Tuesday, April 16, 2024

The Watchman Trail

We hiked up the Watchman Trail last year after a snowfall which made the trail very muddy and caused a Rockwall we had to get around.  This year no mud and no Rockwall.




You hike up to an overlook with views of the Watchman peak and the campground below.

Money shot in front of the Watchman

Views all around


In the afternoon we rented ebikes and cycled down the main canyon.


Cars are not allowed in the canyon so aside from having to stop for the frequent shuttle buses we had the road to ourselves (and all the other ebike renters).


We stopped and crossed the Virgin River for a look around but decided against doing a hike. The trails were packed with people.

Monday, April 15, 2024

Onward to Zion



It was a fairly short drive to Zion National Park from Page.  Plus we gained an extra hour because Utah observes daylight savings time and Arizona does not.


The windy road into the park has fantastic scenery.


You'd like to stop and admire the scenery, but it's hard finding a parking spot towing a trailer.

It's best just to concentrate on your driving


And watch out for the usual national park drivers that aren't watching where they are going.


At the park entrance they check your rv height and length.



Vehicles over 13 feet tall, over 40 feet long, and vehicles and trailers with combined length over 50 feet can't fit in the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, which was built in 1930.


We can fit through but because we are over 7 feet 10 inches wide we have to pay $15.



They stop traffic at the tunnel and let only one lane go through.



And we're off.  It's a long tunnel, over 1 mile long and when constructed was the longest tunnel in the US.



Our campsite in the Watchman campground has a great view of its namesake, the Watchman Spire.



Once we got set up we went for a walk down the Pa'rus Trail



Which follows the Virgin River towards the entrance to Zion Canyon.


There's no shortage of rock squirrels in the park.


 

Sunday, April 14, 2024

I heard the Condor Call my Name


 We thought we 'd check the Navajo Bridge one last time on our way back from the Vermilion Cliffs.

I walked out onto the pedestrian bridge and what did I see?

Each released condor gets a number attached to them. If you see a condor without a number, it's a wild hatched bird.  Eventually they will try to trap them at the release site we visited and give them a number.  They try to retrap the birds once a year to monitor for lead poisoning. If lead levels are high they will treat them.

If you check the website Condorspotter.com you can learn the history of the bird.

T9, male, was hatched in the wild in May 2016.  


44, female, was hatched in June 2016 at the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. I have visited the center.

There were more condors perched under us on the pedestrian bridge and on the cliff edges.

V5 is a male hatched in June 2017 at the World Center for Birds of Prey


V3  is a male, hatched May 2017 at the Oregon zoo


2C is a female, hatched in May 2021 in the wild. Young condors have a black head.

Needless to say the highlight of the trip for us!



Saturday, April 13, 2024

In Search of Condors





We decided to try again to see the condors at Navajo Bridge, leaving a little later in the morning than the previous day.  There were no condors there but we had an ace up our sleeve.  Further west across the bridge lies the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument and it's there they first released captive condors into the Grand Canyon area.  There's a viewpoint where you can view the release site where they still provide food for the condors so they can monitor the population. They also continue to release captive raised birds here.

Scenic view from Highway 89a

Enroute we stopped at a boulder field where a couple in the 1920s built their home in amongst the boulders.


They had a lodge here catering to tourists,


But eventually the site was abandoned due to fears that falling rocks would crush the buildings.





When we reached the observation site we found yesterday's biologist and a colleague watching the far off cliff with their scopes.  Apparently the condors were at the bridge this morning on schedule but we were late.

They showed us the condors hanging around the station but really they were just small black blobs. Not the lifer moment I was hoping for. Later a few took to the sky and you could really see they were a giant bird with a giant wingspan.

The biologists mentioned that there were petroglyphs in the canyon next to the feeding station so Leo and I decided we would hike into the canyon to try and find them.


Hiking across to the canyon

From a distance it looks like grassland but actually most of the vegetation is a very prickly plant that gets down your shoes and drives you crazy.  Eventually we found a wash we could follow up to the canyon.
Xx
Tumbleweeds collected in the wash

What you can't see in the pictures is that most of the sideslopes were pure mud due to the recent heavy rains.




We came across this new species of cholla we'd never seen before, very prickly.


We kept climbing up the canyon.


Those side slopes you see in this photo were just mud, making progress difficult.



Leo climbs up to inspect a potential petroglyph.


Can you spot the possible petroglyph?






Do you see the hunter with an arrow and a deer above his head?



Eh, not so much.  Looks like natural discolouration of the rock.  



Other petroglyphs in this area are usually scratched through the black varnish to the red rock below.


Although we didn't find the petroglyphs, we did get a closer view of some condors perched on the cliff and we saw a golden eagle fly just over our heads.

Wow, giant bird! Giant wingspan.


We were close enough to the feeding station that Leo could get a shot of the condors on the trap.

Although we didn't see any rock art it was still a fun adventure.

Hiking back to the truck.

On our return trip we encountered a few smaller birds:

Say's Phoebe

We tried to make this guy into an Eastern meadowlark (Arizona has both Eastern and western meadowlarks) but Merlin (Bird app) did not agree.

Western Meadowlark