SW Road Trip: Grand Canyon to Grand Staircase-Escalante

This was our last day at the Grand Canyon so I set my alarm to wake up early enough to see the sunrise. The Grand Canyon literally transforms and changes shape and color just about every minute of the day. Especially when the sun is rising or setting. So I was awake around six a.m. but I misread the actual time of sunrise so I ended up in the park just a little late. I was still one of the only people in the park. Not until I was in the vehicle on my way to the park did I realize that it was 36 degrees outside. Silly me, I was wearing a skirt of all things! Luckily I had a blanket so I wrapped up and sat as close to the edge as I could and watched the darkness of the canyon take on shapes and colors and light that few visitors take the time to see. It was awesome to say the least.

We left later that morning for Paige, AZ, stopping to see ancient ruins and the view of the canyon from the eastern edge. The drive is rather desolate but once we arrived in Paige we were excited to see Lake Powell and find out if we were in time for a boat tour to Rainbow Bridge. Only minutes late we missed our only chance for the day and decided to hike to Horseshoe Point. It was a quick hike to see a "horseshoe" shaped bend in the Colorado River. We will have to make a special trip to Lake Powell one day and rent a houseboat. It is a huge lake with canyon walls, bays and natural "bridges" that would be fun explore when we have time to enjoy it.

We wanted to be able to spend a good amount of time in Zion the next day so we headed to Kanab in search of a place to sleep for the night. We drove through the southern end of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and stopped at the Paria Movie Set, an area that once was the home to hundreds of early farmers and settlers before it became "Little Hollywood." Movies such as the "Outlaw Josie Wales" and TV shows "Gunsmoke" were filmed in this area for 40 years. Kanab is not nearly as big as we thought it would be so we just kept driving and driving.

Ultimately we end up at an RV park on the side of the highway in Carmel-Mt Junction across the road from a Best Western about twenty miles east of the park entrance for Zion National Park. This was our first night sleeping in the Land Rover and grilling out. All turned out very nicely, we made a bed in the back which was quite roomy and if we'd had our ThermaRest pads we'd have been in heaven.