Sarah and I went to Mojave, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, and Death Valley for a week of winter fun. We froze a bit in Grand Canyon with -13°C! That is frickin’ nuts. Update: The slideshow can be found here.

Day 1 - Bakersfield to Mojave

We spent the first day driving out to Mojave from Bakersfield, a decent drive along highway 58. We stopped in a campground, paid our dues, and set up camp. It was cold, but not too cold. We went on a quick hike that day and then did dinner - the corn chowder from Trader Joe’s.

Day 2 - Mojave to Grand Canyon (South Rim)

This morning we had the freeze-dried scrambled eggs - not so good because I’m bad at measuring water and following directions.

I drove. Brian talked. I pretended to pay attention. Then it got cold. brrr.

Thanks for that Sarah… We drove for a long time to get into the park, then drove around a while longer until we found a campground, which we weren’t sure was open because there was, almost literally, no one there. We parked two spots away from the Almighty Bathroom and set up camp again.

This was the first night we had the freeze dried dinner. It was the spaghetti with meat sauce, and it was actually pretty good. Mountain House++. This was the freezing cold night which was colder than most standard freezers. Our sleeping bags were not quite up to the task, and we kept waking up.

Day 3 - Grand Canyon

This morning was spent thawing out mostly. I made scrambled eggs again - better this time - and that helped. Hot cocoa++.

This day was the South Kaibab Trail, which we took down to Skeleton Point: 3 miles from the start, and about 2000 feet down. They warn you over and over again not to attempt to go from the rim to the floor and back in a single day. I can see that, as in the winter the days are short and in the summer it gets really hot. Still, it’s not exactly a superhuman feat, and I suspect I could do it with some Prior Planning.

The trail was nice, except for the horse/donkey/mule crap. Sarah spotted some cross-bedding in the rocks which excited her and sorta interested me. We ended the day with hurt knees and sore legs.

Next thing you know we’re at the visitor center where we learn how cold it was last night (Really Cold) and that it’ll be even colder tonight (a frosty -14°C).

We decided to spring for a lodge, and Bright Angel lodge had the right price: $55/night (of course we ended up spending even more than that on the dinner at the fancy schmancy El Tovar restaurant).

Shower. Bed. Light. Warmth. Not the most I’ve ever appreciated those things, but close. My dreams were disturbed by the extremely dry air that night.

Day 4 - Grand Canyon to Zion

Another day of driving took us along the very looonnnnng drive from Northern Arizona to Southern Utah around the Grand Canyon, past the Vermillion Cliffs, and into the Sandstone Jungle that is Zion.

On the way we ran into some trouble.

‘Round about Page I thought it’d be a good idea to take a short drive on a gravel road to a scenic overview where we could overlook Lake Powell. Sarah’s car is, by nature, a low-slung beast. Being loaded with lots of camping gear, food, and two passengers made it even more so. Thus even the simplest gravel driveway becomes trouble. For some reason the engine light came on, and stayed on. We stopped in Kanab, UT at a service center. They pronounced the engine in good health but pointed out that the rear tires were worn all the way to the tread indicator, or whatever it’s called.

Uh oh.

So we bought new tires for the rear and went on our way. The engine light eventually went off and things were looking up. Zion was pretty warm and looked beautiful when we arrived.

We set up camp at Watchman Campground near the west entrance to the park and made another freeze-dried dinner, which was again pretty good. I believe this time we did two: Mac and Cheese and Chicken Teriyaki.

Day 5 - Easy Hikes around Zion and the Legend of Zorro

After the fiasco of the really cold Grand Canyon night, we decided to buy fleece inserts for our sleeping bags. This, combined with Hot Hands air-activated warmers, a propane-powered catalytic heater, and two Duraflame logs turned out to do the trick, and kept us warm at most times of the day.

We walked along the paved path leading up to the Narrows, snapping pictures and being wowed by the ice that had formed on the rocks.

We went into Springdale later to watch the Legend of Zorro on the Giant Screen Theater, mostly to keep warm and to stay up to an hour that would make us tired. We had an electric lantern but we didn’t have full charge on it, so reading was difficult.

Day 6 - Angel’s Landing

We started the hike around 10am, and we were cold. After only a little while of hiking we began to get warm, and started shedding layers. I was down to two, and Sarah to three. We made it up to the point where the trail splits off into other places, with 0.5 mile of chain-aided scrambling to the top of Angel’s Landing.

Angel’s Landing is, at the end, broken into two chain parts which I call Round I and Round II. Round I is like scrambling over any normal non-flat, sometimes-narrow rock, except that it is accompanied by not-too-long-but-still-deadly drop-offs on one side. Round II is not much worse except that it’s steeper and has, in parts, drop-offs on both sides which are quite far down and can be very vertigo-inducing.

Sarah made it up Round I, but decided not to go any farther. I went all the way, since I’d done it before and didn’t want to miss the view nor the excitement of getting to the top. Though this trail is only 5 miles round trip, 1 mile of it is somewhat tricky.

Our nights in camp had become somewhat routine up to this point, so I’ll omit the details except to say that I was quite getting into my book, Quicksilver.

Day 7 - Observation Point

We started this hike a little later, about 10.30am. It begins with a steep ascent via a number of switch-backs, keeping your point of origin in view until you come to the top of a small stream-canyon. The trail continues through this canyon up for a while until it begins another set of switch-backs, the top of which has a sheer drop off on one side which Sarah didn’t like one bit, but she did make it up.

The top is quite high, and is nearly in line with Angel’s Landing and the rest of the valley, giving you a similar, but elevated, view. This hike is 8 miles round trip.

We were done by about 3pm and decided to head straight to the Desert Pearl Inn, where we’d made reservations the day before. This is the same place I stayed four years earlier with my mom and sister, and it’s still a nice place. Expensive for the area (I’m assuming), but nice. The hot tub was quite nice, and then we ordered Chinese food for takeout and watched Back to the Future. The bed was nice but it got really dry here again. Must keep glass of water by the bed.

Day 8 - Zion to Bryce and Death Valley

We decided to skip Bryce in part because it’d be an extra 4 hours or so of driving and because we were unsure of the road conditions. Another time.

We went to Death Valley after a long day of driving and arrived at the visitor center to find it a warm 51°F! We set up camp at Stovepipe Wells and decided to do Mosaic Canyon via walking the next day.

Day 9 - Death Valley to Bakersfield via 178

We did the morning hike and headed out. We might have done more, but the Observation Point hike had screwed up Sarah’s ankle somewhat because of her less-than-great shoes. We’d both about had enough, and we decided to head home.

We took the 178 back past Lake Isabella along the Kern River. It’s a nice drive as long as you’re not in a hurry and don’t mind the windy roads. Sarah insisted on driving the whole way, so I was fine as long as I ate something.

It was weird arriving at 178 and Commanche cum Alfred Harell Highway from the other direction. Kelly was home, and we went to Mimi’s after a long unpacking. The next day (today) I finished my book and figured out how much we spent on the trip. It was more than we thought, but a lot of the expense is in reusable goods, so I gotta go again to make it worth it.

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