Tuesday Sept 24 - Yellowstone to Grand Teton NP
We left Old Faithful and drove about an hour to the Jackson Lake Lodge in Teton - it was one of the best lodges - we could not check-in when we arrived so we did a bit of drive around stopping at many scenic spots - one of the best was the drive of Signal Hill for an amazing outlook. It was a wonderful sunny day - high of 17C. Back at the lodge we had lunch at the bar to find that the lodge is hosting an annual National Geographic movie / photos fest and the public areas were a zoo.
Our room was ready right after lunch - so we dropped our luggage and drove to Spring Lake for a short walk before showers and dinner at the lodge. We had reservations and had a nice meal.
Wednesday Sept 25 - Grand Teton NP
After a berry blow out we had a full day - we did the Jenny Lake walks then we drove to Jackson Village then it was back to the lodge for dinner.
Thursday Sept 26 - Grand Teton NP
After another berry blow out we had left another full day - we did the Taggert Lake walk the drove to Teton Village (home of Jackson Hole ski area) - where we saw 2 grizzlies up a tree on the drive - I got a couple of pictures out the car window but we couldn’t linger as the rangers were moving us on.
Friday Sept 27 - Grand Teton NP to Provo (SLC)
After another berry blow out we packed up and left for another full day - we drove to Provo just outside Salt Lake City - staying at another Hyatt Place. We did a bit of shopping then had dinner at a local restaurant, The Communal, which was pretty good.
Saturday Sept 28 - Provo (SLC) to Moab
We left early to drive to Moab stopping at Dead Horse Point Park then Canyonland - both with amazing views of the Grand Canyon - we did a few short walks. At Moab we stayed at another Hyatt Place where we just had a burger in their lobby bar for dinner.
Sunday Sept 29 - Moab to Monument Valley
We got early (again) - packed up - and visited Arches NP right outside Moab - it was totally spectacular - grand rock formations and 2000 arches in the park. We did a couple of short walks and got blown to bits in a raging gale - at one point Dieter lost his National Parks annual pass which came out of his pocket in the wind.
From here we drove to Monument Valley staying at the View Hotel inside the park which is on Indian (Navaho) reserve. Again the the rock formations were amazing. It was too late to do much but shower and have dinner at the restaurant (which is unlicensed due to being in an Indian reserve) - the dinner was cheap and cheerful Mexican cuisine.
Monday Sept 30 - Monument Valley to Zion NP
We’d booked a private jeep tour with “Bob Black Tours” for 8am - but it was a complete schmozzle - they had forgotten about us - our guide, driving an old bomb of jeep, finally arrived at 8:30 (after numerous phone calls) - we did an abbreviated tour and negotiated a reduced price then set off for Zion - a 4-5 hour drive away.
We arrived at Zion NP around 4:00pm and checked into our hotel - Cable Mountain Lodge - best accommodation of the trip. The drive into the park was spectacular with a winding switchback road, soaring cliffs, and even a mile-long one-way tunnel. We spent the rest of the day getting organised then had dinner at the closest restaurant - The Brew Pub - which was quite good.
Tuesday Oct 1 - Zion NP
We had breadkast in our room which has a kitchenette - almost a full kitchen actually. It was really cold in the morning (2C at 7am but by the time we left for our day-out around 9:15am it was 12C) - we started out with jackets. We took the Zion shuttle up to stop 8 (The Grotto) where our planned walk started - it is also the start of one of headline walks - Angel's Landing which was too gruelling for us (rated strenuous with narrow steep cliff edges and the final ascent by chain). Our walk, The Emerald Pools was one level lower and reasonably easy - less than 2 hours - on our way down the walk got really really crowded - clearly the only sensible time to hike is faily early in the morning. After this walk we continued on the shuttle to stop 9, the end of line - The Temple of Sinawava. From here there is a one-mile/one-hour easy walk along the river where you can either turn around or continue up “The Narrows” - where you need to hike in the freezing and quite deep (chest high) water - up the canyon as it narrows. The section was not for us but clearly many people do it - they all had “dry suits” on.
We returned to our hotel suite early - 2:30pm to relax and do some laundry - this place is the perfect setup. For dinner we walked to one of the closest restaurants in Springdale, the Spotted Dog Cafe, where we had an excellent meal - duck for Dieter and trout for me.
Wednesday Oct 2 - Zion NP to Bryce Canyon
We left really early for the 2-hour drive to Bryce Canyon arriving at our hotel the (not so) Best Western Grand at about 9:45am - to be told by the not-so-friendly front desk staff that they could not even do an early check-in until after 11AM. So we left and drove the couple of K’s to the park entrance where we went to the visitors’ center to get a map of the park and seek advice from one of the not-so-helpful rangers on what to do over the next day and a half.
The park also runs a shuttle system to the closer of the points of interest but you can drive yourself if you can find parking which is very limited considering the number of visitors. We drove to Sunset Point and since it was still fairly early found a parking spot and set out on what we thought was the Queens Garden track but we ended up on the Rim trail to Fairlyland Points - didn’t really matter as the walk was amazing - the towering rocky peaks (known as Hoodoos) were literally awe inspiring - as we walked the day warmed up from about 3C to 17C but in the wonderful sunshine it felt much warmer - once we finally realised we were on the wrong track we turned around - but still got in nearly 2 hours fairly easy hiking. We had packed a sandwich so we spent the rest of the day visiting all other points of interest (by car with short hikes/walks at each spot) - all were amazing - Inspiration Point, Bryce Point, Natural Bridge, Ponderosa Canyon, and Rainbow Point at the far end of the park (18 miles from the entrance).
We got back to the hotel after 4pm so had no problems checking in - the room was pretty ordinary - there is no restaurant so we had to walk 10 minutes (in the now freezing cold) to Ruby’s Cowboy Buffet and Steak House - it was the only choice unless you wanted to drive 15 miles - on arrival there was a large queue but we were told the wait time was 15 minutes (no reservations here) - we did get seated within this time and in spite of figuring we had hit rock bottom food-wise it was actually pretty good (steak for Dieter and grilled shrimps for me).
Thursday Oct 3 - Bryce Canyon back to SLC
We got up early and went for breakfast (the hotel does serve breakfast - ours was included) - it was a scrum with all the tour busses getting there before us - however we found a table and had a mediocre breakfast. We hit the park again early to do the other headline walk - the Navajo Loop Trail which, in spite of a steep hike down then up was amazing - not to be missed.
Then the holiday was sort of over - we drove back to SLC (5 hours) and checked into the Hilton Garden Inn (a couple of miles from the airport) - there was really nothing at all around our hotel except more hotels and low-rise office building - we had a quick meal at the hotel’s “bistro” and hit the sack.