hollywood so its right in the middle of all the big hotels.

Our first exposure to the strip was worse than we remembered with many more people living homeless on the streets, many of them having obvious mental issues. The crowds are greatly reduced so walking is easier and so is social distancing. Our last stay here was sometime before 2012 and we had found a NY style deli in New York New York Hotel that served the best corned beef and pastrami sandwiches. Guess where we had our first dinner in Vegas!

Wednesday we ventured back to the Paris Hotel to see if our favorite crepe restaurant was still there and to our delight, it was. So lunch was chicken pesto and monte cristo crepes at a Street Cafe in Paris.

Most Marriott Vacation Club locations offer water aerobics classes in the morning and this place is no exception. Thursday became an all day pool day starting with aerobics, reading by the pool, napping, eating lunch, more napping and reading.

Here are some other pictures along the strip

When we leave here, we are traveling to Ventura, California to spend a week with family. We probably will not be recording on the blog during that time, but after leaving family we will be visiting more National Parks and recording again.

With only one day left to try to see all that Page has to offer, we started out early and found several “photo spots” around town on our own, including Lone Rock Beach, Greenhaven Overlook, and Horseshoe Bend all on Lake Powell.

Over the past few days, we have heard really interesting stories about Page and the slot canyons. One that really struck me as memorable is why guides are so careful about any rain in the area before continuing with scheduled tours. Norman, our Navajo guide, told us that the Navajo people measure rain storms as male and female with male being heavy. The rain water from all mountains and mesa funnels down and even a female rain can move large boulders and debris miles down the stream, many moving at 40 mph. This is why our tour scheduled on Friday afternoon was cancelled for a small sporadic rain early on. Actually, about 5 years ago a tour for people from France was cancelled, but 12 people from the group decided to proceed on their own because they could jump the fence. When the water from probably 30 miles away reached them, it was too late to run or get out of the way. Most of the bodies were never found. How’s that for evidence that following the rules and instructions are important.

In the afternoon we had our cancelled tour from Friday of Alstrom Point with a private guide, Tyler, that would last 6 hours and include the Grand Staircase of Escalante and a sunset stop at the point. Tyler was born and raised in Page and moved to Phoenix for 10 years after college graduation but eventually came to his senses and came back to start this tour company. Tyler’s knowledge of the area was fantastic and interesting. You know there were lots of questions, and he had the answer to all of them (unless he was using Frances’ philosophy of just say anything because they don’t know).

What a great way to end our trip to Page.

Until recently, I had never even heard the words slot canyon much less know what they were. Today, we were educated by experiencing them first hand. Out here in Arizona when the sandstone gets a crack in it, it allows the water to wash through it eroding the crack from the bottom up or from the top down creating what is called slot canyons. Today we visited one that is like an A-frame where you can walk through but it is narrow at the top. These canyons are all over the Navajo Reservation and some of the families have chosen to allow tourists to see the beauty created by this occurrence and they get paid handsomely for the privilege.

We were led to a 4-wheel drive vehicle with our guide, Norman, who is Navajo and we proceeded to take a “pink jeep” type ride out to the Antelope upper canyon.

In 1994 these canyons were open to the public as a National Park but totally controlled by the families who own the land because they are on the Navajo Reservation. We took lots of pictures hoping to capture the beauty of what we saw. Bear in mind, pictures are never as good as the reality but these come close. See if you can spot the picture Microsoft paid $1.7 million for as one of their screen savers and see if you can find the shot that looks like a heart.

After this wonderful afternoon we found a restaurant with an open terrace for dinner to watch the sunset. All in all a very photogenic day.

Pictures from restaurant

After driving for 10 hours we arrived in Page, Arizona home of Lake Powell and the slot canyons. First thing this morning we went to the visitor center to find out how to fit all the wonders of this area in three days. We found out that we were very lucky to be here at this time with Covid keeping many of the international travelers away. Otherwise it would be very crowded filled with bus loads of Asians and Europeans. It seems much of the tourist trade for this area comes from those areas. One of the things Gordon shared with us is when the government took over the land they allocated pieces to each of the families of the Navajo tribe rather than all the land to the tribe as a whole. The families that got the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons are making a great deal of money conducting these tours, while others just got land to graze their animals.

Gordon, our friendly visitor center employee got us set up for tours of the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, a 6 hour sunset tour of Alstrom Point Canyon and enough other options to make sure our days were filled. We took a walk along the bridge across the dam of the lake while waiting for our sunset tour.

The tour was scheduled to go on the Alstrom starting at 3:30 but it rained and it is too dangerous to be in these areas when it rains so we watched football for a while and then when the rain stopped went to Antelope Marina.

The Antelope Marina on Lake Powell is filled with HUGE houseboats and other boats for rent, complete with a floating restaurant. We thought we should go there and enjoy the peacefulness of the lake at sunset sitting out on the deck. Once you get on the property, thanks to our Senior Gold Pass without a fee, we parked the car and walked towards the ramp to the restaurant. I kid you not, this ramp was the length of half a football field all downhill. As you know, if you go down, you have to come back up. It was obvious to us that the water level of the Lake was much lower than normal because the last leg of the ramp had a very steep angle to it.

Unfortunately, the restaurant was filled with loud, party people and we decided it would not be any fun to stay, so back up the ramp we went breathing heavy and wishing we had known about the party people before we walked down but we did it with energy to spare. Guess we are in better shape than we thought for our age.

Day two with the Coles started with a walking tour of downtown Colorado Springs, taking in all the history and art of the city. Actually the history is pretty interesting starting in 1871 when General William Jackson Palmer, Civil War hero and railroad magnate was deeded the land to start a new town dedicated to attracting long term residents and families in contrast to all the other mining and railroad towns that sprang up one day and died very quickly. General Palmer was hoping that the springs nearby would attract people trying to recuperate from TB and encourage them to stay. The town was initially 2 square miles that he meticulously planned with large parks and open spaces as part of his healthy lifestyle theme. Today this city is 200 square miles.

Another influential founding father was Spencer Penrose who built the zoo, Will Rogers Shrine, Broadmoor Hotel and much more. An interesting story we heard was that when he and his wife had passed on and they were cleaning out the house, they found several glass eyes in a drawer. Everyone knew he had lost an eye in an accident and wore a glass replacement, but they were surprised when they found not only hazel glass eyes to match his good one but blood shot glass eyes to match his good eye on the days he had a hangover.

The downtown area is filled with pieces of bronze statues and one dancing couple are actually spinning on pedestal. Unfortunately, like many big cities, there are also lots of people living homeless.

It was now around 11 a.m. and the cool mountain temperature had turned into hot summer sun and we were on our way to the Garden of the Gods to do some hiking and climbing. For weeks now, Ralph had been texting me messages about how cool it was where he was and how hot it was in Ocala, but the minute we got here so did a heatwave!

Garden of the Gods started as a 480 acre city park deeded to the city as long as it always remained free to the public.

Today, the park is 1,367 acres including some of the most beautiful sandstone formations and geological wonders seen by an estimated six million visitors per year. There are many trails and formations suitable for hiking and climbing by ordinary people like us with no skills but Jim and Ralph managed to exercise the mountain goat in them to get the best pictures.

Just an observation, but it seemed to me that the average visitor to this park is at least 30 years younger than me and much better shape. The heat and the sun finally won and we gave up for the day.

Coming back from dinner at night, there were three deer walking down the middle of the street in the neighborhood and Kandie told us that happens all the time. It must be true, because they were not intimidated by the cars at long and just kept strolling along.

Tomorrow we leave for Page, Arizona.

For over 400 miles this was our view across the great State of Kansas. To say it was boring would be a compliment. Occasionally there would be a wind farm to break up the monotony, but that was about it.

We were on our way to Colorado Springs to spend some time with our neighbors and friends, Ralph and Kandie Cole.

We had a wonderful dinner while we got caught up and made plans for the next two days. So much to see and so little time. First on the list was the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo considered one of the better zoos in the country. The first area was the Africa exhibit with all the animals from there starting with the giraffes. This habitat was different in that the people were on a raised area putting them at eye level with the animals and because we were feeding them lettuce, they were not shy about coming right up to us.

Of course, then there were the meerkats being as cute as you can get.

This zoo has 6 African elephants of varying ages that visitors are permitted to feed and watch. They also do something different which I’ve never seen in a zoo. They teach them behaviors such as raising their leg or turn around on command. This seemed more like circus tricks than zoo behavior until I realized all the behaviors allowed them to inspect the well being of the animals. The one I couldn’t connect to their well being was the painting with water colors and a brush to create pictures. We didn’t check, but I bet you can buy a elephant painting in the gift shop.

After a long time, we tore ourselves away from the elephants and moved on to the other animals.

Once you are in the zoo, you have access to the Will Rogers Memorial built in 1937 by a major property owner in the area, Spencer Penrose. Will Rogers died tragically in a plane crash in Alaska in 1935 after becoming well known as an actor, vaudeville performer, cowboy, humorist, and social commentator. Rogers and Penrose were great friends, ergo the shrine complete with Westminster chimes every 15 minutes and on the hour and music that plays at 10 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. that can be heard throughout the neighborhood. The monument stands 114 feet high and offers a serene spot to see the area from a bird’s eye view.

After leaving there, we wandered down to the Broadmoor Hotel known to be the oldest luxury hotel in the area thanks again to Mr. Penrose.

The hotel is filled with paintings from the time it was built and lots of Remington bronze sculptures. The hotel is fabulous as are their prices. Mr. Penrose has a reputation for being quite the drinker and the hallway to the bar area is decorated with empty bottles of liquor and wine supposedly consumed at party he hosted to celebrate the end of prohibition.

Tomorrow is a big outdoor adventure so we stayed in to rest up.

We had a long way to go today so we made some decisions that we found to be usual for us, but turned out pretty good. We found the Heritage Church of Christ in Franklin and they had a 9 a.m. service online so we called them to see if we could prevail on them to give us the now commonplace “rip and sip” communion elements and were able to get on the road by 8:45 in time to stream the service through the Bluetooth on the car radio while we drove. This may be something you’ve already done but it was new to us and it allowed us to be in two places at once; in the car driving and in church worshiping. Ain’t technology grand!

The rest of the trip was boring with nothing noteworthy driving over 650 miles to get to Topeka, Kansas. We did catch a glimpse of the Arch as we passed through St. Louis but we’ve been there, done that.

By 7 p.m. my rear end was tired and we spent the last hour driving into the sun going west. Bummer! I know tomorrow will be better because we get to do something other than sit.

One question everyone asks is “What’s in Topeka?”. My answer is I have no idea which is why we are going there but also so we can legitimately say we have been to all 50 states in our travels. When we were in Kansas City, Missouri a few years back, realizing we had not been to Kansas, we drove across the border into Kansas and just turned around and came back so that we could make our 50 state statement. Today, we are legitimately in Kansas and we will be taking a walking tour of the city to see all the historic buildings and savor this historic city.