State 24: Nevada: Calico Tanks Hike, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area
Girls’ Trip! The idea for this trip came courtesy of my friend Betsy, who is married to Graham, with whom I captured Pennsylvania back in 2015 by completing the four day Habitat for Humanity Ride for Homes. Betsy had her sights set on volunteering at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah.
I looked at the map and said, “Hmm. Look how Kanab is close to the border of both Nevada and Arizona. ”
Betsy said, “Hmm. I’ve never been to Vegas and I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon.” I had done both, but was up for a repeat, especially since this time, we would have more time, and I could see the Grand Canyon from the North Rim.
We got ourselves flights. We signed up for volunteer shifts. And we waited. Betsy worked with a personal trainer to get her mileage up. And then… as September 19 clicked over to September 20, my dad died.
He had suffered for years, without complaint. He faded like his favorite Princeton sweatshirt. Kim and I did the best we could to provide him with the best care we could, at home. We kept him out of the hospital for eight years, except for one night inpatient. We kept him out of a nursing home. We kept him close to us as his world shrank from his state to his town to his home to his bedroom to his bed. And we held his hands and wiped his tears on his last night. He slipped away so gently we couldn’t be sure. There was so little left to slip.
Six days later, Betsey and I jetted off to Vegas, one of us emotionally fragile and the other needing a knee replacement and with an eye injury. Two women bearing the visible and invisible scars so common in middle age.
Vegas greeted us with brilliant desert sunshine, which would have been welcome, except Bets had burned her cornea with contact lens fluid just that morning, and she had severe pain and photophobia. I begged her to go to urgent care but she didn’t want to spend her time in Vegas waiting for urgent care. So she slept, and I took the first of many Uber rides to Rite Aid and got medicines.
By the time I woke her for Michael Jackson Cirque de Soleil (don’t laugh!), she was no better but uncomplaining. Stoic like my dad. The show was right in our hotel, and it was lots of fun, much better than I anticipated. We caught dinner at the Bellagio after watching the fountains spurt under the lights, and then we trundled into bed, hoping for a miraculous cure by morning.
No such luck. It was time to take another Uber, or two or three or four, to get Betsy seen by a doc and pick up prescriptions and return to the hotel, check out, and go for the rental car. Finally we were on the road, maybe by 12:30, heat of the day in Nevada, heading for Red Rocks Conservation Area, close to downtown, for our Nevada challenge. We sought a fairly short hike, since we were off to a late start.
I asked the ranger if the footing was sure on the Calico Tanks hike, and she assured me it was. At first, it was, indeed, but it soon devolved in a mélange of slick rock and boulder scrambles which knocked at Betsy’s confidence as she struggled with her knee and her vision. I didn’t want to leave her but she insisted. I rushed my way to the tanks and the views, with many a hiker asking after my friend, all admiring of her pluck. She is very tough. This was only my first opportunity to see it. More was to come.
We had a long drive ahead of us, but it was stunningly beautiful, the sunset breathtaking, and after dark, we rolled into our home for the next week or so, a tiny house in Kanab, Utah, hard by an historic home and within walking distance to plenty of restaurants. We were due at Best Friends by 7:30 the next morning for orientation. I had Betsy set the alarm for 6:15. She gave me the side eye with her one good eye but complied. I was up at five. Time difference, you know… Plus Utah is one of my favorite places. It’s like the license plate claims- Life, Elevated.
State 25: Utah- Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, Grand Staircase- Escalante National Recreation Area.
Best Friends is no ordinary animal shelter. Tucked in its own red rock valley on over a thousand acres, it’s home to horses, dogs, cats, parrots, pigs, puppies, wild beasts, rabbits, ferrets, and furries and feathers of every ilk. Each species has its own experts and custom living areas and volunteers. There are morning and afternoon sessions seven days a week, and in the interim, the staff dishes a vegan lunch for five dollars a head to all volunteers. We started with dogs, walking on established trails and cleaning outdoor pens.
After three pleasant hours, we tucked in to a delicious lunch, then headed to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument for our first Utah hike. We drove for miles off the main road on a narrow dirt path and explored a wash where some movies were shot. There were signs warning about flash floods and sudden weather changes. We looked up and saw this sky:
and we cut short our hike. By the time we got to the car, it was raining, and we had to ease the car up a steep hill on wet, loose sand without four-wheel drive. No problem, we are two women that can do whatever is required. Of course!Another good dinner and cowboy crooning in Kanab rounded out the day.
The next day of volunteering, Bets and I were sure to be early so we could score the plum assignment in Dogtown- PUPPIES! We spent the morning socializing nine week old puppies by sitting on the floor around the edges of a big room and allowing the little cuties to move among the volunteer group at will. Loads of kisses and laughs, and we learned a lot about dog behavior from the puppy manager. She took the time after to talk with Betsy about her rescue dog, Buddy. Betsey felt she had found her milieu and determined to work with puppies the next day, too. I was heading for parrots, switching it up.
It seemed to rain most afternoons for a while in Kanab, and this afternoon, we got a good old fashioned thunderstorm. Betsey passed on the hike, so I headed out myself and did two short hikes, one right down the street from our tiny house. I got caught in a downpour and royally soaked. There was a woman with a dog who said her husband had been up the rocks for two hours with an old beagle, and she was mighty worried. Turns out he met up with some younger guys and everyone was ok. As the weather cleared, I went in search of a mountain to climb. At the other side of town, I found a short, intense hike which I intended to trail run. I did, on the flatter sections, but it was really steep, and the altitude at Kanab, even in- town, is 4,970 feet. Here is a view from near the top, of the Grand Staircase and the ever changing Utah sky.
Next day, parrots for me and puppies for Betsy, and a hike together right at Best Friends. We weren’t lost, but we didn’t find what we were looking for. I forget now what that was, but we did find sunshine and solitude and picturesque views round every corner. We climbed up out of the valley, Betsy maintaining her steady, inexorable pace, me leading and circling back. We had a system that worked for us, and we were ready to move into the next phase of our adventure- the National Parks.
Day One was Bryce Canyon. We arrived not long after sunrise and spent the day watching the quality of light change with the weather and time of day. It was hard to refrain from taking photos long enough to put one foot in front of the other. We hiked all the way to the bottom of the canyon, then straight back up, through a narrow slit in the rock on an extreme incline, sharing the popular Navaho Loop Trail with other intrepid hikers of all ages. Several times I worried about Betsy’s knees and stamina, but I needn’t have. On terrain much more difficult than her home park in Philadelphia, Wissahickon, she surprised me, and herself, with her drive and guts.
One hike for her, two for me, then we drove out toward the opposite end of the canyon and watched the rain walk the length of the canyon along with us, catching us in a royal storm and very chilly forty mile an hour winds by the time we reached Inspiration Point. An hour later, no sign that rain had ever fallen. Someday, I want to come back and explore some of the other trails.
State 26: Arizona- Grand Canyon National Park, North Kaibab Trail
Day Two, Grand Canyon National Park, from the North Rim. The drive from Kanab is easy and scenic, itself part of the day’s experience. Thirty miles of meadows and pine forest form the transition zone from civilization to the wild lands of the canyon. The Grand Canyon Lodge perches on the edge and offers up the iconic view from massive wooden chairs. Some folks just park themselves on the patio or in front of the big window and spend the day. We wanted more; we wanted mules.
Afterward, Betsy knew she was not up for hiking, so she gave me the car keys and I headed for my Arizona challenge, the Kaibab Trail, 3 miles down, through and beyond the Supai Tunnel, then back up. Miraculously, I succeeded in parallel parking the CRV in the only available parking space at the trailhead.
My confidence soared. I used gravity to advantage during the first half of the hike, and grit to overcome it on the way back up. Along the way, I saw a injured trail runner, but she was well attended, splinted, under a makeshift sunshade. All the other hikers were wondering how she would be extracted from the trail. I should have known… then I saw our mule tender, John, riding one mule, leading another. She was to be muled outta there.
I found Betsy back at the lodge and we went to the gift shop. , where she treated me to a membership in the Grand Canyon Association, and I bought a book titled Grand Canyon Women. Certainly, Betsy and I counted ourselves among them.
I need to return to this park and spend more time. I want to go Rim to Rim.
Day 3: Zion National Park
Zion is very close to Kanab, well within an hour. Our hike was the Angel’s Landing Trail, a climb which ends on a rock so steep it is inlaid with chains for hikers to haul themselves up to the summit. The chain system is one of the engineering wonders of the park, and it has been in place for decades. Betsy went as far as her legs would carry her, and we leaned into the rock as the wind attempted to pry us off the trail. It was exposed, dizzying, and strenuous, but despite her fear of heights, Betsy went to the start of the chains, then wished me luck and left me to complete my challenge alone, though in the company of a line of hikers, each of us dependent on others who were heading down.
It was like Everest’s Hillary Step, only with warmth and oxygen. It proved a stout challenge to my own fear of heights and the strength of my arms and legs. It’s the most dangerous hike in Zion, and I did it, the final piece of my extended run of Utah challenges. After I made my way back to the lodge, Betsy and I shared a final lunch at a cavernous park lodge, along with AJ, a fellow hiker from NJ who was on an extended quest.
Afterward, Bets and I rode the shuttle bus together and did the hanging garden hike. We met a couple who did the hike I want next, The Narrows, which is accomplished in the water, in a slot canyon. You can rent waterproof gear and go as far as you want, minding the rain, of course, as that could prove fatal. How cool would that hike be?
We drove to St. George for our last overnight, prior to a dawn flight and a day of travel to return us to NJ. The trip proved healing to my heart, a boost to Betsy’s confidence, and a hell of a lot of fun. What a way to celebrate the 100th birthday of the National Parks.