We arrived an hour late and caught the tri-rail shuttle to the train station.

At home it stunk because one of our friends didn’t know to clean out the urine in the cats’ litter boxes. I quickly cleaned them and lit incense to help.

We all unpacked quickly and headed for the beach. It was great and the water was nice. We got home around 5pm.

Andre didn’t have to go back to work til Tuesday. So he and Christoph went to the beach again on Wednesday. On Thursday Christoph rode the bike around Hollywood Beach. Then on Friday he took my car to shop at Sawgrass Mills Mall. At first my car wouldn’t start but it was because it hadn’t been driven in a while.
I dropped Christoph off at the train station to leave for Germany. When I returned home, I cleaned and played with the cats. The house was quiet.

Last day of vacation. I don’t want to leave.

I was seriously thinking of buying a house in Big Water, Utah.

We drove back to Las Vegas an stopped at Dante’s View. At least no buses would be there because the road is too narrow and steep. The weather was nice and in the lower 70s. I overheard some Germans talk about the movie 21.

In Vegas, we parked at the Venetian to do a little sightseeing for Christoph. The Venetian is nice and Andre and Christoph took pictures of the gondolas. Next was Encore but it wasn’t so great. We went to Caesars Palace to wait for the 7pm show at Treasure Island. I went into the Energie store and found some cute clothes. I didn’t look at the price tags. I also found a very nice dress at another store, but didn’t look at the price tag either. I didn’t buy anything, this was all window shopping


We walked to see the TI show but it got canceled. So we raced to the Mirage but it was already too late.

We found a Home Depot to return our shovel we bought for Coyote Buttes. We never used it. We bought it in case we got stuck in the sand. Then we ate at Jack-in-the-Box, which was a mistake. We haven’t eaten any fast-food while on the trip and we ate there for fun so Christoph would have the experience. American fast-food is soft, greasy and disgusting. I took out my chicken patty at the end and just ate the “bread” with the little lettuce that there was.

We parked our luggage behind the Jack-in-the-Box, because we were about to return the rental jeep. We were joking that the jeep would probably fall apart as soon as we return it.

The flight was awful leaving at 11pm. I couldn’t sleep and didn’t want the vacation to end.

We all wake up early to watch the sunrise

at Sunset Point and it’s already crowded there with several cars, but no buses yet. I stayed in the car with my sleeping bag and ate some of the banana bread I bought at the bakery near our hotel last night. After that I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t get comfortable. So I watched the sun rise over Bryce Canyon from the car. (American style – I’ve been to Bryce more times than I can count.) By then, it wasn’t cold anymore and there wasn’t as much wind. Andre and Christoph came back and we all got ready to hike the Navajo Trail. It’s onethe of the easy and popular trails in Bryce Canyon. But as we started our hike a bus pulled up, but they only went tot he lookout and not the trial. We started on the north side to leave Wall Street at the end. We started around 9 and finished around 9:30 – 9:45. It was a very short hike compared to what we have been hiking. At the end in Wall Street was where everyone was at. People were just hiking down into this part and then hiking back up again.

We headed back to the hotel to check out and Andre almost runs into the car in front of us. They weren’t using their blinker and they stopped suddenly to only see a deer.

Now we loaded up the car for a 6-hour drive to Death Valley. Of course, we’re going through Las Vegas and stopping by Whole Foods to pick up beer, bread, fruits, chips, and soda. We knew we weren’t eating at Death Valley. The food at the restaurants is from the freezer and it’s too expensive.

We arrived at Death Valley just in time for the sunset. We stopped by the Ashford Mill ruins, Devil’s Golf Course, Bad Water, and then through Artists Drive, where we started having car trouble. The car didn’t crank at first and we though it was the battery. We then drove straight to our hotel at Stove Pipe Wells. Andre left the car running while he checked in. We ere worried about driving in Titus Canyon tomorrow.

We decided to jump into the pool as soon as we brought in our luggage into the room. The water wasn’t as cold as I remembered from last time and I believe I was the only American there. I left early, because I was starting to get hungry.

For dinner, I decided just to eat some cold stuff, like a banana, carrots, apple save, some bread, because the heat was too much for to eat soup for dinner.

When Andre and Christoph returned, I was watching some show on Discovery about this guy surviving in the woods of Alabama in the winter time. He showed how to set a trap for deer and wrestled a wild pig for dinner. He looked for food in a nearby cave, which he said Alabama has the most concentration of caves in the world. He made a torch from a strip of his shirt and soaked it in the pig fat. A little ways into the cave and he had to explore a drop-off. He fell in the underground river and his torch went out. He got out by using lint and the camera’s light. He then talks about how to survive a forest fire and runs through a controlled fire out of the woods and onto a logging truck. (I’m originally from Alabama, so it was quite interesting to watch this show.)

After that I quickly fell asleep.

We took it easy today, no rush.

Andre and Christoph checked the jeep this morning and it works again.

We drove to Titus Canyon, but first went by Rhyolite.

We first noticed the new sign put up designating Rhyolite as a ghost town and saw a new parking lot almost filled up. The bottle house had a new prison-like fence around it. We signed in the registry and walked over to the watchman who lived up on the hill. He was sitting on the porch of the bottle house flipping though a 3-ring binder with articles and photographs sheet-protected while explaining them to a small group of European tourists. We listened in, but the man was almost finished and offered us the binder to look at.

There was pictures of the mining camps and how the ruined buildings used to look. The man also told us that there were over 30 bars in the town. The bottle house was made from all the bottles in the town. Mostly beer bottles and some whiskey. There were some actual bottles used to build the house in the corner on the ground next to the porch and I could barely get my whole hand around it.

I asked the man when the new fence when up, because last time there was just a regular chain-linked fence. He got off on the wrong foot and started talking about vandalism. I told him I understood that. I just wanted to know when the new fence went up.

We left shortly after that. As Andre and I were walking back to the car, I told Andre, “I think he just wanted to argue.”

I didn’t take it personally, but he took forever to answer my question. It was almost as if I asked him the wrong question about the bottle house.

Now on our way to Titus Canyon and Andre already gets lost by taking some other path off the road. I told him the road started after the sign, but he disagreed until he saw the road we were supposed to be on. I always rely on my direction orientation and gut feeling

I heard that there are some steep dropoffs on the road, so I let Andre drive at first. It wasn’t that bad. We were driving through the Armagosa Valley, so I took over the wheel at our first stop. Then we quickly ascended towards the Grapevine Mountains and that’s when the road was on the cliffs. Andre drove the rest of the way.

The next stop to take pictures and I got out of the car and saw just how much space we had on the road. And it was more than enough. The steep drop offs are exaggerated.

We stopped at Leadfield, a ghost town built of fake advertising. The town was alive only for 1 year. We always left the jeep running when we stopped to avoid being stranded, so I didn’t go far while the guys went to take pictures. At Leadfield I wandered down the road to see what’s next and I saw where the Grapevine Mountains curve and fold toward the ground and then up again at the sky with layers of black, purple and white. This was what I was wanting to see.

We stopped again a little ways down the road and asked Andre to take a picture of me against the layers. I had scrambled up to an old platform of some sort and made sure no rattlesnakes were in my way.

After that we stopped at the spring to find petraglyphs, but they were vandalized terribly. As I was walking back to the jeep, Christoph said he had found some more on the other side of a boulder. These were still untouched, except for the 20th Century smiley face and a peace sign some dipshits tried to carve into the rock. I took a picture of the sun petraglyph so I thought it would make a nice tattoo.

The rest of the drive was amazing, a bunch of oohs and ahhs and “Andre stop the car.” We drove through the Narrows of Titus Canyon as Christoph sat on his window videotaping the view.

When we finished the drive, we came out and saw the wind picked up greatly and there was a huge sand storm. As we drove on paved road again, you could see the sand crossing the road in front of you like water.

On our way back to the motel we stopped by the Harmony Boax Works. Luckily a bus hadn’t arrived yet, but as we were leaving a bus pulled up.

Back at the motel Christoph and Andre went swimming and I stayed in the room. I couldn’t stand the heat and Andre didn’t have to worry about his camera and wallet. Plus I had time to write in my journal

That evening we went to the sand dunes at Stovepipe Wells for sunset. We climbed one of the tall sand dunes and saw the sand storm below the sun. Andre took his photos and then I took photos of him and Christoph playing Frisbee. That was so funny and the Frisbee caught the wind at the end and flew for almost 50 yards. Andre was exhausted when he came back from running after it.

We had chili and soup for dinner using our propane stove one last time on vacation. It was too windy for me so I ate in the room. After that I watched the end of a show I wanted to watch about ancient marine animals where this one fish could of wiped out the other animals if the asteroid hadn’t came and destroyed over 90% of the earth’s species.

Stopped by Hell’s Backbone Grill

to get coffee for Christoph and to see if they would make us some boiled eggs to go. It took a bit longer, but the eggs were good with a salt mixture and some grapes from the grapevine at the front door. We were on our way to Hole in the Rock Road again, which meant passing over the narrow parts of Scenic Highway 12 once again.
We were hiking Zebra and Tunnel slot canyons today. The hike started out great, because no other cars were parked at the trail head. The trail was easy with lots of neat rock formations and layers to see. In the beginning, we saw this huge military/army jet take off and it looked like it was headed towards us at first and it was so loud. Andre and I were wondering where there would be a base nearby, because it was all mountains and in a national monument/park.
We first went to Zebra slot canyon and the first thing we see at the entrance is a huge hip bone, probably from a cow or mountain lion, which we saw prints from. Zebra was fun, except we got our hiking boots wet from the puddles in the slot canyon. Andre took some cool and funny pictures of us. Back at the entrance and headed towards Tunnel slot canyon, we took a group photo with the hip bone.
On our way to Tunnel now, and we see dozens of mountain lion tracks in the mud near the mud puddles along with the rabbit and raccoon tracks. As we enter the beginning in Tunnel there are mountain lion tracks everywhere leading to the slot canyon. We walk up slowly and can see the other end to make sure it was clear. We walk on through the slot canyon with cold water coming up to my knees. Tunnel is very short, maybe 20-30 feet long, so it was a short hike. On the other side were more lion tracks and also boot prints of someone before us visiting. I waited at the end while Andre took pictures and at one point I heard a rock being kicked from either above us or on down from the exit, but I didn’t see anything. We left shortly after that back through Tunnel.
On our way back to the car, we pass one other hiker, who was by himself. Andre and I were agreeing to never hike alone. It’s too dangerous, even on an easy hike we just did.
You’re originally suppose to hike in the wash to get to Zebra slot canyon, but there was already a deep trail cut out above the wash we took. Not only was the trail easy to follow, there were still cairns that were set up.
Andre and I knocked some down on the last mile. Andre was telling me again about the rangers knocking over cairns on the Wave trail. They’re (BLM) not making it difficult to reach the Wave. They’re making you use a map, compass, sun, GPS, or whatever you use to find your way. This isn’t a theme park.
Back at the car we take off our wet boots and socks and pile them in a Whole Foods paper bag. We’re now on our way to Escalante to reach Bryce.
We make a pit stop in Escalante at a neat cafe where Christoph orders a coffee and Andre and I share a vegan burrito with Fizzy Lizzy sodas.
We arrive in Bryce around sunset and check in at a hotel outside of the park. We saved $10 by paying in cash. We unload the car and drive into the park at Sunrise Point to watch the sunset. It was already getting cold and by the time we got back at our hotel and ate soup under the general store sign, it was really cold. There was no way we could of stayed in the teepees at the park, which was what we were thinking about doing. I ate my soup snuggled in my sleeping bag.
At our room and getting ready for bed, Christoph notices that his credit card number has been stolen. We first noticed something was wrong at Hell’s Backbone Grill when the card wouldn’t go through, and he knew the card wasn’t maxed out. We looked at his online account and 2 transactions with some exchange website and 1 transaction sending Romanian money. We were puzzled on how this happened and Christoph was pissed.

I had a rough night camping and sleeping in the tent.

I still didn’t feel good, plus it got really warm at night. We all had bought 55 degree sleeping bags for the high altitudes, but I always woke up sweating. This time I had to take off my thermal shirt and a sweater I was wearin and sleep with a tank on and on top of my sleeping bag.
I woke up that morning sweating again and the sun was already out. I couldn’t see very well, because I slept in my contacts. I got dressed, ate a little, and went looking for Andre and Christoph.
Later on, we had breakfast together when the sun didn’t give any contrast anymore for Andre. I was still feeling sick and only ate a banana and some rye bread. We looked at the interest points on the map for Hole in the Rock Road and saw there were some dinosaur tracks nearby. We packed up and left to find them.
There was no sign for the 20 Mile Wash we were supposed to walk into to see the dinosaur tracks, so we continued to Boulder, Utah.
Back on 12 and we decide to try to hike to Lower Calf Creek Falls at the campground. We passed it at first and had to drive back over the narrow passes of 12.
It was crowded, because it was hot and it was an easy trail to hike. Lots of people passed us wearing swimsuits and I wore my long-sleeve shirt and pants. We hiked through a lot of tall grasses and up and down on rocky paths til the air got cooler and you could hear the falls.
The lower falls are 30-40 feet. The area was shaded and the water was freezing cold. Only about 3-4 people actually went into the water, including Christoph.

We head back and drive over the narrow passes of 12 to Boulder. We stop by Hell’s Backbone Grill to see if we need a reservation. Andre made it for 7 just in case it’s busy tonight. If you stay in Boulder, you have to eat there. The food is local (they have their own garden), the people are super nice, and the atmosphere is peaceful and mellow.

We checked into Pole’s Place and the owner remembered me by my first name from last year! I was so surprised in these days. We got our showers and headed off to dinner. Christoph ordered a steak and Andre and I ordered chicken enchiladas. Ours had yummy baked carrots with molasses and thyme. Something we have to try at home, because they were so good. We all shared the chocolate whiskey bread pudding at the end.
This time I wanted to buy a shirt and they had a book about the restaurant with some recipes in it that we bought too. Our server and host were the same ones from last year and Abigail signed her page in the book for me. We sat and talked with her for a bit before we left about our vacation and stuff in general.
Andre and Christoph stayed up longer drinking beer on the porch of our room, while I almost passed out on the bed from being tired and stuffed from dinner.

After Henry showing us his amazing skills at Google Earth

(even I couldn’t use the program as fast as he could), we headed out to Side Step Canyon, something Andre and I were looking for last year when Henry first showed us pictures. Andre got the GPS coordinates and we drove up on the Cottonwood Canyon Road to find it.
It was easy to find and easy to get down into, but I wasn’t feeling so good at the start and had an upset stomach. We explored the canyon and there were more mushrooms and hoodoos than we could count. All of a sudden, it starts clouding up and there are rain clouds all around us. We decide to hurry up to avoid any flash floods. As we continue on the Cottonwood Canyon Road toward Escalante, we have time to stop for me to look for shark teeth.
Millions of years ago this area was covered in water coming in from Canada where the Cockscomb Fault is at. Henry told us of a place where he goes and finds shark teeth. He said the first one is hard to find, but once you find one, the rest are easy. He was right, especially finding it on gray-colored sand. Also the teeth wouldn’t be laying flat to see, you really had to look for them.
It had rained a couple of days before, which was perfect to find fossils. I looked and looked, but at first could only find fragments of seashells. Then as I noticed some footprints from a couple of days before, I followed them and all of a sudden, I found my first shark tooth and it was laying flat out on the ground.
I was so surprised and happy to find one on my own. After that we had to leave because the clouds were closer and we couldn’t be stuck on the Cottonwood Canyon Road. It’s mostly clay and when it gets wet, you can’t drive on it.
We try to stop by and drive up Brigham Plains Road, but our Jeep Commander couldn’t make the steep turns. So we turned back and walk on up. At the top on Brigham Plains is a pond and since it had just rained I knew there would be triops in the pond. Triops are living fossils, like sand dollars, and they come alive if there’s water. You can buy triops eggs which are called sea monkeys, but they’re a smaller species I think. Last year we saw them and had no idea what the creatures were. I showed them on my video camera at the Kanab visitor center and the guy there said they were triops or people usually call them brine shrimp.
Back on Cottonwood Canyon Road, we drive on through where it’s called Candy Land, because of the colorful layers in the rocks. From there we stop by and see Grosvernor Arch, which we passed last year. Then we finally came to passing, I believe the Paria Wash which the BLM created a detour around it for cars.
It was a dip with some water in the bottom. Christoph went to check how deep it was. He signaled OK and I was driving.

I put the Jeep in 1st gear and floored it. Water and mud went up on the windshield and as I passed a car on the other side the people were surprised to see that. Too bad we didn’t get a picture like last year in Colorado.

Off of Cottonwood Canyon Road and onto Scenic Highway 12 towards Escalante. Andre drove while I ate my much needed salad I bought at Safeway in Page, Arizona. We’re now on our way to Hole in the Rock Road to camp at Devil’s Garden.
We arrive at sunset and Andre is off taking pictures and figuring our the best place for sunrise photos of the arch. We set up the tent again, heated up canned soup, which I didn’t eat any, because I was still feeling sick to my stomach and couldn’t even enjoy my Fat Tire beer. We also met one other person there from Utah taking 3-4 hour exposures of the night sky in Devil’s Garden.

On our way to Page, Arizona

We camped last night at Cottonwood Cove in South Coyote Buttes. Dinner was pretty good. We tried out our propane burner and one by one heated a bowl of chili or soup for each other and ate bread with it while drinking Fat Tire and watching the stars until the waning full moon rose around 9. I was very sore from the day before of hiking/running/swimming through The Narrows in Zion. I don’t want to hear the word “narrows” anymore. We started our hike early in the morning and took a shuttle which almost made me car sick, even though I was wearing my wrist bands. Everything was going fine with the hike until we started running into obstacles as in fallen trees we had to climb over. One dangerous obstacle was when we had to scramble and climb over some fallen trees, but limbs and bark formed an island and you had to be careful where to step or you would fall in and possibly not make it out since there were limbs in the way.
There was another hiker behind us at this point, but it was the last time I saw him. He only had summer clothes, a light backpack, sneakers, and regular walking sticks. He didn’t looked prepared.
At around dusk I noticed the current getting stronger and the water getting deeper. Soon it was dark and we all had to use our headlamps to keep going. We couldn’t stay because of the chance of a flash flood. We were in the world’s tallest slot canyon after all. Now we were making our way down the Virgin River in the dark.
The water was about 60 degrees and sometimes it came up to my chest. Whenever we were on the banks, we almost ran to make up lost time. I dreaded going back into the water to cross to reach the bank on the other side. At one point of crossing, I lost my grip on my walking stick because of the current and fell into the water and hit both knees on rocks, especially the right one, which is already my bad knee.
It was a lot of pain at first but the cold water seemed to help keep it numb for the rest of the hike.
When we arrived at the junction of Orderville Canyon, we took off our headlamps and enjoyed the moment by looking at the stars for a minute. Andre said the worst part is over. We walked on crisscrossing the river or staying close to the wall and almost swimming through.
I kept looking to the left so we didn’t miss our exit until Andre yells it out and I almost start crying again, but this time I was happy.
We made it through The Narrows. As we step out of the river and onto the paved trail, Andre said we had 10 minutes to make the 11 o’clock shuttle bus and it was the last shuttle bus in the park. At first, all of us ran, but Christoph decided to run ahead and try to catch the bus for us. Andre and I ran behind, stopping to catch my breath, but I couldn’t run because my knees and legs hurt so much.
We had a mile to run in 10 minutes after a 14 hour, 16 mile hike through a river.
As soon as I started seeing some lights up ahead, I ran again from the energy built up of finally finishing our hike and hopping on the last shuttle bus out of Zion.
So yesterday and today, I’ve been trying to take it easy because both knees are bruised and everything seems to hurt. Before we reach Page, we’re going to try to visit White Pocket, that’s also located in South Coyote Buttes.
We keep driving on House Rock Valley Road east to northeast and the road is rough and sandy. We pass by Poverty Flat and get within about 2 miles of White Pocket and we have to stop. We can’t go on anymore. The sand in front of us is too deep. There’s no way around it. We take a short break and decide to see the ranch at Poverty Flat.
There are some cows there and we see a desert hare. We looked into the house and found a bathtub and a place where another building has burned down. We went back to the car because 2 bulls were walking close by our jeep. We continued on House Rock Valley Road and I fell asleep. I woke up the the California Condor Project resting area.
We took a longer break there. I checked on my bee sting I got that morning. I had a cherry vanilla soda with my breakfast and it attracted a wasp. It went up my left sleeve that was rolled to my elbow. I saw it and tried to move it away but it had already stung me. It hurt just as bad as falling on the rocks in The Narrows. Christoph got the first-aid kit and we looked for something to stop the stinging. It swelled up and turned red, but the medicine was working, as the swelling was going slowly down. The skin surrounding the sting hurt as well, so I couldn’t roll down my sleeve.
We made it to 89a and drove to Navajo Bridge. The drive was awesome with the different colors and layers in the mountains. Arriving at Bitter Springs we turned north on 89 and headed for Horseshoe Bend outside of Page. After that we drove into Page to buy some fresh food, bread, and beer.
I already had my first Fat Tire on the trip on the second day in the Whole Foods parking lot in Las Vegas at 9 in the morning.
We checked into our hotel in Big Water, Utah and took our needed showers. We ate soup out on the patio and waited for Henry to come back to talk about the brochures and website design. We spoke with him shortly as we checked in and showed us large photos of an aerial view of White Pocket from a photographer pilot.
Later on, Andre asked him to have a beer with us and talk about the brochures, but he had to go to a town hall meeting for a mayor debate. We just finished dinner and started drinking our beer when Henry pulled up. We agreed on $600 for the new website design, and 3 nights and a trip to White Pocket for camping for the brochures. Vicki was in Phoenix with her daughter, so Henry couldn’t make the final decision.
He told us this as he was leaving for the town hall meeting, because after a month we left last year he searched for the hotel website online and found my site before his. He was amazed that my site appeared first. And kept asking me how I did that.
I’m excited about the project and really want to make the site better for visitors to book a room and get more information on what to do in the Big Water area. They are the closet hotel to the famous Wave and everyone needs to know that.