I set my mind on visiting Utah after I saw Tuan's poster print of the Delicate Arch. I originally had planned to visit all five of Utah's national parks in 8 to 10 days. After a few day dreams, I decided that eight days of hiking and driving in unfamiliar terrain was too long for my first trip in four years. My previous attempt to see the Grand Canyon resulted in almost 3000 miles of driving in 8 days -- John and I were exhausted by the road; we had little energy left for hiking, exploring and picture taking. I split the big plan in halves. The new plan was to visit the two eastern parks before the desert got too warm. After consulting the tour books (as there was little information on the Internet), I picked the end of March.

Coincidentally, John was in Arizona again. This time, having the company of Anita and the experience of his previous road trips, he had learned to relax and enjoy rather than hit and run. He recommended Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon and Canyon de Chelly. After confirming that these sites were not too far out of the way, I added them to my list of places to visit. It became clear then that I would be taking a five-day weekend vacation in southeastern Utah and northeastern Arizona.

Arches National Park

March 25th: I woke up at 4am in Berkeley and landed in Grand Junction Colorado at 12:30pm. I picked up the Plymouth Neon that I had reserved, got on I-70 and headed straight into Utah. At Crescent Junction, I headed south on highway 191. A flock of ravens caught my eyes as they pecked away at a road kill. This scene would repeat itself again and again all through out this trip. Even I almost ran over a hare or two. Soon I was surrounded by huge red sandstones. I skipped the entrance to Canyonlands on the west and entered Arches National Park to the east.

The first site from the entrance is called "Park Avenue." It is an arrangement of tall rocks that resemble the skyscrapers of big modern cities. When water expands in the cracks of a large rock, it breaks the rock into thin slabs called "fins." The right side of this slide depicts one fine fin.

Skipping a few view points, the next slide is of the Balanced Rock. There are many balanced rocks. This one benefits from easy access and a fine background.

After further erosion by wind and water, some fins collpse while others become arches. The Windows and the Double Arch are the first arches I visited. They and the Turret Arch are visible from the parking lot. It is worthwhile to take the 1-mile loop to get a closer look.

The national park also has spires and pinnacles. Some spires exhibit layers of two colors. The red or salmon-colored layers are Entrada Sandstone. The lighter-colored layers are Navajo Sandstone. The white precipitation on the ground is probably salt.

The most popular sunset hike is to the Delicate Arch. It is a moderately strenuous 3-mile (round-trip) hike with 480 feet of elevation gain. Since the park is 4000-5000 feet above sea level, this 3-mile hike is more demanding than a similar hike in the San Francisco Bay Area. But it is well worth the effort. A picture of the Delicate Arch may make one say "wow." But the real thing will make one speechless.

During tourist season (March - October), it is almost impossible to take a tourist-free photograph near sunset. Spring break photographers often heckle other tourists. But the Delicate Arch belongs to nobody and everybody.

I re-entered the park on Monday the 29th because I wanted to see the Landscape Arch in morning light. Again, I woke up at 4am and left the Recapture Lodge in Bluff at 4:40am. I saw the moon in the rear-view mirror. Realizing that I had missed my opportunity to star gaze in unpolluted darkness, I headed straight north to Arches. One deer crossed in front of me. I swerved around one hare and saw numerous already flattened. After entering Arches, another largish four-legger crossed while the sun was in my eyes. Luckily, the animal avoided me. I arrived at the trailhead at 7:18am. One hiker had already finished his morning walk.

The Landscape Arch is 306 feet long. In 1991, a 60 feet long slab fell from the underside of this arch. Such an incident indicates that these arches can collapse unexpectedly. At the same time, new ones are slowly forming. One learns that it is unwise to get too close to these giants. On the other hand, one should go see them before they become history.

Natural Bridges National Monument

I exited Arches after sunset and found a nice salad bar at the City Market in Moab. After 100 miles of highway 191, I came to Bluff and stayed in the Recapture Lodge. For the first time all day, my ears felt pressurized. It turned out that within those 100 miles, I had climbed from 4000 feet elevation at Moab to 8000 feet at Monticello, and back down to 4000 feet at Bluff. Between Monticello and Bluff, there was the town of Blanding. There are no services and no residences outside of these small towns. One must be careful not to get stranded.

March 26: I drove back north on highway 191 and took highway 95 to highway 275, eventually ending at the Natural Bridges National Monument. Unlike the arches, natural bridges are formed by flowing water. Sometimes the switch-backs of a river can wear down the wall from both sides, thus creating a hole and a bridge.

I chose to hike down to the Sipapu bridge. The trail is 1.2 miles round-trip, 500 feet down the wall of a small canyon, with a staircase and three ladders. Before the stairs were built, hikers climbed down a tree instead. Beneath one ladder was a ledge of a slickrock guarded by a handrail. It looked daunting. Since the weather was dry, the rock was not slick. I latter found out from the brochure that beside wet slickrocks, flash floods and lightning are most dangerous. Rattle snakes, scorpions and bears usually stay away from people.

Upon exiting the Natural Bridges National Monument, I took highway 261 south towards Monument Valley. This road became a gravel road for a three-mile stretch as it descended along the side of a mesa. I continued on highway 163 and passed by the Mexican Hat Rock. I arrived at Gouldings, just outside of Monument Valley.

Monument Valley, Navajo Tribal Park

From Gouldings Inn, I took a 3.5 hour 4x4 truck tour with three senior citizens. We encounterd strong desert wind, with lots of sand. The road to the park's visitor center was lined with gift shops. Every shop was "open for business" though some of them were completely empty. We passed by the visitor center and entered the unpaved toll road. This road was at times very rugged. It was good that I chose not to stress myself with the driving and abuse the rental car.

Each monument along the road has at least one name, most of them reasonably descriptive. They also give Jones, our tour guide, something to say. Jones went through the history, the geology, the movie stars and the current demography, just enough for a half-day tour.

Once you have paid the toll, you are free to take pictures of the monuments. But you still need to pay to photograph the people and their residences. We met this boy who posed with a pony. Tourists paid him to ride the pony and to pose with them.

Most roads in the valley are only accessible when accompanied by a tour guide. Jones took us to the Sun's Eye arch, the Moccasin arch and the Big Hogan arch. Then he took us to a family residence.

According to Jones, there are about 15 families currently living in the park. Most Indians live in small modern houses. They are comparable to trailers or RVs. The dome-shaped hogans now serve as tourist attractions. We visited one hogan with a gift shop inside. The residents also kept sheeps and dogs.

After returning to Gouldings Inn, I drove down to Kayenta where I stayed for two nights. It's about 100 miles east of Page and 100 miles west of Chinle, right in the middle of my next two destinations.

Antelope Canyon

March 27: Heading west on highway 98 in Arizona near Page, the entrance to the Lower Antelope Canyon is to the right and the entrance to the Upper Antelope Canyon is to the left. The lower canyon is underground while the upper canyon is at the ground level. Visitors must be accompanied by a tour guide.

A couple years ago, a thunderstorm 15 miles away resulted in a flash flood in the lower canyon. The tourists couldn't climb out. Eleven lives were lost. Since then, ladders have been installed to enhance accessibility and expedite evacuation. Nevertheless, it is no longer allowed to enter either canyon when there is a sign of rain.

I took a photography tour of the upper canyon with Roger Ekis. Roger's is a knowledgeable photographer and a camera repairman. After taking us through the canyon, he helped us set up the cameras on our tripods. He gave us tips and let us roam. It was about 10am when we snapped our first shots.

The upper canyon is in the middle of a desert. It is only about 1/4-mile long. It's like a little hill with a very twisted slit in the middle. The canyon at its widest part could probably fit four full-sized tripods; at its narrowest part, probably one tripod. According to Roger, the canyon floor's elevation changes constantly. This year, it is 12 feet higher than it was last year. The elevation depends on the wind and the precipitation. Sometimes the sand gets blown or washed away and the elevation drops. Sometimes the sand settles in a flood and the elevation becomes higher.

Photography was quite a challenge. One person came from Minnesota only to photograph this canyon. Another couple also came from Minnesota. But they were touring other places including the Grand Canyon. There were other photographers in our group and more in another group. Everybody had their camera bags full of gadgets. The entire photography gang marched up and down, in and out of the little canyon with their tripods chasing that one beam of sunlight.

For the first hour, the light had not reached the canyon floor. We all aimed toward the sky and clicked away. At around 11am, one beam of light reached the ground level. We clicked away until it shifted out of position. Most of my exposures were from 15 seconds to 1 minute at f/16, using Velvia. For a few shots when the light was brighter, I exposed the film at 4 or 8 seconds. For every picture I composed, I took two or three shots because I didn't think the built-in light meter could figure out the correct exposure given such irregular shapes and lighting.

An average sunset picture can be taken with Velvia with a shutter speed of maybe 2 seconds at the slowest. So an exposure of 30 seconds means it is very dark inside the canyon. But our eyes seemed to have adjusted to this darkness very well and very quickly. Nevertheless, a flashlight was sometimes necessary to read the camera settings.

At around 12noon, the wind became stronger. We were showered from the all sides with sand. It made me quit at around 12:30pm. The others kept shooting. The couple from Minnesota shot until their ballhead stopped working. Another couple left because they ran out of film. Some people found out after the tour that their aperture levers were jammed by grains of sand.

I only shot 2.5 rolls of film at the canyon. Most of the other finished five to seven rolls. I had to save my film for the rest of the trip.

After leaving the canyon at 2pm, I drove around Page to take a peek at the Colorado River and Lake Powell. I took a 1.5 mile (round-trip) hike to the Horseshoe Bend. A police officer had previously given me directions to the trailhead and the parking lot. But I didn't find them until I opened the tour book. They are outside of Page, just south of mile post 545 on highway 89. Score one for Frommer's.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument

March 28: I drove east on highway 59, and south on 191 to Chinle. While in Arizona, the road kills seem to be mostly house dogs. This stretch of 191 in particular, has more residents. I saw several dogs hanging out on the shoulder of the road watching cars pass by, and occassionally, poor ones belly-up.

The national monument is 3 miles east of Chinle. It consists of several canyons. The two main canyons are Canyon de Chelly (pronounced d'Shay) along the south rim and Canyon del Muerto (Canyon of the Dead) along the north rim. These canyons have a rich history of inhabitants, dating back to 2500 B.C., to the days of Spanish expedition, Mexican and U. S. control.

The canyons are spectacular. It is hard to imagine such a blend of red sandstones, green meadows and sandy deserts. About 1000 years ago, the Puebloan people built the structures that we call ruins. On the walls of these ruins, some art forms still remain. Most tourists congregate at the White House overlook and hike down to it. The White House trail is the only trail open to the public. Without a Navajo tour guide, one cannot hike or drive on any other trail, and visit the other ruins. I took the 2.5 mile (round-trip) hike down to the White House. It was 500 feet down at elevation 5000-6000 feet above the sea level.

The other overlooks were almost empty on this Sunday, especially along the north rim. Yet the views were equally if not more beautiful. I enjoyed the bends and twists of the canyons, their junctions, the meadows, and the ancient structures on the canyon floor, on the ledges and in the caves. In contrast to its violent history, the canyons were ever so peaceful when the only sounds came from the wind, the birds and my camera.

Instead of returning to Chinle, I continued on route 64 to Tsaile where I got a glimpse of the bordering New Mexico. I returned to Bluff.

Canyonlands National Park

March 29: I left Arches at 9am, headed north on 191, then west on 313 to the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands. The Island in the Sky is so named because it is a mesa sandwiched between the Green and Colorado Rivers, overlooking the rest of the park.

This park is raw. It is very rugged and highly irregular. At some places, it is ugly in wondrous ways. The Upheaval Dome, for example, hardly looks like a dome. Its grayish color does not match the surrounding canyon. Much of the park is a seemingly random mixture of textures, shapes and colors. It has canyons, rivers, spires, pinnacles, arches, mesas, fins and buttes. It looks like a huge construction site of 500 square miles of messy raw material. But it's nature's construction site!

Under the time pressure to catch my flight, I hastily hiked to the Upheaval Dome, drove to a few overlooks and ended my trip with a short hike to Mesa Arch.

Still to come: Detailed photography, climate and travel info.