Day 2 on the photography trip was an improvised trip around the Vermillion Cliffs National Park. Gregg, Kash and I REALLY wanted to get into “The Wave”, but it’s only available by permit, and they only permit 10 people PER DAY into that area. We found out at 10am on Friday that if we could have been at the Ranger Station in Kanab at 9am on Friday, they hold a lottery for open slots on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I wish we would have known that ahead of time, but maybe this will help somebody else out in the future.
We drove north out highway 89, then headed south on House Rock Valley Road. We turned in at Buckskin Gulch and went for a walk. One thing I should mention is that the park maps that they have at the various trailheads are HORRIBLE. No distances, no trails. Nothing. Just a big blob in the middle that says Vermillion Cliffs National Park. I’m not used to finding that poor of maps at National Parks, so you’ve been warned… 🙂
Buckskin Gulch was really “unusual”. Strange formations, lots of hidden little canyons, and weird stuff everywhere.
From Buckskin Gulch we started driving south. We’d have to pass by the parking lot for The Wave, but once we got past that, the bluffs on the left started to get really interesting. A couple miles down the road, we did what Gregg and I are famous for, and took off up a sandy two rut road towards the bluffs. This is the part that got really interesting. We scraped the transfer case a couple times, but with AWD managed to make it up to where we wanted to be (which turned out to be the Paw Hole and South Coyote Buttes). I would not suggest stopping on this road, or you may never get started again.
From there we drove south to get back to Highway 89a. Just before that, we stopped at a Condor Rehab location, which was pretty neat. One of the monitors was down there watching some new birds they just released, and we got to talk to him a little. It’s a job that must be kind of boring and interesting at the same time.
Vermillion Cliffs NP near The Wave
We continued on driving to Navajo Bridge and Marble Canyon (just below the Glen Canyon Dam), then back to Page where we walked out to the Hanging Garden for Sunset pictures. There really wasn’t much there, and we didn’t get many good shots
We headed back into town for dinner at?Dam Bar & Grille. I cannot recommend it to anybody. They got the order wrong for us twice, everybody around us too, and the service was horrible.
Then back to the hotel, where we agreed to meet at 8:30am for breakfast, then all three of us ended up going back to our rooms and passing out early.
Here’s the gallery of pics from Day 2.
You might also like
Leave a reply