Bryce Canyon Resort

We get a kick out of seeing this sign along Route 12 just outside of Bryce Canyon. To my sister Cindy: if you see this post, we will try to reserve you a room in the deluxe accomodations, hah!

Fire!

Bryce Canyon had a slow burning fire in the backcountry which had started back on June 15 with a lightning strike. Due to fire management policy, they allowed it to burn, which provides numerous benefits to the health of the forest. However on July 14, due to high winds and very dry conditions, the Bryce fire suddenly doubled to about 3500 acres, and jumped the main road in the park. The road had to be closed to the south, and 50 vehicles had to be evacuated, those with high clearance were led through a forest road and the rest were led through the burn area after it was controlled enough to allow that. When the fire had spread into a non-prescribed section, it became necessary to change course. The main part of the park remained open, but the southern end was closed for five days as 275 fire fighters and some helicopters and a plane were deployed to actively suppress the fire. It has left a scar in the southern end of the park and in our beloved Swamp Canyon area but will return to gandeur in a few years.

We were enlisted to work with educating the public on the fire management policy as now practiced by the NPS and other government agencies. We have ascribed to no fire or reduced fire in natural systems for so long that we now have a tremendous buildup of fuel. That fuel must be managed to reduce the danger of catastrophic fire. Most animals make it safely away from fires and in a few years the ecosystem rebounds and becomes more diverse and healthy. Wildland fire has been a natural cycle, and studies of tree rings from years ago show that fires were common as frequently as every three years, and forests had prospered before we started interfering. So in the long run it is better to let fires burn when there is no danger to people's safety or property.

Kathy and I also were able to check out a few nearby areas during our time off, Hell's Backbone in the Dixie National Forest and the Burr Trail which runs through the Grand Staircase Escalante and into Capitol Reef National Park. Hiking in the Hell's Backbone area reminded us of hiking on the Finger Lakes Trail back in NY. We hiked through a lush forest and hit a couple muddy areas. We got to a section of the Great Western Trail, and saw no other hikers during the whole trip. The section of Capitol Reef that we entered was spectacular, we descended part way down a long stretch of road that switchbacked a few miles down to the Notom-Bullfrog Road next to the Waterpocket Fold, and we had a good view of it all the way down. We decided not to descend all the way as we had a dinner reservation at the Hell's Backbone Grill.

A couple other interesting enounters we had at Bryce: I met a 97 year old woman hiking up the Queens Garden Trail with her 95 year old husband. They had made it all the way down, and looked pretty good on the way back up. She may be the oldest person to hike the trail. Kathy met a nine year old girl who had 178 Junior Ranger badges. Every year her family takes a six week trip to the National Parks. Her eyes lit up when Kathy told her there was a thirteen year old girl who had 235 JR badges. We may have a new record holder in the making.

Days Like These ....

It's days like these last few that remind me how great it is to be in a wonderful place meeting wonderful people. So far, every hike I have led included great people. Last week a young man named Bryce came with his parents. They were treating him to a National Parks vacation as a reward for getting his Masters degree at the U. of Virginia. He is now applying for medical schools, I hope he gets in and then I reminded him to take care of his parents in their old age. I think he will do both. I also had a MD who taught cardiology at the Wake Forest Medical School. His wife, was from Binghamton, but I didn't get to meet her unfortunately. Yesterday I had two couples from Hendersonville, NC, the one woman was from Binghamton. I also had the pleasure of hiking yestrday and today with Bob and Sharon from Kissimmee, Fla. They are educators and are taking the summer off. Sharon is an elementary counselor and Bob helps students improve their SAT and ACT scores. See http://www.maxthetest.com/ . This time they are touring the west without their kids. They had brought them the last time they were here when their kids were teenagers. Nothing against teenagers, but I think Bob and Sharon are enjoying their trip better this time. Bob or Sharon, if you see this and can amend anything I said please feel free with a comment.

Lsst week Kathy and I had a 'backcountry day' on our schedule instead of the usual day. So we spent Thursday and Friday hiking the Under-the-Rim trail again. We were able to do the 23 miles in two days this time because I went to our camp site the night before and cached water as well as our tent and thermarests. It made our packs much lighter for the trip. Brilliant! The only drawback was there were a few bugs here and there, but nothing like what we have experienced back east when bugs are at their worst. Bugs are a necessary part of the food chain though. We went up to our favorite point near Swamp Canyon on Thursday and made dinner and watched the wonderful evening settle on the serene backcountry from our perch. See image of the point.

Saturday night after a bike ride in light drizzle to nearby Red Canyon we saw a riveting slide show of the photography of camp host Charlie. Charlie set up a screen outdoors and ran the show from his laptop after dark. Seven of us volunteers watched it with him. He has taken aerial pictures from his ultralite of here at Bryce and surrounding areas as well as from Baja California. We want to go to Baja now! see http://charleschandlerphotography.com/

Sunday we took a drive down past the Tropic Reservoir to Crawford Pass in the Dixie National Forest. We hiked near the Pink Cliffs on the hiking trail there. We had the whole place to ourselves. We also spotted a forest fire that is being managed by the fire fighters here. On the way back there were lots of flames, a tree had probably ignited, they go up fast. A larger fire is raging to the west of here near Panguitch, it is now encompassing over 2600 acres and is threatening homes, so they are working at containing it. The most thrilling moment came when we were following a forest road in our truck that we thought would lead back into the park. I saw tire tracks so figured the road would have to lead to somewhere. Wrong, after going over a few miles (2 or 3?) of very rough road it came to an abrupt end next to a steep dropoff. There was no turnaround. I sort of went beserk, Kathy suggests my trail name should be Beserker, I also can get that way when I am fending off attacking bugs while hiking. Anyway, I had to back the truck up at a severe angle in a K-turn maneuver to get turned around. Kathy thought I was going to roll the truck, but good old Silver came through ok. We were glad to get back to saner roads and then I could feel saner. Lesson to self: don't take forest roads like that one anymore.

4th of July Parade

We participated in a 4th of July parade here at Bryce. A group of us volunteers marched together. We represented hiking trails: Kathy dressed up as Fairyland and I dressed up as Peekaboo. It was a lot of fun and the surprised visitors got a good show.

We also went to Kolob Reservoir (just north of Zion N.P.) with our new neighbors and co-volunteers Jim and Jan. We had hopes of seeing California Condors but had no luck. We did however talk with others who had seen some and were able to find out that morning or evening are the best times to see them. There was a condor day there a couple weeks ago and about twenty condors were spotted that day. Condors can have a nine feet wing span look as large as airplanes when they are flying. A number on them is often visible as they are all tagged. About 300 are now in existence, they are coming back from near extinction. We will have to get back to Kolob or to the Grand Canyon to see them.

Powell Point

We see Powell Point from almost everywhere on the rim of Bryce Canyon. It is 15 miles away (the way the raven flies) and at over 10,000 feet elevation stands 2,000 feet taller than the rim of Bryce. It often catches the late evening sun and looks shiny and magnificent during those moments. We have been anxious to get there and finally did this last Sunday. The trip wasn't long and was pleasant enough up a pretty good forest road, but we got a flat tire from a sharp rock on the way up. That wasn't such a bad thing though as we got to figure out how to replace it with our spare under pleasant circumstances. I would hate to be changing a tire along a busy, noisy highway on hot pavement. We also saw our first Golden Eagle who was feasting on some road kill. It seemed annoyed and reluctant to leave, but then flew off and we lost sight of it in some distant trees.

Once up on top the Table Cliffs Plateau, we walked for about an hour along a jeep/ATV trail and came to the trailhead, which was only 3/4 mile and took us to the point. The views were as good as we had hoped for, looking to the west to Bryce's rim, to the south to the Grand Staircase Escalante, and to the east to more of the Grand Staircase and what could have been Boulder mountain (which is acutally a mesa). We had the whole place to ourselves, a little different than places in the National Parks usually are in that regard. Two guys who sounded like Aussies were coming in as we were going out, and then they had the whole place to themselves. We stopped to visit Pine Lake on the way out and took a little stroll along the lakeshore. We read a memorial erected there to honor a former campground host 'Smitty'.

This past week two more volunteer couples arrived to work with us at Bryce. We are thrilled to have them, there are now more people available to work and we are also given an extra "backcountry day" which we will gladly use. A moment that I can look back with humor from working at the Visitor Center this past week was some overreacting and distraught father. His teenage daughter had a nose bleed, and his poor English compounded the whole incident. When I looked at her nosebleed I could see that she had been successful in stopping it, but he persisted nevertheless to make sure she was alright. I suggested getting some more tissue paper from the restroom but his response was hard to decipher. He shook off the use of the tissue paper and said "fresh water, fresh water!" Again I pointed to the rest room for that but he continued with frantic gestures, before I interpreted his flailings to indicate that maybe he wanted to know the basic treatment for a nose bleed. No, fresh water won't help unless it's needed to clean up blood on the face. I held my head back in an effort to show them how to help stop the bleeding (although by now this should have been a moot point). They headed for the rest room after this. We often don't know if we are communicating enough with some of our international visitors, as even though we try to speak slowly and use gestures, if they have limited understanding our words can get lost on them. But we will keep trying and see the humor in the two-way attempts.