On the road again. Final Update 8/25/2024
Albeit a short road this time, but we are on the road again.🙂
We spent a few days in Tucson visiting my sister first, but are now enroute Grand Junction, CO followed by the ground transfer to Moab, UT.
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Albeit a short road this time, but we are on the road again.🙂
We spent a few days in Tucson visiting my sister first, but are now enroute Grand Junction, CO followed by the ground transfer to Moab, UT.
Comments
Enjoy your vacation.
Alan - I hope you had fun in Tucson as this is now my home town. Enjoy your trip!
Looking forward to hearing about this trip. It's on our list for way down the road. We've always loved our Tauck Nat'l Park trips.
I will update tomorrow with comments about the transfer from Grand Junction, lodging and itinerary changes (and a bunch of photos). As we knew from the (fine) print in Tauck’s summary of purchase, we are staying at the very new Hoo Doo Hilton Curio in Moab instead of Red Cliffs lodge 10 mi. upriver from Moab (and on the river) That has a bit of ripple effect, but as far as I can tell it will all be for the best!
Noreen, the only time we spent in Tucson proper was going from/to the airport the remainder of the time we were in and around Saddlebrooke.
Looking forward to your review Alan!
Alan - Given your penchant for longer hikes/excursions (such as at Petra). I'm surprised you're doing this tour. Personally, I would never do a Nat'l Parks visit as part of an organized tour. First, getting around in the US is easy, and second, tours tend to be a "pull into the observation area, walk 1/4 mile, back to the bus for the next one" type of experience, which is not for me, and I'm surprised, for you.
AlanS - Next time in Tucson you need to get to the other side of the Catalinas - the part facing Tucson. Noreen and I just live a few miles apart from each other. We could have a Tauck Forum participants dinner.
Alan - have fun, enjoy your vacation looking forward to your pictures.
Let me address the above first- we live on the east coast so it is a ways to get here and even more hassle for local transportation. Hotels and most of the parks require long lead time reservations, entry times, etc. etc. We are not having 1/4 mi. walks and quick stops. Today we logged almost 6 mi. between Arches Nat. Park and Castle Valley. If there is something to see and do outside of what Tauck is offering I’ll adjust and plan, e.g. my epic back-to-back treks up to the Monastery and the High Place of Sacrifice in Petra. I am not the same person, physically, today that I was just 3 years ago when I did that. I’m happy to ride the Tauck bus.
Ok, now for the trip report.
First flying to the start point- Grand Junction Colorado. It is a VERY small airport. Most flights arrive via Denver. United and likely others use the small CRJ 700/900 aircraft with tight 1-2 seating in first. MANY passengers with carry-on bags, including those in 1st Class were shocked when told they had to gate check all carry-ons except for purses and other small bags.
Itinerary and lodging vary by departure from what it says on the website and your account. Carefully read the fine print on your Summary of Purchase and Final e-documents. E.g. we are staying at the (new) Hoo Doo Hilton Curio Collection in Moab instead of Red Cliffs lodge that is on the river outside of town. More on this later.
Tauck transfer (please refer to Google maps). Evidently, depending on the driver, you will travel W on I-70 (80 mph) then go S on rte 191 to Moab- boring!!!! Or you will go, in my and our driver’s opinion the best way, West for a bit then head south on rte 128. The I-70/rte 128 route is fantastic!! I was prepared to offer our driver $$ to go that way until I learned that is what he had planned. Both take about the same time, but you travel at 45 mph along the river past awesome cliffs and into the canyon. It actually goes right past Red Cliffs Lodge.
The Hilton is only two years old, the rooms and bath are large and very nice. Some older Google Earth Sat views still show it under construction. It is one block off the main thoroughfare. It is w/in walking distance of downtown shops and restaurants, but has its own on-site restaurant that supplied the food for one of the best welcome dinners we’ve ever had. Tonight, four of us had great steaks and prime rib. Red Cliffs is 5 - 10 or more miles outside of town and transport to AND in town is slim and none- there is no Uber and only one taxi which was being repaired when we needed it the next morning for our crazy 4 X 4 U-drive mountain ride- T-Rex Hell’s Revenge😳 trail- we booked with the Moab Tourism Center.
Our 4x4 trek was wild. It was not a sand dune, beach, or flat land type ride. It was all up and down very steep rocky terrain and hills. It was fantastic, but certainly not for the faint of heart, anyone with back or kidney issues, or anyone with a fear of heights or drop-offs. I was concentrating on driving so we didn’t go careening off steep drop offs, so could only take photos when we stopped. Go to their website for more info and videos. Clients actually drive- the 4X4s have two speeds- slow and slower, but that doesn't make it any less wild and crazy!!!
Day 2 we were off to Arches Nat’l Park- fantastic! Over 2000 arches, who knew!?!? See pics. To get there early we had a bag breakfast that was not well received. After lunch on our own in town or the hotel we had an optional trip through Castle Valley and the La Sal Mountains. It is not to be missed! For this excursion we had a fantastic local guide who lives in the valley and has been working with Tauck for 20 years. (By the way Charlie, our TD, has worked for Tauck for 36 years!!)
T-Rex 4X4 adventure
The darker colored path up the rock behind the 4X4s is one of less steep inclines!!!
Arches Nat’l Park and Castle Valley. Surprisingly there are over 2000 arches there in addition to countless spires!
The monument in the photo below is in Castle Valley. It is now privately owned by rock climbing organizations. It was also the site of a previously famous car commercial! The model and one of the crew ended spending a night up there when conditions prevented the helo from rescuing them!!
Some of the many dinosaur tracks in this area.
Great photos Alan!
We had Charlie for our Desert Oasis tour, he is a very laid back guy and was really kind. Unfortunately, it was during Covid with compulsory masks on the bus but he did not enforce it well at all which caused some friction in the group.
Bill and I loved the National Parks, but didn’t make it to Arches. You are inspiring me to intertwine this trip along with my European adventures. Thanks for posting!
Alan - Great pics! And thanks for the explanation at the top of your post.
I live about a 5 hr drive from Moab and agree 100% that Rte 128 is the way to go. The scenery is spectacular, and quite a few well-known Westerns were filmed in that area.
Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Alan, great photos as always. So glad the hotel is turning out to be a good choice and you got the scenic route to Moab. That was our first entrance to the area and first campground. Like being at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Impressed you did the driving on your ATV adventure.
We are off to Canyonlands NP today,
A little post script. A few of the folks over-estimated ability to navigate trails- two face-planted. Severe bruises nothing broken. Many using their own or Tauck-supplied walking sticks. Too many with hard tips which evidently are not prohibited like they are at Machu Picchu and many places!
Tauck not providing one dinner as planned, so everyone was given $50 ea.😃. Dinner on Tauck last night at the Hotel- bill for our group of four last night (booze not included) was $414!
Alan, beautiful photo, very impressive you driving the ATV in that terrain.
Alan, Great pics and fantastic narration. The best is yet to come.
Day 3 started off with a float trip on the Colorado. The provider took us by bus (which I jokingly called a Dept of Corrections bus because of its similarity to the buses used in NC to transport inmates! 😆. Since I have been rafting before and am familiar with the Tauck demographic I didn’t think we would get wet at all, so didn’t wear the suggested sandles nor water shoes- big mistake! My wife and I sat in front of the raft so caught the brunt of the waves. The water is high this year but that didn’t affect the relatively modest class 1 to 1.5 rapids. They were nothing like what you might encounter rafting the New and Gauly rivers in WV. But the rafts were relatively small so a few waves could easily make it over the edges. We got splashed several times so my sports tennies and socks got soaked. I was wearing safari clothes which didn’t get very wet and dried very quickly. My shoes and socks, however, required hairdryer assist😳. The trip started a few miles NE of Red Cliffs. It lasted about 1.5 hrs. Along the way we passed great views of the cliffs, scenery and what was left of the movie set for the new Kevin Costner western movie, “Horizon” They hadn't torn it down in case they had to re-shoot a scene or two.
After lunch back at the hotel we headed off to Canyonlands NP. Along the way we stopped to see an area right along the road with ancient petroglyphs. I didn’t think the vistas at Canyonlands and of the Green River were as good as those at Arches NP, but they were still interesting. The sky clouded up and we encountered misting and very light rain which really reduced our visibility. Some previous tours have visited Dead Horse Point which overlooks a large horseshoe bend in the river. It is where the stars of Thelma and Louise drove off a cliff (it was actually a double for the Grand Canyon
).
We were originally supposed to have dinner on Tauck, but instead they hosted a gathering with cocktails and hors d’ouvers. That was fine with us since we’ve been eating too much. Also, to compensate, Tauck gave each of us $50!!
Day 4. Today at 10:15 we departed for Canyonlands (Moab) Airport for some flightseeing and a 1 hour 20 min. trip to Bryce Canyon. Our bus departed for Bryce with our luggage a few hours earlier and met us when we landed. We had a buffet lunch at Ruby’s, a local legendary tourist trap and eatery, before driving around the park and stopping at several overlooks to gaze and marvel at the interesting geology and amazing hoodoos. Tonight we ate dinner in the park lodge before heading off to watch the sunset or adjourn our rustic looking cabins- rustic indeed, the were old and very basic but nice and best of all were located just a short stroll to the canyon rim. We’ll be here just one night.
Essentially no WiFi at Bryce and having issues with 4G so will stop trying to uploading photos for now.
We are now in Zion and contrary to published info, our room has good WiFi so I’ll catch up tonight- both Bryce and Zion are amazing beyond description!!!!
LOL. Alan, I love your comment about the buses looking like those used in NC to transport inmates. I totally agree.
Let’s see how things go from Zion.
Continuing with Days 4 & 5. As I said, Bryce was awesome. The geology and all the hoodoos were amazing. As I said, the lodge was pretty rustic but had all needed conveniences, though no TV or WiFi. But it was just a short distance (100 yds?) from our cabins to the canyon rim. After arriving, we did a short group walk with our TD along the rim trail and stopped at several overlooks before heading to dinner. Many of the hoodoos have been given names because of who or what they look like, .e.g. Queen Victoria, Thor’s hammer, etc. but I won’t even try to name them here. The next morning we had time to take one or more rim walks or attempt the more strenuous walks that descend into the valley- tough going down and even tougher coming back up. Because of my ongoing physical issues and the altitude which was above 8000 ft. we decided to forego any serious walks into the canyon, though we did descend partially on the Queen’s Garden Trail. In hindsight if we had started earlier and allowed more time, overall, especially for the ascent- doing one switchback at a time, resting at each turn, I think I could have completed the entire trail. On the way down we passed a medical team attending to a woman with problems, so attempting many of these trails should not be undertaken lightly.
Here goes another attempt at uploading photos:
Petroglyphs and a few photos from Canyonlands NP and the Green River on Day 3 before the mist increased and visibility got bad:
Day 4 & 5 Flight over Capital Reef NP, views of the Green River, from the air this time, and the first afternoon at Bryce.
I’ll add a few more photos tomorrow, then start with Zion. I didn’t get many photos of the awesome geology on the drive from the park entrance to lodge because the canyon walls were too close to the bus- we needed a vista cruiser!! Unlike Bryce where the lodge is on the rim of the canyon, the Zion lodge is at the bottom of the canyon
One last item from Bryce- we saw a few mule deer, some chipmunks, and a few prairie dogs including this guy who evidently knows me😂
Great pictures, loved the video. Bryce was one of my favorites when I did the Canyonlands tours in 2008, I see there have been many changes since then.
Bryce was one of our favorites on the Bridges tour there last summer. A horse ride in the Canyon was included. I’m not experienced on horses so I was nervous but it will be a lifelong memory. If you haven’t visited the major National parks do go!
British, we will be horseback riding at the Grand Canyon.
Day 5. Ok, a little more from Bryce. After a free morning to attempt one of several rim and valley trails and lunch, we left the lodge and we were bid farewell at the lodge steps by this cute little chipmunk. After exiting the park we got a last look at some hoodoos, etc. and a Bristlecone pine.
The drive to Zion was relatively short and comfortable due to Nicole, our excellent driver. She also always had super cold water to re-fill our water bottles.
Before long we arrived at Zion. Since we arrived from the east we passed through canyons whose beauty rivaled the park itself. We passed through two tunnels, one of which was a mile long, but all had access and light openings cut in the sides, like picture windows. We were supposed to have a guided open air tram ride through the park valley, but it was out of order, so they allowed us to ride our air conditioned Tauck bus. 😃
We passed a small group of long horn sheep as we entered the park but they were too hard to photograph from the bus window as we drove by. However, every evening, between 4 and 6 mule deer and two turkeys gathered to graze on clover flowers on the green in front of the Zion lodge which surrounded a huge cottonwood tree. Even though the mule deer appeared docile they maintained a respectable distance from visitors and thankfully most visitors kept a reasonable distance as well.
Day 6. Zion. After breakfast we rode one of the many park shuttles to a place called the Temple of Sinawava for a 2.4 mi. guided river walk. As time went on the number of visitors increased. Many were what our guided called “Pole People”- many were wearing waders and most carried long wooden poles that they used to steady themselves against the current while they walked over slippery and potentially hazardous river stones. The attraction of this activity totally escaped me. Our local guide Tom was fantastic. He pointed out many of the canyon features. We also saw a few birds and small ground squirrels. After the hike and a brief stop at the visitor center to watch a movie, we returned to the lodge for lunch on our own and a free afternoon to do several hikes or nothing. We learned that the hike to the (three) Emerald Pools which we had planned to do, was not worthwhile- one of the bridges across the Virgin River was closed so we would need to walk farther, the water was low and barely flowing over the small falls, and was far from "emerald" in color and a bit contaminated (!!!). It was starting to get really hot so we just relaxed. Before dinner we had a slide presentation about rock climbing.
Love all the photos
Your writing makes me feel as if I were there. You can be a travel journalist!
Alan - While a lot of the terrain looks alike, that area with the stick people kinda looks like the area that leads into the slot canyon called The Narrows. The Narrows is subject to flash flooding and people die there from time to time. Maybe the sticks are to judge water depth, before stepping forward, as they get into the narrow canyon.