We’ve just got back from a long boat journey (but that’s another blog post) so we’ve had some time to catch up on our blogging a bit!
Our visit to Seattle (and in fact the timing of our entire trip) was planned around the wedding date of our friend Jessica, at whose wedding Zoë was also a bridesmaid. It felt very strange to have smart clothes to wear (thanks Ness, Eric, Jess and Amanda for bringing things over/back for us!).
After this holiday from the holiday, we swiftly returned to visiting more national parks…
NORTH CASCADES
A few hours north of Seattle, the North Cascades are an epic mountain range with great hiking around the formidable Mt Baker.
One of our top walks of all time was here, called Ptarmigan Ridge, named after the Ptarmigan bird that is perfectly coloured to match the nearby rocks but was so stupid that it could probably be caught bare-handed:
Starting from a high elevation, the path meandered gently uphill along the edge of three different valleys, with spectacular views and wildflowers the entire time.
Some snow crossing was required which was not for the feint-hearted, but it was fine if you were slow and careful. For budding back-country campers, there were some truly awesome (if windy) campsites near the summit, though we just enjoyed the views before returning.
On our ascent of the Sahale Arm, we encountered an unexpected marmot blockage on the path before reaching a rather rewarding lake:
GLACIER
If you are reading this blog many years from now, then Glacier will be an ironic name for this park, since it will have no glaciers left. Such is climate change. For our trip, wildfires had closed one of our lodges and filled most of the valleys with smoke and so we cut our visit here short. On the upside, the smoke made for some interesting light effects in the evening:
Due to the wildfires, we decided to give Glacier a miss for a day and travelled over the border to Canada to see Waterton National Park, which adjoins Glacier, where the air was much clearer. Our hike here was pretty, and for one steep section the path went into the mountain which was very cool:
Though, to be honest, the better view was found from the viewpoint a short 20 minute stroll up a hill right beside the town!
But Waterton was not really faring much better with the wildfires… as the map of the red restricted areas shows (only a few tiny areas of green were actually open):
We later found out that they closed the park entirely just a few days after our visit!
Our best hike in Glacier was in the region called Two Medicine, which began with a lake…
… and continued up to a mountain pass…
… after which we were nearly attacked by a mountain goat…
… and then had to make sure we didn’t surprise two large grizzlies who were near the path!
CRATERS OF THE MOON
This mini-park can be done in a few hours. It’s a volcanic landscape, and all the information boards say something like: “Here is <<insert geological feature here>> which you can see a much better example of if you visit Hawaii”. So, if you’ve not been to the Big Island of Hawaii then give this park a miss or it will just leave you frustrated!
The visitor centre was interesting for the map outside which showed the origin of international visitors to the park, with Europe, China and India doing very well!
They also had an equivalent USA map, which is probably a reasonable approximation of a population density graph:
It seems that people from Mississippi don’t get out as much…
SALT LAKE CITY
A city? In our blog? No, your eyes are not deceiving you! We did in fact visit the Great Salt Lake as we were passing through. Floating in the lake was fun, and it was worth spending an hour or so driving around the island beside the salt lake to see the herds of bison.
DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT
The USA has National Parks and National Monuments, but they are both basically the same thing. Most importantly, the annual parks pass that we purchased for $80 works for both (and is an absolute bargain if you are hitting more than two parks). This monument presents the discovered dinosaur bones found here in a wall of an old quarry:
By far the coolest item found here is a complete Allosaurus skull, which was about a meter in length!
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK
We didn’t originally intend to visit this park, but by leaving Glacier early we had some extra time and we’d heard rave reviews of Rocky so decided to deploy our extra time there. It is high altitude, so if arriving from sea level then remember to take the first day or two gently.
The weather is quite fickle in Rocky, and on one hike we got a scare upon reaching the summit when Zoë’s hair started raising up on end – indicating that the air was ionising pending a lightning strike! Suffice to say we were down from that summit in a flash (we hope you enjoyed that pun) and captured Zoë’s hair being a bit better behaved once we’d reached a safer zone:
The best hike we did here was up Mt Ida, which was actually not a formal park trail, but really should be! Early on we passed a rock outcrop we nicknamed Marmot City:
The path then continued along a ridgeline all the way to the summit, from which we could see almost all the park and dozens of lakes:
One the way down we were lucky enough to see a pika – a local rodent that specialises in cold high-altitude climates by making underground stores of hay to eat during the long snowy winters. In what felt like a mini-episode of Planet Earth we watched one very cute pika eating for a while, and then make a hay bale to take back home for the larder:
Unfortunately these pikas are in serious danger of being lost due to climate change as they are very temperature sensitive.
BLACK CANYON OF THE GUNNISON
On our way to this park we passed a forest of Aspen in full autumnal awesomeness:
We also unexpectedly passed some beautiful rock formations known as the Dillon Pinnacles, which are definitely not in the guide books but if they were located in a more boring part of the world then they would probably be a feature attraction. We have started to feel that nearby to the national parks are loads of other really interesting things to see if only we knew about them!
The Black Canyon is easily visited in half a day, unless you fancy hiking down into the canyon and back, but we were feeling far too lazy for that!
If you’re passing this is definitely worth stopping at, but it is neither as large as the Grand Canyon nor as pretty at Zion, so perhaps not worth a large detour.
COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT
This was our first proper red-rock park. Often overlooked, this park has many of the same features as other parks in Utah, without the crowds. Be warned, however, the path markings leave a lot to be desired.
The views from the road through the park were great for a while…
… until the rain closed in and we felt a crushing sense of viewpoint-name irony:
The next morning was thankfully sunny. With the park being so quiet it was easy enough to find somewhere quiet to sit and enjoy the experience:
ARCHES
VERY popular, and for a reason, this park has an impressive density of rock arches that even the crowds can’t easily diminish. But it is not all about the arches, with Park Avenue being a particularly impressive short stroll between huge walls of rock:
Many of the formations are supposed to look like things, but we found it more fun to make things up ourselves:
The Windows, as seen from inside Turret Arch:
Double Arch:
Landscape Arch:
Double-O arch
Tower arch was accessed by a dirt road through a river wash, which deters all but a few tourists, making for a better visit. You could easily spend a few hours exploring around here:
Delicate Arch, the state symbol for Utah:
If you get the chance, a visit to the Fiery Furnace is a great experience. This part of Arches park is a maze of canyons which you can explore if you get a permit.
CANYONLANDS
Located near to Arches, this should also not be missed. The park is split into three parts called “Islands in the Sky”, “Needles” and “The Maze”. Visiting The Maze requires a serious 4WD adventure so we skipped that. Islands in the Sky describes the layers of mesas formed by the erosive force of the Colorado River on the nearby sandstone, sometimes leaving rock “islands” and sometimes making impressive canyons:
The 4WD tracks looked so tempting to explore!
In case you haven’t seen enough arches in Arches, don’t fret, there are more here:
Located beside Canyonlands is the Dead Horse state park, which has a great view of the canyon and is also famous for being the end of Thelma and Louise’s car journey.
CAPITOL REEF
Another lesser visited park, this is named a “reef” after the shape of its main rock feature – the Waterpocket Fold which is a pretty eroded range of cliffs with lots of nice colours:
We spent about two days here which seemed enough, with a long scenic drive and some nice short hikes.
KODACHROME
This is a state park, and the usual rule applies: they are less good than the national parks in general, but if you are driving past (as we were) then you may as well drop in! This was another coloured rock place, and also had some unusual pillar rock features of unknown origin.
BRYCE
It’s easy to understand why Bryce is such a popular park to visit:
Many visitors only see the viewpoints and short strolls from the rim drive, and these are a must for any visitor’s itinerary. But if you have time we’d highly recommend hiking down into the canyon and walking around between the colourful shapes of rock:
Some of the rocks are supposed to look like things, the two best we saw were Queen Victoria and ET:
CEDAR BREAKS
Less visited, Cedar breaks is geologically similar to Bryce, and sits at a high elevation which meant that it was snowy for our visit:
The attraction here is the massive amphitheatre. There are a few walks that can be done down into this amphitheatre, but we were not convinced that they were worth doing, and it felt like the cold and the altitude was getting to us so we just whizzed around the main viewpoints and then hit the road.
ZION
This park is gorgeous. It consists of one massive canyon, but if you only drive into and out of the canyon then you are really not doing justice to this place. For starters there is the whole Kolob Canyon area of the park that is a good 2-3 hour drive from the main part of the park:
There were also loads of nice autumnal colours in the areas around the park:
One of the most popular hikes in the park is The Narrows, where you hike up a river with canyon walls either side of you. Depending on the time of year, you will need to swim at some parts, and sometimes the walk is closed if there is a danger of a flash flood. You really need proper boots designed for hiking in cold deep water over stones, whereas we just hiked in a short way in water sandals and found it far too freezing to want to go further. Your mileage may vary, but this felt like a hike that was popular for being popular, rather than being particularly awesome.
Our top recommendation for hiking in this park is the West Rim trail. Unless you want to camp, or feel up to a 30 mile return day-hike, you need a shuttle to take you to the trailhead in the west end of the park and then you hike 14.2 miles back downhill into Zion Canyon. The majority of this is relatively flat hiking on the high plateau, with truly superb views:
The last third of the hike is the descent to the canyon bottom, and close to the end is an adventurous addition to the hike: Angels Landing, the rock pinnacle in the middle of this picture:
This little scramble is assisted with chains and a few handrails, though they were about to embark upon some work on the trail the day after our visit, so it may be safer now!
There is also an East Rim Trail, which again needs a shuttle to the start, and is a full day hike back into the canyon. This hike is OK, but not nearly as good as the West Rim Trail. As we approached the canyon at the end then the views started to get quite interesting:
We had to side-step a snake on the path which was quite cool:
Near the end of this hike we joined up with the much more popular Observation Point trail, which we would highly recommend, both for the cool slot canyon parts of the trail and the panorama from the top:
Arachnophobics beware, there are tarantulas in Zion!
Zoë and Joe Blogs 