Road Trip

Sidney and Kimber (I) took a road trip for Spring break.  This trip was between my Norway/UK trip and month in Equatorial Guinea. We left for this trip after I had been home for approximately 14 hours and it was my sixth flight in a week (Norway to Aberdeen, Offshore to Brae by helicopter, back onshore by helicopter, Aberdeen to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Houston, finally Houston to Las Vegas).  We flew into Las Vegas and drove over to St. George Utah on the first day.  At this time I was totally confused by time zones and we were really tired. The lady who checked us into the hotel, Mitsy, was awesome.  She told us where a few parks were, where to get a good cup of coffee and a good dinner.  She made sure we had a quite hotel room and chatted a lot with Sidney.  All we did then was play at the park, have dinner, and swim for a while.

On day two, we drove over to Zion Canyon.  We packed some left over pizza, fruit, vegetables and trail mix and took off. It was an hours drive from the hotel.  We stopped at the visitors center to get Junior Ranger information for Sidney and hiking suggestions.  The day was sunny and warm.  Sidney and I hike the Lower, Middle, and Upper Emerald Pool Falls Trails.  This took us under a few small water falls and two three lovely pools.  Now these are small falls and pools because Zion is in the desert.  We did talk about the signs of spring as we went, noticing insects, flowers and new leaves.  Towards the Upper Emerald Pool, we had to jump from rock to rock over the creek.  Sidney unfortunately landed on a wet slanted rock and ended up with one foot into the water up to mid calf.  She then tried the same thing again, other leg, same result.  She was extremely offended that I laughed at her. She was fine and was dry by the end of the hike. 

We ate our lunch at the Upper Pool which to Sidney's delight had snow.  She couldn't get to the snow but she enjoyed looking at it and talking about it.  We ate our pizza and fruit there.  She only ate part of her pizza and announced loudly to me (with the company of many other hikers) that she was "not fond of the bone" (pizza crust for you non-native English speakers). Everyone around thought this was quite funny. 

After our lunch break, we hiked back down and along the river.  Along the way, we noticed signs of beaver activity.  There were many trees with damage on the bottom and several that had been recently felled.  But we couldn't find any dens or dams.  Sidney and I talked about how the beavers liked the inner bark on the trees and had to keep chewing on trees because their teeth grow longer all the time.  When we stopped back at the Visitor Center and talked to the Ranger, she said there are beavers, but they are burrowing beavers.  Because the river floods frequently, they have learned not to build dens and dams, but instead dig borrows for their home which they abandon during floods, and re-dig afterwards.  She also had a model of a beaver skull to see and a pelt.  We learned quite a lot.  The Ranger told us that although the beavers are very destructive, they are good indicators of a healthy eco-system.  Overall, it was a great, fun-filled, day of hiking and learning. 

Day three took us back through Zion on the way to South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  In Zion, we drove through a tunnel and came out in an entirely different ecosystem and geologic area.  It was amazing.  It was too bad I had to drive because it was so beautiful.  We stopped at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah.  The sand dunes were formed from the pink and red sand from the sandstone in the area.  They were quite different than other sand dunes we have visited.  They also have a full ecosystem because they don't shift as much as other dunes.  There was evidence of lots of lizards and kangaroo rats.  Sidney had a blast rolling around in the sand.  It was a great time for her but there was sand in everything for days. 

After our stop there, we proceeded on to the Grand Canyon.  We stopped at all the overlooks outside of the main village and bus transportation areas.  Then we took our exhausted selves to our lodge.  After dinner we crashed. 

On day four, we took the free shuttle bus to the farthest point along the south rim it goes towards the east and spent most of the day walking back along the rim.  We considered hiking some of the way into the canyon, and I am sure we would have enjoyed it, but with only one day we wanted to see some of the museums and displays.  We walked about 6 miles back along the rim.  We stopped and took in a ranger Program and got another Junior Ranger Badge for Sidney.  She now has Carlsbad Caverns, Yellowstone, Zion, and Grand Canyon.  For each she has completed several required activities and talked to rangers.  I think it is a great way for kids to learn things.  She can tell you all about Big Horn Sheep now. Part of our walk was the Walk of Time.  There were rocks from the canyon that chronology the time the canyon has formed.  All the rock layers are from different times and tell the history of the canyon.  Sidney really enjoyed this activity.  By the time were got back to the village we were tired and ready for a break from all the people.  So we drove to our hotel in Williams.

We stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams.  It was very pleasant and a nice break from the crowds.  Sidney swam and showered and then we had a quite dinner. 

We started day five at Bearizona.  Bearizona was not on our original itinerary.  However, we were convinced by the hotel staff to go for a visit.  It was well worth it.  Bearizona has been open since 2010 and is located in Williams.  It is a drive through an walk through animal park.  I am always hesitant about these but I have to admit I was very impressed.  When you drive up and pay, they give you a GPS that talks about the different areas of the park, what is happening in that area, and most importantly about the animals. 

We started our journey with the Mountain Goats.  We didn't see them so we moved on to American Bison, Big Horn Sheep, and Dall Sheep. They also have 4 White American Bison named Ima, Yankee, Doodle, and Dandy.  Additionally, we saw four wolves, one of which I really thought was going to jump on the car.  Very scary.  Windows are up of course.  The final drive through part of the park is the Bears or course.  They have 17 bears on 15 acres.  I have to admit it was really amazing.  You could really watch a variety of bear behavior in a great environment.  I was extremely impressed with the park and the amount of room the animals had and how they were kept.  The walk through section had most of the standard North American animals like Lynx, Bobcat, Skunk, and Raccoon.  Oh and guinea pigs.  But this time, the best part was the baby White American Bison you could reach through the fence and pet.  She was amazing.  Her name in Anabelle.  I think she was one of Sidney's favorite things. 

The GPS describes the reclamation of objects the park does to build habitats.  They used 18 buses to form the walls for the Mountain Goats.  When you drove back through the park, you could see them from the back as well as notice other efforts.  We also talked with the keepers and found them extremely informative and helpful.  When we drove back through, we found the Mountain Goat, as he tried to butt my rental car.  When we talked with the keeper he said the goat was fairly new and very outgoing!  Bearizona was one of Sidney's favorite stops.

After that we headed for Hoover Dam.  I had never been there and we couldn't do all the tours because of Sidney's age.  The tour we did was OK but the whole thing felt very commercial and not as educational as I expected.  We didn't spend a lot of time there and instead headed for Las Vegas and our final stop. I have included a picture of Lake Mead.  Something I did learn was that the white line you see in the picture was a one time level the lake reached in the early nineties where there was enough flooding from snow melt and rain upstream of the Dam that the overflow route for the Dam was in use for 60 days.  So only once has the level been that high but it left a permanent white line that makes people very worried about how much lower the level is today. 

We arrived in Las Vegas and checked in.  Got settled in our room in New York New York. We wandered a bit and then enjoyed some Sushi. 

Day six was spent wandering around the strip.  We went to Bellagio and saw the beautiful glass flowers and garden.  We also saw a bit of the fountains.  We went to the bird sanctuary at Flamingo and the hourly animation of the gods at Caesars Palace.  We also went to a dolphin training center.  That was also a great experience for Sidney.  You were within two feet of the dolphins and could really interact with them and see how smart they are.  They had 11 dolphins total in three tanks ranging in age from 3 years old to 30 years old.  They do not have shows there but do train and exercise the dolphins.  Several of the dolphins will whistle and chatter with their blow holes at you and sometimes even wave.  And two were working together to try to lift a fence to get to another tank.  It was quite interesting.  We also saw white tigers and white lions but they were not nearly as social as the dolphins. 

After that, we went home and took a nap.  We ate dinner and then went to Cirque Du Soleil "O" at Bellagio.  It was amazing.  They have acrobats and clowns and divers.  At one time three divers dove from the ceiling at the same time into a very small section of the pool.  One minute there would be a deep pool of synchronized swimmers and the next a nearly dry stage with dancers.  The stage or section of it would come up in the pool.  Amazing.  We were spell bound. 

I have to say we were ready to head home on day seven.  I had to get ready to come to Africa and Sidney had to go back to school.  We had a really great time together and I hope we can do another road trip sometime soon.