The Grand Circle Tour: Anticipating "The Wave"

Kanab. Utah We have been waiting it out to see if we can get in to see “The Wave” and were actually selected this morning, to go tomorrow, Saturday. The odds of getting a permit are formidable as they select 10 people a day from an internet lottery done over the winter and then another 10 in a daily lottery held at the Park HQ. The internet says that over 72,000 people, worldwide apply to get a permit. For the last two days, most of the people in the lottery have been foreigners.

Yesterday, after we didn’t make the lottery we traveled south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon which is located over 1000 feet higher than the South Rim. Despite being higher we were farther from the river and could only see about 2/3 of the rock layers that you can see from the South Rim or from being down on the river. The drive to the plateau of the North Rim was fascinating as it was forested land but showed signs of many fires. Apparently lightning strikes do most of the damage. We also encountered many wide meadows that were just lovely. Up into Pinyon Pine, Quaking Aspen, Fir, and Spruce territory at over 8800 ft. We saw only 2 Mule Deer for wildlife although there are bison herds. Somebody introduced Bison to see if they could breed them with cattle and get an animal that could live on the plateau. The experiment failed and the US Govt inherited the bison. They (the Bison) fowl the water source which is an aquifer that helps support life on both rims.

Kanab might not be most people’s favorite place after Arthur Frommer recommened that tourists boycot the area. In 2006 the town council passed a non-binding Natural Family Resolution. It states “ We envision a local culture that upholds the marriage of a man to a woman, and a woman to a man, as ordained by God. We see our homes as open to a full quiver of children, the source of family continuity and social growth. We envision young women growing into, homemakers, and mothers; and we see young men growing into husbands, home-builders and fathers.” This is so disturbing to me and if I had known about the resolution I would have spent my tourist dollars at another locale.

Actually Kanab is know as “Little Hollywood” as a walk down the main street will present you with plaques of all the movie stars that came to the area to make many western movies/TV series. They all stayed at the Parry Hotel, a famous landmark. The list of films is long and remarkable. Over 100 movies have been filmed here starting in 1924 to at least 2001. The TV shows include The Lone Ranger, Death Valley Days, Have Gun Will Travel, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, The Six Million Dollar Man, Grizzly Adams, Lassie, Wagon Train, F-Troop and How the West was Won. The terrain is so varied that the locale seems to have appealed to the Hollywood directors.

I had brought day packs but after the orientation we received this morning I realized that the packs were not sufficient for the trip into "The Wave". It is over 6 miles roundtrip and the temps will be in the high 80's, with nighttime temps in the low 50's. They want us each to carry a gallon of water. They want us to be provisioned in case of an emergency and having to spend the night. There is no trail, no GPS, no phone. They gave us a brochure that has pictures for us to use and follow, taking compass readings and photographs along the way, in order to get back. They say most people mess up on the way back. There is a great outdoor store/coffee shop in town so we bought new 3 litre hydration/day Osprey packs. A water bladder is built directly into the pack and has a hose that runs over to the front of the pack so that you can easily sip the water. So we just went food shopping for things that don't need refrigeration.

Tony, the Ace, has just spent the last hour on the phone with the makers of the device called a Tire Minder. It is supposed to monitor the 4 trailer tires and notify us wirelessly if there is a drop in pressure or a problem. It hasn't worked correctly since we left and this is Tony's 2nd call to tech support. The company will need to send us a new tire sensor.

The distance from the North Rim to the South rim is only 11 miles as the eagle flys. But our drive to the South Rim from Kanab will take us over 200 miles, a full day of driving for us. It turns out that the glass overlook is in a different location from the main South Rim Tourist Mecca. In order to go there we would head to Las Vegas but then take a detour north, a roundtrip of 150 miles. We are not going there!

MY THANKS TO MISSY FOR HELPING ME LEARN TO POST THE PICTURES DIRECTLY TO THE BLOG USING MY MACBOOK AIR!!!